Tag: 2014 olympics

olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Nordic combined, team event

Posted on by Beau Dure

Three Nordic combined powers raced together for the bulk of a 20-kilometer relay, with Norway’s Joergen Graabak continuing his breakout Games by holding out for gold. The USA wasn’t able to mount a challenge, rallying to finish sixth.

Date: 20-Feb

Sport: Nordic combined

Event: Team (four jumps determine start intervals for 4x5k cross-country relay)

Medalists: Norway, Germany, Austria

SportsMyriad projections: Germany, Norway, France

How U.S. fared: The USA took silver in this event in 2010, with its Golden Generation at its peak, and followed up with a third-place run at last year’s World Championships. But the team was not great on the large hill. Todd Lodwick was seventh in his group with 99.9 points. Taylor Fletcher also was seventh, continuing his struggles on the hill with 92.5. Bill Demong had a nice one at 108.0, also seventh in his group but keeping pace with the strong jumpers in his group. Bryan Fletcher got 97.2, ninth in the last group.

The team is full of solid cross-country skiers, but those jumps would give them a gap of 1 minute, 52 seconds behind the leaders.

Bryan Fletcher led off the cross-country relay and pulled the USA ahead of Russia into seventh place, but he lost five seconds to the leaders. Todd Lodwick, who sat out the cross-country phase of the individual races to rest his injured shoulder, lost nearly a minute and fell back to eighth.

The bright spot was Taylor Fletcher, who posted the fastest third leg of any of the competitors. He pulled back ahead of Italy into seventh.

Bill Demong, the only U.S. man to win Nordic combined gold, went hard in the final leg despite the great distance. He moved up into sixth and held off the Czech Republic.

What happened: Austria moved into the lead with the best jumps of the second and third rounds — Christoph Bieler and Mario Stecher. But a weaker fourth jump left them behind consistent Germany.

Norway had been back in the pack, but Haavard Klemetsen finished with the best jump of the day.

After the jumps, the time intervals were set: Germany first, Austria seven seconds back, Norway 0:25, France 0:35.

The fleet-footed Magnus Moan brought Norway back into the mix immediately, ailing normal hill champion Eric Frenzel held on for Germany, and the top three hit the first exchange within a second of each other.

That lead pack stayed within a second of each other through the second leg as well, and they put more distance on fourth-place France.

In the third leg, the leaders were still cozy with each other, at one point all standing up and looking like they were out for a nice stroll in the warm weather. They put the hammer down in the last kilometer, with Norway’s Magnus Krog trying to put some distance on the others. But the gap from first to third only grew to 1.7 seconds. France, though, was more than a minute back, far too much for Jason Lamy Chappuis to pull back.

The three contenders in the last leg — Joergen Graabak (Norway) was the large hill winner, Fabian Riessle (Germany) was the large hill bronze medalist, Mario Stecher (Austria) is a six-time Olympian. Through another four kilometers, no one attacked. Could Stecher keep up with the young guys on a final sprint?

Stecher started to make a move on the uphill but couldn’t get away, and the others left him on one of the last turns. Graabak was out front through the stadium, with Riessle on his tail. The German anchor picked the finish lane next to the Norwegian and flung himself at the line, but he was 0.3 seconds behind.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Curling, women’s bronze medal game

Posted on by Beau Dure

Young British skip Eve Muirhead hit all the shots as she needed them, taking Olympic bronze in a well-played bronze medal game.

Date: 20-Feb

Sport: Curling

Event: Women’s bronze medal game, Britain vs. Switzerland

What happened: Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott had all the shots early. She was dialed in on her takeouts to take two in the second end. They traded singles in the next two ends. Eve Muirhead hit a double takeout and another takeout in the fifth to score two, leaving the teams tied 3-3 at the halfway point. Switzerland had the hammer and a slight advantage.

Ott went for the blank in the sixth end but left her rock in the house, scoring one. Muirhead successfully blanked the seventh.

