Transcripts For WBAL Today 20100215 : vimarsana.com

good morning, golden boy canadian skier, alex bilodeau, makes his country proud, winning canada s long sought, first gold medal on home soil. so, what s he going to do now? he s talking to us live today, monday, february 15th, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning, welcome to today on a monday morning, day four of the 21st olympic winter games, i m matt lauer. and i m meredith vieira. and i know it s early here. but you won t regret getting up, because your new national hero, alex bilodeau, will be joining us in just a moment. think this guy had a good day? there he is, just a couple of yards from us right now. we re joined by ann curry and al roker. this is the guy who put an end to the drought. it s been so talked about. the canadians had never won a gold medal on home soil. they didn t do it the previous two times the olympics were hosted here in canada. he put an end to that yesterday, with a stunning run in the men s moguls. i was in a restaurant when this happened, the place went berserk. and you thought it was for you. i had no illusions. you re going to get to talk to alex in a little while. and sunday a good day for team usa, two medals including an historic first in the nordic combined. it brings the american s team to six medals, good enough to lead the medals count. germany in second with four, france and canada with three each. and coming up, we ll talk to four of team usa s six medal winners. and they all said they had not been to bed. so they re just really high on the whole experience. on a more serious note, the fallout continues from the deadly accident on the luge track during the training run on friday. the ioc is getting some fire for blaming the accident solely on the athlete. a 21-year-old from the republic of georgia. his father has now spoken out, saying his son was afraid of that track. we re going to have much more on that story in just a couple of minutes. also on a much happier note, the great one, wayne gretzky, is also stopping by today. canada s national hero and treasure. i can tell you re excited about that. but first we re going to begin with a first full weekend of competition here at the vancouver olympics. ann curry is here with that. and good morning to you. after the first week of competition it is the team usa is off to a very strong start. but on sunday night, as we ve been mentioning, it was an historic first, for the host country that is making headlines. oh, canada, the drought is over, alex bilodeau has won gold. it was an olympic dream that for canadians, was long overdue. it s an amazing feeling. you can t have a better feeling than that. capturing the first gold medal on home soil, alexandre bilodeau, took the top spot in the men s freestyle moguls. in front of a hometown crowd, including his older brother, who has cerebral palsy. bilodeau beat out an australian skier and mirren, bryon wilson, who took bronze. everybody is skiing on fumes! earlier in the team, it was team usa that captured an olympic first in men s nordic combined. while missing gold by just .4%, johnny spillane s silver medal is the first ever for the u.s. in this sport. the combines ski jumping with cross-country skiing. we ve worked really hard for a lot of years and have it finally be coming together for everybody at the right time is awesome. meanwhile, at the rink on sunday night, love actually was a fitting theme for the american pair. amanda uvora and mark ladwig who dazzled the crowd during the pair s short program. 24.76 receiving personal best scores. amanda s mom cried in the stands after her daughter s performance. but it was the chinese pair that finished with the lead. going into tonight s competition. the first american gold of the vancouver games belongs to hannah kearney. on saturday, kearney had a flawless run to finish the women s freestyle moguls. her teammate, shannon barkey, took bronze in the same competition. earlier on saturday, apolo ohno won silver in a dramatic finish to tie bonnie blair as the most-decorated american winter olympian. receiving the bronze was american newcomer, jrselky. from highs to heartbreak, the tragic luging accident still haunts the whistler sliding center, following the death of a georgian athlete. over the weekend, competition resumed, after modifications to the course. but there was more fallout over a controversial statement blaming the 21-year-old for his own death. it read in part on friday, griff was visible in bc place for a night of remembrance and also artistry, which was the most-watched opening ceremony of a nonu.s. opening winter olympics. but not without a technical glitch. it appears that one of the doors is malfunctioning at this moment. with only three of the four legs raised, the first-ever indoor olympic cauldron was lit. afterwards, wayne gretzky carried the flame on its final leg to the outdoor location. and the big events to watch today? bode miller competing in the men s downhill, the pairs figure skating final and the men s snowboard cross. meantime, the warm weather is still having an impact on at these games, because officials had to adjust the ski schedules, which means there will be more time for lindsey vonn to heal from the bruised shin. bad news, however, 8,000 snowboard cross tickets for today and tomorrow are now being refunded because of the crane has made the area where they were, people were supposed to stand, it s made that area unstable, meredith. ann, thank you very much. and with me now, the golden boy of canada, alex bilodeau. alex, good morning. [ cheers and applause ] this crowd is so proud of you. first gold medal on canadian soil for a canadian. so congratulations to you. alex told me a few minutes ago, that he only slept 15 minutes. how are you functioning? just high at winning? just a big high. i had an hour at the olympic village, to try to sleep, i couldn t. open my emails, too much emails, closed my computer. went back to sleep. i did 15 and they came to get me. has it sunk in, alex, what you ve accomplished? i don t think so. i think it s going to come through more time during the day until the ceremony tonight. but everything went so fast. was there a moment as you were going down the mountain when you thought, i ve got this? no. never? i was so in the moment. i don t even remember that much. and focusing on my key words and stuff. until i crossed the finish line. and even after i crossed the finish line, there was one more thing, you never know. we re a judged sport, any given guy, the top ten, there s so many good guys there. and guilbaut colas could have won, too, dale begg-smith, anybody. tell me at the moment when you realized it was your day, when you had won the gold. it s pretty unbelievable. and when you look at the screen and you see the first, bilodeau, canada, you can t believe it. it s just about the dream, like you can t even believe that it s happening to you right now. and you dream about going to the olympics. you dream about winning a medal at the olympics, but winning the gold on your own soil. it s just you re so proud to be a canadian. and having your family there at the bottom waiting for you, including your brother, frederick, with cerebral palsy. you ve said in the past that he is your inspiration. how much of this win is for your brother? it was his birthday on february 8th. it was his birthday. yes. the first thing i said to him, happy birthday. he was really proud. he s got a big part, growing up with a handicap, cerebral palsy guy. has that shaped you as an athlete? oh, yeah, obviously as a person, as an athlete, it shapes your mental. it shapes your perspective of life. when you wake up in the morning, and you, you have nothing to complain. and you do complain. everybody, you complain. but that guy never complains and he s got all the rights to do it. and he always has a smile. and he finds the life super-nice. so you take yourself, i got that chance maybe to be one day an olympic champion? i ll try my best. and you succeeded. and right before we went on, this gentleman said to you right there, the way you handled yourself, you make all of us proud to be canadian. [ cheers and applause ] how do you feel? that s a pretty amazing thing for someone to say. how do you feel when you hear things like that? you feel more proud to be canadian. and i mean, i m just done my best for my country today, and so, yeah i m proud, there s no feeling to describe that. the if an american athlete wins, they go to disneyworld. what are you going to do? i don t know yet. i m going to go through the couple days and just try to settle down a bit. and go cheer for the other canadians coming up. there s going to be more medals to come. more gold for canada? more gold for canada. you receive your gold medal tonight. matt, over to you. as we mentioned, three of team usa s medals came in moguls. bryon wilson won bronze last night on saturday. hannah kearney won or first gold medal in vancouver. and teammate shannon barky took home the bronze. congratulations to all of you. i wanted to mention, you re not wearing your medal yet, because you didn t get it? yeah, i didn t get it yet. i ll get it tonight. hannah, congratulations, i was thinking, alex is probably the most popular guy on canadian soil today. you may the most popular person on canadian soil today. well i think alex to helped to get me off the hook. because it looked like a canadian in the women s moguls was going to win the event and came down last and took the medal. it was unbelievable, jen heil came down before me and i heard the roar when i was in the starting gate and i used it to ski the best run in my life. when i look at the runs, they go by like this. but what stands out in the run to you? what was the highlight? most of the middle session, i wasn t even thinking. my feet were just reacting to the turns. in the start gate, i was thinking, had is what i m here for, this