Fortunately, Intrawest Holdings was given one more week to restructure the 1.7 billion dollars that they (and their parent company) owe. At least that gets us past all of the downhill events.

Here’s a video of the resort, in case you’re interested in buying it next week:

Here are a few videos on Whistler weather, in particular:

And today’s weather briefing:

This year, he’ll be back as part of the team. He’s one of four athletes representing the U.S. in snowboard cross. Hopefully, he’ll do better than 31st this year.

Here’s a video from 2008 of three of the four U.S. snowboard cross athletes.

Anyway, Johnny is always irreverent and always outrageous. Recently he’s been in trouble with anti-fur activists after he added some fox fur to one shoulder of the costume he wore at Nationals. Now, he’s apparently been receiving threats.

It has always seemed a little “off” to me to threaten human lives in order to protect animal lives, but maybe that’s just me. In any case, it does seem like the Olympics is the proper venue for airing those kinds of grievances. He’s changed the costume he’s wearing, so I don’t know what else people want from him.

What do you think?

Here’s a clip of Johnny skating at the 2010 U.S. Championships where he finished third and earned another trip to the Olympics:

Biathlon didn’t start as a sport. It was more practical than that, providing a way for northern European hunters to provide food for their families for the past four thousand years. Later, sometime in the mid-16th century, Scandinavian countries began to put their armies on skis.

So, what is Olympic biathlon?

Each event consists of a cross-country ski race. Along the race route, there are shooting stops, the number of which vary by competition. Half of the shooting stops are standing and half are lying down.

At each stop, competitors have five bullets and five targets (50 m away) to hit. Time or distance is added based on how the athlete performs in the shooting.

The Vancouver biathlon events will be held at Whistler and will consist of the following events:

Men’s 4×7.5 km Relay
Women’s 4×6 km Relay
Men’s 10 km Sprint
Women’s 7.5 km Sprint
Men’s 12.5 km Pursuit
Women’s 10 km Pursuit
Men’s 15 km Mass Start
Women’s 12.5 km Mass Start
Men’s 20 km Individual
Women’s 15 km Individual

One big change for the U.S. in this year’s Olympic biathlon competition is that there is a chance for a medal. The current leader in the World Cup points standing is American Tim Burke. That puts him in an excellent position, going into the Olympics to medal in one of his events.

This is one of the most recent interviews with Tim, where he talks about taking the yellow bib (the point leader designation):

Casey has yet to win a medal in the Olympics, but he’s been competing very well in ski cross, so perhaps this year will be his year. It’s amazing to think of spending pretty much your entire adult life competing in Olympics. Casey is also the subject of the documentary “Appointment in Vancouver”. You can watch the trailer for it below.

There are two other U.S. athletes who will most likely make the Olympics for the fifth time, as well. We’ll be addressing them in upcoming posts.

You can watch the following interview to see what she had to say about her Olympic hopes:

32 men and 16 women will compete in Vancouver in the same format as snowboard cross. The two gold medals awarded in ski cross will mean that there are 86 medal events at the 2010 Olympics.

As much as I harassed people about snowboarding being included in the Olympics, I have to say that earlier this week I saw a clip of skicross. It is really unbelievable to watch. It’s like a combination of downhill and bmx bike racing. Many opportunities for thrills and spills.

Watch the following videos and let me know what you think about skicross: