Olympics - PyeongChang 2018 - Day 19

Day 19 - February 25

So, we have reached the final day of the Olympics.  Besides the Closing Ceremonies, there is only 1 event remaining, that being the women's 30km mass start.  Norway's Marit Bjoergen won gold after leading an early break, extending the lead to over 2 minutes halfway through the race, and cruising to victory over Finland's Krista Parmakoski and Sweden's Stina Nilsoon, whom captured silver and bronze respectively.  Bjergen, who had earlier in PyeongChang made history by becoming the most decorated Winter Olympian ever, extended that record with her 13th and 14th medals, made more history with this gold.  With her 15th medal, shhe extended her lead among Winter Olympians to 2 over countryman Ole Einar Bjorndaelen.  Bjoergen also won her 8th overall gold medal, which ties the winter record of Bjorndaelen and Bjorn Dahlie.with 8, and she also ties the record of 5 medals in a single games, a feat that has been done 10 times, including by herself in 2010. She also rises into a tie for third of all-time medalists with Soviet gymnast Nikolai Andrianov, who won his 15 medals (7 golds, 5 silver, 3 bronze) from 1972-1980 and just behind Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina, who won 18 medals (9 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze from 1956-1964.  (Michael Phelps, of course, is the all-time leader with 28 medals  For her gold-medal winning, PyeongChang capping, record setting appearance, Marit Bjoergen is the Performer of the Day, and here she is as she approaches the finish line!

 

I honestly did not watch much of the closing ceremonies, but I was pleased that cross-country skier Jessie Diggins, who had two 5th place finishes to go with the first ever cross-country gold awarded to am American.  I didn't see who the other nominees were, but she was, and is, a fantastic choice.  As a reminder of how close Diggins race finished, after a blistering Diggins sprint brought her into contention for the gold.

The biggest U.S. disappointment is the total medal count, with American athletes winning 23 total medals (9 gold, 8 silver, 6 bronze), well behind Norway's 39 medals (14 golds) and Germany's 31 medals (14 gold).  Canada with 29 medals (11 gold) also bested the United States.  For a USOC that had posted a goal of 37 medals, this was a widely disappointing Olympics.  For those not U.S. centric folks, this was an amazing Olympics with hardly any problems or true controversies, and some amazing athletes, events, games, matches, races and finishes.  On to Tokyo in 2020 (summer) and Beijing in 2022 (winter).

Events Watched:  Women's Cross-Country Skiing; Men's Hockey (replay); Closing Ceremonies (hardly any).

Olympics - PyeongChang 2018 - Day 18

Day 18 - February 24

The last full day of competition, and boy was it exciting.  The Netherlands won 2 medals in the mass start speed skating, with Koen Verweij winning the bronze in the men's race and Irene Schouten winning the bronze in the women's race.  It would be tough to determine what was the most dominant team in PyeongChang between the Dutch speed skaters and the Norwegian cross-country skiers (more on them later).

In the four-man bobsled event, Germany dominated winning gold behind driver Francesco Friedrich and silver behind driver Nico Walther.  A third German sled finished .73 seconds out of the bronze, which was won by South Korea, the second South Korean sledding medal in these games, with Yun Sung-bin winning gold in the men's skeleton.

In what was supposed to be a route, an excellent men's hockey game broke out, with Germany - having previously defeating Canada - scoring 3 goals down the stretch to force overtime against the OAR, who in the end proved they were too much on the power play (which is 4-on-3 in overtime in the Olympics) to win gold.  This game was an excellent sequel to the USA-Canada women's hockey final.  The only issue for the IOC is that the OAR's team sung the Russian national anthem on the medal stand, despite being banned from further representing Russia this year at the closing ceremonies with their flag due to 2 separate doping positive tests - one in curling!!!

In the men's 50Km mass start in cross-country skiing, Finland's Iivo Niskanen took off with Yevgeniy Velichkov of Kazakhstan at the 17km mark.  With roughly 15km to go, OAR athlete Alexander Bolshunov joined Niskanen and Velichkov, and with about 10Km left, Velichkov had fallen to third, but seemingly a lock for a bronze.  Then the chase group, which included Andrey Larkov of the OAR, Canada's Alex Harvey and Martin Sundby and Hans Christer Holund from Norway caught Velichkov as he ran out of gas, eventually fading to 39th.  This chase group is  important because to date, Norway has medaled in every single cross-country event in PyeongChang.  At that same 40km mark, Niskanen voluntarily gave up the lead (and about 20 seconds) to change his skis, which Bolshunov did not do.  During the penultimate lap - each lap is 5km - it was clear that Niskanen made the right move as his skis were way faster than Bolshunov's.  (Akin to changing tires in auto racing).  With about 2Km left on the last lap, Niskanen skated past Bolshunov and never looked back.  Bolshunov held on the second and the bronze went to his compatriot Andrey Larkov, who held off Harvey and the Norwegians for bronze.  The silver was Bolshunov's fourth of these games, having previously earned 2 other silvers and a bronze.