is what i ve been training for, enjoy it. and when you have fun you ski better. and shannon you, were here a couple of days ago on the show, talking about how nice it would be to get back on the podium after a silver in torino four years ago. you got the bronze medal. how did it feel for you? absolutely thrilling. it was the best feeling in the whole world. i loved what happened when you realized hannah had won the gold. you came out and you gave her the biggest bear hug. i almost knocked her over. it s so nice, these are individual sports, yet the team aspect does come into play and it s so nice that you can root for each other that way. well, you know, we were standing up in the tent getting ready. singing party in the usa and we wanted it to be us on the podium. so we were dancing. i knew as soon as she crossed the finish line that she won. she had done an incredible run. it was really cool. bryon, the night belonged to alex out there because he won the first home gold medal for the canadians. but talk to me about yr run. you came through in a very big way. yeah. it s a great accomplishment for alex. and for canada. and for me, it s just amazing to be often the podium. it was pretty cool watching these guys the night before. i was jumping up and down when these guys did what they did it was kind of an inspiration for me going into the next day. and they seemed to have a blast with it and that s pretty much what i was trying to do, going into today. and you know, i just had fun with it. i think the mogul skiers more than anything, you guys always seem to be having a blast. there s a lot of, you know, in a kind of fun going on around here. especially with you. we mentioned earlier when you were here a couple of days ago, you re get married in the summer, i think it is? 10-10-10. now you realry are going to be mrs. happy? yeah, always. well, bryon, hannah and shannon, congratulations, we re proud of you all. will team usa win more medals? you can continue watching on nbc and hannah says, yes, we can. prime time coverage begins at 8 :00 p.m. let s check the other morning top stories from amy robach, back in new york with more. we begin with a deadly train crash this morning in belgium, where two commuter trains hit head on killing at least 20 people. many others were injured and it all happened in a suburb of brussels, in snowy conditions. the cause now under investigation. snow is being blamed for a series of multi-vehicle pileups sunday in kansas, one involving about 40 cars and trucks. several people were hurt. and in pennsylvania, part ever an ice rink collapsed during a youth hockey tournament. no one was injured there. u.s. and afghan forces are pushing deeper into a taliban stronghold in southern afghanistan in an major offensive. the u.s. is apologizing for an incident sunday, when two u.s. rockets killed 12 civilians. and the war in iraq and the treatment of terror suspects were big topics sunday in an extraordinary clash on tv. nbc s white house correspondent, savannah guthrie has more on that. savannah, good morning. reporter: good morning, amy. on one side it was vice president joe biden. on the other, former vice president, dick cheney taking their feud over national security to the airwaves. it was a split-screen sunday showdown. dick cheney is a fine fellow. but he is not entitled to rewrite history without it being challenged. i, i guess i shouldn t be surprised about i my friend, joe biden. never shy about criticizing the obama administration why do you think dick cheney is speaking out and being so critical of the president and the administration so publicly? all i know is he s factually substantively wrong. on the major criticisms he is asserting. reporter: but cheney continued the attack, saying the administration had botched the interrogation of christmas day bombing suspect, umar farouk abdulmutallab, by reading him his miranda rights. the proper way to deal with it would have been to treat him as an enemy combatant. i don t know what dick s been doing lately. we did exactly what he did with the shoe bomber, richard reid. reporter: but cheney slams the administration for not using tougher interrogation tactics. you believe they should have the option of everything up to and including waterboarding? i believe you ought to have all of those capabilities on the table. reporter: watching the interview, vice president biden was quick to respond. that s dick cheney. thank god the last administration didn t listen to him at the end. reporter: cheney also scoffed at biden s claims that iraq will go down as an obama administration success because the war is ending now. i m glad he now believes iraq is a success. it ought to go with the healthy dose of thank you, george bush up front. we re pursuing the war with vigor like it s never been seen before. they are on the run. i don t know where dick cheney has been. reporter: former vice president dick cheney did have one compliment for the administration saying he supported the president s decision to send more troops to afghanistan. amy? thank you. an amazing video of a huge wave that slammed into a crowd of spectators over the weekend at a surfing competition at half moon bay, california. look at that, at least 13 people were hurt, some with broken bones. it is 7:17. we ll head now back to matt, meredith and al all in vancouver. [ inaudible ] [ inaudible ] tomorrow we get name tags. hello, my name is mr. roker, take it away. you re looking dead at me. i called him mr. roker last week. it s totally fine. it s all good. good morning. things are pretty quiet right now. that same system will bring us light snow, but not until late in the day today. most of the day will be dry. will take up after 3:00, and that s your latest weather. meredith? thanks. kiddo. al. as ann pointed out, it s already been an historic winter games for team usa and we re just three days in, johnny spillane won our first nordic medal and on saturday, apolo ohno tied the most medals for an u.s. olympian, ever. unbelievable, apollo won silver. with his blue bandana and signature soul patch, apolo ohno race aid cross the finish line to become the most decorated american man in the history of the winter olympic games. racing on the first day of olympic competition, with his father cheering in the stands, ohno secured silver in the 1500 meters. capitalizing on this dramatic fall by two south korean skaters, he had been trailing behind. it was crazy, a lot of contact in the race, a lot of bumping. i fought a very hard race. and i m happy. i won another silver medal. and it was amazing. south korean lee jung so took the gold and american teammate jrselski took the bronze. ohno s last medal marks his sixth career overall medal. he s going to have to keep going on and skating to have to be a five-time gold medalist. that may be true, but a sixth gold medal in this, his third olympics is a great achievement. dan jensen said this stood the test of time. it speaks to longevity. and that s the hardest thing to do, is stay on top. this is his third olympics that he s been on top. it s quite impressive. why was it important that you do this olympics? i learned how to speed skate in vancouver. my father would drive me back and forth, from seattle to vancouver. so i essentially learned how to speed skate in vancouver. and then now towards the end of my career, 27 years old you re that old? i think it s old when you consider i ve been basically the captain of the world team or you know, leading our team since i was 14 years old. he has three events left and one more medal of any color would make him the most successful american winter olympic athlete of all time. is that the kind of information that puts undue pressure on you? or do you sort of thrive on that? i do thrive on that. and the people in that category of athlete are truly amazing. and for me to even be mentioned in the same sentence is quite an honor. so i feel humbled. and our congratulations to apolo. just ahead, the weather has given her a break, but is lindsey vonn s shin feeling any better? we ll hear from her. but first, this is today on nbc. still ahead, he told his father he was scared of the track. plus the great one, wayne gretzky, stops by after your local news. [ engine revving ] he said he was a professional student. no. of life. [ laughing ] i m so sorry. single lane ahead. i ll be in that lane. [ male announcer ] the chevy malibu. a consumer s digest best buy with a 100,000-mile powertrain warranty. you can depend on it so people can depend on you. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. sarah caldwell and traffic pulse 11 standing by. we have a lighter volume because it is a holiday, but i see additions in many spots ramp to the j.f.x., those friends are blocked. at coldspring, we had an accident. that has been cleared. watch for icy conditions on edmondson and bad lot right there with a water main break. drive times are not too bad. 11-minute ride on the northeast outer loop. from the beltway southwest down to 32. other accidents happen clear that we had reviewed this morning. looks good here, and as we switch over to 95 out of the white marsh area, we are not dealing with the same type of low volume. tony has more on the forecast. things are quiet right now. a few clouds around. temperatures in the teens in most areas. 