The World Competes

The Olympics are only three days away. Have you set your Tivos to record your favorite events yet? My husband wants to watch American Idol on some of the nights, but fortunately, NBC airs repeats of the primetime events in the middle of the night.

I mentioned a few days ago that the IOC had a problem with Australia’s boxing kangaroo. During their recent meeting, they decided that the Kangaroo could say. Good decision. Evidently, the Kangaroo is quite popular, and athletes are getting their picture standing with it.

The United States is used to getting skiing medals nowadays, but that wasn’t always the case. Prior to the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics, no American man had ever won a medal in an alpine event. American woman Penelope Pitou had won two silvers in 1960, Gretchen Fraser won gold in 1948, Andrea Mead Lawrence won gold in 1952, and Betsy Snite won a silver medal in 1960, but that was about it. All of that changed in 1964, when William Kidd took the silver medal in slalom and James Huega won silver (another American, Wallace “Bud” Werner, came in eighth). Huega died yesterday at age 66 of multiple sclerosis.

The Biggest Loser tonight features US Short Track Speedskaters tonight. It will come on during primetime in the US, which is either 7 or 8 PM, depending on what part of the country you live in. It is two hours long, but it does come on at the same time as American Idol.