Despite the fact the Niskanen started his push for the gold with over 20 miles left in the race, his performance is nowhere near the Performance of the Day.  That belongs to the United States Men's Curling team, who defeated Sweden for the gold medal just one round after beating Canada in the semi-finals.  The U.S. men's team - John Shuster (skip), Tyler George (3rd), Matt Hamilton (2nd), John Landsteiner (lead) and Joe Polo (alternate) - started the round robin portion of the tournament 2-4 and needing to win their last 3 matches - including over Canada - just to make the medal round.  Not only did they defeat Canada, the beat Canada again in the semi-finals, winning their last 5 matches to capture gold.  Shuster did a hit and stay with the score tied 5-5 in the 8th end that put up 5 additional points, effectively defeating Sweden with 2 ends left.  Shuster, who won bronze as the U.S. lead in Turin in 2006, was effectively dis-invited by the national team after his 2014 performance in Sochi (next-to-last) which followed up a last place finish in Vancouver.  Shuster put together this team who began working together and winning national tournaments to earn a spot of the Olympic team - and now Gold!! This has been dubbed "The Miracurl on Ice".  More importantly, this is the Performance of the Day!!!

Disappointment of the Day:  The United States had such high hopes in bobsledding, thinking that a medal was possible in both the two-man and four-man bobsled.  After winning a medal in the women's bobsled, and after some shaky, but intriguing runs in the men's 2-man bobsled, the US felt poised to finish way higher than the 9th place they ultimately earned in the 4-man bobsled.  For this, the US Bobsled team and pilot Nick Cunningham particularly earn the Disappointment of the Day.

Event's Watched:  Men's Curling; Men's Bobsled; Men's Cross-Country Skiing; The Honda Classic

Olympics - PyeonChang 2018 - Day 17

Day 17 - February 23

What would the Olympics be without a bit of controversy.  In the Men's Snowboard parallel giant slalom, South Korea's Lee Sangho defeated Slovenia's Jan Kosir by .01 in a photo finish.  The controversy arose when a detailed look at the photo finish seems to show that Kosir won.  The snowboarder crosses the finish when any part of his body crosses the finish.  In the picture below, it seems that Kosir, in the far lane, has already passed the line when Lee, in the near lane, passes the finish line.  Granted, the camera angle is not exact, but it still looks like Kosir wins.  Nevertheless, Kosir goes on to win the bronze, and Lee lost in the finals to Switzerland's Nevin Galmarini, who claimed the gold.

In the men's 1000m speed skating, another Dutch gold!!!  This time, Kjeld Nuis, who also finished first in the 1500m, won his second gold medal of these games.  Havard Lorentzen of Norway won silver, to go along with his gold in the 500m.  Kim Tae-Yun of South Korea took home the bronze.

In the men's snowboarding big air finals, Canada's Sebastien Toutant won gold, with Billy Morgan winning bronze, but all anyone could talk about was Kyle Mack's silver, earned after performing a frontside double cork 1440 bloody Dracula.  (I am neither young enough nor hip enough to know what that means.)  And it was a good thing too as Mack earned the only medal of the day for the United States.  To try to make the podium and earn a medal, Chris Corning tried a quad cork 1800 on his last run - a trick that has never been landed - but fell to earn only fourth.

But the race of the day was the women's snowboarding parallel giant slalom.  Germany's Selina Jeorg and Ramona Theresia Hofmeister won gold and silver respectively, as Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic wins gold.  Ledecka becomes the first person to win gold medals in two separate events, as the parallel giant slalom snowboarding win follows her incredibly unexpected super giant slalom gold medal in alpine skiing.  So for her second gold, Ester Ledecka gave the Performance of the Day!!!

The U.S. Disappointment of the Day goes to nobody specific, as nobody ridiculously underperfomed, so this award is going to go to the entire team for only earning one medal today, especially given that snowboarding, and freestyle skiing gave out four medal events today, and the U.S. won only 1 medal.

Events Watched:  The Honda Classic

Olympics - PyeongChang 2018 - Day 16

Day 16 - February 22

As we approach the final weekend of the Olympics, only 1 medal won by the United States in 7 events.  That medal, which was expected to be gold, turned out to be silver, but was an excellent result in the Women's Alpine Combined, as Mikaela Shiffrin won her second medal of these Olympics.  Due to weather, Shiffrin had to withdraw from the downhill and the super giant slalom, but earns a combined silver to go with her gold in the giant slalom.  American Lindsay Vonn, the leader after the downhill portion of the combined, skied off-course and did not finish.  Michelle Gisin and Wendy Holdener of Switzerland won gold and bronze respectively.

By far the best events of the day occurred in short track speed skating.  In the women's 1000m, Suzanne Shulting of the Netherlands won gold after skated to great technical races in the semi-finals and finals.  Shulting beat a stacked final that included Canadian Kim Boutin - who won silver, Italy's Arianna Fontana - who won bronze, and two favorites from South Korea, Shim Sukhee and Choi Minjeong, who crashed into each other on the last lap sealing the medals.  Fontana with her bronze becomes the most decorated women's short track speedskater in history.

On the men's side, China's Wu Daijing followed up his world record run in the semifinals with another world record and a gold medal in the finals, edging South Korea's Hwang Daeheon (silver) and Lim Hyojun (bronze), who despite being cheered on by an ecstatic crowd, could not catch Wu.  This was easily the best event of the day, given the closeness of the semi-final races, the results of the final and the crowd.