Britain got two to take the lead in the eighth. Switzerland’s Carmen Schaefer missed everything in the house with her second shot, Ott missed a double takeout, and Muirhead drew carefully for the double.

Muirhead’s team was simply superb in the ninth end. They called time out to talk with coach David Hay to figure out how to limit Switzerland to one. Anna Sloan bumped a Swiss rock out of potential scoring position. Muirhead took both Swiss rocks out of the house. Ott put one back, but Muirhead carefully bumped it through two British rocks out of the four-foot. Britain had three in scoring position, and Ott had to play a careful draw just to get one, tying the game 5-5 but handing the hammer back to Britain for the 10th end.

Switzerland wasn’t able to introduce many complications in the final end. Ott put her last stone in scoring position just inside the eight-foot. Muirhead, the world champion, had the relatively easy but high-pressure draw for the win. She put it right on the button.

Full results | Recaps with diagrams

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Freestyle skiing, men’s skicross

Posted on by Beau Dure

The wildest event of the Olympics — think snowboardcross but with more moving parts that can get tangled — lived up to that distinction. When all was done, France had the sweep.

Date: 20-Feb

Sport: Freestyle skiing

Event: Men’s skicross

Medalists: Jean Frederic Chapuis (France), Arnaud Bovolenta (France), Jonathan Midol (France)

SportsMyriad projections: Alex Fiva (Switzerland), Dave Duncan (Canada), Andreas Matt (Austria)

How U.S. fared: John Teller was 20th in the seeding run (like qualifying, except that everyone qualifies) and got drawn into a tough heat in the first elimination round. He was fourth out of the start but picked his way into third, keeping pace with the two French riders. He came up to battle with Jonathan Midol, and Midol questionably bumped him aside on one turn. On the next, Teller tried to take the inside line, tangled with Midol again and skidded wide. That was it.

What happened: Favorite Alex Fiva had an eventful day. He didn’t finish his seeding run, leaving him seeded 30th. He raced out into the lead of his first heat but was slow off a jump. Canadian Brady Leman was behind him and couldn’t slow down. Leman basically ran over Fiva and kept going. Leman won the heat; Fiva was out.

Canada’s David Duncan was the next to crash out, getting the worst of a four-way collision. All four finished, but Duncan was the slowest.

The big Canadian story coming in was Chris Del Bosco, who overcame troubles with alcohol and switched from the USA to Canada on his way to becoming a world champion in 2011. He was in bronze medal position in 2010 but fell trying to move up. He was second in the seeding race and in good position in his heat, but he took a couple of jumps badly and lost momentum. He threw out his arms in frustration as he finished third and didn’t advance.

The first quarterfinal was as crazy as this crazy sport gets. Flying off the final jump, three of the four skiers fell and slid across the line behind Switzerland’s Armin Niederer, who steered himself around the tangled bodies to finish upright and first. A photo finish had to separate the three who had fallen. Russia’s Egor Korotkov got his left arm across the line first, eliminating Swedish favorite and top seed Victor Oehling Norberg, who had been leading before going astray off the jump.

Austria’s Andreas Matt, the 2010 silver medalist, was eliminated in less spectacular fashion, simply lacking the speed in the second quarterfinal.

Into the semifinals, a couple of favorites looked strong. World champion Jean Frederic Chapuis (France) won his first two runs. So did Canada’s Brady Leman and Slovenia’s Filip Flisar, the 2012 World Cup winner and proud wearer of the best mustache in the Olympics.

Chapuis and Midol, whose tangling with John Teller had sent the American out of the first round, finished 1-2 for France in the first semifinal. Russia’s Egor Korotkov nearly crashed once again and couldn’t advance this time.

A third Frenchman, Arnaud Bovolenta, was in the second semifinal. Flisar looked like the favorite, but he hit the snow early, giving a yell of pain and/or frustration. Brady Leman sailed through to first, and Bovolenta made it three in the final for France.

