Month: February 2014

olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Snowboarding, men’s parallel slalom

Posted on by Beau Dure

American-born Russian Vic Wild loves his new country, and they love him. He took his second Olympic gold in a thrilling final over Zan Kosir, who also took his second medal of the Games. As unpredictable as this sport may be, each of the medalists was a repeat — Benjamin Karl reached the podium in parallel giant slalom in 2010.

Date: 22-Feb

Sport: Snowboarding

Event: Men’s parallel slalom

Medalists: Vic Wild (Russia), Zan Kosir (Slovenia), Benjamin Karl (Austria)

SportsMyriad projections: Andreas Prommegger (Austria), Roland Fischnaller (Italy), Rok Marguc (Austria)

How U.S. fared: Justin Reiter, a World Championship silver medalist, missed a gate on the first run of qualifying.

What happened: The favorites made it through qualifying, but many of them tumbled in the round of 16. World champion Rok Marguc (Slovenia) had a clumsy turn early in the second round and couldn’t catch Germany’s Patrick Bussler. Austrian Andreas Prommegger lost a close one to countrymate Benjamin Karl. Switzerland’s Simon Schoch went off course.

But all three parallel giant slalom medalists advanced, with Zan Kosir taking out decorated 38-year-old Canadian Jasey Jay Anderson.

Quarterfinals: You could send Vic Wild gaining momentum again, as he had in the parallel giant slalom. He beat Italian favorite Roland Fischnaller, with a small gap in each run. Slovenia Zan Kosir also kept up his quest for a second medal, holding off fellow PGS medalist Nevin Galmarini. Austrian favorite Karl rallied from a slight deficit to beat Bussler, and Italy’s Aaron March advanced.

Karl could hardly have better credentials — 2010 silver medalist in PGS, four wins in the last three World Championships — though his current World Cup season wasn’t as strong.

March has a handful of World Cup podiums. Kosir has been a strong World Cup performer for the past couple of seasons. Wild, even before winning PGS gold, was having the season of his life.

Semifinals: Vic Wild’s quest for double gold was surely gone. A slip in the first run left him 1.12 seconds behind Karl. Surely it was over.

You guessed it — it wasn’t over. Karl never slipped, but Wild just reeled him in through a thrilling second run. He came across 0.04 seconds ahead, and the crowd went … well, Wild.

Zan Kosir took an 0.74 lead in the first run. March wiped out halfway down the second run, and Kosir simply stayed on his feet to reach the final.

Finals: March didn’t offer much resistance to Karl, who cruised across the line to be greeted by fellow Austrian Julia Dujmovits, who had just won gold in the women’s event.

Wild and Kosir had a tight first run, with Wild leading by 0.12 seconds. Kosir had a great start in the second run, but Wild pulled slightly ahead. Kosir caught up but went slightly wide. Wild held on to win by 0.11 for his second gold of the Games.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Snowboarding, women’s parallel slalom

Posted on by Beau Dure

The first Olympic parallel slalom — just like parallel giant slalom but slightly smaller — was as unpredictable as ever. But a solid rider, Austria’s Julia Dujmovits, came up with the clutch performance to win gold. Germany took the next two places, with Amelie Kober adding parallel slalom bronze to the parallel giant slalom silver she won in 2006.

Date: 22-Feb

Sport: Snowboarding

Event: Women’s parallel slalom

Medalists: Julia Dujmovits (Austria), Anke Karstens (Germany), Amelie Kober (Germany)

SportsMyriad projections: Ekaterina Tudegesheva (Russia), Patrizia Kummer (Switzerland), Hilde-Katrine Engeli (Norway)

How U.S. fared: No entries

What happened: Qualifying tripped up all three Canadians, including contender Caroline Calve, and Norway’s Hilde-Katrine Engeli. Austrian favorite Marion Kreiner was the qualifying leader.

Kreiner easily beat world champion Ekaterina Tudegesheva in the round of 16. Another Austrian, Julia Dujmovits, took out another Russian favorite, parallel giant slalom bronze medalist Alena Zavarzina.

In fact, all three parallel giant slalom medalists went out in the round of 16. Japan’s Tomoka Takeuchi stumbled in the second run against Switzerland’s Julie Zogg, and Germany’s Amelie Kober beat Swiss gold medalist Patrizia Kummer by 0.10 seconds.

Quarterfinals: Kreiner had a mishap in the first run and was 1.25 seconds behind Italy’s Corinna Boccacini. The Austrian nearly caught her in the second run but finished 0.05 seconds behind. Another Austrian, Ina Meschik, missed out by an even smaller margin, 0.01 behind Kober. Zogg stumbled, sending Dujmovits through. Anke Karstens made it two Germans in the semifinals, rallying from a first-run deficit to beat the Czech Republic’s Ester Ledecka.