As much as I would love to give Wu the performance of the night for his double world records in the short track 500m, the most significant event in any single Winter Olympics is the Ladies Figure Skating, and that popularity was on display again, this time as the Russian's ran away from the competition.  The only question was which Russian would win gold and which would win silver.  Alina Zagitova came in first to win gold, and Evgenia Medvedeva won silver, followed by Kaetlyn Osmond from Canada with the bronze.  The U.S. entries, after a horrible showing in the short program, finished 9th, 10th and 11th.  Congratulations Alina Zagitova for winning the Performance of the Day.

The American Disappointment of the Day could have gone to the U.S. Figure skaters again, but seeing as they started the day in 9th, 10th and 11th place, and finished in 9th, 10th and 11th place, at least they didn't fall any further behind.  The same cannot be said for Lindsay Vonn who skied off-course in the slalom portion of the combined, and thus did not finish the combined, an event in which she led after the downhill portion.  Although this was also yesterday's disappointment, with the time difference, I cannot tell on what day this should have been listed - so I did both.

Events Watched:  Men's Short Track; Women's Hockey (Replay); Women's Short Track; Women's Biathlon

Olympics - PyeongChang 2018 - Day 15

Day 15 - February 21

Lots of competition, lots of medals, and even lots of medals (8) for the United States!  Finally a great day for our red, white and blue.

In speed skating, both the men's and women's pursuit finals were held, and surprise, surprise, the Dutch medaled in both, winning bronze in the men's pursuit and silver in the women's.  In the men's Norway won gold over the locals from South Korea who won bronze.  In the women's event, Japan won gold over the Netherlands (silver) and the United States - yes the United States - earned a bronze!!!!  This is the first speed skating medal of any kind for the US since 2010, and the first women's medal since 2002.  Of course, in didn't come without controversy.  In the team pursuit, 3 skaters from each country skate simultaneously, with each team starting on a separate half of the oval.  The team's then "pursue" each other around the rink.  The time is calculated when the skate of the third skater finishes.  The skaters often take turns leading while the others draft, but for most of the race you want your two best skaters to be in the front and back, with that last skater literally pushing the middle racer at times.  Although three skaters for each country are on the ice at a time, the team consists of 4 skaters, any 3 of which can skate in any race.

The US drew the Netherlands in the semi-finals, and they thought it would be touch to beat the Dutch to make the gold medal match.  So, the US rested its fastest skater, Brittany Bowe, and replaced her with the slowest of the four, Carlijn Schoutens - who was instrumental in qualifying the US for the Olympics as Bowe and Heather Bergsma only skate in the pursuit in the Olympics.  Not only did Schoutens race in the semi-final, she was the lead skater for the US for almost the entirety of the race, leaving Bergsma and Mia Manganello to rest and draft off Shoutens.  The US was hammered by the Netherlands, but plenty rested up to defeat Canada two hours later in the bronze medal match, which featured the return of Bowe.

The finals of the half-pipe in men's freestyle skiing was held, and the United States, behind David Wise (gold) and Alex Ferreira (silver) medaled as did 16 year old Nico Porteous of New Zealand.

Jamie Anderson narrowly missed becoming the first American woman to win two gold medals at a single Olympics since Bonnie Blair, by winning silver after a spectacular run by Austria's Anna Gasser in the women's snowboarding big air finals.

Another American woman chasing Bonnie Blair was Mikaela Shiffrin, who ultimately finished with the silver in the super combined, behind only Michelle Gisin of Switzerland.  Lindsay Vonn, the leader after the downhill portion of the combined, missed a gate in the slalom and DNF.

In the women's 2 person bobsled race, American driver Elana Meyers Taylor won her second straight silver medal (and third overall medal) along with her brakewoman Lauren Gibbs, falling behind only the powerful sled from Germany and just ahead of an equally powerful Canadian team.

As you can see in the above picture, in the women's cross-country team spring title, Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins of the United States won gold over skiing powerhouses Sweden and Norway.  Sweden's Stina Nilsson gave Diggins all she had, but Diggins won gold in the sprint finale as shown below.  Diggins, who twice finished 5th in these Olympics, anchored the gold-medal winning performance, which was the first medal in cross-country skiing for the United States since Bill Koch in 1976.

As exciting as that was, it pales in comparison the the U.S. Women's hockey team's 6 shot shootout victory for the gold medal over Canada.  Jocelyn Lamoureux triple deked the Canadian goaltender, who had no chance at stopping the ultimate winner.  This is the first shootout final in Olympics history, and was sweet revenge for the US after losing in overtime to Canada last year, earing the US their first gold since 1998 in Nagano.  For this, the US hockey team, and specifically Jocelyn Lamoureux are the Performers of the Day.

The American Disappointment of the Day was Lindsay Vonn, who did not finish the slalom portion of the super combined after leading the event after the downhill portion.

Events Watched:  Men's Curling; Women's Bobsled; Men's Speed Skating; Women's Alpine Skiing; Men's Freestyle Skiing

Olympics - PyeongChang 2018 - Day 14

Day 14 - February 20

Only four medal events today, but as in the past few days, some great competition.

Men's hockey lost to the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals, but Ryan Donato - from HARVARD - scored a goal, and is to date the leading score in the entire tournament.  Alas, no medal for the American men.

Germany swept the nordic combined, but since nobody know what that means (OK, actually I do), I won't go into any more detail.  Nevertheless, congratulations to Johannes Rydzek (gold), Fabian Riesle (silver) and Eric Frenzel (bronze) for their efforts skiing AND ski jumping.

