cornell's olympic showing (pat-pat)

Just going by what's on the Cornell Athletics' site, heres the rundown:

Travis Mayer, Freestyle moguls, Silver medal
Dana Antal, Women's hockey, Gold medal
Sarah Hughes, Figure skating, Gold medal
Joe Nieuwendyk, Men's hockey, Gold/Silver medal (w/ Canada's victory today)
Julie Sasner, Ass't Coach Women's hockey, Silver Medal

Hannah Hardaway, Freestyle moguls, JUST misses medal in 5th place

I think we made out pretty well!

I was rooting for Sarah Hughes too, but she isn't a Cornellian you know.

Close enough (even if she follows her sister to Harvard).

I don't know... All rooting will cease to exist if she goes to Harvard.

If she played hockey then good sibling / bad sibling cheer would be in order.

Something tells me she doesn't play hockey...

She also made an amusing comment last night, when talking about her brother(s)... It was something to the effect of "They don't know anything about skating"...

Now, I know she was referring to figure skating, but I thought it amusing that she claimed her hockey-playing brother doesn't know anything about skating...

Though it would explain his lack of playing time...

I'll be a Sarah fan for life even if she chooses poorly when it's time to go to college. Not only is she GREAT to watch, but that CU connection is forever.

Didn't you know that Michelle Kwan's third-cousin once-removed was Arts '93, Law '96?

Still not enough for me to root for her. Some ya like, some ya don't...

are we playing the kevin bacon game here?

I don't know... the whole thing about wanting to go to Harvard sort of cancels out the Cornell connection-benefit in my mind.

I assume you'd feel differently if a prominent alum's son chose to play hockey elsewhere?

Interestingly, I know several families where one or both parents are rabid Cornellians (Tower Club etc.) and yet some or all of their children chose to attend Harvard. I hope that doesn't happen to me and Mrs. Later.

Is Sarah the sister of David or Kelly? David right?

Yes, David is Sarah's brother.

Kelly Hughes's cousins are Mark Messier and Jeff Finley, so Kelly has impressive bloodlines as well.

For those Americans looking for a Cornell-related reason to root for the men's hockey team on Sunday against Joe Nieuwendyk '88 and the other Canadian icers, the US trainer is Ray Barile, who used to be the trainer for the Big Red men's team (he now works for the St. Louis Blues and has been the trainer for various US squads for years).

When your Daddy scores the game-winner for Cornell in the last minute of an ECAC championship game against Clarkson, you'll always have a Cornell connection.

Especially when he can do it twice in a row because the first was offside, thereby continuing an undefeated season.

If he'd had to, I think he'd have done it a third time.

FWIW, I gather the coach doesn't get a medal, so Julie Sasner doesn't really count.

Not to mention that Harvard would claim her anyway, since that's where she starred as a player, IIRC.

So, the final Cornell medal count is 4: 3-1-0

Travis Mayer, Freestyle moguls, Silver
Dana Antal, Women's hockey, Gold
Sarah Hughes, Figure skating, Gold
Joe Nieuwendyk, Men's hockey, Gold

Note that Cornell finished tied for 9th in gold medals and 14th in total medals. Among the nations that had fewer golds than Cornell:

Austria
China
Sweden

Among those with fewer total medals in addition to fewer golds:

Czech Republic
Belarus
Hungary

But how many of those people actually have a degree from Cornell?

I think only one does (Nieuwendyk).

you can't count her. We can cheer for her all we want but given that her top two choices are Harvard and Columbia, I wouldn't count your chickens just yet.

That discussion has been had earlier in this thread, although for the record I agree with you.

pssss - joe left before his senior year. Do you have knowledge that he finished in the off season?

Tough to get a degree from Cornell when you're still a junior.

Joe did come back to complete his degree, and I'm counting Sarah because I want to. So there.

I'm pretty sure that Joe did not come back and finish his degree. Beeeej?

And her parents have five. The ayes have it.

I believe he did complete it during summers.

I thought I saw something written on a Cornell site about Joe that had a number after his name. But I believe it was like '03 or something in the future. So maybe he's 1 or 2 classes away. I had heard that he lives up on the lake over the summers and takes a class each summer. I'm too lazy to do a real search for the article, and the quick one I did on the CU site was basically useless.

