Monday, February 10, 2014

XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 3)

"Well, that would be disaster for the Americans."

That was what I turned on the TV this morning to hear one of the (Team) USA (Curling) Network commentators saying. The U.S. women are trailing, 7-4, in the 10th end and about to drop their first game of the tournament, to Switzerland. Today is only the first of eight days of round-robin games, so, presumably, this is not going to be a fatal loss. Still, the commentators are talking about how the Swiss have not played very well today and that Team USA is letting slide by "a very winnable game."

And it should be pointed out that NBC OlympicTalk's preview of the Olympic curling tournament reads, "The U.S. women’s team probably has higher hopes than the men." The skip for the U.S. men is again John Shuster. The men face Norway--the silver medalists at Vancouver 2010--at 9 a.m. Central., and, if Team USA is going to put together a miraculous run, this game would be a good place to start.

This sounds like it could turn out to be another pretty good day for the Norwegians.


Today's medal events:

-- alpine skiing, women's super combined;
-- biathlon, men's 12.5 km pursuit;
-- freestyle skiing, men' moguls;
-- short track, men's 1500 m, and
-- speed skating, men's 500 m.

Medal leaders at the start of today's competition:

1. Norway 2 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze
2. Netherlands 2, 1, 1
3. United States 2, 0, 2
4. Canada 1, 2, 1
4. Russian Federation 1, 2, 1
6. Austria 1, 1, 0
7. Germany 1, 0, 0
7. Poland 1, 0, 0
7. Slovakia 1, 0, 0
7. Switzerland 1, 0, 0
11. Sweden 0, 2, 0
12. Czech Republic 0, 1, 1
12. Italy 0, 1, 1
14. Finland 0, 1, 0
14. Slovenia 0, 1, 0
16. Great Britain 0, 0, 1

16. Ukraine 0, 0, 1

Previous reports:

37 comments:

  1. First of two races now in men's 500m speed skating ... Vancouver 2010 medalists were Mo Tae-Bum of South Korea for gold, Keiichiro Nagashima of Japan for silver and Joji Kato of Japan for bronze, and all three of those dudes are back in Sochi and still to skate their first races of this event.

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  2. Oh, good ... Team USA women's hockey team clobbered Switzerland, 9-0, today. TAKE THAT, LADY SUI!

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  3. Well, great. Not that he's considered to be a medal favorite in this event, but now the judges are considering whether to disqualify American Shani Davis from this event for lifting his lead skate off the ice at the finish of his first race. Davis's time is ranked eighth among the 20 skaters who have completed their first race.

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  4. The NBCSN dudes tell us that Team USA's two best sprinters are actually Tucker Fredricks and Mitchell Whitmore, and those two are still to skate their first races.

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  5. Well, Whitmore, who won this event at the U.S. Olympic Trials, stands 14th among the 32 who have completed their first races. Shani Davis is now back to 16th. Tucker Fredricks, who was great at Auburn, is coming up next.

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  6. Fredricks is 17th. Whitmore is now 19th, and Davis is 21st. I think they combine the times of the two races to determine the medalists; if that's the case, the United States will not be medaling in men's 500m speed skating.

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  7. My 5-year-old says she would not like to try any of the sports she has thus far seen during the XXII Olympic Winter Games. She says she is, however, interested in dog sledding for two reasons--one, there are dogs, and, two, the sleds don't appear to go so fast.

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  8. If I organized these speed-skating events, they would be single-elimination, one-on-one tournaments. Survive and advance, baby.

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  9. OK, the first races are finished, and the Vancouver 2010 medalists placed third through fifth. The top two slots are occupied by a couple of Dutch skaters, and their times were significantly better than the rest of the field.

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  10. The skaters will take about a half-hour break and then finish up this event later this morning.

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  11. Women's luge ... The Vancouver 2010 medalists were Tatjana Hüfner of Germany (gold), Nina Reithmayer of Austria (silver) and Natalie Geisenberger of Germany (bronze). The NBCSN commentators said Geisenberger is the gold favorite this time. Team USA has never won an Olympics singles luge medal. Kate Hansen--a 21-year-old from Burbank, Calif. ("Hi I'm Kate, I Luge, I make music videos, and I'm a Mormon")--is coming off a victory in the most recent World Cup race, Jan. 25-26 in Latvia. It does not appear, however, that the Germans sent their top lugers.

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  12. We'll have the first two of the four women's singles luge runs today. Again, you add up all the times, and low aggregate gets the gold. Thirty-one lugers are entered. Seven of them have already completed their first runs. German Geisenberger is one of them, and her time was more than a half-second better than any of the other six--American Hansen, among them.

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  13. Now Hüfner, the Vancouver 2010 gold medalist, has completed her first run, and she, too, was more than a half-second behind Geisenberger.

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  14. Back to men's 500m speed skating ...

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  15. Wait ... back to women's luge for a second ... Erin Hamlin, who won the 2009 World Luge Championships staged in Lake Placid, N.Y. (near her hometown in Remsen, N.Y.), just came in with the best non-Geisenberger run so far. The 27-year-old is currently second in Sochi, 0.465 seconds behind the favorite but 0.037 seconds ahead of the Vancouver 2010 gold medalist.

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  16. I am now going to go into radio silence on women's luge, in case NBC decides to hold it out for the prime-time show (i.e., "Channel 6 will have tape delay of tonight's UK game after the news, so, if you don't want to see the final score, turn away from the screen now"). I'm back to NBCSN's live coverage of men's 500m speed skating.

