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.

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.

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.

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.

I don’t know what was more exciting, Ohno’s lucky second or watching the future in Celski!

Here’s an interview with Apolo. I’ll be posting the other parts of this interview over the coming days. This is from back in September.