IF CURLING is your grandmother's favourite sport, then snowboard cross is the choice of Playstation generation - and it's also the future of these Games.
For too long the Olympics' winter version has been dominated by sports in which races were against the clock or competitions where judges brought their prejudices, and awarded medals accordingly.
Snowboard cross made its debut last week, and was
an instant hit. Four riders career down an obstacle-filled course, crashing into each other as they get 'big air' over jumps and banked turns. The first one to the bottom wins - no need for a clock, and no requirement for style marks or complicated mathematical formulas.
The IOC have been slow to endorse the more extreme winter sports. Some members believe that snowboarding is more a lifestyle choice than a sport, citing the case of Canadian Ross Rebagliati, who did not help the perceived stereotype of his peers when he tested positive for marijuana after winning gold in 1998.
But times are changing. American broadcasters NBC, whose rivals ABC are behind the popular X Games phenomenon, want to see more extreme snow sports included for Vancouver in 2010. They are paying £353m to screen action from Turin, and are facing a tough ratings battle every night as rival networks challenge their big shows: Fox's American Idol trounced NBC's coverage of the men's downhill.
"NBC pays for the Olympics via advertising, and extreme sports give an audience demographic advertisers crave," said sports marketer Nigel Gleaner. "They cannot afford to keep spending millions on rights without this return, and the IOC can't afford to lose them."
CURLING can be cool too. In the surest sign yet that the stone-and-broom game has joined the big time, its leading stars are appearing in a nude calendar.
Austrian Claudia Toth once said no to Playboy, but she graces the cover, though Rhona Martin does not appear as Miss June, July or September - or any other month.
SHE blew the whistle on the biggest judging scandal in Winter Olympic history - but British judge Sally Stapleford has been cast out in the cold.
Stapleford was at the heart of PairsGate, that dominated the Salt Lake City Olympics four years ago, The tale had it all. Tears, jeers, corruption in smoky committee rooms, and a menacing hint of the eastern European underworld.
She revealed that one of her colleagues had been pressured into voting a certain way to award gold to the Russian couple, Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, rather than the Canadian pair, crowd favourites Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. But colleagues have forced her out of the sport.
"I took the decision to expose the conspiracy, but I always knew that there would be serious repercussions for me," she reflected. "I uncovered the misconduct and corruption, and they shot the messenger. I was very hurt, but unfortunately I wasn't shocked by it.
Is isolation a fair punishment for a judge who speaks out against wrongdoing?
"Both the Russian and French federations wanted me out after Salt Lake: they are very powerful and it was politics pure and simple. I've made sacrifices for ice skating. I never got married or had children, because skating was my passion."
FEW sports are more catty than figure skating. Tantrums, tiaras and all that.
The US skating team are still reeling from the decision of five-times world champion and media darling Michelle Kwan to pull out of the Games last week.
And things have not improved with top men's hope, Johnny Weir, forced to discuss his sexual orientation after he was outed by a former rival.
"He's drinking tea with his pinkie finger in the air, and he's so over the top and feminine, why is everybody asking him about his style, and not just asking him if he's gay?" said former national champion Rudi Galindo.
Weir, who finished fifth here, attempted to diffuse the row, which has the American media salivating. "Who I sleep with does not affect what I do on the ice," he said. "Figure skating is thought of as a female sport, something that only girly men compete in. I don't feel the need to express my sexual being because it's not part of my sport, and it's private."
IT'S hard enough to win an Olympic medal, so it should not be even more difficult to pick up your gong. But medal ceremonies take place in the Piazza Castello in the centuries-old heart of the city and, while the backdrop is spectacular, getting there can be a chore.
It's at least three hours by road from some mountain venues, meaning that organisers have press-ganged a helicopter into action to ferry some weary athletes to collect their awards.
BODE Miller could be in more trouble after being photographed in a disco with a playboy bunny. The problem is he is sporting a Coca Cola t-shirt and though they are main sponsors there are strict rules about advertising. He also appears wasted even though he is drinking Coca Cola.
In a triple whammy, he also appears to be giving the photographer the finger.
