US women did not fare as well. Though they held a good pace for much of the race, Catherine Rainey-Norman fell further and further behind teammates Jennifer Rodriguez and Jilleanne Rookard in the competition for bronze. The two lead women actually crossed the finish line before team Poland, but Rainey-Norman was just too far back to get the win. Gold was claimed by the German team for the second year in a row, edging the Japanese by a scant 2 hundredths of a second.

In men’s speed skating, the US three-man team surprised everyone by handily beating the much-favored team from the Netherlands. Made up of veteran Chad Hedrick and two 19-yr-old newcomers, Brian Hansen and Jonathan Kuck, the USA team looked liked they’d be defeated as predicted in the early laps.  But communication problems between the Dutch team cost them the lead; the US barreling down the ice with the Dutch scrambling to regain the lead. The US managed to hang on, winning by .4 seconds and advancing to the finals.

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 big crashes, but after being passed, something happened to Yang and she dropped back far behind the other 3 skaters.  It didn’t look like anything big; perhaps she just lost her stride and couldn’t get her momentum back. Wang Meng, the bright star of short track this Olympics, held a strong lead the entire race, barely bothered by those behind her. She finished gold, making her the 1^st woman to win 6 medals in short track and China the 1^st country to sweep all the women’s short track events. A jubilant Reutter got her skate over the line second for silver, and Park Seung-Hi got bronze.

The 45 laps of the men’s short track team relay looks like a well-choreographed dance during the exchanges. They don’t actually pass a baton, just touch, then the old skater shoves the new skater forward to try and gain ground. Each skater must only skate 1 lap, so you can plan a strategy around who’s stronger and make exchanges accordingly

The skaters began in a tight pack, but Canada pulled ahead midway through and maintained a steady lead to end, the hometown crowd wildly cheering.

The US team consisted of JR Celski, Travis Jayner, Jordan Malone, and Apolo Ohno. At first, they did not look strong and stayed mainly in the fourth position, but a mighty final effort from Apolo Ohno got the team bronze, just behind Korea.  The win gave Ohno his 8^th Olympic medal; maybe it made up a little for his disqualification earlier today.

 It looked like second place would go to a shocked Ohno, but after close examination, he was disqualified and denied the silver. It looked to me like Ohno barely touched him, but you never know, he may be a great actor.  After watching short track this year, it looks like they all try to slide in as much contact as they can without the judges seeing. 

Si-Bak was awarded ssilver and Tremblay bronze even though neither really finished.  I guess that’s just how it goes in the wild world of short track.

Rachael Flatt was a victim of the scoring system, receiving about eight points in downgrades, in spite of performing a routine that looked simply marvelous. That put her in only second after skate. But she didn’t stay there long as Japan’s Miki Ando passed her for first.

And then it was Kim Yu-Na’s turn. So much pressure on this young lady. A whole nation’s hopes riding on her. I don’t think we, here in America, fully appreciate how other nations view their Olympic athletes. Sure, we love it when Apolo Ohno wins. And we hate it when Lindsey Vonn crashes. But they do not come home to feel like the whole nation is disappointed in them. But Kim Yu-Na has stated that is her fear. Not just that the entire nation would be disappointed but that they would turn their backs on her. I can’t even imagine what kind of pressure that would place on a young person. Fortunately, she rose to the challenge beautifully.

Mao Asada didn’t seem in the least intimidated, coming out to perform the first three triple axels by a woman in a program. However, she had a few little bobbles that made it almost impossible for her to pass Kim Yu-Na. Not to say that the program wasn’t beautiful. It seemed almost certain that she would take the silver.

I always want the Americans to win, but in this particular case, I’d be perfectly happy to let Joannie Rochette have a medal, instead. She skated beautifully, under any circumstances. But especially given the emotional weight she’s skating under. And after she skated, she was in third.

While I like Mirai Nagasu, I just couldn’t really hope for her to overtake any of the top three. She’s 16. She should certainly be back for future Olympics. She skated a great program. It was enough for fourth but not enough to take over third.