Semifinals: Dujmovits built an 0.80-second lead in the first run, and Boccacini lost an edge trying to make up the gap. Kober didn’t complete the first run of the all-German semifinal, incurring a 1.5-second gap for the second run, and she came within 0.09 seconds of making it up.

Dujmovits wasn’t too much of a surprise — she’s third in World Cup parallel events, and she was second in the World Championship parallel giant slalom last year. Karstens was fifth in PGS in 2010, but she didn’t have a lot of World Cup success, placing no higher than eighth in PGS and 17th in parallel slalom this season.

Kober won the 2006 PGS silver medal and 2013 PS World Championship bronze. Boccacini is in her third Olympics but with a much thinner resume.

Finals: Kober took a solid 0.44-second lead in the first leg, enough to hold on for bronze despite a little bobble down the stretch.

Karstens surprisingly led Dujmovits by 0.72 seconds after the first leg. With four gates left, Karstens looked like she had held off the Austrian favorite. But Karstens went a little wide, and Dujmovits capitalized. She slid onto her back and raised her arms in celebration after the finish line.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Cross-country skiing, women’s 30k

Posted on by Beau Dure

We saw two races today — a three-way race between three Norwegians, then a race among everyone else. Norway had some frustration in these Olympics, but not today. Marit Bjoergen won her third gold medal of these Games. She’s tied for the women’s Winter Olympic career records with six golds and 10 medals.

Date: 22-Feb

Sport: Cross-country skiing

Event: Women’s 30k freestyle mass start

Medalists: Marit Bjoergen (Norway), Theresa Johaug (Norway), Kristin Stoermer Steira (Norway)

SportsMyriad projections: Justyna Kowalczyk (Poland), Therese Johaug (Norway), Marit Bjoergen (Norway)

How U.S. fared: Not the USA’s best event, but a couple of skiers were seeded in the top 15. They were never a factor, though. Skiers have the option of changing skis at the 10k and 20k mark, and the U.S. skiers all changed at 10k. Then they saw few other skiers making the same decision. That cost them about 20 seconds, and no one was in the chase pack of about 12 skiers.

Liz Stephen finished 24th (3:06.6 back), Holly Brooks 27th (3:53.1), Kikkan Randall 28th (4:05.5), Jessie Diggins 40th (7:07.8).

What happened: Remember when Norway had all the wrong wax or all the wrong skis? Not today. At the 10k mark, Norway had the top three and the skier in fifth. Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla broke up the party, with Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk and Finland’s Krista Lahteenmaki immediately behind.

Then Theresa Johaug, Marit Bjoergen and Kristin Stoermer Steira simply broke away. At the halfway point, they were more than 30 seconds ahead of Lahteenmaki. Kowalczyk, unable to keep up, simply popped off her skis and withdrew from the race. (She prefers classical.)

By the 20k mark, the lead was close to a minute over a dispirited chase pack, where the other contenders had little interest in turning up the pace to chase for fourth place.

Bjoergen and Johaug pushed up the final climb and dropped Steira. Bjoergen gained some daylight at the top and raced away for the win. Johaug was 2.6 seconds back, then Steira 23 seconds behind.

The Norwegians had a minute — literally — to celebrate at the finish line before Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen won the sprint for fourth place.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Defending the figure skating system — sort of

Posted on by Beau Dure

The current system for the inherently controversial task of judging figure skating competitions is the worst system ever designed — except the last one. And except the systems they used in snowboarding, freestyle skiing, gymnastics and pretty much everything else that’s decided by judges.

The old system had that old familiar air to it. Judges gave marks for technical merit and presentation ranging from 0.0 (never, ever seen) to 6.0 (rarely seen). But that wasn’t even the decisive factor — it was the “ordinals,” ranking skaters from first to worst.

And it had a few problems:

1. Rep meant everything. Judges weren’t going to give a bunch of high scores until the big names hit the ice in the last group. A veteran skater would often get the benefit of the doubt unless he or she skidded all over the ice.

2. Comebacks after the short program were all but impossible. Sarah Hughes’ rally from fourth after the short program to the 2002 gold medal was the exception, requiring an exceptional sequence of dominoes to fall.

Here’s an example: Let’s say Jane Jumpwell is fifth after the short program with a bunch of 5.5s while Sally Spinner is first with a bunch of 5.7s. Short program ordinals are cut in half, so Spinner would have 0.5 points to Jumpwell’s 2.5. (The fewer points, the better.)

