Winter Olympics Sochi 2014: Day 10

Disappointment, redemption, and dominance were the themes of Day 10 at Sochi.

Lindsey Jacobellis failed to earn the gold she has been chasing for three Olympics now in Snowboard Cross. Initially, Jacobellis had the best time in qualifying, but things slowly but surely went downhill. In the semifinals, she misjudged a turn, went too fast, and lost her balance, sliding into the middle of the course. That was the end of Jacobellis's Olympics in Sochi. At 28, her Olympic appearances haven't improved, 2nd, 5th, and today, 7th. This is heartbreaking considering the fact that Lindsey came back from two knee surgeries in 2012. She makes it happen when it counts, but she wasn't been able to pull it together today.

The Results:

Snowboard: Ladies' Snowboard Cross

1. Eva Samkova, Czech Republic
2. Dominique Maltais, Canada
3. Chloe Trespeuch, France

4. Faye Gulini, USA
7. Lindsey Jacobellis, USA


Kjetil Jansrud won the fourth consecutive gold for Norway in the Super G. Perhaps more surprising than Bode's bronze--- one, Andrew Weibrecht winning the silver. Weibrecht is the guy who doesn't win World Championships but he will come to the Olympics and win silver. Two, is that Bode and Jan Hudec of Canada tied for bronze and the fact that it was Jan Hudec is another surprising factor. Bode is now the oldest alpine skier to medal at an Olympic Games at 36.

For Bode Miller, today's run in the super g was not only one of redemption but of sheer determination and a tribute from one brother to another. Last April, Bode lost his brother to a seizure. The 29 year old was a snowboarder and had hopes of making it to the Olympics like his brother. After Bode bounced back with a solid run in the super g and tied for a bronze medal, he became overcome with emotion and looked up to the sky and then looked down and began to cry. It was almost like this medal was for his brother or because of him.

The Results:

Alpine Skiing: Men's Super G

1. Kjetil Jansrud, Norway, 1:18.14
2. Andrew Weibrecht, USA, 1:18.44
3. Jan Hudec, Canada, 1:18.67
3. Bode Miller, USA, 1:18.67

In Sochi, speedskating has become less exciting to watch. Perhaps it's because the viewer can almost predict who is going to land on the podium. The majority of the medals won by Netherlands at this Games have been in speedskating. Last night was no exception. Do you find the fact that they are dominating this sport boring? Ter Mors, the gold medalist did skate an Olympic record time and she dethroned reigning gold medalist Ireen Wust (a two time medalist at the games already, now three).

The Results:

Speedskating: Ladies' 1,500 m

1. Jorien Ter Mors, Netherlands, 1:53.51 Olympic Record
2. Ireen Wust, Netherlands, 1:54.09
3. Lotte Van Beek, Netherlands, 1:54.54

7. Heather Richardson, USA, 1:57.60

One of the events I have been most excited about for over a year now is the ice dancing competition. The top two pairs in the world, reigning World Champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the US train in Detroit and Vancouver gold medalist Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada train in Detroit, together, and under the same coach. They've watched each others every move and now it all comes down to a couple of skates on Olympic ice in Sochi. Davis and White have already announced that at 27 and 26 respectively, they will retire after these Games. Virtue and Moir, 24 and 26 have not shared their intentions. The favorites for gold are Davis and White, the silver would then be a lock for Virtue and Moir, and the battle for bronze is a total toss up between several teams.

The Results after the Short Program:

Ice Dance Short Program:

1. Meryl Davis and Charlie White, USA, 78.89 (highest short program score ever)
2. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, Canada, 76.33
3. Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov, Russian Federation, 73.04
4. Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat, France, 72.78
5. Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev, Russian Federation, 69.97

Read more about Meryl and Charlie's Journey-- HERE

Winter Olympics Sochi 2014: Day 8

Friday, day eight may not have had lots of activity but yesterday's events were no doubt epic! For the first time in 12 years, the US team medaled in skeleton. Japan won it's first Olympic gold in men's figure skating. Bode Miller was once again shut out of a medal in this Olympics, this time in the men's super combined slalom.

At only 19, Yuzuru Hanyu is the second youngest man to win the gold medal in men's figure skating. He is also Japan's first man to win a gold in the sport. In the short program, he made history, earning over 100 points for his program. This is perhaps what carried him to a sound victory from Canada's Patrick Chan. Chan was looking to break Canada's curse and win the first gold in men's figure skating. The irony in all of this is that Brian Orser, from Canada, silver medalist, and part of this curse coaches Hanyu in Toronto. Despite the fact that Hanyu fell two times in his long program, it was enough to bring him a victory. It also didn't help that Patrick Chan had a luckluster long program. Third place could have gone to several men--- In contention, American Jason Brown, two additional men from the Japanese team Daisuke Takahashi and Tatsuki Machida, and Javier Fernandez of Spain. But it was Denis Ten of Kazakhstan who took the bronze medal. It must also be said that American Jeremy Abbott skated a breathtaking long program. It was an amazing end to a journey that started out bumpy but left the 27 year old with a bronze medal in the team event and able to walk away with his head held high.

