The Saturday List

In the spirit of the season, I give you:

Cool Winter Olympic Sports

1. Short Track Speed Skating. Not because I really enjoy watching it, or understand it, or really like Apollo Ohno, this one is on the list because the Olympic training center is at Northern Michigan University, which is my alma mater, in my hometown of Marquette, Michigan.

2. Luge. This is a crazy sport. A little sadder this year because of the horrible accident during Nodar Kumaritashvili's training run. This is another sport that's pretty big in the U.P. When I was in high school I was on the cross country team with Wendel Suckow, who was the men's World Champion in 1993, and was on a couple of Olympic teams.

3. Hockey. I'm going to get tired of saying "this is popular where I grew up," because I grew up in an area that enjoyed winter sports 6 months out of the year. But nevertheless, hockey is big in the U.P. My high school had two different hockey teams, the official school team, and the team sponsored by the I.B.E.W., surprisingly called "the Electricians." The big college rivalries aren't football in our part of the country, they're hockey.

4. Biathlon. Although this doesn't really seem like a sport to me. This is just snapping on your skis, grabbing your rifle, and going out to get some food for dinner. It's totally practical. Although I grew up in a swampy area, so hunting was done with snowshoes rather than skis.

5. Ski Jumping. I remember when I was in high school we had a couple of cross country races that were near ski jumping hills. I remember looking at them and thinking, "Only a seriously crazy person would jump off of that thing." I know that there is physics involved, but I still don't see how people can do this without breaking both legs.