Last time I posted in this virtual space, the Orioles weren't a playoff team, the Ravens still had Ray Lewis and Lardarius Webb healthy, James Harden was still a member of the Thunder, Dez Wells wasn't eligible and Maryland still had an actual quarterback playing quarterback.
And that's just what happened to my favorite teams.
The point is, a lot can happen in a just a couple months. While I would love to go over every little bit of Olympics related news that has occurred since this was posted on September 13th, I simply don't have time.
With that in mind, we're (I'm) going to look a little toward the future here. Don't look now, but the Winter Olympics are rapidly approaching! Yes, it's more than a year away, but that doesn't mean I'm not excited! I mean, remember Vancouver!
Vancouver was great! Lindsey Vonn, Apolo Anton Ohno, Shaun White, Kim Yu Na and Sidney Crosby, among others, provided the star power for what was a really entertaining two weeks in Canada.
Now the stage moves to the Russian city of Sochi. Clearly I won't be doing any type of full-fledged preview just yet, but I will be writing about the key storylines over the next year. Could you find somebody more credible? Maybe. But that's never stopped you from reading this before!
The Old Meets the New:
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| Mikaela Shiffrin |
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| Lindsey Vonn |
America, get ready for Lindsey Vonn overload. The 28-year-old is the greatest skier in American history, with four FIS World Cup overall championships and two Olympic medals to her name. Since her Olympic triumphs in 2010, Vonn has won two World Cups overall titles. She also became one of only eight female skiers in history to win races in all five alpine disciplines. Vonn is also as tenacious as she is talented, gutting out her Olympic medals on a bum shin. She was also linked to TEEEEBOOOOOW and isn't that what really matters.
Needless to say, she's a star. She'll be on talk shows, she'll grace cereal boxes and be on every NBC promo you see leading up Sochi. Vonn was on the Sports Illustrated Olympic preview cover in 2010. She's gonna be everywhere come 2014.
If Vonn is the present, then Mikaela Shiffrin is the future. At the tender age of 17, the Vail native just notched the second World Cup podium placement of her young career. For perspective, Vonn was 19 when she finished on her first podium. America loves a good phenom, and Shiffrin is one. We'll see how she progresses over this ski season, but you may be hearing the name "Mikaela", albeit a different spelling, a lot for a second straight Olympics.
Will these two go head-to-head? Well they need to actually get to the Olympics first, no guarantee considering the dangerous nature of the sport they practice. If they do both get to Sochi, they will most certainly compete against each other, but there is a caveat. In her short career as an elite skier, Shiffrin has been succeeding in slalom, historically Vonn's worst event. So unless Shiffrin makes a huge jump in another event, possible considering her enormous talent, this may be more of a "current star mentors the young up-and-comer" rather than a rivalry.
There's also Julia Mancuso, who in addition to being the most interesting personality on the US team, just happens to have the most Olympic medals of any female skier in US history. So follow this team, they're going to be something to watch leading up to Sochi.
That's all I've got for now. Hopefully that wasn't to awful as I try and get back into the swing of things in terms of blogging. Going to keep writing about summer Olympics stuff because those sports just don't go away, but obviously the focus shifts to the winter side of things.
You should also read this. I may or may not have wrote it. Follow me on Twitter and as always; #GoTerps
428 days till Sochi.
Will these two go head-to-head? Well they need to actually get to the Olympics first, no guarantee considering the dangerous nature of the sport they practice. If they do both get to Sochi, they will most certainly compete against each other, but there is a caveat. In her short career as an elite skier, Shiffrin has been succeeding in slalom, historically Vonn's worst event. So unless Shiffrin makes a huge jump in another event, possible considering her enormous talent, this may be more of a "current star mentors the young up-and-comer" rather than a rivalry.
There's also Julia Mancuso, who in addition to being the most interesting personality on the US team, just happens to have the most Olympic medals of any female skier in US history. So follow this team, they're going to be something to watch leading up to Sochi.
That's all I've got for now. Hopefully that wasn't to awful as I try and get back into the swing of things in terms of blogging. Going to keep writing about summer Olympics stuff because those sports just don't go away, but obviously the focus shifts to the winter side of things.
You should also read this. I may or may not have wrote it. Follow me on Twitter and as always; #GoTerps
428 days till Sochi.