The Chicago Tribune's Philip Hersh, like a lot of other people these days, sure hopes so.

With the primary skating season winding up, America has no female entrant in the Grand Prix Final, Hersh notes, adding that he hopes promises of a comeback next year by Sasha Cohen, 24, are true. Follow his reasoning here.

Anyone besides me tune in the men's downhill from Lake Louise on Universalsports.com this morning?

First thing to greet you on the Web site (the cable network itself is unavailable in Seattle; Universal "simulcasts" its coverage of many events online) was a countdown clock announcing that ski coverage as coming -- in three hours. Not what was promised on Universal's own schedule, which indicated ski coverage would be piped in at 1:30 p.m. ET. In my world, that means 10:30 a.m. PT. No dice.

About five minutes later, however, the feed magically appeared, and off we went.

This was the first World Cup downhill of the year, and likely one of the first Universal -- the Olympic-sports broadcast arm of NBC -- has done. So some slack is in order. But still...

From time to time, Universal's production work was simply embarrassing. On more than one occasion, skiers would take the course, sail through the first five or six gates -- then simply disappear, as Universal threw up a graphic asking you to go to their Web site and take a poll: "Which Winter Olympic sport would you most like to try?" Sadly, not making this up.

Another time, newbie commentator Phil McNichol, the former U.S. men's alpine coach, was happily analyzing the run of one skier, only to be informed some time later that he was, in fact, watching a taped replay of an early skier. Still other times, the screen just went inexplicably to black, with no fade out, no explanation.

It became sort of comical at some point -- sort of a Wayne's World Does Skiing vibe. You halfway expected to see footage of Ingemar Stenmark appearing mysteriously in the mix, ubneknownst to the broadcast team. But later on, Universal's approach proved to seriously compromise its own coverage.

Today's World Cup was one of those odd races where the first dozen skiers got favorable conditions -- better light, and a lack of a headwind, as it turned out. The fast skiers -- Bode Miller, Didier Cuche and the like -- skiing in the middle of the pack, were posting times significantly slower than the earlier skiers. That typically indicates a major change in course conditions, with the track becoming slower later on.

Universal picked up on this -- but couldn't pinpoint why. Probable reason: Universal's commentators (McNichol and Steve Schlanger) aren't at the course. They're nowhere near it, in fact, laying audio over a ski-course pooled video feed from a remote location (L.A., I think). This works fine for some sports, and in fact proved to be a very successful technique for NBC at the Beijing Olympics. But it clearly presents challenges for ski coverage. It explains some of the production glitches, such as broadcasters not knowing who is on the course, and when. But it can have even more serious repercussions, as today's broadcast showed.

Because they're not there, Universals commentators lacked the ability to just walk outside the booth, feel the temperature and wind, see the light, etc. They also lacked a reporter at the finish line who could debrief skiers as they finished and ask The One Pertinent Question: Why did the course slow so badly for the middle and late racers?

It was a glaring omission -- one that made you wonder why, since they were broadcasting live, Universal couldn't at least have a reporter with a cell phone calling in conditions and racers's comments from the finish area. (For a small fee, I'll volunteer to tag along and do just that for the rest of the World Cup circuit.) It's not rocket science, folks.

And the lack of any real-time, on-course observations -- coupled with the network's unwillingness to admit they are not on-site -- just makes the people in the booth look stupid, with McNichol (who is decidedly not stupid about skiing) left to speculate as to the source of the course slowdown. (McNichol kept saying things like, "Good light. A little flat, I was told." Or, describing the course, saying "It was bumpy, I was told.")

Later on, we watched the same race, tape delayed on CBC, and the broadcasters, actually on the scene, were quick to pick up on the race conditions -- changing light and stiffening winds, that dramatically slowed later skiers.

So, not a good start for Universal. In fact: sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. We're glad they're doing skiing. But we hope they learned something from today's fiasco.

Speaking of annoying TV coverage: Someone at CBC needs to tell Kerrin-Lee Gartner it's OK to take a breath every 8 or 10 minutes. Really. It's not necessary to fill every fractional second of air time with commentary. It's TV, not radio. A little dead air is a good thing. Trust us.

(See broadcast update below.)

Thanksgiving weekend marks the kicking-into-gear of many Winter Olympic sports, and NBC's Universal Sports venture is making it easier than ever before for Americans to track the action.

Alas, the cable network, in some 30 million U.S. homes, is not available in the Seattle area (something might be brewing; stay tuned). But some action will make its way to parent network NBC, and online simulcasts at Universalsports.com will bring skiing action to Northwest winter sports fans.

