Saturday 8 February 2014

Let the Games Begin. . .


I just had to take a shot of my television screen this morning when I caught this.  I have no idea who the knitter on the right is (a coach? an official? security?) but the guy holding her yarn is Finnish snowboarder Roope Tonteri and he's just about to plunge down a mountain, glide on metal rails with his snowboard and do several somersaults/turns etc off these enormous jumps.  Is holding some wool  his way of relaxing, just seconds before his turn?  I love it!

And despite all the controversy of these Games, now that they've started, we need to focus on the athletes who've trained so hard to get here.  I'm all for supporting team GB in the summer Olympics, but for the Winter ones, it's Canada all the way!  Can't wait for the figure skating to start.

2 comments:

feltfrau said...

That's the Finnish snowboard coach, Antti Koskinen. Per WSJ.com: at Saturday's competition he was busily working cream-colored yarn with green needles.

The scarf is something others on the Finnish team will add to before handing it off to Finland's Summer Olympic team going to Rio de Janeiro in 2016. What they will do with a giant scarf in South America is unclear.

The idea for Koskinen to work on the scarf at the starting gate was that of Finnish snowboarder Roope Tonteri, who finished 11th Saturday.

Blithe Spirit said...

Thanks so much for the additional information - kudos to the Finnish team - you couldn't pick a cooler sport to showcase knitting at!