Sports

Turin tidbits

Compiled from staff and wire reports
Published February 23, 2006

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THUMBS UP

Bode Miller. Hey, buddy, thanks for bracing yourself to ski through the pain Saturday after turning an ankle playing basketball.

THUMBS DOWN

The U.S. men's hockey team. Hey, guys, those games that count that you said you'd be ready for? They started Wednesday.

QUOTE

"She has a few aches, a few pains, as we all do when we get older."

John Nicks, coach of 21-year-old Sasha Cohen, explaining she had on an ice pack and a leg wrap after Tuesday's short program

BY THE NUMBERS

$2.50 -- cost of meals at a hospital where American snowboarder Tyler Jewell would eat to save money during training

5 -- members of the Army's World Class Athlete Program, which supports active-duty soldiers, competing or coaching at these Games

30 -- packs of drugs, including asthma medication and antidepressants, Italian police say were found in the raid of the Austrian cross country skiers and biathlon compound

103 -- pairs of designer sunglasses Johnny Weir says he owns after buying a $320 pair of Roberto Cavalli shades Monday in Turin

OUT OF BOUNDS

ITALY'S FAVORITE SPORT FOR A DAY

All the Italians needed to get really interested in the Olympics was a double gold medalist.

The country's sports newspaper, Gazzetta dello Sport, which on one day during the Games devoted its first 23 pages to soccer, put speed skater Enrico Fabris on the front page the day after he won gold in the 1,500 meters to add to his gold in the team pursuit and bronze in the 500.

"Fabris, the man of the Games" was the headline.

The 24-year-old policeman also was on pages 2, 3 and 5. He wasn't on page 4 because it had a full-page ad - that didn't have him in it.

But in the truest measure of Olympic success these days, hours after the 1,500 he was offered about $1.2-million to appear on an Italian reality TV show.

Amazingly, he turned it down.

"That is not my target," he said.

Let's see how long that lasts.

BUT WILL HE TAKE OFF HIS SHIRT FOR COSMO?

The women's part of the curling tournament isn't the only one with sex symbols.

David Murdoch, the skip of the British men's team, "has become somewhat of a pin-up at the Games and has a growing female fan base," the BBC reports.

David Murdoch

Age: 27

Hometown: Lockerbie, Scotland

Occupation: Farmer

Astrological sign: Aries (April 17, 1978)

Favorite video: Britain's women curlers winning the 2002 gold.

CURL ON, DUDES AND DUDETTES

The curlers just could be cooler than the snowboarders.

The Swedish women's team, which plays for the gold against Switzerland today, made a video with Swedish heavy metal band HammerFall last month.

In the video for Hearts on Fire, the team shows up for a match in a dingy rink and find that its opponent is a wild-haired, leather-clad heavy metal band that can't curl.

The women win, with the help of an on-ice drum kit, as they morph into leather- and chain-clad singers and air guitarists.

Says the band on its Web site, www.hammerfall.net "The result is an amusing and, for us, a little unusual video. ... With heavy metal as a source of strength, the girls can now focus on bringing home the gold."

Team member Eva Lund said the women loved it. "The HammerFall band was fantastic, and they are cheering for us and writing e-mails to us when we are here."

NO SEX, PLEASE, WE'RE BRITISH OLYMPIANS

To get an idea of the kind of fortitude the United States will face when it takes on Britain for the men's curling bronze Friday: As a member of the '02, team Britain's Ewan MacDonald and his wife, fellow Olympian curler Fiona, "famously enforced a no-nookie ban" so they could concentrate on the competition, the BBC says.

INSTANT MESSAGES

A Swedish journalist and I caught a ride the other day with an older Italian gentleman. The Swede asked if the driver spoke English. He said no. The driver asked the Swede if he spoke Italian. He said very little. Then they figured out they both spoke French and spent the rest of the trip chattering away. I sat in the backseat feeling like an incredible dope. I was the 16th Street Middle School Spanish student of the year in Mr. Miller's class in 7th grade but, somehow, I don't think they would have been impressed.

- JOHN ROMANO

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Today, in the media restaurant, one of the dishes was called "chicken young rooster," a grayish looking baked bird. Let me tell you, even the Colonel would send it back. The food here is kind of redundant; didn't Marco Polo bring back Chinese food, for goodness' sakes? After a couple of weeks of this, the sportswriters started stumbling into each other fantasising what they want to eat when they get home. Steak. Omelettes. Popcorn. In a mean-spirited move, I walked up to another writer and said "Why didn't you tell me there was a Fleming's steak house in Turin?" I thought he was going to drool on my shoes.

- GARY SHELTON

[Last modified February 23, 2006, 19:10:58]

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