Free Falling B. Needs Ski Jump Gold

Unfortunately this morning's Regulation of Government Influence class was more interesting than expected, which as you will see results in a couple of poorly researched previews.

12:30 PM PST - Ski Jumping
The last individual medals in ski jumping will be awarded this afternoon, in the men's Large Hill competition.

The competition is basically the same as the normal hill only with a longer par length of K125 rather than 95. So everyone's jumping 30 more meters on average. The same guys are competing as we had in the Normal Hill competition.

Ski jumping at the Olympics is all about Brittany B.'s Buck-Toothed Rabbit Bitches. Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer is the favorite. The other Austrian jumpers Thomas Morgenstern, Andreas Kofler and Wolfgang Loitzl are all ranked in the top five as well. The Bitches had a quite disappointing performance in the Normal Hill, with just a bronze medal from Schlierenzauer.
The Bitches really need two if not three medals in this event, as they've fallen off quite a bit to seventh in the past few days after a good start. Manager Brittany B. has shown a lackadaisical attitude since Wednesday night, perhaps resting on the laurels of her volleyball success. That's not what this team needs. If B. can motivate him with a good speach, Schlierenzauer should rebound with a gold in this event. I'm also picking Morgenstern for bronze.

Tim Lavoie's Fightin' Ovechkins have the #1 ski jumper in the world and no one else. Switzerland's Simon Ammann won the normal hill competition last weekend, and he also won both the normal hill and long hill events at Salt Lake City. Ammann is a bit weaker at the long hill though, and I'm picking him for silver.
Other contenders are Adam Malayz of Poland (Ellis Kunka/Cornballers), the Normal Hill silver medalist, and Janne Ahonen of Finland (Dave Spence/Paragons). Norway (Adam Claus/Ice Lugers) has a few strong jumpers but probably none in the top 3. Slovenia (Brian Schwartz/Nordique Combined) has Robert Kranjek, who certainly would medal if Ski Flying were an Olympic sport. Alas, it is not. No medal for Nordique Combined.

1:30 PM - Cross Country Skiing
My favorite thing about cross country skiing is that no matter how long the race is, everyone uses 100% of their energy and has to lay down for ten minutes recovering to even walk away at the end. This is true whether the race is 100 yards or 100 miles.

The Men's 30k Pursuit is one of the newest events in the Winter Olympics and was just introduced at Turin. The event is a mass start race which consists of a classical 15 km cross-country style race followed by a 15 km freestyle version. Apparently freestyle skiers uses longer poles than the old schoolers. This was one of the most exciting events in '06 with a winning margin of less than a second.

The undrafted 15k gold medalist Dario Cologna of Switzerland is my choice for first. He was a surprise winner in the 15k but skied so well that I am picking him to repeat.

My pick for silver is Norwegian Petter Northug (Zach Chromiak/Banker's Club), a flop in the 15k finishing 41st. It's about time for Norway's men to produce a gold medal, but I just can't pick them anymore. Northug's coach blamed his skis for the 41st place finish; unfortunately for Chromiak, this race is conducted on skis too.

Lukas Bauer of the Czech Republic (Joy Sadaly/Olympic Ring Worm Wood Stock Market District Attorney) is my pick for bronze. He's a little better at slightly shorter races, but I just can't see anyone below the top 3 who can beat him in the 30k.