Recently by Joe O'Connor
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Lessons from the hilltop
- February 28, 2010 8:01 PM
- By Joe O'Connor
At the Olympics, the taboos get tossed out the window. People never save the last sugary treat. And journalists clap. Sometimes they come precariously close to hooting and hollering for their team. National pride is at stake at the Olympics, and the international press openly picks sides. Tribalism trumps objectivity here.
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Brian McKeever's Olympic dream over
- February 27, 2010 12:17 PM
- By Joe O'Connor
It was a story that everyone gravitated to, a story that was impossible to resist. The final chapter was supposed to be written on Sunday morning when Brian McKeever, a legally blind and impossibly brave Canadian cross country skier, would have become the first Paralympian to race among able-bodied athletes at an Olympic Games.
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The Show must go Vonn
- February 26, 2010 8:56 PM
- By Joe O'Connor
It happens before every Olympics, and it happens with every nation. We all pick out poster boys and girls to carry the medal hopes, pump up the home crowd and generate some buzz for a quadrennial Winter carnival that blends an orgiastic mix of corporate money-making (and losing) with athletic perfection.
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Anja's advice? Pack an umbrella, wear crash helmet
- February 26, 2010 3:45 PM
- By Joe O'Connor
When Anja Paerson thinks about the 2010 Olympics and her time in Whistler, the bronze medal she won in the super-combined and the epic crash she had in the downhill are not the first two things that spring to mind.
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Women's hockey needs Olympic hiatus
- February 26, 2010 2:02 PM
- By Joe O'Connor
I do not have a daughter, or a son, but if I ever do have a daughter one of the things I dream about doing is teaching her how to skate.
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Own the Podium's forgotten little brother
- February 25, 2010 10:16 PM
- By Joe O'Connor
It was a bad dream, only Jason Myslicki was wide awake and sobbing. Sobbing so hard he could not speak. His head was resting against his jumping skis. His heart was breaking. "My dreams were shattered right from the takeoff," Myslicki says, through tear-stained eyes.
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'Polaroid prince' a true original
- February 25, 2010 8:00 PM
- By Joe O'Connor
Andy Warhol used to call him his Polaroid prince, because he looked good in Polaroid pictures. Plus, he really was a prince, a German prince. His official title is Prince Hubertus von Hohenlohe, though nobody refers to him that way unless another prince he knows, Prince Charles, invites him to dinner at Windsor Castle.
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Driving the red drunk tank around Whistler
- February 25, 2010 3:27 PM
- By Joe O'Connor
There is a red shuttle bus in the athlete's village in Whistler. In the last few days, its driver says people have begun acting "strange." Not strange as in odd. Strange as in hammered.
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Humphries, Moyes find golden redemption
- February 24, 2010 11:12 PM
- By Joe O'Connor
They hugged like they were teammates, just like they were best friends. They hugged, because the journey was over. They hugged, as the roar of a home crowd rolled on and on into a snowy Whistler night. Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse hugged, because they had accomplished what they had come to the Whistler Sliding Centre to do.
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A crazy way to make a living
- February 23, 2010 11:24 PM
- By Joe O'Connor
The man is not normal. He could be insane. The man had a stomach ache, a "big pain" he says, for two days. A pain so bad it felt like the devil himself was doing a drum roll in his lower intestine. But the man did not want to miss any training, so he went to the track and tightened his belt to hold back the pain.
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About the Author
- Joe O'Connor Joe O'Connor is a roving sports feature writer with an open-ended beat. He joined the National Post in 2002, and has spent the past seven years bouncing from sport to sport, offering fresh perspectives and delivering unique stories wherever he goes. Whether it has been getting Don Cherry to open up about his love life; George Chuvalo to talk about heartbreaking loss; or racing down the side of a mountain with former Crazy Canuck, Dave Irwin, the veteran Postie chases a story wherever it leads. Before joining the newspaper he was a two-time silver medalist at the National Magazine Awards. Vancouver will be his first Olympics.
Recent Entries
- Lessons from the hilltop
- At the Olympics, the taboos get tossed out the window. People never save the last sugary treat. And journalists clap. Sometimes they come precariously close to hooting and hollering for their team. National pride is at stake at the Olympics,... Continue reading this post
- Brian McKeever's Olympic dream over
- It was a story that everyone gravitated to, a story that was impossible to resist. The final chapter was supposed to be written on Sunday morning when Brian McKeever, a legally blind and impossibly brave Canadian cross country skier, would... Continue reading this post
- The Show must go Vonn
- It happens before every Olympics, and it happens with every nation. We all pick out poster boys and girls to carry the medal hopes, pump up the home crowd and generate some buzz for a quadrennial Winter carnival that blends... Continue reading this post
