Olympics followed closely by majority on campus

By Jesus Diaz

Santa Clara students will be glued to their televisions watching Vancouver this week, as the XXI Winter Games come to a close Sunday.

A recent TSC survey of 264 Santa Clara students showed 58 percent of students watch the Olympics either closely or very closely, with 30 percent watching closely and 28 percent watching very closely. Thirty-three percent followed them occasionally and 8 percent are not following them at all.

"I've been watching the Olympics pretty much every night," said freshman MacGregor Ehlen, who went to the Salt Lake City and Atlanta Olympics. "My favorite athletes are Lindsey Vonn and Bode Miller."

Said freshman Jackie Gage: "I haven't been watching the Olympics as often, but I like bobsled and figure skating. There's no TV in my room. If the Olympics were shown in the Benson TVs, I would watch them more often."

Twenty-nine percent of the students chose skating events as the sporting events they most preferred to watch, while snowboarding events received 24 percent of the vote. Closely behind were skiing events with 21 percent and ice hockey with 17. In the other category, 6 percent voted Biathlon, while 1.9 percent did not like any sporting events.

"I really like a lot of the skiing events because I am a skier and, of course, ice skating," said senior Megan Kollar. "I am not the biggest fan of ice dancing because they don't do as many tricks, but I really like them all. Hockey's been exciting lately since USA beat Canada."

Bishmah Aziz watches the Olympics every other day. "My favorite events are free ski and snowboarding half pipe."

According to the survey, most students, 39 percent of those surveyed, believe the U.S. will bring home the most gold medals.

"I feel like the U.S. usually has the most athletes so just by percentages, we are bound to get more and we do have talented athletes, we're always up there on the medal count," said Kollar.

Sixteen percent believe Germany will take home the most gold medals.

"Germany is in second place so I think people feel that if America will not win the most medals, then Germany will," Gage said.

Other countries mentioned were Russia (12.12 percent), host nation Canada (11.36 percent) and China (10.60 percent). Ten percent believe Winter Olympic powerhouse Norway will take home the most golds.

According to the Vancouver 2010 Web site, as of press, the U.S. leads the medal count with 28 overall medals but is tied with Germany with 7 gold medals, closely behind is Norway with 6 golds.

Some students, like senior Silas Strickland, decided to actually attend the event at Vancouver.

"I've always been a huge fan of the Olympics," he said. "Speed skating, downhill ski races, hockey; I love so many of the events."

Strickland took a trip to the Olympics for President's Day weekend as an Olympic fan and to support the American team. He travelled alone and was excited to be there as an Olympic fan himself.

"Everyone was so excited and rooted for their own team but there was no booing or yelling, just disappointment," he said, "It was kind of a 'we're all in this together' attitude; you don't really get to experience that often, a lot of the times its us versus them," he said.

According to Strickland, Canadian culture and the city of Vancouver also contributed to the overall effectiveness of the winter games.

The spacious city allowed for non-Olympic events, such as music shows and Olympic-watching parties.

"Canadians are very nice people and fun events in downtown Vancouver were possible because the city had more room to spread out," he said.

Strickland noted that the heart of Vancouver was filled with TV screens and Robson Street, one of Vancouver's main thoroughfares, was blocked off all weekend to accommodate vendors, concerts and other activities.

According to Strickland, Vancouver also made a stronger effort for sustainability during the Winter Games.

"One of the cool parts was that it was very obvious that they tried to make everything more sustainable at Vancouver, almost all of the taxis were hybrids or natural gas," he said.

Due to last-minute trip plans and the competitiveness to obtain tickets, Strickland was not able to attend sporting events.

Strickland, who previously attended the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, noted differences between the two Olympiads.

"In Salt Lake, every single event was within a 30-minute radius from the city as supposed to Vancouver that is more spread out," he said.

Salt Lake City and Vancouver, according to Strickland, are different cities in that Salt Lake "is in heart of mountains," while Vancouver's Whistler mountains and ski resort is located about two hours from Vancouver.

Other students attended the Salt Lake games as well and hope for the Winter Olympics to return to the United States sometime in the future.

"I loved the Salt Lake City games," said Aziz, "I'd love to see the Olympics coming to Colorado; it'd be awesome if they did because we have the best skiing."

Said Kollar: "I've also been to the Salt Lake Games. I would love for Lake Tahoe to host the Winter Olympics sometime.

"I love seeing all the countries come together," Kollar said. "There's countries there that we know are not getting along, ourselves included, but things get put aside and it's all about talent and teamwork."

Contact Jesus Diaz at jadiaz@scu.edu or (408) 554-4546.