the mad sports man

end of february. wow yikes. end of february and were finally getting snow. winter is here. lets see..... olympics came and gone, n.h.l season resumed tonight, nascar season began, survivor and the beginning of the apprentice. march brings the ncaa tournament, more car racing, spring training baseball and the playoff drive in hockey. gonna be a good march.

deal or no deal thats what im watching at the moment. hosted by howie mandel. its the show where a contestant picks a briefcase (numbered 1 - 26) which he or she thinks has a million bucks. bit by bit they select a briefcase number which may or may not have the million. the banker makes an "offer" which goes up or down depending on what was the value in the briefcase. you talk about pressure? definitely.

auto club 500 matt kenseth hung on to win this one with another green-white-checker finish. jimmie johnson finished 2nd. tony stewart and greg biffle both blew an engine. biffle had led the most laps and stewart had a top 5 car. jimmie johnson has the points lead. next race is in 2 weeks in las vegas.

the olympics come to a close the games are officially done. the flame is out. canada finished the olympics 3rd overall with 24 medals. the ceremonies included the olympic flag handover from the mayor of torino to the mayor of vancouver. vancouver hosts in 2010. next summer games in beijing 2008. thats it with the olympics. now to other things.

okay how bout two silvers. i just discovered these two. both in short track speed skating. francois louis-tremblay won his silver in the mens 500m event, while the mens relay team won the 5000m event. that makes 24 medals - 7g, 10s, and 7 b. wow. canadas olympic commitee predicted 25. hell, im satisfied.

gold & bronze speed skaters yep, two medals, this time in the womens 5000m speed skating event. clara hughes won the gold and cindy klassen won the bronze. wow, 5 medals for klassen. i'll bet anybody klassen carries the canadian flag at the closing ceremonies. thats now 22 medals. 7g, 8s, and 7b. wow.

golden gushue brad gushue curling team won mens gold. they smoked finland 10-4. aided by a 6 point end. this gold brings our total to 20 medals. (6g, 8s, 6b). way to go brad.

bronzed curling rink shannon kleibrinks curling team beat norways team 11-5 and have taken the bronze medal. we now have 19 medals (5g, 8s, 6b). we have a medal in tomorrows mens curling final. brad gushues rink will have either a gold or silver, depending on the result against finland. so we have 20 after tomorrow. stay tuned.

its over in mens hockey canada lost to russia in hockey 2-0. russia just thouroughly outplayed them. russia plays finland. sweden plays the czech rep/slovakia winner. while in curling brad gushues rink will play for gold on friday and shannon kleibrinks rink will play for bronze on thursday. update: czech rep. 3 slovakia 1. the czechs will play sweden in the semis.

how bout another medal yep, another silver today. womens 3000m short track relay. these relays are fun to watch. exciting and pulls you to the edge of your seat. thats 18 total medals (5 g, 8s, 5 b). this is now the most medals canada has ever won at the winter olympics. and theres 4 days left after today.

gold and silver lining cindy klassen won gold and kristia groves won silver in womens 1500m speed skating. klassen became the first canadian woman to win four medals in the same olympics. the gold goes with the 2 silvers and a bronze she won this year. canada now has 17 medals (5 gold, 7 silvers and 5 bronze).

golden sprint chandra crawford wins canadas fourth gold of the olympics in the cross country skiing event. she got to the front halfway through and stayed there. beckie scott finished fourth.

canada vs czech rep. boy did canada get away with one. they won 3-2, but the got outplayed badly in the 3rd period. they win thanks to martin brodeur. the czech rep. got 33 shots to canadas 16. canada gets 3 goals on 8 shots (two of them soft ones), then 8 shots the last two periods. so canada goes to the quarter finals tomorrow against russia. the other three matchups: finland vs united states, switzerland vs sweden and czech republic vs slovakia. quarter finals tomorrow.

THE GOLD STAYS HERE! THE GOLD STAYS HERE! our canadian womens hockey team has successfully defended its olympic title with a 4-1 win over sweden in the gold medal game. the swedes played well. they definetely earned this one. the u.s. beat finland 4-0 in the bronze medal game. this gold came one day short of exactly four years after canada won their first one. so yay for canada.

two more medals, daytona 500 and mens hockey canada picked up two more medals today. cindy klassen picked up a silver in long track speed skating, while pierre leuders & lascelles brown picked up a silver in two men bobsled. canada now has 13 medals (2 gold, 6 silvers and 5 bronze). jimmie johnson won his first daytona 500 in a crazy race - at least what i read - and a green-white-checkerd finished. (i must have a few words with my vcr. it never did record the race. maybe i should turn the tv on next time). tony stewart got penalized TWICE for aggresive driving and still finshed 5th. next race is next week in california (and i did book that day off). canada lost to finland 2-0. didnt see the game. they picked a bad time to start sucking. time to get cracking or they wont get a medal.

a shocker in hockey two days after beating the czech republic, switzerland beat canada 2-0. they just absolutely shut down the canadians. jim hughson and greg millen both said this will be good for the game of hockey. no doubt in my mind. im still pretty stunned with the result.

how bout a bronze dominique maltais won bronze in womens snowboarding cross (like alpine skiing except you have group of four going at it). just seen it on cbc. quite the race. she wiped out and still finished 3rd, after the 4th place finisher landed on her back and couldnt get up. quite the race.

