Women’s halfpipe

Before I get to results, let me make a couple of observations. First, they could sneak Louie Vito in there and how would we know? You can’t tell that those girls are, well, girls. Second, it cracks me up to watch them getting their ipods ready in preparation for their runs and singing at the top of their lungs while their waiting to start. And how have I never noticed the cameraman they have to go around at the beginning of the run? Finally, Hannah Teter? Such a cute girl, but the official picture of her— not so cute. It looks like one of those drunken mugshots of Hollywood starlettes you see from time to time.

Oh, and one more thing, I know a lot of us are tired of all the specials and clips and interviews, but the piece tonight on the snowboarding women was really nice. You can watch the video here.

And now the results…

Gretchen Bleiler went out of the competition after a pretty stunning fall on her second run. Good thing I learned from the announcer last night that it’s bad to land on top of the wall, or I would never have been able to figure out what happened tonight when she came down hard on top of the halfpipe wall, then came down hard all the way down the wall (that was sarcasm, by the way, folks).

But, in case I forgot that valuable lesson, I got to hear it again tonight when Elena Hight fell. Hear that halfpipers— it’s BAD to land on top of the wall.

Kelly Clark’s singing cracks me up. She had a decent run, but not a stellar one. It was still enough for a bronze medal. Defending champ Hannah Teter was unable to overcome Australian Torah Bright’s terrific run to take the gold but must surely have been pleased to walk away with the silver.