Vancouver Winter Olympics Preview

Unlike my sister Lale, I will not be attending the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, which got underway yesterday, but hey- I can still blog about them even though I am over 3,000 miles away in Wilmington, NC (not where I actually live, but close enough!).

As many readers know, the games were marred by tragedy yesterday as luger Nodar Kumaritashvili from the former Soviet republic of Georgia died during a practice run. He was only 21 years old.

But, the games must go on.

We are going to attempt to profile 25 Winter Olympic athletes starting with speed skater Heather Richardson from High Point, NC, tomorrow. We will also attempt to cover any interesting breaking news as it happens from Vancouver. The result of today's women's hockey game between Sweden and Switzerland, which will be broadcast at 5:30 p.m. (eastern time) on CNBC is probably not going to be in that category!

Some of the other athletes I hope to discuss are American snowboarder Shaun White, aka "The Flying Tomato" and "Animal" (named from the drummer on "The Muppet Show"), Russian hockey player Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, Norwegian giant slalom skier Alex Lund Suindal (hope I spelled his name right!) and Finnish ski jumper Janne Ahoren.

Two of the more interesting features I hope to post about will include a profile of Turkish women's ice skater Tugba Karademir, who has quite a loyal following in Turkey. My late father immigrated from Turkey, and Karademir is arguably the country's most accomplished winter athlete though she is not in medal contention. Karademir lives and trains in Canada, and she will turn 25 on March 17.

And, I found out, much to my surprise that there is an Iranian female skier named Marjan Kalhor who posed with a head scarf in her team picture. As many might expect, she is the first female winter Olympic athlete to represent Iran which is in the middle of political upheaval.

I would also like to profile Austrian ski jumper Gregor Schlierenzauer, a gold medal favorite, but I am not sure I can consistently spell his name right! In fact, we had to double-check it four times just now!

There is also North Korean speed skater Ko Hyon-Suk, but being that he is from North Korea, arguably the most isolated country in the world, there is probably not much information on him.

Lastly, we should mention the athletes who we will alas have to snub due to time constraints (in fact, I think I'm pressing to try for 25). I must start off with the very attractive Bulgarian snowboarder Alexandra Jekova (pictured here) who would be a dream date of mine for Valentine's Day! But, I doubt if she would have time to meet for lunch at Applebee's, especially since I am snubbing her!

We are also going to by-pass German luger Felix Loch (also pictured) who is expected to perform very well in Vancouver and the eccentric Australian moguls skier Dale Begg-Smith (pictured here) who is a serious medal contender.

Time permitting, we may also post an entry about the Danish women's curling team, expected to medal though they will likely have to contend with host Canada. One Danish curling team member Angelina Jensen actually sells insurance!