Other Olympic news: downhill postponed, luge moved to lower place
Vancouver, Canada (GenevaLunch) – Simon Ammann won gold for Switzerland, taking first place in ski jumping on the normal hill in the 2010 Winter Games at Whistler Mountain. He sailed 105 metres, nearly three metres further than anyone else, an extraordinary feat on the smaller normal hill. Ammann won two golds at Salt Lake City in 2002.
Ammann holds a degree in engineering.
In other Olympic Games news, the men’s downhill race, scheduled for 13 February, was postponed due to too little snow. The men’s luge has been moved to a lower starting point, which should reduce speeds by 10 percent, following the death of Georgian luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili Friday during training.
Links to other sites: Simon Ammann (Eng), TSR (Fre), Vancouver Sun profile of Ammann
Torchbearer, Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games
Lausanne, Switzerland / Athens, Greece (GenevaLunch) – The Olympic torch has been lit in Athens for the 2010 Winter Games that open in January in Vancouver, Canada. The torch will fly to Victoria, British Colombia in Canada 29 October and from there it will begin its trek around Canada’s 13 provinces and territories, a voyage of 45,000 km with 12,000 torchbearers. The national relay is the longest in Olympic history.
The torch relay begins just days after the UN General Assembly adopted the Olympic Truce Resolution for the Vancouver Games.
