Olympics - Beijing 2022 - Day 7

Day 7 - February 10, 2022

7

To be honest, I didn't have the opportunity to watch much of the Olympics for this day, but that doesn't mean that I couldn't keep up with the happenings!

The United States Hockey team started off slow in its opener against China but rode a Sean Farrell hat trick - along with 2 assists - to win 8-0.  Farrell, most recently of Harvard, is one of the collegiate/non-NHL professionals suiting up for the Americans given that the NHL is not participating in these Olympics.  The US should have beaten China, but to do so in this style could be significant moving forward.

As the men are just getting started, the women are in the medal round, and defeated the Czech Republic 4-1 in a tough matchup.  After a scoreless first period, the Czechs tool the led 5 minutes into the second period, but that lead lasted all of 48 seconds.  Hilary Knight gathered a rebound from between from a Coyne Schofield shot between two Czech defenders to equalize.  The US then killed a five-minute major penalty to end the second, and scored 2 even strength goals and an empty-netter in the third for the final margin of victory.  The US advance to the semi-finals against an as yet determined team, with the game on Monday.

In the Women's Super-G, Mikaela Shiffrin finished 9th, which is a good showing given that her best events are the more technical slalom and giant slalom.  Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland continues her standout Olympics with the gold.

In the men's skeleton, Germany's Christopher Grotheer and Axel Jungk finished 1-2 to take the gold and silver medals, with Yan Wengang of China earning bronze.  And in a super-surprise (is there any other kind?) Australia's Jaclyn Narracott is the leader halfway through the women's skeleton, with two runs remaining.  Behind her are a plethora of Olympic and World Championship medalists, including Germans Hannah Niese and Tina Hermann, who currently sit second and third.

The men's snowboard cross was exciting, with the gold medal determined by a photo finish, with Austria's Alessandro Haemmerle (left below) narrowly winning gold over Canada's Eliot Grondin (right below) by .02 seconds.  

Kamila Valieva of the Russian Olympic Committee still has yet to be disqualified from the team competition despite two positive doping tests.  Those tests were administered on December 25, meaning she should have been ineligible for the Olympics.  However, she wasn't because the lab just reported the results on Tuesday - February 8!  She tested positive for trimetazidine, which "improves myocardial glucose utilization through inhibition of fatty acid metabolism."  I may not know what that means, but science!  The Russian Anti-Doping Agency has provisionally suspended, and then reinstated Valieva.  The legal complexities of this case are amazing, as the IOC has appealed the RUADA's reinstatement, but nothing else is technically appealable at this time, including the original positive test, and Valieva - who is 15 - is a minor so additional legal protections have kicked in.  None of the teams involved - the Russian Olympic Committee, the United States, Japan, and Canada, have received any medals for the team event yet.

The mixed freestyle aerials made its Olympic debut, and the Americans made it memorable.  The team of Ashley Caldwell, Christopher Lillis, and Justin Schoenefeld win gold over the host Chinese team, who came home in second with Canada winning bronze.  Lillis, whose jump was scored the highest of all competitors, shares the gold with his teammates Caldwell and Schoenefeld, who have been dating for 3 years.

Shaun White wrapped up his remarkable career in snowboard's half-pipe just off the podium finishing fourth behind Japan's Ayumu Hirano, who won gold after two consecutive silver medals in the event.  Scotty James of Australia claimed silver and Jan Scherrer of Switzerland earned bronze.  Hirano fell on his first run, but it was clear that he was going all out, losing on a 1440-1260 combination.  (See below for a report on his second run.)  Hirano then just went out a set a world record on his third round.  But, all eyes were on Shaun White, whose interview was absolutely emotional - but in a good way.  If you haven't seen the interview, you really need to CHECK IT OUT!

Athlete of the Day - Ayumu Hirano, Japan, Snowboard (Half-Pipe)

Although the moment was White's, the event was Hirano's, his world-record setting performance the most incredible collection of tricks ever attempted in the half-pipe, according to NBC's Todd Richards - a former snowboarder himself.  Richards even called out the judge's after Hirano was in second place after his second run, in which he landed a 1440!  Richards tweeted, "WTF you judges just grenade'd all credibility.  Now I will certainly be using grenade'd as a verb!

And here is the figurative "Passing of the Torch".