Universal's FIS World Cup alpine ski coverage kicks off with live online and cable broadcast of the men's downhill and Super-G Saturday and Sunday from Lake Louise, Alberta. See the Web site for broadcast times.

NBC's TV skiing coverage kicks off with the Aspen Winternational women's giant slalom at 11 a.m. PT Sunday, and the Beaver Creek men's downhill at 11 a.m. PT on Dec. 7.

At the NBC microphone is host Tim Ryan, former Canadian Ski Team member Todd Brooker and former U.S. Ski Team members Steve Porino and Kristina Koznick. Former men's head coach (and Bode Miller handler)Phil McNichol joins Porino and Steve Schlanger for Universal Sports' cable and online coverage.

All of this should be a natural for NBC and Universal. One winter out from the Vancouver 2010 Games, the U.S. alpine team is perhaps at its all-time strongest, with Miller, Ted Ligety, Lindsey Vonn, Julia Mancuso and other stars looming as constant medal threats. Miller and Vonn won the coveted World Cup all-around titles last year, the first U.S. sweep since Phil Mahre and Tamara McKinney 25 years ago. And the full slate of races will give U.S. fans a rare chance to follow skiers through a full World Cup season.

Here's the near-term schedule. See Universal Sports for broadcast times:

UPCOMING ALPINE WORLD CUP SKIING ON UNIVERSAL SPORTS:

Nov. 29 - 30 Women - Aspen, Colorado
Nov. 29 - 30 Men - Lake Louise, Alberta
Dec. 4 - 7 Men - Beaver Creek, Colorado
Dec. 5 - 7 Women - Lake Louise, Alberta
Dec. 13 - 14 Women - La Molina, Spain
Dec. 13 - 14 Men - Val d'Isere, France
Dec. 19 - 20 Women - St. Moritz, Switzerland
Dec. 19 - 20 Men - Val Gardena, Italy
Dec. 28 - 29 Women - Semmering, Austria
Dec. 28 - 29 Men - Bormio, Italy

Both NBC and Universal also will broadcast the 2009 Alpine World Championships February 2-15 from Val d'Isere, France.

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Other winter sports this weekend, courtesy of the USOC:

Figure Skating: A delegation of U.S. figure skaters, including Johnny Weir (Quarryville, Pa.) and Mirai Nagasu (Arcadia, Calif.), will compete in the NHK Trophy Grand Prix competition in Tokyo, Japan, Thursay through Sunday.

Luge: The team travels to Igls, Austria, for the World Cup #1 event Saturday and Sunday. See broadcast update, below.

Speedskating: Short track skaters, including Seattle's Apolo Anton Ohno, will compete in the World Cup #3 event in Beijing, China, Friday through Sunday.

Bobsled: 22 U.S. skelton and bobsled sliders kick off their World Cup tour Friday through Sunday at Winterberg, Germany. See broadcast update, below.
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Broadcast update, 2:15 p.m.: Universal reports that it also will provide coverage of the luge and bobsled/skeleton World Cup events listed above.

Bobsled/skeleton coverage will be same-day, on-demand at universalsports.com, with daily recap shows on the Universal Sports broadcast cable channel.

Luge coverage of the World Cup opener from Igls, Austria will be some live and on-demand video, free of charge, with one-hour highlight shows on the broadcast network. See the Web site for scheduling.

Upcoming World Cup Bobsled/Skeleton coverage on Universal Sports:

Nov. 28 - 30: World Cup, Winterberg, Germany
Dec. 5 - 7: World Cup, Altenburg, Germany
Dec. 12 - 14: World Cup, Igls, Austria
Dec. 19 - 21: World Cup, Cesana, Italy
Jan. 9 - 11: World Cup, Koenigssee, Germany
Jan. 16 - 18: World Cup & European Championship, St. Moritz, Switzerland
Feb. 5 - 7: World Cup, Whistler, Canada
Feb. 12 - 14: World Cup, Park City, Utah
Feb. 20 - Mar. 1: World Championship, Lake Placid, NY

Upcoming World Cup Luge coverage on Universal Sports:

Nov. 29 - 30 World Cup #1 Igls, Austria
Dec. 6 - 7 World Cup #2 Sigulda, Latvia
Dec. 13 - 14 World Cup #3 Winterberg, Germany
Jan. 3 - 4 World Cup #4 Koenigssee, Germany
Jan. 10 - 11 World Cup #5 Cesana Pariol, Italy
Jan. 23 - 25 World Cup #6 Oberhof, Germany
Jan. 24 - 25 World Cup #7 Altenberg, Germany
Feb. 6 - 8 World Championship Lake Placid, NY
Feb. 13 - 14 World Cup #8 Calgary, Alberta
Feb. 20 - 21 Olympic Test/World Cup #9 Whistler, B.C.

