Team pursuit speed skating results
The USA men’s pursuit team did us proud today, finishing 21 hundredths of a second behind the Canadian team. Team leader Chad Hedrick was hoping for gold, as he plans on retiring after this Olympics, but they weren’t expected to make it this far, so he shouldn’t be too disappointed. Teammates Brian Hansen and Johnathan [...]
Two great opportunities for USA gold
The first 2 heats of men’s 4-man bobsled were completed today. Steve Holcomb drove the much talked about “Night Train” sled to back-to-back record speeds on the challenging track. The USA-1 team finished in 1st place with a nice .4 second lead (doesn’t sound like much, but trust me, that’s good.) Tomorrows racing should be [...]
Women’s 1000m short track and men’s relay results
Heart pounding short track racing continued this evening with some great outcomes for the US and tons of excitement for those watching.
The final four in the women’s short track were Katherine Reutter of the US, Wang Meng and Zhou Yang of China, and Park Seung-Hi of South Korea. There were no false starts and no [...]
Crazy finish to men’s 500m short track
The final race for the 500m short track had an explosive ending. I swear, it looked more like roller derby than short track. Apolo Ohno started behind, struggling to pass, the other skaters holding in a tight formation. All of a sudden, just a few feet before the finish line Ohno touched Francois-Louis Tremblay of [...]
A great night of skating in Vancouver
Women’s figure skating is always interesting to watch. You just never can tell. Coming into tonight, this certainly seemed like Kim Yu-Na’s event to lose. But Mao Asada was determined to give her a run for it. And then bronze seemed pretty much up for grabs. Joannie Rochette, who skated [...]
Kristi Yamaguchi’s advice to young athletes and their parents
I had the pleasure of talking with Kristi Yamaguchi on the phone today. Yes, she really is as nice as she seems. I asked her some questions about the current Olympics and the newish scoring system, but I also wanted to talk to her about advice for young athletes and their families.
I first [...]
Women’s speedskating and aerials results
The women skated the 5000m tonight. The Czech Republic’s Martina Sablikova took her second gold, followed by Germany’s Stephanie Beckert and Canada’s 37 year old Clara Hughes (who carried the Canadian flag at the Opening Ceremonies).
Women’s aerials also awarded medals tonight. The Chinese are coming on strong as aerialists, coming in second [...]
Lots of short track today
Short track is the best sport if you have a short attention span.
Take the 500m qualifying races today. Generally, you’re looking at 40-45 seconds. Come on, you can pay attention for 40 seconds.
The women’s 3000m relay on the other hand requires you to pay attention for about five minutes. The Americans were [...]
Rookie mistake stuns speed skating crowd
By all accounts, Sven Kramer of the Netherlands should have won the gold in today’s 10,000m speed skating event. Distracted, his coach, Gerard Kemkers, directed him to the wrong lane and inadvertently disqualified him. Speed skaters race in pairs and switch lanes in the backstretch to make sure the distances are even. Kramer says he thought [...]
Olympic events 2/23
Plenty of events to choose from today. What will I be watching?
Men’s Giant Slalom, even though I already know something that I didn’t want to know. Ugh. It’s really difficult to avoid spoilers. Anyway, men’s giant slalom provides another golden opportunity for Ted Ligety and Bode Miller.
Ladies figure skating short program. [...]
Platinum medal for poor sportsmanship?
Evgeni Plushenko has reached an all-time high (or would that be low) in bad sportsmanship. His official website currently has a picture of the medals he’s won, including his “platinum” medal from the Vancouver games. Yep, no picture of the silver (that he ought to be stripped of, frankly, since it means so [...]
Do you see more to Virtue and Moir than just skating?
Ice dancing was not highest on my list this Olympics. I did not watch all the couples as I shifted between ice dancing and curling this evening. But I have to say, I caught Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada in their gold winning performance. I haven’t checked to see if they are a [...]
