World Cup: Ivory Coast v. Norway

Last night, Morocco wrapped up thrilling day with a win in penalty kicks over the Netherlands.  So two of the sport's biggest traditional powers -- Germany and the Netherlands -- will not make the round of 16.  Another great power -- Italy -- didn't even qualify for the tournament.

Today's action kicks off with the Ivory Coast and Norway.  Whoever wins this match will face Brazil in the Round of 16.  Africa started with 10 teams in this tournament, and eight of them are still dancing.

XXXIII Olympic Summer Games, Tokyo 2020 (Day 3)

It's 8 a.m. Monday in Tokyo, and Channel 6 is ready to lay some Sunday-night Olympics love on us. Here are our medal standings of the moment:

 

1. China 6 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze

2. Japan 5, 1, 0

3. United States 4, 2, 4

4. South Korea 2, 0, 3

5. Italy 1, 1, 3

T6. Australia 1, 1, 1

T6. France 1, 1, 1

T8. Hungary 1, 1, 0

T8. Tunisia 1, 1, 0

T10. Austria 1, 0, 0

T10. Ecuador 1, 0, 0

T10. Iran 1, 0, 0

T10. Kosovo 1, 0, 0

T10. Thailand 1, 0, 0

T10. Uzbekistan 1, 0, 0

T16. Canada 0, 2, 0

T16. Netherlands 0, 2, 0

T18. Brazil 0, 1, 1

T18. Chinese Taipei 0, 1, 1

T18. Great Britain 0, 1, 1

T18. Indonesia 0, 1, 1

T18. Serbia 0, 1, 1

T23. Belgium 0, 1, 0

T23. Bulgaria 0, 1, 0

T23. Colombia 0, 1, 0

T23. Georgia 0, 1, 0

T23. India 0, 1, 0

T23. Romania 0, 1, 0

T23. Spain 0, 1, 0

T30. Germany 0, 0, 2

T30. Kazakhstan 0, 0, 2

T30. Turkey 0, 0, 2

T30. Ukraine 0, 0, 2

T34. Estonia 0, 0, 1

T34. Israel 0, 0, 1

T34. Mexico 0, 0, 1

T34. Mongolia 0, 0, 1

T34. Slovenia 0, 0, 1

T34. Switzerland 0, 0, 1

They've also given seven medals to athletes from Russia, which invited everybody over to Sochi for the Winter Olympics in 2014 and then cheated.

 

Previous reports:

 

-- XXX Olympic Summer Games, London 2012 

-- XXXI Olympic Summer Games, Rio 2016 

-- XXXII Olympic Summer Games, Tokyo 2020 (Programming Note) 

-- XXXIII Olympic Summer Games, Tokyo 2020 (Day 0)

-- XXXIII Olympics Summer Games, Tokyo 2020 (Days 1 and 2)

XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Good!)

Good! Not that it changes much at the HP. But, still, good!

Medals table:

1. Norway 12 gold, 6 silver, 12 bronze
2. Canada 11, 10, 7
3. United States 10, 11, 10
4. Germany 10, 5, 7
5. Netherlands 9, 8, 8
6. Switzerland 8, 1, 2
7. Belarus 5, 1, 1
8. Austria 4, 10, 5
9. China 4, 6, 4
10. France 4, 5, 9
11. Poland 4, 1, 1
12. South Korea 4, 2, 2
13. Slovenia 3, 2, 3
14. Sweden 2, 8, 5
15. Czech Republic 2, 4, 3
16. Latvia 2, 1, 3
17. Japan 1, 4, 4
18. Finland 1, 3, 1
19. Great Britain 1, 1, 3
20. Ukraine 1, 1, 0
21. Slovakia 1, 0, 0
22. Italy 0, 4, 7
23. Australia 0, 2, 1
24. Croatia 0, 1, 0
25. Kazakhstan 0, 0, 1
T26. Bulgaria and 62 others 0, 0, 0

Previous reports:

-- I Olympic Winter Games, Chamonix 1924
-- II Olympic Winter Games, Saint Moritz 1928
-- VIII Olympic Winter Games, Squaw Valley 1960
-- XII Olympic Winter Games, Innsbruck 1976 
-- XVII Olympic Winter Games, Lillehammer 1994

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day a)
-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 0)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 1)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 2)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 3)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 4)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 5)
-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 6)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 7)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 8)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 9)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 10)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 11)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 12)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 13)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 14)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 15)

-- XXII Olympics Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Good!)

-- XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018

XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018 (Day 2)

So we've got a Team USA guy in contention in some live luging going on a little after 10 Sunday night in Pyeongchang County, but I've got to finish up getting ready for Sunday school here in a couple hours this morning in Madisonville. Hmmm ... challenging ...

Previous reports:

-- I Olympic Winter Games, Chamonix 1924
-- II Olympic Winter Games, Saint Moritz 1928
-- VIII Olympic Winter Games, Squaw Valley 1960
-- XII Olympic Winter Games, Innsbruck 1976 
-- XVII Olympic Winter Games, Lillehammer 1994
-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014
-- XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018 (Preface)
-- XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018 (Introduction/Day 0)
-- XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018 (Day 1)

HP SPECIAL REPORT: GOAL!

This is an HP Special Report! With 56.1 seconds left in Lillehammer, the United States' men's hockey team has just scored an empty-net goal to move ahead of Canada, 4-2, in the gold-medal game of the Youth Olympic Games ...

U! S! A!

U! S! A!

U! S! A!

XVII Olympic Winter Games, Lillehammer 1994

Russia won these Olympics, too.

Medals table:

1. Russia 11 gold, 8 silver, 4 bronze

2. Norway 10, 11, 5

3. Germany 9, 7, 8

4. Italy 7, 5, 8

5. United States 6, 5, 2

6. South Korea 4, 1, 1

7. Canada 3, 6, 4

8. Switzerland 3, 4, 2

9. Austria 2, 3, 4

10. Sweden 2, 1, 0

11. Japan 1, 2, 2

12. Kazakhstan 1, 2, 0

13. Ukraine 1, 0, 1

14. Uzbekistan 1, 0, 0

15. Belarus 0, 2, 0

16. Finland 0, 1, 5

17. France 0, 1, 4

18. Netherlands 0, 1, 3

19. China 0, 1, 2

20. Slovenia 0, 0, 3

21. Great Britain 0, 0, 2

22. Australia 0, 0, 1

XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 8)

Medals table:

1. Germany 7 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze

Five of the Germans' 12 overall medals and four of their golds have come in the luge. Otherwise, Germany has scored a couple of medals in alpine skiing and one each in biathlon, cross-country skiing, figure skating, Nordic combined and ski jumping.

2. Switzerland 5, 1, 1

A couple of golds each in alpine and cross-country skiing and one in snowboarding have Switzerland on track for its best-ever Olympic Winter Games medals-table performance. The Swiss have also earned a silver in biathlon and a bronze in alpine skiing.

3. Canada 4, 5, 2

Freestyle skiing has been Canada's area of dominance: three gold, two silver and one bronze. The other Canadian gold was in short-track skating. There also have been a couple of silvers in figure skating and one in speed skating and a bronze in snowboard.

4. Netherlands 4, 3, 6

The Dutch have a bronze in short track skating. Other than that, it has been a lackluster Olympics for the Netherlands … oh, except the speed skaters have four gold, three silver and five bronze.

4. Norway 4, 3, 6

Cross-country skiing is the Norwegians' thing: three gold, one silver, three bronze. The biathlon (cross-country skiing with guns) has yielded a gold and silver, too, for Norway. Otherwise, there's a silver in snowboard and a bronze each in alpine skiing (cross-country skiing, only the country is sloped downward), Nordic combined (cross-country skiing, plus ski jumping) and ski jumping.

4. United States 4, 3, 6

Five of Team USA's medals (including one of the golds) have been in freestyle skiing; four (including the other three golds) have been in snowboarding. The other medals have come in skeleton (silver), alpine skiing (bronze), figure skating (bronze) and luge (bronze).

7. Russian Federation 3, 6, 5

Good medal distribution for the home team: three (and two gold) in figure skating, three (and one gold) in short track, two in biathlon, two in luge, two in speed skating, one in freestyle skiing and one in skeleton.

8. China 3, 2, 0

The Chinese have scored two gold medals and a silver in short track, a gold in speed skating and a silver in freestyle skiing.

