Saturday, February 17, 2018

XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018 (Day 9)

1. Germany 9 gold, 4 silver, 4 bronze
2. Norway 7, 8, 7
3. Netherlands 6, 5, 2
5. Canada 5, 5, 5
4. United States 5, 2, 2
6. Sweden 4, 3, 0
7. Austria 3, 2, 4
8. France 3, 2, 2
9. South Korea 3, 0, 2
10. Switzerland 2, 4, 1
11. Italy 2, 1, 3
12. Japan 1, 5, 3
13. Czech Republic 1, 2, 2
14. Slovakia 1, 2, 0
15. Belarus 1, 0, 0
16. Great Britain 1, 0, 3
17. Poland 1, 0, 0
18. China 0, 4, 1
19. Australia 0, 2, 1
20. Slovenia 0, 1, 0
21. Finland 0, 0, 3
22. Spain 0, 0, 2
T23. Kazakhstan 0, 0, 1
T23. Liechtenstein 0, 0, 1

-- XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018 (Day 5)

22 comments:

  1. You know, the U.S. curling teams have been doing better than what I suspected.

    I mentioned yesterday that I had watched the majority of two of Team USA's games, and the Americans lost. Well, great news--it turns out that those were the only two the John Shuster rink had lost to that point. Through Saturday action, Team USA was 2-2. That was tied for fourth among the 10 teams in the tournament:

    Sweden 5-0
    Canada 4-1
    Switzerland 3-2
    Japan 2-2
    United States 2-2
    Great Britain 2-3
    Italy 2-3
    Norway 1-3
    Denmark 1-3
    South Korea 1-4

    Similarly, I dialed in on Team USA's women for the first time really yesterday, and I watched them just be drubbed by Canada. It honestly looked like every American shot was not what they wanted to do and every Canadian shot was not only exactly what they wanted it to do but also produced some happy surprise. But you know what? Here were the Olympic standings even after yesterday's game, including Canada's blowout win over Nina Roth's rink:

    Sweden 4-0
    Japan 4-1
    South Korea 3-1
    China 3-2
    Great Britain 3-2
    United States 2-3
    Canada 1-3
    Switzerland 1-3
    Denmark 1-4
    OARs 1-4

    ReplyDelete
  2. So now we have CNBC taking us to the Gangneung Curling Centre for a tape-delayed match between the U.S. men and Norway. But--oh, no!--it turns out this was the second Team USA match of Sunday, and, earlier, the Americans had conceded to Japan after seven ends. That's no good. Four teams advance to the medal round, and Japan was the team Team USA was tied with for fourth. Here's CNBC interviewing John Shuster about the loss, and I'm afraid he seems pretty discouraged. I don't know that I want to watch this match with Norway, after all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Men's 4x10km cross-country skiing medals: Norway gold and France bronze. That's a big get for Norway, which failed to medal in the event at Sochi 2014 and is threatening Germany for the medal-standings lead.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It seems like the U.S. men's curlers yell at each other more than the other teams do, but maybe it's just that CNBC mikes the Americans at a higher volume.

    ReplyDelete
  5. We're down to the final rock of the first end, and the Norwegians at the moment lay three. "I! Just! Wonder! If! I! Could! Throw! Peel! And! Make! The! Triple! For! Three!" yells Shuster, considering a heroic play. Tyler George, his long-time teammate, talks him off that ledge, and Shuster punhes the Norwegians' yellow shot rock out of the button and settles for a score of one in the opening end. Phew!

    USA 1
    NOR 0

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ah, good! CNBC reports that the Team USA and Norway guys are all good friends. One of the Norway guys flew to the United States for the wedding of one of the Americans. Good!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh, wow! Remember that show that new show with Sally Draper's teacher that NBC was promoting the dickens out of during the Rio 2016 Summer Games? It appears to still be on the air! It's called Timeless. I think this was that show.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nyah, the Norwegian curlers yell a lot, too.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Four or six or eight years ago, I decided I wanted to write a big book about the Olympics, and, along about this point in those games, I started videotaping everything Olympics that NBC was broadcasting. I kept the six-hour VHS tapes for some time, thinking that I might go back and watch everything and then do a bunch of interviews and put the whole thing together. I finally got rid of the videotapes a few years ago.

    USA 1 0 - 1
    NOR 0 2 - 2

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hey! Hey! Textbook two for Team USA! Shuster gets the two red rocks split far apart from another on the house that all Norway can do on its turns is knock out one (but not both) of them. With last rock, Shuster drifts a rock expertly to the button, and there you go! U! S! A! U! S! A!

    USA 1 0 2 - 3
    NOR 0 2 0 - 2

    ReplyDelete
  11. OK, Team USA forces Norway to take a one in its last-rock fourth end. This is good. Pete Fenson, skip of the Turin 2006 bronze-medal-winning U.S. team (of which Shuster was a member), says Shuster's taking the blame for his bad game against Japan was an important move in terms of keeping his rink all on the same page.

    ReplyDelete
  12. ARGH! With a chance for three, Shuster misses an unguarded yellow Norwegian rock with his last shot of the fifth end, and we're headed to halftime break. Big missed opportunity there--but a pretty good match.

    USA 1 0 2 0 1 - 4
    NOR 0 2 0 1 0 - 3

    ReplyDelete
  13. USA 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 - 4
    NOR 0 2 0 1 0 3 1 - 7

    ReplyDelete
  14. Fenson now says Shuster is consulting too much with his teammates and not making decisions quickly enough.

    ReplyDelete
  15. In the men's giant slalom competition in alpine skiing today, the medals went to Austria, Norway and France. The medal winners were 28, 23 and 26.

    Ted Ligety of Team USA won the gold in this event at Sochi 2014; at age 33 now, he finished 15th in Pyeongchang. The top U.S. finisher was 25-year-old Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who came in 11th. After Ligety, the next American was 28-year-old Tommy Ford at No. 20. Tim Jitloff, age 33, did not finish the race.

    ReplyDelete
  16. USA 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 - 4
    NOR 0 2 0 1 0 3 1 1 - 8

    ReplyDelete
  17. In 500-meter women's speed skating, the medals went to Japan, South Korea and the Czech Republic. The medalists are 31, 28 and 25 years old.

    In this same race at Sochi 2014, the top U.S. finishers were eighth-place Heather Richardson and 13th-place Brittany Bowe. Again today, these two were top Americans--with 29-year-old Bowe bumping up to fifth and 28-year-old (Richardson) Bergsma slipping back to 11th.

    ReplyDelete
  18. The Sunday star for Team USA was Nick Goepper, a 23-year-old from Fort Wayne and Lawrenceburg, Indiana, who took the silver medal in men's slopestyle freestyle skiing. This made me very happy. I know a few Nicks in Indiana, and I know a whole bunch of people in Indiana with that "oe"-"er" Americanized German name structure, and Nick Goepper looks and sounds like the 23-year-old of pretty much every one of them. Goepper improved from winning bronze at Sochi 2014. So, way to go, Hoosier Nick Goeeper!

    Norway and Canada took the gold and bronze medals in this event, respectively; Team USA swept the podium at Sochi 2014.

    ReplyDelete
  19. USA 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 1 - 5
    NOR 0 2 0 1 0 3 1 1 0 - 8

    Concession.

    ReplyDelete