Razzoli delivered, beating Kostelic by .16 seconds.  Tomba roared with delight and hugged Razzoli tightly. I wonder if Razzoli takes after Tomba in his social side?  There are still stories floating around about the wild nights he spent celebrating in Calgary.

Andre Myhrer of Sweden is bringing home the bronze, also a milepost for Sweden.  This is the first medal for the country in Alpine skiing in 22 years.

Bode Miller missed a gate in his first run, disqualifying him from the competition.  Ted Ligety also skied out, leaving the US with no contenders.

That nasty fog and wet snow continued for the women trying to compete in the slalom. The fog cut visibility so much it was tough for us to see the skiers, let alone them the narrow poles they had to navigate. The comment was made that they were almost forced to ski by feel and memory alone. The wet snow and warmer weather made the course rough and very difficult to navigate.

Maria Reisch of Germany got her second gold of the games, handling the tough conditions with great control. It was bittersweet for the skier, as her sister was unable to finish the course and join her in victory. Marlies Schild of Austria finished second, Sarka Zahrobska of the Czech Republic, third.

US favorite Lindsey Vonn was unable to finish, but didn’t seem too upset since she’s still bringing home two medals this year.

Tina Maze of Slovenia finished a close second for silver. Elizabeth Gorgl of Austria, who had the fastest time on the 1^st run, won bronze.

American Julia Mancuzo, the defending champ, had a bad run yesterday, finishing 18^th.  She had the 3^rd fastest run today, but she would have had to fly down the mountain in order to make up for her poor 1^st run, so she came in 10^th.

I wonder what the results would have been without that fog? It’s a roll of the dice when there’s bad weather, you never know who will be up and how it will affect them. Sometimes it doesn’t seem “fair” but that is the risk you run with an outdoor sport.

Hopefully, Lindsey will be okay and hopefully Mancuso will be able to make a comeback tomorrow.

The day went to Carlo Janka of Switzerland.  The “Ice Man,” as the even-keeled skier is known in his home country, coolly navigated the course for mistake-free gold in 2:37.83. Silver and bronze were both won by Norwegians. Kjetil Jansrud’s combined time of 2:38.22 earned him the second spot on the podium. Aksel Lund Svindal enhanced his Alpine stud status, adding bronze to his collection (gold in Super G, silver in Downhill) with a combined time just .61 seconds behind Janka

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.

So, here are the basics about Julia. 25 year old Julia is a native of Lake Tahoe, California, she’s always been quite the athlete. She has two sisters. She has a blog. You can read it here. Once the Olympics are over, you can also check out her line of lingerie on the site.

You can watch a short interview with her below.

The Silver medal went to Ivica Kostelic of Croatia, the bronze to Switzerland’s Silvan Zurbriggen.

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.

 Still, bronze at the Olympics is pretty darn good, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain.  Andrea Fischbacher from Austria won gold with a time of 1:20.14. Tina Maze of Slovenia was the surprise silver medallist; she’s never won a Super G world cup race.  She is, however, the highest medal winner for Slovenia, ever.  The best has always been bronze up until now.  So congrats to Maze for setting the bar a notch higher!

The first surprise of the day was Andrew Weibrecht setting the pace for the rest of the skiers.  At first, it looked like Weibrecht made a serious bobble on the “coaches corner” but he recovered swiftly enough to time in at 1:30.65.  Italy’s Fills looked like he might beat Weibrecht, but fell just feet from the finish.  I’m sure he was disappointed, but he jumped right up and grinned at his mistake.

Bode Miller made an interesting choice and used his downhill skis instead of his shorter, super g skis. The longer skis increase speed, but are harder to turn. It turned out to be a good move, as Miller beat his teammate by .03 seconds

But no one was going to top Aksel Svindal of Norway.  Svindal had a massive crash at Beaver Creek 2 years ago that would have ended anyone else’s career, but apparently, he grew stronger.  He fearlessly barreled down the course, made tougher by rising temperatures that softened the snow near the bottom.   He shaved down Miller’s time by .28 seconds and won gold.

