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Winter Olympics Thread 3
Canada vs. U.S.A in curling just about to get underway, and later today Canada and U.S. face of in Hockey. Which will be a big game. The crowds for curling have caused some players to speak up, there isn't usually this kind of energy in curling and the crowd is going nuts for Canada. The women have another curling match later today.
There is also an Olympic premier for an event today, the Ski Cross. Just like the Snowboard cross, it's 4 skiiers racing down the hill at the same time. There is also another event for Bode Miller today. There's 1500m speed skating for the women today. Here's the schedule. I think it's in EST time unless it autmatically detects where you are. I have no idea. lol
Tin, here's the recap from curling the other day where Jason Smith had to make a clutch shot to win it. This recaps a lot of the shots.
Thanks! I'll check it out.
Looking forward to the hockey game later -- looking forward to Czech Republic vs. Russia which will be on my local station.
Bode Miller wins first Gold Medal of career (Super Combined event).
Good for him. He behaved like such a d-bag in Torino, that I was happy when he didn't get a gold. He's been much better behaved since that time, though.
tAr?e
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Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.
-- Benjamin Franklin
Misty you should have given a spoiler alert for the Bode Miller win... sigh...
(:
Heh -- I'm torn. On the one hand I'm American so I would want Team USA to win.
On the other hand, we have a former Portland Winterhawk playing for Team Canada (and none on Team USA) so I want Team Canada to win.
That and I know that it means a lot to the Canadians to take home hockey Gold.
Of course, at the end of the day, I guess I'm really rooting for Team Slovakia anyway since they have Marion and Marcel Hossa -- two of the best Portland Winterhawks players ever.
USA women's hockey team remains undefeated by beating Sweden 9-1. They lost to Sweden in the 06 games; Sweden went on to win silver, the U.S. won bronze.
The win automatically advances them to the Gold medal match where they will most likely face Canada who has yet to play their semifinal game against Finland.
According to the wiki page on '06 Olympic hockey:
The loss of the United States to Sweden in Semifinal 1 was one of the most important events in the history of international women's ice hockey. It was the first time that either the US or Canada had lost in an international competition (other than to each other).
Canadians win ice dancing gold. Americans take Silver. Russians take bronze after almost missing the podium all together. It would have been the first time the Russians missed the podium since Ice Dancing became an Olympic sport in the 70's. The Canadian pair are the first North Americans to take gold in the event since it's introduction. On their own turf no less.
The other American pair took 4th and were set up for Bronze but the Russians were the last to go and they got a better score.
Happy for the Canadian team.
I really did enjoy the performance of the American's Davis & White, too.
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Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.
-- Benjamin Franklin
Spoiler alert turned off...
USA's Meryl Davis and Charlie White are seen on the podium after winning the silver medal in the ice dance figure skating.
In case you haven't seen this bit of fun from The Onion, it's the "Onion Sports Guide to Team U.S.A." I discovered it while surfing the Web between events.
Example:
Apolo Ohno, Short-Track Speed Skater
Skating Style: Trains by skating on ice-treadmill; celebrates with the "Ohno Leap," jumping skates-first into crowd
Speed Preference: Very- to Super-Fast
Accomplishments: Handsome; five-time Olympic medalist; holds class C Zamboni driver's license; has danced with the stars (actual celestial bodies, not mere celebrities)
Marital Status: Has yet to find a sufficiently aerodynamic woman
The Winter Olympics ruled in the ratings last week... Overall, NBC trampled its competition with an average of 24.8 million viewers in its first full week of Olympics coverage.
Second-place Fox averaged 8.7 million viewers. Not far behind in third place was CBS, averaging 7.8 million.
If this is a problem for anyone let me know. I'm going to post the full episodes of Colbert because it's all Olympic related. If anyone needs me to post the seperate videos I will, but i'd have to make a new thread almost everyday. (:
Monday's episode. Guest: Shaun White
http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/mon-february-22-2010-shaun-white
Tuesday's episode. Guests: Lindsey Vonn and Bob Costas
http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/tue-february-23-2010-lindsay-vonn--bob-costasBrett Camerota, Tod Lodwick, Johnny Spillane and Bill Demong (L-R) wins silver medal for the Nordic Combined Team final.
