Olympics Top Ten List (2 of 10): The Americans

Here are a list of ten American athletes competing at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia; some have already competed and some have not.

For a list of ten more Americans at the Olympics, go to our sister blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com


1) Erin Hamlin (pictured top) Luge. Age 27. New Hartford, NY

2) Gus Kenworthy (pictured center). Free-style skiing. Telluride, Colo.

3) Heather Lynn Richardson (pictured bottom). Speed-skating. Age 24. High Point, NC.

4) Andy Newell. Cross-country skiing. Weston, Vermont.

5) Gracie Gold. Figure Skating. Age 18. Newton, Mass.

6) Justin Olsen. Bob-sledding. Age 26. San Antonio, Tex.

7) Lanny Barnes. Women's Biathlon. Age 31. Durango, Colo.

8) Jeremy Abbott. Figure Skating. Age 28. Aspen, Colo.

9) Mikaela Siffrin. Women's Alpine Skiing. Age 18. East Burke, Vermont.

10) Aaron Blunck. Free-style skiing. Age 17. Crested Butte, Colo.

http://www.teamusa.org/

http://www.nbcolympics.com/

http://erinhamlin.com/

http://usspeedskating.org/

UPDATE 02/11/14: Kudos to Erin Hamlin; she won bronze in women's luge and she is the first American to ever medal in the Olympics at the sport. Hamlin can also been in the United Airlines tv spot that is running during the games.

Olympic Athlete Profile-Maelle Ricker/Women's Snowboarding/Canada

Maelle Ricker, a Canadian snowboarder, is the first gold medalist (so far) that we are profiling her. She won Canada's second gold medal of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics yesterday. Ricker also became the first Canadian woman to win gold in either the winter or summer games on Canadian soil.

The competition featured many outstanding snowboarders including Deborah Anthonioz of France who won silver, Olivia Nobs of Switzerland who won bronze, defending world champion Helen Olafsen of Norway and Lindsay Jacobellis of the United States.

Jacobellis, who was a medal favorite, fell in the semi-finals and failed to qualify for the final run. A similar affected Ricker's teammate Dominque Maltais who fell during a qualifying run.

Ricker was born on Dec. 2, 1978, in British Columbia where she still resides. Her first Olympic competition was at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. During the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, Ricker was hospitalized for a concussion.

The Canadian snowboarder has also competed at several Winter X Games competition's in Aspen, Colo., where she won a bronze medal in 2007. But, she skipped a trip to Colorado this year to focus on Olympic-training.

Ricker told "The Toronto Sun" that getting off to a good start was vital to a positive run:

"I tried to explode out of the gate. I really wanted to get out of that gate as fast I can," Ricker said. "It was really, really hard today to get a clean run all the way down the course, but I just held on and did my best."

Ricker also told the Toronto newspaper that her serious fall at the Italian Olympics was a prime factor for her:

"Turin was such a motivator for me, it just made me work that much harder for today."

Her victory is considered the biggest snowboarding win for Canada since Ross Rebagilati won gold in Nagano.

SIDEBAR: Heather Richardson, the High Point, NC, speed skater who we profiled in our first entry in this series finished a strong sixth in the 5,000 meter competition yesterday. The gold medal in that event was won by South Korean speed skater Mo Tae-bun, and it was considered to be a surprising result.

Olympic Athlete Profile (1 of 25)- Heather Richardson (USA, speed skating)

Since we are generally based in North Carolina, I thought a profile of American speed skater Heather Richardson, 20, of High Point, NC, would be a great place to begin with our series which will profile Winter Olympic athletes from around the globe. She is an alumnus of High Point Central High School.

Richardson, who turns 21 on March 20, currently resides in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she worked at a Bed, Bath and Beyond part-time during her training. She clinched a place on the US Speed skating team in three events (500 meter, 1,000 meter and 1,500 meters) during the U.S. Speed Skating Championships in Kearns, Utah, in December.

The North Carolina native actually stared out as an inline skater before switching to the ice two years ago. She will compete on Tuesday in the 500 meters race at 4:00 p.m. (eastern time). Richardson will round out her Olympics debut with the 1,000 meters race on Thursday, also at 4 p.m. and the 1,500 meters on Sunday, Feb. 21 at 6 p.m.

Richardson is the second speed skater from the Triad region of North Carolina to compete at the Winter Olympics. Speed skater turned Darfur political activist Joey Cheek from Greensboro won gold at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy.

When asked by the local newspaper "The News-Record" what she missed most about home, Richardson replied: "A Cheerwine slushie would be great right now."

