Month: February 2014

olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Curling, men’s tiebreaker

Posted on by Beau Dure

The flashy pants of Norway are out of the Olympics, as Britain took a close decision with a tremendous shot.

Date: 18-Feb

Sport: Curling

Event: Men’s tiebreaker (winner goes to semifinals)

What happened: Norway started with the hammer, and they traded singles through the first four ends. Norway got two in the fifth, we got a couple of blanks, and Britain tied it in the eighth.

Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud couldn’t quite clear out the British rocks in the ninth and was limited to one. That gave Britain the hammer and a 5-4 deficit heading into the 10th.

Ulsrud’s team put several rocks in the house. After the skip’s last shot, Norway had two in scoring position.

nor-gbr1

So you’d think Britain would be forced to draw to the four-foot for one, sending the game to an extra end. Right? But David Murdoch is made of sterner stuff than that.

nor-gbr2

That’s right — he set off a dizzying chain reaction that removed Norway’s scoring rocks, left his existing rock in place and left his shooter close enough to score two.

Britain wins 6-5 and sets up a semifinal date with Sweden. Britain has both men and women in the semifinals, as do Sweden and Canada.

Full results | Scores and diagrams

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medal projections, olympic sports, winter sports

Best/worst, Sochi medal projections vs. reality: Feb. 17

Posted on by Beau Dure

Where, exactly, did Canada get the impression we’re out to get them?

I’ll admit my bias up front — my life has been immeasurably enriched by many Canadians. I grew up listening to Rush. Now, I also listen to semi-Canadian band Metric. I love hockey and curling. I watched Kids in the Hall, and my beloved Saturday Night Live owes an immense debt to the comic sensibilities of those north of the border.

I’m probably not alone. Many people in the USA joke that they’ll move to Canada one day, either through the ravages of electoral politics or climate change. Some aren’t joking.

Then we get things like this:

Wow. What did Lindsey Jacobellis do to you? Or Canada?

And then we have the ice dancing controversy, already addressed in detail. The whole thing is just so puzzling. First of all, it’s rather difficult to pull off a stunt like that no that we no longer have Cold War voting blocs.

Second of all, if the USA were to fix an event, wouldn’t it be women’s hockey? I know no one who dislikes Tessa Virtue or Scott Moir. I know plenty of people who can’t mention Gillian Apps without some rather pointed profanity.

It’s starting to sound like this:

So we’re moving on. And we at SportsMyriad are pleased to welcome Canada’s own Justin Fairbanks to our Sochi coverage team. Check out his terrific debut on men’s aerials, where we’re sorry to see Canada didn’t medal.

On to the rest of the day …

CURRENT PACE

Based on results and projections yet to come: Russia 29, USA 28, Canada 27, Norway 27, Netherlands 24, Austria 21, Germany 20, Sweden 16, France 13, Switzerland 13, South Korea 9, Japan 9

DOWN

No one, really.

UP

Belarus (+1 today, +3 overall): The powerhouse of biathlon and aerials (see Will Graves tweets below) roars again.

USA (+1 today, -7 overall): Steven Holcomb was a contender but not a projected medalist in the two-man bobsled. And the U.S. hockey women rolled into the gold medal game. Let’s not talk about curling.

FULL TABLE

[gview file=”https://duresport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014-medal-projections-feb17.pdf”%5D

HIGHLIGHTS

Best analogy: “(Fixing ice dancing) would have been akin to someone trying to fix the Olympic swimming competition so Michael Phelps would win.” – Christine Brennan

Best tough-guy quote: 

Best teammate: Canadian speedskater Gilmore Junio gave up his spot in the 1,000 meters to Denny Morrison, who crashed in the Olympic trials. Morrison won silver. “I view it like a line change (in hockey),” Junio said. “That big faceoff, when you want your best faceoff man at the circle. That’s the simplest way I can put it.”

Best argument: From Slate’s @BenBlatt — Why bother with four runs in the sliding sports when the leaderboard rarely changes?

Biggest “duh!” moment:

Best press conference we won’t see: AP’s Will Graves sums up in several tweets: “OK, so the nitty gritty of Anton Kushnir _ who won gold in aerials tonight _ will likely only be told at length back home in Belarus … But it includes 2 major knee surgeries, being denied insurance by the skiing federation, relying on his wife to get the insurance … and spending 5 years _ yes, 5 years _ waiting to throw a jump he landed just once in competition. Then doing it on the night he talked about and posting one of the highest scores (134.50) since the sport adjusted it’s scoring system in the last quadrennium. And he was so thoughtful and respectful of the moment, it just kind of took you away. There were 5 English-speaking journos in the presser and the bright lights of NBC were long gone. But damn, that might have been the highlight of the Games for me. And I’m serious.”

Best perspective on Meryl White and Charlie Davis:

Biggest streak-busting: Germany displacing Austria atop team ski jumping.

Best consolation prize: If you finish fourth through eighth at the Olympics, you get something to hang alongside your college diplomas.

Best U.S. breakthrough: Biathlete Susan Dunklee has been fast throughout the Games. Knock down a couple more targets, and she’s a medal contender. Maybe 2018?