24 in the city, 20 degrees in rock hall. it will become cloudy by lunchtime. light snow possible late this afternoon. temperatures lower end of the 30 s. light snow is likely for most of you tonight, one to 3 in. of regulation. not a big storm. seven-day forecast, light snow possible in the morning on tuesday clearing up on the afternoon. most of the week looks fine. wednesday, thursday, friday, sunshine. temperatures eventually coming up to 40 degrees. be sure to check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. our next live update, 25 minutes away. 7:30 on this monday morning, february 15th, 2010. presidents day back in the states. day four of the vancouver olympic games. we re gazing on the olympic cauldron in downtown vancouver. you see the other lights in the upper left of the screen, that s the top of cypress mountain. hopefully the alpine skiing competition can get under way at whistler. they ve had warm weather so the bottom of the courses, they re soft and i guess they re dangerous in that companndition. but if there s one person who has benefitted from the warm-weather delays, it s lindsey vonn. she s got the bruised shin and these delays give her time to heal. how much has she healed? we ll be talking to her about that. i caught up with her yesterday after a run on the slopes, not an official training run, but a chance to test it out. the first luge medals were handed out on sunday, just two days after a luger from the georgian republic died in a terrible training accident. officials said the track did not cause the crash. they blamed it on the athlete. but if that was the case, that the track did not cause the crash, why did they make changes to the course? we ll get the latest coming up. we ll talk to a former u.s. olympic luger, duncan kennedy about all of that. we had alex bilodeau here a moment ago. you want to hear the crowd get fired up, i ll say two words wayne gretzky. wayne gretzky is live here this morning just outside our chalet, we ll talk to the great one coming up in a couple of minutes. let s begin with our interview with american skier, lindsey vonn, who was all smiles on sunday when i sat down with her shortly after she strapped on the skis. it was really nice. i mean it was a lot better than i anticipated. i mean i ve been up there on the hill and before you know, a couple of days for the inspection and things like that. but i haven t had a chance to push my shin and see how it feels. but today i got out there and the slalom. it wasn t an official training run? no, just training. how hard did you push yourself? i pushed it pretty hard. and it was painful, but it was dentally very manageable. everything has been canceled, so i ve just been taking the time off and today i went out there, testing it out and i was really pleasantly surprised. are you worried the day after a day after today? is this one of those injuries, where it s getting better just because of time and can a run like today when you push yourself means it will hurt more tomorrow. i m always careful not to push it too far. if it starts to really, really hurt, you know you ve got to back off. because i don t want to make it worse. but i think that just this time i ve had, these four extra days, that mother nature has given me, has just been a godsend. i don t want to make it sound two dramatic, but mother nature is a lindsey vonn fan, apparently. i think so. it s extraordinary, you re getting exactly what you needed and that s time. exactly. because of the weather and because of some of the shuffling of the schedule, as it stands now, and this is without any further scheduling shifts, you re going to ski five medal events in ten days. yeah. on an injured shin. it s going to be tough. but at this point, it s really manageable. so bring it on. when you look back at the last two weeks, lindsay and all that s happened since the time that you injured this and how you ve handled it, the way you ve dealt with it publicly and privately, is there anything you wish you could have done differently? you know i ve been really open and honest about my injury. and i wouldn t, i wouldn t change that, you know, i don t want to hide anything. i m laying it all out there and i m doing the best i can every day and that s all i can do. and we last spoke on tuesday night. which was the night you first told anyone that you had this injury and i could see in your eyes it was, it was very troubling to you. how would you describe your mood today versus then? well i m smiling. and it s a natural unforced smile. i was in a much different place mentally than i am now. you know, now i feel like okay, i can do something here, you know, it s not just, am i going to race, can i do this? it s okay, i want to win, i want to go out there and ski my best. at least now i know i can ski and i ll be racing and that puts a huge smile on my face. the first race for you is what now? the downhill on wednesday. if you win that race, people are going to say she made more of this injury than she should have. if you finished 10th in the race they re going to say these aren t going to be her games. are you going to listen to what they say at the end of the race? i think it s been helping me to not hear what other people are saying. you know, just stay focused on getting my shin better and trying to ski. i m not going to listen to what anyone says, i m just going to go out there and do my best. and that was yesterday as i sat down with lindsey vonn. pikabo street is a special correspondent for us and a medal winner in the skiing. she seems so much more relieved than when i spoke to her on tuesday night. you ve spoken to her, what s the reality here? basically when i got lindsey on the phone, i was trying to hear in her voice as a friend. she s getting fired up. to me she s lying this little volcano that is getting ready to explode. and granted, she needs wednesday, she needs the time. but she wishes wednesday was here now. because of the smack talk that she s hearing going on. she s hear a lot of that. but when she says it s no longer excruciatingly painful, but it s still painful, what level do you think or expect that she can perform at? well whether or not she can race 100%, i don t think so. she s not going to be able to race at 100% at these games, but she can beat the world at about 8 0%, in my opinion and other people s opinions. the good news, the weather has delayed things, which has given her time to heal. the bad news is she s got to ski five medal events in ten days. on an injured shin. how difficult is that going to be? the thing about the shin now is as soon as the dead blood moves out of the area, the shin is no longer injureded and she s good to go. so she s got to hope that some of the activity and some of the work they ve been doing with ultrasound and laser is going to get the blood out of there. we re going to worry a lot about her chances for the rest of the winter games come wednesday. including her. because honestly, she doesn t know that much more than we do, matt. she s out there day to day, minute by minute. when you re an athlete at this level and you kind of plot your olympics, you say, i m going to train this day and compete that day. and i m going to train this day and compete that day. and the whole schedule gets thrown up in the air. how difficult is it mentally? it can be difficult on you mentally, if you came in with too much of a plan. but as an alpine skier, you came in knowing that mother nature is the boss. so you re good at it. now at the olympics and as much juggling that they re doing, it s getting difficult. they re going to have to crank down and help each other as a team to stay mellow and stay focused. and what they re used to with the familiar people around them. she seemed mellow. she is baking banana bread up at the house and promised to bring us some. pikabo, thank you so much. let s check the weather now with mr. roker. banana bread, i like the sound of that. we ve got some nice folks here. and we ve got today in the palm of his hands. very impressive, we like that. and this young lady here she got a today tattoo, that must have really hurt. what s your name? emily. where are you from? grouse mountain, right here. you re in our back yard, welcome. thanks, i love your canadian flag on the other cheek. let s check your weather. again we re talking on about a week ahead that brings snow to the northeast. much below-normal temperatures throughout two-thirds of the country, above-normal out west where we don t need it mid-week, do temperatures change? no. they stay above-normal out west. the eastern half of the country gets the below-normal temperatures with more snow. for the latter part of the week, temperatures normal out out west and below-normal temperatures most of the day should be quiet, but by late this afternoon, the chance for snow developing. it will take longer o nd if you want to check the olympic weather or any weather around the world or the country, you can go to weather.com or the weather channel on cable. matt? . al, thanks so much. coming up, has the death of the luger in a practice run on friday up at whistler been handled the right way? we ll talk about it with of america s most successful lugers, ever, right after this. n and then he recommended lyrica. fibromyalgia is thought to be the result of over-active nerves that cause chronic, widespread pain. lyrica is fda-approved to help relieve the unique pain of fibromyalgia. and with less pain, i can do more during my day. how sweet is that? lyrica is not for everyone. tell you doctor about any serious allergic reaction that causes swelling or affects breathing or skin, or changes eyesight including blurry vision or muscle pain with fever or tired feeling. lyrica may cause suicidal thoughts or actions in a very small number of people. some of the most common side effects of lyrica are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands and feet. do not drink alcohol while taking lyrica. you should never drive or operate machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. if you think you might have fibromyalgia, ask your doctor about lyrica. strawberries. i m catching the smell of strawberries. the smell of strawberries? 