Today’s Olympic coverage began with the quarterfinal match between the men’s hockey teams of USA and Switzerland. The USA won 2-0, but it was a pretty tight match all things considered. The USA team made 30+ shots, but only managed to get 1 by the goalie. The other score was made after Switzerland had pulled their goalie to try and tie the score in the final minutes of the game. So the USA advances, as does the Canadian team, who squashed the Russian Federation with a final score of 7-3. If both the USA and Canada win their semifinal matches, we could see them competing in the gold medal final. Finland and Slovakia also advance to the semis.
Women’s Giant Slalom was on the schedule for [...]
Today’s coverage started with a soul-crushing loss by the Gold-medal winning speedskater for the Netherlands, Sven Kramer, in the 10,000m. He dominated his first event earlier in these Olympic games and we all rejoiced with him as he leaped over camera crews to get to his family and share his job with them. Today’s finish did not bring the same result. Kramer was so far ahead of the other competitor in his pair that you couldn’t even see him in the same screen. He was over 4 seconds ahead of the fastest time so far and he was skating in the last pair. But Kramer did not make a lane transfer when he was supposed to and finished in the incorrect lane and was disqualified. [...]
We began today’s events out on the cross country skiing course again with the men’s and women’s team sprints semifinals and finals. While the US did not medal in either event, we did have a team make it to the final in both events, which is an encouraging sign of good things to come in the future. For the women, it was Germany, Sweden & the Russian Federation who went 1, 2, 3. For the men, it was Norway, Germany and the Russian Federation going 1, 2, 3. Unfortunately, the race will be remembered more for the Belarus’s mistake in going to the ski transfer area instead of skiing towards the finish line than for who actually won.
Prime time began with the men’s aerials qualifying [...]
I believe that today marked the final individual biathlon event with the men’s 15k mass start. The men all started in lines with the front line containing the Olympic medalists and those with the highest placement throughout the year’s standings. This was another opportunity for the USA’s Tim Burke, a World Cup leader, to contend for a medal and break the long drought for the US in this event, but, once again, we were doomed to disappointment. With too many shots missed, Burke ended up a disappointing 18th. This race was a highlight for the Russian Federation, though, who has been so disappointed during this Olympics as Ustygov took the gold with France taking the silver and Slovakia taking the bronze. There were a lot [...]
Today began with the women’s aerials competition as we watched the qualifying rounds and the battle to be one of the top 12 to make it to the finals later next week. Firstly, let me just tell you that these athletes are crazy! They are going app. 40 mph as they come down off this little jump and then they are flipping, twisting and then try to land on their feet! It was a really impressive event and everyone looked amazing, in my opinion. The snow was the consistency of sugar and so it was really sucking on the athletes’ skis, which made it very difficult to land cleanly. Each athlete received 2 jump chances and they did different tricks each time so it was [...]
Today was a bit of a mixed bag as far as what NBC chose to show. We began the day with women’s cross country, in the 15k pursuit. It has been interesting to watch the skiing competitions and to discover that there are 2 different kinds of skiing that they use for competition: classic & free. This competition was a half and half, with the first 7.5k skied “classic” with a very linear method with your skis staying parallel to each other at all times. It is particularly fascinating to watch them ski up hill as they literally run up it on their toes with the skis staying on the snow. Very cool. After 7.5k, they switch skis, which allows you a chance to gain [...]
We began today with a familiar site – the biathlon. This one was the women’s 15k individual biathlon followed in the evening with the men’s 20k biathlon. So, you would think if you want to become the Michael Phelps of the Winter Olympics and rack up as many medals as you possibly can, you would become a biathlete or a ski jumper as you are given so many opportunities to medal. Or, I guess, you could do short track, too, as they have lots of chances. Of course, the reason why you don’t see many athletes completely dominate like Phelps did in the Summer Olympics is that all of these Winter Olympic sports are extremely volatile in their results. I don’t know how many times [...]
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Today started off with men’s and women’s cross country sprint. I can honestly say that I don’t remember ever seeing this sport before. I don’t know if I just missed it, zoned out or lumped it in with the regular cross country, but this was like seeing a whole new event! I also had no idea that there are 2 different kinds of cross country skiing and that it is very important to stay in that specific style or you cannot compete. I believe that this sprint was the traditional style, which had a very specific cadence or rhythm to the steps. It looks completely different from the more modern style, where skiers pick up their skis and look a bit awkward going up hills. [...]
Today’s Olympic coverage began with the men’s 12.5 biathlon pursuit and the women’s 10k biathlon pursuit. Again, such a weird sport. I guess that skiing and shooting would have been useful around the turn of the century when men still had to go out and hunt to bring food home to the table, but it is a kind of weird event to watch. Some athletes are good skiiers, some are good shooters, but very few are both. Again, the US has never won any type of medal in the biathlon and so I didn’t really get my hopes up, which was good as we didn’t factor into the race at all. What made this race different from the other one is that this is the [...]
