Olympics - Beijing 2022 - Day 6

Day 6 - February 9, 2022

Two of the most dominant U.S. athletes performed amazingly today, and on the heels of Mikaela Shiffrin's results, this is exactly what the team - and American fanbase - needed!!!

The news of the day comes from the figure skating world, and that news is NATHAN CHEN!  It is his world, and we are just living in it.  Chen absolutely crushed his free skate - done to a re-mixed, souped-up version of Elton John's Rocketman, to demolish not only the rest of the competition, but also any demons he may have from 2018.  Chen, a Yale student, just completed one of the most dominant 4-year runs in sports, winning all events except for one since Pyeongchang.  It is Nathan Chen's world, and we are just living in it.  Damn Yalies!

Chen's performance was so good that it even overshadowed the other figure skating news of the day, that it was Kamila Valieva that tested positive for performance enhancing drugs during the team competition.  We knew it was somebody from the apparent winning Russian Olympic Committee team, but now the news has surfaced that it as the 15 year old dynamo, who became, at least temporarily, the first woman to land a quad in competition.

Men's Hockey started with a dramatic upset.  Denmark, in its first ever Olympic hockey match, defeated the Czech Republic 2-1!  What an upset.

And speaking of firsts, some amazing things happened in the Nordic combined.  The Nordic combined is a competition that includes ski jumping (normal hill) and cross-country skiing.  The points from the ski jumping portion of the competition equate to time, so that the athlete with the highest ski jumping score goes first in the skiing portion of the race, and each subsequent skier starts based upon how many points/seconds back they finished in the ski jumping.  Winner crossed the finish line first.

Approaching 1 km from the finish, a three man breakaway group of Johannes Rydzek and Julian Schmid of Germany and Lukas Greiderer of Austria were fading, and an attack group including Vinznez Geiger of Germany, Joergen Graabak of Norway, Johannes Lamparter of Austria and Finland's Illka Herola caught them, with Geiger pulling away from everyone.  Rydzek, who looked the strongest the entire race faded, and just after the 6 man attack group caught the leaders, Greiderer smacked his quads with his hands several times, apparently trying to "wake them up," which worked because Greiderer left the remainder of the group to ski with the attack group, finishing behind only Geiger and Graabak.  Greiderer's bronze was the first time he had ever finished on the podium in ANY event - Olympics or during the ski season.  Amazing race to watch.

In Alpine skiing, Norwegian downhill/Super-G specialist put up a great time in the downhill portion of the combined, only to be caught in the slalom segment by Johannes Strolz of Austria, with James Crawford of Canada winning bronze.

The combined, both Nordic and Alpine, are so interesting because the favorites usually specialize in one of the two disciplines, and they have to hope they are "good enough" in the other to win a medal.

In luge, Germans Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt (Tobias squared), won the doubles gold - their third consecutive title in this event! 

Short track speedskating made headlines again, but not necessarily for the right reasons.  In the men's 1500m, due to penalties, 10 different racers advanced to the finals from the 12 person semi-final races.  There were so many people in the race that only 6 could start on the start line, the other 4 had to start behind them (not exactly fair ...). South Korea's Hwang Daeheon won gold, with Canada's Steven Dubois winning silver, and Semen Elistratov from the Russian Olympic Committee winning bronze.

And the bookends in this post with Nathan Chen's dominating performance is Chloe Kim's equally impressive victory in the snowboard half-pipe.  Kim put herself way on top of the leaderboard in her first run, and before her second run was only marginally challenged by Spain's Queralt Castellet, whose second run placed her in second.  For her second and third runs (the latter of which she didn't even have to perform because she had already solidified the gold medal), Kim attempted a 1260, which had never been landed in competition by anyone before.  Although unsuccessful, Kim finished with her second consecutive gold!

Athlete of the Day - Nathan Chen, United States, Figure Skating

With all due respect to Chloe Kim and Tobias Squared - it's Nathan Chen!

Teamwork/Sportsmanship Moment of the Day - Corinne Stoddard, United States, Short Track Speed Skating

Stoddard was back on the short track ice for the 3000m relay just 3 days after breaking her nose.  After the training accident, Stoddard was told it was her choice to go home or the stay in Beijing.  Stoddard's response was to definitely stay - because her relay team needed her.  Now the US team isn't expected to do much in the relay, but they wouldn't have even participated without her, and now they have their chance.

