I've always enjoyed the winter Olympics, even more than the summer games.  I look forward to spending time watching them over the next couple of weeks. 

I generally handpick my events.   I avoid all of the figure skating and ice dancing crap.  If I wanted to watch a bunch of gay men dance, I'd go Les Mis. Here are the top five events that I will be paying attention to:

5) Speed Skating-I like the shorter races, but this is fun stuff.  This is a tough deal in terms of endurance.

4) Luge and  Four Man Bobsled- Remember when you had a sled and went down the big hill every year?  Luge is sort of like that only a lot faster. I have always wanted to try this myself. 

3) Men's Downhill-Two words: Franz Klammer. For those of you not born yet, Franz was an Austrian skier in the 1976 winter games who had the most exciting ski run ever.  Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself:



2) Curling-I have no idea what excites me about curling, but I absolutely love watching it. To some, it makes soccer seem exciting, but for some reason I'm drawn to it like Rosie O'Donnell is drawn to Big Macs.  Jennifer Jones from Canada is not only entertaining, but cute.

1) Men's Hockey-I admit, it was more fun when we played the Russians for world bragging rights and won in 1980.  In these days of professional athletes playing on Olympic dream teams, winning the gold has no impact.  But because it's European rules (larger rink, less checking) it's a faster and higher scoring game.  I'm interested in seeing how well developed our American hockey players are.  I think Team Canada will kick everyone's ass in these games, especially with them being played in Vancouver.