In what has to be the most rehearsed (OK, practiced) in the entire Olympics, home favorite Team South Korea wins gold in the short track women's 3000m relay, with Italy winning silver and the Netherlands winning bronze.  If you have not seen a relay in short track - go now and watch.  YouTube, Smart TV, whatever you have to do - go watch it!

In the women's downhill, Italy's Sofia Goggia became the first Italian woman to win gold in the downhills.  Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel won silver and American Lindsay Vonn won the bronze.  In so doing, the 33 year old Vonn became the oldest medalist in Olympic Alpine skiing history.  However, since I feel that Vonn gets way more credit than she should simply because she dated Tiger Woods (and because Racecar is annoyed with her) I will not include a solo picture of her.

Congratulations to Lindsay nonetheless.

The women's figure skating event kicked off with its short program, and all that happened is the OAR is way better than anyone else - like much better.  Evgenia Medvedeva set a short program world record by scoring 81.61 points, only to have Alina Zagitova break that world record by scoring 82.92 points.  Everyone else might as well not even be skating, including the Americans who finished 9th (Mirai Nagasu), 10th (Karen Chen) and 11th (Bradie Tennell) - the worst showing for the United States ever.

The day, however, belonged to Martin Fourcade, the brilliant biathlete who anchored the French team's mixed relay securing his third gold of these Olympics, which incidentally started slow for him as he failed to medal in the men's 10KM sprint biathlon - in which he finished 8th.  Norway and Italy earned silver and bronze respectively.  Martin Fourcade - and team France - are the Performance of the Day!!!!  (It would have gone to the OAR's figure skaters, but I will save that for when the win gold/silver).

Several Disappointments for the United States include the men's hockey team (which I warned would not win a medal after losing their opening match to Slovenia 3-2 in overtime) and the women's short track speed skating 1000m team, all of which failed to advance past the opening race.  However, the main Disappointment of the Day is warded to Nagasu, Chen and Tennell, for the United States's worst performance in the women's figure skating short program in Olympic history.

Events Watched:  Men's Hockey; Women's Short Track Speed Skating; Men's Biathlon; Women's Alpine; Women's Figure Skating

Olympics - PyeongChang 2018 - Day 13

Day 13 - February 19

Only five medal events today, but again,some great competition.

Even in the non-medal matches, like hockey, the games are starting to heat up tremendously.  The U.S. men's hockey team, behind two more goals from Harvard's own Ryan Donato, defeated Slovakia to advance to the quarterfinals against the Czech Republic.  For an older guy like me, I find it interesting that the U.S. can beat both Czech and Slovakia in the same knockout round.  (For those younger than me - Czechoslovakia used to be one single country!).

The women dominated Finland to advance to the the gold medal game against - stop me if you have heard this before - Canada, who started slow against the OAR, but scored 3 quick goals in the third period to ice the game 5-0.  Since the U.S. defeated Canada in Nagano in 1998, Canada has won four straight gold medals (2002 in Salt Lake City; 2006 in Turin; 2010 in Vancouver; and 2014 in Sochi).  In those 4 Olympics the U.S. has won 3 silvers and 1 bronze (losing to Canada in each finals and being upset by Sweden in the semi-finals in 2006).  Given the earlier match from these Olympics ended with a 2-1 Canada win and a scramble in front of the Canadian goal at the end, this gold medal game should be outstanding.

The women's freestyle skiing half-pipe final was amazing.  Canada's Cassie Sharpe won gold, Marie Martinod of France won the silver and the Brita Sigourney of the U.S. wins gold.  The competition was so amazing that Sigourney, when interviewed afterward commented that the competition was so tough and the tricks so amazing that there was palpable pressure and tension, and followed that up by saying that she doesn't perform very well under pressure.  Brita - you did this time.  You performed more than well, your performed admirably.  But Sharpe was the story.  Sharpe wears a mouthguard with a gold tooth emblazoned on it, and raps M.O.B.'s "Ante Up" before dropping into the half-pipe.  She culminated her amazing run with a 1080, earning the highest score in the events history, albeit brief.  U.S. defending gold-medalist Maddie Bowman had three excellent runs until her last hit, failing to land each of them and finishing 11th in the finals.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day came in the men's 500m speedskating.  Norwegian skater Havard Lorentzen won gold, followed by South Korea's Cha Min Kyu with silver and China's Gao Tingyu with the bronze.  What was surprising about this result you ask?  No Dutch skaters!  The Netherlands's Ronald Mulder finished 7th.  American Mithcell Whitmore finishing 15th should come as no surprise.

The final 2 runs in the men's 2 men Bobsled were held, and two teams finished in a tie for the gold medal.  After 4 runs each, almost 4 miles of track, Canada and Germany finished in the exact same time!  This is the second time that this has happened in Olympic history.  In 1998 Canada and Italy tied for the gold in Nagano,  (Luge and Speed Skating already time to the thousandth of a second - look for that to happen in Bobsled soon).  After the Canadian sled finished and their time was announced, in what only happens in the Olympics, the German team was the first to congratulate the Canadians - although I am not sure the congratulations would have been so quick if the time was .01 different in Canada's favor.  Latvia earned the bronze.

