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.

Olympians tend to do well on Dancing with the Stars. Just ask Apolo Anton Ohno. Or Shawn Johnson. Or Kristi Yamaguchi. They all have won on this television show, which makes Olympians 1/3 of the Stars’ winners. Evan Lysacek is expected to do well this season. Las Vegas bookmakers expect him to win, and give him a 1.25:1 shot.

Many of the skills that you need for skating transfer over to dancing. On the ice, Lysacek needs strength, flexibility, and timing. All of these will help with his budding dancing career.

On Monday Night’s Dancing with the Stars premiere, Lysacek and his partner scored the second-highest score of the evening.

If you’re old enough to remember Chernobyl, you’ll remember that it was a major nuclear disaster. Although radiation levels seem to have returned to normal now, they were pretty high after it went off in April 1986. Alexi Salamone was born in June 1987. His development was affected, and he was born with twisted legs that were later amputated.

Salamone was left by his birth parents. He describes the orphanage that he lives in as an “alley”. His birth parents, Joe and Sue Salamone, adopted him at age 6. He has an adoptive sister, Tatiana, that came from the same orphanage.

At age 10, he was introduced to sledge hockey. He looks forward to returning to the country of his birth, but he is unsure of whether he will look up his birth parents. More information about Alexi Salamone can be found in this Yahoo article.

Earlier this month, president Obama met with Haitian president Rene Preval, who said that they still have a need for medical supplies, housing, and food.

Recent rains in Haiti have made conditions miserable for residents; many are still living in tents. The spring rains are coming soon, which will make things worse.

I’m glad to see that they are finding use for it, rather than tossing it out.

Russia was not happy over their results in Vancouver. Although they had high hopes, they didn’t even make the top 10 in the medal results. They walked away with three gold medals, five silvers, and seven bronzes.

As a result, Vladimir Putin even started making comments. I’m sure there has been some pressure on the coaches and the athletic directors, because in the month since the games, there have been four people that have quit their positions. On Tuesday, the head of the Russian Freestyle Skiing Federation resigned. On Monday, the head of the Cross Country Skiing Federation quit. The president of the Russian Olympic committee and the deputy sports minister have also quit.

Is it a wise move for Russia to pressure all these people to quit four years before hosting an Olympics? Perhaps, if Russia can find more qualified people to take their spots, they might do better in certain sports. The opposite has also happened before. Sometimes athletes switch coaches and they end up performing worse later on.

I’m just thinking out loud here, but wouldn’t the Russian Olympic Committee president be pretty busy right now? He has more to do than just making sure that the athletes do well in sports. In four years, Russia will have to host the Olympics, and someone has to make all the preparations.

I would like to see the 2014 Olympics turn out well. The last time the Olympics were held in Russia, it didn’t turn out well: the most massive boycott in history was held. So I hope that they can get their act together in time to host the Olympics, although I personally don’t care how well their athletes do (apologies to my Russian aunt Ludmilla).

Particularly upsetting is how animal rights activists have sent Weir death threats because they don’t like how he used fur on one of his costumes. What is more important, animals or people? Of course, some people would say animals, but I have to disagree.

In this interview with Johnny Weir on the George Lopez show, Weir seems to imply that the reason why he did not get a medal was because the judges wanted diversity on the medal stand, and Evan Lysacek was already guaranteed a medal. That’s not really keeping history in mind. In 2002, two Russians took the top spots; in 1956, all three top spots wen to the US; Norway took silver and bronze in 1920, and in 1908, all three top spots went to Sweden. In women’s skating, the US had two medals in 2002, took the top two spots in 1998, and received two medals in 1992; in 1920, Sweden took the top two spots; in 1908, Great Britain won two medals. This may not be a large amount of years when one country took two places on the podium, but if it truly was political, Weir would have come in fourth, not sixth.

Weir was turned down from Stars on Ice because he was not “family friendly” enough. While his controversial life outside of the ice really doesn’t necessarily translate to how he would skate on tour, I guess they have the right to choose who they want to feature or not.

Johnny Weir will be on the George Lopez show tomorrow, so if you are interested in seeing him, you might want to watch. In the meantime, here’s a video of him skating to Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face”.

Canada may have won the able bodied gold medal, but the United States took the gold in Paralympic sledge hockey. Canada lost to Japan in the semi-finals, and then lost to Norway in the bronze-medal game. Japan won the silver medal.

One of the top US sledge hockey players is Alexi Salamone, who was born in Russia after the Chernobyl accident, and was born with twisted legs that had to be amputated. He hopes to return to his land of birth in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Hopefully to win another gold medal. Salamone made one of the two goals, and also had an assist.

The US goalie, Steve Cash, played an outstanding game of defense, making five saves.

The 2010 Vancouver Paralympics are winding down. The only events left in the games are the 1 km sprint events in cross-country skiing, and the closing ceremonies. The next Olympic event after that will be the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore.

Andy Soule is a bronze-medal winning Paralympic athlete. He won his bronze in the sitting category of the 2×2.4 km pursuit in the biathlon.

Prior to being a Paralympic athlete, he was a warrior in the US Army. In 2005, he was in Afghanistan when a roadside bomb blew up and forced his legs to be amputated. While he once dreamed of being a soldier, he was forced to rethink his identity.

During rehabilitation, he had the chance to try out several sports, including hand cycling. He was asked to try out skiing, and he took to it. After four years of training, he was able to win the Paralympic biathlon world cup. Five years after his accident, he won a bronze medal. Although he could no longer be a soldier, he could be one of the best Paralympic athletes in the world.

Andy Soule is featured in a recent USA Today story.

Sales and viewership of the Paralympics have been stronger than was originally expected. The Paralympics will have a total of 60 hours of broadcast coverage in Canada.

United States viewers will still have to watch the Paralympics on the Internet.

Nichols became disabled in 2000 when she was out snowboarding with her friends. She decided to try a back flip. It would be her last attempt. She landed on her back, on a rock, and had to be transported to the hospital. Alana found out that she was paralyzed from the waist down.

She earned a basketball scholarship to the University of Arizona, and from there ended up on the US Paralympic team. She ended up with a gold medal from the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.

Just 16 months ago, she started training as a Paralympic Skier. When she told her coach that she wanted to make it to Vancouver, they told her to forget about it, and to just concentrate on getting better. One gold medal later, she proved them wrong.

Congratulations, Alana, on winning the first gold medal for the United States in the 2010 Vancouver Paralympics; and for winning gold medals in both summer and winter sports.