American Erin Hamlin went into the Olympics a world champion, but finished in 16th. American Julia Clukey was 17th, and Megan Sweeney was 22nd.

In women’s 500m speed skating Korea’s Sang-Hwa Lee took the gold, while Jenny Wolf of Germany took the silver and the bronze medal was awarded to Beixing Wang of China.

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.

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?