Olympic Memories

One month later and I am still thinking often of the Winter Games in Vancouver. There are moments from the various competitions that will stand out in my mind forever as some of the greatest in sports. I was fortunate this year to be watching the games on Eurosport, the excellent sports network we have here in Europe. Although the commentary was in German, the 24/7 live coverage of events, the lack of commercials and the general enthusiasm Europeans have for the Winter Games made for a wonderful experience.

During part of the Games, I was traveling in Norway, the absolute world nexus of winter sports. It was heartening to be going through rail stations, hotels and airports and seeing large groups of people clustered around the televisions, rapt in their attention to whatever was on. The entire country was in an Olympics-inspired fever.

Back home in Stuttgart, I had my kids join me to watch sports that they would otherwise have no interest in and they would get as caught up in it as me. Even the wife shared my excitement over the biathlon and cross-country events which are my favorites. When Norway's Ironman of Biathlon, Ole Einar Bjorndalen, anchoring the men's relay team, shot an astounding 5 shots with no misses in the final shooting and completely left the poor Austrian who had been leading behind, we danced around the room and yelled along with 3 million Norwegians. It was a dramatic and compelling victory that probably went largely unnoticed in the USA, but I will never forget it.

Other Olympic moments to remember:

• Lindsey Vonn's Downhill gold medal run
• Bode Miller on the Super-G
• American pair wins the Nordic Combined?
• Magdalena Neuner's incredible Biathlon performance for Germany
• And of course, the Canadian Ice Hockey team's performance in the Gold Medal game!

Of course, being half Canadian, I'm a bit biased, but the people of Canada have a lot to be proud of for the way these games went. Oh Canada!