Leman, the only non-Frenchman in the final, is a classic story of perseverance. He has had multiple leg breaks, including one the day before he was supposed to race in the 2010 Olympics.

Korotkov saved his smoothest run for the small final, shaking off a couple of bumps to go clear into first. Flisar stayed at the back and stayed out of trouble before moving up to second.

Off to the big final, where Leman may have felt outnumbered by the large French contingent. He picked his way from fourth to third but couldn’t hang on. Desperately trying to pass late, he skidded and fell.

Up front, it was Chappuis staying smooth, with Bovolenta behind him. Midol had a spectacular crash off the final jump but slid across the line, the medal surely numbing his pain.

Quote: “How have we still got four skiers on their feet?” – international feed commentator after one of many wild moments

Full results

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medal projections, olympic sports, winter sports

Best/worst, Sochi medal projections vs. reality: Feb. 19

Posted on by Beau Dure

All in the family today, with unique pairs of siblings and spouses in action:

– Siblings Anatasiya Kuzmina (Slovakia) and Anton Shipulin (Russia) competed against each other in the first Olympic biathlon mixed relay, and their teams finished 0.3 seconds apart — Russia fifth, Slovakia sixth.

– American-born snowboarder Vic Wild won parallel giant slalom gold for Russia. He gained Russian citizenship after marrying Alena Zavarzina — who won bronze in her event just a few minutes earlier.

So if you took Wild’s medal and reclassified it for the USA, the Americans and Russians would be tied on the current medal projection pace. But after today’s hockey quarterfinals, Russia could use a nice feel-good story like the Wild-Zavarzina family.

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, like they did in speedskating today, the medal count would be: Russia 31, USA 29, Norway 27, Canada 27, Netherlands 24, Germany 19, Austria 15, Sweden 15, France 14, Switzerland 14, South Korea 9, Japan 9, Italy 9

UP

Switzerland (+2 today, +3 overall): Parallel giant slalom snowboarding was very good to the Alpine country.

USA (+1 today, -6 overall): One more medal than expected in women’s bobsled, but also a bonus for someone who was under tremendous expectations and delivered — Ted Ligety.

DOWN

Austria (-4 today, -7 overall): It’s not as bad as it seems. Three of those medals were in the wild and wacky world of parallel giant slalom snowboarding. The other was in men’s giant slalom — the original Alpine skiing variety.

Germany (-2 today, -4 overall): Bobsledders aren’t getting it done.

FULL TABLE

[gview file=”https://duresport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014-medal-projections-feb19.pdf”%5D

HIGHLIGHTS

Best legacy to keep alive: Once again, freestyle skiing pioneer Sarah Burke. Everyone wishes she was in these Olympics, but everyone is thinking of her.

Best reminder that Americans also complain about figure skating judges: Frank Carroll, speaking before the short program, dismissed Julia Lipnitskaia as a “little girl.”

Best reminder that Americans sometimes have a good point when they complain about figure skating judges: “How in the world Sotnikova ended up ahead of Kostner, whose poise and lyricism is light years ahead of the Russian’s, is anyone’s guess.” – Christine Brennan

Best stats

Most important thing to remember about Lolo Jones: She recruited Lauryn Williams, who beat her out for a spot in the top USA sled.

Most arcane conspiracy theory: Norwegian cross-county ski team wax technician Knut Nystad – “I wish I had the best products, preferably the stuff the Swedes have. There are rumors that certain producers favor certain countries. We’ve heard that rumor from two distributors.”

Most intriguing conspiracy theory: Playing time and line combinations on Russia’s hockey team were bizarre. “Why? Because the KHL and Russian hockey hoped to use the world’s biggest hockey games as a propaganda tool for the Russian professional league that vies to rival the NHL. Well, that was a complete and utter disaster.” – Pierre LeBrun, ESPN

Best impression of a boxer’s career indecision: Yevgeny Plushenko’s latest retirement hasn’t lasted long.

