Rudman Rugged, Whilst William’s a Winter Winner

The start of the eagerly anticipated Vancouver Winter Olympics was marred by the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili after a freak accident in training for the luge event. However, the Georgian national team still marched into the opening ceremony, their faces downcast, their flag held aloft. The British team was also present, with silver medallist in Turin, Shelley Rudman, leading the side into the stadium.

As University essay deadlines approached, in a change from the usual late night “bunker” experience, the games presented themselves as an equitable replacement for keeping one awake into the dregs of the morning. Two men lying on nothing more than a tea-tray, head to toe in lycra, is not a sight to be missed. Unlike the curling…

Whereas, even a novice like myself could enjoy the Men’s halfpipe, watching Shaun White annihilate the opposition, with a run which included tricks such as the sublime double-corkscrew, switch, tomahawk, jagerbomb, braces-twanging jump. Unbelievable.

As for the women’s ice hockey, results such as 13-1 are seemingly expected, even when both teams involved, Canada and Sweden, advance to the semi-finals. Let’s just hope they do not both make the final…

For the Britain, Rudman was one of the major hopes for a medal this Olympics, with a lot of media hype being created around her. Interview after interview appeared on our screens, all showing an excited, but maybe a little over-confident, athlete. On the other hand, Amy William’s was barely mentioned, yet appeared jovial when we were treated to a brief glimpse of Britain’s second competitor in the skeleton.

The skeleton saw the British pair go up against the much-favoured pin-up girl of the Canadian team, Mellisa Hollingsworth. Yet, even after the first run of the 4 combined attempts, William’s was flying high above the rest of the field, being the first female competitor to breach the 54 second mark down the Whistler track. As for Rudman, she was distinctly average in comparison.

As runs two, three and four commenced, Rudman did edge her way slowly up the leaderboard, eventually finishing 6th overall, bemoaning a lack of allowance of practice runs on the track. Yet with Williams, every run showed off her greater ability to not only read the correct line to take the challenging course, but also to master the high speeds which the athletes were reaching, culminating in her becoming the first individual Winter Olympics gold medallist for Britain in 30 years.

So, it appears that the media attention may have got to Rudman, who will be desperately unhappy with the outcome of her Winter Olympics. However, a new star has been born in Amy Williams, providing the media with a new intense focus. Still, at least this shows another meaning to the phrase “No likely, no (lime)lighty”.