And the failures of Vancouver.

I am not talking about the athletes who fell on the downhill, or the ice. After all, just getting to Vancouver as an Olympian is a triumph for an athlete. After all, the Olympics pushes every athlete to the edge to perform and some athletes can perform better than others. That is expected in every competition. And being pushed to the edge to perform, some moves do not work, or not as well as expected. That is part of every competition.

What I am talking about are institutional failures. Let's start with the ice chute for the sledders. It is not only the fastest course in Olympic history, it is unsafe. To be sure, sliding on any of the contraptions used in the Olympics (and not wearing protective gear except the helmet) IS dangerous, but the Vancouver course is unsafe. You could dismiss the death of the young Georgian sledder as a fluke, but several of the teams had crashes during practice. One of the Swiss teams even withdrew and the Swiss are not know for lacking skills or courage.

Another failure of the Vancouver Olympics is the inclusion of short track speed skating. Due to the nature of the track, the number of participants, it is inevitable that there is bumping around the course. Passing is very difficult. Wipouts are frequent and often the a skater may be taken out not due to his poor performance, but just being unlucky and being next to a skater who wipes out. Equally disturbing is the attitude of the South Korean skaters. Not content to just win events, these young men resent the idea that they can be challenged by someone. The unsportsmanlike treatment of Mr Ohno off the ice is simply inexcusable. The South Korean skaters remind us of roller derby, with their gang blocking. The problem stems from the difficulty of telling if someone is simply holding his position (and prevents someone from passing) or deliberately moves into passing lanes to prevent someone from passing. Short speed skating as a sport is simply a bad idea. The sooner it is remover from the Olympics, the better it will be.

Finally, the dire predictions from the Media that these Olympics would be a bust have come a cropper. The games are enjoyable, the competition is keen, attendance is high and US athletes are acquitting themselves nicely. To be sure, Obama is ignoring the event (winter sports are not a black thing) and he is free to do so.