I am not a huge sports watcher. I like the Vikings, I appreciate the Twins and once in awhile I will watch a bit of the NCAA Men’s BB Tournament in March. But I do enjoy the Olympics. Especially the Winter Olympics. And I think part of the reason that I appreciate the winter games so much is that there are so many local athletes. I’ll admit, my favorite aspect of the “Miracle on Ice” game from (ouch) 30 years ago now is that so many Minnesotans played a role in that underdog-david-vs-goliath-come-from-behind-victory.

Here are a few lists of Minnesotans that are in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver from Bob Collins MPR NewsCut blog, and the Star Tribune, plus a cursory search of the NBC Winter Olympics web page.

For some reason I couldn’t find a similar list from the Budgeteer, DNT or any local news outlet, but I’m sure it’s been covered. Maybe some helpful person will post an appropriate link below?

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The USA Men’s Curling team is based in Duluth so there are lots of local connections there. And alternate curler Chris Plys is getting some pressbuzz, after appearing on Comedy Central’s Colbert report and apparently was offered a date by a popstar, and I’ll admit he is a very good looking young man and I wish him well.

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Finally, little help please. The lists cover athletes who list their hometowns in Minnesota. But there are surely others who don’t live here. Mason and Molly Aguirre leap to mind, although I’m not sure if they are on the Olympic teams or not. I DJ’d Molly’s Sweet 16 many years ago. She and Mason were very cool and refreshingly unpretentious world-class athletes.