Another day, another sweep, this time in the Men's 30KM skiathlon, as Norwegians Simen Hegstad Krueger, Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Christer Holund captured gold, silver and bronze, respectively.
Sven Kramer put on a dominating performance in the men's 5000m speed skating event, giving the Netherlands another gold in speed skating, and giving him a third straight gold at the distance.
In team figure skating, the three favorites won the medals as Canada, OAR and the United States finished first, second, and third - exactly as expected before the event. More on this later.
Jamie Anderson, won her second consecutive gold medal in the Women's Snowboarding Slopestyle. The course was hampered by excessive wind, and the competitors were only allowed two, rather than their usual three runs. 41 of the 50 competitors either fell or pulled up on their runs, and even Anderson pulled out of one of her tricks on a jump. But, Anderson was otherwise flawless the rest of the way to secure gold on her first run.
Anderson was comparatively spectacular, however, the Moment of the Day goes to the group of David Gleirscher of Austria, Chris Mazdzer of the United States and Johannes Ludwig of Germany, who finished first, second and third respectively in the luge. Mazdzer, who was the penultimate sledder, was in second place after his run, securing no worse than a bronze, and no worse than a silver for Gleirscher, with only world champion Felix Loch remaining. As the sledders finish their runs - competing in ascending order of their current placement, luge has the sledder which is currently in first place stand in front of a step-and-repeat at the finish line. Fleirscher had Mazdzer and Ludwig join him after their runs. And, the sheer joy that this group collectively experienced as Loch's disappointing fourth run put him in 5th place for the Olympics was amazing. The three jumped, hugged, screamed altogether. The scene was delightful, and truly captured the Olympic spirit.
The American Disappointment of the Day is only a disappointment in theory. The award goes to American figure skater Adam Rippon, inserted for the men's free skate portion in place of Nathan Chen - who fell on several occasions in the men's short program. Rippon skated a flawless performance, albeit without any quads. However, he finished third in the men's free skate portion of the team event to Canada's Patrick Chen and the OAR's Mikhail Kolyada, who both attempted quads in their performance, but who both fell, and with Kolyada stumbling on another jump. I understand that we want to award difficulty, but it would seem to me that the difficult maneuvers should be successful to earn the additional points. That is the disappointment.
In the same vein, Mirai Nagasu became the first American woman - and only third woman ever - to successfully land a triple axel in the Olmpics. Yet, she finished second to OAR's Alina Zagitova.
Although we are disappointed in Rippon's scoring, one of the best pictures in sports was taken during his performance by Dean Mouhtaropolous of Getty Images. See for yourself!
Events Watched: Men's Luge, Women's Hockey, Men's Speed Skating, Men's Cross-Country Skiing, Men's Biathlon, Women's Freestyle Skiiing Moguls, Women's Snowboarding Slopestyle, Team Figure Skating
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