It was a beautiful not of skating. There was artistry, athleticism and sweetness. Congratulations to all of the ladies.

I would like to state, for the record, that there are two spins being performed in ladies figure skating that I just don’t enjoy. One, the spin that looks like doing the splits standing up holding onto your skate. It’s not attractive. And, two, the one where they sit and put their nose to their toes. Again, not attractive. I have no doubt these are difficult spins. But NOT pretty.

Other than those, I still really enjoy figure skating. And I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with skating over the next four years.

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 talked with her about the quad controversy from these Olympics, which is not so very different from the athlete/artist/triple axel controversy of the 1992 Olympics. I asked whether a single element should be allowed to dominate a program and how the current system affects that. She said that the current system is trying to make the scoring more objective, but that there’s a danger to taking the human element out of skating.

“Skating is always going to be subjective. No matter what system you put in place, there is an element to the sport that is so human, so emotional that if you take that out of it it becomes any other just athletic competition only, and that’s not what skating has always been about. I’m just hoping our sport doesn’t go in that direction.”

When asked about the pros and cons of the scoring system, Kristi said it does acknowledge difficult moves but that in an effort to raise the level of difficulty, every move has become calculated to rack up points, leading to performances that are sometimes technically great but not beautiful, that it can create a “connect the dots” form of skating.

After switching gears to talk about advice to young athletes, I asked for the best advice she had for aspiring athletes. She stressed the importance of setting goals, not just the big “I want to go to the Olympics” goals, but intermittent, attainable goals in the meantime. Goals that a young athlete can accomplish and feel good about now, on the road to greatness.

When it comes to encouraging the dream without sacrificing the family, she said that it’s about organization and the parents taking on perhaps separate roles. Her Mom traveled with her, while her Dad stayed home and helped keep her siblings’ lives on track. But she admitted that having a world class athlete is going to require some sacrifices by the family.

Should your athlete even make the sacrifice? Kristi said that they should be encouraged to look inward and evaluate that. She said that all athletes come to a crossroads where they have to decide whether this is really the path for them.

“I think you really have to let the athlete look inside him or herself and really ask the question ‘why am I doing this’ and ‘can I imagine my life without this sport?’.”

Her moment came around Junior High, as she made the transition from local to state events and then on to competitions at the national level. As that required more and more time, she had to make the conscious decision that this was something she wanted to do.

As we saw this week, being a great athlete doesn’t necessarily always result in someone who is such a nice person. When asked what her parents did to encourage being a good sport, she indicated they stressed sportsmanship from a very young age and always reassured her that they just wanted her to try her best and that they would love her regardless of the outcome. They also stressed respect for fellow competitors:

“Even though you’re competing against other people, you need to respect their talents and what they do and be happy with your own performance.”

She said she would certainly encourage her daughters if either of them wanted to pursue competitive athletics, as both she and her husband (who was a hockey player) feel that they got so much out of sports. Plus, it kept them out of trouble in life, which was something I hadn’t really thought of. I guess if all of your time is taken up skating, there’s little time left over for shenanigans.

Finally, when asked how parents could help their kids prepare for life beyond sports, Kristy said her parents had always stressed school and her education. Even as she became more competitive, that was a priority and if her grades slipped, then ice skating time had to be dialed back. They always encouraged a balanced life.

I finished up by asking her a couple of lighter questions. I asked her about her favorite Winter Olympics events to watch, other than figure skating. While she did single out ice hockey and short track skating, she said she really enjoys all the sports.

And when asked about the most memorable figure skating of these Olympics? She thought Evan Lysacek was great. But she was particularly impressed by the ice skating battle between the top teams.

“It took ice dancing to another level… I haven’t enjoyed ice dancing like that in years and years.”

It was really a lovely chat that I thoroughly enjoyed. I hope there are some nuggets for those of you who are raising athletes. And for the rest of you, I hope you enjoyed reading this interview half as much as I enjoyed the experience of speaking with Kristi Yamaguchi.

