Tuesday, February 18, 2014

XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 11)

Phew.


Medals table at the start of today's competition:

1. Germany 8 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze
2. Russian Federation 5, 7, 6
3. Netherlands 5, 5, 7
4. United States 5, 4, 9
5. Norway 5, 3, 7
6. Switzerland 5, 2, 1
7. Belarus 5, 0, 1
8. Canada 4, 7, 4
9. Poland 4, 0, 0
10. China 3, 2, 1
11. Sweden 2, 5, 2
12. Austria 2, 5, 1
13. France 2, 0, 4
14. Japan 1, 3, 2
15. Czech Republic 1, 3, 1
16. Slovenia 1, 1, 3
17. South Korea 1, 1, 1
18. Great Britain 1, 0, 1
19. Slovakia 1, 0, 0
20. Italy 0, 2, 3
21. Australia 0, 2, 1
22. Finland 0, 2, 0
23. Latvia 0, 1, 2
24. Croatia 0, 1, 0
25. Kazakhstan 0, 0, 1
25. Ukraine 0, 0, 1



46 comments:

  1. I assume we all agree that the live-blogging jinx does not somehow apply if we are live-blogging our watching a video stream of an event that has, in fact, already happened ...?

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  2. "INTO THE STADIUM, THEY COME! ..."

    Al Trautwig is a freaking pro ...

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  3. Two Norwegians and three Germans race into the stadium for the finish of Nordic combined ...

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  4. Gold: Norway
    Silver: Norway
    Bronze: Germany

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  5. Norway is the all-time leader in Olympic medals in this event, with 26 of 93 overall and 11 of 31 gold medals in history. Finland (14 medals and four gold) and Austria (12 and three) have also been strong, but the Germans have been even better if you lump together all of their Olympic iterations (Germany six and one, East Germany seven and three, West Germany three and two and Unified Team of Germany two and one for a total of 18 medals and seven golds).

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  6. In this sport, there's a ski jump, and those results determine how much of a head start you get in a cross-country skiing race. There are three Nordic combined events:

    -- individual Gundersen normal hill ski jumping/10-kilometer cross-country skiing;

    -- individual large hill/10km, and

    -- team large hill/4x5-kilometer.

    The United States has totaled four medals since Nordic combined debuted at Chamonix 1924, and all four came at Vancouver 2010: gold and silver in the individual event with the large-hill jump, silver in the individual event with the normal-hill jump and silver in the team event with the relay race.

    In Sochi, the individual event with the normal-hill jump took place Feb. 12, and the medals went Germany gold, Japan silver and Norway bronze. In the individual event with the large-hill jump today, the top three were Norway, Norway and Germany. And then the team event takes place Thursday.

    So far, Team USA's best performances were 24th in the normal-hill individual event by Billy DeMong (a 33-year-old from Vermontville, N.Y., who won the Americans' gold at Vancouver 2010) and 20th in the long-hill individual event by Taylor Fletcher (a 23-year-old from Steamboat Springs, Colo.).

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  7. Twelfth-seeded Latvia scored the only upset of the qualification round of the men's hockey tournament today. For eliminating sixth-seeded Switzerland, 3-1, Latvia gets to play the defending gold medalist, third-seeded Canada, in Wednesday's quarterfinals.

    Tomorrow's other quarters:

    -- eighth-seeded Slovenia vs. top-seeded Sweden,
    -- fifth-seeded Russia vs. fourth-seeded Finland and
    -- seventh-seeded Czech Republic vs. second-seeded Team USA.

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  8. Tape-delay men's snowboard cross ...

    Yesterday's fog caused the elimination of a round of seeding runs, so the competitors were thrown into heats randomly. In the first heat of the whole competition, an American named Nick Baumgartner whom the NBCOlympics.com had identified as a contender was gold finished fourth of five. Only the top three advance to the quarterfinals, so Baumgartner is already done.

    In Heat 3, the X Games gold medalist in this event, American Nate Holland, finished fourth. So far, two of four Americans, Alex Deibold and Trevor Jacobs, have advanced to the quarters.

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  9. Meanwhile, on NBC, we have some Dutch swaying themselves, presumably, to some more speed-skating medals.

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  10. The Netherlands is having a very good Winter Games in terms of both total medals and the medals table, but I think the Dutch are going to be a little disappointed in their E-BOP.

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  11. I really like snowboard cross. Of course, in third grade, I frequently wore a T-shirt bearing a giant picture of a motocross rider, so this makes sense.

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  12. Four six-man quarterfinals commence, and Alex Deibold is in the first race. The top three advance, and Deibold finishes …

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  13. ... third! On to the semis for Alex Deibold!

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  14. Canadian and Spanish snowboarders join Deibold in advancing from the first quarterfinal. Spain does not yet have a medal in these Olympics.