Best bear moment:

Worst bear moment:

Most frightening quote:

Worst teammate: Take it away, @ChuckBerkeley, and good luck finding any evidence that the third U.S. sled would’ve done any better without Lolo Jones.

Least effective drug test: Japanese skier Akira Lenting only had one event on his agenda — the men’s relay. But his teammates were lapped, which meant he wouldn’t get to ski his anchor leg. Then his name was drawn for a drug test. Gee, it’d be a shame if Japan had to vacate that result.

THURSDAY’S PROJECTIONS

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

Sweden-Canada for gold, Britain-Switzerland for bronze. Based on today’s semifinals, pick Canada, Sweden, Britain.

Figure skating, women’s free skate: Mao Asada (Japan), Yuna Kim (South Korea), Ashley Wagner (USA). Also considered: Gracie Gold (USA), Julia Lipnitskaia (Russia), Carolina Kostner (Italy), Adelina Sotnikova (Russia)

Actual top 6 through the short program: Kim, Sotnikova, Kostner, Gold, Lipnitskaia, Wagner. Let’s not talk about Asada.

Freestyle skiing, men’s skicross: Alex Fiva (Switzerland), Dave Duncan (Canada), Andreas Matt (Austria), Jean Frederic Chapuis (France), Chris Del Bosco (Canada), Filip Flisar (Slovenia), Victor Oehling Norberg (Sweden)

Confidence level: Maybe a 2 on a scale of 1 to 5. Not the most predictable event.

Freestyle skiing, women’s halfpipe: Virginie Faivre (Switzerland), Roz Groenewoud (Canada), Maddie Bowman (USA). Also considered: Marie Martinod (France), Ayana Onozuka (Japan)

Should be a terrific competition.

Ice hockey, women’s bronze and gold medal games: USA, Canada, Finland. Also considered: Russia

USA-Canada for gold, Sweden-Switzerland for bronze.

Nordic combined, team: Germany, Norway, France. Also considered: Austria, Japan, USA

Individual large hill results:

  • Norway: 1, 2, 9, 12
  • Germany: 3, 4, 8, 10 (#10, normal hill winner Eric Frenzel, was sick)
  • Austria: 5, 15, 17, 19
  • France: 7, 13, 21, 27
  • Japan: 6, 26, 35, dns
  • Italy: 18, 23, 28, 41
  • Czech Republic: 11, 25, 29, 32
  • USA: 20, 22, 31, dns
  • Finland: 14, 38, 42, 44
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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Curling, men’s semifinals

Posted on by Beau Dure

Canada’s men and women will be playing for gold, as Canada’s Brad Jacobs put on a clinic against China. Sweden and Britain went down to the wire, with Britain taking advantage of one small miss to move into the final.

Date: 19-Feb

Sport: Curling

Event: Men’s semifinals – China-Canada, Sweden-Britain

What happened:

China-Canada: World runner-up Brad Jacobs vs. the ever-improving Chinese team.

Liu Rui must have thought he had a good chance to steal in the third end, wedging his last shot between two Canadian rocks in the four-foot. But Jacobs knocked one of his guards into the four-foot and managed to eject Liu’s without knocking off his own, scoring two.

Each team kept scoring with the hammer, and Liu leveled the game with a good draw in the sixth.

Tied 4-4 in the seventh, Jacobs piled on the pressure with a deft double takeout on his first shot, leaving Britain with two in scoring position and a guard in front. Liu couldn’t get past the guard, and Jacobs drew for three and a 7-4 lead.

Liu answered with two in the eighth, with neither side making a serious error or spectacular shot. But Canada removed rocks with reckless abandon through the ninth, leaving Jacobs an easy takeout for three and a 10-6 lead. Canadian vice-skip Ryan Fry clinched the game with a double takeout, clearing the house with only three rocks left.

Sweden-Britain: Current world champion Niklas Edin vs. two-time world champion
David Murdoch.

