Dave Kean

At its best, sport is about people doing something transcendentally brilliant, something that is amazingly skillful, disciplined, verging on the breathtakingly beautiful and in so doing is capable bringing enormous joy to the people watching.

I love the Olympics, the idea of the finest in a set discipline doing it, not for a pay cheque on that day (though it helps big time with endorsements and cash for medal exists), but under the banner of their country and for personal glory for an audience measured in millions.

I’ve watched a decent portion of these Olympics, both on the TV and in person.

Whether it’s been a curler keeping the game alive with a perfect final stone, a speed skater in agony as she finishes her race, or an aerial skier landing a 4 twist jump, it’s been sublime to watch and makes it easy to ignore the inevitable criticism that surrounds an event of this scale.

The excitement in Vancouver was palatable, you could feel there was something special in the air. Last night we sat in a bar with Russians, Finnish, Swedes, Americans, British, Germans and of course Canadians, all concentrating on a hockey game. These have been a great games, Vancouver a fabulous host and I’ve had a blast.

For the last two weeks Vancouver has been shown off at it’s very best. I’ve been fortunate enough to spend some time there, take in a couple of events and revel in the tremendous atmosphere created by something this big going so well.

There were problems early on, obviously the death of Nodar Kumaritashvil on the opening day will not be forgotten. However the luge track had been given the green light by everyone relevant and there are plenty of candidates to blame for the death of the Georgian slider, the organizers, to me, seem to be a far down the list. With a little hindsight it’s easy to say the track was too fast, but this is supposed to test the best in the world.

Then there was the minor failure of the Olympic caldron during the opening ceremony along with the usual transport issues that seem to plague every Olympics, perhaps every event of this scale. However I’m willing to wager the problems with getting around will be far worse in Delhi for the Commonwealth games in October.

There are still one or two questions to be answered as we head into the final few days. Most notably for the hosts is Mens Hockey, this is clearly the big one for most Canadians.

Team Canada and their NHL stars never hit the ice until the fourth day of the Olympics, for many Canadians that’s when the games really got underway. One newspaper columnist suggested that the country would trade everything else won as part of the “own the podium” campaign for the one gold that matters most.

After comprehensively out playing the Russians yesterday, Team Canada faces Slovakia for a place in the final on Sunday. If the Semi finals go to form they will play the USA for the gold in a rematch of the group game of only a few days ago.

While the “own the podium” campaign has not gone exaclty to plan,  as a Canadian citizen (thanks mum) I want nothing more than to see the men pick up gold. First there is the small matter of Slovakia…

There is another matter that has got a surprising amount of attention in some quaters, the recognition of Mukmuck. For those not in the know Mukmuk is a sidekick to the three main Vancouver 2010 mascots Quatchi, Miga and Sumi.

Quatchi and Miga outside the curling, where is Mukmuk?

Just for information Quatchi is a Sasquatch, Miga is a orca/bear crossbreed and Sumi is an animal guardian spirit.  All very worthy of mascot status and I’m sure they have shifted a lot of merchandise. Quatchi especially was very much in evidence in the HBC Olympic Store.

Mukmuk is a Vancouver Island Marmot, there are only a few hundred of these left in the wild. According to VANOC he is the “sidekick to the Vancouver 2010 mascots”.  His hobbies are “eating, burrowing, eating, making friends and eating” (seriously, it’s on the Vancouver 2010 site under mascots), and while these don’t seem to qualify him for much, I’m not seeing true endorsements of the other three either.

I’ve seen Mukmuk on the scoreboard at Canada place during Hockey and following the other mascots (pooper scooper perhaps another official task?) during the introductions on the video screens at the Olympic Stadium before the curling, but not on the side of the busses alongside the others.

So join the Vancouver Suns “Free the Mukmuk” campaign to get the little guy released from his cyber jail and let him be recognized as a true mascot and run free with the others.

I live 120 miles from one of the largest sporting events in the world and can see very little of it live because of broadcaster NBC’s policy.

They save the big events for their evening show running form 7:30 to 11ish to maximize viewers and advertising money. Before now this has not been a problem, I get the Canadian broadcaster CBC and their coverage of both winter and summer Olympics has typically been excellent. While not as good as the BBC, its far better then NBC’s jingoistic/sensationalistic coverage.

However CBC lost the rights to some Canadian channel that I don’t get, so I’m forced to watch NBC.

Clearly NBC overbid for the games a few years ago and this week has claimed it will loose something like $200 million covering the Vancouver Olympics. NBC is blaming a soft advertising marker, but ultimately the fault lies with the broadcaster. When the TV contract for the 2010 Winter/2012 Summer games was up for bid NBC paid about $2.2 billion for these two events. Its bid was substantially bigger than any of the other US companies and about $900 million more than runner up Fox bid for the two events.

For me the biggest issue with tape delay is the loss of the drama. For the woman’s downhill we got a 90 minute edited package shown 5 or 6 hours after the event finished. The growing tension as each racer leaves the start house, comparing the interval times and where the clock stops when the racer crosses the line is lost.

With the internet, new media and the resulting gush of information coming into my life I know all of this in real time. It’s far more difficult, indeed verging on the impossible for someone with half an interest in sports to avoid big results for a few hours untill NBC feels it’s best to share their coverage with us.

