All the cool Olympians are from Michigan
Jim Slater from Lapeer
Sam McGuffie, former UM RB
Madison Hubbell from Okemos
Maia and Alex Shibutani from Ann Arbor
Megan Keller from Farmington
Kyle Mack from West Bloomfield
Nick Baumgartner (2nd to last) from Iron River
Jessica Smith-Koorman from Melvindale
Madison Chock and Evan Bates from Novi & Huron (schools) respectively
"Michigan athletes made themselves known through solid performances – and some solid social medial play – at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Even if the United States didn’t exactly tear it up – turning in its lowest medal count in 20 years (23 medals overall) – Michigan natives came home with a gold, silver and bronze and treasure chest of great stories along the way.
Here are 10 of them."
Credit: MLive.com, 2/26/2018, Author: Peter J. Wallner
http://www.mlive.com/sports/2018/02/10_great_moments_from_michigan.html
February 26th, 2018 at 11:58 AM ^
February 26th, 2018 at 11:59 AM ^
They put it on the line for the US. I like the winter games, but I prefer the summer.
February 26th, 2018 at 12:00 PM ^
Wait, Nick Baumgartner?
February 26th, 2018 at 12:16 PM ^
Yes. Good snowboarder...
But the guy you're thinking of is Nick Baumgardner - a decent writer for a trash paper...
February 26th, 2018 at 1:19 PM ^
February 26th, 2018 at 12:00 PM ^
Greatest Olympian ever?
Julie "The Cat" Gaffney. Bangor, ME
February 26th, 2018 at 12:02 PM ^
Am I alone in thinking these winter olympics basically sucked?
1. US did pretty crappy overall. Now I'm sure those that claim our recruting this year wasnt THAT bad will think otherwise but I was pretty disapointed in our medal count at least as compared to how we've been doing recently.
2. Tape delayed events or having to watch things in the middle of night. "Hello 2018 Olympics - it's the 1979 NBA Finals on the phone and they want their Betamax back."
3. Korea is a wierd place to hold winter olympics IMO. I mean now I know they have VERY windly mountains but before these games started I had no clue they were known for any alpine venues at all.
February 26th, 2018 at 12:17 PM ^
I don't think they sucked. The US didn't dominate in part because we're not as competitive in speed skating or figure skating as we have been in the past. But for me, total medal count is less important than epic memorable moments.
Womens hockey gold in a revenge game against Canada in a shootout. Shaun White's halfpipe redemption under huge pressure. Jessie Diggin's exceptional finish in cross country skiing. Mens curling's 5 point end to grab the gold. It was a good Games with some very memorable moments.
February 26th, 2018 at 12:34 PM ^
But that's why i chose the word "basically" and not "totally". There were some memorable moments as you pointed out but as a whole I was underwhelmed. And "sucked" was the wrong word. I should've said "disappointing".
Men's hockey failing to reach the medal round, Alpine skiers (both men and women) failing to meet even modest expectations, figure skaters (again both men and women) seeming to spend more time on their butts than in the air and Lindsey Jacobellis again failing to medal in a sport she dominates everwhere but the olympics.
The US won 37 medals at the 2010 games, 28 medals in the 2014 games and 23 in the 2018 games. That's not a great trend Bob.
February 26th, 2018 at 12:51 PM ^
My perspective on this is totally biased, since my OIympics interest was primarily focused on: 1. Curling, for reasons both obvious and non-obvious; 2. Alpine skiing, which I follow intently outside of the Olympics.
And those two areas delivered well. The curling bit is obvious, given that I live in Duluth--Shuster & co are now legends here. Skiing saw only slight underperformance from the Americans, with Vonn getting bronze in a tough event and Shiffrin getting one gold instead of three (still holding another silver). The Ledecka upset was fantastic, and the men's Super G was dramatic as well.
But you're at least partly right. For Americans who care about figure skating these Olympics were a disaster, and the absence of the NHL players left hockey as a shadow of its former glory. The best Olympics are ones that have a lot of good action AND an incredible hockey tournament that is, on its own, worth blocking time out to watch. This did not have that kind of hockey, and it was bad for everyone.
But personally watching Shuster make that double for 5 in the 8th end was my favorite Olympic moment of all time.
February 26th, 2018 at 1:44 PM ^
The hockey was pretty bad. Absent so much good talent it felt like I was watching Junior A, not even AHL level most of the time. There were times the guys I watched it with would all turn to each other and ask "What the hell was that?". Bad passes, awful power play breakouts, and losing guys in front of the net. Slower pace, especially in the 3rd when the NHL retirees just were worn out. Without regard to how it went for the US, there was some boring, and at times, ugly hockey played. The No NHL thing was a big failure.
February 26th, 2018 at 3:19 PM ^
The biggest disappointment to me was skiing, namely Shiffrin, Vonn, and Kenworthy. They were talking about Shiffrin aiming for 5 golds (which is an insane target, I'll admit) but she came home with one. Vonn, was favored in at least one event I believe, and managed to only grab a bronze. And Kenworthy...well I think he should spend more time skiing and less time on politics.
