U.S. Olympians Honored in Final Greenspan Film
NEW YORK (Apr. 27) – The U.S. Ski Team's best in the world performance at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games will be among the highlights in "Vancouver 2010 – Stories of Olympic Glory," a film from legendary Olympic producer Bud Greenspan which will air Thursday (April 28) on Showtime.
In addition to making competitive history in the 2010 Vancouver Games, freestyle moguls champion Hannah Kearney (Norwich, VT) and the history-making U.S. Nordic Combined Team of Billy Demong (Vermontville, NY , Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Springs, CO), Todd Lodwick (Steamboat Springs, CO) and Brett Camerota (Park City, UT) will be further immortalized in renowned documentarian Bud Greenspan's final film.
Greenspan passed away late in 2010 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 84 years old. His final documentary is a fitting living tribute to the man who riveted Olympic audiences for over 40 years with his in-depth portraits of some of the Olympics memorable athletes and greatest moments.
Greenspan began his documentary filmmaking in earnest in 1964 when he accompanied Jesse Owens back to Berlin for the first time since the 1932 Berlin Games in his documentary Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin. From there, Greenspan produced over 20 hour-long documentaries that truly embodied the spirit of the Olympic Games on every level, from the crowds, to the venues, to the athletes themselves.
The film marks the 13th in a series of Olympic Games films by Greenspan and Cappy Productions, Inc. His previous Olympic documentaries beginning with 1984 Summer games in Los Angeles have chronicled every Olympics (except for 1992 Albertville) through the 2008 Beijing Games. Greenspan has been called the foremost writer/producer/director of sports films and one of the world's leading sports historians. His numerous awards include seven Emmys®, the George Foster Peabody Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Directors Guild of America Life Time Achievement Award, the International Fair Play Award and the coveted "Olympic Order" by former International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch for his contribution to furthering the Olympic movement. In 2004, he was inducted into the United States Olympic Committee Hall of Fame for his body of work and his humanistic approach to filming the Olympic Games.
The U.S. Ski Team members featured in Greenspan's final installment join a stalwart cast of Olympic legends new and old whose legacies live on thanks to his films. The documentary airs Thursday at 8 p.m. EDT.

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