Most impressive sport switch: Germany’s Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle had a long and distinguished career in cross-country skiing. She has had a short career so far in biathlon but came within a second of a medal today.

Most detailed analysis of how the USA’s speedskaters defied expectations: I defer to you and your mountain of data factoring altitude and other elements into the equation, Daniel Yeow. (HT: @alanabrahamson)

Worst time for a skirt to get snagged: Maia Shibutani and brother Alex had a fun free dance routine set to Michael Jackson tunes. Not realized at the time — he had to free her from his shoulder during a lift in which her skirt caught on his jacket.

Worst aftereffect of a late building spree? Norwegian skiing great Aksel Lund Svindal has stopped his frustrating quest to build on past Olympic success, declining his last opportunity to race due to allergies he thinks are from “concrete that’s in the air.”

Worst time to get sick: Nordic combined gold medalist Eric Frenzel isn’t likely to go for the double tomorrow.

Worst time for multiple calamities: A couple of 40something skiers qualified to represent Dominica in the Olympics. One showered in brown water and got sick. Another shattered her nose in training. What are the odds? Mark Zeigler has the story.

Worst weather: Though, as Bill Mallon reminds us, this sort of thing happens in the Winter Olympics.

TOMORROW’S PROJECTIONS

Alpine skiing, women’s giant slalom: Jessica Lindell-Vikarby (Sweden), Anna Fenninger (Austria), Lara Gut (Switzerland). Also considered: Maria Hoefl-Riesch (Germany), Tina Maze (Slovenia), Viktoria Rebensburg (Germany), Mikaela Shiffrin (USA), Kathrin Zettel (Austria).

We have yet to see Shiffrin. This isn’t her best event, but she’s got a shot.

Biathlon, men’s mass start (rescheduled from Sunday): Martin Fourcade (France), Tarjei Boe (Norway), Emil Hegle Svendsen (Norway). Also considered: Andreas Birnbacher (Germany), Tim Burke (USA), Jakov Fak (Slovenia), Dominik Landertinger (Austria), Ondrej Moravec (Czech Republic), Evgeny Ustyugov (Russia).

Fourcade has delivered so far, while Norway is really overdue.

Freestyle skiing, men’s halfpipe: David Wise (USA), Torin Yater-Wallace (USA), Mike Riddle (Canada). Also considered: Justin Dorey (Canada), Thomas Krief (France), Kevin Rolland (France)

Not quite sure how healthy Yater-Wallace is.

Nordic combined, large hill: Eric Frenzel (Germany), Wilhelm Dinifl (Austria), Jason Lamy-Chappuis (France). Also considered: Bernhard Gruber (Austria), Mikko Kokslien (Norway), Akito Watabe (Japan)

Frenzel is ailing.

Short-track, women’s relay: China, South Korea, Canada. Also considered: Italy, Netherlands, Russia

The actual finalists are China, South Korea, Canada and Italy. So the projections can’t be too far off.

Snowboarding, men’s snowboardcross (rescheduled from Monday): Alex Pullin (Australia), Markus Schairer (Austria), Pierre Vaultier (France). Also considered: Tony Ramoin (France), Omar Visintin (Italy)

Just don’t let anyone get hurt.

Speedskating, men’s 10,000 meters: Sven Kramer (Netherlands), Jorrit Bergsma (Netherlands), Bob de Jong (Netherlands). Also considered: Seung-Hoon Lee (South Korea)

We can safely say the Netherlands will not exceed medal projections in this one.

3
olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Ski jumping, men’s team

Posted on by Beau Dure

Japan’s Noriaki Kasai continued his dream Olympics at age 41, and Germany beat Austria by an average of about 8 inches per jump.

Date: 17-Feb

Sport: Ski jumping

Event: Men’s team

Medalists: Germany, Austria, Japan

SportsMyriad projections: Austria, Germany, Slovenia

How U.S. fared: The drawn-on mustaches were cool, especially on baby-faced lead jumper Peter Frenette, age 21. They were in last place in the field of 12 after Frenette (113 meters from a lower gate) and Nick Fairall (120.5 meters) took their jumps. Anders Johnson (119 meters) was 10th in his group. Then Nick Alexander unleashed a flight of 126.5 meters to place sixth in his group, ahead of such veterans as Finland’s Janne Ahonen. That moved the team up to 10th overall. Not enough to qualify for the final eight, but not a bad results.

What happened: The leaders after the first round (all four jumpers take one jump each): Germany 519.0, Austria 516.5, Japan 507.5.

Poland, with 489.2, got a disappointing jump from double gold medalist Kamil Stoch. Slovenia, with 488.2, got a massive 133.5-meter leap from double medalist Peter Prevc.

Also qualifying: Norway (486.0), the Czech Republic and Finland. Russia missed by a wide margin in ninth place, then the USA, South Korea and Canada. The third Canadian, Matthew Rowley, fell on his landing but was unhurt, pounding the snow in frustration.