I don't know about taking classes, but he does seem to live in Ithaca during the summers. From an Ithaca Journal story about Cornell related Olympians:


Joe Nieuwendyk
Canadian men's hockey team

Cornell player 1985-87

Nieuwendyk is closing in on 500 career goals in his National Hockey League career. He has scored 489 career goals and is having a great season with 20 goals and 18 assists with the Dallas Stars.

This will be Nieuwendyk's second Olympics. He also was a part of the 1998 Canadian squad.

Nieuwendyk spends his summers in Ithaca with his wife, Tina, and young daughter, Tyra, who turns 1 at the end of April. The Nieuwendyks are expecting their second child in September.

"It's going to be a really exciting Olympics, really sentimental and patriotic," said Nieuwendyk, who said he flies the American flag outside his Dallas home.


full article:

[www.theithacajournal.com]

We seem to have this discussion on a twice-yearly basis, and the same people always express the same recollections.

As of the last time I checked, about a year ago, Joe had not completed his degree. It's possible but unlikely that he's done it since.

Beeeej

> The Nieuwendyks are expecting their second child in September.

Would it be bad form to hope for a boy (class of '23)?

Hughes lands on Wheaties box

From staff and wire reports

More reason to add Sarah to the list of important who's who related to Cornellians. I'm telling you, she could easily make over a million dollars a year if she really wants to. In addition to the Wheaties box, she is presenting tomorrow night at the Grammies and sitting next to Janet Jackson. And I thought she didn't go to the Closing ceremonies because she had the flu....


SALT LAKE CITY — Olympic champion Sarah Hughes will
have her image in every cereal aisle in America.
Wheaties, the so-called "Breakfast of Champions,"
announced Monday that it will put the 16-year-old
American figure skater on its boxes. The gold
medalist put on a stunning performance last week to
upset compatriot and favorite Michelle Kwan and
Russian Irina Slutskaya at the Salt Lake City
Winter Games.

Wheaties first put a star athlete on its boxes in
the early 1930s, featuring former Olympic swimming
champion Johnny Weissmuller.

Hughes will become only the second figure skater to
appear on the box.

Kristi Yamaguchi, 1992 gold medalist, was first.

There was a nice video salute to Sarah Hughes at the Garden last night between periods of the Rangers-Devils game. Included was a clip of her performance some years ago...I could not hear from what year...when she skated at MSG.

Rick Reilly of SI weighs in on Sarah -

[sportsillustrated.cnn.com]

Yikes, what a great article. Greg's *really* gonna love it.

Rich, thanks for letting us know about the MSG salute.

That's a nice piece by Reilly but as usual he overstates things to make his case.

He writes:
"Hughes had been outskating diva Michelle Kwan for two years. In speed, and in height and difficulty of jumps, Hughes had blown by Kwan as if she were a 1975 Plymouth Duster. "

Of course, presentation is a factor too and actually is the more important factor in the long program, since it is used to break ties (and thus led to Sarah's gold). Over the past eight years, there have been several skaters who were better at the jumps than Kwan, but she was acknowledged, even by her critics (other than Greg of course), to be a far superior skater in terms of presentation. Her failure to win the gold in either of the last two Olympics is a victory for those who put athleticism before grace on the ice (Note: I'm not saying she deserved to win this year, she didn't, but if she had, there would be more of a case for emphasizing the presentation elements rather than the technical elements for up-and-coming skaters).

He also writes:
"So while Kwan and Irina Slutskaya bonked under finals pressure, Hughes looked like a kid running in a meadow."

Even Sarah herself admits she was under no pressure when she skated since she felt like her chances were so remote, so she just went out to have fun and do the best she could. So it was a lot easier to look like "a kid running in a meadow" for her than the others, for whom this was their last chance to win.


Now if only he could have mentioned the hockey connection!

And speaking of tributes to her, there's going to be a parade down good 'ole Middle Neck Road on Sunday....starting up at the train station and heading down to Parkwood, where she grew up skating.

Although I've also read that actually her first lesson was at Iceland in NHP

And, since Great Neck North does not have a marching band, the Great Neck South marching band will probably be in the parade....

South always was the favorite "showcase" of the district, North was...and probably still is...treated like the ugly stepsister

I'd hardly call our collection a "marching band"

More of a "let's take the symphonic band outside and have them walk" band.

I was remarking to my officemate's wife that it sounds like Hughes should always come in fourth in the short program so she can skate with no pressure in the finals.