The Daily Herald was kind enough to provide its readers with a nice feature from Saturday listing all area Olympians. If you're interested in mini-biographies of the athletes, please check out the article. We'll provide updates on each athlete here during the two weeks of competition, as well as a summary in two weeks after the Games have ended. Men's hockey will be covered with the Blackhawks during this same period.

Chicagoland Winter Olympians

Darrin Steele of Sherrard, U.S. 4-man Bobsled will compete February 22 and 23.
Dan Steele of Rock Island, U.S. 2-man Bobsled will compete February 16 and 17.
Garrett Hines of Chicago, U.S. 4-man Bobsled will compete February 22 and 23.

John-Andrew Kambanis of Chicago, Greek Bobsled
John Livaditis of Chicago, Greek Bobsled

The only Greek Bobsled team begins competition on February 16th.

Ann Swisshelm of Chicago, U.S. Women's Curling
Stacy Liapis of Chicago, U.S. Women's Curling
Joni Cotten of Mount Prospect, U.S. Women's Curling (alternate)
We're 1-1 at the moment, and will face Canada today, Switzerland tomorrow, Russia on the 16th, Finland on the 17th, and Norway on the 18th.

Timothy Goebel of Rolling Meadows, U.S. Men's Figure Skating, is ranked third after his short program on February 12th and will perform his free skate February 14th.

Cammi Granato of Downers Grove, U.S. Women's Hockey
Sarah Tueting of Winnetka, U.S. Women's Hockey
We beat Germany 10-1 on February 12th and will play China on the 14th and Finland on the 16th.

Chris Thorpe of Waukegan, U.S. Men's Luge Doubles, will compete February 15th.

Becky Wilczak of Berwyn, U.S. Women's Luge, competed on February 12th and 13th and finished 5th overall.

Courtney Zablocki of Naperville, U.S. Women's Luge, competed on February 12th and 13th and finished 13th overall.

Shani Davis of Chicago, U.S. Men's 5000m Relay Short Track Speedskating,

Becky Sundstrom of Glen Ellyn, U.S. Women's Speedskating, competes in the Ladies 500 m, Ladies 1000 m, and Ladies 1500 m, respectively on the 14th, 17th, and 20th.

Chicago Bears

We're back at the amazing Bears' QB derby. They picked up Henry Burris, former Packers' backup, and then Jerry Angelo subsequently hired Burris' agent as his new salary cap guy, replacing Jim Miller, the capologist, not the quarterback.

Jim Miller the quarterback appears headed to free agency because the Bears want to pay him what he's worth and not what he deserves since he still seems so fragile.

The current speculation is that the Bears might sign Trent Dilfer to provide a stabilizing and consistent if unspectacular veteran to guide the offense. I'm not sure this makes much sense as Miller certainly offers as much potential, and with Burris and Shane already signed for 2002, there's no room left to develop a young QB.

Many in the Bears' organization are likely hoping that Burris can be that young QB, but if the Packers didn't consider him a worthy successor to Favre, perhaps we should be looking elsewhere, too.

Chicago Blackhawks

Here's the list of local hockey players and when they compete in Utah:

Tony Amonte of the Blackhawks, U.S.
Phil Housley of the Blackhawks, U.S.
Chris Chelios of Chicago, U.S.
U.S. vs. Finland on the 15th, vs. Russia on the 16th, Vs. Belarus on the 18th.

Alex Zhamnov of the Blackhawks, Russia
Boris Mironov of the Blackhawks, Russia
Russia vs. Belarus on the 15th, vs. U.S. on the 16th, vs. Finland on the 18th.

Michael Nylander of the Blackhawks, Sweden
Sweden vs. Canada on the 15th, vs. Czech Republic on the 17th, vs. Germany on the 18th.

Jaroslav Spacek of the Blackhawks, Czech Republic
Czech Republic vs. Germany on the 15th, vs. Sweden on the 17th, vs. Canada on the 18th.

Pasi Nurminen of the Chicago Wolves, Finland
Finland vs. U.S. on the 15th, vs. Belarus on the 16th, vs. Russia on the 18th.

Chicago Bulls

So Shaq sits out against the Bulls, and like half a dozen other top NBA stars, ditches the All-Star game. Since we just completed All-Star game week with the NBA, NFL, and NHL all holding their exhibitions in the past fortnight, we gain some perspective on all these events.

The NFL remains consistently relaxed by giving players the incentive of a free trip to Hawaii to convince them to attend and play. Of course, the quality of play is terrible since no one wants to injure anyone or receive an injury themselves, but at least the stars all attend.

Hockey players forget how to play defense since they also don't want to injure themselves in an exhibition. Total goals at NHL All-Star games look like most teams' points in a week.

The NBA no longer over-hypes the now-boring Slam Dunk contest, but at least they deliver quality play. Although the absent players detract from the potential grandeur of their play, a couple people like Kobe Bryant always show up "ready to play" and provide enough highlights to satisfy the few remaining NBA fans that still bother attending games.

Chicago Cubs

Felon Christensen continues his attempt to rehabilitate his image, giving interviews to anyone he can find to express that he's really not a bad person, and that he didn't really attempt to murder Anthony Molina.

Most media outlets seem happy to broadcast his views without representative comments from Molina, and while Molina returns to his job at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Christensen resumes a life in which he's likely to make enough money to buy a few Enterprise dealerships.

Spring Training starts this weekend, so maybe I'll feel more like touting the Cubs when some pleasant news arrives from the west.

Chicago White Sox

The major questions in the paper appear to surround the eventual departure of Ray Durham. With Jose Valentin available for 2B once they decide to let Crede play every day and solid prospects in Tim Hummel and Willie Harris both likely to succeed in AAA, the Sox have no reason to keep the veteran infielders.

I realize that Durham's departure will just give The Big Blurt another reason to complain about the absence of all his friends. He recently mourned the losses of James Baldwin, Chris Singleton, and even Bill Simas, so the likely exits of Durham, Royce Clayton, and Sandy Alomar might figuratively push him over the edge.

The question that Big Frank needs to answer is: Do I want to be a part of the White Sox when they go the World Series within the next couple of years?

If the answer is no, then he can keep whining, and practically begging the Sox to exercise the Diminished Skills' Clause in the contract. If the answer is yes, he should keep quiet and focus on returning to his MVP form of past seasons, even if he knows that Reinsdorf would never exercise that clause.

Heather Reader, MLB.com's Cubs' Site Reporter

Last week's Sports Illustrated was kind enough to provide an in-depth look at Cardinals' ace Matt Morris. Among the few interesting details, they included a nice profile of Morris' girlfriend, Heather Reader.

Perhaps I see more of a conflict of interest here than Cardinals' fans, and MLB's inconsistent quality also doesn't help matters, but something about this situation just seems wrong. Someone in the organization needs to kindly arrange a transfer to a more hospitable website for Heather, as I'm currently loathe to even check the site updates due to fear of seeing references to the Cardinals' superiority in all aspects of the game.

We'll remain focused on the Olympics for the next week or two, and we'll start looking more seriously at Spring Training when the rest of the teams arrive in a week or two.

Until Steve Goodman can rest in peace, these are your Good Chicago Sports.