Norway put one of its best guys first, with Anders Bardal immediately pushing his team into contention. They were tied with Poland through three jumps. But Japan maintained a slight edge for third. Germany got big jumps from Marinus Kraus and 18-year-old Andreas Wellinger to move ahead of Austria by 3.4 points.

So it was Germany and Austria battling for gold, then Japan, Poland and Norway in the mix for bronze.

Slovenia’s Prevc, still just 21, put a little bit of pressure on the bronze medal contenders with a leap of 136 meters and a score of 139.0, the best to that point of the final round. Norway, which had front-loaded its team with Bardal, fell behind Slovenia. But Poland’s Stoch responded with 135 meters and a 139.8 to put Poland ahead.

Could 41-year-old Japanese jumper Noriaki Kasai, who won his first individual medal in his seventh Olympics last week, get another medal here? Yes! His score of 137.3 (134 meters) was enough to beat Poland.

Austria brought out Gregor Schlierenzauer, the highly accomplished jumper who has disappointed here so far. He jumped 132 meters for a score of 131.4. That moved Austria ahead of Japan.

Germany’s Severin Freund was fourth in the large hill. This time, he hit 131 meters. His teammates gathered and waited nervously. And it’s Aust- … oops, no, dreaded mistake by the NBC commentator. Freund was just fifth in his group, but Schlierenzauer had only taken 0.7 points out of Germany’s lead. The Germans took the gold by 2.7 points. Translating to distance points, that’s roughly 1.5 meters — less than five feet over eight jumps.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Figure skating, ice dance free dance

Posted on by Beau Dure

Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir held the world record for a few minutes before handing over the record and their Olympic champion status to American neighbors Charlie Davis and Meryl White.

I have no idea whether the silver medalists were robbed … and neither do you.

What I do know — these athletes were terrific. This was not the carnage on ice from 2006, where Barbara Fusar Poli (now a coach) stared daggers through partner Maurizio Margaglio for an uncomfortable 30 seconds. As my colleague Kelly Whiteside called it at the time, the duo waited in the newly renamed “kiss and cry and I will kill you when we leave this ice” area.

Date: 17-Feb

Sport: Figure skating

Event: Ice dancing, free skate

Medalists: Davis/White (USA), Virtue/Moir (Canada), Ilinykh/Katsalapov (Russia)

SportsMyriad projections: Davis/White (USA), Virtue/Moir (Canada), Bobrova/Soloviev (Russia)

How U.S. fared: The Shib Sibs, Maia and Alex Shibutani, performed to a Michael Jackson medley starting with the apropos choice, Wanna Be Startin’ Something. They may have been born a decade after Thriller was released, but they had a great feel for the music. Johnny Weir noted they were a little slower and safer than they were at the national championships, but it was still engaging. The Thriller titletrack was the final song in the medley, and it was playing when the Shibs did their most dazzling lifts of the sequence. Weir and Tara Lipinski were a little disappointed in the energy, but it was fun to watch.

What? The scores? Oh. They got a one-point deduction for something, apparently an incorrect lift, for a free dance score of 90.70, 1.08 points behind the British duo of Penny Coomes and Nicholas Buckland in the free dance but first place overall with eight performances left.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates were up a couple of pairs later, skating to music from Les Mis. They were a bit more formal but nice and graceful, finishing with a breathtaking lift, with Chock on Bates’ back and her skates on his thighs as they glided toward center ice for a final flourish.

Bates had time to say hello to most of his family from the kiss and cry. Terry Gannon noted Bates’ Seinfeldian puffy shirt, while Lipinski said her dress was “heaven.” They scored a career-best 99.18, second to Italians Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte, the interlopers between the American duos.

Chock and Bates finished eighth. The Shib Sibs were ninth.

Then Davis and White. See below.

What happened: Heading into the final group of five, the Italian duo was in second, followed by Canada’s Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, then the USA’s Chock/Bates and Shib Sibs.

World Championship bronze medalists Natalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat, fourth after the short program, naturally took the lead but were obviously disappointed in their score, with a one-point deduction on a lift.

Then the defending champions, Americans — I mean, Canadians — Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. They were perfect. I didn’t notice them being slightly out of sync at one point. I didn’t mind the cloying classical score, which abruptly segued from boring piano music to overblown orchestal flourishes. (I majored in music — I sat through enough of that, thanks very much. Why a Canadian duo doesn’t dance to Rush’s Malignant Narcissism is beyond me.)

OK, seriously — they were fine. How Virtue did a perfect back bend while poised on a skate on Moir’s thigh is beyond me. Lipinski and Weir called it flawless. Their season-best free skate coming in was 112.41. They beat that — a world-record 114.66, for a total of 190.99. Davis and White had scored 114.34 in the team event for the previous record. Game on.

Russia’s Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov, third after the short program, performed to Swan Lake. So did France’s Pernelle Carron and Lloyd Jones earlier in the evening. Unlike the slightly funkier Carron and Jones, the Russian duo was full of classical grace. And some spectacular acrobatics. They scored 110.44, sealing the bronze medal and poised for silver if Davis and White somehow hit a rut.

