Olympic Cheatsheet

Now I know some of you may not be huge sports fans, and others may not be as wrapped up in this Olympic thing as I am, so I thought I'd share a few of the athletes that I'll be watching during February so you can get your cheering section primed and ready for action. I'm not saying this is everything and all that we've got, but these are my personal heros and I'll be watching them and hope you will, too.

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Brian McKeever - A cross country athlete, he's qualified to race in both the Olympic AND Paralympic races. This is a first for Canada and a first for the Winter games, overall. A rather heroic moment, I'd say. Plus, he's damn fast.

Aleisha Kline, Julia Murray and Ashleigh McIvor - You'll already know I met Aleisha during my torch run, and think she's awesome. Her teammates on the Ski Cross team are also pretty darn impressive: Ashleigh, in particular, is ruling the sport at the moment and Julia is daughter of legendary "Crazy Canuck" Dave Murray. One or another will be up on that podium.
Scott refers to ski cross as "Chinese downhill" (see also: Hot Dog, the movie). This is roller derby with pointy sticks: it ain't pretty, and it will be the first - and perhaps only time - ski cross is OK by the IOC.

Britt Janyk - Let's hear it for the Whistler girl - and her brother Mike for that matter. Both downhill ski racers, the hometown crowd will go NUTS if they make it to the podium. Emily Brydon from Fernie is pretty awesome too: I consider her a hometown girl (and taller than me, by the way, at 6'1".)

Manuel Osborne-Paradis - Manny seems like such a dude. Or, in spirit of the McKenzie Brothers spirit, a hoser. I'd buy this guy a beer or three.

Pierre Lueders - This is Scott's pick. Pierre's been around the block, as a four-time Olympian in bobsled, both two- and four-man with gold in 1998, and a load of other medals. Other sliders? Don't miss Jeff Christie on Luge or Melissa Hollingsworth on Skeleton. In my books, anyone willing to take any vehicle down this track deserves a medal, and these folks do it with style.

Chandra Crawford - our superstar cross-country competitor who won gold in Torino. Also, a shout-out to her squeeze Devon Kershaw, who will be competing in the same races for men. Scott notes he's also cheering on Becky Scott even though she's not competing plus giving Dick Pound the full-birds-up salute for dissing her comments about doping. Take that, Dick.

Canadian Women's Hockey Team: The obvious. These women kick ass, as hopefully you already know, and deserve a little more glory. The men's team is OK too.

Canadian Curling Teams: we rock at this sport, in all seriousness and no pun intended. This sport is harder than it looks and I'll be watching both our mens and womens teams take it to the finish.

Lindsay Vonn - Ok I know I'm not waving the Canadian flag on this one. But seriously, she seems cool. And smart. And super fast. She might be American, but I still like her. Gretchen Bleiler isn't bad either. But you didn't hear it from me.

Who am I missing? I know I haven't mentioned anyone in speed skating, or figure skating for that matter. If there's someone else we should definitely be watching, let me know.