Winter Olympics Sochi 2014: Day 5

The competition at the Olympics has been nothing short of fierce. The usually dominant US team has completely lived up to a remark that skier Bode Miller made. This team has won, "well earned medals". Day five was no exception to that. The US picked up two medals, a silver by 20 year old Devin Logan in freestyle skiing and a bronze by 27 year old Erin Hamlin in luge. You may be thinking, wasn't Shaun White competing in the half pipe today? He did, and he finished in fourth. A sad result for such a legendary figure in the sport of snowboarding. Despite the result, White should be proud of himself. He's done something that few have done and he's a role model for young people all over the world, not just here in the US.

I'm not trying to be a poor sport or anything like that, but one must wonder whether or not the weather conditions played a factor in White not performing as he usually does. Bode Miller talked about how soft the snow was earlier this week. Snowboarder Hannah Teter said the halfpipe conditions were terrible. The halfpipe itself was not smooth and the end of it was flat and slushy as a result of tepid temperatures. Some also brought up the steepness of the halfpipe. Did someone with the nickname "ipod" really deserve to win? I guess we will never know. Maybe the the X Games can shed some light on that.

The Results:

Freestyle Skiing: Ladies' Ski Slopestyle

1. Dara Howell Canada, run one: 94.20, run two: 48.40, best: 94.20
2. Devin Logan USA, run one: 85.40, run two: 30.00, best: 85.40
3. Kim Lamarre Canada, run one: 15.00, run two: 85.00, best: 85.00

Luge: Women's Single

1. Natalie Geisenberger Germany, 50.189
2. Tatjana Huefner Germany, 50.279
3. Erin Hamlin USA, 50.348

Snowboarding: Men's Halfpipe

1. Iouri Podladtchikov Switzerland, run one: 86.50, run two: 94.75, best: 94.75
2. Ayumu Hirano Japan, run one: 90.75, run two: 93.50, best: 93.50
3. Taku Hiraoka Japan, run one: 45.50, run two: 92.25, best: 92.25

4. Shaun White USA, run one: 35.00, run two: 90.25, best: 90.25

Watch Shaun White's journey to Sochi here

                      Despite a tough loss and finishing in fourth, Shaun White continues to smile.
                      photo from NBC Olympics website

24 year old Lee Sang Hwa defended her gold medal from the Vancouver 2010 games in speedskating's
500 m. What's more than that is she set a new Olympic record. Lee is the third speedskater after Bonnie Blair (USA) and Catriona le May Doan (Canada) to win multiple Olympic gold medals in the 500m. Bonnie Blair is the only one to have done it three times.

The Results: 

Speedskating: Ladies' 500 m

1. Sang Hwa Lee South Korea, 74.70 Olympic Record
2. Olga Fatkulina Russian Federation, 75.06
3. Margot Boer Netherlands, 75.48

    photo from NBC Olympics website

In figure skating, the pairs short program took place, and surprisingly, the results were not surprising at all. Just about everything was as it should be. The Russian pair of Volosozhar and Trankov are in first place posting the highest pairs short program score ever. Savchneko and Szolkowy of Germany earned second place for their Pink Panther routine. The other Russian pair of Stolbova and Klimov rounded out the top three. Vancouver silver medalists from China Pang and Tong were in fourth place.

The Results:

After the short program.... Pairs

1. Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov Russian Federation, 84.17
2. Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy Germany, 79.64
3. Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov Russian Federation, 75.21
4. Qing Pang and Jian Tong China, 73.30
5. Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford Canada, 72.21
6. Kirsten Moore Towers and Dylan Moscovitch Canada, 70.92
season best for the Americans....
9. Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir USA, 67.44