The Olympic Lists (9 of 10): Athletes from NATO member countries

Who is the man inside the skeleton helmet designed to look like a brain? He is one of the ten athletes we will list who are from NATO member nations. The union of nations which started from the Cold War now includes several countries from the now defunct  eastern bloc. Turkey is the lone Muslim NATO member. Alper Ucar, a men's ice skater who competed in ice dancing, is one of the six athletes from my late father's country. He was mentioned in an earlier blog entry.

Here are the ten:

1) John Fairbairn. (pictured) 30. Canada. Men's Skeleton.

2) Arianna Fontana. 23. Italy. Women's Short-track Speed-skating. Won bronze.

3) Alexander Gazsi. 29. Germany. Ice Dancing.

4) Megan Bozek. 22. USA. Women's Hockey. Plays college hockey for the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

5) Michael Mulder. 27. Netherlands. Men's Speed-skating. Won gold and bronze.

6) Lene Nielsen. 27. Denmark. Women's Curling.

7) Magnus Moan. 30. Norway. Men's Alpine. Won silver.

8) Jenny Jones. 33. Great Britain. Snowboarding. Won bronze.

9) Radko Gudas. 23. Czech Republic. Men's hockey. Plays for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

10) Nicole Rajicova. 18. Slovakia. Women's Figure Skating. Her event starts today; the skater is also an American citizen who resides in New York.

http://www.bobsleigh.ca

http://www.usahockey.com

http://olympics.cbc.ca

Top 10 Olympic Lists (5 of 10): Athletes from European Nations

Stefan Grothius, a gold medal winner in speed-skating for the Netherlands, is our pictured athlete; he is NOT the Dutch speed-skater who is engaged to American speed-skater Heather Richardson from High Point, NC. North Carolina is one of many states seeing major snowfall in America, which has also hit South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland very hard.

In fact, the Greek Embassy in Washington, DC, tweeted that they were closed for the day!

Here are our ten athletes from European Union countries:

1) Stefan Groothius. 32. Netherlands. Men's Speed-skating. Won gold.

2) Jenni Asserholt. 25. Sweden. Women's Hockey.

3) Marian Hossa. 35. Slovakia. Men's Hockey. Plays for the Chicago Blackhawks. The Slovakian team lost to the USA by a score of 7-1.

4) Justnya Kowalczyk. 31. Poland. Women's Cross-country Skiing. Won gold.

5) Martin Erat. 32. Czech Republic. Men's Hockey. Plays for the Washington Capitals. The Czechs lost 4-2 to Sweden yesterday.

6) Tatjana Hufner. 30. Germany. Women's luge. Won silver.

7) Ander Mirambell. 30. Spain. Men's Skeleton.

8) Mae Berenie Meite. 19. France. Women's Figure Skating.

9) Armin Zoggeler. 40. Italy. Men's Luge. Won bronze. He is among the most decorated athletes ever in his sport.

10) Jenny Jones. 33. Great Britain. Snowboarding. Won bronze. She is the only medalist for her country as of this entry.

http://www.sochi2014.com/en

http://www.nbcolympics.com/

http://www.bbc.com/sport/winter-olympics/2014

http://www.rnw.nl/english (Radio Netherlands)