Olympics - Milano-Cortina 2026 - Day 9/February 12

 

So much action over the next few days as the events that started this week are wrapping up and the events that will take up the next week are all starting, along with other events just scheduled for this weekend!

Men's and women's curling are both in full swing, as the US Women went 1-1 on the day defeating Korea 8-4 and falling to Sweden 9-4.  The American men lost to Switzerland 8-3.

In men's hockey, the United States defeated Latvia 5-1 to keep pace with the Canadians, who defeated Czechia 5-0.  Germany beat Denmark 3-1 and Switzerland blanked France 5-0.  On the women's side, Canada beat Finland 5-0.

Staying on the rink, the women's 5000 meters speed skating final was held, with Italy's Francesca Lollobrigida winning her second gold medal of these games, closely followed by Merel Conijn of the Netherlands as these two skaters finished .1 seconds apart!!!  Ragne Wiklund of Norway won the bronze medal.  It is safe to say that Lollobrigida will forever be a national heroine!

Two finals were held in the short track speed skating, with the Netherlands taking home two golds.  In the women's 500 meters, Xandra Velzeboer took home the gold for the speed skating fanatical country, with Italy's Arianna Fontana taking home her second medal of the games (silver).  They were followed on the podium by Courtney Sarault of Canada.

The men's 1000 meters was next and the Dutch were again victorious as Jens van't Wout won gold.  Sun Long of China takes silver and Rim Jongun earned bronze.

On the sliding track, Germany took home the gold in the Team Relay, which consists of the women's singles, men's doubles, men's singles, and women's doubles in a relay format.  Austria finished second and Italy came home in third, to earn another medal for the home team!

The main action for the day took place on skis, with the women's Cross-Country 10K interval start freestyle and the women's Super Giant Slalom.  

In the former, Sweden once again dominated (as they expect to do in all of the women's cross-country events) taking home gold with Freda Karlsson and silver by Ebba Andersson.  But, they didn't dominate the podium as the greatest cross-country skier in US history - Jessie Diggins - managed to ski across in third place to win bronze!

In a much faster race - the Women's Super Giant Slalom - Italy was once again victorious, with Federica Brignone taking home gold for the hosts!!!  At age 35, Brignone is the oldest medalist in Olympic Alpine Skiing history.  Ramone Miradoli of France won silver and Austria's Cornelia Huetter earned bronze.

Athlete(s) of the Day - Federica Brignone, Italy, Alpine Skiing/Francesca Lollobrigida, Italy, Speed Skating

Another gold for the host country in the Women's Super Giant Slalom, and Brignone becomes the oldest Alpine Skier to medal ever. Lollobrigida wins her second gold medal of these games for Italy at age 35 as well!

U.S. Athlete of the Day - Jessie Diggins, Cross-Country Skiing

Another race another medal for the most decorated cross-country skier in U.S. history!

Upset of the Day - Germany 3-1 victory over Denmark in Men's Hockey

Germany defeating Denmark isn't the upset, it is the fact that this score was 3-1, which shows that Germany may not be a potential semi-finalist or medalist that they always hope to be.

 

Team of the Day - Canada, Men's Hockey

Just dominating everybody, including today's 5-0 over a good Czechian squad.

U.S. Team of the Day - Women's Curling

Although they finished the day 1-1, their 8-4 victory over Korea was as good a win as we have seen from the American women to date.

Olympic Term of the Day:  Goofy-footed - In snowboarding, it is a stance in which the athlete operates with their strongest leg in the front of the snowboard, rather than in the back.  Also applies to surfing, skateboarding and other similar.

Olympic Events Watched:  Alpine Skiing, Hockey, Skeleton, Snowboarding

USA Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer Possibilities (listed alphabetically):  Evan Bates, Madison Chock, Jessie Diggins, Korey Dobkin, Ashley Farquharson, Breezy Johnson, Hilary Knight, Ilia Malinin, Ben Ogden, Jordan Stolz, Cory Thiesse

Olympics - Beijing 2022 - Day 5

Day 5 - February 8, 2022

Not the overall excitement of the day before, but still some pretty good stories.

The most dominant Olympic performance so far has been Italy's mixed curling team, that won gold by defeating Norway 8-5.  Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner finished the Olympics 11-0, and a double takeout by Constantini in the final end sealed.  She had been making those type of shots all tournament!

Out on the courses, the Men's biathlon saw an amazing performance in the 20km, as France's Quenten Fillon Maillet scorched the course (and targets) by almost 15 full seconds over Anton Smolski of Belarus, with Norway's defending champion J.T. Boe winning bronze, over 30 seconds behind.