And there's more: Universal says it also will offer coverage this winter of freestyle skiing, ski jumping, nordic combined, biathlon, cross country, short and long track speed skating and ice hockey.

VANCOUVER -- Also in the news in the host city this week: General Motors, in spite of its $4.2 billion loss in the third quarter and continued rumors of bankruptcy, says it will hold firm to its commitment to GM Place Stadium and the Olympic Games, for which it's a major corporate sponsor. Coverage from the Vancouver Sun.

VANCOUVER -- Speaking of housing crunches: A $37.5 million (Canadian) deal to house Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other Olympic security officials on cruise ships for the 2010 Games has sunk, the Canadian Press reports.

Speculation is that the coppers will seek a deal with another cruise ship provider for lodging space. But what we really want to know is this: If the Mounties are sleeping on cruise ships, where do they put the horses?

VANCOUVER -- A lot of Northwesterners already know the drill: Whistler winter vacations are almost always a great time. But they're rarely a great deal.

The world's biggest/best everything ski resort has never been known as a destination for the tightwads among us, as a steady influx of overseas visitors keeps the village's tens of thousands of overnight beds full for most of the prime ski/snowboard season.

So nobody should be surprised that rental rates for the period during the 2010 Winter Games are expected to be through the roof. How high? Too early to tell. To win an Olympic bid, every Olympic host town agrees to surrender a share of its premium lodging to the local organizing committee, which doles it out to Olympic bigwigs, Games workers, journalists, etc. What's left, if anything, goes on the open market.

But that process is taking longer -- and proving more contentious -- than usual in Whistler, where officials are facing obstacles from property owners who think they can do better on the open market than by placing their rooms in the Vancouver Organizing Committee pool.

The crunch -- sort of a game of housing chicken, as the one-year-out mark for the Games approaches in February -- has people speculating on all sorts of radical solutions, from campsites along the Sea to Sky Highway to cruise ships berthed in Squamish.

Complicating matters is a pending Whistler ordinance placing restrictions on whom private landowners can rent to.

See the Vancouver Sun's piece on the matter here, with Whistler's mayor complaining that prices quoted to media outlets and corporate sponsors have provoked brisk "no thanks" by groups who say they'll bunk down in Vancouver instead -- and cope with what's likely to be a four- to six-hour round-trip bus commute to Whistler's alpine venues, where a large portion of the Games will unfold.

Also interesting is the local angle from Pique, Whistler's newsmagazine.

Reporting from Vancouver:

Piece by piece, it's coming together.

The ice is fast and frozen at the Richmond Oval, which looks even more gigantic inside than out (Canadian speedkskaters, in fact, already have spent weeks here training ... sorry, testing safety systems, etc., to begin working on their home-ice advantage.)

B.C. Place Stadium is going to require quite the makeover to put on a memorable opening ceremony. We still can't wait to see how they solve that lighting-the-cauldron-indoors dilemma.

And people better start hustling -- and spending that controversial $100 million loan from the city - -to get the Athlete's Village ready to greet the world in less than 15 months.

Those are some early impressions from a couple hundred media types here on the Vancouver Organizing Committee's "World Press Briefing," where editors, facilitators and a few nosey types like myself get an advance look at the inner workings of the upcoming Olympics.

It's a good chance to get the lay of the land, see where athletes will not only compete, but be available afterwards in media "mix zones;" find out where the sub press-centers are at each venue, and meet with Games planners about practical concerns such as lodging, work space, Internet connectivity, photo positions, all of that behind-the-scenes stuff that allows the 10,000 or so journos here to bring you sights, sounds and words from the Games for three weeks in February, 2010. (For many people, this is the only chance they'll get to do this before the Olympics. Scoping out the territory in advance is a big advantage in covering the Games.)

Peering behind the curtains this week for Team Times are myself and sports editor Cathy Henkel. We'll be in Whistler all day Wednesday and back in Vancouver for two days of briefings and further venue tours on Thursday and Friday.

More news as it develops. And we'll bring you some looks inside the venues if we get a chance to upload some pictures.

Meantime: Feel free to post questions here, if any come to mind, about the inner workings of the Games. We'll try to answer them, or find someone who can.

A loan scandal swirling around a $100 million loan made to the builders of Vancouver's Olympic Village on False Creek continues to make headlines up north.

