Tag: 2014 olympics

olympic sports, winter sports

Best/worst, Sochi medal projections vs. reality: Feb. 18

Posted on by Beau Dure

The fog moved out, we had terrific races in several venues and some good hockey games. Aren’t the Winter Olympics fun?

CURRENT PACE

Russia 30, Norway 28, USA 28, Canada 27, Netherlands 24, Germany 21, Austria 19, Sweden 15, France 13, Switzerland 12

And to check in on gold medal pace today: Russia 10 (+4 from projections), Germany 10 (+2), Norway 10 (-4), USA 9 (-6), Netherlands 8 (+3), Switzerland 8 (+3), Canada 7 (-3)

UP

Norway (+1 today, -11 overall): Projected for two medals (silver, bronze) and got that many golds with a biathlon win for Emil Hegle Svendsen and a 1-2 in Nordic combined.

RIGHT ON TARGET

USA (even today, -7 overall): We’re running out of long-track speedskating events. Torin Yater-Wallace was clearly not all the way back from his injury, preventing the predicted 1-2 in the men’s halfpipe, but a snowboardcross bronze for Alex Deibold made up for that.

Netherlands (even today, +10 overall): This time, the speedskating sweep was projected.

France (even today, +1 overall): Got the projected medals in biathlon and snowboardcross. Missed in Nordic combined but made up for it in halfpipe.

DOWN

Austria (-2 today, -3 overall): Just fine in Alpine but didn’t get the medals in Nordic combined or snowboardcross.

FULL TABLE

[gview file=”https://duresport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014-medal-projections-feb18.pdf”%5D

HIGHLIGHTS

Best reason to dump cable “news”: Because curling blows it away (along with everything else) in the ratings. (HT: @alanabrahamson)

Best shot: Did you see this? Curling rocks, folks.

Best flashback: Hey, kids — this is how video games looked in your parents’ day …

Play for yourself (if your computer allows it).

Best tribute: A couple of days before the late Sarah Burke’s sport of halfpipe skiing made its Winter Olympic debut, her family received a flag on National Flag of Canada Day.

Best dog adoption (today): Lindsey Jacobellis didn’t get a snowboardcross medal, but she has a new friend.

Best insight into tribulations of covering Nordic events/biathlon: I saw Nat Herz a lot in Whistler, and I can attest that his depiction of life in the press areas is quite accurate. My favorite interview of all time: biathlete Jay Hakkinen walks through the mixed zone, where we (A) can’t see the course or scoreboard and (B) couldn’t see the TV because of the glare. “So … Jay … um … how’d you do?”

Best game that would’ve been an intrasquad scrimmage not too long ago: Czech Republic held off the pesky Slovakia in a hockey playoff.

Best protest coverage

Most curious letdown: Don’t let the 4-0 final score fool you — Russia’s men’s hockey team labored past Norway. Feeling pressure?

Worst finish line antics: Emil Hegle Svendsen was within a foot of throwing away a gold medal in biathlon.

Worst injury timing: Like ski jumper Sarah Hendrickson, freestyle halfpipe skier Torin Yater-Wallace was a projected medalist and one of the bright young faces of the Olympic run-up but was injured a few months ago. Like Hendrickson, he gave it a go today but wasn’t quite himself.

WEDNESDAY’S PROJECTIONS

Alpine skiing, men’s giant slalom: Ted Ligety (USA), Marcel Hirscher (Austria), Alexis Pinturault (France). Also considered: Manfred Moelgg (Italy), Aksel Lund Svindal (Norway)

Svindal withdrew. Ligety has been disappointing in his other events.

Biathlon, mixed relay: Norway, Russia, Czech Republic. Also considered: France, Italy

New event in the Olympics. The USA finished eighth in the 2013 World Championships, and the way Susan Dunklee and Lowell Bailey have gone in a couple of events, they could stick around in this one. All four of Norway’s athletes have at least one medal already — yes, that includes the 40-year-old Ole Einar Bjoerndalen.

Bobsled, women’s: Kaillie Humphries (Canada), Elana Meyers (USA), Sandra Kiriasis (Germany). Also: Jamie Greubel (USA), Cathleen Martini (Germany), Anja Schneiderheinze (Germany)

After Day 1, it’s Meyers, Humphries, Greubel.