Then let’s say Jumpwell has the best free skate ever — all 6.0s — while Spinner stumbles around to a bunch of 5.3s and 5.4s. But then everyone else stumbles around, and Spinner is still second-best to Jumpwell. From the free skate, Jumpwell would have 1.0 points to Spinner’s 2.0. Final totals: Spinner 2.5, Jumpwell 3.5.

Let’s make it less hypothetical: Denis Ten was ninth in this year’s short program and third in the free skate. Under the old system, he would have had 7.5 points. Spain’s Javier Fernandez would have beaten him just because so many skaters finished in the 2.34-point gap between Fernandez and Ten in the short program. The fact that Ten blew Fernandez away in the free skate would’ve meant nothing.

This year, 12 men’s skaters were in contention for the podium after the short program. Under the old system, most of them would’ve been out.

3. Transparency? What transparency? Why did a judge give a 5.3 instead of a 5.5? Who knows?

The current system lets us see every element. Was the triple axel underrotated? There it is, with a lowered base value and a negative Grade of Execution. And judges weigh in on the “components” — skating skills, transitions, choreography, interpretation timing, etc.

(Let’s dismiss one bit of criticism — the idea that skaters get credit for what they attempt. Utter nonsense. If you say you’re going to do a triple-triple but you only do a double-single, you get credit for the double-single. If you fall, you get a mandatory 1-point deduction as well as a negative Grade of Execution for the jump. And you may have underrotated the jump to begin with, which reduces the base value … add it all up, and you’re down many points.)

Compare this with snowboarding and freestyle skiing. Athletes do all kinds of tricks and get exactly one number. Why was that run a 93 while the run before it was a 91? Who knows?

So when we question figure skating scores, we can take a closer look. That’s why The Boston Globe‘s John Powers attributed Adelina Sotnikova’s controversial figure skating victory to simple math: “There are those in the Land of the Morning Calm and beyond who’ll claim that Queen Yu Na wuz robbed, that it was a bag job for the homegirl, that figure skating is every bit as corrupt and confusing as it was in the years that culminated in the Salt Lake judging scandal. And then there are those who can count.”

So Sotnikova won because she got more points for her jumps, right? Well, not quite. Sotnikova may have done more technically demanding jumps, but the judges correctly knocked her down for a mistake. By Sally Jenkins’ figuring, it was actually the spins, not the jumps, that put Sotnikova ahead. And Amy Rosewater’s dissection shows how Sotnikova and her coaches refined her program for maximum points while Kim was in virtual international isolation.

But Rosewater’s piece hints at another problem: the “component” scores. Kim barely beat Sotnikova here. But Sotnikova kept it close by improving five points and change from the European Championships.

Improvement? Or a judging flaw? Ultimately, this is the most subjective part of the figure skating system. And there’s no way to take it out completely without reducing the whole sport to a jump-off and spin-off.

So that subjectivity is still there. And that’s why, for all of Powers’ protests, my former colleague Christine Brennan has a point when she investigates the makeup of the judging panel and the anonymity in the judging process. We don’t know who gave what mark.

On NBC, Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir stressed the importance of “connecting with the audience.” That’s going to be a bit easier for the host country’s favorite than it is for Gracie Gold or Yuna Kim. Did that sway the judges? Maybe.

And would they mark things up any differently if we knew who gave what score? Would the pressure to please the home crowd be outweighed by the pressure of knowing the marks would be scrutinized by every observer around the world?

So what we can say of figure skating’s judging system is this: The numbers are fine. And the human beings behind them may be fine. But we need to know who they are. One simple change could ease so many problems.

 

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medal projections, olympic sports, winter sports

Best/worst, Sochi medal projections vs. reality: Feb. 21

Posted on by Beau Dure

Justin Reiter, a nation’s hopes are in your hands.

Who? He’s a snowboarder who does parallel events, which we in the USA don’t follow or fund to the same extent we follow and fund halfpipe, slopestyle and various X Games-ish things. Reiter actually needs another $12,000 and change to fund his Sochi excursion.

How unknown is he? “Walking into the Olympics, I had other snowboarders on Team USA asking me if I was a coach.” he told ESPN’s Alyssa Roenigk.

And yet, Reiter may be the USA’s key to reaching 30 medals.

The USA has 27 medals — the most, by one over Russia. The Games have 10 events left.

The projections give the USA two more medals. One, speedskating team pursuit, won’t happen — the U.S. men are racing for seventh place. Another, four-man bobsled, is a good possibility.

