It was a race in yet another messy, sloppy foggy day on the mountains surrounding Vancouver. All of the quarterfinals were decided when there was a fall by one of the two racers.

The silver went to Austria’s Benjamin Karl, and the bronze went to Mathieu Bozzetto of France.

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.

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!

Oh, and one more thing, I know a lot of us are tired of all the specials and clips and interviews, but the piece tonight on the snowboarding women was really nice. You can watch the video here.

And now the results…

Gretchen Bleiler went out of the competition after a pretty stunning fall on her second run. Good thing I learned from the announcer last night that it’s bad to land on top of the wall, or I would never have been able to figure out what happened tonight when she came down hard on top of the halfpipe wall, then came down hard all the way down the wall (that was sarcasm, by the way, folks).

But, in case I forgot that valuable lesson, I got to hear it again tonight when Elena Hight fell. Hear that halfpipers— it’s BAD to land on top of the wall.

Kelly Clark’s singing cracks me up. She had a decent run, but not a stellar one. It was still enough for a bronze medal. Defending champ Hannah Teter was unable to overcome Australian Torah Bright’s terrific run to take the gold but must surely have been pleased to walk away with the silver.

Just as an aside, Liu Jiayu of China finished fourth.  It’s interesting to see how the Chinese have embraced snowboarding.  Everyone was talking about how they have really made a push to train some superior snowboarders, but that somehow it violated the spirit of the sport.  Rigorous training for a sport that began out of freewheeling exhuberance and devil-may-care attitude is a little out of place. What do you think?

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.

Okay, other than the inane announcing, halfpipe tonight was great. Who doesn’t love Shaun White??

I don’t have the video of tonight, but here’s a video of him practicing the Double McTwist 1260:

White locked in the gold on his first run, so the second was just for the crowd, and he delivered.  Tempted though he was to just do a straight run, he gave the crowd what they wanted with a daring double McTwist at the end of the run.

American Scotty Lago won the bronze and Findland’s Peetu Piiroinen kept an all-American podium at bay by taking silver.

Linger and Linger are only the second doubles team in Olympic history to win consecutive gold medals. Their first win in Torino was a bit of a surprise, as Wolfgang was recovering from a broken ankle and still had the pins.

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.

Good news for Canada as Maelle Ricker earned the first Canadian gold in snowcross. Deborah Anthonioz, of France, won the silver. In third was Switzerland’s Olivia Nobs.

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.

Two of the Americans were eliminated before the quarterfinals, but Seth Wescott and Nate Holland both made it to the finals. The interesting thing about the finals is that everyone in the final race, except one lonely person, will get a medal. Early in the race, Nate Holland was out in front, and Seth Wescott was lagging in fourth. But Nate got tripped up and fell, ending up in fourth, and he never recovered from that. Seth, on the other hand, proved why he won this in the last Olympics. He raced a smart race and won a well-deserved gold.

Mike Robertson, of Canada, took the silver. Tony Ramoin, of France, won the bronze.

This year, he’ll be back as part of the team. He’s one of four athletes representing the U.S. in snowboard cross. Hopefully, he’ll do better than 31st this year.

Here’s a video from 2008 of three of the four U.S. snowboard cross athletes.

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?

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

Vancouver’s luge track is one of the fastest in the world, Kumaritashvili was going over 89mph when the crash occurred.  Officials are investigating the accident, though most athletes interviewed said that though the track is fast, it is no more dangerous than others around the world.

Fellow teammates from Georgia have decided to compete in the games, dedicating their performance to Kumaritashvili. Our thoughts go out to the teammates, friends and family during this sad time.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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?

Here’s hoping the stress of the situation doesn’t affect the Brits’ performances adversely.

Other differences are the ability for the goalie to play behind goal line (though NHL goalies can play directly behind the net, “no touch” icing, overtime instead of shootouts and penalties shot by anyone on the team (not just the victim.) For many US fans, the noticeable difference is the treatment of fighting.  NHL gives only a 5 minute penalty for fighting, where the Olympic rules call for a match penalty and possible ejection from the game. You’ll still see a lot of body checks, high sticking, hooking and holding, but don’t expect the gloves to come off as quickly as they do in the US.

Personally, I love Olympic and International rules hockey.  It tends to be a little slower (if that’s really possible when they’re speeding around on skates) but there’s more emphasis on skill and less on thuggery.  Hockey gets quite beautiful when they concentrate more on the skills and less on the theatrics of fighting.