This tension is what makes live sport so compelling. It’s exciting because we don’t know what’s going to happen. Unfortunately NBC has yet to work it out, after 6 hours of tape delay, we know what’s going to happen, and for me that takes so much away.

There is some better news once you get away from what ever NBC has chosen to include in their main evening coverage. For example as the US was not involved and therefore NBC was not interested, MSNBC carried the Canada vs. Norway hockey blow out live. For many Canadians the start of men’s hockey is the real opening of the Olympics.

Clearly there has been a lot of criticism of NBC and their choices to not carry major events live. It got to the point that the local NBC affiliate KING-5 in Seattle published a note on their website essentially saying “don’t blame us for this, it’s NBC and we don’t have a say in it”.

I’m lucky I can buy tickets, get into the car and see all the curling, speed skating or hockey I want.

There are two people I know that really care about Craig Levein’s appointment as Scotland manager – my dad and Steve from Prost-Amerika.

Coaching Scotland today is something of a thankless task, there really is no depth or arguably true quality available for selection. After the Bertie Vogts disaster and Walter Smith walking out on the national team the Scottish FA needs some stability and a little hope, Burley was unable to really provide either.

George Burleys team messed up qualifying for South Africa right at the start by loosing the first game to Macedonia, before dropping lots of points to Holland and Norway. Two wins over Iceland are hardly something to be proud of

Additionally his relationship with the players was not what it could have been. Barry Ferguson and goalkeeper Allan McGregor were banned from playing under Burley for an incident after a game against Iceland have both indicated availability for selection now Levein is in charge.

To be fair to the SFA domestic pickings were rather slim (but better than England’s choices for domestic managers recently) David Moys is not moving from Everton, Gordon Strachan committed to Middlesbrough and Walter Smith made it clear that he will be staying at Rangers. That really left Craig Levein and Graeme Souness. The very thought of Souness being involved must have given the gents in blazers flashbacks of the Bertie Vogts “experiment”.

Levein’s philosophy must be simple, win the games one at a time and qualify for Euro 2012. It’s clear that the manager will allow no interference in selection or training from the SFA, that this will be his team and if Levein wants something it had better happen.

Unfortunately with a FIFA ranking in the mid-40’s and no tournaments qualifications for 14 years now the Scotland seeding in the qualifying draw is going make it a tough draw. Should he make it hero status will be all but guaranteed, should he fail the very structure of the Scottish FA and the oft vilified “men in blazers” could go with him.

It finally started getting noisy again. First test of the year is a rather nervous affair with a first day of school feeling about it. No one really sure what’s going to happen.

Testing started in Valencia and the teams are making the usual “early to say much”, “everything went very well” and “very happy with the new car” noises one would expect.

I had a look through the grid and for the first time since 1999 there are four world champions lining up on the grid, and they are all in what should be competitive cars.

Mercedes is hot off winning both drivers and manufacturers championships last year and I don’t see how adding Schumacher to the mix is going to make them worse. Rosberg has never really shown he can sit with the really fast cars on the track. I doubt Michael will give him the chance, and what ever Ross Brawn says the team will be built around Michael challenging for the championship.

McLaren have the last two world champions in their cars. Last year when the team started testing they were about two seconds off the pace of the fastest cars and it took 8 months of hard work to claw that time back. McLaren does not make that kind of a mess twice and seem to be right there in Valencia.

Ferrari has Alonso joining Massa. Like the two McLaren boys this should be a fun battle to watch unfold over the next few months. I think Alonso should be the quicker, but potentially not by much.

The new rule changes are interesting, with no refueling and longer cars it’s going to help the smoother, finesse drivers more. It’s going to become all about tires and preserving them as fuel loads are equalized during the race.

Hamilton and Button have two very different driving styles; Button has the reputation for being unspectacular and very smooth. Hamilton on the other had is a little more spectacular in throwing the car around more. With a longer wheelbase dictated by the big fuel tank the car is not going to be as responsive to that style.

Looking at last year (I love stats and Wikipedia) Hamilton seemed to be at his best when the fuel load was lighter. Best example maybe Turkey, starting with a light car he just flew through the field, untill the first fuel stop took a lot of his advantage over the rest of the field away.

Going back to the last time there was no refueling (80’s and early 90’s, my personal F1 golden period) it was certainly the smoothest drivers that worked out how be gentle to their tires (Prost was the master, Piquet and Schumacher) did very well. Button, Alonso and (of course) Schumacher seem to be todays drivers whose style may allow fewer stops. I may add Weber to this list, not sure.

On the other side was what were known as the “putters” (as opposed to smooth driving “placers”). Senna and Mansell were notable “putters”; they drove the car hard and were more aggressive, but through style and set up were unable to make the tires last as long.

Personally I think Hamilton is quicker, he’s been with the team longer and he’s got motivation by the bucket load after loosing his title to his new team mate. The unknown and potential leveler for Button is the new rules that may suit him a little more. If Hamilton can adapt then that advantage is gone and Button gets beat.

If Red Bull can keep last years momentum going and the usual suspects turn up in competitive cars this is going to be fun to watch.