Olympics - Beijing 2022 - Day 10

 Day 10 - February 13, 2022

Not as much Olympic stuff today, since it was Super Bowl Sunday, but some pretty cool things happening for the U.S. squad nonetheless.

In men's hockey, the United States wins its group, going undefeated after beating Germany 3-2.  Next stop for the Americans is the quarterfinals.

In short track speedskating, the women from the Netherlands won the 3000m relay, giving Suzanne Schulting her third gold medal of the games (with 1 silver also).  In winning the gold, the team broke their own Olympic record in defeating South Korea (silver) and China (bronze).  It was an emotional win for the Netherlands, who were without the reigning 500m world champion and member of the 2018 Pyeongchang championship relay team Lara van Ruijven, who died in July 2020 after discovering an autoimmune disorder.

Hungary's Shaoang Liu won gold in the men's 500 meter, defeating an excited Konstantin Ivliev of the Russian Olympic Committee and Steven Dubois of Canada, who joined him on the podium with silver and bronze respectively.

In the figure skating arena, the ice dancing concluded with Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France easily winning gold, beating out world champions Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov from the Russian Olympic Commitee who won silver, and the American teams of Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue (bronze medalists) and Madison Chock and Evan Bates (4th place).

The bronze in ice dancing was not the only medal won by the Americans yesterday, as Erin Jackson won gold in the women's 500 meter speedskating event, becoming the first black woman to win a medal in Olympic speedskating history.  Jackson, the world number 1 ranked skater at 500 meters, and whose Olympic trial stumble caused her to finish 3rd and almost miss the Olympics if not for Brittany Bowe's decision to give up her 500 meter spot on the team, beat Japan's Takagi Miho by .08 seconds.  Miho settled for the bronze.

And the United States wasn't finished.  Over in the sliding sports, the last two runs in the monobob were completed, and the Americans dominated with a 1-2 finish.  Recently sworn-in citizen Kaillie Humphries dominated for the gold, while Elana Meyers Taylor progressed steadily each run, going for 4th after 2 runs, to 3rd after the 3rd run, and into the sliver medal after her final run!

The four medals on the day bring the United States into 4th place, behind Norway, Russian Olympic Committee and Germany.

Athlete of the Day:  Kaillie Humphries dominated, and Suzanne Schulting is putting up a performance for the ages, but this award goes to Erin Jackson.  When you can be the first of anything in 2022, you will get saluted.

Teamwork/Sportsmanship Moment of the Day - Iivo Niskanen, Finland, Cross-Country Skiing

Most of the awards for this category have involved "teamwork," but today's is definitely about sportsmanship.  Niskanen took home gold in the 15km cross-country race finishing in 37:54.08, beating Alexander Bolsunov from the Russian Olympic Committee (who won silver) by approximately 23 seconds.  However, it wasn't the difference in time between Niskanen and Bolsunov that people took note of, but rather the difference between Niskanen's time and that of Columbia's Andres Quintana.  When Quintana finished his 15 kilometers in 55:41.09 seconds - last in the entire Olympic field of 95 skiers - Niskanen was waiting to greet him.  Before leaving the track to begin his cooldown or to celebrate his victory, Niskanen waited for every last contender to finish, because "All athletes must respect each other, everyone has worked hard to be here.  You have to show this kind of respect at the Olympics towards countries that don't have much budget to get the best results, unlike the best nations."  It should be noted that the Norwegian bronze medalist Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo of Norway also waited around to congratulate Quintana on finishing.  Now THAT is the Olympic spirit.

Olympic Term of the Day: Impeding - In short track speedskating, impeding is "intentionally pushing, blocking, tripping or otherwise causing an impediment for another skater."  This results in a penalty for the offending skater, and could cause the impeded skater to advance to the next round, no matter where that skater finished in the race.

Olympic Events Watched: Bobsled, Curling, Figure Skating, Hockey, Short Track Speedskating, Speedskating

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 - Beijing 2022 - Day 8

Day 8 - February 11, 2022

The weekend starts, so of course there are several events worth watching, and some excellent results.

The women's sprint biathlon was held yesterday, with Marte Olsbu Roiseland of Norway winning gold, ahead of Sweden's Elvira Oberg and Italy's Dorothea Wierer.

The first qualification round of the men's large hill ski jumping was conducted, and based upon the jumps so far, any of 12 to 14 people could win medals!  The finals are going to be amazing!

