The 2010 Winter Olympics from Vancouver, BC are underway. I was watching the Men's 5,000 Meter Speed Skating. American Shani Davis, who won Gold back in Salt Lake City in 2002, was beaten by Dutch super star skater Sven Kramer, who will most likely win Gold in this event. There were other speed skating races that were exciting.
Why isn't speed skating an intercollegiate sport? What an exciting scene to see a UCONN skater against one from Syracuse. Rivalries in the Big 10 could be enhanced in speed skating. Places like Chicago and West Alice, Wisconsin, where former Olympic Gold Medalists Bonnie Blair and Dan Jansen are from, are speed skating hot beds.
An Olympic sport that is also an intercollegiate sport but doesn't get much notice is Skiing. The University of Colorado Ski Team has won several NCAA national championships, which is no surprise being they have "lots of mountains" to work with. Speaking of CU, a former football player with the Buffaloes, Jeremy Bloom, was a former member of the US Olympic Ski Team and competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino. Another Olympian who is competing in Vancouver is a member of the US Women's Hockey Team. Catlin Cahow played four years at Harvard University. She earned first team All-America honors at the end of her senior season in which she scored 37 goals in 34 games. The US Women's Hockey Team is a contender to win Gold in Vancouver.
Another Olympic sport that should be an intercollegiate sport is figure skating. You have Gymnastics in the NCAA and that's an Olympic sport. Why not figure skating. It has the same type of artistic style as the floor exercises of gymnastics. Many universities, particularly in the north, have their own ice centers for their ice hockey teams. They could fit in figure skating. It's just a thought. Speed skating should definitely be an intercollegiate sport. That's my opinion, and I welcome yours.
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