So it’s the day after and I’m suffering from an Olympics hang over. The countdown to London 2012 has begun. While it’s still fresh, here are some of my winners and losers from Vancouver 2010:

Winner: Canada
Own the Podium turned into Blown the Podium which ended in a furious golden finish for the host country. While weather was a huge story, winning an absolute spectacular hockey final vs USA was the gold cherry on a successful Olympics for America Jr. That touching piece by Tom Brokaw on how the tiny hamlet of Gander coming to the aid of displaced travelers following 911 has solidified Canada as the best people in the world. Finishing 2nd to last are the French, one beignet above al qaeda.

Winner: Stephen Colbert
Jay Leno was supposed to act as the hype machine for our athletes leading up to the games. But the late night fiasco crippled much of any momentum. Colbert stepped in with a hilarious week of coverage as an official assistant speed skating sports psychologist, where he was allowed to surprisingly take shots at NBC. NBC later tried to take a comedy cue from him, but their anemic attempts at humor was like watching my dad  try to do stand up.

Winner: Bumping and Grinding events
Short track, snowboard cross and ski cross are basically roller derby events and they were completely riveting.

Winner: Shaun White
Winning when you are supposed to is one of the hardest things to do in competitions. Shaun White stomped the field and he made it look effortless. His cool factor is so off the charts right now, he totally got away with looking into the camera during a studio interview and said, “Hey Obama, invite me to the White House.” And he’s going to get that invite.

Loser: Over-saturation of key stars
It’s annoying how NBC pre-games already determined who would be the sweethearts and stars before a single event was held. But I understand how they want to go with sure things. Lindsey Vonn getting the Michael Phelps treatment was just plain aggravating. And I’ve had so much Apolo Ohno force fed into me that I swear I crapped out a soul patch last night.

Loser: Curling
I watched 10 matches before giving up. The men’s and women’s teams were both talking medals. Both finished in the cellar often getting mercy-ruled. The most unbearable thing about the coverage was the smarmy announcing. The main analyst went on sanctimonious rants about the teams getting criticism on the internet. Well if you want to call glorified team shuffleboard the greatest sport in the world and make comparisons to football, baseball and basketball, then you are fair game to be criticized when the skip chokes four straight games away and then gets pulled. If you want curling to get more exposure then you need a winning product, and more of those Russian babes (incidentally on the ending montage of the great Olympic moments they included an unnecessary awesome shot of the tasty Anna Sidorova).

Loser: Day time coverage
All you could pick from was curling or any of the 10 (!) cross country events where Americans were no where to be seen. At least show qualifying rounds of more exciting events like speed skating. Watching a bunch of Scandinavians shuffle around for miles is as dramatic as an infomerical. And then there is listening to Al Troutwig drop beauties like, “Emil Hegle Svedsen is his name, biathlon is his game.”

Loser: Me and NBC
84 hours of coverage with 50 being commercials. NBC you suck for coming out of 6 minute commercial breaks, cutting back for a 15 tease then tossing to another 6 minute break ad nauseum. I’m the loser for tolerating it. Thank God for DVRs.