Cross-country skiing, women’s team sprint: Sweden, Finland, Norway. Also considered: Italy, Russia, USA

Cross-country skiing, men’s team sprint: Russia, Norway, Sweden. Also considered: Canada, Finland, Germany

The big question in both events: Can Norway get it right this time? Kikkan Randall and Sophie Caldwell will pair up for the USA, which will have an outside chance.

Snowboarding, women’s parallel giant slalom: Isabella Laböck (Germany), Tomoka Takeuchi (Japan), Marion Kreiner (Austria). Also considered: Julia Dujmovits (Austria), Ekaterina Ilyukhina (Russia), Amelie Kober (Germany), Patrizia Kummer (Switzerland), Nicolien Sauerbreij (Netherlands), Ekaterina Tudegesheva (Russia)

Snowboarding, men’s parallel giant slalom: Roland Fischnaller (Italy), Andreas Prommegger (Austria), Benjamin Karl (Austria). Also considered: Zan Kosir (Slovenia), Rok Marguc (Austria), Simon Schoch (Switzerland), Vic Wild (Russia)

Yes, the projections are hedging bets here. These events tend to be wide-open.

Speedskating, women’s 5,000 meters: Martina Sablikova (Czech Republic), Ireen Wüst (Netherlands), Yvonne Nauta (Netherlands). Also considered: Claudia Pechstein (Germany)

The way the Dutch are going, just add Carien Kleibeuker to contention as well.

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Nordic combined, large hill

Posted on by Beau Dure

Is this Nordic combined or short-track? The second Nordic combined event of the Olympics came down to a pack finish, a wreck and some surprising medalists.

Date: 18-Feb

Sport: Nordic combined

Event: Large hill – one jump that determines start times for the 10k cross-country race

Medalists: Joergen Graabak (Norway), Magnus Moan (Norway), Fabian Riessle (Germany)

SportsMyriad projections: Eric Frenzel (Germany), Wilhelm Dinifl (Austria), Jason Lamy-Chappuis (France)

How U.S. fared: Defending champion Bill Demong hasn’t been in winning form over the past couple of years, and he needed a good jump to be a contender. He didn’t get it, going more than 20 meters behind the top guys to start 38th, 2:18 back.

All four U.S. athletes were set to start in a pack — Bryan Fletcher 27th (1:59 back), Todd Lodwick 30th (2:01 back), Taylor Fletcher 35th (2:13) and Demong.

Lodwick, as he did in the normal hill event, opted not to start the cross-country phase. And Taylor Fletcher, as he did in the normal hill, started climbing through the field. He finished 20th, two ahead of brother Bryan. Demong was 31st.

What happened: Germany’s Eric Frenzel was supposedly sick. He didn’t seem sick on his jump, taking the lead. Behind him: Norway’s Haavard Klemetsen (8 seconds back), Austria’s Bernhard Gruber (22), Japan’s Akito Watabe (33), Jason Lamy-Chappuis of Montana via France (33), Norway’s Joergen Graabak (42) and the ever-dangerous Magnus Moan of Norway (45). Lurking: Germany’s Bjorn Kircheisen (1:03).

Grbuer quickly closed the gap, within one second at the 1.5k mark. Lamy-Chappuis and Moan also were surging. After one lap around the 2.5k course, it was a seven-man pack with the top seven from the ski jumping. By 4k, it was 10, with Kircheisen and fellow Germans Fabian Riessle and Johannes Rydzek joining the fun.

That pack stayed together without incident through 7.5k, when Watabe slipped. The silver medalist in the normal hill scrambled to get back in the race.

Frenzel finally fell off the pace on the last lap, surely ailing a little. Kircheisen took out fast on that climb and led at 9k, but the Norwegians shot past him. With five racers attacking the same curve in the stadium, Rydzek tumbled.

Norwegians Graabak and Moan dueled for gold, with Graabak taking it by 0.6 seconds. Then the two Germans, with Riessle 1.6 seconds back and Kircheisen 2.1. The other contenders trickled in 10 seconds later.

Graabak had never won a World Cup event. Riessle matched his best-ever World Cup finish.

The team event is yet to come, and don’t bet against Norway and Germany for the podium.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Biathlon, men’s mass start

Posted on by Beau Dure

Good things come to those who wait, and the fog lifted just enough for this Olympic highlight — Emil Hegle Svendsen holding off rival Martin Fourcade, aiming for his third gold of the Games, by a foot. If that.

Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, bidding to be the first athlete to win 13 Winter Olympic medals, charged into contention after missing two early shots but shot himself right out of it with four big misses at the final stop.