Women’s 1500m speed skating
The women’s 1500m had lots of hopefuls until the final, grueling lap. I love having the line that shows you where the best time is in comparison to the skaters. You could really see how most of the competitors started strong, but just ran out of gas in the last lap. Ireen Wust of the [...]
What are you watching today?
There are six medals being awarded today. Which contests will you be watching?
In alpine skiing, you can watch Men’s Super Combined, which combines one downhill run with one slalom run. American Ted Ligety is the defending Olympic champion, but look for Americans Bode Miller and Andrew Weibrecht to give him a run for [...]
Disappointment and record for Apolo Ohno
It was an exciting evening of short track skating. J.R. Celski failed to make the finals after getting tangled up with a Canadian skater and being disqualified in the semifinal. As an aside, that was a weird one for me, as it sure looked like he was grabbed by the Canadian, but I [...]
Shani Davis repeats Torino performance
Shani Davis followed up his gold in the 1000m with a silver in the 1500m, echoing his performance in Torino. Mark Tuitert, of The Netherlands, was a surprise as the gold medal winner. Norway’s Havard Bokko won the bronze.
Chad Hedrick, who had hoped to challenge Shani for the gold, ended up in 6th [...]
Ice Dancing Competition Begins
Couples ice dancing started today with the compulsories. The style selected was “Romantic Tango.” The couples have very little leeway when it comes to artistic interpretation at this point. All couples must use the same steps at the same part of the program. The music is even identical. Any artistic additions come at the very [...]
Costas Indulges in Fruitless Mining
There’s been a little controversy surrounding Evan Lysacek’s gold medal yesterday. Silver medalist Yevgeny Plushenko responded with a little wonder that he didn’t win. He complained that the new scoring system didn’t fairly account for the quad axel that he can land, but Lysecek can’t.
Bob Costas sat down with Lysacek to find out what his [...]
Today’s Olympic schedule 2/19
It’s Super G day for the men. The U.S. has only won a medal once in this event, way back in the days of Tommy Moe. America’s best shot at a medal is Bode Miller.
Figure skating moves on to ice dancing today. Torino silver medalists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto hope to upgrade [...]
Women’s 1000m Speedskating results
Just a quick rundown of these results. I didn’t see this broadcast at all today. Maybe it was this afternoon? Or maybe it’s because America’s best hope for a gold, Jennifer Rodriguez, finished seventh.
The gold went to Canadian Christine Nesbitt. For a country that had never won gold on home soil [...]
Evan Lysacek is golden!
The night didn’t start off well for the Americans. Jeremy Abbott was already out of contention, but it would have been nice to see him skate well in his long program. Alas, it was not to be. The good news was that after a couple of rough jumps at the beginning, he [...]
Today’s events 2/18
This is going to be a very brief rundown of today’s events:
Women’s Super Combined— potentially more medals for Julia Mancuso and Lindsey Vonn.
Biathlon— Could there be a medal for American Tim Burke? Will Norway be happier with their results today?
Men’s Figure Skating—Who’s getting the gold? Evan Lysacek, Evgeni Plushenko, or someone else entirely?
Snowboarding— [...]
Women’s 500m Short Track Gold No Surprise
Wang Meng of China is the 500m world record holder and Torino’s gold winner, so it was an easy bet she would win this year. Wang breezed in well before any of the other contenders in today’s race, just like she did in the qualifying races. Tension was provided more from a restart due to the [...]
Shani Davis claims back to back gold medals in 1000m
I used to think speedskating was more exciting. I don’t know what happened. Oh, yeah, I do. Short track. Now regular speedskating just seems like short track’s old maid aunt. The good news is that Americans tend to do really well.
Shani Davis is really an interesting bird, isn’t he? [...]
Today’s events 2/17
Did you miss me? My “real” job kept me busy this morning, so I’m just now getting around to posting what’s going on today. Fortunately, due to the wonders of tape delay (ha-ha), you won’t be able to see most of these events until ten tonight, anyway.
First up, after days of delays, women’s [...]