Teamwork/Sportsmanship Moment of the Day - Molly Soloman, NBC, Executive Producer of Olympics Coverage

Huh?  That is what you are asking.  What is this?  Well, after Mikaela Shiffrin skied-out of an early gate on the slalom, after skiing-out of an early gate in the giant slalom, Shiffrin sat on the course (near the netting not between gates) for about 20 minutes.  Of course she was upset - and she wasn't hurt - but her sitting on the course held up the remainder of the competition by about that 20 minutes.  NBC kept showing her on camera, and then when she did arise, aired her interview in which Shiffrin was incredibly forlorn and upset - understandably.  NBC took a huge social media hit for portraying Shiffrin in her emotional state, including many references to her deceased father, whose death played(s) a huge role in Shiffrin's current state.  NBC's Ted Ligety, himself a four-time Olympic medalists (2 gold) critiqued Shiffrin's run, calling it "almost a rookie mistake."  Well, Soloman was approached to answer for NBC's treatment of Shiffrin, and responded by supporting her journalists.  Soloman said, "We have an obligation in that moment, as the broadcaster of the Olympic games, to cover the moment. ... There is no script when there's a wipeout on the slopes or a fall in figure skating.  We're watching real people with real emotions in real time and we did everything we were supposed to do. ... Shiffrin's performance was huge news - the biggest story of the Games so far. ... I've thought a lot about this, and if Joe Burrow or Matthew Stafford sit on the sidelines 22 minutes after the Super Bowl on Sunda, and you can bet the cameras are going to stay on them.  ... Here we are in 2022 and we have a double standard in coverage of women's sports.  Women's sports should be analyzed through the same lens as the men.  The most famous skier in the world did not finish her two best events.  So are we going tos how her sitting on the hill and analyze what went wrong?  You bet we are!"  Kudos to you Molly Soloman, and to support you standing behind your team, I will post that picture of her sitting on the hill.

Olympic Term of the Day: Skeleton - A sliding sport in which a person rides a small sled, known as a skeleton bobsled, down a frozen track while lying face down and head-first.  The skeleton sled is thinner and heavier than the luge sled, giving the athlete more control.  It is also the slowest of the 3 sliding sports bobsled, luge being the others), as the face down, head-first position is less aerodynamic that the feet first, face up luging position.

Olympic Events Watched:  Alpine SkiingCurling, Hockey, Skeleton, Snowboard 

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

Olympics - PyeongChang 2018 - Day 7

Day 7 - February 13

The action is picking up as a lot more medals will be awarded daily as the Olympics are in full swing.  That means lots of action, lots of stories and lots of medals.

The mixed doubles curling was completed, with Team Canada defeating team Switzerland for the gold.  Now we have a week and a half of more curling.

In cross-country skiing, the men's individual.sprint final was held, with Norwegian 21 year old Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo winning the gold over Italy's Frederico Pellegrino and OAR's Alexander Bolshunov.  Klaebo becomes the youngest cross-country gold medal winner ever.  I have a feeling we will see/hear more from him not just in PyeongChang, but also in Beijing and wherever they decide 2026 will be held.

In one of the historically most exciting events - the 500m short track speed skating final - Italian Arianna Fontana wins gold.  No truth to the rumor that she is the daughter of Detective Joe Fontana of Law and Order Fame.

In the men's combined (Alpine Skiiing), Austria's Marcel Hirscher wins gold over France's Alexis Pinturault and Victor Muffat-Jeandet, who earned silver and bronze respectively.  Hirscher, who is widely respected as the best overall men's skier in the world, starts to cement that reputation with his first Olympic gold to go with the silver he won in slalom in Sochi.

The Netherlands continued their long-track speed skating dominance taking first and second in the men's 1500m speed skating behind Kjeld Nuis (gold) and Patrick Roest (silver).  South Korea's Kim Min Seok took home the bronze.

And, Germany's Natalie Geisenberger continued her dominance by winning gold in the women's luge, followed by her teammate, Dajana Eitberger, after runs 3 and 4.  Geissenberger is one of the most dominant athletes for her sport in all of the Olympics.   She led after each of the 4 runs down the track, earning her third gold after having won both the women's and team relay in Sochi, following a bronze in women's luge in Vancouver.

But, the most impressive performance belongs to American snowboard legend Shaun White, who was in second place coming into his last run in the half-pipe.  The started off with two consecutive 1440s, and put the stamp on another gold for him after missing the podium in Sochi.  Anyone that saw his performance, and that of silver medalist Ayumo Hirano witnessed one of the best competitions of the Olympics.  Congratulations Shaun, you are the Athlete of the Day.