After a blank first end, Murdoch stole one in the second as Edin struggled on takeouts. But Murdoch struggled with his own takeouts in the third to let Edin draw for two, and Edin hit a terrific triple takeout in the fifth to reduce complications and limit Murdoch to one. That gave us a 2-2 tie at the halfway point.

The sixth end was one of those cases in which a couple of inches can swing several points. After Murdoch failed to clear Sweden’s rocks from the house, Edin had a takeout that could’ve scored two (if Edin’s shooter also rolled out) or three (if it didn’t). The shooter stayed, but Britain’s rock didn’t roll far enough. It wound up a couple of inches closer than Sweden’s best rock and maybe a foot closer than two others. Instead of scoring three, Sweden gave up one.

Edin converted a simple draw for one in the seventh to tie the game 3-3. Each side made takeouts through the eighth, leaving Murdoch a classic curling dilemma — make a simple shot for one or clear out for a blank, keeping the hammer for the ninth? He made the shot for one, leading 4-3 after eight.

The ninth end was complicated. Murdoch left a narrow window for Edin to take out both of his stones in the four-foot. He did. Sweden took a 5-4 lead after nine, giving the hammer back to Britain for the 10th.

The pressure-packed 10th end had a few small misses, and Edin had the biggest. He attempted a promotion takeout, slamming one of his guards into the British rock in the four-foot. The guard went a few inches closer to the center, removing his own rock instead of Britain’s. Murdoch just needed to get his last shot on the button, either a draw or takeout, to score two and win. No problem.

Canada-China | Sweden-Britain | Scores and diagrams

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Biathlon, mixed relay

Posted on by Beau Dure

Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen is officially the Olympic record-holder for most medals in winter. He shot cleanly and put Norway well out in front of a new event, biathlon’s mixed relay, to claim his 13th medal.

Relay format: Shooters carry spare bullets in addition to the usual clips of five. They can use three spares per shooting stage, but it takes time to load them individually. Miss more than three, and they’re off to the penalty loop for each target that’s still standing.

Date: 19-Feb

Sport: Biathlon

Event: Mixed relay

Medalists: Norway, Czech Republic, Italy

SportsMyriad projections: Norway, Russia, Czech Republic

How U.S. fared: Susan Dunklee has been aggressive throughout the Games, and she went out hard again this time. She missed once at the first stage and lost some time, sliding to 10th, but she charged back to fifth by the next stage. Another miss, but she still left the range just behind Norwegian great Tora Berger. They picked off a couple of skiers in the last lap, and Dunklee was a close fourth at the handoff.

That left Hannah Dreissigacker in lofty company, just behind medalists Gabriela Soukalova (Czech Republic) and Tiril Eckhoff (Norway). But it all went wrong at the first shooting stage, where Dreissigacker missed four shots, costing her not just the time of reloading three bullets but one trip to the penalty loop. She missed just once at the standing shoot and was 10th at the handoff.

Tim Burke missed three in prone and dropped to 12th place, but he missed only once in standing while others misfired. He handed off to Lowell Bailey in ninth place.

Bailey was clean through the first stage but missed three in the standing. His shooting sewed up a top-10 finish for the USA, with Austria in sight in ninth. Bailey pulled away, getting some screen time as he finished with exhaustion all over his face.

What happened: Tora Berger had issues (two misses) on the standing shoot, letting a group of four get 15 seconds ahead of her. No matter — she quickly hauled them back in and handed off in first place. Then Italy, the Czech Republic and the USA.

Next, it was Soukalova’s turn to struggle with the rifle, missing three shots. Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff hit all five to head out quickly, with Italy’s Karin Oberhofer just behind. The Czech athlete earned it back on the second lap, though, racing past Oberhofer. Then Soukalova atoned on the range, going five-for-five. So did Eckhoff, who left the range five seconds ahead of Soukalova.