Final standings put Bode Miller at silver and Andrew Weibrecht at bronze. Miller chuckled when it was pointed out that he is now the most decorated US skier, saying it wouldn’t last long, that the ladies still had to ski again. Nice nod to the gals, Bode!

There was a tense moment when Patrick Jarbyn of Sweden fell badly and looked like he was knocked out, but reports say he has only a concussion and some face abrasions. Thank heaven!

He implied that she was talking a lot about her injury to provide an excuse in case she didn’t medal. Of course, then he went on to say that he always asks athletes about their injuries because that’s his responsibility as a sports reporter, but he expects evasions. So, that seems to set up a no win situation for athletes. Don’t answer? You’re evasive. Answer? You’re just making excuses, just in case. Why would you ask questions that you really didn’t want answered?

(By the way, the article linked to is an excerpt of what he was saying on the show today, but has a more positive spin than how it sounded on the radio.)

What do you think? Did it bother you that Lindsey Vonn was talking about her injuries?

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.

But at the end of it all Lindsey Vonn walked away with the gold, and Julia Mancuso won the silver. Austria’s Elisabeth Gorgl won bronze.

A lot of the interviews they’ve done recently are more annoying than enjoyable, but it was great to see Lindsey so emotional about her win.

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.

Downhill is the longest, fastest race. There is a path that skiers need to stay on, but it doesn’t require the precision of slalom. Speeds reach about 90 mph.

Slalom is a relatively short race. It features sharp turns around flags, requiring speed and agility. This is a two-run race. Many skiers get disqualified by missing gates.

Giant slalom is a longer version of slalom. The turns are not quite as tight. This is also a two-run race.

Super G (short for super giant slalom) is a longer, faster version of Giant slalom. It’s a relatively new Olympic event, debuting in 1988. There are no training runs on Super G.

Re-introduced in 1988, Super Combined combines one downhill race with one slalom run. The fastest combined time wins.

Today was supposed to be Super Combined in men’s downhill, but due to poor weather conditions (blowing now and low visibility), that event has been pushed to Friday. At this rate, Alpine skiing will finish up sometime in March or April.

Presumably, the snow won’t stop biathlon (it’s still on the schedule, as of this writing). For today’s women’s 10 km pursuit and men’s 12.5 km pursuit, the athletes qualify by placing in the top 60 in a sprint competition. No American women are expected to qualify. For the men, Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey stand a decent chance of qualifying, even though this is not the best event for either of them.

CURLING Curling, a favorite in the Manty household, starts today. The American men are scheduled for two matches vs. Germany and Norway, and the American women are scheduled for one match vs. Japan. The American men won bronze in Torino. Will they be able to match or better that in Vancouver?

Men’s figure skating starts tonight with the short program. All three of the American men are strong contenders for a medal. Evan Lysacek is the reigning world champion and finished fourth in Torino after battling the flu. Jeremy Abbott is a relative newcomer but has won two U.S. titles. And then there’s Johnny Weir. Hopefully, the only drama surrounding his performances will be the performances, themselves. American men haven’t won gold since Brian Boitano in 1988. They’re hoping to change that this year.

Both the men’s and women’s hockey teams will be competing today. The men will be taking on Switzerland. The women will be playing Russia.

Women’s luge will be awarding a medal today. Americans Erin Hamlin and Julia Clukey are currently in 15th and 16th place after two runs—long shots for a medal but not out of contention. American Megan Sweeney is currently in 27th.

More snowboard cross today, as Lindsey Jacobellis tries to win the gold that eluded her in Turin, when she fell practically at the finish line. She is joined on the team by Olympic newcomers Callan Chythlook-Sifsof and Faye Gulini.

Finally, women’s speed skating races the 500m— hopefully with fewer problems with the ice than the men experienced yesterday. Elli Ochowicz, Jennifer Rodriguez, Heather Richardson and Lauren Cholewinski represent the United States. None are favorites to medal.

