1) The Winter Olympics is back, baby. Ample reason to once more open the retro computer games cupboard, featuring Winter Games 1985 (including hot dog ski jumping, biathlon and bobsled!), Winter Challenge in 1991 and everyone’s favourite Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games (which includes mild cartoon violence, apparently).
2) To get you in the mood for real-life action, here’s the highest ever snowboarding Olympic half-pipe score, featuring the absurd Shaun White, who won gold in 2010 by finishing his run with a 1260 Double McTwist. White has qualified for the USA team in 2018, despite a gruesome crash last year that left him with 62 stitches. The Olympics produced a mini-documentary on him this week. Billy Morgan is Britain’s best hope for a snowboarding gold – he became the first person to land a 1800 quadruple cork in 2015.
3) Real Madrid have released footage of Zinedine Zidane’s half-time speech during last season’s Champions League final. Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday it is not, but at least it is better than Ryan Giggs. Some use the carrot, others the stick. Legendary college basketball coach Bobby Knight was never one to hold back, and neither was Barry Fry at Birmingham City, Neil Warnock at Shrewsbury in 1994-95, Mike Bassett, or John Sitton at Leyton Orient: part one (“and you can bring your fucking dinner”) and part two (“Fuck the technical shit”). John Still, meanwhile, chose to roam around Dagenham and Redbridge’s dressing room with a silk cravat like an East End mafioso.
4) England face Wales at Twickenham on Saturday, always one of the most evocative Six (or Five) Nations fixtures. Here’s Wales’s last win there, and a memorable triumph from 1988. But England have handed out some hammerings, notably in 2000 and in 2006.
5) Tottenham and Arsenal meet at Wembley on Saturday for the first time since 1993, when a Tony Adams header won an FA Cup semi-final, avenging 1991, when Paul Gascoigne had a crack.
6) A VARce.
Our favourites from last week’s blog
1) Lancaster City’s Peter Devine with a penalty to forget from 1991.
2) A stunning own goal from the UAE, Yaser Al Jneibi of Al Dhafra finishing with aplomb in their defeat to Al Jazira.
3) Some creative NFL lip-reading.
4) Harry Redknapp loses it after being hit with a ball mid-interview.
5) Adrian Lewis does likewise on the oche.
6) Some contenders for luckiest ever golf shot.
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