Stephen Colbert throws down, Canada steps up
Last week The Colbert Nation stepped up in a big way by becoming the official sponsor for US Speed Skating; their primary sponsor was the bank DSB until October 19th, 2009 when they were declared bankrupt by the Dutch courts.
This is great news! Mainstream exposure for an amateur sport that I thoroughly love. With the Olympics less than 100 days away anything to boost the less sexy winter sports is much appreciated. Maybe with a bit of luck we’ll take a page out of the Netherlands book and become speed skating freaks; sports and partying mix great already in North America, there’s room for speed skating in the club.
The news however was not all good. First, I’m Canadian but I also consider myself part of the Colbert Nation. What is a body to do? How can I get some $$’s to speed skating Canada? Second, later in the week Stephen called Canada out for what he described as us abusing our status as host nation by taking more practice time at the venues than other nations. I have to call BS on this; this is merely one of the benefits that go with hosting a games that all other hosts have taken advantage of as well. To not do so would be foolhardy. Stephen is right to say us Canadians are self conscious about having never won a Gold Medal at home; don’t throw our home (in this case home ice) advantage because of Stephen’s bullying.
So, after being put on notice how would our athletes respond? World Cup events were held last weekend, short track in Montreal and long track in Berlin and our athletes did marvelously. By my count Canadian men and women, short and long track racked up four 1st place finishes, two 2nd places and four 3rd place finishes. The US team had a fair showing as well with four 1st place finishes, two 2nd’s and two 3rd places. Not bad, but we are ahead for now. This weekend will feature short track in Marquette , Michigan and long track from the Netherlands. Hopefully we are in for another great weekend of races.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Sport Report – NYC Marathon & Olympic Speedskating | ||||
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As far as I can tell the Comedy Network does not allow embedded videos, but Canadian viewers can watch it here.
Race results tallied from www.speedskatingresults.com and www.shorttrackonline.info
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