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[ female announcer ] not good pizza. with lean cuisine you never have to compromise on pizza or anything else yummy, because you always get delicious and nutritious. you want shrimp? have shrimp. need your veggies? have your veggies. and cheese? bring it on. check the glossary in the back of the book. there s no compromise in there. and about that question on page 17. plaid is huge this year. lean cuisine. keep life delicious. and welcome back to our home atop grouse mountain here in vancouver. the luge competition went on as scheduled over the weekend, in spite of friday s tragic death of a 21-year-old luge anywhere the republic of georgia. but questions remain about the track s safety and how the ioc handled the crash. nbc s peter alexander is at whistler with the very late earth. peter, good morning to you. reporter: good morning to you. the international luge federation had discussions reportedly even before this crash, about possibly implementing a speed limit of 85 miles per hour at future luge tracks. in the meantime, the olympic athletes here, the lugers, had very little time to mourn their loss. the officials wasted very little time reopening the track. even as they re still dogged by harsh new questions about whether enough was done to protect the athletes. felix loch captures the gold medal. reporter: with german felix loch capturing gold in the luge on sunday, the germans had reason to celebrate. but the international luge federation blamed the 21-year-old nodar kumaritashvili for the crash, saying there was no indication that the accident was caused by deficiencies in the track. that statement immediately sparked outrage. his death is not because of the mistake he made. people should be asking hard questions as to why this death occurred. and try to rectify it so that it never happens again. the loss is particularly painful in the young luger s native country, the republic of georgia. i don t claim to know all the technical details. but one thing i know for sure, that no sports mistakes is supposed to lead to his death. kumaritashvili s father, david, a three-time luge champion himself in the old soviet union, was too distraught to watch news coverage of the crash. translator: i haven t seen it and i don t want to see it, he explained. his son called just days earlier to say he was terrified of whistler s track, the world z fastest where lugers have reached speeds of 96 miles per hour. it led to a preseries competition changes at the track. including a new wall, pads for exposed steel poles and to reduce speeds, lower starting lines. since the tragedy, olympic officials have defended whistler s track as safe. but say the changes made it even safer. since friday s deadly accident, there have been 340 runs down the modified track. and not a single crash. we re very happy, we re totally confident. i think you saw the competition yesterday. everyone who started finished, got down, there were no accidents. reporter: and organizers for the winter games in 2012 have been told that the trend toward faster and faster tracks stops now. beginning tonight, the women lugers take their turn on the track, wh the medals being handed out tomorrow. peter alexander, thank you very much. only a world-class luger can understand what it s like to be out on the track. nbc sports luger duncan kennedy competed in three luge events for the u.s. good morning to you. good morning. i want to start with something that peter mentioned in his report. the president of the international luge federation said the group s members prior to the accident had discussed limiting the speed of future luge tacks. do you think that a speed limit could have prevented this accident? well i feel you can have a very exciting race, you can build a more technically-challenging track with lower speeds. and you know, with these high speeds, physics takes on a new realm, if you will. and unfortunately, they found out the hard way. the international luge federation did release a statement after the luger s death, concluding that it was his fault, essentially for what happened. it was athlete error. and no indication that it was the fault of the deficiencies in terms of the track itself. but then it did make modifications. so it seems like a contradiction there, duncan. well, they absolutely did the right thing by building the wall up and moving the starts down. the actual track itself, the sliding surface, was in great shape for sure. the infrastructure around the track that in my mind, has been a concern for years. but again, we get back to these speeds and what it means when the sleds get out of control. well nodar kumaritashvili s dad told our nbc s stephanie gosk, that he had spoke to his son right before the race and his son said he was scared, the track was too fast. but he was in vancouver to go as fast as he could. is there too much pressure on these athletes to compete at unsafe speeds? are they doing things they really shouldn t be doing? well, for the majority of the field, it wasn t really too fast. but at the same time, you have to account for everyone in a sport like this, that s gravity-based. it s not like you can snowplow into the first corner and slow your speeds down. not that you can tell racers to slow down, anyway. how did the athletes who are competing on saturday and sunday feel about the changes? the modifications to the track? honestly? the majority of the racers are not pleased with the lowered starts. these are racers at heart. they want to go after it. they want to go full speed. and it is a technically-challenging track that a lot of people enjoy. but out of respect for what happened, and again, creating a safe environment and a safe race, it was essential. but will this change the future of the sport? i believe it will. there needs to be a cap on the speed. i mean it can t get faster and faster. and again, i feel that course design needs to maybe go towards more technically-challenging tracks. you can lower the speeds even down to 75 miles per hour. there s some tracks on the circuit that are about 70, 75 miles per hour that are actually much more difficult than this track. so i think that needs to be taken into consideration. all right. duncan kennedy, thank you so much for your insight. and still ahead, a man revered in canada, the lighter of the olympic cauldron. we ll take to wayne gretzky. but first, these messages. the stuff you want to reach for. now you can enjoy good choices even more. people who spent $100 a week at leading national supermarkets. on frequently purchased groceries. could have saved $55 in one month. by shopping at walmart instead. it s another cupboard filled. and another great day for the savers. save money. live better. walmart. pediatricians trust children s tylenol. to help their fevers, aches and pains feel better. it can take so much out of you. i feel like i have to wind myself up just to get out of bed. then. well. i have to keep winding myself up to deal with the sadness, the loss of interest, the trouble concentrating, the lack of energy. if depression is taking so much out of you, ask your doctor about pristiq. 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[ laughter ] [ male announcer ] a consumer s digest best buy. with up to 600 highway miles on a tank of gas. it takes you farther and brings you closer. and this morning on today s olympic moment, there s no place like home. canada marched into these olympic winter games never having won a gold medal on home soil. and here he comes! but mogul skier, alexandre bilodeau, was determined to do something about that. look at the speed from alexandre bilodeau of canada! bilodeau landed in first place, all of canada holding its breath to see if he could take home that first gold. then, the score for the final skier of the night came in. o canada, the wait is over alexandre bilodeau has won gold! all of canada celebrated his achievement. but perhaps no one was happier than bilodeau s biggest fan, his brother, frederick, he he has cerebral palsy and was cheering the whole time at the bottom of the course. bilodeau said his brother was his inspiration. it was a great moment. by the way, another terrific moment american johnny spillane s historic silver medal. a little encouragement changes everything. molly es muy muy intelligente. and right now, hallmark s got a whole new way to do it. new gifts and cards to cheer on kids of all ages. come in and pick up a free card today. nine to choose from. only at your hallmark gold crown store. 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( sneezing ) i didn t take zicam cold remedy. but i did. can you do it by 3:00 ? yes, i can how about 2:00 ? hmm. get over your cold faster. by booking my family trip with expedia.mm. first i find the flight i want. then a great hotel my kids will love. yeah. but wait. here s the really cool part. when i book them at the same time. voila! i can save up to 450 bucks. and we all know that can come in pretty handy. book flight and hotel, and save more. where you book matters, expedia. dot com live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am stan stovall. it is a holiday but there is still morning commute. here is sarah caldwell. unfortunately, it is icy out there still in many spots. outer loop at eastern, accident there, another one and was bought white marsh boulevard. no. at belair, we had a crash. icy conditions reported. blocked with icy conditions. edmondson, watch for some icy spots due to a water main break. as far as the drive times, not doing bad at all. sipping a soft i-95 for the bucs play it down to 32. on the west side, you can see how like things are there. that is the case everywhere as far as the major roadways there. in the white marsh vicinity, normally we see delays, but not the case this morning. things are pretty quiet right now. the sky had a chance to clear last night. temperatures bottomed out in the teens. sunshine earlier this morning. 