In a nutshell: Millennium Development Corp., the contractor for the 1,100-unit village on False Creek, faced a cash crisis and arranged for a $100 million cash infusion from the city to complete the $1 billion project to meet looming construction deadlines. City officials have defended the loan, saying the money will be repaid, and calling it a prudent investment. (The units are designed to be resold as private residences after the February 2010 Games.) The problem: The loan apparently was negotiated and signed-off on in secret, during "in camera" sessions of the city's finance committee, at which members are sworn to silence.

As these things do, news of the loan leaked, causing a furor last week among not only Games critics, but also government watchdogs. Subsequent stories have detailed political contributions from the developer to politicians (since returned), the resignation of a top city finance officer, allegations of stolen loan documents from city offices, and no shortage of finger-pointing. Add to the mix an ongoing mayoral campaign, and you've got potential for all sorts of political mayhem.

You can find the Vancouver Province's most recent piece, and links to previous pieces, here. And Vancouver Sun offers a summary by Olympic reporter Jeff Lee here.

Stay tuned, and hang on tight. This one could get uglier before it gets better.

NBC has informed us that they've decided to simulcast the feed of their Universal Sports coverage of the Beijing Paralympics online at Universalsports.com. That means viewers who don't get the Universal Sports cable channel -- and this includes everyone in the Northwest -- can follow along online instead. Well worth tuning in, if you have the time.

The broadcasts begin daily at 4 p.m. PST, and run through Sunday. See the Web site for more schedule details.

It happens every two years. The cauldron is snuffed on the Olympic Games. Many of the fans and nearly all the world's media go home. And the Paralympic Games begin, with thousands of disabled athletes, all of them displaying unbelievable grit, take the stage -- largely unnoticed.

It's sad, and it's always made us question why the Paralympic Games are scheduled the way they are.

Games broadcaster NBC, to its credit, is seeking to narrow the attention gap this time around. The network stayed on to nab video of many of the Paralympic events in Beijing, where 4,000 disabled athletes from 148 nations competed over 12 days in the same venues used for the Beijing Games.

The network's Paralympic highlight show, a 90-minute feature narrated by Bob Costas, airs at 11:30 a.m. Sunday on NBC.

It's a moving show -- one that cuts through the hype and silliness of big-time sports and puts the focus back on the true heart it takes to compete against serious physical odds. And it's worth watching all the way to the end, when the network focuses on Marin Morrison, the 17-year old swimmer from Sammamish.

Morrison, as many have read in a 2007 Times story and pre-Beijing column by Steve Kelley, was a promising, Olympic-caliber swimmer when she was diagnosed with brain cancer as a 16-year-old. In spite of a doctor's prognosis that her swimming career was over, she insisted on returning to the pool, and qualified to swim as a Paralympian in the Beijing Games, where she competed in spite of having her fourth brain surgery just months before the Games.

We won't spoil the finish, but suffice to say the show ends with Marin reaching for the wall -- and the entire crowd in Beijing's Water Cube standing and cheering her on, as her parents applaud through tears.

Morrison last month visited the White House with other U.S. Paralympians. But her condition, according to a journal written by her mom on Marin's Web site, has worsened, leaving her mostly bed-ridden at home.

"Despite her suffering, Marin still manages to give us a nice smile and a comforting look when she's enjoying a visit or a pleasant moment," Nancy Morrison wrote in an entry yesterday. "Her beautiful spirit continues to shine through."

Hers is just one inspirational story of many in the show, which begins with an opening ceremony in Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium, attended by 91,000 fans. One of the lead performers is an 11-year-old Chinese girl who lost her leg in the earthquake before the Games. (And if you thought the Olympic opening ceremony's cauldron-lighting was grand, wait until you see this one.)

The show includes segments on April Holmes, the world's fastest Paralympic sprinter, who was on her way to gold in the 200 meters when she fell, only to come back and win the 100 meters in a photo finish.

Other segments follow swimmers Jessica Long and Amanda Everlove; the U.S. men's wheelchair basketball team; shotputter Scott Winkler, an Iraq war veteran; sprinter Marlon Shirley; wheelchair racers Cheri Blauwet and Tatyana McFadden; and 2-person keelboat sailor Nick Scandone.

NBC is using the show to kick off 28 hours of Paralympic coverage from Nov. 10-16 on Universal Sports, its new Olympic sports channel now shown in 30 million U.S. homes -- unfortunately, none of them in the Seattle market. Some Paralympic competition can be found online, however, at UniversalSports.com.

To all of the irrational (but understandable)-exuberance related expectations of a Barack Obama administration, add this one: Surely he'll make the 2016 Olympic bid a lock for his hometown of Chicago.

In some quarters, it's already leapt from "hope" status to an outright expectation.

