The Super Bowl will be behind you. March Madness is a month away. Here are 10 reasons to pay attention, once the torch is lit in Torino:
10. Women's hockey. There are the times the U.S.-Canada rivalry has enough enmity to make Alabama-Auburn look like a PTA meeting. It's a lock they'll meet for the gold medal. The Americans won last year's world championship in a shootout, after regulation and overtime had gone 0-0. Since then, the Canadians have won eight of 10 meetings. The gold medal game may be the closest you ever come to seeing a bunch of young ladies with brass knuckles.
9. Jeremy Bloom. The NCAA made him give up football at the University of Colorado because he had to earn sponsor money to keep his freestyle skiing career alive. He'll be the only Olympian in Italy trying to win a gold medal, and then returning home for the NFL draft combine.
8. Figure skating judges. Not to be indelicate, but would you buy a used car from some of these people? A new scoring system is supposed to eliminate the corruption. But someone will get shafted, or at least think so and say so. Figure skating will get rid of ice before it gets rid of judging controversy.
7. Snowboarding. This is a sport clearly dedicated to the proposition that American kids need something to do in the winter when the malls and skateboard parks are closed. But, hey, we're a lot better at winning medals in this now than we are at basketball. After you get a full dose of the half pipe and snowboard cross, you'll be ready to program your first iPod. One of the Yanks to watch is Shaun White, whose long red hair is visible from space. He turned pro at 13. Only in America.
6. Chad Hedrick. He could do a rendition of Eric Heiden, with five gold medals in speed skating. That'll get him on the front of a cereal box, not to mention an audience at the White House. But then, he's already ahead of the curve in marketing. He was on Jay Leno's show in January.
5. Bode Miller. Miller's brash and anti-establishment ways make him one of the Games' chief rebels -- a migraine headache to officials, but a hero to free spirits. So long as he wins. Teammate Daron Rahlves might steal some of Miller's thunder. The best story of all in Alpine skiing could be Hermann Maier of Austria, nearly killed in a motorcycle crash in 2001, and back for one last shot at the slopes.
4. Men's hockey. Things have changed since the NHL started sending players. If the Americans win, nobody will call it a miracle on ice. Just highly unexpected. And the beast is not the Russians, but the Canadians. With Wayne Gretzky in charge, Canada has only one burden. Win or else.
3. Apolo Anton Ohno. They hate him. They really hate him. The South Koreans do, anyway, ever since Ohno won a short-track speed skating gold medal in 2002 because a South Korean was disqualified in a searing controversy. When Ohno set foot in South Korea for the first time after the incident -- three years later, in 2005 -- 100 riot policemen were at the airport to protect him. One of his rivals on the ice in Torino will be Ahn Hyun-Soo. Back home in Korea, he'll be expected to exact revenge.
2. Figure skating. It always has been the main event of the Winter Olympics. Always will be. Michelle Kwan will try one last time to beat time and injuries and win an utterly unlikely gold medal. Sasha Cohen will try to maintain American dominance for the women. Irina Slutskaya, at 27, could be the first Russian women's gold medalist. The United States could win its first ice-dancing medal in 30 years, thanks to the 11th-hour citizenship granted to Canadian Tanith Belbin. That ought to be enough to keep the public riveted through the last triple axel.
1. Gold medalists X. We don't yet know who they are, what they do, or where they come from. But we'll find out. It is the unexpected heroes who drop from the snowy skies that dignify the Winter Olympics. Athletes who spend their young lives in the hope of 15 minutes of fame. Those 15 minutes are about here.
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Contact Mike Lopresti at mlopresti(AT)gns.gannett.com.
