The World Competes

With 11 days to go until the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the final Team USA roster has been finalized. It will be released tomorrow.

If you missed Audi’s Truth in Motion that aired this weekend, you can download it for free on iTunes.com, at http://www.itunes.com/truthinmotion. I watched it Saturday, and it was pretty good, although I thought that it was a bit short. I was hoping that it would get more into the lives and training schedules of the athletes, but I guess that they were limited by time (and a longer video might be too long, I guess). It follows the lives of a few members of the men’s and women’s alpine ski teams as they get ready for the first World Cup event of the season. Of course, how they perform on the World Cup circuit determines whether they get to go to the Olympics or not.

You see the dynamics between Tommy Ford, who is new to the team and doing well, and Jake Zamansky, who has been on the team for a while, and if he doesn’t make the Olympic team, he might just end up hanging up his skis, at least competitively. If you hadn’t seen the roster yet, there might be so me suspense. If you have seen the roster (I published it a few days ago here), then you already know how it turns out. Even if you know who’s going to make it, its nice to get to know some of the members of Team USA a little better.

Turns out that Daron Rahlves and Casey Puckett, Team USA’s men’s skicross competitors, will probably be okay by the time the games arrive. Rahlves dislocated his hip yesterday during the Winter X Games, while Puckett hurt his already-injured shoulders a few days before that. Fortunately for them, men’s skicross is scheduled for February 21st, so they will have three weeks from the time of their injuries to recover. Shawn White, who hurt his face during the X Games, will participate in the halfpipe on the 17th; he is also okay.