Kristi was speaking to me from the Proctor and Gamble Family Home. You can learn more about their program supporting Olympic athletes’ families on their Thank You, Mom website. They also have some cool videos of athletes’ Moms (or Dads).

Women’s aerials also awarded medals tonight. The Chinese are coming on strong as aerialists, coming in second and third. But the gold was reserved for Australia’s Lydia Lassila.

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 far back by about half a lap, leaving a three team race between South Korea, China and the Canadians. When it was over, that’s the order of the finish, but then the judges had to look at whether a South Korean skater fouled a skater from China. South Korea was doing their victory lap while the judges were still looking at replays. The Americans were waiting to see if they might end up with a medal by default. In the end, South Korea was denied a gold after being disqualified, and the American women won their first short track medal in 16 years. That’s going to be controversial with the South Koreans, but that’s short track.

Seung-Hoon Lee of Korea commented that he felt awful for Kramer, and that the gold he was awarded really wasn’t his. He set a new Olympic record of 12:58.55, but who knows what Kramer would have come in at. Ivan Skobrev of Russia got silver, Bob De Jong of the Netherlands got an unexpected bronze.

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. American women are kind of a long shot here, but they’ve defied that label before in the Olympics. Of course, this year there are only two women representing the United States in figure skating in Vancouver: Rachael Flatt and Mirai Nagasu. Dominant skaters World Champion Kim Yu-Na, of South Korea, and 2008 World title-holder Mao Asada, of Japan, should provide an exciting show.

I’m torn on women’s ski cross. I find it to be a theoretically exciting sport, but I have a hard time not having an American to cheer for. We’ll see whether it holds my attention.

I’m going to have to see if Nordic Combined Team Large Hill is on television, since it looks like the United States has a shot at a medal. Really. Two medals in Nordic Combined in one Olympics. Wow.

I will probably skip the women’s biathlon relay. Again, exciting in theory. Hard to see the Americans get trounced.

I may also skip men’s speedskating 10,000m. That’s a lot of skating in circles. Maybe if I were from the Netherlands and cheering for national hero Sven Kramer. The power company in the Netherlands is even offering a discount for every medal he wins. I’d definitely watch with more enthusiasm if it was going to save me about $70 per year. On the other hand, Americans Jonathan Kuck and Ryan Bedford are not expected to medal.

The ever present hockey and curling will probably also be skipped, even though I do generally enjoy curling. There are only so many hours in the day.

Women’s bobsled has two runs today, but I’ll probably wait until the medal rounds tomorrow to take a look at that.

US silver medallists Meryl Davis and Charlie White had a well-choreographed routine with some exciting lifts. White came off the ice completely out of breath from the effort, both looked very pleased with their performance.  I don’t think they could have improved on what they did.

Oksana Domnina and Maksim Shabalin of Russia just edged bronze over US team Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto.  The  Russian team had some very interesting straps on their costumes which they used them for some cool looking holds.  The comment was made that there will probably be a rule put into force for next time making such devices illegal.  I don’t think it was a cheat, per se, but no one else could do the same things because they hadn’t thought of the trick.

 This is the first time a North American couple has won gold in ice dancing.

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 his money.

Biathlon will award medals for a men’s and women’s mass start event today.

Two man bobsled wraps up today. Team U.S. 1 was in a good position going into today’s runs.

Men’s ski cross runs qualifying and final rounds today. If you like snowboard cross, you’re going to love this new event. Former Alpine skiers Casey Puckett and Daron Rahlves lead the Americans. You may recognize both these names as Rahlves represented the United States at the Olympics three times in alpine racing, and Puckett was a four time Olympian in the alpine disciplines.

The women’s speedskating 1500m will be raced today, as well.

In addition to medal rounds, you can check out curling and hockey (yes, I know some of you have had enough of curling and hockey). Or if you want something a bit lighter, ice dancers will be performing their free dance today.