The U.S. is not projected to win a medal in ice hockey, but they have a good shot. That and bobsled would give the USA 29 medals.

Where could the USA get No. 30?

No Americans are entered in women’s snowboarding parallel slalom. The U.S. women’s speedskaters are racing for fifth in team pursuit.

Men’s slalom (the familiar Alpine skiing version) isn’t out of the question, but don’t bet on it. Ted Ligety has the gold medal to show for his giant slalom prowess, but he has done no better than 11th in slalom this season. The other skiers would need some sort of Weibrechtian surprise to get on the podium.

The cross-country endurance events (women’s 30k, men’s 50k) would also require a career performance for a U.S. medal. So would the biathlon relay, where the USA doesn’t have a lot of depth.

So if Reiter, who was second in the 2013 World Championships, can get a few breaks in the unpredictable world of snowboarding’s parallel events, the USA might have a shot at 30. Better than no shot, right?

CURRENT PACE

Original projections: Norway 39, USA 35, Canada 30, Russia 26, Germany 23, Austria 22, South Korea 15, Netherlands 14, France 12, Switzerland 11, Sweden 10, Japan 7, Italy 7, China 6, Czech Republic 6

If the rest of the projections were to come true, we’d end up with: Russia 32, USA 29, Norway 27, Canada 25, Netherlands 24, Germany 18, Austria 16, France 16, Sweden 15, Switzerland 12, China 9, Japan 9, Italy 9, South Korea 8, Czech Republic 8.

We know Russia won’t get a medal in men’s hockey. The remaining projected medals are biathlon (men’s relay), snowboarding (women’s parallel slalom), bobsled (four-man), and two in cross-country skiing (men’s 50k).

UP

China (+1 today, +3 overall): The narrow loss in curling may sting, but three medals in short-track will make any country happy.

USA (+1 today, -6 overall): Like Ted Ligety, Mikaela Shiffrin dealt with the pressure of being the favorite with no trouble at all. And the short-track men’s relay kept US Speedskating from a complete shutout in Sochi.

Ukraine (+1 today, even overall): What a great story — a country torn by unrest at home delivering a steady, gutsy performance in the women’s biathlon relay to win a convincing gold medal.

FULL TABLE

[gview file=”https://duresport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014-medal-projections-feb21.pdf”%5D

HIGHLIGHTS

Biggest winner: 

Biggest opportunity for federation to question itself: South Korea let Ahn get away.

Best U.S. employment program: Maybe we can’t call it the best, but it’s expansive — Adecco has 291 athletes placed with jobs, including hotel valet/speedskater Patrick Meek.

Best Winter Games growth area: Latin America has snow but no medals.

Best trifecta of Dutch transportation methods/sports: 

Most surprisingly un-Photoshopped photo:

Best case to quit complaining and change tactics and/or coaches: British short-track speedskater Elise Christie has already been disqualified once in these Games for barging into someone else. (And once more for literally missing the finish line.) So in today’s 1,ooo-meter showdowns, she managed to pull off one miraculous escape by rallying from the back to advance, then tried to do it again against a pretty good group of skaters. See the 17:44 update at the BBC to see what Christie did to get past Li Jianrou. Christie and Li pretty much fell over each other at the next turn. They were both disqualified, which is quite reasonable. But don’t tell that to the British commentators or Twitter public.

Strangest speedskating suggestion (tie): From International Skating Union President for Life Ottavio Cinquanta – mixed team pursuit!

Strangest speedskating suggestion (tie): Dutch speedskating coach Jillert Anema thinks the USA should quit wasting time on sports like American football.

Quote most likely to be remembered in four years: Anema, from the same interview – “You won’t beat us, not in four years, not in eight years.”

SATURDAY’S PROJECTIONS

Alpine skiing, men’s slalom: Marcel Hirscher (Austria), Mario Matt (Austria), Felix Neureuther (Germany)

Also considered: Ivica Kostelic (Croatia), Andre Myhrer (Sweden)

Biathlon, men’s relay: Russia, Norway, France

Also considered: Austria, Germany, Sweden

Cross-country skiing, women’s 30k: Justyna Kowalczyk (Poland), Therese Johaug (Norway), Marit Bjoergen (Norway)

Also considered: Yulia Tchekaleva (Russia)

Snowboarding, women’s parallel slalom: Ekaterina Tudegesheva (Russia), Patrizia Kummer (Switzerland), Hilde-Katrine Engeli (Norway)

Also considered: Caroline Calve (Canada), Isabella Laböck (Germany), Amelie Kober (Germany), Marion Kreiner (Austria)

Snowboarding, men’s parallel slalom: Andreas Prommegger (Austria), Roland Fischnaller (Italy), Rok Marguc (Austria)

Also considered: Benjamin Karl (Austria), Zan Kosir (Slovenia), Justin Reiter (USA), Simon Schoch (Switzerland), Vic Wild (Russia)

Speedskating, women’s team pursuit: Netherlands, Poland, Japan

Also considered: Canada, Russia. Actual semifinalists: Russia, Poland, Japan, Netherlands

Speedskating, men’s team pursuit: Netherlands, South Korea, USA

Also considered: Norway, Poland, Russia. Actual gold medal final: Netherlands vs. South Korea. Actual bronze medal final: Poland vs. Canada.