As they handed off to the men, Soukalova forged ahead of Eckhoff. The Czech Republic’s Jaroslav Soukup took off with The Man Himself, Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, right on his tail. Italy was nearly 20 seconds back, Poland near 50 seconds back. Biathlon powers Germany, Russia and France were well back.

And Bjoerndalen, as he so often does, ripped through the first shooting stage quickly. This time, he hit all five. Soukup took his time and left 11.7 seconds later. Then Italy’s Dominik Windisch and Slovakia’s Pavol Hurajt, who shot cleanly.

Bjoerndalen once again opted for speed in the standing stage,and he once again took down all five. Soukup’s deficit grew to 36.7.

So the anchor legs were cast into their positions with big gaps. Emil Hegle Svendsen, who held onto gold in the mass start despite celebrating too soon, would take the last lap for Norway. The Czech Republic’s Ondrej Moravec was 43.1 seconds back. Italy’s Lukas Hofer was 1:14.1 back. Then another 30 seconds to Germany’s Simon Schempp. France had the great Martin Fourcade on the anchor leg, but he was 2:09.7 out of gold and more than a minute off the podium.

The top seven anchor skiers shot cleanly at the prone stage. Fourcade had reeled in Slovakia to stand fifth, but nothing else had changed.

Svendsen made sure nothing would change at the top. He shot quickly, a daring move, but he hit all five. He turned to salute the crowd and left the range just as Moravec came in. The Czech athlete missed one but kept a solid lead over Italy’s Hofer. Then the Italian shot cleanly, and the medals were pretty well set.

Norway had dominated in every sense. They missed only twice on the range, both on Berger’s second shoot. Svendsen had plenty of time to celebrate as he crossed the line, setting off the first mixed-gender celebration in an Olympic biathlon relay.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Curling, women’s semifinals

Posted on by Beau Dure

Should we just give Olympic gold to Canada? Jennifer Jones and company hit big shots and clutch shots to take out world champion Britain. In the other semifinal, Sweden made slightly fewer errors than Switzerland.

Date: 19-Feb

Sport: Curling

Event: Women’s semifinals – Britain-Canada, Sweden-Switzerland

What happened:

Britain-Canada: World champion Eve Muirhead vs. traditional power Canada, led this time around by Jennifer Jones. And the quality of play was strong — no one shot worse than 80%.

Britain would need to be perfect to challenge the unbeaten Canadians, and in the second end, they weren’t. Jones got a couple of rocks near the center. Muirhead could have scored two by getting rid of both Canadian rocks, but she only got one, giving up a steal.

Muirhead rallied in the third, pouncing on a couple of errors to get two and cut the lead to 3-2. Jones threaded the needle for a takeout to score one in the fourth, and they traded singles through the next two ends, leaving Canada up 5-3.

Canada played effective defense for the next two ends, taking out most of the British rocks and forcing Muirhead to either take a single or clear out to blank the end. She blanked both ends and was still down 5-3 heading into the ninth.

Kaitlyn Lawes had the big shot in the ninth, a moderately difficult double takeout that left Britain few opportunities. Jones then left two rocks in the house with little chance for a double takeout, forcing Muirhead to draw for one.

Down 5-4 in the 10th and needing a steal, Muirhead ramped up the degree of difficulty, taking a timeout before her final shot and opting for an aggressive double takeout. That put the pressure on Jones, who would need to draw to the four-foot for the win. A miss by a couple of feet would send it to an extra end; a miss by a few feet would give Britain the win.

You don’t really think Jones missed, do you? Canada stayed unbeaten with the 6-4 win and swept into the final.

Sweden-Switzerland: World runner-up Margaretha Sigfridsson vs. two-time silver medalist Mirjam Ott. Sweden has an unusual alignment — Sigfridsson is both skip and lead, throwing the first rocks for her team, while vice-skip Maria Prytz throws last.