The Results:

Figure Skating: Men's

1. Yuzuru Hanyu, Japan, short: 101.45, free: 178.64, total: 280.09
2. Patrick Chan, Canada, short: 97.52, free: 178.10, total: 275.62
3. Denis Ten, Kazakhstan, short: 84.06, free: 171.04, total: 255.10

9. Jason Brown, USA, short: 86.00, free: 152.37, total: 238.37
12. Jeremy Abbott, short: 72.58, free: 160.12, total: 232.70

Noelle Pikus Pace capped a career with a silver medal that she called, "good as gold". An excited Pikus Pace jumped into the stands to greet her husband and children waiting in the stands. In 2005, her leg was shattered by a bobsled denying her a medal in 2006 in Torino. A mistake cost her the bronze in Vancouver. And four years later, she can walk away with a dream realized. Her husband said that Noelle coming out of retirement was all worth it.

The Results:

Skeleton: Women's

1. Elizabeth Yarnold, Great Britain, total time: 3:52.89
2. Noelle Pikus Pace, USA, total time: 3:53.86
3. Elena Nikitina, Russian Federation, total time: 3:54.30

4. Katie Uhlaender, USA, total time: 3:54.34

Bode Miller came up short again in his second event of these Games, the super combined slalom. This was a gold medal event for him in Vancouver. American Ted Ligety was the 2013 World Champion in this event and also came up short. It's been an odd games; to put things in perspective, Sandro Viletta of Switzerland who ended up winning the gold has never won a World Cup super combined. Kostelic of Croatia won a fourth career silver medal. Christof Innerhofer of Italy won bronze, following up in a silver that he won in downhill. Both men were grateful for their silver and bronze medals and felt pleased.

The Results:

Alpine Skiing: Men's Super Combined Slalom

1. Sandro Viletta, Switzerland, 2:45.20
2. Ivica Kostelic, Croatia, 2:45.54
3. Christof Innerhofer, Italy, 2:45.67

6. Bode Miller, USA, 2:46.60
11. Jarded Goldberg, USA, 2:47.29
12. Ted Ligety, USA, 2:47.39

Finally, in aerials, US team favorite, Emily Cook, in her final Olympics failed to make it into the finals of the event. She couldn't land her jumps. I watched the event and it seemed like more people fell after their jumps than landed.

The Results:

Freestyle Skiing: Ladies' Aerials

1. Alla Tsuper, Belarus, 98.01
2. Mengtao Xu, China, 83.50
3. Lydia Lassila, Australia, 72.12

Winter Olympics Sochi 2014: Day 3

Day 3 was slightly controversial, but I do enjoy how the medals went to all different countries. What is becoming clear is that certain countries dominate in certain sports. For example, the Dutch are cleaning up in the longer distance speedskating events. Americans clearly enjoy snowboarding and clearly they are good at it. The Russians continue to impress in figure skating as they have for many years now. In a sport that they almost solely dominated, they have risen to dominance again. What is absolutely no surprise to me is how the Olympic Games continue to bring the world together.

Here are the highlights from Day 3....

Let's get the Ladies' Hockey results out of the way first, Sweden beat Japan, 1-0 and Russia beat Germany soundly, 4-1.

In Ski Jumping, men's normal hill individual winner from Vancouver Simon Ammann from Switzerland did not repeat, not even close. In fact, he finished way back in 17th place, a disappointing event for Ammann. This story should be about the gold medalist though, and the truth is that Kamil Stoch of team Poland woke up on Sunday morning with a temperature and a bad headache and ended the day an Olympic champion. When looking at the past year's results, it's not surprising that Stoch won gold as he took first in four World Cup Events this season.

The Results:

Ski Jumping:  Men's Normal Hill Individual

1. Kamil Stoch Poland, 278.0
2. Peter Prevc Slovenia, 265.3
3. Anders Bardal Norway, 264.1

She completed the American sweep for the snowboarding's new event, slopestyle, at 23 Jamie Anderson is at the top of her game, and only stands to improve from here with many viable years left in the sport. Anderson's first run of two wasn't great, but that's the thing about Jamie Anderson, when she knows what she needs to do to win, she goes out there and makes it happen. Of note, 33 year old Jenny Jones from Great Britain finished in third, the former maid at a ski resort is a veteran in this young sport. There was also a scare when newcomer from the Czech Republic Sarka Pacochova wiped out on her 2nd run and hit her head so hard that her helmet cracked in half.