As exciting as the men's bobsled conclusion was, Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir earned the Performance of the Day.  Virtue and Moir included a lift in their routine that they had deemed too risque to perform during the team competition.  They captivated the judges and audience alike as they skated to their third ever gold medal (2010 Vancouver - Ice Dancing; 2018 PyeongChang Team) and are the first figure skaters to ever win 5 medals overall (2014 silver medalists in Ice Dancing and Team).  Of course, team skating has only been competed since 2014.  France's Papadakis and Cizeron won silver and the American Shibutani siblings - the "Shib Sibs" won bronze.  Congratulations to Virtue and Moir for their amazing performance and their fifth overall Olympic medal.

The U.S. Disappointment of the Day could go to ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates for falling in their free skate, causing them to fall to 9th place in the standings.  However, their recovery after the fall - which almost never happens in ice dancing compared to the singles competition - was absolutely amazing.  Therefore, the Disappointment of the Day goes to freestyle skier Maddie Bowman, the defending Olympic gold medalist in the half-pipe, who failed to land any of her 3 runs in the finals, runs that were so specatcular prior to her final hit that she likely would have medaled, and possibly even won gold.  Of all of the disappointments, this is one of the two real stretches, as her air, twists, turns and rotations were generally spectacular, and falling is a major part of freestyle as the competitors really push their tricks and jumps, but nevertheless Bowman was likely disappointed in finishing 11th.

Olympics - PyeongChang 2018 - Day 12

Day 12 - February 18

Only four medal events today, but WOW - what competition!!!  Before we get to the medals, the women's snowboarding Big Air qualifying was absolutely ridiculous.  The fact that the finalists were limited to 12, and that those 12 all did jumps more than worthy of the finals, sets up a tremendous final!!!  Jamie Anderson (6th), Julia Marino (9th) and Jessika Jensen (12th), all qualified for the finals, giving the US a quarter of the entrants in the final.  Hopefully multiple medals could be in play!!!

The men's 2-Man bobsled conducted its first two runs (of four), and Germany's sled piloted by Nico Walther finished his team's second run in first place, even though he and his brakeman Christian Poser finished on their side.

In the women's 500 meter speed skating final, American Brittany Bowe initially equaled the blistering pace set by Jorien Ter Mors of the Netherlands, the 1000m gold medalist.  Bowe, subsequently was listed first at the time once the times were spread out to the thousandth of a second instead of the usual hundreth.  Bowe seemed ripe to capture a medal as it seemed the only competitors of note that remained were the reigning world champion and the 2x reigning Olympic champion.  Of the favorites, Japanese skater Nao Kodaira was first.  Kodaira who has not lost at this distance in the last two seasons, set an Olympic record at 36.94 seconds, and became the only woman under 37 seconds at sea level.  Unfortunately for Bowe, Kodaira also pulled Karolina Erbanova of the Czech Republic along with her; Erbanova finishing at 37.34 and passing Bowe - at 37.53 for second.  In the last heat, local favorite, 2 time reigning Olympic champion and world record holder Lee Sang-Hwa, with tremendous crowd support, started with a blistering first 100m that was even faster than Kodaira, but alas, Sang-Hwa finished in second at 37.33, just eclipsing Erbanova for the silver.

In the men's cross-country 4 x 10km relay, Alexander Bolshunov, the second leg for the OAR opened up a 30 second lead, only to have countryman Alexey Chervotkin caught at the end of his third lap of three by Simen Hegsted Kruger of Norway, towing France's Clement Parisse with him, and finished their third leg with a sizable lead over the OAR.  And that is when the tactical race began.

Norway's anchor, J.H. Klaebo, is a multi-medal favorite in this Olympics, so much so that the last climb about half a kilometer from the end of each lap is named the Klaebo Hill, because everyone assumes that is where he will tactically take advantage of the other skiers, and win his races.  Klaebo took off on the first of his three laps, but allowed France's anchor Adrien Backscheider to do all of the work.  Backsheider had to push the lead group of two because he knows that he has nowhere near the speed of the anchor from the OAR, Denis Spitsov.  Instead of playing cat-and-mouse with Klaebo, Backsheider pushed the pace as much as he could, and he and Klaebo held the lead into their third 3.3km lap, at which time Spitsov had made up the difference from the sizable lead held by Norway and France.  But, Spitsov had expended so much energy to catch the leaders, he could not answer Klaebo who slid past Spitsov on the last downhill before Klaebo Hill, increased his lead for the next .5 km, and just decimated Spitsov on Klaebo's hill, cruising for Norway's eighth cross-country gold in these Olympics.  OAR finished second, and in an upset, France - for the second consecutive Olympics, earned the bronze.  The gold avenges Norway's fourth place finish in Sochi in 2014, as Norway has won all 7 major international races since then.

 The Moment of the Day, and perhaps the finish of the Olympics occurred in the men's 15km biathlon, mass start. as France's Martin Fourcade just edged out Germany's Simon Schempp for gold.  And when I say just edged out - I mean JUST EDGED OUT.  The result went to a photo finish.  In biathlon, the winner is the person whose boot passes the line first, and Fourcade (number 2 in the picture below) won by half a boot.  After 15Km.  Norway's Emil Hegle Svendsen won the bronze.

What makes this photo finish even more amazing is that in 2014 in Sochi, Fourcade was determined to have finished second to today's bronze medalist Emil Hegle Svendsen by a very similar photo finish. In fact, Fourcade was initially listed as the gold medal winner, only to have that ruling overturned after a closer review of the photo finish.