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Curling, men’s gold medal game

Posted on by Beau Dure

Canada’s Olympic victory was never in doubt, as the curling-mad country swept men’s and women’s gold for the first time.

Date: 21-Feb

Sport: Curling

Event: Men’s gold medal game, Canada vs. Britain

Medalists: Canada, Britain, Sweden

SportsMyriad projections: Canada, Sweden, Britain

What happened: Canada jumped out in front early. Brad Jacobs’ team got a lot of rocks in play in the first end, and David Murdoch needed to take out two of them just to limit the damage. Jacobs scored two with the hammer.

Murdoch had a chance to tie in the second with a takeout, but his rock rolled as well, holding Britain to one.

It got worse. Canada again got a lot of rocks in play in the third, and British vice-skip Greg Drummond got his own rocks out of the house instead of Canada’s. Drummond rebounded to remove three of Canada’s five rocks with his next shot, but Murdoch was powerless to prevent Canada from scoring three for a 5-1 lead.

Murdoch had a tough shot for two in the fourth. He missed. A measurement confirmed a steal of one for Canada and a 6-1 score.

Canada piled on, getting some rocks in the front of the house to limit Britain to one in the fifth. A couple of botched British shots early in the sixth end left Canada in good shape to score two once again and lead 8-2.

Britain needed a big end. The seventh end wasn’t it. Murdoch had a shot for two but could only get one, trailing 8-3 without the hammer.

Murdoch managed to create some chaos in the house in the eighth end, but Jacobs cleared it out, and when Jacobs completed a takeout for a 9-3 lead, Murdoch conceded.

Full results | Recaps with diagrams

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Biathlon, women’s relay

Posted on by Beau Dure

Wild day in Olympic biathlon, with Germany and France out of contention in the first leg while Canada and the USA were in the top five with one leg to go. And then an inspiring winner — Ukraine, torn apart by unrest at home, came together for a strong win.

Date: 21-Feb

Sport: Biathlon

Event: Women’s relay

Medalists: Ukraine, Russia, Norway

SportsMyriad projections: Norway, Germany, Russia

 

How U.S. fared: Susan Dunklee is the story of the Games for the USA out at the Nordic venues. She was once again absolutely fearless, taking off ahead of the contenders. She needed two extra shots in the prone shooting and one standings, sticking close to the leaders and handing off in fourth place, just 12.9 seconds back.

Hannah Dreissigacker, still a relative newcomer to biathlon, needed three extra shots at each stage but avoided the penalty loop and skied quickly. She was in sixth, 58.2 seconds back, at the exchange.

Sara Studebaker shot the lights out. She cleaned all 10 shots and stuck with the Czech Republic and Switzerland to contend for fifth place. At the exchange, she was indeed in fifth.

Annalies Cook stayed in that group through the first lap. Two missed shots let the Czech Republic get away, but she stayed ahead of Switzerland and the charging Italian team. Two more misses let the favorites pass, but she came across in seventh, the best result for the U.S. women in this event.

What happened: Colder but not really better. We had rain and snow, and Chad Salmela said the new snow would retain a bit of the rain to make a bit of slush on top of the solid man-made snow.

Maybe that accounted for anomalies that took out two of the contenders. Germany’s Franziska Preuss, a 19-year-old who got the nod ahead of Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle, had some sort of equipment problem on the first lap, possibly from a fall not seen on camera. She came into the shooting range after nearly everyone else had gone, then needed to blow snow out of her rifle to shoot. She used three extra shots and hit the checkpoint nearly two minutes down.

Then the cameras found France’s Marie-Laure Brunet face down in the snow with medical crews racing to her aid. NBC’s reporters later said she had felt dizzy and collapsed.

 

Russia and Ukraine set the pace early. Then Italy’s Dorothea Wierer flew past them to lead at the first exchange.

 

Norway had a rough first leg, sitting 50.8 seconds back in ninth place. Tiril Eckhoff erased half of that deficit, pulling Norway into third past Russia’s Olga Zaitseva.