The Results:

Snowboarding: Ladies' Slopestyle

1. Jamie Anderson USA,  1st run: 80.75 (2), 2nd run: 95.25 (1), best: 95.25
2. Enni Rukajarvi Finland, 1st run: 73.75 (4), 2nd run: 92.50 (2), best: 92.50
3. Jenny Jones Great Britain, 1st run: 73.00 (5), 2nd run: 87.25 (3), best: 87.25

photo: NBC Olympics website                                                    

The disappointment was all over Bode Miller's face after he took what was supposed to be a winning run. After the event he spoke to one of the reporters and said, "it just didn't go my way today". Miller will need to deal with that defeat though as he is scheduled to compete in at least two other events in these games. Who wasn't disappointed? Matthias Mayer from Austria at the age of 23 who has never won a major competition and his father, Helmut, won a silver in Super G at the 1988 Calgary Games. Christof Innerhofer from Italy who has been dealing with back problems took silver, the first medal for Italy in this event since 1976. And finally, Jansrud of Norway who had some serious knee issues at last year's World Championships. 

The Results:

Alpine Skiing: Men's Downhill

1. Matthias Mayer Austria, 2:06.23

2. Christof Innerhofer Italy, 2:06.29

3. Kjetil Jansrud Norway, 2:06.33

5. Travis Ganong USA, 2:06.64

8. Bode Miller USA, 2:06.75  

photo: Christophe Ena/Associated Press

In the first time Figure Skating Team Event, it was only fitting that host country Russia, a country consistently dominant in in the sport won the gold. Canada surprised by picking up the silver, and the USA provided perhaps the biggest surprise of all winning a bronze. Many thought Japan was the favorite for the bronze medal leaving the US shut out of a medal in the team event. However, it was the extraordinary two dance programs from Meryl Davis and Charlie White, the odds on favorites to win the gold in Ice Dance. It was Ashley Wagner's solid, yet sexy short and Gracie Gold's impressive Olympic Debut that gave the team a well deserved, hard fought for bronze. 

Make no mistake of it though, Russia earned their gold fair and square. Evgeny Plushenko at 31 truly possessed the heart and strength of a champion. To come back after countless injuries and after three years off the world stage proves his talent is the real thing. He won the men's short as well as the long program. I've learned though to never count Plushenko out over the years, I've also learned to expect nothing less of him than the best.  So perhaps what was even more impressive was the debut of 15 year old Yulia Lipnitskaya wearing a red coat in the long program as she skated to the theme song from Schindler's List, and not only was it technically strong but it was emotionally moving. The Russian ice dance pair, although no Davis and White, achieved a personal best in the free dance. As for the Russian pair of Tatyana Volosozhar and Maksim Trankov, they are like the many Russian pairs of the past, passionate and dominant. I definitely see them as the favorites for gold in the individual event. This total team effort is something I am going to call, "Russian gold". 

The Results: 

Figure Skating: Team Event

1. Russia: Ekaterina Bobrova, Elena Ilinykh, Nikita Katsalapov, Fedor Klimov, Yulia Lipnitskaya, Evgeny Plyushchenko, Dmitri Soloviev, Ksenia Stolbova, Maxim Trankov, Tatiana Volosozhar 

2. Canada: Patrick Chan, Meagan Duhamel, Scott Moir, Kirsten Moore Towers, Dylan Moscovitch, Kaetlyn Osmond, Eric Radford, Kevin Reynolds, Tessa Virtue

3. USA: Jeremy Abbott, Jason Brown, Marissa Castelli, Meryl Davis, Gracie Gold, Simon Shnapir, Ashley Wagner, Charlie White 

Russia's first Gold! 

photo: NBC Olympics website

What surprised me most on day 3? The 40 somethings at this Olympics continue to dominate! Are they giving hope to athletes everywhere who think their careers are over? Germany speedskater Claudia Pechstein at age 41 just missed the medal podium finishing in 4th place in the Ladies' 3,000 m. Something else happened though, in luge, men's single, two men, Demchenko and Zoeggeler, made it onto the podium at the ages of 42 and 40 respectively and won silver and bronze medals. If anything it gives hope to the 24 year old gold medalist, Felix Loch, that perhaps he could be around for another four Olympics potentially. 

The Results:

Speedskating: Ladies' 3,000 m

1. Irene Wust Netherlands, 4:00.34

2. Martina Sablikova Czech Republic, 4:01.95

3. Olga Graf Russian Federation, 4:03.47

4. Claudia Pechstein Germany, 4:05.26

Luge: Men's Single

1. Felix Loch Germany, 51.764

2. Albert Demchenko Russian Federation, 51.852

3. Amin Zoeggeler Italy, 51.994