Winter Olympics News » Pursuit

Team pursuit speed skating results

Sherry — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:35:14 +0000

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 Kuck, both 19, are sure to be back in 4 years

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.

Two great opportunities for USA gold

Sherry — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 05:57:33 +0000

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 1^st place with a nice .4 second lead (doesn’t sound like much, but trust me, that’s good.) Tomorrows racing should be very exciting; if Holcomb keeps this up, he’ll score gold for sure. Still, Canada-1 is right behind them in second place and Germany-1 in third. John Napier in USA 2 flipped the sled on the difficult 50-50 curve, but thankfully, everyone walked away unharmed, though disappointed.

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.

Davis to Compete in 5 Events

Sherry — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:19:26 +0000

Based on his comments earlier this month, it was assumed Shani Davis would skip the 10,000m individual and compete in team pursuit in 2010. However, he missed the Dec. 24^th cutoff date and instead is entered in all 5 individual events, something not attempted by an American since Eric Heiden in 1980. You can’t help but wonder what triggered the decision; he got a ton of flack over not participating in pursuit last Olympics. The implication being he wasn’t a team player and let the US down. Originally, the 10,000m spot was slated for Chad Hedrick, Davis’ rival in Torino and one of his most vocal detractors in 2006. Both Davis and Hedrick have remained silent on the issue this time around. Hedrick says he wants to concentrate on his stronger, shorter distances and Davis has made no comment. Heiden swept gold in Lake Placid; perhaps Davis wants the same.