Vancouver: Six months out

The cauldron will be lit for the Opening Ceremony at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games in exactly six months from today. In preparation for these Games, we are providing fans a CliffsNotes version of what they might expect to see.

The following are six lists, each with six facts and figures about the upcoming Winter Olympic Games.

Click here to read an official statement from the USOC

6 TEAM USA Gold-Medal Hopefuls:

1. Lindsey Vonn won world titles in both the downhill and super-G events in France in 2009 and is a two-time overall World Cup winner. She is the best female skier the U.S. has produced and is a medal threat in more than just the speed disciplines.

2.  The Women's Hockey Team hasn't won an Olympic gold medal in the sport since 1998 but in 2009, won its third consecutive world championship and hopes to beat rival Canada on its home ice.
3.  Chad Hedrick is a former inline skater who came home from Torino with three Olympic medals on the ice in speedskating. He was vying for five golds in Torino and finished with a gold, a silver and a bronze.
4.  Shani Davis became a breakout star in 2006 winning the gold medal in the 1,000-meter event and a silver medal in the 1,500-meter long track speedskating race. In the 2008-09 season, he broke world records in the 1000 and 1,500.
5.  Steve Holcomb piloted the U.S. four-man bobsled team to the gold medal at  the 2009 World Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y., marking the first time in 50 years that the U.S. captured the world title.
6.  Lindsey Jacobellis had a substantial lead in the snowboardcross final in Torino, but fell while throwing a trick off the final jump and had to scramble to take the silver. Since then, however, she's been the most dominant snowboardcross racer in the world (just as she was leading up to Torino).

6 TEAM USA Names to Watch:

1. Tanith Belbin/Ben Agosto put ice dancing on the American scene by capturing a silver medal in 2006. A dynamic duo, Belbin and Agosto were forced to miss the 2009 U.S. Figure Skating Championships while Agosto recovered from a back injury, but they came back two months later to win a silver medal at the World Championships.
2. Ryan St. Onge made the U.S. freestyle ski team when he was just 14. The aerials skier was ranked No. 2 in the world in 2009 and captured the world championships in Japan in March. He also won two World Cup events in 2009.
3. Evan Lysacek won 2009 figure skating world championship crown, becoming the first U.S. man to win that title since Todd Eldredge in 1996. The last U.S. man to win an Olympic figure skating gold medal was Brian Boitano in 1988, and he did so in Canada.

4. Erin Hamlin was 19 in her first Olympics in Torino and the luger finished 12th. Three years later, in February 2009, on her home track in Lake Placid, N.Y., she did what was believed impossible: She beat the German women, snapping their international winning streak at 99 races, to capture the singles world luge title.
5. Billy Demong could earn the first Olympic medal in Nordic combined for the United States. Demong won a 2009 world title in the sport that combines ski jumping and cross-country ski racing.
6. Katie Uhlaender is tough. The skeleton racer overcame knee surgery in 2008, and then battled through the 2008-09 season while her father, former Major League Baseball outfielder Ted Uhlaender, battled cancer. He died in February. This coming February, she could compete in Vancouver in his honor.

6 TEAM USA Returning Winter Olympic Champions to Watch:

1. Ted Ligety won the 2006 Olympic gold medal in alpine skiing's combined event (downhill and slalom) and earned a bronze medal in the giant slalom at the 2009 World Championships. In 2008, he won the overall World Cup giant slalom title.

2. Apolo Anton Ohno could become the most decorated American Olympic speedskater if he wins multiple medals in Vancouver. With five career short-track speedskating medals, he currently is tied with Eric Heiden and trails Bonnie Blair by one. (Both Heiden and Blair competed in long-track speedskating.) Ohno, who hails from Seattle, is hoping to have somewhat of a hometown advantage in nearby Vancouver. In 2010, fans will watch him in his skates, not in the dancing shoes he wore when he won ABC's "Dancing with the Stars.''
3. Angela Ruggiero is a hockey defenseman who is hoping to earn a spot on her fourth Olympic team. She was the youngest woman of the gold-medal team when women's hockey first entered the Winter Olympic Games in 1998, and later earned a silver in 2002 and a bronze in 2006.
4. Seth Wescott became the first athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in 2006 in snowboardcross. He followed up his Olympic gold with a world championship silver medal in 2007. He's getting pushed by an incredibly strong U.S. team though, including 2002 Olympic gold medalist in halfpipe Ross Powers who is trying to make the 2010 Olympics in snowboardcross.
5. Shaun White is flying again. After the snowboarder won a gold medal in halfpipe in 2006, he made his mark as a skateboard champion in the X Games as well. Seems his red hair goes well with gold.
6. Julia Mancuso appropriately, is from Olympic Valley, Calif. The alpine skier won the gold medal in the giant slalom in Torino although this past season she missed the World Cup podium for the first time since 2006.

 

6 Winter Sports Terms to Learn in the Next Six Months:

1. Omega: Section of the bobsled track that is curved like the Greek letter (?)
2. Hammer: The last shot of each end in curling
3. McTwist: Snowboarding move invented by American skateboarder Mike McGill; comprised of a 540-degree turn with a flip while grabbing the toe-side of the board.

4. Quint: The hardest freestyle skiing maneuver. Two-time Olympian Jeret "Speedy'' Peterson, who has successfully performed the five-twist, three-flip trick, has dubbed it 'the hurricane.''
5. K-Point: Line that ski jumpers aim for
6. Axel: Only jump in figure skating with a forward takeoff

6 Major Pre-Olympic Events to Follow:

1. Men's Hockey Team Orientation Camp
Aug. 16-18, 2009, in Woodridge, Ill.
2. Hockey Canada Cup
Aug. 31-Sept. 6, 2009, in Vancouver (Women's teams invited: USA, Canada, Sweden and Finland)
3. 2010 U.S. Olympic Team Trials (Short Track Speedskating)
Sept. 8-12, 2009, in Marquette, Mich.
4. FIS Alpine skiing World Cup events
Nov. 28-29, 2009, in Aspen, Colo. (women's giant slalom and slalom), and     Dec. 2-6, 2009, in Vail, Colo. (men's supercombined, downhill and giant slalom).
5. U.S. Speedskating Championships (Long Track Speedskating)
(Olympic Trials No. 2 and world championships qualifier, Dec. 26-Dec. 30, 2009, in Salt Lake City).
6. U.S. Figure Skating Championships
Jan. 14-24, 2010, in Spokane, Wash. (Winners in each discipline --- women's, men's, ice dancing and pairs --- earn automatic Olympic bids. Other Olympic team members are expected to be named at the event.)

6 Things you may not know about Vancouver:

1. Vancouver residents are called "Vancouverites."
2. The city is named after Captain George Vancouver, a British explorer who traveled around the northwest of North America.
3. The city is the birthplace of one of the world's largest environmental organizations, Greenpeace.
4. Vancouver is second to Los Angeles in TV production in North America, and third in feature films behind Los Angeles and New York.
5. The average snowfall each winter is 22 inches.
6. Vancouver is located just 25 miles north of the U.S. border.

 

Tags: Apolo Anton Ohno, Evan Lysacek , Lindsey Vonn, Shaun White, Vancouver, Vancouver 2010