Olympics feature stories of all kinds

By Abby Kathan and Mamus Ngeseyan

Tragedy struck the Olympics hours before they began with the death of 21-year old luger Nodar Kumaritashvili from the Republic of Georgia when he was thrown from the luge track during training.

This tragic accident brought to light questions about the event in regards to the tracks safety and technical difficulty, as well as a lack of sufficient practice time for athletes not from Canada.

Olympic and International Luge Federation officials state that the accident was because he simply came out of the turn late, but family members believe that the track was unsafe.

After Kumaritashvili’s death, Olympic officials modified the track to make it safer.

Besides the sadness surrounding Kumaritashvili’s death the 2010 Olympic Games also had an element of the bizarre. The highly decorated Russian figure skater, Evgeni Plushenko, hoped to receive another gold medal at the Vancouver games, but instead he lost to the American skater Evan Lysacek.

On his official Web site Plushenko has been accused of displaying his three Olympic medals and labeling them: silver from Salt Lake, gold from Torino, and his silver from Vancouver as platinum. Those accusing Plushenko of this display feel it is in protest of unfair judging at the Olympics that Plushenko complained about shortly after the event. Plushenko’s Web site denies the accusations.

Five-time Olympic champion Joannie Rochette received upsetting news just two days before the ladies skating event began. Her 55-year old mother died from a heart attack shortly after arriving in Vancouver to watch her daughter skate.

The skater delivered two emotionally-charged programs, finishing with a kiss to the sky and an Olympic bronze.

After an exceptional 2008-2009 season, Rochette became the first Canadian woman to win a world championship medal, beating 2008 world champion Mao Asada at a Grand Prix event and the 2009 Worlds.

Sunday’s gold medal hockey game drew the most viewers of an U.S. hockey game in 30 years. Canada’s 3-2 overtime victory in itself made the Olympics a success for the Canadian followers. Seven minutes and 40 seconds into the game, Canada’s Sidney Crosby flicked a wrist shot past U.S. goalie Ryan Miller after the United States had tied the score merely 24 seconds into regulation.

Even though the United States won a preliminary game against Canada, both sides picked up the intensity to provide one of the greatest games in Olympic history.

The United States led the 2010 Winter Olympic medal count with 37 total medals, although Canada led the gold medal count with 14 medals. Germany came in second with a total of 30 medals. Canada followed with 26 total medals.

The remaining medaling nations were: Norway with 23, Austria with 16, the Russian Federation with 15, Korea with 14 and China, Sweden and France with 11 medals.

Switzerland received nine medals. The Netherlands received eight medals. Both the Czech Republic and Poland received six. Italy, Japan and Finland received five and Australia, Belarus, Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia received three. Latvia got two silvers, Great Britain one gold, and both Kazakhstan and Estonia received one.

Information taken fromwww.nbcolympics.com, http://eugeni-plushenko.com/engand www.huffingtonpost.c om/ 2 0 1 0 / 0 2 / 2 2 / e u g e n i -plushenkos-platinu_n_472590.html.