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.

1. The opening ceremonies

No matter who you are, or where the Olympics are located, deep in your heart you know there’s nothing more stirring than the opening ceremonies.  China’s summer extravaganza set the bar pretty high for Canada, but you can bet your back bacon they’re going to put their all into it.

2. Women’s hockey

1998 saw the debut of women’s hockey at the Olympics.  Since then, there hasn’t been much excitement about it in the US.  But this year, Team USA is a frontrunner for gold.  Canada has been dominating this season, but coach Mark Johnson has high hopes for his team.  Can Olympic gold do for women’s hockey what it did for women’s soccer?  It’s doubtful there will be a “Brandy Chastain moment” with all that gear, but perhaps the men out there will take notice anyway.

 3. Biathlon

Hugely popular in Europe but largely ignored in the US, biathletes have struggled to get funding and training until this year.  When the sport was finally noticed by a prosperous contributor money was finally available to get things going.  The big standout for the US will be Tim Burke, who won both silver and bronze medals at the World Cup in Ostersund.  This could be a great beginning for an under appreciated sport.

4. Stephen Colbert

When Deutsche Bank went belly-up and their $300,000 pledge for the US speed skating team went with it, Colbert stepped up to the plate.  It took less than a month for the “Colbert Nation” to replace the funds.  There’s sure to be a lot of Colbert’s scathing satire surrounding the games.  Like him or not, the comedian has the audience and the pull to make things happen.
 
5. Team USA-1 four-man bobsled

Steve Holcomb has been piloting the “Night Train” with his teammates Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler and Curt Tomasevicz with incredible results.  Three gold medals in World Cup events this season puts them at the top of their game.  It’s even more amazing when you consider Holcomb nearly quit bobsledding because of eye problems.  Surgery in 2008 restored his vision and renewed his love of the sport.

6. Skier/snowboarder antics

Though Bode Miller recently sprained his ankle, he’ll probably still make the games.  And you can be sure he and the other downhill skiers will be as crazy as ever. Add in the new addition of extreme sports inspired skicross to the mix and you’ve got a recipe for a speed-induced adrenaline rush madness that only the boys and girls who haunt the slopes can produce.  If only we could all be there for the after-party.

7. Shani Davis and Apolo Ohno

On December 11^th, Davis broke his own world record for the 1500m by coming in at 1:41.04, besting his previous record of 1:41.80.  In long track, Davis is hands-down the man to beat.  Ohno, who at 27 is the elder statesman of the short track, is competing in his third Olympics in 2010.  He’ll be pushing to beat Eric Heiden’s record of seven medals won in winter Olympics.  But he’d better watch out, JR Celski is a young man moving up in the ranks, and one of the few who could give Ohno a run for his money.

8. Kim Yu-Na

The South Korean figure skater is the undeniable favorite for gold in 2010.  Her signature triple-triple exhibits an intense athleticism coupled with a grace that brings audiences to their feet.  At Skate America in Lake Placid, NY she broke the scoring record for short program, earning a 76.28.  While the Olympics brings out the patriot in most of us, sometimes you just need to sit back and appreciate poetry in motion.

9. Ice Dancing

The possibilities are wide open for ice dancing this year.  While US couple Meryl Davis and Charlie White won gold at the Grand Prix Final, it by no means places them above the rest of the competitors.  Two favored teams missed this season making it difficult to judge who will come out on top in 2010.  Everyone is sure to be giving it their all in Vancouver.  It will be exciting to watch the heavy competition among the couples.

10. Skeleton

After a 54-year absence, skeleton returned to the winter Olympics in 2002 and included both men and women.  Named because the new metal sled used in 1892 looked like a skeleton; it’s tough to deny the thrills caused by people sliding head first down a track at 80 mph.  Look for the return of Noelle Pikus-Pace, the first US woman to win the World Cup in 2005.  She’s back from taking the 2007-2008 seasons off to have a child, but is shaping up to be a big threat in Vancouver.

Canada is putting its best foot forward to make this a great winter Olympics.  Take the time to watch a variety of sports.  You never know, you could become the newest curling fanatic, or find out you really enjoy moguls over downhill.  Bundle up, grab a hot toddy, and enjoy the best athletes the world has to offer in winter sports.