1 Except for say, Apolo's sweet, fine fine self. *sigh* But yeah, pretty lackluster this year other than him (for me anyway).

2 As one who is partially of Austrian descent and still has relatives back in the old country, the skiin' this year was pretty damn sweet.

3 I agree with you Amy, about Apolo's dreaminess. And yes, Hugo, the alpine events were the highlights this year for me. But they always are. I love downhill especially. Still, it seems to me the skiiers in years past were more daring and exciting. Or maybe the course in Torino wasn't as good.

4 I just returned from attending the Winter Olympics. It was a once in a lifetime trip that I can recommend to everybody. But I won't go again as it is very expensive, lots of hassles getting from one venue to another, and you can see every event better on TV. What surprised me about the Olympics was how closely matched the top ten competitors in every event were. One eye blink too many, and you drop a place in the standings. The pressure on these athletes must be unbelievable. I think the Olympics would have been more exciting for Americans if we had won more gold medals. The Italians, Russians and Norwegians were very excited about the Olympics. They all had a large number of very vocal fans at every event.