Of course, what would the Olympics be without a disappointment.  The biggest disappointment of the day is that curler Alexander Krushelnitsky from the OAR - the bronze medalist in the mixed doubles - tested positive for meldonium.  Now, I won't get into all the details of meldonium (which supposedly increases stamina), but it was only banned in 2016 and many Russian athletes have taken it in the past (See Sharapova, Maria).  Perhaps the biggest disappointment for Krushelnitsky other than simply having his bronze medal revoked, is that his curling teammate Anasstaisa Bryzgalova is HIS WIFE.  They are pending a second independent test, but Krushelnitsky may not only be responsible for having his medal stripped, but also that of his wife/teammate.

That, however, is not an American disappointment, which could once again go to the American speed skaters for once again failing to medal (hello dead horse), but instead, I will give the Disappointment of the Day to the U.S. men's freestyle skiing aerials team, which failed to medal after Jonathan Lillis failed to qualify for the third finals, finishing 8th of 9 skiers.  This after the X-Games sports (snowboard, snowmobile, freestyle skiing) were all thought to be added to the Olympics just to help the U.S. win more medals.  (Not true - it was to gain and keep younger viewers and fans).

Events watched:  Men's Hockey; Men's Cross-Country Skiing; Men's Speed Skating; Men's Bobsled; Freestyle Skiing; Women's Speed Skating; Women's Snowboard; Pairs Figure Skating

Olympics - PyeongChang 2018 - Day 11

Day 11 - February 17

So the middle weekend of the games are upon us.  Lots of action, but only a few stories today.

Slovakian Anastasiya Kuzmina won her third medal of these games, but first gold, in the women's 12.5KM mass start biathlon.  This gold is her third gold and sixth medal in Olympic history.  Kuzmina defeating Darya Domracheva of Belarus and Norway's Tiril Echoff, who joined Kuzmina on the podium.

In freestyle skiing, Norway's Oystein Braaten wins gold, and American Nick Goepper wins silver, followed by Alex Beaulieu-Marchand of Canada.

The US finally wins a medal in short track, with John-Henry Krueger winning the bronze behind Canadian Samuel Girard and just ahead of home-crowd favorite Seo Yira.  South Korea was rewarded later when Choi Min Jeong won gold in the women's 1500m.  Choi's gold medal was well earned after she was disqualified from the 500m final earlier in the Olympics.

Norwegian Alpine skier Marcel Hirshcer won his second gold of these Olympic games in capturing the giant slalom, to go along with his super combined win.

However, the biggest story of the day comes from women's cross-country skiing, where Team Norway defeated Team Sweden in the 4x5Km relay.  This was important as Marjit Bjoergen skied the anchor leg for Norway, thus earning her 13th Olympic medal.  She is now tied with Ole Einar Bjoerndalen as the most decorated Winter Olympian ever.  For those of you that are American-centric - that makes her the Michael Phelps of the Winter Olympics.

The Disappointment of the Day could be one of two things.  First, Gus Kenworthy crashed out of the freestyle skiing slopestyle, finishing 12th of finalists, but crashing is a usual part of that event as the athletes constantly push the envelope of their tricks.  And, given that an American won silver in the event, this is not a major disappointment, especially for Kenworthy who is competing in his first Olympics as an openly gay man, and his coming out seems to have opened up his personality, as well as his skiing.  So, the Disappointment of the Day goes to giant slalom skier Ted Ligety, a medal favorite who nonetheless finished in a tie for 15th place.

Events Watched:  Men's Curling; Men's Freestyle Skiing; Women's Skeleton; Men's Alpine Skiing; Women's Cross-Country Skiing

Olympics - PyeonChang 2018 - Day 10

Day 10 - February 16

Only six medal events today, but lots of other action.

In the men's figure skating, Japanese skaters Yuzuru Hanyu and Shoma Uno finished gold-silver respectively, with Spain's Javier Fernandez winning the bronze.  However, the story was American Nathan Chen, who attempted six quads, landing five (and barely touching down on the sixth), to shoot from 17th to 5th place, and cement the 18 year old as the favorite for the next four years.

The Dutch won another speed skating gold, this time Esmee Visser in the women's 5000m.  The only thing interesting about this race is that the Dutch didn't win more medals.

In the women's freestyle skiing aerials, Hanna Huskova from Belarus anxiously awaited the final run of China's Kong Fanyu, and when Fanyu's bronze medal score was flashed, Huskova immediately fell to the snow in elation - showing some of the most pure emotions in these Olympics so far.  China's Zhang Xin won the silver.

In another emotional performance, Czech Republic Alpine Skier Ester Ledecka won the gold in the women's super giant slalon, and in her performance in winning the Super Giant Slalom by .01 of a second, earn's her the Athlete/Performance of the Day.  Anna Veith of Austria finished second, with Tina Weirather from Liechtenstein winning bronze.  Ledecka is a snowboarder by trade and races on hand-me-down skis.  She is currently ranked 43rd in the Women's Super Giant Slalom rankings and she has never finished higher than 19th in a Super Giant Slalom event.  and will look to medal in snowboarding parallel giant slalom later in these Olympics.

The American Disappointment of the Day is easy as Lindsay Vonn, who finished sixth in the super giant slalom.

Events Watched:  Men's Hockey; Women's Freestyle Skiing; Men's Figure Skating; Women's Biathlon; Women's Short Track Speed Skating; Men's Short Track Speed Skating

Olympics - PyeongChang 2018 - Day 9

Day 9 - February 15

To be fair and honest, I didn't see a lot of the Olympics today, and I can only write what I know.