Prytz had a slight error in the first end, taking out the lone Swiss rock in the house but failing to get hers out, scoring one when they really wanted to keep the hammer. They traded doubles in the next two ends, and the middle ends were quiet. Prytz had a shot for two in the seventh but was a little heavy, settling for one and a 4-3 lead. Then Prytz couldn’t make a difficult double takeout in the eighth, leaving Ott a simple shot for two and a 5-4 lead.

The Swiss put several rocks in the house in the ninth end, but Ott wasn’t quite able to nudge a Swedish rock out of scoring position on a double takeout, leaving Prytz a takeout for two and a 6-5 lead.

The most dramatic setup for the 10th end is for the team trailing by one to have the hammer, and that’s what Switzerland had. But the 10th end was sloppy on both sides. Before the skips took their shots, Switzerland’s Christina Bertrup whiffed on a takeout, and Sweden’s Carmen Schaefer missed on a draw. Prytz and Ott weren’t quite able to do what they wanted on their first shots. Prytz came up short on her final draw. Ott missed badly with hers.

Sweden stole one for the 7-5 win, but you’d have to think Canada and Britain will be in better shape to take gold and silver in their respective finals.

Britain-Canada | Sweden-Switzerland | Scores and diagrams

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Cross-country skiing, women’s team sprint

Posted on by Beau Dure

Norway slayed some demons in the Olympic venue, destroying the field to win the team sprint.

Date: 19-Feb

Sport: Cross-country skiing

Event: Women’s team sprint (classical)

Medalists: Norway, Finland, Sweden

SportsMyriad projections: Sweden, Finland, Norway

How U.S. fared: Sophie Caldwell and Kikkan Randall — one surprise and one shock of the individual freestyle sprint — hung tough with Norway and Sweden in their semifinal to qualify for the 10-team final. Caldwell stuck within 1.53 seconds of the lead in her first lap and came across in fourth, but Randall — better in freestyle — couldn’t keep up with the classic stars in the second lap. They faded to eighth place, 44.03 seconds off the pace.

What happened: Each team has two skiers who alternate laps. Six laps total, three laps for each skier. Each lap takes a little more than two and a half minutes.

Norwegian star Marit Bjoergen, who has had a hit-or-miss Olympics, put the hammer down on the second lap (her first). She built a lead of nearly three seconds. Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg kept that lead comfortably, and Bjoergen built it out to nearly five seconds in the fourth lap.

Finland’s Aino-Kaisa Saarinen and Kerttu Niskanen stuck around in second — through four laps, about five seconds behind Norway and five ahead of the chasers battling for bronze. Germany, Sweden and Poland were in the mix there.

After five laps, Oestberg had kept the lead over four seconds. Finland had pulled away a bit from Germany, which had pulled away from Sweden, which had pulled away from Poland. But Poland’s anchor was the great Justyna Kowalczyk, who took the handoff 10 seconds and change out of third place.

Bjoergen cruised to her second gold of the Games. Finland was easily second. The big push was for bronze, with Sweden’s Stina Nilsson pulling past Germany’s Denise Herrman down the stretch.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Alpine skiing, men’s giant slalom

Posted on by Beau Dure

Always nice to see a big favorite come through under Olympic pressure, and that’s just what the USA’s Ted Ligety did. The 2006 combined gold medalist and two-time giant slalom world champion had a blazing first run and careful second run to take gold.

Date: 19-Feb

Sport: Alpine skiing

Event: Men’s giant slalom

Medalists: Ted Ligety (USA), Steve Missillier (France), Alexis Pinturault (France)

SportsMyriad projections: Ted Ligety (USA), Marcel Hirscher (Austria), Alexis Pinturault (France)

How U.S. fared: Ted Ligety was a contender in the super-G and combined but hadn’t been as close to the podium as he would’ve liked. This event, which he has dominated for the last couple of years, was a different story. He took a 0.93-second lead after the first run.

Also after the first run: Tim Jitloff 21st (2.15 back), Bode Miller 26th (2.56), Jared Goldberg 27th (2.58).