The developing story was Ukraine. The war-torn country would have something to cheer, with Vita Semerenko putting them in contention with her first leg and Juliya Dzhyma shooting cleanly to take the lead when she handed off to the other Semerenko twin, Valj.

At the halfway point, the Czech Republic was second but had just sent out its best athlete, Gabriela Soukalova. Then Norway, Russia and surprising Canada.

Ukraine’s Valj Semerenko came into the range first. She hesitated twice but went five-for-five. So did Russia’s Ekaterina Shumilova and Norway’s Ann Kristin Aafedt Flatland, each of whom left a little more than 40 seconds behind Semerenko. Next was a shocker: Canada’s Megan Heinicke. The Czech Republic challenge had faded.

Semerenko struggled on the standing shoot. She missed three of her initial five shots. She took plenty of time before each of her extra shots but managed to get out without a penalty loop. Shumilova made the crowd cheer by clearing her shots and pulling through 23.4 seconds behind. Then Flatland a couple of seconds later. And Heinicke once again shot cleanly, keeping a 30-second edge on the Czech Republic, Switzerland and the USA.

Ukraine had an excellent anchor lined up — Olena Pidrushna, the reigning print world champion. She took the course with a 28.4-second lead over Norway, which sent out the great Tora Berger. Russia, right on Norway’s tail, had Olympic sprint silver medalist, Olga Vilukhina. Canada was less than 20 seconds behind them, improbably poised to swipe a medal if the favorites faltered.

Pidrushna barely missed her second shot but cleaned it quickly with her first extra shot. Canada’s Zina Kocher zipped around the first lap and came into the range in second place, but Vilukhina and Berger shot quickly to get away from her. Kocher missed twice and dropped 25 seconds behind the third-place Berger.

Ukraine’s lead was down to 6.7 seconds, and Pidrushna could see Vilukhina come in alongside her. But Pidrushna mowed down all five targets. Vilukhina missed once and left the range 11.1 seconds back. Berger had an opportunity but also missed once, stumbling out of the range 25.1 seconds back.

The North Americans finally faltered. Canada’s Kocher only knocked down three targets with her eight shots, consigned her to two penalty loops. The USA’s Cook missed twice, falling behind two stars — Italy’s Karin Oberhofer and Belarus’s Darya Domracheva.

The three medalists were set — the Czech Republic was a distant fourth — but the order was still in doubt. The crowd roared for Vilukhina to catch Pidrushna, but the Ukrainian would not be caught. And Ukraine flags flew proudly as Pidrushna crossed the line. Berger’s challenge faded in the last kilometer, and Vilukhina made it across for second. The Czech Republic was fourth, while the great Domracheva pulled Belarus into fifth. Then Italy, then the USA, then Canada in eighth. Germany, which has never not medaled in this event, finished 11th.

Full results

 

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soccer

Chivas USA: Farewell to a mistake

Posted on by Beau Dure

I was wrong.

When Chivas USA was announced as an MLS expansion team, I thought fans would greet it warmly. At home, they would draw solid crowds. On the road, the crowds would get a boost from the Chivas fans scattered across the country. That didn’t happen. As the years went by, it was clear that Chivas fans just focused on the original Chivas in Mexico, and other Mexican fans had no interest in cheering for a team wearing their rivals’ shirts.

And it was pretty clear that the young Mexican players who saw the field in that first Chivas USA season weren’t going to get it done against experienced MLS pros. The idea of a pipeline of talent between Guadalajara and Los Angeles never materialized.

The team did better when it eased away from the Chivas-lite motif. Bob Bradley and Preki coached the Americanized Chivas to winning records and playoff berths. Brad Guzan emerged as a top U.S. goalkeeping prospect. Scrappy American players led the way — Ante Razov, Sacha Kljestan, and Jesse Marsch among them. The youth academy was promising. A few Mexican players, especially veteran defender Claudio Suarez, added to a healthy mix of talent.

But the team decayed after 2009. When Jorge Vergara bought out his partners and decided to renew the focus on being a little bit of Guadalajara in Los Angeles, the end was near.

MLS has done the right thing here in taking over the team for a transitional year. If you insist on relating everything to English business models, pretend the team is in “administration.”

Cynics are already tearing down NYC FC, figuring its ties to Manchester City will spell doom for the same reasons Chivas USA failed. I doubt it. I think the mistakes can be easily avoided.

But I’ve been wrong before.

After team’s sale, Jorge Vergara admits “Chivas USA concept did not work out” | MLSsoccer.com.