18 in sykesville, 10 in frederick. a cold start for us. we will see clouds the cup as we had through the morning. late this afternoon, there is a possibility of light snow. after 3:00, a chance for light snow, with a high temperature to 33. light snow is likely to die for most of us. temperatures drop to the 20 s. one to three inches of accumulation. should not be a big deal this time. check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. our next live update at 8:25. we re back now at 8 :00 on a monday morning, the 15th day of february, 2010. this was the scene this past friday night. legend, wayne gretzky and some others helping to light the olympic cauldron. and it was a wonderful scene. and where is wayne gretzky today? he s with us live here on grouse mountain, much to the delight of his many fans. out here on the rink at grouse mountain, i m matt lauer and meredith vieira is helping to pick up a young skater. i m very familiar with that position. meanwhile it doesn t get any bigger than wayne gretzky here in canada, we ll talk to him live in just a couple of minutes. and the chinese dazzled last night s start to the figure skating competition. could they sweep all three pairs medals? and who are the other skaters to watch for here in vancouver. today s special correspondent, kristi yam gucci will break things down. and a grueling medal in the nordic combined. we ll meet american silver medalist, johnny spillane and his teammates coming up. but first, their performances were just some of the weekend s highlights and today s currentnatalie morales is here with more. the greatest celebration came last night when alex bilodeau of canada finally won gold for this country in the men s moguls. alexandre bilodeau has won gold! reporter: the sweet sound of victory. one of the greatest moments we have seen. reporter: 22-year-old alexandre bilodeau marking a major milestone in canadian olympic history, taking home the country s first gold medal on home soil. canada is the best, they bring the best out of me. and it s it s amazing. like it s an amazing feeling. a feeling he shared with his older brother, frederick. one of his biggest fans, who has cerebral palsy. with everything back into perspective. and you learn, you learn from people that don t complain. my brother never complains and he s got every right to complain. bilodeau surpassed defending olympic champion, dale begg-smith of australia while american bryon wilson took the bronze. from snow to the ice, where american pairs figure skaters got under way, where avora and mark ladwig set a career best of 57.68 points but finished with a 10th-place finish in the short program. the top spot went to shen and zhao of china, who broke their own world record and go into tonight s free skate in first place. and it s going to be no, korea wipes out, unbelievable. and apolo won silver. earlier in weekend competition, a record-thaiing performance for american short-track speed skating star, apolo ohno. it was a hard race. a lot of bumping, a lot of contact. but it worked out. his silver medal win in the 1500 meters marks his sixth overall medal. bringing him just one win away from taking the title of most decorated american winter olympian, from speed skater, bonnie blair. and it was also a triumphant weekend for u.s. women in the moguls competition. a bookend win with shannon bahrke taking the bronze and then hannah kearney, the gold. making for an emotional medal ceremony sunday night. such a great moment for the american women. meanwhile, be sure to tune in today on nbc as bode miller gets his shot at the elusive medal in the men s downhill. and also seth westcott looking to defend his gold medal from torino in the men s snowboard competition today. there are surprising new details this morning about the suspect in friday s deadly shooting at the university of alabama at huntsville. here s nbc s john yang. reporter: police say amy bishop opened fire at a routine faculty meeting, killing three colleagues and wounding three others. since then, disturbing revelations about her past. the latest, according to published reports, she was a suspect in a 1993 attempted mail bomb attack in the boston area, no one was ever charged. the target was a harvard med school professor. it was common knowledge that they had an issue, that there was something that they didn t agree on. reporter: police in bishop s hometown have now also disclosed that in 1986, when she was 19, she killed her 18-year-old brother, seth. she shot her brother in the chest, fled the home. reporter: at the time, skate investigators called it an accident. but police in braintree, massachusetts, say bishop and her brother were arguing when he was shoflt. and adding to the mystery, the police files from 24 years og are missing. i don t want to use the word cover-up i don t know what the thought process was of the police chief at the time. the police chief said he done nothing wrong. anything that there s a cover-up, that s so far from the truth, i won t even get into it. reporter: authorities haven t offered a motive for friday s shooting. school officials said bishop was denied tenure last spring and last her appeal months ago. it is third day of a major offensive to retake the taliban stronghold of marjah in southern afghanistan. the mission was overshadowed sunday when two u.s. rockets slammed into a home, killing 12 civilians. and investigators are on the scene of a deadly train crash outside brussels. two commuter trains crashed head-on this morning, killing at least 11 people. and this is presidents day and the public is getting its first look at a new home movie showing the arrival of president kennedy in dallas the day he was assassinated. the footage, taken by a man who was a teenager in 1963 was donated to and released by the sixth floor museum. and in pennsylvania, a little girl s wish came true on valentine s day, 4-year-old paige benson s dad surprised her, returning home on a two-week leave if iraq. her photo, you may remember captured the heart of the nation when paige s father, staff sergeant, brett benson deployed to iraq eight months ago. it s 8:06, let s get another check of the weather from al in vancouver. al? thanks a lot, amy. we ve got big canada fans here. what s your name? ethan. ethan, you might want to have a doctor look at that, that s really it comes look, your mom has maple leafs on her cheek. are you excited about how canada is doing so far? yeah. go, canada, go, that s the big saying here. go, canada, go! all right, downtown vancouver, if joe michaels would just put that graphic back up, that would be awfully nice. we ve got some morning partly sunny skies, clouds by the afternoon in downtown. whistler looking for flurries, temperatures in the 40s by evening. one it five inches of snow. as you can see on the satellite, clipper system coming across, snow sfr indiana into the northeast into new england. another storm system coming into the pacific northwest, bringing rain including for here in vancouver. sunshine in the southwest. things should be quiet for most of the day. by late this afternoon, a chance for a light snow coming in. it will become clouded by the middle of the day thanks very much. coming up, the stars of the ice, who s going to win tonight s pairs competition? and what are the americans chances in the men s and women s events? we ll ask kristi yamaguchi. . or how it responds. in extreme situations? the deeper you look, the more you see the real differences. and the more you understand what it means to own a mercedes-benz. the c-class. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for special offers through mercedes-benz financial. i m from fayetteville, north carolina, .and i smoked for 29 years. the one thing about smoking - is it dominates your life, and it dominated mine. i honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didn t think i would ever quit. it was very interesting that you could smoke on the first week. 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(announcer) talk to your doctor about chantix and a support plan that s right for you. some people have had changes in behavior, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice agitation, hostility, depression or changes in behavior, thinking or mood that are not typical for you, or if you develop suicidal thoughts or actions, stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. talk to your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which can get worse while taking chantix. some people can have allergic or serious skin reactions to chantix, some of which can be life threatening. if you notice swelling of face, mouth, throat or a rash stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away. tell your doctor which medicines you are taking as they may work differently when you quit smoking. chantix dosing may be different if you have kidney problems. the most common side effect is nausea. patients also reported trouble sleeping and vivid, unusual or strange dreams. until you know how chantix may affect you, use caution when driving or operating machinery. chantix should not be taken with other quit smoking products. with the chantix and with the support system, it worked. it worked for me. 