February 26th, 2018 at 4:06 PM ^
Shiffrin had a chance at four golds, but only an outside one. While she has won a downhill, she wasn't the favorite; Vonn and Goggia were the favorites in that.
The major surprise was that both Shiffrin and Hirscher failed to win (or medal) in slalom, their top events. Both won GS, though, and Shiffrin's silver in combined is only a slight disappointment. Vonn's bronze wasn't gold, but it was a medal, and that's nothing to sniff at.
Mild disappointment could be accurate, but this is skiing. A "big" disappointment would be no golds, just one medal, that sort of thing.
February 26th, 2018 at 4:23 PM ^
Weather delays absolutely destroyed her plans. Hard to compete, especially once the schedule got condensed.
February 26th, 2018 at 12:40 PM ^
Many MI connections to US figure skaters and many traning facilities here. Will be watching future developments with even more interest - while I think that Nathan Chen is the best skater on the planet, the Japanese skater Hanyu was genius. Even so, Hanyu would have lost the medal to Chen if the latter had not lost points on the short program.
The OAR women skaters were crazy talented - while the US didn't make the showing we all hoped for, Russia has so much depth on skating talent it will be a challenge to see what direction US skating evolves in, especially with the rules that reward jump/jump/jump and backload the jumps for more points.
February 26th, 2018 at 12:25 PM ^
I also didn't know South Korea was known for any winter sports outside of short track speed skating. But otherwise, I thought the events went off well and had some great competition. I haven't heard of any complaints from the athletes, media, or spectators regarding access, transportation, or accomodations - which is very different from most Olympics. The events seemed sparsely attended, though. I wonder if that's due to ticket costs or just lack of interest from the home crowd?
The televising of it all sucked. Prime time every night, on NBC proper, was some flavor of figure skating. NBCSN was okay, but a LOT of tape delay and streaming were needed. And far too many commercials. I feel they could have shown a lot of different evenst each night by eliminating half the commercials. Cut to a different sport between competitor runs and keep a running commentary of each from the studio to keep it all together. I think that would add excitement - you wouldn't be able to turn away!
Alas, advertising money...
February 26th, 2018 at 12:27 PM ^
and promise to stay off of your lawn.
Although the US medal count was underwhelming, I was very entertained by the slopestyle / halfpipe skiiing / snowboarding and men's hockey. Furthermore, because of this Olympics, I am now a curling and women's hockey fan.
Where can I attempt curling? Like the Rutgers OLine did, I think it would be a good time to get some friends together for some beers, stones, and sweeping
February 26th, 2018 at 12:36 PM ^
I don't care that much about how well the US does - other countries' athletes have inspiring stories, too. I just enjoy the competition.
But the time difference is an issue and makes it hard to watch these events live. It's annoying when you have to be wary of spoilers all the time. Unfortunately that's also going to be the case in 2020 (Tokyo) and 2022 (Beijing).
The other thing with the Winter Olympics is that there's too much else going on sports-wise at that time. I never get into it quite as much as for the Summer games when they're basically the only thing on (other than regular-season baseball).
February 26th, 2018 at 12:38 PM ^
Um Okay dude. . .
February 26th, 2018 at 12:42 PM ^
1. Yes, 23 overall medals was the lowest since Nagano (13) but slightly off right where they were in Turino (25) and Sochi (28) and while considerably off from the past 2 North American Olympics, SLC (34) & Vancouver (37), the US has only gotten more Golds (9) once in history and that was in SLC (10). Plus, winning Golds for the first time in any Nordic events and Curling as well as a return of Gold in Women's Hockey made the overall showing pretty successful.
2. I didn't think the tape delay was that bad actually. I thought it was going to be far worse but the 14 hour time change worked well and was organized well. Got to see most of the key events in Prime Time or late night and some great hockey games first thing in the morning.
3. I initailly thought South Korea was a horrible place for the Winter Games but it ended up being great. Yes, the wind caused havoc for some of the ski events but that happens all the time, no matter what mountain you're on. The set up and distance between everything wasn't as far spread out as SLC and Vancouver were where the villages and indoor events compared to the ski events were over an hour away from one another.
February 26th, 2018 at 3:05 PM ^
These Olympics were awesome. My trick: never watch the figure skating.
Also, I loved watching the internet feeds without announcers, when the Olympic network would just be panning the crowds, or showing the Olympic debut of a 16-y.o. skiier form Madagascar.
Also loved the international friendships on display. Just about everyone (minus the Canadian Mikayla Malroney on the hoskey team) behaved true to the Olympic spirit in whatever holding area they had to wait for their times, placements, seedings, etc. after their respective runs, often with the competitors whom they'd just beat, or had been beaten by.
My only complaint: not enough snowboard cross. Easily the most watchable racing sport in existence.
February 26th, 2018 at 4:20 PM ^
Man, I didn't see any snowboard cross on the TV broadcasts and that is only the best of all snowboard events. Lame by NBC.