1
olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Curling, men’s bronze medal game

Posted on by Beau Dure

What a game for Olympic bronze. Sweden and China were nearly perfect through five ends, then punished each other’s rare mistakes to set up a dramatic finish. Sweden was forced to give up the hammer to force an extra end, but Niklas Edin and company expertly set up a steal to take the bronze against a Chinese team that is making a lot of noise in curling just in time — the World Championships next month are in Beijing.

Date: 21-Feb

Sport: Curling

Event: Men’s bronze medal game, Sweden-China

What happened: A whole lot of quality curling.

Sweden’s Niklas Edin hit a precisely angled double takeout to hold China to one in the third, tying the game at 1. Then the teams set up a complex fourth end with several stones in a jagged line from the front of the house to the back, with China’s Liu Rui tossing precise draws and Sweden’s Sebastian Kraupp and Edin converting takeouts with very little of the rock available to hit. Edin drew to take a 2-1 lead.

In the fifth end, four rocks of alternate color were staggered in the house. Edin put up a guard. Then Liu somehow removed the three Swedish rocks from play while leaving two of his own. Edin came right back and played a double takeout to knock out China’s rocks and clear the house. Liu played through the house to blank the end.

At the halfway point, the skips’ percentages were off the charts — Liu at 97%, Edin at 100%. Sweden was shooting 90%, China 89%.

Edin finally erred in the sixth end. Needing to bump or draw ahead of a Chinese rock in scoring position at the back corner of the house, he missed and sent his rock through the rings. China put another another in scoring position with no potential for a double takeout. Edin took that one out, and China put it right back to score two for a 3-2 lead.

Sweden couldn’t keep rocks in the house in the seventh, and Edin hit a simple takeout to tie the game 3-3.

The eighth saw China wrestling with a typical curling dilemma. Swedish vice-skip Sebastian Kraupp hit a double takeout to clear the house, and the teams traded draws and takeouts after that. But before using the hammer, Liu called timeout to discuss options with coach Marcel Rocque. The Canadian said either option — blanking the end to keep the hammer or leaving one in the house to go up 4-3 — was fine. Pressed by his team, Rocque said he would opt to blank it. But he insisted it was their choice. Satisfied, Liu blanked the end.

That was a curious conversation for a team that may be representing a young curling country in China but has an experienced skip in Liu. Then Liu made an elementary mistake in the ninth end, failing to release his rock before crossing the line. The red light on the stone that detects such things went off, and China was forced to steer it out of play.

Sweden used its own timeout, with coach Eva Lund stepping down to make a few emphatic points. They opted to take out the lone Chinese rock within the eight-foot, leaving Sweden with three in scoring position. A triple takeout was unimaginable, and Liu was forced to play his last one to the button to tie it 4-4 and give Sweden the hammer for the 10th end.

That’s a big advantage, but Kraupp erred with his deliveries, leaving too many rocks in play in the four-foot. Liu hit a takeout to leave three Chinese rocks on the button. He was scored a “4” on the play, keeping his percentage up at 93% despite the dreadful error in the ninth, but NBC’s commentary team was less impressed. They saw an opportunity for Edin to get one in play. After bumping a couple of the rocks, Edin’s shot nestled on the edge of the button, probably in scoring position but close enough that no one could be sure.

Liu’s last shot nudged another Chinese rock just a bit, also to the edge of the button. Sweden’s rock still looked closer. But there was no good shot for Sweden to take two and the win. With so much traffic near the button, Edin risked losing if he so much as tapped one of the Chinese rocks. He opted to throw it through the side of the house to preserve his single — if the measurement confirmed that his rock was closer. It did. Tied 4-4 after 10, we were off to an extra end, and China had the hammer in a game in which neither side had managed a steal.

Incredibly, China had another hog-line violation, this time by vice-skip Xu XiaoMing on the 10th rock. Sweden called timeout to consider the situation — China had one in scoring position in the back of the four-foot, Sweden had one in the front of the four-foot, and Sweden had two guards. They opted to have Kraupp freeze his shot in front of China’s scoring rock, and the shot wasn’t bad — in scoring position on the button but just a couple of inches shy of China’s rock. Xu tried to take out both Swedish rocks, but he left one sitting slightly off-center and ahead of the tee line.

Edin put up another guard. Liu tried to bump the Swedish rock off the button, but it just went even closer to the center. Edin slammed out the one Chinese rock in the house, leaving Liu a difficult takeout — he would have to curl around some well-placed guards with enough momentum to get the Swedish rock out of there.

That shot just brushed Sweden’s rock, and Edin had a 6-4 win for the bronze.

