The Comm and Gender Spot: February 2006

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Closing Ceremonies

It’s now complete. The 20th Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy are over.

The Closing Ceremonies was a mix of tradition, fun, and a bit of the surreal. We had the march in of the athletes. We had a tribute to the Olympic flag. We also had the passing of the Olympic flag from the mayor of Turin to the mayor of Vancouver, Canada, the host city of the 21st Winter Olympic Games in 2010. There was a fun presentation on behalf of Vancouver, featuring Native Americans, Mounties, and pop singer Avril Lavigne.

And did I mention tribute to Fellini complete with the Italian clown marching band playing the Village People’s Y.M.C.A.?

It was a great end to a very memorable Games. Next stop, 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, China. And then on to Vancouver in 2010.

Day 16

Today’s marks the final day of the 2006 Winter Olympics. Here are the results to the final medal events:

Cross-Country Skiing
Men’s 50km Freestyle
Gold Giorgio Di Centa (Italy)
Silver Eugeni Dementiev (Russia)
Bronze Mikhail Botwinov (Austria)

Ice Hockey
Men’s
Gold Sweden
Stefan Liv
Mattias Ohlund
Nicklas Lindstrom
Niklas Kronwall
Christian Backman
Daniel Alfredsson
Daniel Sedin
Mats Sundin
Niclas Havelid
Henrik Sedin
Peter Forsberg
Per Johan Axelsson
Ronnie Sundin
Samuel Pahlsson
Kenny Jonsson
Mikael Tellqvist
Fredrik Modin
Daniel Tjarnqvist
Henrik Lundqvist
Mikael Samuelsson
Henrik Zetterberg
Mika Hannula
Jorgen Jonsson
Tomas Holmstrom

Silver Finland
Petteri Nummelin
Kimmo Timonen
Lasse Kukkonen
Sami Salo
Aki-Petteri Berg
Teemu Selanne
Ville Nieminen
Saku Koivu
Olli Jokinen
Niklas Hagman
Ville Peltonen
Mikko Koivu
Antti Laaksonen
Jukka Hentunen
Jere Lehtinen
Teppo Numminen
Fredrik Norrena
Antero Nittymaki
Toni Lydman
Niklas Backstrom
Jussi Jokinen
Jarkko Nuutu
Niko Kapanen
Antti-Jussi Niemi

Bronze Czech Republic
Marek Zidlicky
Jaroslav Spacek
Marek Malik
David Vyborny
Frantisek Kaberle
Pavel Kubina
Tomas Kaberle
Petr Cajanek
Filip Kuba
Robert Lang
Alex Kotalik
Milan Hejduk
Martin Rucinsky
Martin Straka
Tomas Vokoun
Milan Hnilicka
Jan Bulis
Dominik Hasek
Vaclav Prospal
Patrik Elias
Jaromir Jagr
Dusan Salficky
Alex Hemsky
Rostislav Olesz
Martin Erat

And here are the final medal standings, by country, for the 2006 Winter Games.

