Your Torino underdog watchlist
Who to follow at Torino 2006? Here’s a few suggestions:
Bermuda has one competitor, even he is originally from Southampton. Patrick Singleton will be competing in the Skeleton - he competes on February 17.
The Jamaican bobsled team is back, of course - their event comes up on February 24 and 25.
Peru’s four-man Olympic contingent are all snowboarders.
Venezuela is represented at Torino 2006 by 52 year-old luger Werner Hoeger from that great Venezuelan city of Boise, Idaho. He’s listed 36th to start in the 36-man competition later today Saturday.
There is just one person out of the 211-person Team USA who I intend to track - the one and only Apolo Anton Ohno!
That powerhouse of world sport, Cyprus, is represented by Theodoros Christodoulou in the slalom and giant slalom. He is, however, up against Madagascar’s sole competitor, Mathieu Razanakolona, in both events.
The complete lineup of this year’s winter olympians from Africa (12 athletes from 7 nations) can be found here.
I was kinda hoping that India would have a representative in the biathlon, which starts today, but alas no. Pakistan has two entrants in alpine skiing, but the Olympic website doesn’t specify what events they are entered in.
And finally, the New Zealand curlers: Sean Becker, Lorne Depape, Warren Dobson, Hans Frauenlob and Dan Mustapic. Their first match is against Sweden on Monday morning. A doddle!
February 18th, 2006 at 4:15 am
Theodoros Christodoulou should not be allowed to compete in these Olympics at all since he was charged with sexually assaulting one of the Olympics volunteers 4 years ago in Salt Lake City. He’s a bad guy regardless of the fact that he is Cyprus’s only representation.
February 18th, 2006 at 9:57 am
There’s a fairly detailed account of that incident posted by the victim of the alleged assault on her blog this week. The only news report that I can find that is still online is the opening two paragraphs of this Associated Press report from April 2002.
The bottom line, however, is that no charges were laid against Christodoulou, and therefore there is no legal basis to take any action against him. Sadly, sexual abuse of women by elite sportsmen is not an isolated occurrence.
Christodouolou’s events are held on February 20 (giant slalom) and February 25 (slalom).