Pity Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev, the Russians who had medal hopes but were fifth after the short program and had to follow that. As if knowing they couldn’t reach the podium, they were just a little flat.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White went last. And they threw down. Their program will make the casual viewer drop his jaw several times and think, “How the …?” And they’re smiling and graceful and …

Yeah, they won. They reclaimed the world record free dance at 116.63.

Dig into the scores all you want. In other events, you can see technical flaws — jumps that were supposed to be triples but turned into doubles, something that was underrotated, etc. Back in Torino, when everyone hit the ice, you could see those flaws in ice dancing as well. Here? Everyone’s too good.

The New York Times’ Jere Longman did the research to show why the Americans won the short program. Canadian media will surely argue otherwise. A few days ago, some people in the Canadian media trumped up some nonsense about an American-Russian conspiracy to keep the Canadians out of gold in the team event and the ice dance. That’s ridiculous for these reasons:

1. There’s no animosity between the USA and Canada. They all train together.

2. There is animosity between the USA and Russia. Doesn’t anyone read newspapers any more?

3. Judges’ scores are anonymous, with high and low marks tossed out. You’d need to get multiple judges on your side to fix something, and even then, you couldn’t tell whether they did what you asked.

So the conspiracy talk, which died quickly, was ridiculous. What you have instead are mere mortals trying to split hairs between two insane pairs of ice dancers who have progressed their sport like snowboarders unleashing a 1440 McCrippler corkscrew or whatever you call it.

And somehow, amid all the controversy and hubbub, they went out and nailed it on the world’s biggest stage. You may hate the music choices, you may hate most forms of dance, and you may think Team A was a lot more fun than Team B. But you have to give these dancers respect.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Curling, final day of group play

Posted on by Beau Dure

Canada and Sweden rule the ice, we’ll have one tiebreaker, and the USA went out in ugly fashion as Olympic round-robin play ended.

Date: 17-Feb

Sport: Curling

Event: Last day of group play

How U.S. fared: Do we have to mention the final women’s game? After several close losses, this one got away early. Erika Brown whiffed on a double takeout, one of several wayward shots in the first end, to give up four points in the first. South Korea stole one in the second. Another double takeout miss in the fifth gave South Korea a steal of two. Down 9-1 at the halfway point, Brown and company were limited to a single in the sixth. When South Korea scored two in the seventh, Brown conceded.

So a women’s team loaded with Olympic experience finished last. Their 1-8 record was a game worse than 2010, when current vice-skip Debbie McCormick was the hard-luck skip. Since Kari Erickson (with McCormick and current lead Ann Swisshelm) made the playoffs and finished fourth in 2002, the U.S. women have five total wins in three Olympics.

John Shuster’s team simply couldn’t score more than a single in any end. Down 5-2 after seven ends, Shuster hit a solid double takeout with his first shot in the eighth to stay in it but then missed an open draw and gave up a steal. The USA scored one in the ninth to make it 6-3 but couldn’t steal a triple in the 10th.

What happened:

Morning session (women):

Britain and Russia played a wild one. Tied 3-3 after seven, Britain scored four in the eighth. Russia answered with three to stay in it, but Eve Muirhead hit a gutsy double takeout in the 10th to win 9-6.

Japan made things interesting in a game with no blank ends and no steals. The hammer scored in each end. But Japan had three triples to China’s one, and when Japan’s Ayumi Ogasawara removed two stones with her last shot in the 10th, China conceded the hammer. Japan took the 8-5 win to forge a three-way tie for fourth.

So with one game left for everyone but the USA and Russia (both out of the running), it was unbeaten Canada clinching first, then Sweden (6-2) safely in the playoffs. Britain (5-3) led the three fourth-place teams (China, Japan, Switzerland) at 4-4. Denmark and South Korea were just out of it at 3-5.

Afternoon session (men):

Funny quirk of the standings — while the bottom two teams would miss the last women’s session, the top two teams were idle for the last men’s games. Sweden (8-1) and Canada (7-2) already knew they would be in different semifinals on a course to meet in the final.

That left China (6-2) and Britain (5-3) playing a vital game. China could avoid the tiebreakers with a win or Norway (also 5-3) loss. Britain would make at least the tiebreakers with a win. And that was, appropriately, the last game of the session to end. That gave the crowd some time to calm down from Russia’s finale, with the home team beating last-place Germany 8-7.

Denmark waited patiently for its opportunity, blanking two ends before scoring a double in the ninth to go up 5-3 on a sublime shot from Rasmus Stjerne Hansen. With Norway holding shot rock (closer to the button than the others), Hansen’s hammer nudged that rock just enough to make a Danish rock count. The hammer also stayed in play.

Meanwhile, Britain escaped a potential big score for China in the seventh and gave up only one for a 4-3 deficit. But David Murdoch left a draw just short in the eighth end, giving China a steal of one. Murdoch fought back with two in the ninth to tie it, but Liu Rui nailed his precise draw in the 10th for a 6-5 win.

So China (7-2) advanced to face Canada in the semifinals. Norway and Britain will play a tiebreaker on Tuesday for the right to face Sweden in the semifinal.

