Olympics - Beijing 2022 - Day 4

 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

Olympics - Beijing 2022 - Day 3

Day 3 - February 6, 2022

Day 3, and the medals start coming.  The Russian Olympic Committee leads with 6 total medals, followed by Netherlands, Norway, Japan, Canada, Italy, and Austria - each with 4.  The United States has 3, along with Sweden, Germany and France.

In hockey, the US Women just annihilated Switzerland, winning 8-0 and scoring in all three periods.  Hilary Knight, Jesse Compher and Kelly Panneck each scored twice, with Knight, Compher, and Alex Carpenter leading the team in total goals (3).  Today's matchup with Canada is for the number 1 seed in the quarterfinals and is a potential gold medal preview - or at least it should be.  Anything else would be disappointing for us fans.

In the men's luge, Johannes Ludwig of Germany claims gold, with Austria's Wolfgang Kindl and Italy's Dominik Fischnaller winning silver and bronze respectively.  Ludwig had the fastest time in each run and set the course record after his first two attempts.

In ski jumping, Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi takes the gold medal in the men's normal hill, winning Japan's first ski jumping gold since Sappora 1972.  Keyser Soze of Hungary approves.  Manuel Fettner of Austria earned the silver, and Poland's David Kubacki wins bronze.

In the women's normal hill competition, Ursa Bogataj of Slovenia wins gold, Katharina Althaus of Austria finishes with silver, while Bogataj's compatriot Nika Kriznar wins bronze.

Alpine Skiing finally got started after some delays due to unsafe wind conditions.  The women's giant slalom started things off, but for American medal contender Mikaela Shiffrin, the day ended early, falling and missing a gate in the upper portion of the course.  Sara Hector of Sweden wins gold, followed by Frederica Brignone of Italy and Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami.

In freestyle skiing, the Big Air competition was held, with qualifying rounds held at the venue, which is making headlines not for the venue, but for the background!

Julia Marino wins the silver medal for the United States in Snowboard Slopestyle, finishing second behind Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand.  Sadowski-Synnott earned New Zealand its first ever Winter Olympics gold medal.  The United States won silver again as Jaelin Kauf finished behind Australian Jakara Anthony in the freestyle skiing moguls.

The United States won its third silver medal of these games in Team Figure Skating, as the team of Nathan Chen (1st in mens), Alexa Knierim/Brandon Frazier (2nd in pairs), Madison Chock/Evan Bates (1st in Ice Dancing), and Karen Chen (6th in ladies), had a strong finish in the free dance portion.  However, they, and the rest of the competition, was overshadowed by Kamila Valieva, as the 15 year old became the first ever woman to land a quad at the Olympics, and she landed 2.

Women's curling was also interesting, as Norway challenged Italy, before Italy's Stefania Constantini scored 5 points in two different ends, to stay undefeated.  Subsequently both the Italian's and Norwegians have rolled into the finals, which they will play tomorrow.

Irene Wust of the Netherlands won the gold medal in the 1500 meters, winning a gold medal in her 5th Olympics, the first ever athlete to do so.

Co-Athlete of the Day - Irene Wust, Netherlands, Speed Skating

SHE WON A GOLD MEDAL IN HER FIFTH STRAIGHT OLYMPICS!

Co-Athlete of the Day - Kamila Valieva, Russian Olympic Committe, Figure Skating

FIRST WOMAN TO EVER LAND A QUAD IN OLYMPIC COMPETITION!

Teamwork Moment of the Day - Chinese Team Figure Skating Team, China

Women's skater Zhu Yi, who was born in the United States, and she took a lot of flak when she was selected to skate by the Chinese coaches to skate in the Team Competition.  She took even more, including death threats, after she fell during the short program portion of the team competition.  She fell on her first jump in the free skate, but afterward picked herself up and skated a beautiful performance.  During the announcement of her scores, the other members of the team were all hugging her and rubbing her arms, and otherwise trying to comfort her as she was obviously crying.  Some of these team members did not get to skate in the team competition because Zhu was selected ahead of them.

Olympic Term of the Day: Power Play (in Curling) - Once per match, each team may elect a power play, in which they place the guard stone at a location half in the 8m circle and half in the 12m circle, with the back of the stone placed on the center line.  This blocking stone keeps the entire house open, and makes for a potential big scoring end by the team holding shot rock.

Olympic Events Watched:  Curling, Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Hockey, Luge, Ski Jumping, Snowboarding, Speed Skating

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer:  Nathan Chen, Hilary Knight

Olympics - Beijing 2022 - Day 2

  Day 2 - February 5, 2022

Day 2, and the first day in which I was able to watch a lot of the competition.  Again, not a lot of medals, yet, but some really good competition to watch.

The first medals were handed out in the women's skiathlon, with Norway's Therese Johaug winning gold, after sprinting ahead of the field at the switch from classic to freestyle method.  American Jesse Diggins, one of the unexpected stars of Pyeongchang, finished 6th.

In the biathlon mixed relay, the United States threatened despite never having won a medal in any biathlon event.  Near flawless shooting rounds from Clare Egan and Sean Doherty put the US in as high as second, but first time Olympian Paul Schommer wasn't as successful, and the United States finished 7th, behind gold medalist favorite Norway, France and the Russian Olympic Committee filling out the podium - in that order.

In its first game since losing Brianna Decker to injury in the opener against Finland, the US women's hockey team defeated the Russian Olympic Committee 5-0, behind a goal and an assist from Hilary Knight, behind a goal and an assist from Hilary Knight, playing in her fourth Olympics.

In short track speedskating, the mixed relay turned out to be incredibly competitive, with host China, the number 1 ranked team in the world, surviving a third-place scare in the semi-finals - only the top 2 advance - when the officials judged they were interfered with not once, but twice, by the Russian Olympic Committee and the United States, the penalty DQing the US team which thought it had qualified for the finals.  China ends up defeating Italy by .05 seconds!

But, the best performance of the day goes to our athlete of the day, in the 3000m speedskating final.  Irene Schouten of the Netherlands wins gold and sets an Olympic record in the process.  Italy's Francesca Lollabrigida and Canada's Isabella Weidemann finished with the silver and bronze, respectively, in a star-studded podium, each edging out fourth-place World Record holder Martina Sabilkova from the Czech Republic.

Athlete of the Day - Irene Schouten, Netherlands, Speed Skating

Schouten broke the Olympic record in the 3000m set by the immortal Claudia Pechstein in Salt Lake City 2002.

Teamwork Moment of the Day - Brianna Decker, USA, Hockey

United States hockey star Brianna Decker suffered an Olympic-ending lower body injury, but that did not keep her from attending today's game against the Russian Olympic Committee.  Seated in a special section, Decker could be seen yelling, encouraging, and cheering her teammates, as they won 5-0.

Olympic Term of the Day: Mogul - A small hard mound of snow on a ski slope, cast up over numerous runs by the skis of skiers as they turn.  One of a set of closely spaced, artificially constructed mounds forming the course for certain competitive skiing events.  A skiing event held on such a course.

Olympic Events Watched:  Biathlon (Mixed Relay), Freestyle Skiing (Mens' Moguls), Hockey, Luge, (Women's), Short Track Speed Skating, Ski Jumping (Men's/Women's Normal Hill)

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer:  Nathan Chen, Hilary Knight