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(announcer) pepcid® complete doesn t make you choose. it neutralizes acid in seconds and controls heartburn all day or all night. pepcid® complete , works now and works later. hmm.what s going on with dad? he seems different. are you ready? he s not talking about work. i don t want to work he s not tucking in his shirt. i want to bang on the drum all day he s not checking messages every 9 seconds. i just want to bang on the drum all day and now this? i don t want to play i just want to bang on the drum all day [ fog horn blows ] we re gonna turn right. gps: turn left ahead. i mean left. woman: but gps changed our lives. turbo tax does the same thing for our taxes. it answers tough questions in simple language, getting us to our maximum refund. guaranteed. man: try turbo tax now. welcome back to grouse mountain in vancouver. figure skating got under way last night with the pairs short program tonight the medals will be handed out. kristi, yamaguchi, gold medalist is here to break it down for us. let s start first with an overview of last night. surprises? a little bit of surprise, but not so much. i think the top teams skated unbelievable, it was like it s the deepest field we ve seen in pairs skating in decades. so it was really an exciting night. and they didn t disappoint. i know the americans didn t score as high as they might have wanted to. but talk to me about both the teams we focused on and how well you think they did. our national champions skated very well. they had a little bit of trouble on the side-by-side triple jump. here you see amanda evora and mark ladwig skated phenomenal. great for them and exciting for their first showing here at the olympic games. they came in 10th? they came in 10th place, which i think if our teams come in the top ten, it s a great combination. and the other american couple was in 14th place, not that far behind. not that far behind. i think they want to skate well and enjoy it. let s talk about the pair in first place now, from china, shen and zhao, they broke their own world record score, even. they were the first ones out of the gate and what a way to set the bar for the rest of the competition. they skated unbelievable. a lot of passion on the ice and i think what was expected. so ? they ve already got two bronze medals under their belt. they re absolutely looking for gold this year. and the couple that came in second place is from germany. and they skated wonderfully. they closed the competition, had a lot of pressure, because everyone skated so well ahead of them. but skated beautifully send in the clowns was a wonderful, dramatic performance. and you know, a lot of prech on them coming in as two-time world champions. especially with the return of shen and zhao. but they did not disappoint as well. they have a strong, strong style to their skating. they go for it. and you know, they re just spectacular. and also a lot of pressure on the russian couple that came in third at this point, the 2010 european champions. the 2010 european champions, yuko kavaguti and her partner, schmirnof. a huge triple twist and her extensions are just beautiful. and their coach has already coached four teams to the gold medal podium. and prediction for tonight, who do you think will take home the gold? on the spot, you know, i think the sentimental favorites are absolutely shen and zhao of china. they ve worked incredibly hard and are looking phenomenal. all right, kristi thank you so much. coming up, the great one, wayne gretzky. but i try not to let it hold me back. whether i m at the batting cages. down by the lake or. fishing at the shore. i m breathing better. with spiriva. announcer: spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled maintenance treatment for both forms of copd, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. i take it every day. it keeps my airways open. to help me breathe better all day long. and it s not a steroid. announcer: spiriva does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. stop taking spiriva and call your doctor right away if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, have vision changes or eye pain or have problems passing urine. tell your doctor if you have glaucoma, problems passing urine or an enlarged prostate, as these may worsen with spiriva. also discuss the medicines you take, even eye drops. side effects include dry mouth, constipation and trouble passing urine. my doctor said i could be doing more to breathe better and now i am. announcer: ask your doctor about lifestyle changes and once-daily spiriva. two of nature s sweetest wonders now in new sun crystals, the only 100% natural sweetener made with pure cane sugar and stevia. with just 5 calories a packet. new sun crystals all-natural sweetener. i went to the dentist. he was poking around, he found the spots, and he said, are those spots sensitive? he recommended that i use sensodyne. i noticed it was working when i was drinking cold things and i wasn t even thinking about it. i never thought a toothpaste could fix that problem. the sparkly flakes. the honey-baked bunches! the magic s in the mix. my favorite part? eating it. honey bunches of oats. taste the joy we put in every spoonful. honey bunches of oats. we call the bunches in honey bunches of oats the prize in the box. well, now there s a prize inside the prize. pecans! pecans! baked into crunchy oat bunches. taste the delicious surprise in every spoonful. honey bunches of oats with pecan bunches. beautiful. we re back in vancouver, british columbia, canadians are excited to watch all the events here at the winter games, but there s one that units this country like no other, and that s hockey. we ll talk to the great one, wayne gretzky, but first, nbc s kevin tibbles has a look at the sport that revolutionized the country. reporter: here in hockey, they call it a religion. and they carry the hopes and dreams of a nation on their shoulders. scores! the crowd, wham, he let it go, shot, scores! reporter: every four years, team canada takes to the ice with one goal in mind winning gold for a country that is mad about hockey. for many canadian kids, that dream begins here at the local rink. mia elliott at the ripe old age of six, is hooked. so bright and early, every winter saturday, that canadian family ritual of suiting up for the rink is in full swing. at the elliott s brooklyn, ontario home. if you can walk, you re on skates, that s pretty much the rationale. it s a national passion, dare i say obsession. teamwork, identity, pride. here, the love of hockey echoes up from the ice and in the stands, whole families turn out it cheer them on. canadian prime minister, stephen harper is such a fan he took the time to meet up with us, rinkside. in every community you re in, whether it s the south, whether it s far in the north, english, french, the rink is a prominent gathering place. reporter: from the frozen pond to the local rinks, kids here dream of wearing the red and white of canada. each and every time they touch the puck. canadian heroes in many cases are the ones who have made it to the national hockey league. and when the storied toronto maple leafs take to the ice, they ve met by legions of wide-eyed kids who stand and watch and dream. in no other country does it have the prominence and dominance in cultural life that hockey has in canada. if you re a captain, you got to step up! i told you not to interrupt. stop that stuff! reporter: every saturday night, millions tune in to watch coaches corner on hockey night in canada. and if you want to know how important hockey in canada is, ask the always-colorful host, don cherry. we invented it, we re the best at it, nobody can touch us in the world. reporter: and because of that, the pressure is on to win gold. the men s team last won at the salt lake city games in 2002. the wednesday are the reigning champs from torino in 2006. in vancouver, a nation will be watching. and don cherry has this very canadian, very cherry-esque message for the players. you respect your opponent, but if your opponent doesn t respect you, straighten them out. reporter: back at the local rink, 6-year-old mia likely isn t thinking about that. she s on the ice, she s with her friends and she s having fun. and that s the purest form of the game you ll ever see. and matt, the prime minister loves this game so much, he s even writing a book about it. say hi to the great one for us. [ inaudible ] kevin, thanks very much, you re out of your league there. wayne gretzky joins us now. wayne, good morning. we re three days away. but i want to go back. i want to go back to friday night. you had the honor of helping to light the olympic cauldron. what was it like to walk into the stadium? it was amazing, when he we actually did the dress rehearsal the first night at 1:00 in the morning, when we walked into the room, to find out who was all involved, wow, like you re here, you re here. it was so nice to see nancy green and stevie nash. the four of us were so excited. and when rick hanson rolled the torch in the first time and he saw the lights and the smoke, it was overpowering, we re all very proud to be canadian. we hung out a little bit two days earlier on wednesday. and could you hook a buddy up? i said, hey, what are your commitments, what are you doing here? and you said, just your show, that s it. and you couldn t have given me a wink, and let me know you were lighting the cauldron. well they said, if you tell anybody, you re out. so we obviously all four of us kept it so quiet. so it was such an honor to be asked. so you weren t the only one that didn t know. i got the cold shoulder. the moment when the fourth leg of the cauldron didn t come up. you said you had gone through rehearsals, what was going through your mind. because there was the awkward minute or two. we were nervous for everybody and we were sitting there, we had earpieces, they were talking us, telling us relax, stay calm. and then partway through it. we heard the producer, david atkins say, wow, can we hand-crank it and get it up? that s when we knew there was an issue. and i was standing there and i knew i was running out of the building to light the one outside. so i was kind of saying well if somebody tells me to switch with katrina, she can light this one and all four of us will get to light something. but i didn t know in it was surprise. you were a member of the canadian olympic team in 1998 in nagano. give us a sense of what you think that was obviously on foreign soil. what do you think is going through the olympians minds, the canadians, as they re competing here on home soil? is. well obviously they re very excited. and the greatest thing about the olympic games is staying in the village. in 1998 they asked us if we re going to someday in the village or a hotel. and i said, we re staying in the village like everyone