Vancouver Winter Olympics roundup

The Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010 opened up on Friday February 12. Despite all the pageantry and good cheer, the initial weekend was not particularly kind to the Japanese athletes.

A roundup:

• Freestyle skiier Aiko Uemura was expected to medal in the Women's Moguls Freestyle Skiing competition but ended up coming in fourth. At a teary press conference afterwards, Uemura regretted not being able to use an Olympic medal as a way to cleanly retire from the sport.

• Snowboarder bad-boy Kazuhiro Kokubo was reprimanded last week for breaking down the standard Japanese Team suit-and-tie uniform into something more "young and casual." As further punishment, Japanese Olympic authorities would not let him walk with the team during the Opening Ceremonies.

• Fellow snowboarder Yuka Fujimori banged her head at a training event on Friday and spent time at a hospital. She was released on Saturday and will compete on Tuesday February 16 as scheduled.

• Japanese speed skaters Masako Hozumi, Shiho Ishizawa and Eri Natori all failed to medal at the Ladies 3000m. The Japanese male speed skaters did even worse at the Men's 5000m.

• And finally, NHK's PR Twitter feed let viewers know about Winter Olympic programming but the writer did not seem to know exactly where the games are being held.