Follow Steve Milton at the Olympics

Follow Steve Milton on Twitter at the Vancouver Olympics.

Sports columnist Steve Milton will be tweeting daily from Vancouver.

Sign up to follow him on the Spec's twitter account before Feb 12 and your name will be entered in a draw for a copy of Canada's Olympic Hockey History 1920-2010 by Andrew Podnicks.

To follow Steve, go to twitter.com/thespec or click on the link in the navigation bar on thespec.com's home page.

Today in Sports History

1895

1895 -- Volleyball invented by W. G. Morgan in Massachusetts.

1900 -- Dwight Davis establishes a new tennis trophy, the Davis Cup.

1920 -- Joint Rules Commission bans foreign substances and alterations to baseballs.

1940 -- Joe Louis beats Arturo Godoy in 15 for heavyweight boxing title.

1964 -- IX Olympic Winter Games close at Innsbruck, Austria.

1971 -- Leroy "Satchel" Paige becomes first negro-league player elected to Baseball Hall of Fame.

1991 -- Johann Olav Koss skates to world record in 5km (6:41.73).

1991 -- Terry Norris knocks down Sugar Ray Leonard twice and beats him.

1997 -- Scotty Bowman is first NHL coach to win 1,000 games.

2001 -- Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees finalize a $189 million, 10-year contract, making Jeter the second highest paid player in the history of the sport.

2002 -- (to Feb. 24) The XIX Olympic Winter Games are held in Salt Lake City, Utah.

2006 -- Bengie Molina signs a $5 million US, one-year contract with the Toronto Blue Jays, with a $7.5 million option for 2007.

Let it snow. Please

Warm weather and rain are in the forecast for snow-starved Cypress Mountain, the Olympic venue for freestyle skiing and snowboarding but Vancouver and International Olympic Committee members say they're confident the mountain will be fine come Games-time. Temperatures aren't expected to dip below zero on the mountain this week, but VANOC officials are assuring all that the Games will go on.

Environment Canada says highs will hover around 3 C this week at Cypress, leading up to the first day of competition on Saturday, when there is a 60 per cent chance of rain on the mountain. Mogul skiers were the first to try the runs at the venue on Vancouver's North Shore yesterday, but crews are still working on the courses. Vancouver Olympic staff are trucking and flying in snow for the courses. Training runs for snowboarders have been cut back to preserve snow on those runs, but athletes have been offered make-up time at Whistler, where snow is abundant.

Temper, temper

Norwegian ski jumper Bjorn Einar Romoren will compete at the Vancouver Olympics with a broken little finger after slamming his left hand into a wall in frustration over a disappointing jump. The 28-year-old Romoren said Monday the fracture will pose "no problem" for him at the games despite undergoing minor surgery Sunday to set the finger. He says he banged his hand into the wall because he was "frustrated" and "deeply disappointed" by his performance at a weekend World Cup event in Willingen, Germany.

Message delivered

Alinghi has landed the first shot on the water in the America's Cup against BMW Oracle despite the acrimonious best-of-three series being delayed.

The defending champion Swiss boat sailed circles around the American challenger during a four-hour wait off the Valencia coast Monday before the first race was postponed until Wednesday due to unsteady wind.

Alinghi president Ernesto Bertarelli says he wanted to send a message that "we like to sail a lot" and to have "some fun -- the America's Cup should be a party."