else. you get to mingle with the other athletes and cheer each other on. i know we got a great gold medal yesterday, and that s pretty exciting for our country. but the players are sort of secluded with the other athletes and just be able to sit back, watch the games and enjoy it. the pressure that s on this team is enormous. but i think they ll handle it very well. and in particular, the hockey team. i mean, everybody wants that gold medal in hockey. first of all, do you think they have a chance to do it? can they do it? and what kind of a disappointment would it be if they don t do it? well if they don t do it, obviously it will be something about we ll talk about for four years until the next team is picked to go to russia. but i think they have to be the favorites. i think they re as good as any team in the tournament. and the home-crowd advantage will be something that they can really strive with. and the pressure is on them, being in this country. but the excitement and the atmosphere of the canadian fans will put them to another level. so i think that they ll be favored. i think that don cherry said it best. you got to respect your opponent. and if we respect the russians and the u.s. and the swedes and the finns and so on, then i think we ll do very well. obviously you re canadian. most people know you live in los angeles and you re raising a family there. you ve got dual citizenship, don t you? yes. i took my two little ones yesterday to the speed skating and my 6-year-old was asking me who she should cheer for. and i said, the canadians are in red and the u.s. is? blue. and she said, i ll cheer for the canadians today. i m totally canadian, so i ll cheer for the canadians. but if canada can t win, i ll cheer for the u.s. your country paid you back by giving you the ultimate honor on friday night, allowing you to light the olympic cauldron. i appreciate it, it s live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. let s get a final check on the morning commute with sarah caldwell. the biggest problem is on the east side. we ve accident on the outer loop near 702. heavy delays because of it. watch for this outer loop delays. not much elsewhere, though. it is a lot lighter for presidents day. watch for an accident at four under 95 for perching fort mchenry. for 95 approaching fort mchenry. edmondson and that low, watch for a water main break. a bit of a delay of the west on the east side of fort mchenry. of the is moving well despite the accident in the northbound direction. we ll give you a look at chesaco ave. jammed to distance from edmondson in the outer loop towards 702. jammed conditions from edmondson in the outer loop towards 702. things are quiet now and will stay that way for most of the day. we will end up with light snow this afternoon. right now, it is basically clear and cold. it is called this morning. the clouds will thicken up as we had through the more to the day. late this afternoon, after 3:00, we will see a chance for light snow coming in may be right in the southern suburbs. tonight, light snow for everybody, and light accumulation, one to three inches. things should clear up in the afternoon on tuesday, and the rest of the week should be smooth sailing. highs near 40 by the end of the week. we will have another update at 8:55. 8:30 on this monday morning, presidents day, february 15th, 2010. we re spending the holiday with our new friends here, north of the board, grouse mountain in vancouver. and they seem more than happy to celebrate with us. we thank them for coming out. just ahead, one of our favorite winter athletes is joining us. seth westcot is hoping to repeat today when he takes on his event, snowboarding cross. does he have any unusual game-day rituals, we ll talk to seth about that in a couple of minutes. that s right. and now you guys have been walking around, have you seen these japa dog carts? well giada delaurentis will tell us about the must-eat foods. did you guys get a load of kd lang s performance, she is here this morning. i think it was the best performance of all the opening ceremonies, i really do. she s here. we look forward to that. but first, johnny spillane, american johnny spillane made history on sunday when he won the silver medal in the nordic combined. our country s first medal ever in the sport. which features a ski jump and a cross-country skiing race, his team mates todd lodwick and are here. historic for us, first time americans have won a medal in this particular kind of race, how are you feeling this morning? i feel great. it was a good team effort by everybody. it took a lot of people to get to this point i feel fortunate to be standing here now. you were out ahead towards the end. in the end, jason lamy chappuis from france, he sort of caught up with you, .4 of a second between you and him at the end, he was ahead. are you allowing yourself to even think about that? well you know, i gave it as good of an effort as i possibly could. i was really tired at the end of the race. he snuck in there. he got through, but i m still very satisfied with silver. it s beautiful. todd, let me talk about your race, you were second after the ski jump and you ended up finishing fourth. how did you feel about the event? to tell you the truth, i gave it probably the race of my life. i gave it everything i had. i left it on the table. to come up fourth definitely is disappointing. but i think we ve achieved something as a team and that shows a lot. is it true, that one of your big wishes and one other goal of yours was that you be on the today show ? is that true? what s wrong with you, todd? well, no, i m here, so it worked. the fact that you guys finished out of the top six, three americans were enter there. is this a turning point for the team, do you think? it s been a long time coming, we ve had a lot of really good results, starting with johnny s world championship victory in 2003 and we became world champions last year. i think it s a windfall of things that have led to this and now we ve gotten our first olympic medal in 8 6 years, i think there s hopefully more to come. two events left to compete in, the individual large hill event and the team relay event. any predictions? well we can just say that we ll do our best and we think right now our best will be competitive with anybody. the medal looks really nice around your neck. i ll say that, thank you all on behalf of all americans. you inspired a lot of young kids at home. i know you did. congratulations. we re cheering you. now we have the sacrificial fire pit. all right. mr. roker? suddenly it took an ugly turn. let s check your weather. we re basically looking at the temperatures. anywhere, 15 to 25 degrees below normal through the southeast and the mid plains. warm out west, including the pacific northwest. as you look at the afternoon temperatures, teens and 20s in the plains, 50s, 60s and 70s in florida. 70s and 80s in the southwest. clipper brings anywhere of three to six inches of snow. some areas, n most of the day should be quiet, but by late this afternoon, the chance for snow developing. it will take longer o olympic-sponsored dreamworks animation is getting ready to release a new movie how to drain your dragon. in the olympic spirit, they furnished us with how they would imagine the olympic games would have looked 1,000 years ago. let s look back at the origin of the medals ceremony. now to award medals for the greatest of all viking sports, dragon training. starting with the well-deserved third place, the horn medal. second place, the granite medal. and our symbol of excellence, the ham medal. oh, right, yes, dragons love ham. brought to you by dreamworks, how to train your dragon. and how to train your dragons opens in theaters nationwide on march 26. back in a moment, but first, this is today on nbc. friday s opening ceremony had a lot of spectacular moments. one in particular, though, seemed to mesmerize the audience inside bc place, shane poisoon s poem of more. we are millions of millions of voices shouting, keep exploring. we are more, we are surprised what the world has in store for you, it s true. canada has the what in what s new. shane joins us here at the chalet, shane, good morning and congratulations. i spoke to the creative director and producer of the show, beforehand, david atkins and i said, where did you find this guy, shane. and he said, i found him on youtube. and he approached you and said i would like to you do the poem at the opening ceremony and you were a bit stunned. my initial reaction is one of, this is never going to happen. so of course i ll say yes to it. and he really went up to bat for it and it ended up happening. so i was like, oh, my god. you originally wrote, we are more for the canadian tourism board. that s correct. and it was a little bit longer. what was the biggest audience you had performed that for, prior to opening night? well i perform in a number of different bands as well, so i ve done a lot of folk festivals. so i ve been in front of large audiences. but it was the realization, that, billions of people are going to see this. you re standing on the stage and thinking three billion people are watching this all around the world what was your level of nervousness? three the roof, terrified. first of all, i m tremendously scared of heights. so to be up at that level was thanks, david atkins. he made me feel very safe. he had me tethered in and it was a lot of room to work with. but one moment he asked me, maybe you know, walk around. and i was like, if i get near that edge, i m falling off. the poem had a couple of really very poignant moments. and you talk about the civility of the canadian people. i d like to run a little clip on that and talk about it on the other side. sure. and some say what defines us is something as simple as please and thank you. and as for your welcome? well, we say that, too. we are an experiment going right for a change. with