In speed skating, Sweden's Niels Van Der Poel broke the Dutch stranglehold on gold in the men's 10,000 meters, to go along with his gold from the 5000 meters.  Van Der Poel is an interesting story, following Pyeongchang, he enlisted in the Swedish army, began running ultra-marathons and bike marathons, only to return to speed skating last year.  The cross-training worked, as not only did Van Der Poel win gold, the broke the World Record and smashed the Olympic record.  But, the surname Van Der Poel sounds suspiciously Dutch!

In the speedskating of the short track variety, In the 10 person final, Gao Tingyu of China won gold while setting a new Olympic record, just beating Cha Min-kyu of South Korea and Japan's Morishige Wataru, who finished second and third respectively.

In the men's 5000 meter relay, due to a penalty, we are set to see 5 teams that qualified for the finals, meaning 20 skaters involved in this intricate ballet/circus.  Korea, the Russian Olympic Committee, Canada and Italy qualified through the semi-finals, and stop me if you have heard this before, China advances due to a penalty - this time on Japan.  Should still be amazing to watch.

The women's 1000 meter was also raced with Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands defending her 2018 gold medal while following up her silver in the 500 meter with a gold at this distance.  South Korea's Choi Minjeong won silver and Hanne Desmet of Belgian earned bronze.  Italy's Arianna Fontana just missed out on another medal due to a penalty, which wiped out American medal hopeful Kristin Santos.   As a follow-up to yesterday's coverage of NBC's coverage of Mikaela Shiffrin, Choi stood at the side of the rink crying - in elation and relief and which NBC showed - as she finally won a medal after finishing 4th in her home country in Pyeongchang in 2018.  Incidentally, that 2018 race is the only time South Korea has missed the podium in this event.  Schulting did set a world record in this race earlier in the preliminaries.

In a different type of rink, the U.S. hockey team defeated Canada 4-2, behind a goal and an assist from captain Andy Miele.  The American's youth - almost all from the collegiate ranks and only 1 with previous Olympic experience - helped them prevail as their speed and athleticism allowed them to skate around and avoid the bruising physical play of Canada.  Brendan Brisson scored a goal early in the 2nd period to give the US a 3-1 lead, and you can tell he is excited.  As a side note, Miele won the Hobey Baker Award in 2011.

Iivo Niskanen was positively dominant in the men's 15km classic cross-country skiing, defeating the Russian Olympic Committee's Alexander Bolshunov by 23+ seconds and Norway's Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo by almost 38.

But even as dominating as Niskanen's performance was - and he is likely to have more this week - no event was as captivating as the Snowboard Cross Mixed relay.  The US team of Nick Baumgartner and Lindsey Jacobellis are a combined 76 years old - an eternity in snowboarding.  Baumgartner, who at 40 clearly shows that his time for Olympic medals is running out after finishing third in his quarterfinal race, was emotional and wondering if it was ever going to happen.  Baumgartner was clearly the slower of the two races comparatively, but staying just close enough to the lead to give Jacobellis enough time to make up the space needed to qualify the team for each subsequent round, but then the fastest men kept dropping, as Austria failed to advance, leaving Canada and two Italian teams in the finals.  Then something happened halfway down his run, Baumgartner's experience and weight - he is bigger than the other males in the competition - started carrying more speed as the snow was coming down and the track become softer and the wind picked up - and finished his run in first place!  Jacobellis briefly lost  the lead, but like Baumgartner regained it in the second half of the run and the 36 year old won her second gold of these games!

Athletes of the Day - Lindsey Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner, United States Snowboard (Cross Mixed Relay)

Just amazing display of teamwork, experience and knowing what you need to do to qualify and saving up enough to win!

Teamwork/Sportsmanship Moment of the Day - Maame Briney, United States, Short Track Speedskating

Biley was eliminated in the semi-finals of the women's 1000 meters.  Yet, she was cheering harder than anyone when Kristen Santos won her semi-finals to advance to the finals.  And, during the final race, it seemed as if Biley was more upset and shaken at Santos being taken out by a falling Arianna Fontana than even Santos was.  That was some good teamwork.

Olympic Term of the Day: Kangaroo Start - In short track speedskating, a method of starting that involves hopping off the ice before settling into your skating motion.  It can be the fastest way to start, but it is the most difficult to master.

Olympic Events Watched:  Biathlon, Cross-Country Skiing, Hockey, Short Track Speedskating, Ski jumping, Snowboard, Speedskating 

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