Canada’s Ashleigh McIvor came out on top with her strategy of “start out in front, then stay out of the way.” Hedda Berntsen of Norway came in second and Marion Josserand of France finished third.

Though new to the Olympics, McIvor feel skicross has been around forever.  “It’s racing your friends from the top of the mountain to the bottom.”

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.

Michael Schmid, of Switzerland, took the inaugural gold. Silver and bronze went to Austria’s Andreas Matt and Norway’s Audun Groenvold.

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.

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?

Casey has yet to win a medal in the Olympics, but he’s been competing very well in ski cross, so perhaps this year will be his year. It’s amazing to think of spending pretty much your entire adult life competing in Olympics. Casey is also the subject of the documentary “Appointment in Vancouver”. You can watch the trailer for it below.

There are two other U.S. athletes who will most likely make the Olympics for the fifth time, as well. We’ll be addressing them in upcoming posts.

32 men and 16 women will compete in Vancouver in the same format as snowboard cross. The two gold medals awarded in ski cross will mean that there are 86 medal events at the 2010 Olympics.

As much as I harassed people about snowboarding being included in the Olympics, I have to say that earlier this week I saw a clip of skicross. It is really unbelievable to watch. It’s like a combination of downhill and bmx bike racing. Many opportunities for thrills and spills.

Watch the following videos and let me know what you think about skicross:

Out of these, I’d be most interested to see the ski-cross and individual curling events. I can’t imagine how the curlers will push the stone and then sweep for themselves. Presumably, it must be played a bit differently.