Date: 18-Feb

Sport: Biathlon

Event: Men’s mass start (15k)

Medalists: Emil Hegle Svendsen (Norway), Martin Fourcade (France), Ondrej Moravec (Czech Republic)

SportsMyriad projections: Martin Fourcade (France), Tarjei Boe (Norway), Emil Hegle Svendsen (Norway)

How U.S. fared: Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey qualified for the 30-skier field, but they missed two shots at the first stage and settled near the back. Burke missed twice more at the first standing stage and finished 21st. Bailey missed five total and took 23rd. The two Americans sandwiched Ole Einar Bjoerndalen.

What happened: Several favorites fell behind early, missing shots through the snow. Martin Fourcade missed his first shot. Dominik Landertinger missed one, Ole Einar Bjoerndalen missed two. Russia’s Anton Shipulin took the early lead, with Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen leading a group just a couple of seconds behind.

Off to the second shoot — Russian’s Shipulin and Evgeny Garanichev shot quickly, but each of them missed once. That left Svendsen in first followed by two athletes who have already surprised in these Games — Canada’s J.P. Le Guellec and France’s Jean Guillaume Beatrix. The only others to shoot clean and stay in the lead pack were the Czech Republic’s Ondrej Moravec and Germany’s Erik Lesser. Also, Russia’s Evgeny Ustyugov was clean at the range but not clean on the course, recovering from an early slip and skiing back with those who had missed at least once.

Over the third leg, the five-man lead pack wasn’t able to put any distance on the chasers, who cut within 15 seconds.

Third shoot: Svendsen shot quickly and cleanly. Moravec was soon out behind him. Le Guellec took his time on the range but was clean.

But by this point, those who had missed early were charging back. Fourcade and Bjoerndalen shot ahead of Le Guellec to chase Svendsen and Moravec.

This group of four came up for the tense final shoot from the nerve-wracking standing position. No pressure.

Fourcade shot first and knocked down two targets. Bjoerndalen missed two. Then two more. Fourcade knocked down the rest of the targets and took off quickly. Moravec and Svendsen were also clean, going 20-for-20, and raced out four seconds behind. Those would be your likely medalists — Slovenia’s Jakov Fak and Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe were nearly 30 seconds back. Boe did a full-fledged snow plow on the last lap, leaving Fak alone in fourth and hoping one of the top three would crack or crash.

Svendsen immediately served notice that he was here for gold, climbing up to Fourcade’s back. Svendsen briefly took the lead but let Fourcade take it back. Fourcade powered back into the lead, but Svendsen looked content to ride behind him until the last turn, where the Norwegian made his move and pulled ahead.

But did Svendsen celebrate too soon? Fourcade charged just behind him. In the last five meters, Fourcade moved over to Svendsen’s left and hurled himself over the line. It was a photo finish, with Svendsen finishing just a boot tip in first. The official margin of victory after 15k of racing: 0.0 seconds.

Moravec was unchallenged for third, then Fak for fourth. Two Canadians finished in the top 10 — Brendan Green ninth, Le Guellec 10th.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Short-track speedskating, women’s relay

Posted on by Beau Dure

South Korea won a thriller ahead of China, and then it didn’t really matter because China was disqualified anyway. That’s short track. In the early heats of two individual events, two Canadian favorites unfortunately crashed out, but the Canadian women took silver in the relay.

Date: 18-Feb

Sport: Short-track speedskating

Event: Women’s relay, plus the first round of heats in the men’s 500 and women’s 1,000.

Medalists: South Korea, Canada, Italy

SportsMyriad projections: China, South Korea, Canada

How U.S. fared: Didn’t qualify to bring a team to Sochi.

Jessica Smith and Emily Scott advanced in the women’s 1,000, the latter by 0.014 seconds.

Eddy Alvarez’s hard-luck Olympics continued as he wiped out in the men’s 500. Jordan Malone had enough of a slip to finish a distant fourth in his heat. But J.R. Celski advanced comfortably.

What happened: Italy faded off the pace about a third of the way into the race. Canada dropped away a bit as well but came back quickly.

But this race was always China vs. South Korea, and they traded the lead back and forth as they pulled away from Canada with six laps to go. China took the lead, but South Korea’s Suk Hee Shim made a thrilling pass on the outside to take the win. Canada came across in third.

But wait! The referees huddled, and China was disqualified. Canada moved up to silver, and Italy — left behind in the race — took bronze.

