These are my favorite events in the Winter Olympics. It must be such a rush to be riding any of these vehicles at such a high speed generated only by human force, ice and gravity.

No Jamaican bobsled team has me really bummed out. frown

I forget the name of the guy, but I caught the 30 year old from Minnesota who had his first luge run yesterday. He is a cutie in my book. The luge looks like it could be terrifying fun. eek!

Men's single luge is this evening. Don't miss it!

Can't wait for skeleton. Do you know those sleds weigh 75 pounds? It's also one of the most dangerous Winter Olympic events, with face first head down position going over 90 mph.

Well, the Italian takes the gold putting American Benshoof into 4th place. So, no American medal for Men's singles in the luge. I thought Benshoof would at least take the Bronze.

I agree! Canada Olympic Park here in Calgary periodically lets the public try out the luge track for $10, the ride lasts 35 seconds. In fact tonight they had 100 spots open, but I left it too late to call, as they were sold out. I may have another chance next week. Luge was one of several events I saw at the XV Olympics here in 1988. Skeleton was not an event back then, it was only re-introduced after a long absence at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake.

Canada could possibly win a medal in the men's bobsleigh with its team led by Pierre Lueders.

Single women's luge has been fraught with some serious errors and one potentially serious accident. The US entry did very well today but has been knocked into 4th place.

I saw two serious crackups on the womens luge today. Terrifying, it was. I am glad the US gal appears she will be okay, though they said maybe suffered a mild concussion. But they were scary to see.

Well, the Men's double luge crapped out in an unfortunate accident. So no luge victories this year for USA.

Women's skeleton looks pretty good this evening. I love this sport. USA women seem to be contenders.

Men's skeleton is tomorrow.

Canada's Pain placed first in the qualifying round for Men's skeleton. USA placed fifth. The finals are tonight so stay tuned.

It's amazing how fast these sleds go. This is probably the most exciting sport on this ice run versus bobsled and luge. I'd love to try it sometime!

Does Jamaica have a bobsled team again this Olympics?? Curious, I haven't seen any sign of them.....yikes, just saw the first post...thank you.

[ February 17, 2006, 08:25 PM: Message edited by: blueraider ]

Congrats to the Canadians landing the Gold and Silver in the Men's skeleton. USA did a distant 6th place. Switzerland got the Bronze.

I wathced the NBC coverage of the men's skeleton (I wanted to see what they had to say about my Canadians), and I heard the most brilliant comment from the female commentator. Whe describing the anatomy of a good run, she said (and I kid not - I must have replayed this thing 10 times for my friends):

"A smooth top makes for a fast bottom".

Absolutely brilliant.

She's obviously never been with a hairy top. wink

No bobsleigh team from Jamaica per se, but Lascelles Brown is the Jamaican-born brakeman for Pierre Lueders, and they won the silver medal today for Canada. Lueders gave full credit to Brown for his efforts. Brown was fast-tracked by Canada's immigration department to allow him to qualify for the Canadian team. There have been rumours flying that the German bobsledders, who won the gold medal, were using some illegal substance on their sleds to reduce friction.

Side note: Although Jamaica did not send a bobsleigh team to Torino, another tropical country did, namely Brazil. Unfortunately one of its members was disqualified as a result of doping.

That was scary to see. I was concerned after those women Bode'd their runs.

I can't believe that Armin Zoeggeler does not have his own website - he just makes me melt! ::sigh::