Stephen Colbert heads to Vancouver, talks about Olympics and his Canadian roots

Hey, gang! The Winter Olympics are finally upon us, and CTV’s Olympics site has a great article on Stephen posted to really kick things off:

Colbert goes for the cold
The Globe and Mail By Marsha Lederman, The Globe and Mail
Posted Friday, February 12, 2010 4:15 PM ET

. . .

In a rare out-of-character moment, Colbert is speaking to me in advance of his first trip to Vancouver, next week, where he will tape segments for The Colbert Report, and also have face time with the U.S. speed skating team that he sponsors (or, more accurately, that the Colbert Nation sponsors). “It’s a great feeling to be able to support the team,” he says. “And it’s given us something to talk about [on the show] that is both nationalistic and not violent – and too often nationalism leads to guns.”

. . .

He calls speed skating “the most Summer Olympic Winter Olympic sport. It’s running. Basically it’s a track-and-field event. But you go way faster.” And he now knows that personally – after “racing” against U.S. speed-skating sensation Shani Davis for a segment on The Colbert Report.

At the end of the televised segment, Colbert was named the team’s assistant sports psychologist. He’s promising (and now we’re pretty sure he’s joking) to follow through in Vancouver on that assignment. “I’ll be getting in their noodles and helping them work through some of their issues. They’ve all made a lot of sacrifice to get to this moment, and I’ll just remind them of the amazing amount of pressure that’s on them and just to never forget that. [There'll be] a lot of yelling. A lot of suck it up and go. Be a man. Stop crying. Stuff like that.”

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Read the full article here

Although it’s not in the part I excerpted, I think my favorite bit in this whole article is where the author notes: “Even out of character, [Stephen] is deadpan funny, hilarious really, sometimes cracking a joke he likes so much he has to stop and laugh.” I *love* that Stephen still has so much joy in life that he’ll take the time to savor his own jokes in that way.

The article is also full of teasers on upcoming segments, a bit on the Canadian portion of Stephen’s family tree, and the usual high level of Colbert-generated charm. So what are you waiting for? Get reading, already!