The exciting events that I saw today were limited.  In the women's cross-country 10KM race, Norway's Ragnhild Haga won gold, narrowly defeating Sweden's Charlotte Kalla for gold.  Finland's Krista Parmakowski and Norway's Marit Bjoergen tied for the bronze.  This is Bjoergen's 12 Olympic medal, tying her with Norway's Bjorn Dahlie for second all time in Winter Olympics history, only one behind Norwegian great Ole Einar Bjorndalen.  Bjoergen still has events left in PyeongChang.

For my Athlete of the Day, Men's Hockey's Ryan Donato, one of only four college players on the US team, scored both goals in a 2-1 defeat of Slovakia.  Donato, from Harvard (but that had nothing to do with it), is proving to be a physical presence as well as a goal scorer for this US team, and we are going to need that going into the next game against OAR.

Lots of American Disappointment to choose from today, even in my limited viewing.  Jesse Diggins just missed the podium coming in 5th in cross-country skiing, but that is only a disappointment because she came so close.  The 5th place finish is the highest in cross-country in U.S. History, so it it hard to be truly disappointed in that.  Mikaela Shiffrin announced that she was not participating in the Super Giant Slalom, due to the condensed scheduling of the events because of weather cancellations earlier in the week.  This is disappointing but totally understandable.  Nathan Chen fell in the short program of the men's figure skating, but we have seen that before.  So, the Disappointment of the Day goes to snowboarded Lindsay Jacobellis who failed to podium in the snowboard cross, coming in 4th.

Events Watched:  Women's Cross-Country Skiing; Team Luge, Men's Hockey

Olympics - PyeongChang 2018 - Day 8

Day 8 - February 14

Valentine's Day here in America, so between that and the fact that I had an all day deposition means I didn't watch a ton of the events today.  I did see some, however, and a few athletes stood out.

In the men's double luge, Germany's Tobian Wendl and Tobia Arlt won gold, outdistancing the Austrian duo of Peter Penz and Georg Fischler (silver) and teammates Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken (bronze).  Germany has long-dominated the doubles luge event, and continues to do so.

The women's 15KM individual biathlon saw Sweden's Hanna Oeberg take gold, defeating sliver medalist Anastasiya Kuzmina from Slovakia and bronze medalist Laura Dahlmeier from Germany.

I know this is a shocker, but a Dutch athlete won gold in speed skating.  This time it was Jorien Ter Mors in the women's 1000m.  It is just hard to explain the brilliant dominance of the Netherlands in this sport at these Olympics.

The men's downhill was fascinating as Askel Lund Svindal of Norway narrowly defeating countryman Kjetil Jansrud for gold and Beat Feuz of Switzerlan, who captured the bronze.

But, the story of the day is Mikaela Shiffrin, the 22 year old American slalom specialist, winning the gold medal in the giant slalom.  Shiffrin, in second place after the first run, turned in a blistering second run to defeat Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel - who won silver- and Italy's Frederica Brignone - who won gold.  Mikaela is our Athlete of the Day.

As with the rest of the Olympics, there were several American disappointments.  Speed Skating (stop me if you have read this before) again failed to medal, this time in the women's 1000m, men's double luge failed to medal, but they were just an outside medal hopeful anyway, and the women's hockey lost 2-1 to Canada.  Although Canada and the US are the class of the field and look forward to that gold-medal matchup later in PyeongChang.  So, the Disappointment of the Day goes to the U.S. Men's Hockey team, who entered the third period against Slovenia up 2-0, only to lose 3-2 in overtime.  With a huge game looming against the OAR, in is likely the men's team doesn't even qualify for the medal round.

Events Watched:  Women's Speed Skating; Men's Hockey; Men's Luge; Women's Alpine Skiing; Men's Alpine Skiing

Olympics - PyeongChang 2018 - Day 7

Day 7 - February 13

The action is picking up as a lot more medals will be awarded daily as the Olympics are in full swing.  That means lots of action, lots of stories and lots of medals.

The mixed doubles curling was completed, with Team Canada defeating team Switzerland for the gold.  Now we have a week and a half of more curling.

In cross-country skiing, the men's individual.sprint final was held, with Norwegian 21 year old Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo winning the gold over Italy's Frederico Pellegrino and OAR's Alexander Bolshunov.  Klaebo becomes the youngest cross-country gold medal winner ever.  I have a feeling we will see/hear more from him not just in PyeongChang, but also in Beijing and wherever they decide 2026 will be held.

In one of the historically most exciting events - the 500m short track speed skating final - Italian Arianna Fontana wins gold.  No truth to the rumor that she is the daughter of Detective Joe Fontana of Law and Order Fame.

In the men's combined (Alpine Skiiing), Austria's Marcel Hirscher wins gold over France's Alexis Pinturault and Victor Muffat-Jeandet, who earned silver and bronze respectively.  Hirscher, who is widely respected as the best overall men's skier in the world, starts to cement that reputation with his first Olympic gold to go with the silver he won in slalom in Sochi.

The Netherlands continued their long-track speed skating dominance taking first and second in the men's 1500m speed skating behind Kjeld Nuis (gold) and Patrick Roest (silver).  South Korea's Kim Min Seok took home the bronze.

