With the XX Games of the Winter Olympiad now officially two days over, I’m still thinking of the ups and downs, hair-pulling, edge-of-your-seat, groans-and-moans moments.

Bode. Kwan. Tanith. The Flying Tomato. Shani and Chad. The Olympics had its plate full of memorable moments. USA reported that the recent Olympics resulted in the highest medal tally ever on foreign soil. 25 medals: 9 gold, 9 silver, 7 bronze. That’s a good haul, considering the leading contender, Germany, had 29, and a record 26 different countries earned at least one medal.

The media deplored the failures of the Olympians. I beg to differ — somewhat.

USA ruled the snowboarding events. Of course, we better. We’re the country that invented the sport. From the twin gold and silver domination of the men’s and women’s halfpipe to the two medals in the new event of snowboardcross (think BMX racing, but on a snowboard), USA got 5 of the 12 medals available. That’s nearly 50%. Impressive, not a failure.

Speedskating got a bunch of medals, especially 5 medals in-between the Chad Hendrick and Shani Davis feud. Not to mention Apolo Anton Ohno’s (don’t women go nutso over his soul patch?) three medals and the startling and powerful finish to the 500 meter short track race last Saturday, in which Ohno got his first gold of these games.

Tanith and Ben earned USA’s first medal in ice dancing (think Dancing with the Stars, but on ice) since 1976. Fascinating, considering on December 30, Tanith was a citizen of Canada.

Oh…did y’all see the Closing Ceremonies? Isn’t Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan amazing? If the faithful citizens of Vancouver could re-elect Sullivan to three terms while accepting his quadriplegic status, I stand up and applaud their respect for his political acumen and saavy — not pity over his disability.

What was pathetic? Ice hockey. No medal for the first time in however long… probably before I was born.

Bode and his 0 for naught effort. His rallying cry “I don’t care about medals,” my ass. joinbode.com ranks second on my list of Olympic marketing failures, behind Dan and Dave from Reebok, circa 1992. Bode, be honest for once. You were out of shape. Pathetic. Every time you completed an event, you were gasping for breath. Maybe the 136 races you competed in last year’s World Cup circuit drained your energy. I want to see redemption in 2010.

Bobsledding had a chance for medals. We only mustered silver in the women’s 2-man (wait, I just realized that is sexist…how about 2-person?) bobsledding. We didn’t fare much better in skeleton and luge. I’d just love to go down an ice chute 80 miles per hour with my face inches from the surface. Talk about a huge chin strawberry.

Also disappointing was the number of viewers. Three TV shows outnumbered the viewers that the Olympics had. When I asked other MARC riders, most of them said they caught the action on live webcasts or on Internet clips, and didn’t want to stay up late when the event had already been half-over. I can’t blame them…6 hours difference is a big difference.

2010 should be better. We have a 3 hour difference, just like living on the West Coast. (2010 Winter Olympics are in Vancouver, Canada).

Allison and I were so dedicated to watching at least a few hours of the highlights every night, we even disregarded our customary Netflix weekends. We’re paying the price now.

At least I know that we’re not one of these people who did the below:

Knowing that I love alpine events, especially with fantasizing of making the USA Deaflympics team as a teenager, I can only dream. Plus it’s the only chance I can get to see snow around my snowphobic wife who shudders at the sight of a single snowflake. Why can’t the Olympics be every year?