Technically, Russia finished fourth, having won the B final ahead of Japan and Hungary.

In the women’s 1,000 meters, two Canadians had dramatically different fates. Valerie Maltais set an Olympic record at 1:28.771. Marianne St. Gelais crashed out. St. Gelais also took out Dutch skater Jorien ter Mors, who already has a gold medal in long-track skating and a fourth-place finish in short-track in these Games, but the referees advanced her Mors to the next round.

Britain’s Elise Christie, disqualified at different stages of her two events so far (much to the British media’s consternation, though the replays in each case were quite clear), took no chances in her heat, racing away to win by more than two seconds.

All three South Korean skaters won their heats. Two of three Chinese skaters advanced; Liu Qiuhong was disqualified. And Italian favorite Arianna Fontana won her heat to join the party.

In the men’s 500 meters, the shocker was Canada’s Charles Hamelin, leading by several feet in his heat and simply slipping off into the padding on a curve. He was the only favorite not to advance. The defending champion’s Olympics are done — he took gold in the 1,500 but had incidents that took him out of the 1,000, the relay and now the 500.

Full results: Relay, men’s 500, women’s 1,000

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Alpine skiing, women’s giant slalom

Posted on by Beau Dure

Hey, save some Olympic medals for someone else! Tina Maze won her second gold of these Games, Anna Fenninger added a silver to her gold, and defending champion Viktoria Rebensburg took bronze this time around. U.S. teen Mikaela Shiffrin, a strong slalom contender, took a solid fifth place here.

Date: 18-Feb

Sport: Alpine skiing

Event: Women’s giant slalom

Medalists: Tina Maze (Slovenia), Anna Fenninger (Austria), Viktoria Rebensburg (Germany)

SportsMyriad projections: Jessica Lindell-Vikarby (Sweden), Tina Maze (Slovenia), Lara Gut (Switzerland)

How U.S. fared: This was our first look at Mikaela Shiffrin, misleadingly billed as the next Lindsey Vonn. Shiffrin is a world champion and World Cup champion in the slalom; Vonn is mostly a speed specialist. Shiffrin isn’t bad in giant slalom, ranking sixth in the current World Cup standings. She did one better in the first run here, taking fifth, and she stayed fifth when the standings shook up a little in the second.

Shiffrin wound up 0.50 seconds behind the winner and 0.23 off the podium. The margin to those behind her was bigger — 0.45 down to sixth, way down to eighth and beyond. No medal, but this was a very good start to what could be a terrific Olympic career.

Resi Stiegler and Megan McJames barely missed the top 30 in the first run — 32nd and 33rd. Two of the top 30 didn’t finish, and neither did the 31st, and Stiegler and McJames easily moved up to 29th and 30th.

Julia Mancuso, already a medalist at these Games (to add to her collection), did not finish the first run.

What happened: One contender was already out — Germany’s Maria Höfl-Riesch had a cold and decided to stay home and count her medals.

Slovenia’s Tina Maze, who dominated the World Cup circuit last year but hasn’t been quite as good this season, took a big lead of 0.52 seconds in the first run. Packed together behind her: Sweden’s Jessica Lindell-Vikarby, Italy’s Nadia Fanchini, Austria’s Anna Fenninger, and the USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin.

But the variable conditions of the second run — snow at the top, rain at the bottom, inconsistent fog in the middle — left the possibility that someone could make a big run and move up quite a bit. Through the first 24 skiers, the leaders were Sweden’s Marie Pietalie-Holmner, France’s Anemone Marmottan, and Switzerland’s Lara Gut.

The defending champion, Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg, found a lot of speed on the course, blazing through with no trouble to take the lead. Shiffrin couldn’t quite match that and slipped one place.

Fenninger kept losing time to Rebensburg through the course but finished aggressively and maintained just enough of the lead she had from the first run — 0.20 seconds in front across the two legs.

Fanchini lost a good bit of time right away and made a tentative run. She came into the finish behind Fenninger and Rebensburg but just ahead of Shiffrin.

Lindell-Vikarby, the World Cup leader in this discipline, had a couple of skids early and snagged a gate. She made it down the course but lost a lot of time, dropping out of the top five.

So either Fenninger or Maze would win her second gold of the Games. Maze, cutting through the fog, gave the course plenty of respect. Her lead was down to 0.14 by the third split. And the finish … 0.07 in front!

Full results

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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.

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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.

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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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