influences that range from a to zed, and yes, we say zed, instead of z. the crowd liked that. can you explain the zed thing for people who don t live in canada? i was surprised that about the reaction to that. the only reason that was in there is my last name is corzan and it has a zed in it. and checking into hotels and going on flights, spell your last name for us, k-o-y-c-zed-a-n. that was just a small cultural difference and i didn t expect people to react the way they did. i know the response has been overwhelming since friday night. there have been all kinds of comments. what do you do for an encore, shay? i have a lot of projects on my plate right now. which unfortunately i m not allowed to talk about. but i have no plans and vanishing, i ll continue to do the spoken word for a long time. sit back, relax and enjoy it. thanks, shane, it s a pleasure to meet you. up next, can seth westcott make two gold medals in a row in snowboard cross? we ll hear from him in a moment. we re back now with today s athlete to wap. he is seth westcott, who is going to try to defend his gold medal in snowboard cross when he takes to the slopes today over at cypress mountain. i caught up with him recently and i asked him how he plans to stay on top in his wild sport. about a board like the way from z-deck. westcott! this is the essence of snowboard cross right here, westcott with the gold. going into the games in torino, not a lot of people had seen snowboard cross and so it was kind of bursting onto the scene. what was your mindset going into those games? it was a huge thing. i mean, being that it was going to be the first time for the event, the chance to make history. and seth westcott did just that taking home the gold in what turned out to be a very tight race. and basically, a photo fin h finish. i remember watching the final and for a long bit i thought you wrg go finish second. and this move that got you the lead and you hung on. it was intense. was it just the greatest moment of joy you experienced? absolutely. we never thought that we would have gotten olympic acceptance, let alone snowboard cross. it s such a feeling of you ve done it for your country. how long did it take for that aspect of it, the flag, the anthem to sink in? i don t think that sunk in until that night down in the medals plaza. that was really special. looking down from that podium and all these people that were there for me, in a lot of ways, that was, that was like, i got to make all this happen. and they got to enjoy in kind of sharing in that moment. since that shining moment in 2006, a lot has changed in seth s life. he became a restaurant owner. this is kind of my home away from home. i eat dinner here every night. built a new house from the ground up. equipped with the perfect place to display his many medals. this is my budda, he s been the collector of my medals. the crown jewel of what the budda has gotten to wear, the olympic gold from 2006. i try to keep contributing to the buddha s success every year. at 33, seth is one of the older members of team usa. something he sees as an advantage. so compare the pressure now as you get ready for 2010, being the reigning gold medalist in the olympics, to the pressure going into 2006 as the reigning world champion. is it different? i think it s different, because i feel much more prepared. i hired my own personal wax tech outside the team. i spent a week redesigning all my board shapes in switzerland this summer. like i ve done all of my homework. you re saying all of this to me, seth and now i m saying, okay, you just put a lot more pressure on yourself. if you ve done all that homework and you ve taken all those steps, you have to expect to win there. yeah. the thing that i m excited about is i m going to get back to that stage. and i know that emotional energy that i ll gain on that day again. like so many athletes, seth has his own race-day rituals. take me to the start. you know, you re standing in the starting blocks, you re looking down at the course. you re thinking of, i just i do a little positive self-talk. and i know by the time i m getting there, i shouldn t need to do anything. positive thoughts? hey, look great in this jacket? no, when i was in the start gate in torino for that final, i just kept telling myself like this is your opportunity. and this has been your dream for so long. it s time to live the dream right now and make it happen. it worked. yeah. seth spends his time away from competition heliboarding on the untouched mountains of alaska. a place where he says he finds his inner peace. i go through amazing personal progression up there every year. you still get the same thrill out of it? i do. and it s really for me, getting back to the simplicity of just being a sole mumen being out on a mountain peak, getting to interact with the mountain. one other place seth hopes to stand alone is on top of the podium in vancouver, proudly wearing another gold medal around his neck. i remember going into torino, you said to me, if i can also just shed a good light on the sport, that will be important. it seems as if you ve raised the stakes on yourself in this one. you ve already become the face of the sport. how disappointing would it be for you if you don t win the gold? i don t think it would be disappointing at all. my hope is that i perform to my capability on that day. i m the only person in the world who has ever done it. i feel like it s going to be a good day. and as we mention, the men s snowboard cross is today. you can check out complete coverage of that event right here on nbc. up next, have you ever tried a sparkle cookie? we ll talk about some of the most popular things to eat on any trip to vancouver. but first, this is today on nbc. this morning in today s olympic kitchen, the must-have foods when visiting vancouver. our good friend, italian chef, giada delaurentis has traveled the city to find them. vancouver is a food-lover s delight, a wonderful city, you re going to take us on a culinary tour with seafood. we ll start with chef robert clark of sea restaurant. what have you brought for us today. bc is known for its seafood, this is albacore tuna, some wild alaskan salmon. we have great muscles, sardines, clams. this is scallops. nice firm scallops. sea urchin oysters and bc prawns. phenomenal, tasty, sweet, got to have them. that s what you guys focus on, sustainable fish. we re moving on to hot dogs. i mentioned earlier. i was outside earlier walking around and people were swarming this cart. this is a street cart, this is japadogs and this is noriki. i ll speak for him because his english is not so great. basically they are, there s a few different types of variety of hot dogs, what makes these japadogs very special are the toppings, as you can see there s shaved seaweed. there s japanese mayonnaise, wasabi. and shaved daikon and we have edamame directly in the hot dog and people wait for hours in line to get to one of these japadogs, it s very specific to vancouver and i thought very cool. try that one. i was saying before, i never thought anything would smell more than seafood, overpower the seafood, it s the chocolate. and this is thomas haas, a fantastic pastry chef, they ve won tons and tons of accolades, he makes wonderful confections and what he s known for is the sparkle cookie. tell us about it. well it s basically a baked chocolate truffle. so best served hot, fresh from the oven. it melts, because there s no flour in it. just ground almonds, rich, dark chocolate. it s the gooey chocolate interior. now you ve had a taste of the japadogs, are you ready to go to the chocolate? i don t know. they have a sugar coating on top, right? just a little bit of icing, sugar, because we re on top of grouse mountain. ooh! that s fantastic. they melt in your mouth because it s still warm and gooey inside. one is more than enough, though, right? well let s ask the audience. less is more, right? you want to give everybody a little cookie for being here so early? everybody want one? yes. i m no food, i want to wash it down with wine. nice, thomas, thank you. all right so to end it all off. when i was here about a year and a half ago, i fell in love with this place called the salt tasting room. and this is curtis colt. there s no kitchen, there s no chef. it s in a nondiscreet back alley in gastown, vancouver. they have the most fantastic local cheeses, international cheeses, cured meats and wines that they pair with it. and they have fantastic condiments that go with it. honeycomb, a grainy guinness mustard, quince. it s so fun, kind of on the light side, really great place to go. local foodies go there. why do you think there s so much food culture in vancouver? vancouver in the last 15 or 20 years has really grown and it s been a phenomenal mixture of all different types of foods. i think today you can see what we have to offer. thank you so much. coming up, kd lang will talk about her opening ceremony performance, it was outstanding, right after this. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. still no word on what caused an early-morning house fire that sent one woman to the hospital. it broke out shortly before 2:30 this morning at east 36th street in northeast baltimore. one person was taken to shock trauma with now let s take a look of the forecast with tony pann. things should be quiet for most of the day to day. as we head into the late afternoon hours, a possibility of light snow after 3:00 at 4:00. possibly for the evening commute you will see light snow coming down. tonight, light snow is likely for most of us. could be a little bit of rain mixing in for the evening. but generally light snow. one to 3 in. of accumulation by late tonight. low temperatures dropping into the mid-20 s. could be some snow left early in the one on tuesday and that should clear up for the rest of the week. to buttress close to 40 degrees by friday. another update at o clock 55.