Germany
29 medals total
11 Gold
12 Silver
6 Bronze

United States
25 medals total
9 Gold
9 Silver
7 Bronze

Canada
24 medals total
7 Gold
10 Silver
7 Bronze

Austria
23 medals total
9 Gold
7 Silver
7 Bronze

Russia
22 medals total
8 Gold
6 Silver
8 Bronze

Norway
19 medals total
2 Gold
8 Silver
9 Bronze

Sweden
14 medals total
7 Gold
2 Silver
5 Bronze

Switzerland
14 medals total
5 Gold
4 Silver
5 Bronze

South Korea
11 medals total
6 Gold
3 Silver
2 Bronze

Italy
11 medal total
5 Gold
0 Silver
6 Bronze

China
11 medals total
2 Gold
4 Silver
5 Bronze

France
9 medals total
3 Gold
2 Silver
4 Bronze

Netherlands
9 medals total
3 Gold
2 Silver
4 Bronze

Finland
9 medals total
0 Gold
6 Silver
3 Bronze

Czech Republic
4 medals total
1 Gold
2 Silver
1 Bronze

Estonia
3 medal total
3 Gold
0 Silver
0 Bronze

Croatia
3 medals total
1 Gold
2 Silver
0 Bronze

Australia
2 medals total
1 Gold
0 Silver
1 Bronze

Poland
2 medals total
0 Gold
1 Silver
1 Bronze

Ukraine
2 medals total
0 Gold
0 Silver
2 Bronze

Japan
1 medal total
1 Gold
0 Silver
0 Bronze

Belarus
1 medal total
0 Gold
1 Silver
0 Bronze

Bulgaria
1 medal total
0 Gold
1 Silver
0 Bronze

Great Britain
1 medal total
0 Gold
1 Silver
0 Bronze

Slovakia
1 medal total
0 Gold
1 Silver
0 Bronze

Latvia
1 medal total
0 Gold
0 Silver
1 Bronze

Transamerica

Last night I decided to take a break from all of my Winter Olympics watching. We’re one week from the Academy Awards and I like to see as many of the nominated movies as possible before the awards. The handful of the movies nominated for an Academy Award that I have seen truly has been great. Brokeback Mountain definitely deserves all of the nominations that it has received. And though it only received a small number of nominations, Munich was all very deserving. But I came to realize yesterday that I had not seen any of the nominated performances in the Best Actress category. Last night I decided to rectify that.

Last night I saw Transamerica, the story of a pre-op transsexual woman who learns that she is the father of a 17-year old boy. In the movie they get to know each other while traveling cross country from New York to California. Much of the movie seemed to be a comedy, but with some dramatic elements sprinkled throughout.

The best part of the movie was the performance by Felicity Huffman. I went into the movie not knowing what to expect from Huffman. Knowing Huffman from her performances as a stressed working mother of four on Desperate Housewives I really didn’t know what to expect. What I came away with was the impression that this was one of the best performances that I have seen in years. Viewers of the movie definitely get an impression that her character really is uncomfortable within her own skin whose desire to go through the gender reassignment surgery is her ultimate desire. But to see how her son actually completes her life, and not complicate it like she expected, was superb. It’s definitely another film from 2005 that I would highly recommend for anyone to see.

Look later this week for my Academy Award predictions. I’m never right, but it’s always fun to guess who will win.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Day 15

Day fourteen of the Winter Olympics saw the United States win its first ever medal in curling with a bronze in the men’s competition. Chad Hedrick also became only the third American to ever win three medals in a single games; he won gold in the 5000m, silver in the 10,000m, and bronze in the 1500m speed skating events. Also, all Austrian biathletes and cross-country skiers passed their drug tests despite the raid on their Turin residence by Italian police. Here are the results of today’s medal events:

Alpine Skiing
Men’s Slalom
Gold Benjamin Raich (Austria)
Silver Reinfried Herbst (Austria)
Bronze Rainer Schoenfelder (Austria)

Biathlon
Men’s 15km Mass Start
Gold Michael Sikora (Germany)
Silver Tomasz Sikora (Poland)
Bronze Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (Norway)

Biathlong
Women’s 12.5km Mass Start
Gold Anna Carin Olofsson (Sweden)
Silver Kati Wilhelm (Germany)
Bronze Uschi Disl (Germany)

Bobsled
Four-Man
Gold Andre Lange, Rene Hoppe, Kevin Kuske & Martin Putze (Germany)
Silver Aleksandr Zoubkov, Filipp Egorov, Alexej Seliverstov & Alexey Voevoda (Russia)
Bronze Martin Annen, Thomas Lamparter, Beat Hefti & Cedric Grand (Switzerland)

Short Track
Men’s 500m
Gold Apolo Anton Ohno (United States)
Silver Francois-Louis Tremblay (Canada)
Bronze Ahn Hyun-Soo (South Korea)

Short Track
Women’s 1000m
Gold Jin Sun-Yu (South Korea)
Silver Wang Meng (China)
Bronze Yang Yang (A) (China)

Short Track
Men’s 5000m Relay
Gold Ahn Hyun-Soo, Le Ho-Suk, Se-Jong Oh, Ho-Jin Seo & Suk-Woo Song (South Korea)
Silver Eric Bedard, Jonathan Guilmette, Charles Hamelin, Francois-Louis Tremblay & Mathieu Turcotte (Canada)
Bronze Alex Izykowski, J.P. Kepka, Apolo Anton Ohno & Rusty Smith (United States)

Speed Skating
Women’s 5000m
Gold Clara Hughes (Canada)
Silver Claudia Pechstein (Germany)
Bronze Cindy Klsassen (Canada)

And here are the medal standings, by country, and the end of day fifteen.

Germany
29 medals total
11 Gold
12 Silver
6 Bronze

United States
25 medals total
9 Gold
9 Silver
7 Bronze

Canada
24 medals total
7 Gold
10 Silver
7 Bronze

Austria
22 medals total
9 Gold
7 Silver
6 Bronze

Russia
21 medals total
8 Gold
5 Silver
8 Bronze

Norway
19 medals total
2 Gold
8 Silver
9 Bronze

Switzerland
14 medals total
5 Gold
4 Silver
5 Bronze

Sweden
13 medals total
6 Gold
2 Silver
5 Bronze