Next Russia will play Finland. The reasons for Russia's success this year might seem rather odd to a reader unfamiliar with hockey. The National Hockey League season was cancelled this year, and the most of the Russian Olympic hockey team resides in Florida (no state income tax), and plays for NHL teams. Because the season was canceled, the Russians had more time to train together back in their motherland.
Sadly, the Americans are not doing that well this year, and when the Russian team beat the Americans 5-4, the Russian coach commented that he had advised his team to play half-throttle and not waste energy before the other games. The Cold War is dead, and so is the athletic rivalry between the US and Russia. It almost seems like the Cold War was beneficial for the conditioning of the Olympic players of our countries...Americans today only seem to take the gold in individual winter sports.
Comments
There is nothing on the blog about ice skating!!! That's the BIG ONE you should be writing about... especially now when the question is - will Russians take ALL the figure skating medals or will Sasha Cohen be able to steal the show tomorrow night?
An interesting thing is - Sasha's mother is Russian (which makes Sasha 50% Russian) and she speaks Russian pretty fluently (I know that for a fact through my former boyfriend who knew her personally), but in all her interviews or those captions about her "story" it is somehow always omitted...hmmm...
I loved her short program last night, though, to the Russian gypsy song - Dark Eyes - one of the best pieces of gypsy music out there.
She did a fabulous job.
The final program is tomorrow night - "the most anticipated event of Olympic games" - or so they say.
Posted by: Anonymous | February 22, 2006 9:22 PM
Yuri:
Just to let you know that the NHL season resumed for 2005-06.
The 04-05 season was cancelled.
I think Russia's success has to do with the three young studs they have up front on offense (Malkin, Ovechkin and Kovalchuk) and a very steady group of other players in the ages 24-34 category.
I notice a good number of Russian Olympic fans at the events when compared to the last Olympiad held in Europe back in '94. Would you agree that it's because of more wealthier Russians this time around?
I also sense a passion among Russian athletes (besides the hockey team) that reminds me of the American spirit in '80. Back then, America felt a prolonged lull of defeatism (Vietnam war syndrome). The '80 Lake Placid Olympics instilled a new found patriotism among many Americans.
I believe that Russia is now experiencing a resurgence and a new found confidence.
Posted by: Mike Averko | February 22, 2006 9:23 PM
I'm not a big follower of the Olympics (or sports at all for that matter), but I heard that currently the U.S. just pulls all the best players out of the NHL and forms an Olympic team from them. Of course, a team needs to work together and that takes practice. Without it, the individual abilities of the players can't be fully utilized.
Posted by: Alcibiades | February 25, 2006 12:15 AM
good blog
Posted by: Jody | February 27, 2006 10:31 PM