Her teammates include Jilleanne Rookard and Jennifer Rodriguez, also known as J-Rod.

In an interview with Winston-Salem NBC affiliate WXII, Richardson said she was both nervous and excited about competing in Vancouver, adding that she was amazed that her journey which started at a roller skating rink in High Point had taken her to the Winter Olympics.

Richardson is not the only female speed skater from a Southern state. Long-track speed skater Lauren Choewinski, 21, who now also resides in Utah, grew up in Rock Hill, SC, (my mom's hometown) just outside Charlotte, NC. Like Richardson, Choewinski started out roller skating. She started her journey at the Roller Magic roller skating rink in Rock Hill.

OLYMPICS UPDATE: I actually experienced one of those proverbial busy days where not much got accomplished, so I wasn't able to watch any Olympic footage.

But, I did find out that American short track speed skater Apolo Ohno became the most decorated American winter athlete ever when he won a silver medal in the 1,500 meters. On his Twitter page, Ohno congratulated the gold medal winner Lee Jung-Su of South Korea. "The Vancouver Sun" reported that Canadian Charles Havelin, a pre-Olympic favorite failed to get passed the semi-final rounds in the short track event.

American Hannah Kearney won gold in women's free-style skiing, but the big news in Canada was that their competitor Jennifer Heil (pictured) got a silver.

Heil told "The Vancouver Sun" that while she wanted to win gold, she was pleased with the outcome:

"Of course, I wanted gold but I won silver----I'm happy with my performance---I really felt like I was standing on the shoulders of so many Canadians."

The Twitter page for Team USA hockey reported that players Phil Kessel, Brian Burke and Ron Wilson had arrived in Vancouver.

Dutch speed skater Sven Kramer set an Olympic record with his gold-medal performance in the 5,000 meter race.

Anastazia Kozmin won Slovakia's first Winter Olympic gold in the 7.5 kilometer biathlon.

"The Washington Post" reported that Romanian women's luger Violete Stramaturaru crashed during her competition which forced out of the games, reminding spectators of the tragic event that claimed the life of a Georgian men's luge competitor during the games' opening day.

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!

Team Colbert?!

Whew! I am not having much like with loading images these days, but nevertheless I had to mention this news item about comedian/talk show host/political satirist Stephen Colbert's involvement with the U.S. Speedskating team. The speedskaters would be competing at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. My sister Lale and her husband Matt will be in Canada to watch curling, a sport that they have developed a foundness for. And, Heather Richardson of High Point, NC, will also be at the Olympics, but as a competitor representing the United States in the 500 meter, 1,000 meter and 1, 500 meter speedskating races.

Those of you who live in Park City, Utah, Steamboat Springs, Colo., Nashua, NH, Duluth, Minn. or Eau Claire, Wisc., might be surprised to learn that Richardson will not be the first North Carolinian competing in speedskating at the winter Olympics. Joey Cheek, who has been a vocal human rights activist with regards to the genocide in Darfur (Sudan), won a gold medal during the last winter games. Cheek is originally from Greensboro, NC, which is an adjoining community with High Point.

Colbert, who has recently been profiled in "Rolling Stone" and "Sports Illustrated" for his involvement with trying to raise $300,000 for the U.S. Speedskating team. He is stepping because the team fell short of its budgetary needs when their sponsor the Dutch banking giant DSB went under.

Richardson has faced her own financial struggles as she relocated to Salt Lake City, Utah, to train for the winter games. She was initially working for a Bath and Body Wax store in SLC in 2008, but she had to quit her job to focus on speedskating training.

When asked by "Rolling Stone," why he chose to support the speedskating team Colbert responded by saying that (paraphrase) 'men who wear unitards are the most macho of men.'

In today's edition of "The News-Record" (Greensboro's main newspaper), reporter Gerald Witt interviewed local auto dealer Tim Ilderton who is trying to raise individual funds for Richardson. Her father Jeffrey works for Ilderton. High Point University is working to raise funds for the North Carolina speedskater as well.

Colbert said his favorite speedskater was Richardson's teammate Katherine Reutter because she 'allowed him to sign her titaniumhard thigh.'

The comic talk show host added that is was 'ok for liberals to wear American flags during the Olympics' because they were in a foreign country, and Canada (no less).

Regardless of one's politics or nationality for that matter, if you wish to contribute to Richardson's fund, you can long on to her Facebook page, visit heatherlynnrichardson.com or write a check to: Go Heather Fund (put Heather Richardson in the header) PO Box 350 High Point, NC 27261.