Day 4 - February 7, 2022
Some incredibly exciting action in Day 4; some of the best we have seen to date.
The biggest match of the day was in women's hockey - The United States versus Canada. The two heavyweights in the field, and most likely finalists, played each other for seeding, with Canada defeating the United States 4-2 despite being outshot 53-27. This gold medal match is going to be AMAZING!
The hockey game was the best single game of the day, but the best event - BY FAR - was the Freestyle Skiing, Big Air competition. Each of the competitors were spellbounding, and amazing, and any other super superlative you can think of. They pushed each other to the max, to the point where they were all trying moves they had NEVER tried in competition before, because they saw the tricks that the others were completing. Even when an athlete was unable to complete her trick or landing, the rest of the jump was awesome. San Francisco born 18 year old Eileen Gu won Gold competing for host China - the country of her mother's birth, with Tess Ledoux of France winning silver, and Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud earning bronze. In any other competition, any of the top 10 jumps would have won the gold, it was that amazing. Also, Gu reportedly scored a 1580 on her SAT!
In the women's 15K biathlon, German Denise Herrman wins gold, while American Deedra Irwin finished 7th, the best finish by any American in the biathlon - EVER!
And, in the men's Super Giant Slalom, Austria's Matthias Mayer defended his gold from Pyeongchang with a magnificent run in Beijing. But, the story in this race was the silver medal winning Ryan Cochran-Siegle. RCS, as he is known, was one of the fastest skiers in the world in any discipline last year before he crashed before crashing and injuring a vertebrae in his neck last year. It was unknown at the time wheter he would even be able to compete for a place IN the Olympics, much less for a medal, yet he perservered and won a medal 50 years after his mother won gold in the slalom in1972 in Sapporo, Japan. RCS also has an aunt and uncle that competed in the Olympics, as well as two cousins. Congratulations Ryan!
Staying in Alpine Skiing, Matthias Mayer earned the bronze medal in the downhill (making that two medals for him in two races), behind Beat Feuz of Switzerland (gold) and France's Johan Clarey (silver). Clarey's silver medal makes him the oldest Alpine Olympic medalist in history at 41.
The day was not without its controversy, however. In the team ski jumping competition, 5 women were disqualified for having too loose clothing. The reasoning behind the rule is because some loose clothing can actually catch the air and allow a jumper to glide farther down the hill. However, each of the 5 women wore the same uniform the day before in the women's normal hill competition. The jumpers disqualified were from medal contenders Japan, Austria, Germany, and Norway (2 jumpers). Germany, Norway and Austria won gold, silver and bronze at the 2021 world championships. Slovenia - a very strong team and a medal contender even without the DQs, won gold, with the Russian Olympic Committee and Canada finishing 2nd and 3rd. It was Canada's first ski jumping medal in the Olympics. Even with one of their jumpers disqualified - and thus earning a 0 on her jump, Japan finished in 4th.
In short track speed skating, controversy returned in the form of penalized skaters benefitting host China. South Korea's Hwang Dae-Heon, the second ranked 1000m skater in the world who won his semi-finals in the 1000m with a daring pass of two Chinese skaters, was penalized for that pass, sending both Chinese skaters to the final. Likewise, in the other semi-final, Lee Jeon-seo was disqualified via a penalty for an improper lane change. In the finals, Hungary's Shaolin Sandor Liu was disqualified and given a yellow card after finishing first and presumably winning gold. That paved the way for Chinese skaters Ren Ziwei (gold) and Li Wenlong (silver) were the primary beneficiaries of the yellow card, with Liu's brother - Shaoang Liu - winning bronze.
On the women's side, Italy's Arianna Fontana goes back-to-back in the 500m following up her gold in Pyeongchang with a gold in Beijing, earning her 10th overall Olympic medal!
Doing Fontana one better, Germany's Natalie Geisenberger goes back-to-back-to-back in the luge, winning her third gold in single's luge (5th overall), something only done by the German great Georg Hackl. Geisenberger was followed onto the podium by her compatriot Anna Berreiter, and the Russian Olympic Committee's Tatyana Ivanova.
Finishing up the day (Ok actually starting tomorrow, but at the end of our day in the west), was the short program in Men's figure skating. American Vincent Zhou had to withdraw from the games due to a positive Covid test, leaving the Americans with only two competitors. Two-time defending champion Yuzuru Hanyu was the first of the contenders to perform, and he mis-jumped - it look like his blade stuck in the ice - on his first quadruple, earning 0 points and finishing in 8th place. His teammate Shomo Uno, the only other skater besides Hanyu to defeat Nathan Chen in the past 6 years, finished third behind fellow Japanese skater Yuma Kagiyama. In first, American Nathan Chen followed up his phenomenal program in the team competition with a WORLD RECORD performance in the short program! His teammate Jason Brown, one of the more elegant skaters in the world even without all of the athletic quad jumps in his performance, finished 6th, leaving him an opportunity to capitalize on a medal chance should one of the leaders falter.
For the second day in a row, we have Co-Athletes of the Day. With all due respect to Arianna Fontana and Natalie Geisenberger, whose achievements were phenomenal, the two best performances of the day go to ...
Co-Athlete of the Day - Nathan Chen, United States, Figure Skating
World Record Short Program performance, and odds-on leader to win Gold in men's figure skating.
Co-Athlete of the Day - Ann-Renee Desbiens, Canada, Hockey
She made 51 saves as the Canadian women's hockey team beat the United States 4-2 despite being outshot 53-27. Brienne Jenner scored two goals, but Desbiens was the first, second, and third star of this game.
Teamwork Moment of the Day - Japanese Ski Jumping team
After Sara Takanashi, who finished 4th in the women's individual normal hill competition and thus definitely a threat to play a large role in a potential Japanese medal in the team competition, was disqualified for a suit violation after her 103 meter first round jump - said jump being ruled a scratch - Takanashi rebounded for a great second jump, and teammates Yukiya Sato, Yuki Ito, and men's individual normal hill gold medalist Ryoyu Kobayahsi kept competing to finish in fourth, only 8 points behind Canada for the bronze medal (safe to say Takanashi's jump would have scored over 100 points), and only 54 points behind the Russian Olympic Committee for silver.
Olympic Term of the Day: Telemark Landing - In ski jumping, a landing with one ski advanced and the knees bent. Earns maximum style points for the landing when performed correctly.
Olympic Events Watched: Alpine Skiing, Biathlon, Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Hockey, Luge, Short Track Speedskating, Ski Jumping
USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer: Nathan Chen, Hilary Knight
No comments:
Post a Comment