Word: eventer
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...After Olympic officials raised the flags for Mexico, Azerbaijan, Denmark and Great Britain, actress Sandra Oh - a Canadian and star of Grey's Anatomy who was emceeing the event - invited the athletes onto the stage for a festive dance. "We are celebrating you, the youth of the world!" screamed the overcaffeinated star. One problem, Sandra, von Hohenlohe of Mexico is no youth - he turned 51 two weeks ago.(Watch a video of Olympic athletes training...
...Still, no one's Olympic uniform is more confounding than Hubertus von Hohenlohe's. "It sounds strange," von Hohenlohe admits while relaxing in an Olympic Village coffee shop before the Mexican flag-raising event. "But it's not all that bad." The skier's grandmother is half-Mexican, and von Hohenlohe, who is a Vienna-based singer and photographer when he's not speeding down the slopes, was born in Mexico City while his father was running a Volkswagen plant there. "We always wanted to have one member of the family [who was] Mexican," he says. "So they chose that...
...climax of the event, the Olympic torch lighting, left something to be desired: four mechanical torches were supposed to rise from the floor and be lit by Canada's most famous athletes, including hockey great Wayne Gretzky and NBA MVP Steve Nash; the four torches were designed to light the final Olympic torch. But one of the massive columns malfunctioned, leaving the athletes stranded and looking peeved in front of millions of television viewers. Eventually, though, the Olympic torch...
Worse, Kumaritashvili's death may have been preventable. Yes, luge is an inherently dangerous sport in which sliders can approach speeds reaching 90 m.p.h. The speed is part of its allure, and the rush of the event is what attracts audiences. However, throughout this week's training runs, athletes have voiced their concern about the safety of the Whistler track, which is the fastest in the world; last February, a German athlete was clocked traveling more than 95 m.p.h. during a luge World Cup test event. Over the past week, about a dozen athletes have crashed during luge training here...
Before the ceremony began, the public-address announcer declared that the event would be dedicated to Kumaritashvili. The crowd gave the small clutch of Georgian athletes, clearly saddened and wearing black armbands in honor of their fallen teammate, a classy standing ovation as they entered the arena. Toward the end of the evening, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said a few words in Kumaritashvili's honor before the torch was lit: he genuinely seemed to be struggling...