In the finals, Apolo had a tiny, almost imperceptible loss of balance and slid from third all the way to fifth. He was able to come back and skate his heart out to get the bronze (giving him his seventh Olympic medal), but he leaves without a win in the 1000m. South Koreans Lee Jung-Su and Lee Ho-Suk continued that country’s dominance in short track, winning gold and silver.

Interviewed afterwards, you could tell that he was disappointed about the slip and was questioning that mistake. He said he’d love a redo. That seemed to somewhat overshadow even his record number of medals. But he still had a smile and a great attitude.

Chad Hedrick, who had hoped to challenge Shani for the gold, ended up in 6th in his final individual Olympic race. On the up side his baby girl said “Dada” for the first time this week and started to walk. So, that’s exciting for the Hedrick family.

Compulsories make up about 20% of the final score, so there’s plenty of room to move up and down the standings at this point.  But here’s the top four so far:

Oksana Dominia and Maksim Shabalin- Russia 43.76

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir- Canada 42.74

Meryl Davis and Charlie White- USA  41.47

Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto- USA 40.83

Bob Costas sat down with Lysacek to find out what his reaction was and asked some very leading questions.  It seems to me that Costas really wanted Lysacek to make ugly comments about Plushenko.  Maybe the comments were sour grapes on Plushenko’s part, but you’d never know it from Evan’s comments.  He was incredibly gracious and well spoken. He had nothing but good things to say about his Russian counterpart and lauded him for coming out of retirement and getting silver after so much time off.

Later in the evening, Scott Hamilton and Dick Button joined in the interview and expressed their opinion that Evan truly earned the gold.  Hamilton said Evan was the best conditioned athlete, and Button said the program was the “total package” and “spiffy to see.” 

Generally, I like Bob Costas.  He’s smart, he has great interview skills, and he researches the sports he comments on.  But I thought he was trying to unnecessarily stir the pot on this one.  I’m not sorry  the interview didn’t create a story for him. It’s nice to see that Evan is not only a great skater, but a classy gentleman.

Figure skating moves on to ice dancing today. Torino silver medalists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto hope to upgrade that medal to gold, but they have stiff competition in fellow Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White who won the national championship in January. Traditionally, ice dancing has not been an American strong suit. Will this year change that?

Skeleton awards medals today in the men’s and women’s individual competition. Noelle Pikus-Pace, currently in fifth, is in decent position to compete for a medal. Teammate Katie Uhlaender is slightly farther back in ninth place. A couple of the American men also stand a chance to reach the podium. Zach Lund is currently in eight place. Eric Bernotas and John Daly are in 14th and 18th place at the beginning of today’s runs.

Curling has been a pretty big disappointment for the Americans this year. The men need to go undefeated to reach the podium. Today’s challenge? France. The women are looking for their first win as they face Russia.

Ski jumping continues today with the qualifying round for the 125m hill event. The U.S. has a very young team and is not favored to end the 86 year drought since they last medaled in ski jumping. Two time Olympian Anders Johnson is only 20. His teammates, Nick Alexander and Peter Frenette, are making their first trips to the Olympics. You have to really feel for these young guys. They essentially pay their own way to the Olympics. I’ll be writing more about this in the coming week.

Women’s cross country pursuit races today. America has never won a medal in women’s cross-country skiing, and that probably won’t change today. Americans Liz Stephen and Morgan Arritola make their Olympic debut here.

The gold went to Canadian Christine Nesbitt. For a country that had never won gold on home soil Canada is certainly racking them up in these Olympics.

Annette Gerritsen and Laurine Van Riessen, both of the Netherlands, took silver and bronze.

He was certainly not the only one to fall. The next couple of skaters did well but struggled with at least one jump in their programs.

But the big news of the night was Evan Lysacek. He didn’t have a great warm up and then he skated first after the warm up. The good news was that he left all the mistakes on the warm up ice. He skated a technically and an artistically beautiful program. When it was over, win or lose, you just knew that he knew that he’d done everything that he could to become the first American man since Brian Boitano to win the gold. And he did.

That left Evgeni Plushenko, who came out of retirement to pursue an unprecedented back to back gold, with the silver.