Evening session (women):

China and Switzerland had a near-playoff game — each with a 4-4 record, the winner clinching at least a tiebreaker and the loser eliminated. And the Swiss took a big lead early, stealing three when Wang Bingju missed a draw in the second. China came back with a double and a steal of one to cut the lead to 4-3. Swiss skip Mirjam Ott got two with a pretty promotion takeout (bump one of mine in, one of yours out) in the fifth.

In the eighth, China lined up three stones several feet apart. Swiss vice-skip Carmen Schaefer removed two and bumped the other out of the way. Wang Bingyu then came up short on her final draw, and Ott drew for three and a 9-4 lead. China scored two in the eighth and put three in the house to make Ott draw to the eight-foot for the win, which Ott did with ease for the 10-6 win and the playoff berth.

Britain (5-3) was playing to ensure a space in the semifinals without going through the tiebreaker. Eve Muirhead dominated the house in the fourth, leaving Denmark’s Lene Nielsen with a difficult hit and roll just to hold Britain to one. Nielsen couldn’t leave her shot in the house, giving up a steal of two. Denmark fought back with two, then Britain scored three in the seventh and stole another one in the eighth.

But Denmark, despite being mathematically eliminated, wasn’t done. They blanked the ninth end and scored three in the 10th to force the game to an extra end. And Muirhead missed a tricky hit-and-roll in the 11th to give Denmark the 8-7 stunner.

By that point, though, Britain could see the playoffs. Japan (also 4-4) needed a win to stay in contention. But Ayumi Ogasawara missed a draw in the fifth for a steal of one and a 5-2 deficit. A Japanese steal in the seventh trimmed the lead to 5-4, but Sweden scored two and stole another to lead 8-4 after nine ends. Japan played into the 10th but had to concede.

So Canada, Sweden, Switzerland and Britain advance to the semifinals. There will be no tiebreaker on the women’s side.

In the one game not affecting the playoffs. Canada got a bit of help in its bid to be the first team to go unbeaten in an Olympic women’s round-robin. South Korea scored doubles with its first two hammers to go up 4-1, then conceded six points over five ends without ever giving back the hammer. Down 9-4, South Korea conceded the 10th end.

Full results | Men’s standings | Women’s standings | Recaps with diagrams

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Biathlon, women’s mass start

Posted on by Beau Dure

These Olympics belong to Darya Domracheva and Belarus. Norway has been full of disappointment in the Russian mountains but picked up a surprising medal here, while American Susan Dunklee continued to chase U.S. history.

Date: 17-Feb

Sport: Biathlon

Event: Women’s mass start (12.5k)

Medalists: Darya Domracheva (Belarus), Gabriela Soukalova (Czech Republic), Tiril Eckhoff (Norway)

SportsMyriad projections: Darya Domracheva (Belarus), Tora Berger (Norway), Vita Semerenko (Ukraine)

How U.S. fared: Susan Dunklee, having a breakout performance in the Games, qualified among the elite 30 who could fit at the start and on the range. She made it through the first shoot cleanly with the lead pack and was in the top 10 on the second lap. She missed a shot at the second stage and still shot past several skiers who shot cleanly, pulling into the first standing stage in seventh place.

Once again, Dunklee missed one but stayed in the top 10. And again she missed at the fourth stage but stayed in touch with the higher places.

Finally, Dunklee finished 12th, 1:32.3 behind. That’s the best finish ever for a U.S. women’s biathlete. More to come in 2018?

What happened: A couple of slips early, with Norway’s Tora Berger and Russia’s Olga Zaitseva tumbling. Berger wasn’t far behind at the first shoot and shot cleanly, but she missed one at each of the last two shooting stages and wasn’t a factor.

Meanwhile, Darya Domracheva, the Belarus athlete bidding for her third gold medal of the Games, took off quickly on the second lap and opened a 15-second gap, shooting cleanly on each of the prone stages to maintain the advantage.

Exactly half the field (15 athletes) shot cleanly through two stages. Domracheva was clearly the fastest, with the Czech Republica’s Gabriela Soukalova and Finland’s Kaisa Makarainen.

Domracheva, who has the odd tendency to hit the middle target first and then go left before knocking down the two on the right, hesitated a bit on the last target in her first standing stage. She still knocked it down and went away cleanly. Soukalova was also clean, along with converted cross-country ski veteran Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle of Germany. Makarainen missed one and dropped down to sixth.

Soukalova pulled away on the fourth lap to be all alone in second, while Sachenbacher-Stehle was holding onto third ahead of the charging Makarainen.

Domracheva pulled into the final shooting stage all alone. Her first three were good. Then she went back to the right and put one way south of the target. Off to the penalty loop, but she would have company — Soukalova started shooting as Domracheva was finishing, and she also missed one. They still left the loop comfortably in first and second.

You’d think a biathlon veteran like Makarainen would have the edge in shooting over Sachenbacher-Stehle, who only switched to biathlon two years ago. But the German shot cleanly — 20-for-20 in the competition — and Makarainen missed one.

But flying into the picture was a young, relatively unheralded Norwegian — Tiril Eckhoff. The 23-year-old missed once in the prone shooting and steadily climbed through the field. She left the range in fourth place but raced past Sachenbacher-Stehle.