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  15. Quarterfinal 2, and here's Trevor Jacobs ...

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  16. ... second place for Jacobs! Phew! He nearly lost it on his last jump. But "nearly lost it" is just another day at the office for us snowboard-cross buffs. It's on to the semis for Team USA's Trevor Jacobs.

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  17. For my money, all of the add-up-the-times racing sports could learn a lot from the survive-and-advance world of snowboard cross.

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  18. OK, time for the semis ...

    Both Trevor Jacob and Alex Deibold are racing in the first semifinal of six racers, from which three will advance.

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  19. Oh, my goodness! The Spaniard crashes out with another snowboarder, leaving four on the course vying for three spots in the final race. A Russian crosses. A Norwegian follows. And then the two Americans collide in mid-air on the final jump and then slide across the finish line together! In a photo finish, the judges advance Alex Deibold by a nose.

    SNOWBOARD CROSS!

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  20. The HP's Snowboard Cross Desk is aghast at today's proceedings.

    Oh, did I fail to mention that I have officially opened the HP Snowboard Cross Desk?

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  21. This tape-delay feed that I'm watching at NBCOlympics.com cannot be fast-forwarded, so we're waiting along with the crowd on hand in Sochi as medical personnel care for an Italian snowboard who fell in the second semifinal.

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  22. And now here we are to the "big final" in men's snowboard cross. The "little final" just took place, to figure out seventh through 12th place among the six snowboarders who failed to advance to the big final. But now we have the big final, and Alex Deibold is joined by snowboarders from Russia, France, Italy, Norway and France again …

    They're off!

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  23. Deibold's in third about midway through the race ...

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  24. Back to fourth ... BUT HE PASSES ON SOME LATE CURVES! ...

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  25. Across the finish line they come! Bronze medal for Alex Deibold! Gold for France, and silver for Russia.

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  26. Congratulations, Alex Deibold, 27-year-old from Boulder, Colo.!

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  27. Jerry Seinfeld was fantastic on the new Jimmy Fallon Tonight Show, and now here's Bob Costas (!) hanging out around the fake fireplace with the first gold medalist in half-pipe freestyle skiing, David Wise, 23-year-old from Reno, Nev.! Rah!

    Silver goes to Canada; bronze, to France.

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  28. 1. Germany 8 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze
    2. United States 6, 4, 10
    3. Norway 6, 4, 7
    4. Russian Federation 5, 8, 6
    5. Netherlands 5, 5, 7
    6. Switzerland 5, 2, 1
    7. Belarus 5, 0, 1
    8. Canada 4, 8, 4
    9. Poland 4, 0, 0
    10. China 3, 2, 1
    11. France 3, 0, 5
    12. Sweden 2, 5, 2
    13. Austria 2, 5, 1
    14. Japan 1, 3, 2
    15. Czech Republic 1, 3, 1
    16. Slovenia 1, 1, 3
    17. South Korea 1, 1, 1
    18. Great Britain 1, 0, 1
    19. Slovakia 1, 0, 0
    20. Italy 0, 2, 3
    21. Australia 0, 2, 1
    22. Finland 0, 2, 0
    23. Latvia 0, 1, 2
    24. Croatia 0, 1, 0
    25. Kazakhstan 0, 0, 1
    25. Ukraine 0, 0, 1

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  29. Men's 500-meter short track skating ... Canada's Charles Hamelin, the defending gold medalist in this event and a gold medalist in another event already in the Sochi Games, was well in front late in his qualifying heat but fell. And so, now, an opportunity has been opened for Seattle's J.R. Selski and the other skaters who advanced ...

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  30. I don't know what NBC is doing here with its late-night show, but we've whipped through some women's individual short track heats, then the men's individual heats and now the women's relay final ...

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  31. Canada, China, Italy and South Korea are competing for the relay medals ...

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  32. South Korea takes gold; Canada, silver, and Italy, bronze. China came across the finish line, but they were penalized off the podium for interfering with a South Korean handoff.

    OK, that's it for the NBC late-night show, so, apparently, the events in which we saw individual short track heats will be finalized either today or some other day.

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  33. 1. Germany 8 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze
    2. United States 6, 4, 10
    3. Norway 6, 4, 7
    4. Russian Federation 5, 8, 6
    5. Netherlands 5, 5, 7
    6. Switzerland 5, 2, 1
    7. Belarus 5, 0, 1
    8. Canada 4, 9, 4
    9. Poland 4, 0, 0
    10. China 3, 2, 1
    11. France 3, 0, 5
    12. Sweden 2, 5, 2
    13. Austria 2, 5, 1
    14. South Korea 2, 1, 1
    15. Japan 1, 3, 2
    16. Czech Republic 1, 3, 1
    17. Slovenia 1, 1, 3
    18. Great Britain 1, 0, 1
    19. Slovakia 1, 0, 0
    20. Italy 0, 2, 4
    21. Australia 0, 2, 1
    22. Finland 0, 2, 0
    23. Latvia 0, 1, 2
    24. Croatia 0, 1, 0
    25. Kazakhstan 0, 0, 1
    25. Ukraine 0, 0, 1

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  34. Now we've moved on to a rerun of last night's prime-time show. We're looking at the first two runs of women's bobsleigh, and, at the (tape-delay) moment, United States 1 is trying to protect its Run 1 lead in Run 2 ...