9. Belarus 3, 0, 1

Belarus has two golds and a bronze in biathlon and a gold in freestyle skiing. Surely, Darya Domracheva--who has two golds in her two biathlon events so far in Sochi, with two to go--must be a national sports hero.

10. Austria 2, 4, 1

Four of the medals (two gold, a silver and a bronze) have come in alpine skiing, and then the Austrians have a silver each in biathlon, luge and ski jumping.

11. France 2, 0, 2
12. Poland 2, 0, 0
13. Sweden 1, 5, 2
14. Japan 1, 2, 1
15. Slovenia 1, 1, 2
16. South Korea 1, 0, 1
17. Great Britain 1, 0, 1
18. Slovakia 1, 0, 0
19. Italy 0, 2, 3
20. Czech Republic 0, 2, 1
21. Finland 0, 2, 0
21. Australia 0, 1, 1
21. Croatia 0, 1, 0
24. Latvia 0, 0, 2

25. Kazakhstan 0, 0, 1
25. Ukraine 0, 0, 1

Previous reports:

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 7);
-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 6);

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 5);

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 4);

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 3);

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 2);

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 1);

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 0);

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day a);

-- XII Olympic Winter Games, Innsbruck 1976;

-- II Olympic Winter Games, Saint Moritz 1928, and

-- I Olympic Winter Games, Chamonix 1924.

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.

Meet Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, likely to become most decorated Winter Olympian ever in Sochi ... http://t.co/XSMpnQDyXX pic.twitter.com/7bCoIA6syg
— Nick Zaccardi (@nzaccardi) February 9, 2014

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:

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 2);

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 1);

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 0);

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day a);

-- XII Olympic Winter Games, Innsbruck 1976;

-- II Olympic Winter Games, Saint Moritz 1928, and

-- I Olympic Winter Games, Chamonix 1924.

XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 2)

OK, we've got to get a little more serious about this.

So, here's the top of the medals table at the start of today's competitions:

1. Norway 2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze
2. Canada 1, 1, 1
2. Netherlands 1, 1, 1
4. United States 1, 0, 1
5. Austria 0, 1, 0
5. Sweden 0, 1, 0

7. Czech Republic 0, 0, 1

And here are the medals to be awarded today:

-- alpine skiing, men's downhill;

-- biathlon, women's 7.5km sprint;

-- cross-country, men's skiathlon 15km classic plus 15km free;

-- figure skating, team ice dance free dance;

-- luge, men's singles;

-- ski jumping, men's normal hill individual;

-- snowboard, ladies' slopestyle, and

-- speed skating, ladies' 3000m.

Previous reports:

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 1);

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 0);

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day a);

-- XII Olympic Winter Games, Innsbruck 1976;

-- II Olympic Winter Games, Saint Moritz 1928, and

-- I Olympic Winter Games, Chamonix 1924.

XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 1)

After some early-morning calisthenics, we're back to action in Sochi. Comments, as warranted.

Previous reports:

-- I Olympic Winter Games, Chamonix 1924;

-- II Olympic Winter Games, Saint Moritz 1928;

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day a), and

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 0).

II Olympic Winter Games, Saint Moritz 1928

Medals table:

1. Norway 6 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze

2. United States 2, 2, 2

3. Sweden 2, 2, 1

4. Finland 2, 1, 1

5. Canada 1, 0, 0

5. France 1, 0, 0

7. Austria 0, 3, 1

8. Belgium 0, 0, 1

8. Czechoslovakia 0, 0, 1

8. Germany 0, 0, 1

8. Great Britain 0, 0, 1

8. Switzerland 0, 0, 1

Canada's gold medal came in hockey. Coached by Conn Smythe, the Canadian team received a bye into the medal round and then won its three games by 11-0, 14-0 and 13-0. The 14-0 win came against Great Britain, here:

I Olympic Winter Games, Chamonix 1924

Medals table:

1. Norway 4 gold, 7 silver, 6 bronze

2. Finland 4, 4, 3

3. Austria 2, 1, 0

4. Switzerland 2, 0, 1

5. United States 1, 2, 1

6. Great Britain 1, 1, 2

7. Sweden 1, 1, 0

8. Canada 1, 0, 0

9. France 0, 0, 3

10. Belgium 0, 0, 1