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.

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).

The United States is currently in eighth place, with one silver medal and one bronze medal. The US bronze medalist, in the men’s sitting 2.4 km biathlon pursuit, is Andy Soule, who is a war veteran who lost both of his legs in the War in Afghanistan (appropriate that a soldier would do well in biathlon). Stephani Victor (an appropriate name) is the US silver medalist in the sitting women’s slalom.

In sledge hockey, Canada, the United States, Norway, and Japan have won their games so far. It would be interesting if the United States and Canada would meet again in the sledge hockey finale. Maybe the US would win this time.

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:

The Russians aren’t happy. They’re so upset, in fact, that president Medvedev is asking the people responsible for preparing the Olympic athletes to resign. Those that don’t, he threatens to fire. Russia only won three gold medals, and 15 medals overall. They were hoping to win at least 30 medals, and place in the top three countries winning medals.

I can see how they might be disappointed. Once powerhouses in figure skating, they fail to reach the podium at all in pairs or the ladies skate, breaking a streak that has been going on for decades. Evgeni Plushenko wound up with silver when he was hoping for gold. They didn’t exactly have a hot year.

I have been thinking over the last couple of weeks about what it takes for a country to have a lot of great athletes. The country really has to invest in a sport to see medals. The United States Ski Team wasn’t able to fund the ski cross team, and we had two competitors, no female competitors, and no medals. It does have money for skiing, and we had Lindsey Vonn, Bode Miller, and Julia Mancuso.

Russia is not in its economic heyday right now. In fact, they haven’t been doing well for quite some time. It takes years to make a champion, especially in sports like figure skating. If the people (or government) of Russia does not invest in its athletes, they’re not going to see results. And that takes money.

China has been doing well in the Olympics, and I expect them to do better in the future. China has a growing economy, and invests the time and money in its athletes. They work even their snowboarders hard. They will probably do well in both London and Sochi.

Will Russia get back to its glory days? I think that they can perform better in Sochi than they did in Vancouver. Russia is improving economically, while at the same time the Western nations are having a tough time supporting their athletes. They could do better in Sochi, but I’m not sure that they have enough time to become the Russian powerhouse that they once were. Not in four years.

I can’t believe that we are entering the final weekend of competition. Day 15 featured the women’s slalom, the men’s cross country 4×10 km relay, the completion of women’s curling, men’s ice hockey semifinals, women’s parallel giant slalom, and the final night of short track speed skating.

In the women’s giant slalom, Lindsey Vonn skied with her broken pinky, but she ended up straddling a gate and was knocked out of the first round. Maria Reisch ends up winning the second gold medal of her Olympic games for Germany, while Marlies Schild takes the silver for Austria. The Czech Republic’s Šárka Záhrobská took bronze. Sarah Schleper, in what might be her final Olympic event, came in 16th.

It was a likely day for final races for Apolo Ohno as well. Ohno made it to the finals of the 500 m men’s race, but came in fourth. To get to the finals, he had to jump over a pair of fallen skaters. Ohno’s excellent career ended on a high note, with a bronze medal for team USA. It was Ohno’s 8th career medal. Charles Hamelin of Canada won the gold medal in the 500 m race that Ohno came in fourth in. The 5000 m relay was won by Canada, with South Korea winning the bronze.

The men’s 4×7.5 km relay took place in biathlon. The gold, silver, and bronze teams were Norway, Austria, and Russia, respectively. The United States came in 13th.

The United Stated did well in the first two runs of four-man bobsled, coming in first place. Canada and Germany were close behind. The event will conclude tomorrow.

Women’s curling concluded today, with Sweden winning the gold medal game against Canada, who took the silver medal. China beat Switzerland for the bronze.

Men’s hockey continued with the semifinals. As many people hoped for, the final game will be a showdown between the United States and Canada. Tomorrow, Finland will play Slovakia for the bronze.

The women competed in Parallel Giant Slalom (PGS) today. One American, Michelle Gorgone, competed in the event, qualified for the round of 16, and was knocked out before the quarterfinals. Nicolien Sauerbreij of the Netherlands wound up with the gold, while Ekaterina Ilyukhina of Russia took the silver.

