Kilts at the Olympics

**Bob C** · 20th February 06, 07:40 PM

Addendum: His name is Finlay Mickel. Here's his website. http://www.finlaymickel.com/content.php?folder=3

I haven't found any kilted pictures, yet.

**Bob C** · 20th February 06, 07:43 PM

More:

Bagpipes make skier feel at home
Reuters

SESTRIERE, Italy, Feb 18 - Above the clanging cowbells and blaring air horns, the skirling sound of Scottish bagpipes briefly filled the air at the men's Olympic Alpine skiing venue on Saturday.

"That's my dad playing the pipes. My brother plays as well and so do I. It's nice to have him out here," said Briton Finlay Mickel after racing down the Kandahar Banchetta super-G piste to finish equal 22nd.

"I've played them since school, I travel around with them, it's a nice icebreaker," added the Scot. "Meeting people and travelling the world, its nice to have something that's your own."

**Steeplechase** · 20th February 06, 07:47 PM

Yes, I saw the segment on the piper. They also stated that the orginal curling stones were hewn from a mountain in Scotland. Sorry I don't remember which mount.

**KiltedCodeWarrior** · 20th February 06, 07:57 PM

Yes, you guys beat me to it! I just saw that segment and it was great. Kilts, pipes, and Olympic athletes!

**UmAnOnion** · 20th February 06, 08:09 PM

was at dinner in a pub nearby and saw a tartan out of the corner of my eye on the TV - couldnt hear what was being said but looked good thats for sure!

**mexpiper** · 20th February 06, 08:24 PM

ok guys you beat me to it.. i have looked for pictures of him in his kilt, but no luck. He was also playing the pipes on the segment.
Bruce Mickel is his father.
"...Bruce Mickel led a cheering delegation from Edinburgh that included Finlay's wife, sister and brother. Bruce, decked out in a Buchanan tartan kilt and a Balmoral hat, played the bagpipes. It was all traditional, except for one detail.
"This is the first time in my life that I haven't traveled commando," Bruce Mickel said, referring to how real Scotsmen remain, shall we say, unencumbered beneath the kilt.
He said he learned his lesson from another skiing competition in Italy when the temperature was 14 degrees "and I couldn't speak for a week. That's probably a euphemism. My wife said, 'You better wear your short johns.'?"
Duly clad and protected from the elements" Washington Times (Feb. 13, 2006)

**Zardoz** · 20th February 06, 08:53 PM

I saw that too, The wife and I were at a local pub for dinner tonight when that came on the bar's TVs . It provoked a lot of customers to start asking me if I was a Scot,(no, Irish) and what clan is that tartan, ( Nightstalker, no clan, corporate tartan, blah blah..) etc. :rolleyes:

**macwilkin** · 21st February 06, 04:41 AM

Originally Posted by Steeplechase

Yes, I saw the segment on the piper. They also stated that the orginal curling stones were hewn from a mountain in Scotland. Sorry I don't remember which mount.

That would be Ailsa Craig, a small rocky island in the Firth of Clyde off of Ayrshire:

For more than 240 years, they've used regulation stones weighing 42 pounds, and each one has come from Ailsa Craig Island, off the coast of Scotland. Curler Geoffrey Broadhurst explains.

"The Ailsa Craig is an old volcano, and there's nothing there except this old volcano, They quarry the rock there, and it happens to be absolutely the hardest rock you can get. There's no pores in it, and these stones can crash into each other, and there's not a chip. These stones here have been going since 1967 and they're absolutely in great shape. They don't have any pores in it, so therefore the frost doesn't get in there to chip the stones either, so it's an amazing structure."

-- http://www.pulseplanet.com/archive/Oct02/2781.html

The UK curling team is mostly Scots as well.

Cheers,

Todd