Shannon Bahrke, who you might remember won a silver medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, is retiring from mogul skiing. Although she will be leaving athletic competition, she has plenty of things that will keep her busy. Her brother, Scotty Bahrke, is still competing.

She is currently engaged to Matt Happe, and plans to marry him in Hawaii on September 10, 2010. The two run Silver Bean Coffee together.

She would like to have kids in the future, and is interested in being an Olympic commentator.

Klebl was born in Düsseldorf, Germany as a US citizen, and grew up in Austria, where he enjoyed skiing and snowboarding. In 1995, a snowboarding accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. He initially took up handcycling, but then was introduced to Nordic skiing. He uses a sitski during skiing events.

Klebl has a degree in economics from Syracuse University, but currently trains full time as a Paralympic athlete. He lives in Heber City, Colorado. We wish him luck. Sit-ski events begin on Sunday, March 14th, with the men’s 15 km race.

With the 2010 Vancouver Paralympics starting this week, I thought that I’d take a look back at the previous Paralympic games in Torino.

Although the United States was second in the Olympic rankings in the able-bodied Torino Olympics, it placed fifth in the rankings for the Paralympics, with 7 gold medals and 12 total. Russia blew away the competition, with 13 gold medals and 33 total medals. 39 nations and 486 athletes participated. There were 20 events.

Torino was the first year that the Paralympics were broadcast over the Internet (as they will be in Vancouver). Out of all the drug tests that were given, there were no doping violations (I’d like to see that one in the regular Olympics).

Here’s a video that recaps the 2006 Paralympic experience from the point of view of the Polish team:

Most of the competition is concluding in Vancouver; the only events left are the hockey finale, the men’s 50 km mass start, and the closing ceremony. Today there were several final events contested.

The men’s slalom concluded the alpine skiing events. Italy’s Giuliano Razzoli won the gold; Ivica Kostelić of Croatia won the silver. If that name sounds familiar, it should; Ivica is Janica Kostelić’s older brother. She won six medals in Salt Lake City and Torino. This is Ivica’s second medal of these games, and third total. Sweden’s André Myhrer won bronze. Nolan Kasper of the United States came in 24th; Bode Miller did not finish his first run.

Four man bobsled also concluded; the United States continued to do well and won the gold medal. Germany won the silver, and Canada won the bronze.

Cross country skiing’s equivalents of marathons began today with the women’s 30 km mass start. The winner’s names are probably familiar to you if you have been following these events. Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland came in first, Marit Bjørgen of Norway won the silver, and Finland’s Aino-Kaisa Saarinen won the bronze. Kikkan Randall came in 24th for the United States.

Curling concluded with the men’s final and bronze events. Canada won gold, leaving Norway in second place. Switzerland beat Sweden for the bronze medal.

Men’s ice hockey finals began with the bronze medal game. Finland beat Slovakia for the Bronze. The big game is tomorrow, with Canada playing the United States.

The men competed in parallel giant slalom, concluding the snowboarding events. Canada’s Jasey-Jay Anderson won gold; Austria’s Benjamin Karl won the silver, while France’s Mathieu Bozzetto won bronze.

Canada was having a great day today. They won the men’s team pursuit in speed skating, with the United States winning silver. The Netherlands took team pursuit bronze. The US women’s team pursuit team lost to Germany in the semifinals; Germany went on to beat Japan in final A for gold and silver. The United States raced Poland in final B for the bronze, and Poland won.

With only two events left, the United States has a total of 36 medals, and will have the most medals out of all countries at the conclusion of the games. The US will get one more medal in hockey; it will either be gold or silver. The United States is unlikely to get any medals in cross-country skiing. Canada, after never winning a gold medal on home turf ever, is guaranteed to walk away with the most gold medals, they currently have 13. Germany has 10 gold medals and is second in the total medal count, with 29. The United States has a total of 9 gold medals and could get one more tomorrow.

One of the most exciting athletes to watch during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics is Lindsey Vonn. With plans to compete in all five alpine skiing events, Vonn was one of the favorites to win gold as the weeks coming up to the Olympics approached.

Unfortunately, while training for the Olympics, Vonn got into an accident and badly bruised her shin. There was a question of whether she would even be able to compete. Fortunately, weather conditions postponed the first date that she would have to race, giving her more time to compete. Still, she was in a lot of pain when she made her downhill race, which she won gold in. Her reaction to winning the gold was exciting to see; unfortunately, I can’t find a good link to it for you.