I didn't hear about that. That has to be a first medal for us in the event, no? USA isn't very strong at all in the cross country events.
The first American figure skater did a fantastic job. She's only 16.
EDITED TO ADD: They started talking about it right after you post. And it is the first time the USA won medal in the event.
EDITED TO ADD SOME MORE: The two American women made it to the finals in figure skating. Both first time Olympians at the ages of 17 and 16.Lindsey Vonn crashed in her event today. Lindsey appears to be ok even though it was a kind of a bad tumble. The only thing broken might be her finger, but she hurt her hip and chin.
While learning about that I ran across this story. In that same event we saw the first Iranian woman to compete in the Winter Olympics.
...
Ouch!
"Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug." -- Mark Knopfler
That cuts deep. I need healthcare for the wound that left. lol
As for the Speed Skate Relay that just took place:
Gee... I'm... surprised...... Korea gets gold, China sliver, and Canada gets Bronze. America was out of it early it seemed like.
Well, nevermind... Wow... As I was writing this they DQ'd Korea, so China takes gold. Canada gets silver, and Americans get Bronze... A bronze I don't think they should be thrilled about with only 4 teams in the race and one gets disqualified....
I think this was the last chance to medal for Katherine Reutter- the girl I liked that appeared on Colbert's show.
EDITED TO ADD: Well, maybe the can take some pride in it, I mean they did have to qualify throw at least one heat I think.
EDITED TO ADD: Nevermind, the relay wasn't Katherine Reutter's last chance for Gold. There is another short track event or two.
MORE EDITED TO ADD: Katherine Reuter just won her first heat to advance. I think it's for the 1000m race.
Well, in the same race Lindsey Vonn went down it also spelled bad luck for her teammate Julia Mancuso. Mancuso won gold in this event in the '06 games but she had the misfortune of going right after Lindsey crashed. On her way down she was stopped by an official because of caution over Lindsey's crash and she was given the opportunity to start at the top again. But it's being said that it's very hard for a skier to start over on a demanding run like that because they set up so much for that first run with wax on the skis, full energy, and everything. She finished 18th. Stopping her was the right thing to do out of cautiousness but it probably cost her a medal. We'll never know.
Here's the story.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/wgal/news/newsid=443869.html?aff=wgalThis is pretty interesting (well, for me at least). My local Atlanta news has been following the one and only Winter Olympian from the Atlanta area a few days before they went for the medal tonight. Her name is Elana Meyers and she is part of one of the two-person Bobsled teams. Well, (SPOILER ALERT) for those watching NBC right now because they're showing the taped event...
The team of Elana Meyers and Erin Pac from USA won Bronze, two Canadian teams took Gold and Silver.
Canadians have gotten same more medals lately. There has been some panic about not winning enough medals for the country after they kind of declared they could lead the countries. I think maybe they worried about it too early because Canada still has some events they can win medals in, especially because they're pretty much favored in events like hockey and curling. They've tied the number of golds with Germany in the U.S. today though. (Not that I want them to win hockey over team USA.) (:
Current Medal standings:
This is also the most medals won by the USA in an Olympics on foreign soil. Update for the medals: An Australian won Gold in the women's ski aerials, that dismantled what some thought would be a Chinese podium sweep. China did take Silver and Bronze. This is Australia's third medal and second gold.
I guess i'll add another EDIT here and save post room before we have to go to a second page.
Al Micheals interviews Shani Davis. Shani says he'd like to be back in 4 years to compete again.
I guess i'll add another EDIT here and save post room before we have to go to a second page. It's Al Micheal interviewing Shani Davis. Shani says he'd like to come back in 4 years and he's seems to have made the decision to go for it.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=fa90d029-be48-4d68-813d-6ddf710e7a8b.html#davis+michaels+ill+againErin Pac (L) and Elana Meyers of the United States celebrates bronze in the women's bobsleigh.
Lana Gehring, Alyson Dudek, Allison Baver and Katherine Reutter of the United States celebrate winning the bronze medal during the Short Track Speed Skating Ladies 1000m finals on February 24.
Canadians take Gold in women's hockey. USA silver, Finland Bronze. Obviously meaning Canada beat the USA.
USA silver...