And, Germany's Natalie Geisenberger continued her dominance by winning gold in the women's luge, followed by her teammate, Dajana Eitberger, after runs 3 and 4.  Geissenberger is one of the most dominant athletes for her sport in all of the Olympics.   She led after each of the 4 runs down the track, earning her third gold after having won both the women's and team relay in Sochi, following a bronze in women's luge in Vancouver.

But, the most impressive performance belongs to American snowboard legend Shaun White, who was in second place coming into his last run in the half-pipe.  The started off with two consecutive 1440s, and put the stamp on another gold for him after missing the podium in Sochi.  Anyone that saw his performance, and that of silver medalist Ayumo Hirano witnessed one of the best competitions of the Olympics.  Congratulations Shaun, you are the Athlete of the Day.

For our American disappointment of the day, I have several choices.  To pick on the American speed skating team for failing to medal (again) in the 1500m and leaving the entire speed skating team medal-less in Sochi and PyeongChang might be overkill.  Luger Emily Sweeney suffered a wicked crash, in which she was taken to the hospital, but is apparently OK, but crashes happen in sports and Sweeney was only a dark-horse medal contender, so it was just great to see her go all out to try to medal.  So, the Disappointment of the Day goes to luger Erin Hamlin, who failed to follow-up her Sochi medal with one in PyeongChang.  Honestly, though, this is not a true disappointment as Hamlin consistently ranks third through eighth in World Cup events, so 6th is about right, but it would have been great to see her medal for the second time after the flag-bearer controversy started by Shani Davis.

Events Watched:  Men's Snowboard, Women's Luge, Men's Alpine Skiing

Olympics - PyeongChang 2018 - Day 6

Day 6 - February 12

Several outstanding performances today.  In the second run of the women's luge, Gernam favorite Natalie Geisenberger set a track record.  German Dajana Eitberger immediately followed that run with her own track record, which was then immediately eclipsed by American Summer Britcher.  Three consecutive runs, three consecutive track records.  Runs 3 and 4 tomorrow are going to be outstanding.

In the women's biathlon, 10KM pursuit, German Laura Dahlmeier followed up her spring gold with her second gold medal of these games, going clean in her last standing shooting position to easily outdistance the field.  Slovakia's Anastasiya Kuzmina won silver and France's Anais Bescond won bronze.

In the men's biathlon 12.5KM pursuit, France's Martin Fourcade displayed his dominance after a disappointing 8th place finish in the men's sprint.  Fourcade, who had made his way into second place right on sprint gold-medal winner Arnd Pfeiffer's shoulder as they began their last standing shot position.  Fourcade immediately hit his first two shots on the way to going clean, and forcing Pfeiffer to miss two shots on his way to a medal-less performance.

American biathlete Tim Burke had a huge pursuit, despite finishing 17th.  For those that do not understand how the pursuit works, the top 60 individual finishers from the sprint line up in order of their sprint finish.  At the start, the sprint champion - in this case Arnd Pfeiffer, takes off, with the remaining athletes pursuing Pfeiffer at the time intervals equal to the difference in time during the sprint.  So, for example, if one skier finished three seconds behind Pfeiffer, that skier would start the pursuit three seconds behind Pfeiffer.  The winner is the first athlete to cross the finish line - even though he may have started much later than other skiers.  That as the case with Tim Burke, who finished in 47th in the individual sprint, and thus started the pursuit after 46 other skiers.  Burke passed 30 of those other skiers to finish 17th.  A tremendous performance for Burke.

Norwegian ski jumper Maren Lundby unleashed a huge - AND I MEAN HUGE - final jump of 110 meters to take gold away from Germany's Katharina Althaus in the normal hill.  Althaus had to settle for silver.  Sara Takanashi of Japan won the bronze.

Ireen Wuest of the Netherlands won gold - her second medal of these games - in the 1500m speed skating event, and in so doing became the most decorated speed skater ever with her 10th overall medal.  Teammate Marrit Leenstra won the bronze medal, and only Japan's Miho Takagi - who won silver, prevented another Dutch sweep in speed skating.

Shaun White electrified the crowd with a dominating qualifying performance in the men's snowboard half-pipe.  He - along with the dozen qualifiers for the finals - are set up for an amazing finals in which any of the athletes could conceivably and realistically medal.

Although each of the above were great performances, nothing tops our Moment of the Day - seventeen year old American Chloe Kim's gold medal performance in the women's snowboard half-pipe.  Kim, the overwhelming favorite coming into the games, absolutely dominated.  Of her 5 runs, she scored 4 in the 90s.  The entire remaining field had a grand total of 0 scores in the 90s.  Chloe Kim is the performer of the day.

And, as I predicted at the beginning of the Olympics, another huge disappointment for the Americans.  After failing to win any medals at all in speed skater in Sochi 2014, the US was supposed to redeem itself with multiple medal contenders in PyeonChang, and none more possible than in the 1500m women's event.  Despite setting an early blistering pace, Brittany Bowe - the 2015 world champion and 1000m and 1500m, ended up in 5th and teammate Heather Bergsma finished 8th.  Both came into the games as medal hopefuls, but alas, the United States is still without a medal in all of speedskating.

Events Watched:  Women's Luge, Women's Ice Hockey, Women's Snowboard, Women's Ski Jump, Men's Alpine Skiing (Super Combined), Women's Biathlon, Men's Biathlon, Men's Snowboard, Women's Speed Skating