American halfpipe bronze medal winner Scotty Lago volunteered to leave the Olympics on Friday after a photo of a woman kneeling below his waist to kiss his medal surfaced on the Internet.

From Yahoo! Sports.com:

Lago, who was awarded his bronze medal Thursday night, was at a party, wearing a Team USA T-shirt when somebody snapped a photo of a woman kneeling below Lago’s waist to kiss his medal. That picture, and another showing him sticking the medal in the woman’s mouth while teammate Greg Bretz looks on, appeared Friday on the TMZ Web site.

“Scotty Lago is a great athlete, but with that comes a responsibility of proper conduct, and his involvement in this situation is not acceptable,” U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association President and CEO Bill Marolt said in an e-mail. “Scotty realizes his conduct was inappropriate. He has formally apologized and also made a decision to leave Vancouver today.”

Well done, Scotty. You became the first Olympian to ever volunteer to leave the games early after taking a picture with a girl kissing your medal near your junk.

Momma must be so proud.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Network Nine Australia commentators Eddie McGuire and Mick Molloy have come under fire for comments they made about the Winter Olympics men’s figure skating competition.

From ABC.net:

While discussing the competitors’ costumes as part of last night’s Winter Olympics wrap, Molloy said: “They don’t leave anything in the locker room, these blokes, do they?”

McGuire replied: “They don’t leave anything in the closet either, do they?”

The long-time Channel Nine personality then described one competitor’s costume as “a bit of a brokeback”, referencing Ang Lee’s film about gay cowboys.

“A bit of Brokeback Mountain exercises – you can’t wear that,” Molloy responded.

Gay rights activist Gary Burns isn’t too pleased with the duo’s comments:

“They’re harmful to, particularly, gay youth who are living in isolated areas across the nation,” he said.

“These young kids look up to [McGuire] and when they hear these kinds of comments and [they’re] having issues with their own coming-out process, or low self-esteem or depression… they feel worthless.

“Channel Nine should sack both of them because they’re not fit to be broadcasters or to be involved in a television network when they use this kind of banter.”

Molloy is apparently an Australian comedian, so I’m not sure why he would be broadcasting a men’s figure skating competition in the first place. Quite frankly, I blame the television network for thinking that putting a comedian in that type of situation was a good idea.

But the kicker here is McGuire, who is a regular show host on Channel Nine, so he should have known better. How many media members need to get into trouble for making stupid comments on air before other members avoid situations like these entirely? It’s not a hard concept, just don’t say anything racial or homophobic on air and you should be fine. I mean, was he trying to impress Molloy with his horrible humor?

Considering there is a Facebook page dedicated to how McGuire is ruining the 2010 Winter Olympics coverage, maybe it’s time for Channel Nine to give this clown the boot.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

As Shaun White began to close in on a gold medal in the halfpipe finals at the Winter Olympics on Wednesday night, NBC aired an exchange between White and his coach Bud Keene that got a little f****ing vulgar.

From Yahoo! Sports.com:

At first there were whoops of celebration. But then things got a little R-rated.
Keene: What do you want to do?

White: I don’t know, man. Ride down the middle?

(Chorus of noes.)

Keene: No, have some fun.

White: Drop a double mick?

Keene: Yeah, drop a double mick at the end. Do whatever you want and [expletive] send that thing. Make sure you stomp the [expletive] out of that thing.

It went downhill from there if you can read lips, at which point NBC announcers Pat Parnell and Todd Richards apologized for the language and defended it by saying that a lot of energy was running through White and his coaches. The apology was necessary (even if it did draw more attention to the curses – they were tough to hear without rewinding), but NBC was apologizing for the wrong people. They shouldn’t be apologizing for Bud Keene; they should be apologizing for the network showing it in the first place.

I agree with the Yahoo! Sports article. NBC screwed the pooch by airing the dialogue. It’s not Keene or White’s responsibility to clean up their language when they’re having what should be a private conversation. Unless they’re giving an interview and they drop a couple of F-bombs on everyone, then they shouldn’t be criticized in this situation. They’re adults and some adults talk this way. NBC should have planned ahead better.

Staying on topic: White is freaking awesome. He is snowboarding.

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Despite battling an injured right shin, American Lindsey Vonn took home the gold medal in women’s Olympic downhill on Wednesday. Downhill is the first of five races that Vonn plans to compete in during the Winter Games.

From Yahoo! Sports:

Vonn was hurt Feb. 2 during pre-Olympic practice in Austria and had hardly skied over the past two weeks.

Still, as the two-time defending overall World Cup champion and the winner of five of the six downhills this season, she was an overwhelming favorite.

Vonn increased her lead at the first three checkpoints, although she lost nearly two tenths on the bottom after getting knocked off balance as she went over a small bump just before the finish.

What’s remarkable about Vonn’s performance is not only was she injured, but due to bad whether in Whistler of the past week she and the other competitors also only received one downhill training session, which was before the race. Plus, the course was extremely bumpy so for her to still win a gold medal despite having to overcome several obstacles is impressive.

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Athletically speaking, in this case. During her training run on Monday, American downhill skier Lindsey Vonn had the fastest time on the track’s upper section. Vonn is trying to overcome a bruised shin.

From FOXSports.com:

The women will ski the bottom section later Monday, following the conclusion of the men’s downhill race — the first Alpine competition at the Vancouver Games. Vonn finished in 1 minute, 30.75 seconds, which was 0.39 seconds faster than teammate Julia Mancuso.

Vonn bruised her right shin during practice in Austria on Feb. 2. She stayed off skis for more than a week, but tested the injury — with encouraging results — in an unofficial slalom training run Sunday.

The shin was a little tender Monday morning, but that was to be expected. And it didn’t seem to hurt her skiing.

“After skiing four runs of pretty good intensity slalom on salted snow, with the conditions the way they are here now, I think even if you had healthy shins, you’d probably have a sore shin today,” said Thomas Vonn, who serves as a coach and adviser to his wife. “She’s happy to be where she’s at, as opposed to where she was a couple of days ago.”

This should quell any fears that Vonn won’t compete. The United States is currently atop the leader board with eight total medals (two gold, two silver, four bronze) and Vonn’s presence should add to that count.

The women’s downhill race is scheduled for Wednesday.

Photo from fOTOGLIF