For our American disappointment of the day, I have several choices.  To pick on the American speed skating team for failing to medal (again) in the 1500m and leaving the entire speed skating team medal-less in Sochi and PyeongChang might be overkill.  Luger Emily Sweeney suffered a wicked crash, in which she was taken to the hospital, but is apparently OK, but crashes happen in sports and Sweeney was only a dark-horse medal contender, so it was just great to see her go all out to try to medal.  So, the Disappointment of the Day goes to luger Erin Hamlin, who failed to follow-up her Sochi medal with one in PyeongChang.  Honestly, though, this is not a true disappointment as Hamlin consistently ranks third through eighth in World Cup events, so 6th is about right, but it would have been great to see her medal for the second time after the flag-bearer controversy started by Shani Davis.

Events Watched:  Men's Snowboard, Women's Luge, Men's Alpine Skiing

Olympics - PyeongChang 2018 - Day 6

Day 6 - February 12

Several outstanding performances today.  In the second run of the women's luge, Gernam favorite Natalie Geisenberger set a track record.  German Dajana Eitberger immediately followed that run with her own track record, which was then immediately eclipsed by American Summer Britcher.  Three consecutive runs, three consecutive track records.  Runs 3 and 4 tomorrow are going to be outstanding.

In the women's biathlon, 10KM pursuit, German Laura Dahlmeier followed up her spring gold with her second gold medal of these games, going clean in her last standing shooting position to easily outdistance the field.  Slovakia's Anastasiya Kuzmina won silver and France's Anais Bescond won bronze.

In the men's biathlon 12.5KM pursuit, France's Martin Fourcade displayed his dominance after a disappointing 8th place finish in the men's sprint.  Fourcade, who had made his way into second place right on sprint gold-medal winner Arnd Pfeiffer's shoulder as they began their last standing shot position.  Fourcade immediately hit his first two shots on the way to going clean, and forcing Pfeiffer to miss two shots on his way to a medal-less performance.

American biathlete Tim Burke had a huge pursuit, despite finishing 17th.  For those that do not understand how the pursuit works, the top 60 individual finishers from the sprint line up in order of their sprint finish.  At the start, the sprint champion - in this case Arnd Pfeiffer, takes off, with the remaining athletes pursuing Pfeiffer at the time intervals equal to the difference in time during the sprint.  So, for example, if one skier finished three seconds behind Pfeiffer, that skier would start the pursuit three seconds behind Pfeiffer.  The winner is the first athlete to cross the finish line - even though he may have started much later than other skiers.  That as the case with Tim Burke, who finished in 47th in the individual sprint, and thus started the pursuit after 46 other skiers.  Burke passed 30 of those other skiers to finish 17th.  A tremendous performance for Burke.

Norwegian ski jumper Maren Lundby unleashed a huge - AND I MEAN HUGE - final jump of 110 meters to take gold away from Germany's Katharina Althaus in the normal hill.  Althaus had to settle for silver.  Sara Takanashi of Japan won the bronze.

Ireen Wuest of the Netherlands won gold - her second medal of these games - in the 1500m speed skating event, and in so doing became the most decorated speed skater ever with her 10th overall medal.  Teammate Marrit Leenstra won the bronze medal, and only Japan's Miho Takagi - who won silver, prevented another Dutch sweep in speed skating.

Shaun White electrified the crowd with a dominating qualifying performance in the men's snowboard half-pipe.  He - along with the dozen qualifiers for the finals - are set up for an amazing finals in which any of the athletes could conceivably and realistically medal.

Although each of the above were great performances, nothing tops our Moment of the Day - seventeen year old American Chloe Kim's gold medal performance in the women's snowboard half-pipe.  Kim, the overwhelming favorite coming into the games, absolutely dominated.  Of her 5 runs, she scored 4 in the 90s.  The entire remaining field had a grand total of 0 scores in the 90s.  Chloe Kim is the performer of the day.

And, as I predicted at the beginning of the Olympics, another huge disappointment for the Americans.  After failing to win any medals at all in speed skater in Sochi 2014, the US was supposed to redeem itself with multiple medal contenders in PyeonChang, and none more possible than in the 1500m women's event.  Despite setting an early blistering pace, Brittany Bowe - the 2015 world champion and 1000m and 1500m, ended up in 5th and teammate Heather Bergsma finished 8th.  Both came into the games as medal hopefuls, but alas, the United States is still without a medal in all of speedskating.

Events Watched:  Women's Luge, Women's Ice Hockey, Women's Snowboard, Women's Ski Jump, Men's Alpine Skiing (Super Combined), Women's Biathlon, Men's Biathlon, Men's Snowboard, Women's Speed Skating