February 26th, 2018 at 9:03 PM ^
My girlfriend and I were looking for snowboard cross the entire games. All we could ever find were two races on the on demand app. It is definitely more entertaining than any of the other racing sports. And infinitely more entertaining than figure skating.
February 26th, 2018 at 4:13 PM ^
The Olympics did not suck.
True, we did almost nothing in some of the biggest sports - speedskating, alpine skiing, figure skating. Compared to years past, we definitely had fewer stars and the ones we do have like Ted Ligety and Lindsey Vonn are old. Mikaela Shiffrin and Nathan Chen are still very young. Chloe Kim did great, but it's fair to say she was not at all well known before the Olympics. And those are the sports where you have multiple chances to medal, so not having stars there really hurt.
Further I'll agree that having the games in Asia is not ideal. It's much less sucky for people on Pacific time, though.
All that said, c'mon. Gold in men's curling! And in women's hockey! The problem is not that we didn't have success, the problem is just that we had our greatest successes in one-medal sports. We spanked Canada up and down the ice at basically every opportunity in every sport they consider themselves good at. That's a very sweet set of victories. Shuster's five-ender, for me, is up there with Lezak's touch-out in Beijing.
February 26th, 2018 at 12:15 PM ^
None of those people are from Michigan and therefore not cool. Besides, there is only one cool person in Minnesota and he's from Russia!
February 26th, 2018 at 12:16 PM ^
Arguably, no one burst onto the scene more than the Men's curling team, 3/4 of which are out of Duluth, MN.
February 26th, 2018 at 12:44 PM ^
I don't know if they're "cool." But they are local, and they are Olympic Champions.
February 26th, 2018 at 1:01 PM ^
Middle aged Olympic champions with beer guts.
When are all the new curling establishments going to spring up, because I want in on that!
February 27th, 2018 at 12:36 PM ^
I liken curling to golf in that respect, where physical fitness can certainly aid, but there is no doubt a skill element where simply being in great shape isn't going to get you a win.
February 27th, 2018 at 12:40 PM ^
Indeed. It sounds like you are local to Duluth. Not sure if you curl or not, but check out https://www.hohduluth.org/confirmed-skips/ for next year (this year is booked) if you want a chance to curl with and/or against Olympic champs (and other Olympians). Shuster and George do this every year I believe. Also, doubles as a way to support a good cause.
February 26th, 2018 at 12:18 PM ^
So why show a pic of Chock and Bates on the ice after they fell? LOL!!
February 26th, 2018 at 12:34 PM ^
Would be nice if you could substitute a different picture.
February 26th, 2018 at 12:36 PM ^
Good point didn't even think about that thanks
February 26th, 2018 at 12:35 PM ^
I think Chloe Kim and Shaun White are pretty cool and they ain't from Meechigan. Then again, I also prefer snowboarding strongly to skiing, so there's that.
February 26th, 2018 at 3:22 PM ^
I'm a skier but I'm glad I can "claim" Kim and White since I'm a Cali4nia passholder :)
February 26th, 2018 at 1:02 PM ^
When I saw the post about "greatest Olympian ever" I was going to reply that in my opinion it was my dad (a little biased). Then I re-read the post.
My dad won a silver medal in Rowing in the 4 (w/out coxon) in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne Austrailia. He used to tell great stories of rowing all over the world. He has medals from multiple Pan Am games and World University games and the Henly in England. He held the Singles' Masters record at the Head of the Charles regatta for many years.
He's going to be 89 in March and unfortuantely his time is almost up. He is just hanging on these days.
February 26th, 2018 at 1:06 PM ^
February 26th, 2018 at 1:48 PM ^
for MGoDads - my pop got a bronze in Hockey for Canada in 1956 Cortina.
I am sorry to hear he is nearing the end of his race - my dad is a bit younger at 83 and has a few more shifts in him.
February 26th, 2018 at 8:26 PM ^
February 26th, 2018 at 1:24 PM ^
She's a perfect score in my book.
February 26th, 2018 at 1:29 PM ^
Now THAT is a cool Olympian
February 26th, 2018 at 1:37 PM ^
February 26th, 2018 at 4:12 PM ^
And collected a bronze medal.
February 26th, 2018 at 2:02 PM ^
February 26th, 2018 at 2:44 PM ^
just take another legal bong hit, put on some Bob Marley tunes, and ALL will be very cool, bro...
February 26th, 2018 at 2:55 PM ^
February 26th, 2018 at 3:03 PM ^
February 26th, 2018 at 3:05 PM ^
And let us not forget of one of the coolest Olympians ever: UM's own Jim Abbott, Flint native, Sullivan Award winner, and gold medalist in the demonstration sport of baseball in the 1988 Summer Games (also in Korea.)
February 26th, 2018 at 3:56 PM ^
who do not know Jim Abbott should look him up. Unbelievable how he was able to compete at a such a high level in high school, college and 10 years in the MLB without a right hand. Watching him play, he never even gave his handicap a second thought. Was a great quarterback in high school too. Proud that he was a Michigan man!!!