The 2010 Vancouver Olympics are Vonn’s third Olympics. In 2002 and 2006, she skied as Lindsey Kildow. She married her husband, Thomas Vonn, in 2007. She never received a medal until this Olympics. She is one of the most physically fit competitors around, using men’s skis in most of the events. These are longer, but can be more difficult to control.

Vonn is scheduled to race in the Giant Slalom today, and the Slalom on Friday.

On day 10 of the Vancouver Olympics, Bode Miller finally won his first gold medal, in the Super Combined. After a disappointing 0 medals in Torino, I’m sure that he’s pretty happy.

Both the men’s and women’s mass start events took place in biathlon. If you have been following the biathlon results, you may recognize Germany’s Magalena Neuner, who won the gold medal in women’s pursuit, and received a silver medal in the sprint. Evgeny Ustyugov won the men’s medal for the Russians.

The two-man bobsleigh event concluded today; the German team of André Lange and Kevin Kuske came in first. A second German team took the silver medal, while Russia won the bronze. The three teams from the United States placed sixth, tenth, and twelfth.

Ice dancers held their Original Dance competition today. Meryl Davis and Charlie White did well, while Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto came in fourth again. Tomorrow’s final night of competition, with the Russian team of Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, and the Canadian team of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, could be close.

Ski cross made its debut today, with Switzerland’s Michael Schmid winning the first gold medal ever. US skiers Casey Puckett and Daron Rahlves qualified for the heats, but were eliminated in the first round.

Ladies’ speed skating continued with the 1500 m race. The Netherlands won the gold with Ireen Wust’s performance, while Kristina Groves of Canada won the silver.

The United States now has a current total of 24 medals, with 7 of them being gold.

Shani Davis is a lot different than many of the other speed skaters. For one thing, he finds his own sponsors, and is not supported by U.S. Speedskating. In addition to long track speed skating, he is also a short track speed skater (although he didn’t make the 2010 short track Olympic team).

Davis recently had a tiff with Steven Colbert, who sponsored speed skating in 2010. The disagreement must have been resolved, as he participated in a skate-off with Colbert in late December (despite getting a 13 minute head start, Colbert lost in the 500 meter race).

The following YouTube video (from Dutch television) shows Shani Davis beating Vancouver’s 5000 m gold medalist Sven Kramer in the 1500 m race in 2008:

During the Olympics, you may have heard that Dawson, who took home a bronze medal in the moguls, was adopted from Korea. The fact that his adoption made his Olympic dream possible would have been an interesting enough story. The rest of the story is even more amazing.

The amazing part of the story started in 1981. A man named Kim Jae-su was shopping in a crowded Korean marketplace with his son, Kim Bong-seok. He lost his child. Although he made a valiant effort to find his son, looking through orphanages in the country, he never found him.

It turns out, Kim Bong-seok had been adopted by American parents, and was renamed… Toby Dawson. Friends of Kim Jae-su saw Dawson competing in the Olympics, and thought that there was a resemblance. Since his missing son was about the same age as Dawson, he decided to look into the matter. After the Olympics, many people tried to claim Dawson as their biological son, but DNA tests proved who the real father was.

After the Olympics, Dawson retired from skiing. In 2007, he was able to meet his real father, along with his biological younger brother. You can read more about the family reunion in various news stories.

On Sundays, I’d like to take a look at one of the past Olympics. Since the Summer Olympics have been held since 1896, and the Winter Olympics have been held since 1924, there’s a lot to look back upon. The games have changed over the years, and they continue to evolve. Since the Vancouver Winter Olympics are just around the corner, I’d like to take a look at recent Winter Olympics games that have been held, starting with the most recent games.

The 2006 Torino Olympics (also known as Turin) were held from February 10th to February 26, 2006, in Torino (Turin), Italy, which is located in the Alps. This Olympics saw some firsts, and had some interest.

In figure skating, the new scoring system was introduced, after the 2002 scandal where the French judge was bribed (in a way) of giving her vote to the Russians. Sasha Cohen walked away with the silver, in what is likely to be her last Olympics, while Evan Lysacek and and Johnny Weir (who are competing in Vancouver) just barely walked away without a medal, taking fourth and fifth place. Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, who just barely qualified for the Olympics (it literally took an act of congress for Belbin to become a US citizen in time), brought home a silver medal.

Snowboardcross made its debut, and Seth Westcott received the first gold medal for the men. Lindsey Jacobellis almost won a gold for the US, but a little showboating caused her to make a bad landing, leaving her with the silver.

Other people to remember include Apolo Ohno, Julia Mancuso (with her tiara), Shani Davis, and the disappointing performance by Bode Miller (who was much hyped but didn’t win anything). It’s difficult to boil down 16 days of competition into a small blog post, but I gave it a try.