Olympic Stories

In the US, the two big human interest stories of the Olympics have been the skier, Bode Miller, crying for his late brother on camera and Noelle Pikus-Pace, the skeleton bobsledder, coming out of retirement to win silver after a miscarriage. In Canada, a nation rallies behind Alex Bilodeau, who celebrated his gold in freestyle mogul skiing by hugging his brother, Frederic, who has cerebral palsy and is his everyday inspiration. Mohammed Karim, Pakistans single Olympic hope, learned to ski as a child on home-made skis fashioned from wood, and trained in an environment compromised by Taliban insurgency. (Last year, 10 mountaineers were massacred at the foot of his countrys second highest peak.) And the entire Norwegian cross-country ski team competed over the weekend with black armbands, to mark the death of their teammate Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsens brother. Marit Bjoergen, who won the 15km skiathlon, became the oldest female athlete to secure gold at a Winter Olympics and broke down in tears, despite being nicknamed the Iron Lady.