two more medals yeah! a gold and a silver in the mens skeleton event. duff gibson got the gold and jeff pain got the silver. paul boehm finishes .26 out of a bronze. yikes. meanwhile sweden beat the u.s. in a shootout 3-2 in womens hockey semifinals and is in the gold medal game. who woulda thunk it. watching canada and finland in the other semi final game. update later. update: canada 6 finland 0. it will be canada and sweden for gold on monday, while the u.s. and finland play for bronze, also on monday. cant wait.

a plethera of medals canada picked up four -yes, four - medals. 2 silvers and 2 bronzes. the mens and womens speed skating pursuit teams picked up the silvers, jefrey buttle got bronze in figure skating and melissa hollandsworth-richards picked up the bronze in womens skeleton. quite the stash today. hockey update: canada beat germany 4-1. a surprise here: switzerland 3 czech rep. 1. that goes to show anyone can win at any given day.

quite the game slovakia just beat the russians 5-3. this was quite the fun game here. marian gaborik got the last two goals for slovakia on great shots. as i write this, latvia is leading the u.s. 3-2 late in the second period. so, loads of fun games already. update: latvia and the u.s. finished the game tied at 3.

speed skating bronze anouk leblanc-boucher has just won the bronze in the 500m short track race. just edged out a chinese skater to get it. so good for her. thats the fourth medal for canada.

mens hockey begins canada just beat italy 7-2. italy played canada well despite the score. next game for canada is tomorrow against germany. back to bed i go. day off today.

silver lining on day 4 canada wins silver in the cross country team relay race. the team of beckie scott and sara renner almost beat the swedes. so canada has one of each - a gold, silver and bronze. hopefully lots more to come. canada is playing sweden in womens hockey (yes another one taped). canada is up 5-1 late in the second. update: canada 8 sweden 1. it will be canada vs finland and united states vs sweden in the semis. same semi final matchups as in 2002. figure that one out

winter olympics day 3 watching some highlights from the day. medals to be handed out for pairs figure skating. some serious wipeouts in the training runs for alpine skiing which, for one canadian, tor her a.c.l. in her knee (cant remember which one). another one almost took an american out. the way she landed, it looked like she tore her knee up. from what i heard it wasnt as bad as it looked. during the luge runs, there was some close calls. watched some curling earlier today. more hockey tomorrow (okay there was some hockey today too). tomorrow has canada vs sweden in womens hockey, speed skating, luge, curling. losts happening. updates on www.cbc.ca/olympics .

cindy klassen bronzed yep, cindy klassen won bronze in womens 3000m speedskating. so far a gold and a bronze. watching canada and russia in womens hockey (taped it this morning). stay tuned. update: canada 12 russia 0. canada clinched a semi-final berth in pool a while the u.s. did the same in pool b.

first golds on day one michael greis of germany won the first gold of the olympics in the 20km biathlon, while jennifer heil of spruce grove won canada's first medal when she won the freestyle skiing moguls event. watching canada and italy in womens hockey (i taped it at 12:30 here so dont tell me who won). so far its 5-o canada after one period. update: okay, so canada won 16-0. figured this was coming. canada plays russia tomorrow.

olympic games officially under way the flame has been lit (i watched the encore from this morning). boy was that ever the coolest wat to light the cauldron or what. 80 nations participating. peter gabriel did a great rendition of john lennons imagine. lucianno pavarotti performed after the flame was lit. got goose bumps listening to him. 16 days of olympic games await.

countdown to torino 62 hours to the beginning of the opening ceremonies of the torino winter olympics. cant wait. it all begins friday morning here at 11am. 16 days of fun and loads of sports like hockey (duh), curling, luge, skeleton, bobsled, figure skating and speed skating. must pull out a blank tape to tape the opening, even though cbc is showing an encore presentation at 7. gonna get good.

super bowl 40 the pittsburgh steelers are super bowl champions. pretty close game. the steelers win 21-10. bill cowher's first super bowl win as head coach, while its the steelers 5th super bowl win as a franchise, joining the san francisco 49ers and dallas cowboys as five time champions. hines ward was named super bowl mvp. jerome bettis also announced his retirement. so thats it for super bowl 40.

saturday night hockey once again final hockey night in canada saturday before the olympics. toronto beat new jersey 4-2 in the first game. toronto went up 3-0 in the first period. new jersey got their two goals in a span of 35 seconds in the 3rd before toronto scored an empty net goal late in the 3rd. first period just ended in edmonton with the oilers leading vancouver 1-0. stay tuned. update: edmonton 3 vancouver 1. one game televised on hnic next week. the rangers visit toronto to play the maple leafs at 6pm et, 4pm mt.

macgyver i now own the first three seasons ov macgyver. to which i realized columbia house does not have season 4, yet hmv does. so next payday i must get season 4 of macgyver. it'll be awhile before i finish watching all the seasons, with survivor, the olympics and car racing season coming. works for me though.

survivor: exile island wow.the beginning of survivor is tomorrow island. gonna be a doozy. got older men vs younger men. older women vs younger women. yep four tribes of four. plus one member has to get sent to exile island alone for the night in which if they find an immunity idol, theyre safe. cant wait for it. it all begins tomorrow night.