I’m happy for Bode, but I really wish we could quite hearing about his performance in Torino from the announcers. We get it. There were high expectations. You don’t think he cared enough. You’re much happier with him now.

I heard an interview with him the other night that I actually thought was a little heartbreaking. He said he figured that to win, he’d just have to ski without heart. He said when he skis with heart the results are just too unpredictable. Well, even though today’s race was more controlled, I still hope that he skied it with heart.

Pairs figure skating finishes up today with the free skate. No Americans are in serious contention, so the sentimental favorites are the Chinese pair of Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao. The three time World Champions and real life married couple came out of retirement to pursue Olympic gold. Keep in mind, coming out of retirement in China means the two no longer live together, residing in the official training dorms. That’s pretty serious dedication.

It looks like downhill may finally get started today after days of poor conditions. I always think of the U.S. as doing well in downhill, but it turns out we’ve only won two medals (both gold) since 1948. This year, we have Bode Miller (who will hopefully turn in a much better performance than his much-anticipated but hugely unsuccessful adventures in Turin), Steven Nyman and Marco Sullivan. Bode has made a lot of changes since the last Olympics, so hopefully he’ll see some positive changes in his results.

I was just talking about how exciting cross-country can be yesterday. Well, the event starts up today with the Women’s 10km Individual and Men’s 15km Individual. I love it when Americans are listed as hoping to break the top ten. Needless to say, the Star Spangled Banner will probably not be playing over the podium after either of these events. However, we do have some competent competitors competing. Kikkan Randall has won a world championship, so she’s the best hope for the women to medal. Other American women competing are Liz Stephen, Caitlin Compton and Morgan Arritola. Competing for the men are Kris Freeman and James Southam.

Luge moves over to the women today. Some of the female athletes have been quoted as saying that, with the new, lower start, the track is too easy, to slow and not much fun. I’m not sure what to make of the controversy. Obviously, it seems like the Olympic committee needed to make some sort of change after last week’s horrible accident. Would building the wall have been enough? Could the starts have been moved somewhat lower but not SO much lower? It’s hard to say. Certainly, the athletes’ safety needs to come first, but how much is too much? Erin Hamlin is the U.S.’s best chance for a medal, having earned a world championship gold in 2009. She would be the first American to medal in individual luge. She’s joined by Julia Clukey and Megan Sweeney, both first time Olympians.

Many will be excited to know that snowboarding starts today! I made fun of snowboarding a lot as an Olympic sport when it first came on the scene, but I have to admit— it’s one of our favorites now. Today’s event is snowboard cross which, as the name implies, resembles motorcross on snowboards. The U.S. has several contenders for medals, including defending gold medalist Seth Wescott. Other contenders are Nate Holland, Graham Watanabe and Nick Baumgartner.

And, finally, speedskating will contest the men’s 500 m race today. American Joey Cheeks won the medal in Turin, but he has retired. Several Americans hope to fill his skates: Tucker Fredricks, Shani Davis, Mitchell Whitmore and Nick Pearson.

So, that’s what’s going on today. Which events will you watch and which will you skip?

So what are they doing?

In addition to standard snow-making machines, two methods really stand out.  First, they are burying corrugated pipes beneath what snow they have.  The pipes are filled with dry ice, freezing the snow from the inside out.  This gets rid of extra moisture, making the nice powdery snow that everyone preferrs.

 Next, officials plan to have over 5,000 cubic meters of snow flown in from the B.C. interior via helicopter.  The snow is being dumped on the fields Feb. 8^th,  just in time for practice and the first events on the 13^th.

Who would have thought Washington, D.C. would have more snow than Vancouver in February?

You can find out more about Lindsey and keep up with her on her website.

Update: We are happy to report that Lindsey’s arm is just badly bruised, and it looks like her Olympic hopes are alive and well.