Men’s and women’s team pursuit qualifications occurred today. The United States will face Canada tomorrow for gold and silver. The ladies advanced to the semifinals today (in a very close finish); they will race Germany tomorrow, in what may be Jennifer Rodriguez’s final Olympics.

The United States has currently won the most medals, at 34, but Canada, who had never won a gold medal on home turf before these games, currently has 10 gold medals (the US has eight). The Germans also have more gold medals than the US, with nine.

I’m posting a little earlier than normal… I had to babysit a friend’s kids last night and take them to school. I had the chance to watch some today’s afternoon events, but I’ll have to catch ladies’ figure skating tomorrow morning.

Today was the nordic combined team event. The United States had never received a team nordic combined medal since its introduction in the 1988 Calgary games; their highest position before was 4 in Salt Lake City. The win must have been especially exciting to Todd Lodwick, who has been participating in this event since the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. Austria won the gold medal, and Germany won the bronze. Finland, who was in the lead at the end of the jumping portion, ended up coming in seventh.

In biathlon, it was the women’s 4×6 km relay. Russia took gold, France won the silver medal, and Germany came in third.

A huge upset occurred in the 10,000 m men’s speed skating event today. The favorite, Sven Kramer of the Netherlands, crossed the finish line in less time than any of the other skaters. Unfortunately for him, he forgot to cross into the other lane during one of the 25 laps. What would have been the second gold medal for him went to Lee Seung-Hoon of Korea instead. The United States’ best performance in this event was by Jonathan Kuck, who came in eighth.

Women’s ski cross made its Olympic debut, with no Americans competing. The ski cross team has to fund their own way; I am not completely sure whether the reason why they did not go to the Olympics was due to funding or not, but I’m guessing that it at least had a part. The Canadian, Ashleigh McIvor, came away with the first gold.

After beating Germany today, the Canadian men’s ice hockey team has advanced. If both the US and Canadian teams win their events in the quarterfinals and semifinals, they will meet up in the finals.

Today was a quiet day for competition. The big event for the day was the ice dancing finals. The cross-country team sprints for men and women took place, as well as freestyle skiing aerials qualifications, ice hockey semifinals, and the ski jumping team large hill.

Ice dancing was great this evening. Meryl Davis and Charlie White skated an awesome performance to Phantom of the Opera. It was enough to win the silver medal. Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir came in first, although I personally did not find it as engaging as the second place performance. Russia came in third, while USA’s Belbin and Agosto finished in fourth (but they skated great).  This placement marks the first time anybody from North America has won an ice dancing gold medal.  Sinead and John Kerr, British siblings, performed an interesting move where Sinead picked up her brother! Another performance that I enjoyed was Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France skating to “The Impossible Dream”.

In the cross country team sprint, Norway won gold for the men, while the Germans won for the ladies. German men took silver for the men, while Sweden won silver for the ladies. The Russian men and women both won bronze.

It was a good day for Germany and Norway in ski jumping as well. They took silver and bronze, respectively. Austria took the gold with a runaway win. The US team did not qualify for the finals, and Simon Amman did not compete today, as Switzerland did not have a team in the competition.

The aerials qualifiers were held in freestyle skiing today. The United States qualified two men, Ryan St. Onge and Jeret “Speedy” Peterson. Scotty Bahrke, Shannon Bahrke’s younger brother, did not qualify, along with Matt DePeters. It was an exciting event to watch.

The women’s ice hockey semifinals took place today.  The United States beat Sweden, while Canada beat Finland, to make it to the gold medal round, which will take place on Thursday.

Ladies figure skating begins tomorrow, as does men’s giant slalom and the debut of women’s ski cross. It should be a good day. Currently, the medal count stands at 25 medals for the US, 21 for Germany, and 14 for Norway.

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.

Now if you are like I was the first time I heard of this, I had no clue where Sochi was. Sochi is located in Western Russia, off the Baltic Sea. What surprised me the most about this location is that it is a subtropical location. They’re having problems with the snow in Vancouver… why in the world would they hold the Winter Olympics in a subtropical city? It makes no sense to me. I guess there is a ski resort located in the Caucasus mountains. Let’s just hope this subtropical location has snow in four years.

The Sochi Olympics will start on February 7th, 2014, so in exactly four years, the athletes will be competing. While I’m sure that there will be plenty of English speakers there, there’s still plenty of time to learn Russian before the Olympics.