Olympics - Beijing 2022 - Day 11

 Day 11 - February 14, 2022

Happy Valentine's Day, and the most important Valentine for the Olympic athletes is a medal!

In hockey, we the viewers all get what we want - a Canada/US Final!!!  The Olympic hockey gods are definitely good!!!

In worse news, the Kamila Valieva positive drug test situation took an interesting turn.  Sha'Carri Richardson, the U.S. Sprinter who tested positive for THC at the US trials, went public with the question as to why Valieva - who tested positive for a performance enhancer at the ROC's Olympic trials - still gets to compete when Richardson could not - and answers the question by stating it must be because Vaileva is white.  And, Richardson isn't wrong.  Stay tuned as Valieva competes tomorrow.

Something incredible interesting is brewing in Bobsled, as the 2-man competition completed their first two runs, with German squads in first, second, and fourth, with the fourth-place sled only .05 seconds behind the Russian Olympic Committee sled.  This could be the only time one country has swept the podium in bobled.

The men's ski jumping team competition (large hill) took place, with Austria winning gold over Slovenia (silver) and Germany (bronze).

In the X-Games competitions, the women's freestyle skiing aerials and slopestyle took place.  In the aerials, the host China wins gold behind Xu Mengtao, followed by Hanna Huskova of Belarus (silver) and American Megan Nick (bronze).

 

In slopestyle, Eileen Gu of China, the gold medalist in the half-pipe, won her second medal by coming in second in slopestyle, beat only by a tremendous run by Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland who takes gold.  Kelly Sidaru of Estonia comes in third.  The Russian Olympic Committee is protesting what it believes was low scoring for fourth place Anastasia Tatalina.

After some weather delays, the women's downhill was completed, and Switzerland's Corinne Suter won gold in an incredibly fast run.  She was joined on the podium by two Italians, Sofia Goggia (silver) and Nadia Delago (bronze).

In speedskating, the team pursuit competition finished with Norway defeating the Russian Olympic Committee for gold in the final.  The United States won the third-place match over the Netherlands to take home bronze.  The U.S. team, made up of Casey Dawson, Emery Lehman, and Joey Mantia - Ethan Cepuran skated in the semi-finals) kept Sven Kramer from winning his 10th all-time Olympic medal.

Athlete of the Day:  Sofia Goggia, Italy, Alpine Skiiing

Goggia won the silver medal in the women's downhill, JUST THREE WEEKS AFTER A CRASH LEFT HER WITH A DAMAGED ACL!!!  She is in pain, and likely needs surgery, but she was not missing the Olympics.

Teamwork/Sportsmanship Moment of the Day - Everyone in the Skating world not related to Russia, Every Country Except Russia, Figure Skating

Virtually everyone in the world of figure skating, form athletes, to former athletes, to coaches, to administrators, to broadcasters, are unanimous in condemning the fact that Kamila Valieva is still performing in these Olympics.  Although, the IOC has stated that no medals will be awarded should Valieva finish first, second, or third, until its investigation is complete and all legal challenges are finished.

Olympic Term of the Day: Hammer - In curling, the team with the last stone in any given end of play holds "the hammer."  The 16th delivered, or last stone, curled in any given end.

Olympic Events Watched: Alpine Skiing, Curling, Bobsled, Freestyle Skiing, Hockey, Ski Jumping

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer(s):  Nick Baungartner, Nathan Chen, Kaillie Humphries, Erin Jackson, Lindsey Jacobellis, Chloe Kim, Hilary Knight, Elana Meyers Taylor

Olympics - PyeongChang 2018 - Day 14

Day 14 - February 20

Only four medal events today, but as in the past few days, some great competition.

Men's hockey lost to the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals, but Ryan Donato - from HARVARD - scored a goal, and is to date the leading score in the entire tournament.  Alas, no medal for the American men.

Germany swept the nordic combined, but since nobody know what that means (OK, actually I do), I won't go into any more detail.  Nevertheless, congratulations to Johannes Rydzek (gold), Fabian Riesle (silver) and Eric Frenzel (bronze) for their efforts skiing AND ski jumping.

In what has to be the most rehearsed (OK, practiced) in the entire Olympics, home favorite Team South Korea wins gold in the short track women's 3000m relay, with Italy winning silver and the Netherlands winning bronze.  If you have not seen a relay in short track - go now and watch.  YouTube, Smart TV, whatever you have to do - go watch it!

In the women's downhill, Italy's Sofia Goggia became the first Italian woman to win gold in the downhills.  Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel won silver and American Lindsay Vonn won the bronze.  In so doing, the 33 year old Vonn became the oldest medalist in Olympic Alpine skiing history.  However, since I feel that Vonn gets way more credit than she should simply because she dated Tiger Woods (and because Racecar is annoyed with her) I will not include a solo picture of her.

Congratulations to Lindsay nonetheless.

The women's figure skating event kicked off with its short program, and all that happened is the OAR is way better than anyone else - like much better.  Evgenia Medvedeva set a short program world record by scoring 81.61 points, only to have Alina Zagitova break that world record by scoring 82.92 points.  Everyone else might as well not even be skating, including the Americans who finished 9th (Mirai Nagasu), 10th (Karen Chen) and 11th (Bradie Tennell) - the worst showing for the United States ever.

The day, however, belonged to Martin Fourcade, the brilliant biathlete who anchored the French team's mixed relay securing his third gold of these Olympics, which incidentally started slow for him as he failed to medal in the men's 10KM sprint biathlon - in which he finished 8th.  Norway and Italy earned silver and bronze respectively.  Martin Fourcade - and team France - are the Performance of the Day!!!!  (It would have gone to the OAR's figure skaters, but I will save that for when the win gold/silver).

Several Disappointments for the United States include the men's hockey team (which I warned would not win a medal after losing their opening match to Slovenia 3-2 in overtime) and the women's short track speed skating 1000m team, all of which failed to advance past the opening race.  However, the main Disappointment of the Day is warded to Nagasu, Chen and Tennell, for the United States's worst performance in the women's figure skating short program in Olympic history.

Events Watched:  Men's Hockey; Women's Short Track Speed Skating; Men's Biathlon; Women's Alpine; Women's Figure Skating