moguls

the torrino winter olympics, 2006, have been AWESOME so far. the other night, i watched the women's halfpipe snowboarding competition. that was really really good. makes me wish i was more sporty.

i watched the mens freestyle moguls last night. it was addictive. i was supposed to be doing my math homework, but how can i concentrate when there is history being made on TV??? anyway, for those of you who don't know exactly what i was watching last night....

it's a freestyle skiing competition where the competitors ski down this course as fast as they can and execute spins and turns in the air when they reach the ramps. scores are given based on their times and also on the somersaults they pull.

anyway, i managed to watch a bit of the stuff before the actual final started, and i established my favourite skier. dale begg-smith, canadian born australian. and then i found out that he's the current world no.1 and runs a multi-million dollar company at the age of 21. he founded it when he was 13. WOW, do i have great taste or what?

and he's not bad-looking either.

anyway, the finals were awesome. it was nearly eleven and i had homework due the next day, but you know how sport is... it gets addictive.

my favourite run was by Mikko Ronkainen, from Finland. he was AMAZING. he went down the course so fast and his air tricks were pretty much perfect. i mean, look at him, he knows he did well. his run catapulted him to first position.

mikko ronkainen after his final run.

and then there's alexandre bilodeau, a canadian teenager who executed two 1080 degree twists in the air perfectly. i was like WHOA! he's good. he's so good. ronkainen was still better, but bilodeau came an awesome second. when toby dawson [korean born American] pushed bilodeau off his second position spot, i wasn't too happy. he had a very clean run, but it was nothing exciting.

dale begg-smith came out last. imagine the pressure and expectation that must have been riding on his shoulders: the world number one coming out last behind 19 other competitors, some of which had done awesomely in their own runs. the score to beat was mikko ronkainen's 26.62. either way, ronkainen and dawson had a medal each. the question was what colour?

begg-smith came out fast with a clean first air and continued down the slope. his second air was the BEST cross backflip thingy ever [i dont know exactly what it's called]. i know a perfect cross is when the skis are perpendicular to each other [the commentator said so]. WOW!!

THE CROSS!!!

i thought the run was great, but not as good as ronkainen's, but the judges didn't think so. they obviously thought dale begg-smith was the ultimate freestyle skier because HE WON FIRST PLACE!! by .1 or something. score: 26.77 AWESOME!

look, there he is on his raised platform.


mikko ronkainen (2nd), dale begg-smith (1st) and toby dawson (3rd). reuters picture.

disclaimer: these pictures belong to other people. i did not take them and i do not claim to have taken them. i am not so pro.