Miller took silver in this event way back in 2002 and won the 2003 World Championship, but he had focused more on the speed events in recent years. This was surely his final Olympic run, and he cruised to the finish, conceding a spot in the standings to Goldberg.

Jitloff made recovery after recovery on a wild second run, but he maintained his advantage over those who went ahead of him.

That left all eyes on Ligety, who did just what he needed in the second run to come through. And all four Americans were in the top 20: Jitloff 15th, Goldberg 19th, Miller 20th.

What happened: The Czech Republic’s Ondrej Bank was the only skier within a second of Ted Ligety in the first run, 0.93 seconds back. Then came 12 skiers within 0.38 seconds of each other, including downhill champion Matthias Mayer, France’s Alexis Pinturault, Austria’s Marcel Hirscher and Germany’s Felix Neureuther. The latter was injured in a car accident on the way to the airport to go to Sochi less than a week ago.

The stunner in the second run was France’s Steve Missillier, whose only World Cup podium was in a slalom in 2010. But his time stood as favorites like Pinturault and Hirscher came down the hill. With two riders to go, the podium was Missillier, Pinturault (0.16 behind) and Hirscher (0.46). Then Ondrej Bank had a wayward run and missed out on the podium.

So would it be a complete outsider (Missillier) or the overwhelming favorite (Ligety)? Ligety was 1.50 seconds ahead of the Frenchman, so to say the least, he wouldn’t have to be aggressive. He gave back a full second. Still had time to spare. Gold for Ligety.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Snowboarding, women’s parallel giant slalom

Posted on by Beau Dure

Plenty of surprises in the first parallel event of these Olympics, including a heartwarming medal for Russia, but two favorites dueled in a thrilling final.

Date: 19-Feb

Sport: Snowboarding

Event: Women’s parallel giant slalom

Medalists: Patrizia Kummer (Switzerland), Tomoka Takeuchi (Japan), Alena Zavarzina (Russia)

SportsMyriad projections: Isabella Laböck (Germany), Tomoka Takeuchi (Japan), Marion Kreiner (Austria)

How U.S. fared: No entries

What happened: World champion Isabella Laböck and 2010 bronze medalist Marion Kreiner failed to qualify for the elimination rounds, in which 16 riders face off head to head. Kreiner, also the 2009 world champion and 2013 World Cup champion, had finished in the top 10 in 12 of her last 13 World Cup PGS events.

Japanese favorite Tomoka Takeuchi posted the best qualifying time, followed by World Cup leader Patrizia Kummer (Switzerland).

But other favorties kept losing out in the round of 16. Russia’s Ekaterina Ilyukhina, the defending silver medalist, had a rough first run and so nearly made it up in the second, finishing 0.03 seconds behind Canada’s Caroline Calve. The Netherland’s Nicolien Sauerbreij, the defending champion, led after the first run but came across the line 0.05 seconds behind Austria’s Ina Meschik.

Three Canadians — Calve, Marianne Leeson and Ariane (not Avril) Lavigne — advanced. As luck would have it, they didn’t have to face each other in the quarterfinals. But Calve had to face Takeuchi and hit trouble early in the second run. Austria’s Ina Meschik rallied in the second run to take out Leeson. Lavigne had a slight lead against Russia’s Alena Zavarzina but couldn’t hold it, and the last Canadian hope drifted off course on a late turn.

Zavarzina had a great husband-and-wife story going with Vic Wild, who had advanced to the men’s semifinal. But she was slightly behind Kummer after the first leg and crashed in the second.

Meanwhile, Takeuchi was cruising. She built a 1.01-second lead over Meschik in the semifinal first run, and Meschik crashed trying to make up the difference.

Zavarzina came back to win the small final. With Wild in the big final in the men’s side, that guaranteed two medals in her household.

Takeuchi had a 0.30-second lead after the first run. The World Cup leader Kummer started to catch up and pulled ahead. Takeuchi fell with four gates to go, and Kummer took gold.

Full results

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