"If Obama can find time in his schedule to crash (the October, 2009 IOC selection) party, fugheddaboudit, proclaims Dave Larzelere in The Sporting News. "Mayor Daley can gear up the kickback train, MJ can get ready for another comeback, and Oprah can start training for the triathlon, cause the five rings will be on their way to Chi-town."

Chicago bid officials, noting that much of a Summer Games in Chicago would take place within a stone's throw of Obama's victory speech in Grant Park, are equally giddy.

"I think the eyes of the world have been on Barack Obama and therefore on Chicago and the eyes of the world will be on Chicago more than in the past," Chicago 2016 bid chief Patrick Ryan told Reuters.

"Last night gave us a global opportunity to show the city's beautiful skyline, its lake and parks."

The hope -- bordering now on expectation -- is that Obama will make a personal appearance at the IOC meeting in Copenhagen next October, where delegates will choose a Games site from remaining candidate cities: Chicago, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid.

Former British Prime MInister Tony Blair pulled just such a stunt in 2005 to help London win what many consider an upset victory over Paris and other cities to land the 2012 Games. Russian President Vladimir Putin made his own pitch, in English, at an IOC meeting in Guatemala to help sew up the 2014 Winter Games for Sochi.

The scenario envisioned by veteran Chicago Tribune Olympic reporter Phillip Hersh:

I can see it now.

It is Oct. 2, 2009, in Copenhagen.

Chicago is making its final presentation before the International Olympic Committee chooses the host of the 2016 Summer Games. A video rolls showing a crowd of some 200,000 -- young and old, black, white, brown and yellow, gay and straight, men and women -- happily gathered in what is called the city's front yard, Grant Park.

Now the video shows the man they have come to see as he emerges from backstage and he walks out to greet the crowd.

And then, in Copenhagen, President Barack Obama, in person, walks out from backstage to join the Chicago 2016 presentation team.

Think that won't have a stunning impact?

Not only does Obama have a positive appeal for the IOC, but Sen. John McCain, his vanquished opponent, had a negative one, Hersh says, reminding us of the mercurial McCain's testy chairmanship of Senate hearings on the IOC in the wake of the Salt Lake bid scandal in 1998.

The optimisim is understandable. But as far as we know, at least, all of it has been generated without a single utterance from Obama himself about Chicago's bid. It's just assumed he'll be out in front of the effort.

"He has travelled around the world," Chicago 2016's Ryan enthused. "He is a very highly regarded international global figure. He loves sport and he is very proud of Chicago. I don't see any reason why he would be negative at all."

Well, we don't either. But the fact is, the guy has a lot on his plate, and this issue is probably not even on the edge of his table. It's understandable that Chicago's hopes are up. But we have a sneaking suspicion that other, darker politics among IOC members will play a role as great, or greater, than the ascendance of Obama.

Many IOC delegates are in a simmmering war with the American Olympic movement, for example, over what they consider to be a lack of wealth-sharing from the U.S. Olympic Committee when it comes to those big profits from TV contracts. A host of other less-visible political obstacles also could derail Chicago's bid.

But having Obama on your side when push comes to shove a year from now in Copenhagen certainly can't hurt. Can it?

You'd think most Canadian winter-sport athletes looking to medal in Vancouver's Games would be mostly fully funded, thanks to the nation's "Own the Podium" program and other assistance programs.

Appparently not.

Five members of Planet Maple Leaf's biathlon (that's XC skiing and target shooting, for the non-fan) team say they're posing nude on a calendar to supplement training funds.

According to FastSkier.com, where the skiers are pictured where nothing but their biathlon rifles and a smile, the women claim they're underfunded compared to other Olympic sports. And besides, they say, issuing an argument familiar from other cases of Olympians shedding clothes for profit, it's all about empowering others.

Read for yourself at the calendar Web site:

"Our goal is to empower and inspire women and girls by expressing the beauty of a healthy, athletic body," the Web site proclaims. "The net proceeds will go directly towards funding our expenses leading up to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. "

The five athletes -- Zina Kocher, of Red Deer, Alta.; Sandra Keith, of Calgary; Rosanna Crawford, of Canmore, Alta.; Megan Imrie, of Falcon Lake, Man.; and Megan Tandy, of Prince, George, B.C. -- are getting downright cheeky about promoting this thing.

The group recently "turned on the heat on a frigid Calgary morning when they roller skied through the downtown core during noon hour with nothing more than shorts, race bibs for tops, and their traditional biathlon rifles locked on their backs," FastSkier.com reports.

Insert your own rifle butt joke here.

The calendars are $25.

And we've got to wonder: Since there are only five biathletes, does everybody get more than one month, or does the official Nude Biathlon Calendar end after May?