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  17. Now we have American Davis lined up against American Whitmore for their second runs in the speed skating. Dan Jansen said on NBCSN that the first run was disappointing for sprinter Whitmore but actually encouraging for Davis, who is more of a middle-distance dude and has won the last two golds at 1,000 meters.

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  18. And, indeed, Davis beats Whitmore in the 500m. Davis is currently fifth overall in the event. By the time we get to the top guys in this second race, his time might be 20th or so.

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  19. MSNBC, incidentally, is broadcasting a scoreless-after-one-period women's hockey match between Canada and Finland--the Vancouver 2010 gold and bronze medalists, respectively. Since Team USA won gold at Nagano 1998, Canada has triumphed in each of the last three Olympic tournaments. The United States won silver at Salt Lake City 2002, bronze at Turin 2006 and silver at Vancouver 2010. Finland got a bronze in 1998, in addition to in 2010. The only other team to win an Olympic women's hockey medal is Sweden, which claimed bronze in 2002 and silver in 2006.

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  20. Now we're down to the top 10 finishers from Race 1 in men's 500m speed skating ...

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  21. Ronald Mulder, a 27-year-old from the Netherlands, just came across with the fastest 500m in either race thus far, so he's on top of the leaderboard by a good bit with six skaters to go. It's crazy given their history in speed skating, but the Dutch have never won a medal at this distance. Might they sweep the event this year?

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  22. Yes, they do! Ronald Mulder's twin brother, Michel, takes gold; Jan Smeekens, silver, and Ronald Mulder, bronze. The Vancouver 2010 medalists go fourth, fifth and sixth in Sochi. Gold, silver and bronze go to the Netherlands, and, suddenly, Norway isn't having such a great Day 3, after all.

    1. Netherlands 3 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze
    2. Norway 2, 1, 4
    3. United States 2, 0, 2
    4. Canada 1, 2, 1
    4. Russian Federation 1, 2, 1
    6. Austria 1, 1, 0
    7. Germany 1, 0, 0
    7. Poland 1, 0, 0
    7. Slovakia 1, 0, 0
    7. Switzerland 1, 0, 0
    11. Sweden 0, 2, 0
    12. Czech Republic 0, 1, 1
    12. Italy 0, 1, 1
    14. Finland 0, 1, 0
    14. Slovenia 0, 1, 0
    16. Great Britain 0, 0, 1
    16. Ukraine 0, 0, 1

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  23. Now NBCSN is showing the first run in women's luge singles on tape delay. Sorry for the earlier spoiler on Geisenberger, Hamlin, etc.

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  24. Hmmm ... Canada and Finland are now scoreless through two periods in women's hockey.

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  25. OK, now NBCSN has switched to liver coverage of the second run of women's luge, so HP is breaking radio silence on this event.

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  26. Team USA's Hamlin betters her Run 1 time in Run 2, but so does Vancouver 2010 gold-medalist Tatjana Hüfner, by an even greater margin. So, at the moment, it's German Hüfner first and American Hamlin second--with big-dog Geisenberger coming up next.

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  27. Geisenberger comes back to the field just a hair, but she's still solidly in first through her Run 2. About half of the field still has to get through their second run, but, at the moment, ...

    1. Natalie Geisenberger of Germany
    2. Tatjana Hüfner of Germany, total of 0.766 seconds behind
    3. Erin Hamilin of Remsen, N.Y., 0.818 behind
    4. Natalja Khoreva of Russia, 1.034 behind

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    1. The top four hold. Runs 3 and 4 are scheduled for tomorrow.

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  28. Women's super combined alpine skiing ... cool ... American Julie Mancuso leads after the downhill portion ...

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  29. Medalists in this event at Vancouver 2010 were Maria Riesch of Germany (gold), Mancuso (silver) and Anja Parson of Sweden (bronze).

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  30. The defending gold medalist (who now goes by Hoefl-Riesch) moves into first place, with Mancuso and three other competitors still to ski the slalom.

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  31. Mancuso and two others to go, and Germany's Hoefl-Riesch still leads ...

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  32. Tina Maze, whose two silver medals at Vancouver 2010 qualified as the best-ever performance by a Slovenian in the Winter Olympics, moves into third. We're down to Mancuso and one other skier ...

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  33. OK, only Mancuso is left, and Hoefl-Riesch remains in first ...

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  34. OK, Mancuso gets the bronze, and she's thrilled. That's four medals in three Olympics for the 29-year-old from Reno, Nev., who had slumped in World Cup competition and took a break in advance of the Sochi Games.

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  35. For Hoefl-Riesch, meanwhile, that's three Olympic gold medals in her career. She married her manager, Marcus Hoefl, in 2011--hence, the name change.

    And the silver goes to 30-year-old Nicole Hosp of Austria. She previously medaled (silver) in the slalom at Turino 2006.

    1. Netherlands 3 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze
    2. Norway 2, 1, 4
    3. United States 2, 0, 3
    4. Germany 2, 0, 0
    5. Canada 1, 2, 1
    5. Russian Federation 1, 2, 1
    7. Austria 1, 2, 0
    8. Poland 1, 0, 0
    8. Slovakia 1, 0, 0
    8. Switzerland 1, 0, 0
    11. Sweden 0, 2, 0
    12. Czech Republic 0, 1, 1
    12. Italy 0, 1, 1
    14. Finland 0, 1, 0
    14. Slovenia 0, 1, 0
    16. Great Britain 0, 0, 1
    16. Ukraine 0, 0, 1

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