Domracheva had all day to celebrate down the stretch. Soukalova also was unchallenged, coming in with silver. Then came Eckhoff, pulling ahead to finish one place ahead of Sachenbacher-Stehle.

Makarainen plopped across in seventh. The Semerenko twins were disappointing — Valj in 13th (just behind the USA’s Susan Dunklee), Vita in 17th. Tora Berger was between them in 15th, only missing two shots but never getting up near the leaders. Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina, the top seed, missed five shots and finished 27th.

Full results

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medal projections, olympic sports, winter sports

Best/worst, Sochi medal projections vs. reality: Feb. 16

Posted on by Beau Dure

The USA and Norway made up for missteps elsewhere with Alpine skiing medals, the biathlon was postponed, and the Netherlands have produced a lot of really good speedskaters.

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

If the rest of the projections were to come true, I will ride down the snowboardcross course on a trash can lid. But the medal count would be Russia 29, Canada 28, Norway 27, USA 27, Netherlands 24, Germany 21, Austria 21, Sweden 16, France 13, Switzerland 13, South Korea 9. And China, projected for 6, would have 9 as well.

UP

France (+2 today, +1 overall): Only four medal events were completed today, and France picked up bronze in two. Snowboardcross wasn’t a big surprise. The cross-country relay medal looked like it even shocked the team.

Netherlands (+1 today, +10 overall): Projected for gold and silver in speedskating. They took gold, silver, bronze and whatever you get for fourth. And they lead the medal count with 17. That’s 16 in speedskating and one in … well, short-track speedskating. We’re now just tallying the historical comparisons.

DOWN

Just Austria and Switzerland, who didn’t get projected Alpine skiing medals. Sure, Norway inexplicably missed out in the cross-country relay, but we would be piling on at this point. Besides, they got the projected Alpine medal (albeit with a different skier).

FULL TABLE

[gview file=”https://duresport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014-medal-projections-feb16.pdf”%5D

HIGHLIGHTS

Best photo gallery: The Guardian captured several events at sunset.

Best perspective: “There are worse things in life than not winning. A lot worse.” – Lindsey Jacobellis, who has won every conceivable title except the Olympics.

Best NBC recruitment tool: They have a secret Starbucks shop.

Best phrase written by a Duke grad: Sarah Kwak, covering speedskating at SI, wins with the “Great Polyurethane Panic.”

Best reason not to be in Sochi: Lolo Jones passes along a video food review.

Most deserving of a spinoff TV show: Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir.

Best reason to postpone an event: Can you see what you’re shooting?

https://twitter.com/PaulSonne/status/435075954000408576

Most haunting photos: Vladimir Putin visited injured Russian skicross skier Maria Komissarova in the hospital. Komissarova looks alert but in sad shape.

Worst day: Lindsey Jacobellis was once known as “Lucky Lindsey.” But first, she saw her friend and teammates knocked unconscious in qualifying. Then she failed to qualify for the final. World Championships, X Games and World Cup gold medals galore, but just one silver to show for her three Olympic appearances.

Strangest Games-ending injury: Arielle Gold missed the halfpipe competition because of this accident in training, which doesn’t occur when you’d expect. Did a gopher pop up out of the halfpipe?

Worst timing: Maybe they’re prepping the rest of the hotel for the Paralympics?

Most ominous delay of a response: “I will share everything I had in mind after Sochi is over.” – short-track speedskating gold medalist Viktor (nee Hyun-Soo) Ahn on his switch from South Korea to Russia.

Most esoteric ice dancing commentary: 

https://twitter.com/goddesspharo/status/435122977391521792

MONDAY’S PROJECTIONS

Biathlon, men’s mass start (rescheduled from Sunday): Martin Fourcade (France), Tarjei Boe (Norway), Emil Hegle Svendsen (Norway). Also considered: Andreas Birnbacher (Germany), Tim Burke (USA), Jakov Fak (Slovenia), Dominik Landertinger (Austria), Ondrej Moravec (Czech Republic), Evgeny Ustyugov (Russia).

Fourcade has delivered so far, while Norway is really overdue.

Biathlon, women’s mass start: Darya Domracheva (Belarus), Tora Berger (Norway), Vita Semerenko (Ukraine). Also considered: Kaisa Makarainen (Finland)

Maybe Berger can sneak into another country’s camp and borrow some wax.

Bobsled, two-man: Beat Hefti (Switzerland), Francesco Friedrich (Germany), Alexander Zubkov (Russia). Also considered: Thomas Florschütz (Germany), Steven Holcomb (USA), Oskars Melbardis (Latvia), Lyndon Rush (Canada)

After the first two heats, Zubkov has a big lead over Hefti, who’s slightly ahead of Holcomb. Then it’s the third Canadian sled with Justin Kripps, Russia-2 and Latvia.