The bronze was given to Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi, the first Japanese man to win an individual figure skating medal.

Johnny Weir ended up in 6th, but I think undeservedly so. He skated a really good program with one little tiny bobble on a spin. More than one skater who finished in front of him made much more major errors. And, yet, Johnny was not rewarded with the scores. Maybe it’s that his program is not quite as demanding, more simple. But this is what really drives me crazy about this new system. I understand and appreciate that a higher level of difficulty should be rewarded, but only IF it is successfully completed. And if you perform a great performance without a major mistake, you should not receive lower scores than someone who makes a major mistake.

But the night belonged to Evan Lysacek. It was so great to see his reaction to finding out the final results. Relief, joy, maybe a tiny bit of disbelief. Congratulations to him. He’s worked hard and really deserves the gold.

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— More halfpipe today. It’s the women’s turn. Will the American women exceed the American men’s medal count from last night?

Hockey— The men and the women compete today. The men take on Norway. The women take on Finland.

Speed skating— The women take on the 1000m. Don’t expect the same medal count for the American women as the American men.

Skeleton— Competition starts today for the men and women. Americans stand a much better chance at medaling here than in the luge.

Curling— both the men and women take on Denmark today. You can catch this live if you have CNBC. No, really, live coverage of an event.

That’s it. Check back throughout the afternoon and evening for coverage of events.

The real competition came between Marianne St-Gelais of Canada and Arianna Fontana of Italy who earned silver and bronze, respectively.  Though it should be noted that Canadian Jessica Gregg was a mere .054 seconds behind Fontana.  Katherine Reutter of the US finished 7th.

Shani Davis is really an interesting bird, isn’t he? But, boy, he sure can skate. He managed to skate his way to a repeat of his Torino gold tonight.

Chad Hedrick was somewhat of a surprise with the bronze. That makes his fourth overall Olympic medal. Tae-Bum Mo took the silver.

First up, after days of delays, women’s downhill will finally get to race. Who should you be looking for? Well, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know to look for American Lindsey Vonn. The U.S. women have never won an Olympic gold medal in downhill, but Vonn is expected to change that. Vonn may be joined on the podium by any one of her teammates: Julia Mancuso, Stacey Cook, or Alice McKennis.

Snowboarding halfpipe is today, if the halfpipe doesn’t melt in the 40+ degree temperatures. For the U.S., this should be a medal treasure trove, since six out of nine Olympic medals awarded in men’s halfpipe have gone to Americans. That’s not expected to change this year, as reigning Olympic champion Shaun White competes. You should also keep an eye out for Dancing with the Stars alum Louie Vito, an newcomer to the Olympics. The other talented rookies are Scotty Lago and Greg Bretz.

Women’s 500m short track has a medal round today. Additionally, there will be heats in the men’s 1000m, and the semifinals of the men’s 5000m relay. Even though the U.S. hasn’t won a medal in this event since 1994, that could change this year as three-time national champion Katherine Reutter has an outside shot at a medal. Fellow American competitor Alyson Dudek is not expected to medal in the event.

Speed skating will award a medal for the 1000m today, hopefully to American Shani Davis who won this event in Torino and is favored to win gold in Vancouver. The race will also include Americans Chad Hedrick, Trevor Marsicano and Nick Pearson.

Medals will be awarded in men’s doubles luge today. Americans Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin, who have appeared in four Olympics are the best shot for a medal, having already won Olympic silver and bronze. They’ll be joined by teammates Dan Joye and Christian Niccum.

Both men’s and women’s curling compete today— the women take on German; the men take on Switzerland.

And last but not least, cross-country skiing will race the men’s and women’s 1.5km individual sprint. This is a relatively new event to the Olympics, having made it’s debut in 2002. Like most cross-country type events, this is not an American strength. There is some hope that American female Kikkan Randall might finish in the top 15. American male Andy Newell stands a slightly better, though still outside, chance of ending up on the podium.

Now you may all join me until trying to avoid the results until tonight, although I already glimpsed partial results for the women’s downhill. I hope you ever better luck.