Olympic Term of the Day: Euler - A jump in figure skating that was formerly known as the half loop until the 2018/2019 skating season.  A skater takes off from back outside edge of their skates and lands on their back inside edge.  It is often used as the middle of a combination, like a quadruple toe loop, Euler, triple toe loop.

Olympic Events Watched:  Alpine Skiing, Curling, Figure Skating, Hockey, Nordic Combined, Short Track Speed Skating, Snowboarding, 

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

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 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

Olympics - Beijing 2022 - Day 1

 Day 1 - February 4, 2022

Hello, and welcome to the newest addition of the Daily Olympic blog!!!  Those that know me, know that the Olympics are the best part of the sporting calendar to me, and as such, I am going to try to keep up the ambitious schedule of one recap post for each day, focusing on the most important story/ies of the previous day, along with any other interesting or unusual stories.  Given the time zone differential between China and me, here in good old Eastern Standard Time, the official days may be off, as I will be reporting on when I see the events, which may be live, but may be off by a half day.  Deal with it, as I have to.

We will also have our guest poster return.  Those of you that actually read the blog may remember Miss Miss, who wrote a couple of posts during Tokyo 2020 (2021), and since she is just as big a fan of the Olympics as I am - maybe even more - she will return.

Back in Rio of 2016, I made a joke about Ryan Lochte not being selected as the flag-bearer.  At that point I decided to make a Ryan Lochte joke every day.  That was pretty easy at the beginning, but then became easier with his antics at the Rio gas station/convenience store, you know the one, where they may have taken gas and/or money, pissed on the outside wall and apparently tried to bribe the cops?  Boy did I have jokes.  I couldn't do that in Pyeongyang 2018, as Ryan Lochte wasn't involved in those Olympics.  But, the day 1 story gave me an idea.  At the team captains' meeting to decide the US flag-bearer for the Opening Ceremonies, apparently Erin Hamlin, the first American luger to medal in the Olympics and competing in her fourth Olympics tied Shanni Davis, the very talented, multi-medal winning speed-skater.  The teams then flipped a coin, which Hamlin won.  Davis was insulted and complained about the entire process.  So, that gave me the idea to do an "American Disappointment of the Day" segment.  I hope that something arises as a common theme for each post this year.

Speaking of flag-bearing, we have great stories with the selection of flag-bearers.  That is right, I said "flag-bearerS", plural.  (Cue How I Met Your Mother last season running joke).  We had three flag-bearers for the first time in history!  Why three?  Well, bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor and curler John Shuster were selected by the captains of each team (Excellent selections by the way).  However, Elana Meyers Taylor is in the Covid protocol, so she was replaced with the next highest vote-getter, speed skater Brittany Bowe.

Brittany Bowe has already shown the world what teamwork and selflessness means.  During the US Olympic trials, Brittany Bowe qualified for three individual events, including the 500 meters.  The 500 meters, which is not Bowe's specialty, is dominated by teammate Erin Jackson, who has won 4 of the past 8 events leading up to the Olympics.  In the Olympic trials, Jackson slipped, causing her to finish third in the trials.  Knowing that Jackson has a better chance to win a medal in the 500 meter, and that Bowe's best events are the 1,000 and 1,500 meter, Brittany Bowe resigned her spot in the 500 meter, giving way for Jackson, the third qualifier, to make the Olympic team.  Kudos to you Brittany!

Hey - that is my idea.  Each day I will feature something selfless, or some show of teamwork.

Not much occurred on the first day of the Olympics, and certainly no medals were awarded, so light blog day today.

Athlete of the Day - Nathan Chen, USA, Figure Skating

Nathan Chen has been the best figure skater in the world for a number of years, however in Pyeongchang in 2018, he fell in his opening skate in the short program, only to not recover despite skating flawlessly afterward.  Today, he skated as good a program as anyone in the short program of the team competition, putting the US solidly in first. 

Olympic Term of the Day:  Salchow - Figure Skating - A jump in figure skating with a backward takeoff from the backward inside edge of one skate to the backward outside edge of the other, with one or more full turns in the air

Olympic Events Watched:  Curling (Mixed Doubles), Figure Skating (Team), Opening Ceremonies

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer:  Nathan Chen

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