The Saint
Sport in the Spotlight - The Winter Olympics
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With so many fixtures postponed this week due to adverse weather conditions, the Saint Sport team liven things up with their own attempt to bring snowsports to St Andrews...
Inspired by both the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and the recent flurries of snow
about town, staff and friends decided to create the inaugural St Andrews Wiinter
Olympics. Despite the excellent winter facilities that have recently been available
around town, such as numerous public ice rinks and plenty of powder snow, we
thought it best to conduct our event on the non-weather affected Nintendo Wii.
With both a Sports editor and sub-editor competing alongside a Saint writer, the Saint
was well represented at the tournament. With Messrs. Magee (ed) and Impiglia
(sub-ed) choosing Sonic and Blaze respectively, Chris McLeod (writer) chose Luigi
and some other bloke (Emmett Walsh) was represented by his rather effeminate Mii form.
The event contained six sports to try and reflect the real sports on offer in Canada: Downhill, Ski Jumping, Halfpipe, Figure Skating, Bobsleigh and perennial British favourite, Curling. Each competitor had their preference. Magees real-life ski experience would serve him well in the downhill, while Impiglias Jamaican roots looked set to light up the Bobsleigh event. McLeod, being Scottish, was a natural curler and Walsh hoped to excel in the figure skating.
With the first event taking place on the large hill, none of the competitors were looking forward to the ski jumping. With in-game winds matching those in St Andrews, nobody was able to control their jumpers, but it was Impiglia/Blaze who secured gold with a second jump of 127m.
The Downhill went with form, with Magees Sonic claiming gold a full 2.3 seconds ahead of McLeod. Halfpipe was a chance for all to impress with their flair, and again it was Blaze who dominated, landing several spectacular tricks to eventually beat his rivals comfortably to first place.
However, with the early events dominated by the speed of Blaze, it was in fact a charge from Luigi that changed the Olympics around. The Bobsleigh was always going to be an open event and it was McLeod who was able to claim first with some superb, controlled driving through the corners. Despite being the pre-event favourite, Walsh failed to impress in the figure skating and again Luigi was able to excel, executing a spectacular inside axel jump to claim gold.
With Impiglia and Mcleod both tied on two golds, the title of supreme Wiilympian came down to the Curling. Impiglia suffered a shock defeat in the semis to Walsh, while Mcleod was able to coast past Magee, meaning that he had a chance for glory. In a tense game, Luigi was able to tactically out-think the mii of Walsh and prevailed to be crowned the first ever St Andrews Wiinter Olympics.
And yes, we were pretty bored this week. If anyone wants to challenge McLeod/Luigi for the crown, feel free to drop us an email.