In skiing without rifles, the men's sprint champion is Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, who added to the three gold medals he won in Pyeongchang.  While on the women's side, American Jessie Diggins hung with the heavy favorites and finished in bronze medal position, behind two Swedes, Jonna Sundling (gold) and Maja Dahlqvist (Silver).  Diggins' finish is the best American Olympic individual finish ever.

Staying on traditional skis, the women's slalom started with, and finished without Mikaela Shiffrin.  It is too bad as this is her best event, and she was the gold medal favorite.  Shiffrin, who also skied out of the giant slalom, has three more events, with the combined her best chance at a medal.  Now, Shiffrin's issues are not without controversy, however, as she stayed on the snow just off the course for about 20 minutes.  Since there are no reports that she is injured, this is highly improper and not sports(wo)manlike, as the entire race was held up for her.  Nothing like a little controversy to spice up the Olympics.

And speaking of controversy, the actual medals for the team figure skating HAVE NOT BEEN AWARDED YET.  So apparently the results are still unofficial while a blood test for a skater representing the Russian Olympic Committee is being re-tested.  The skater's name has not been revealed, but a ROC skater did fail the initial drug test.  The United States finished second, Japan third and Canada 4th.  Those three countries, and the ROC, are all awaiting the official results, as the US, Japan and Canada could move up.

The "X-Games" style sports continued with some heavy hitters hitting the venues for the first time.  We had Chloe Kim and Shaun White both performing in the snowboard half-pipe.  Whereas Kim easily outdistanced the competition in qualifying first, White was in danger of missing the finals after falling on his first run.  He nailed his second run to finish fourth and advanced to the finals!

Staying on the snowboard, Ester Ledecka from the Czech Republic won her second consecutive gold in the women's parallel giant slalom, and Lindsey Jacobellis of the United States won gold in the snowboard cross.  Jacobellis, 36, became the oldest medal winner in snowboard Olympics history, and won the first of these games for the United States.  Jacobellis is largely remembered for taking a HUGE lead in the Snowboard cross final in 2006 in Turin only to perform a trick on the penultimate jump.  Jacobellis ended up falling and losing the gold to Tanja Friedman.  Jacobellis, a 10x X-Games gold medalist and 5x World Champ, missed the final rounds in 2010 and 2014, only to finish fourth in Pyeongchang in 2018.  And "Fourth", according to yesterday's fourth place finisher Belle Brockhoff of Australia, "is shithouse.  It's so shit.  You are the loser of the big final."  Of note, the year that I themed out my Olympic blog to write about the biggest disappointment of every day during the Olympics, Jacobellis appeared.  Not today.  Congratulations Lindsay!

The United States also won a medal in freestyle skiing - big air - as Colby Stevenson won the silver medal just behind the seemingly unbeatable Birk Ruud of Norway. 

In the tenth pairing of the men's 1500m speed skating, Thomas Krol obliterates the previous 18 skaters to move into first place, setting an Olympic record in the process.  That lasted all of one pairing, as his teammate Kjeld Nuis breaks Krol's Olympic record, and holds on to win gold, with Krol winning silver.  Speed skating is truly the Dutch national sport, and perhaps one day I will tell the story of being surrounded by Dutch fans in Salt Lake City watching this exact event, the men's 1500 meters!

Athlete of the Day - Lindsay Jacobellis, United States, Snowboard

She shrugged off her faux pas from 2006, one of sports' all-time boneheaded plays, as if it is just something that happens in snowboarding, making it seem as if the sport - or at least the athletes - are not as competitive as "real" sports.  This gold medal completes her redemption arc, and the best snowboard cross athlete in history final gets the Olympic medal she has seemingly missed from her collection - and it is GOLD!

Teamwork/Sportsmanship Moment of the Day - Petra Vlhova, Slovakia, Skiing

Not exactly teamwork or Sportsmanship, but more like perseverance.  Vlhova, in her third Olympic games, wins gold in the women's slalom (yes, the slalom - I know Shiffrin skiing out absorbed all the oxygen in the room), her first ever, and the first ever skiing medal for Slovakia.  (A note, American Katharina Liensberger won silver, and Sweden's Wendy Holdener won bronze.)

Olympic Term of the Day: Goofy, or Goofy-footed - A snowboarder's stance with their right foot on the front of the board and left foot on the back.  The reverse is called regular.

Olympic Events Watched:  Alpine Skiing, Biathlon, Cross-Country Skiing, Curling, Freestyle Skiing, Snowboard, Speed Skating

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

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).