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  35. OK, I'm not going to talk any more about women's bobsleigh for now. Final two runs are today. That's all I'm saying.

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  36. Now they're replaying the (awesome) men's snowboard cross event from earlier today, and NBC's interview with Nate Holland about his heart-breaking Olympic career is the good cop to the bad-cop interview with Bode Miller the other night. Check out how the open-ended questions, lack of rush and the reporter's respectful-but-not-baleful tone open the stage for Holland to genuinely reveal his emotions in his own words.

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  37. NBC just said that Alex Deibold, the bronze medalist in snowboard cross, was a "wax tech" at Vancouver 2010.

    Alex Deibold could play Robert Redford in a made-for-TV movie about the making of Barefoot in the Park, which would be great, by the way.

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  38. Oh, yeah ... the Dutch did sweep that latest speed-skating event.

    1. Germany 8 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze
    2. Netherlands 6, 6, 8
    3. United States 6, 4, 10
    4. Norway 6, 4, 7
    5. Russian Federation 5, 8, 6
    6. Switzerland 5, 2, 1
    7. Belarus 5, 0, 1
    8. Canada 4, 9, 4
    9. Poland 4, 0, 0
    10. China 3, 2, 1
    11. France 3, 0, 5
    12. Sweden 2, 5, 2
    13. Austria 2, 5, 1
    14. South Korea 2, 1, 1
    15. Japan 1, 3, 2
    16. Czech Republic 1, 3, 1
    17. Slovenia 1, 1, 3
    18. Great Britain 1, 0, 1
    19. Slovakia 1, 0, 0
    20. Italy 0, 2, 4
    21. Australia 0, 2, 1
    22. Finland 0, 2, 0
    23. Latvia 0, 1, 2
    24. Croatia 0, 1, 0
    25. Kazakhstan 0, 0, 1
    25. Ukraine 0, 0, 1

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  39. Slovenia, Austria and Germany take the top three spots in women's giant slalom. Mikaela Shifrrin, an 18-year-old from Vail, Colo., finished fifth.

    1. Germany 8 gold, 3 silver, 4 bronze
    2. Netherlands 6, 6, 8
    3. United States 6, 4, 10
    4. Norway 6, 4, 7
    5. Russian Federation 5, 8, 6
    6. Switzerland 5, 2, 1
    7. Belarus 5, 0, 1
    8. Canada 4, 9, 4
    9. Poland 4, 0, 0
    10. China 3, 2, 1
    11. France 3, 0, 5
    12. Austria 2, 6, 1
    13. Sweden 2, 5, 2
    14. Slovenia 2, 1, 3
    15. South Korea 2, 1, 1
    16. Japan 1, 3, 2
    17. Czech Republic 1, 3, 1
    18. Great Britain 1, 0, 1
    19. Slovakia 1, 0, 0
    20. Italy 0, 2, 4
    21. Australia 0, 2, 1
    22. Finland 0, 2, 0
    23. Latvia 0, 1, 2
    24. Croatia 0, 1, 0
    25. Kazakhstan 0, 0, 1
    25. Ukraine 0, 0, 1

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  40. Ouch ... that's a tough near-miss for Team USA in the medals table ...

    1. Germany 8 gold, 3 silver, 4 bronze
    2. Norway 7, 4, 7
    3. Netherlands 6, 6, 8
    4. United States 6, 4, 10
    5. Russian Federation 5, 8, 6
    6. Switzerland 5, 2, 1
    7. Belarus 5, 0, 1
    8. Canada 4, 9, 4
    9. Poland 4, 0, 0
    10. China 3, 2, 1
    11. France 3, 1, 5
    12. Austria 2, 6, 1
    13. Sweden 2, 5, 2
    14. Slovenia 2, 1, 3
    15. South Korea 2, 1, 1
    16. Czech Republic 1, 3, 2
    16. Japan 1, 3, 2
    18. Great Britain 1, 0, 1
    19. Slovakia 1, 0, 0
    20. Italy 0, 2, 4
    21. Australia 0, 2, 1
    22. Finland 0, 2, 0
    23. Latvia 0, 1, 2
    24. Croatia 0, 1, 0
    25. Kazakhstan 0, 0, 1
    25. Ukraine 0, 0, 1

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