Figure skating, ice dancing: Davis/White (USA), Virtue/Moir (Canada), Bobrova/Soloviev (Russia). Also considered: Cappellini/Lanotte (Italy), Ilinykh/Katsalapov (Russia), Pechalat/Bourzat (France), Weaver/Poje (Canada)

As ordained, er, expected, Davis and White have the lead with a world record in the short program. Virtue and Moir are second but apparently first in the hearts of a lot of Canadians and English folks on Twitter. A Russian duo is indeed in third, but it’s Ilinykh/Katsalapov slightly ahead of Pechalat/Bourzat.

Freestyle skiing, men’s aerials: Qi Guangpu (China), Jia Zongyang (China), Travis Gerrits (Canada). Also considered: Alexei Grishin (Belarus), Anton Kushnir (Belarus)

Ski jumping, men’s team: Austria, Germany, Slovenia. Also considered: Norway, Poland.

Average finish on the large hill: Japan 8.5, Poland 15.5, Germany 19, Slovenia 19.25, Norway 20.8, Austria 21.8.

Average finish in both events: Japan 13.1, Poland 14.4, Austria 15.1, Germany 17.9, Norway 18.8, Slovenia 20.5.

Maybe Japan should be considered.

Snowboarding, men’s snowboardcross: Alex Pullin (Australia), Markus Schairer (Austria), Pierre Vaultier (France). Also considered: Tony Ramoin (France), Omar Visintin (Italy)

Just don’t let anyone get hurt.

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Curling, day 7

Posted on by Beau Dure

With one day of group play left, Sweden, Canada, China and Britain are in playoff position in each bracket. (Norway is tied with Britain on the men’s side.) The USA is running out the string.

Date: 16-Feb

Sport: Curling

Event: Day 7 of group play, with two men’s sessions and one women’s

How U.S. fared: John Shuster’s men played a back-and-forth thriller with Canada, stealing one in the eighth end for a 6-5 lead. Shuster was poised to limit Canada to a single in the ninth, but his last shot curled more than the one before it to his consternation, and Canada’s Brad Jacobs had a simple draw for two. Down one in the 10th but with the hammer, Shuster erred on his first shot, failing to get his rock near a Canadian rock close to the center. Brad Jacobs expertly froze his next shot at the center as well, leaving Shuster a difficult draw just to force an extra end.

usa-can-curl
Can you fit a rock in the button here? Neither could John Shuster.

Shuster gave it a good run, nudging the Canadian rock and leaving his own rock very close to the button. But Jacobs’ rock was ever so slightly closer, stealing one and taking the 8-6 win.

The schedulemakers gave us a USA-Canada doubleheader. The women’s game seemed like a mismatch — the USA was 1-6 coming in, while Canada was two games away from going unbeaten. But Erika Brown responded from a steal in the second to score three in the third, and the teams battled from there. Canada, its playoff place long secure, played with a bit of reckless abandon and misfired on occasion. Especially in the 10th — Brown left a stone near the button, and Jones’ hammer bumped into it a little short of the win. Tied 6-6, they went to an extra end.

One misplay gave Brown a chance to set up a steal. But her last rock sailed a couple of feet farther than she wanted, to the back of the four-foot circle.

usa-can-women
The red rock closest to the top needed to be in the blue circle in line with the other red rock.

Had she played it to the front, Jones would have needed a double takeout or an extraordinary draw for the win. Instead, she was able to follow the same path as Brown’s last rock, using that U.S. rock as an insurance backstop in case she was too heavy. She didn’t need to be perfect, but she was, winning by a couple of inches.

The U.S. women will play South Korea tomorrow for last place in the round-robin. Will we see alternate Allison Pottinger get some playing time?

John Shuster’s team did just that in the evening session, bringing Craig Brown (Erika’s brother) in place of vice-skip Jeff Isaacson to face Sweden. The tournament leaders scored three in the second end and stole one in the sixth to go up 5-2. Shuster could manage only a couple of singles in response, and Sweden took a 6-4 win.

What happened:

Morning session (men): Sweden moved to 7-1, momentarily ahead of idle China, with an 8-4 win over Russia, which conceded the 10th end.

The biggest game for playoff positioning was Britain (5-2) vs. Norway (3-3). Britain scored two in the ninth to tie the game 6-6 but relinquish the hammer to Norway. Britain couldn’t set up a steal, and Thomas Ulsrud made the simple takeout for the 7-6 win.

Afternoon session (women): Like Spinal Tap, a couple of games went to 11. The USA-Canada was one, and the erratic Swiss team got its second steal of the game in the 10th to take Japan to the extra frame. Japan got it right in the 11th for the 9-7 win.

Sweden-Russia also went down to the wire, with Sweden’s Maria Prytz clinching it on a clutch raise, bumping her stone dead on the button. Sweden had a second rock just a bit closer than Russia’s within the four-foot, good enough to score two and win 5-4.

The other game was all but over by the eighth end. South Korea couldn’t clear the traffic, and Denmark lined up three rocks across the top of the four-foot. Un Chi Gim had nowhere to go with her hammer, giving up three. They traded singles in the last three ends, leaving Denmark up 7-4.

Canada (8-0) and Sweden (6-2) have clinched playoff spots. China and Britain are tied at 4-3, ahead of Switzerland (4-4) and Japan (3-4). Game to watch tomorrow morning: Japan-China.