Women playing hockey! Not to be a total pig, but is there anything hotter than that?
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Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.
-- Benjamin Franklin
Hockey gold for Canada, party is on: The players stormed back onto the ice half an hour after beating the United States 2-0 on Thursday and staged a raucous celebration—smoking cigars and swigging beer and bubbly.
Women bring beer, cigars onto ice
Another picture...
Wow, America takes gold and silver in the Nordic combined. ANOTHER cross country ski event. Keep in mind, America has never metaled in cross country EVER before this Olympics and now they've done it 4 times.
Gold goes to American Bill Demong, while Johnny Spilane takes his THIRD silver in Cross Country skiing....
EDITED TO ADD ANOTHER MEDAL WIN:
USA's Jeret "Speedy" Peterson won Silver in Ski Aerials. This after some not so great choices following his last Olympic appearance. From his wiki page:
The Hurricane mentioned in that excerpt was what he landed to take silver today.Gold goes to American Bill Demong, while Johnny Spilane takes his THIRD silver in Cross Country skiing....
17 year old Rachel Flatt just did an excellent performance, especially for her first olympics. But the judges didn't give her a very good score. It's best for her though. looked good to me and I know nothing about figure skating. lol
This is actually getting crazy for figure Skating. First Korea's Kim Yu-Na puts down the high score ever gotten, smashing the old record, then the next skater Japan's Mao Asada becomes the first woman ever to do 3 triple axles (pending judges review if they were fully rotated). I think I heard them say that she was also the first and (and only?) one to do 2 triple axles in another competition.
The USA is in serious danger of losing the their streak of having at least one woman on the podium in this event since Peggy Flemming in the 60's... I doubt the 16 year old American Mirai Nagasu can beat these tough competitors who are doing crazy good performances (record setters). She is good but too inexperienced and young it seems.
EDITED TO ADD: Mirai just laid it down after my post. She was outstanding. She is definitely the future for the U.S. Extra impressive considering the performances she followed and going last.
According to the announcers, she said before the compeition that she didn't care how she finished, she just wanted the world to know that she's the future.
And the final results:
Mirai Nagasu came in 4th
Gold:Kim Yu-Na (South Korea)
Silver:Mao Asada (Japan)
And Bronze goes to the emotional story of this competition: Canada's Joannie Rochettem. She skated performences of her life after losing her mother to a sudden heart attack on Sunday. Quite amazing what she did after going through that. In her own country no less. I can't imagine the mix of emotions in her head.
Jeret Peterson wins silver for Men's aerials, Feb. 25th
Apolo Ono gets DQ'd in his final single race after another racer goes down with small amount of contact. Probably the last Olympic race of his career is the relay coming up. Final chance to medal. Because of his DQ Canada takes gold and silver. The Canadian who won gold would have kept it even if Apolo wasn't DQ'd because Apolo was in for the silver after two racers went down.
And Katherine Reutter won her heats to make it to the final of her next race for a medal. (Might be her final race because the women's relay was yesterday?) Not sure...
EDITED TO ADD: Yikes. Apolo (with a smile on his face) politely insinuated that it might have come down to the Canadian judge who made the decision to DQ him. He said he was happy with how he did and said he needed to skate faster. He got a slow start and was in 4th for a lot of the race. There is a legitimate beef in my opinion and it was beyond ridiculous that a Canadian judge decided that call. They should have had another judge do it.
EDITED TO ADD MORE: Katherine Reutter wins silver behind China's Wang Meng. Wang, they said something about her having the most medals for a woman but I didn't hear. Maybe she tied Blair? In any case they also said this is the first time that one country has swept the short track events, which China has done on the women's side. Katherine also becomes the first American woman to medal in individual short track in 16 years. Not bad for her first Olympics. She's only 21.
Canadian men win relay gold, Americans take Bronze. Korea silver... Crazy race.
Canadians now have the most gold medals with 10. Germany 9, USA 8.
Katherine Reutter wins silver behind China's Wang Meng.
I didn't watch the hockey today but I heard the games were awesome.
Man, I don't know who to root for -- Team USA or Team Canada? I think maybe Canada (does that make me unpatriotic?). Should be a great game regardless.
And I want to see Slovakia take the Bronze.