Ok, here’s a short post about the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The sport I will be describing is ice skating. This isn’t my favourite discipline, but all the happenings around the Dutch superstar Sven Kramer are definitely worth mentioning.
So what happend with Sven, then? First of all he took the gold medal in the 5000m event. A fantastic performance, but Sven wasn’t satisfied yet. He came to Vancouver to win 3 gold medals. On Tuesday he competed in the 10000m event. Sven performed well and even set a new olympic record. However on the 17th lap of the race he changed to the wrong lane. An important rule in ice skating is that after each round the skaters need to switch lanes. Instead of winning gold, Sven was immediatly disqualified by the officials. On the 17th lap Sven wasn’t aware of this decision and finished his race. The Dutch population was in shock, not with the fact that their government fell, but because of the disqualifaction of their favorite ice skater.
Luckily Sven Kramer had one more chance at winning another olympic gold medal in the team pursuit. But Sven and the Dutch team were beaten by the U.S. team in the semifinals. He has still a chance at winning the bronze medal on this event, but Sven is clear: “It really sucks that it had to go this way. These Olympic Winter games didn’t went as I expected. I am not statisfied at all.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7jKSYuCtqE

My favorite event at the Winter Olympics are with no doubt the Aerials. You can best describe this discipline as a combination of freestyle skiing with gymnastics. The athletes ski down a steep slope and perform a large jump combined with back flips and twists. The athletes are judged on the quality of take off, height gained, landing and form and body position. Friday Alexei Grishin of Belarus took the gold medal in this discipline. I have added a short film of the Aerials at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino.

An inspiring horror story is Sleepy Hollow. Originally this story is written by Washington Irving, who wrote this story in 1819. Tim Burton made a film about this horror story in 1999.
The story goes as follows: In the village of Sleepy Hollow several people are being decapitated in a mysterious manner. Ichabod Crane, an eccentric scientist, will investigate these brutal slayings. The rumour goes that these murders are the work of the Headless Horseman. Ichabod Crane doesn’t believe this rumour, until he faces this fierce creature. During his investigation Ichabod also falls in love with Katrina Van Tassel, a beautiful but mysterious girl who has a secret connection with the Headless Horseman.

In the film Ichabod Crane was played by Johnny Depp, Katrina Van Tassel was played by Christina Ricci. The Headless Horseman was played by Christopher Walken.