Evening session (men): The marquee game put China (6-1, second place) against Canada (6-2, third). China’s Liu Rui hit a difficult takeout for three in the fifth and stole one in the sixth when Brad Jacobs uncharacteristically missed an open draw. Canada made up the 6-3 gap by scoring two, stealing one in a complex eighth end, and stealing two more in the ninth. China finally made the hammer count in the 10th to tie it at 8-8, and we went to the extra end. Jacobs missed a double takeout, and China played a decent draw to give Jacobs only half of the button at which to aim.

“I think that’s there,” Jacobs said as he let his final shot go. And it was. Stopped perfectly in place for the 9-8 win.

While first-place Sweden met the USA (see above), other teams were fighting for survival. Denmark stayed afloat with a 6-3 win over Germany, stealing one in the ninth to put the game out of reach.

Norway, which has the loudest pants in sports, played a quiet game against Switzerland. Neither team scored more than a single, and Norway stole one in the seventh by forcing Switzerland to attempt a double takeout. Sven Michel only got one, and Norway had a 4-2 lead. Thomas Ulsrud made the clutch draw for a 5-3 win.

Sweden (8-1) and Canada (7-2) have clinched playoff spots and are coincidentally idle in the final session tomorrow. The game to watch is China (6-2) vs. Britain (5-3), with Norway (5-3) facing eliminated Denmark (3-5).

Full results | Men’s standings | Women’s standings | Recaps with diagrams

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Cross-country skiing, men’s relay

Posted on by Beau Dure

The now-familiar story: Great success for Sweden, horrible disappointment for Norway’s superstars. Russia got a crowd-pleasing silver, and France got a bronze no one expected.

Date: 16-Feb

Sport: Cross-country skiing

Event: Men’s 4x10k relay (two classical legs, two freestyle)

Medalists: Sweden, Russia, France

SportsMyriad projections: Norway, Sweden, Russia

How U.S. fared: Andy Newell was having a solid first leg, but something happened off-camera that dropped him all the way to 15th. He finished in some distress, tapping to Erik Bjornsen down 1:17.8. Bjornsen passed Poland and Belarus to move up to 13th, 2:15.0 off the lead.

In freestyle, Noah Hoffman hauled the USA into the top 10, passing Kazakhstan, Estonia and Canada. But they were a minute behind ninth-place Switzerland. Estonia came back to take 10th, and Simi Hamilton crossed the line 11th, 4:33.1 behind.

What happened: A couple of mishaps made the first leg interesting. Sweden’s Lars Nelson’s binding appeared to pop off his ski. Rather than continue on one ski a la John Cusack in Better Off Dead, he calmly got a replacement and got right back in the pack.

The second incident wreaked a little more havoc, with Germany’s Jens Filbrich getting tangled with Estonia’s Karel Tammjarv. Filbrich fell on a downhill section and had to see the pack race away as he scrambled to his feet.

Nelson and Finland’s Sami Jauhojaervi ripped away from the pack and bumped each other a bit in the last turn of the leg. Nelson gave Sweden an 0.3-second lead. France was within 10 seconds. Norway and Russia were not, nearly 30 seconds back.

The second leg saw a couple of packs settle into place. The leaders: Sweden, Finland, France. The chase pack: Russia, Czech Republic, Norway, Italy, Switzerland. Then Germany was struggling to catch that pack.

But 36-year-old Czech skier Lukas Bauer changed all that. The three-time Olympian broke away from the chase back and overhauled France for third at the halfway point of the race. Russia had no such response, and Norway slid backward — more than a minute down.

The freestyle skiers shook things up. At the front, Sweden’s Johann Olsson took off. Finland faded, with France and the Czech Republic overtaking through two of the 3.3k laps and several more passing on the next. Russia’s Alexander Legkov pounced as the packs split apart, scooting up to second. Martin Johnsrud Sundby put Norway back in striking range but fell back. At the third exchange: Sweden in first, Russia 14.3 seconds back, France 18.6, Italy 41.7, Czech Republic 42.1, Norway 59.2, Finland 1:09.3.

Sweden had Marcus Hellner, already a silver medalist here, in the anchor leg. Russia had Maxim Vylegzhanin, fourth in the Olympic skiathlon and a four-time World Championship medalist. France had the literally unknown — NBC’s encyclopedic Chad Salmela confessed he knew nothing about him — Ivan Perrillat Boiteux. Norway had 2010 Olympic star and nine-time world champion Petter Northug, but he had been struggling so far in these Games and had a look of disbelief as Sundby tapped him for the exchange.

To Salmela’s shock, Boiteux passed Vylegzhanin at the end of the second lap, right in front of Vylegzhanin’s home crowd. Northug creeped up into fifth but still had work to do.

Hellner took care of business easily, and a coach handed him a small Swedish flag for the run into the stadium. Vylegzhanin finally flew away from his unknown French racing companion as they headed into the stadium to give Russia second place, and Boiteux collapsed across the line in third as his French teammates mobbed him. Then came the disconsolate figure of Petter Northug, continuing Norway’s dreadful performance on cross-country skis.

 

Full results

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