Saturday, February 05, 2005

mexican ski racers, british grammarians, etc.

First off, congratulations to Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves, 1st and 2nd in today's downhill at the World Championships in Bormio.

It's kind of fun to read the full result list from races at the World Championships or the Olympics and see all the people competing from obscure countries who are just there for fun and know they have no chance at a medal. One who did much better than most people expected was Scotland's Finlay Mickel, who finished 11th. But my favorite has got to be Prince Hubertus von Hohenlohe, a 46-year-old Mexican-born aristocrat descended from German royalty. The guy has been racing internationally (for Mexico) since 1981 and also enjoys a career as a third-rate pop singer. In today's downhill, he finished last — 14 seconds behind Bode.

We trained GS this morning and slalom on the afternoon, and to be honest, I was kind of tired by the end. I think I need to get more sleep. I was up late last night reading Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots & Leaves, the British bestseller about punctuation. Yes, there's a best-selling book about punctuation. At first I was turned off by how proudly she embraces her stickler-hood, but eventually her humor won me over.

Today's downhill was already on TV, but the USA network will be airing coverage of tomorrow's women's downhill and Thursday's men's combined at noon tomorrow, Eastern time.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I really liked Eats, Shoots, & Leaves. It was the most fun when I read it out loud in a British accent. But now I am sometimes nervous punctuating. :)

:) Bowties