From the US Snowboarding:

U.S. snowboarder Kevin Pearce (Norwich, VT) was injured Thursday while training in the halfpipe at Park City Mountain Resort. According to U.S. Snowboarding Medical Director Richard Quincy, Pearce was transported to the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City where he is being treated.

The New York Times is reporting that the Olympic hopeful is in critical condition and was flown to a hospital in Salt Lake City

Vancouver, site of the 2010 games, is the Canada’s Hollywood so I though today we’d pick the five best Winter Olympic-themed movies. Let me know your top 5.

Top 5: WINTER OLYMPIC FLICKS

1. “Cool Runnings” (1993): Nothing funnier than watching the Jamaican bobsled team freeze its “royal Rastafarian nay-nays off.”
2. “For Your Eyes Only” (1981): Roger Moore as James Bond fights off the advances of a figure skater, matches wits with a biathlete and skis the bobsled track at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, site of the ’56 games.
3. “Cutting Edge” (1992): Cocky hockey star teams with figure skating brat to

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What does it feel like to go 80 mph down an icy track?

“It’s one of those things you can describe but until you feel it, it doesn’t click in your brain,” said Bree Schaaf, Team USA Bobsled contender for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada. Schaaf will be speeding down those icy tracks later this week when she returns to Munich, Germany to compete in another pre-Olympics trial.

Bremerton’s own Schaaf was home for the holidays at her family’s house overlooking the water.
“Having so much on my plate, I needed a mental break,” she said. …

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Team USA names its Olympic hockey team Friday afternoon. It will be a good sign for the Americans if Ryan Suter makes the team. His dad, Bob, was on the 1980 gold medal team and his uncle, Gary, was on the 2002 silver medal team. No other U.S. team since ’72 has won a medal.

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Interesting story from Andrew Dampf of The Associated Press:

BORMIO, Italy - American Lindsey Vonn is the latest on a long list of high-profile skiers injured this season, raising more questions over water-injected courses and safety measures.

Vonn’s crash Monday appeared to be the product of an icy patch on the giant slalom course in Lienz, Austria. Just after she came sharply around a gate, the American lost control and was sent tumbling down the mountain airborne with her skis over her head. She fell hard but didn’t break any bones.

Still, her bruised left arm was placed in a splint, and Vonn’s husband Thomas was critical of the course preparation. Read more »

Lindsey Vonn, Team USA’s most dominant Olympic athelte, suffered an injury in a race today. Here’s a story from the Associated Press:

LIENZ, Austria — Kathrin Hoelzl of Germany has won a World Cup giant slalom, while Lindsey Vonn crashed in her first run and was taken to a hospital.

Hoelzl, the defending champion in giant slalom, led after the first run Monday and posted a combined time of 2 minutes, 16.61 seconds for her second World Cup title this season. She also won last month in Aspen, Colo.

Manuela Moelg of Italy was second, followed by Taina Barioz of

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I picked my top U.S. Winter Olympians in this morning’s News Tribune. Who made your Top 5?

TOP 5: U.S. WINTER OLYMPIANS

1. Eric Heiden, speed skating: Heiden is the Michael Phelps of the Winter Olympics. In 1980, Heiden won an unprecedented five gold medals setting four Olympic records in the process.
2. Bonnie Blair, speed skating: Sure she benefited from the 1994 Olympic reset that gave her two winter games in three years, but no American has more winter Olympic medals. She won five golds and a bronze over four games.
3. Apolo Ohno, Short Track: One medal in

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