Full results | Recaps with diagrams

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olympic sports, winter sports

Best/worst, Sochi medal projections vs. reality: Feb. 20

Posted on by Beau Dure

So many ups and downs today. Athletes who seemed to have the prize in hand and saw it slip away. Countries that saw success in one venue and disappointment in another. A wonderful figure skating contest undone by questionable judging.

That’s the Olympics in a nutshell, isn’t it?

CURRENT PACE

Original projections: Norway 39, USA 35, Canada 30, Russia 26, Germany 23, Austria 22, South Korea 15, Netherlands 14, France 12, Switzerland 11, Sweden 10, Japan 7, Italy 7

If the rest of the projections were to come true, we’d end up with: Russia 32, USA 28, Norway 27, Canada 25, Netherlands 24, Germany 19, France 17, Sweden 15, Austria 15, Switzerland 13, Italy 10, Japan 9, South Korea 9.

But if you look at the current medal count, you don’t see Russia on top. It’s USA 25, Russia 23, Netherlands 22, Norway 21, Canada 20.

So is Russia really going to win nine medals over the last three days of the Olympics while the USA gets only three?

We know one medal Russia won’t be getting — men’s hockey. The rest are entirely possible: Biathlon men’s relay, biathlon women’s relay, short-track men’s 500 meters, short-track men’s relay, snowboarding women’s parallel slalom, four-man bobsled, and two in the cross-country men’s 50k.

The USA’s only remaining projections: Alpine women’s slalom, four-man bobsled, speedskating men’s team pursuit. At this point, you can just about add men’s hockey. But you might want to forget speedskating.

And there aren’t many remaining events in which the USA could surprise. Americans aren’t even entered in women’s skicross or women’s parallel slalom. The long-distance cross-country races are the USA’s weakest.

For the USA to reach 30 medals, someone will have to surprise in short-track. Or maybe men’s slalom.

But it’s funny that in the largest Winter Olympics by far, no one will come close to the record of 37 medals the USA set in 2010. We might not even see anyone beat Germany’s total of 29 in 2006.

Enjoy the Parity Games.

UP

France (+3 today, +5 overall): The only projected medal today was in the Nordic combined team event, where they never quite managed a challenge to the podium. They got four medals elsewhere, all in freestyle skiing. That’s a silver in women’s halfpipe and a sweep in men’s skicross.

UP AND DOWN

Canada (-2 today, -5 overall): No medals in freestyle skiing? They’ll just have to settle for gold medals in their national sports of curling and hockey.

FULL TABLE

[gview file=”https://duresport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014-medal-projections-feb20.pdf”%5D

HIGHLIGHTS

Biggest online audience

Biggest U.S. heartbreak

Best camaraderie: Call it the Sarah Burke influence or just action sports mutual respect, but the women’s halfpipe skiers could hardly finish a run without hugging each other. Great stuff.

Sharpest figure skating commentary

https://twitter.com/PushDicksButton/status/436575179561783296

Worst timing for 1980 “Miracle” star

Wildest finish

Best picture

FRIDAY’S PROJECTIONS

Alpine skiing, women’s slalom: Mikaela Shiffrin (USA), Marlies Schild (Austria), Frida Hansdotter (Sweden). Also considered: Tina Maze (Slovenia), Tanja Poutiainen (Finland), Kathrin Zettel (Austria)

Shiffrin was a solid fifth in the giant slalom.

Biathlon, women’s relay: Norway, Germany, Russia. Also considered: France, Italy, Ukraine

Curling, men’s bronze and gold medal games: Canada, Sweden, Britain

Canada and Britain are playing for gold. Sweden faces China for bronze.

Freestyle skiing, women’s skicross: Fanny Smith (Switzerland), Ophelie David (France), Marielle Thompson (Canada). Also considered: Katrin Mueller (Switzerland), Kelsey Serwa (Canada)

As unpredictable as this sport is, I’d be happy with one of these five medaling.

Short-track speedskating, men’s 500: Viktor Ahn (Russia), Charles Hamelin (Canada), Wu Dajing (China). Also considered: Liang Wenhao (China), Seyeong Park (South Korea), Freek van der Wart (Netherlands)

Hamelin didn’t make it out of the heats.

Short-track speedskating, women’s 1,000: Suk Hee Shim (South Korea), A-Lang Kim (South Korea), Arianna Fontana (Italy). Also considered: Seung-Hi Park (South Korea), Jorien ter Mors (Netherlands)

All advanced.

Short-track speedskating, men’s relay: Canada, Russia, South Korea. Also considered: Netherlands, USA

Canada and South Korea didn’t reach the final.

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