Tag: 2014 olympics

olympic sports, winter sports

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

Posted on by Beau Dure

Sweden won a thrilling three-team finish, while the perplexing Olympics continued for Norway and the USA.

Date: 15-Feb

Sport: Cross-country skiing

Event: Women’s 4x5k relay (two classic legs, two freestyle legs)

Medalists: Sweden, Finland, Germany

SportsMyriad projections: Norway, Sweden, Finland

How U.S. fared: Kikkan Randall is a better freestyle skier than a classic skier, but she had the first classic leg today. She was in the mix through one lap but faded terribly in the second, handing off 39.7 seconds behind in 12th place. Sadie Bjornsen moved up to ninth but lost time, 1:04.9 back. Liz Stephen lost another 30 seconds to the leaders in the first freestyle leg, remaining in ninth.

Then it got strange. Jessie Diggins, the youngest skier on the team at 22, pulled alongside Italy for eighth. But she took a wrong turn as she pulled into the stadium. Italy got away, and the USA took ninth.

What happened: Russia’s Julia Ivanova got the home crowd rocking by taking the lead through the first leg, but they quickly dropped in the second. The Czech Republic, in second place after the first, also dropped far behind.

Sweden was a close third after the first leg (Ida Ingemarsdotter) and first after the second (Emma Wiken), but Anna Haag lost pace with the leaders in the third leg.

Norway had a virtual all-star team but was losing time. Heidi Weng was 6.5 seconds back after the first leg. Therese Johaug slid to 13.4 back. Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen shed more time and handed off with a 33.4-second gap.

Instead, it was those surprising Finns. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen, fourth and fifth in her two Olympic races, pulled through a strong two laps. Keettu Niskanen then pulled away from Germany at the end of the third leg.

But Germany, which just stayed in touch through three legs, handed off to Denise Herrman. She immediately got on the tail of Krista Lahteenmaki. No pressure or anything.

Sweden and Norway had the big guns on the anchor leg — Charlotte Kalla and Marit Bjoergen, each of whom already had a medal. After one lap, Kalla was within 15 seconds of the lead. Bjoergen was within 30.

Kalla kept closing — 10 seconds, then five. Bjoergen, who had visions of another large medal haul after winning the skiathlon early in the Games, did not.

Lahteenmaki opened a little gap on the downhill leading into the stadium, but then all three skiers came together. On the last turn, Kalla made the crucial move. She pulled ahead of Lahteenmaki for the win.

So after 20k of racing, all three medalists finished within one second — Sweden, Finland, Germany.

France passed a dispirited Norway for fourth. Russia cruised to sixth. Poland was all alone in seventh. Then came Italy, helped along to eighth by the USA’s wrong turn. The USA was nearly a minute ahead of the Czech Republic.

Full results

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medal projections, olympic sports, winter sports

Best/worst, Sochi medal projections vs. reality: Feb. 14

Posted on by Beau Dure

Call them the Parity Games. We’re nearly at the halfway point, and instead of wondering if anyone would approach the USA’s record of 37 medals, we’re wondering if anyone would break 30. So many new events, so many different countries winning.

(OK, fine — you can also say it’s because the Netherlands are winning all the speedskating medals projected to go to the USA, and Sweden is winning a lot of the Nordic medals projected to go to Norway.)

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 would die of shock. But the medal count would be Norway 29, Canada 29, Russia 29, USA 28, Austria 22, Netherlands 22, Germany 19, Switzerland 16, Sweden 16, France 11, South Korea 10

DOWN

Norway (-3 today, -10 overall): We can officially worry now. No medals in biathlon or cross-country today, and Aksel Lund Svindal is having rotten luck in Alpine. And they have to deal with ads on their once ad-free TV coverage.

USA (-1 today, -7 overall): Ted Ligety was well back in the combined, though Bode Miller gave it a good run.

RIGHT ON TARGET

Kazakhstan and Russia didn’t get their medals in cross-country skiing but made up for it figure skating and skeleton.

UP

Switzerland (+3 today, +5 overall): Dario Cologna is dominant in cross-country, and the Swiss picked up medals in Alpine skiing and biathlon.

Belarus (+2 today, +2 overall): Had one projected medal in biathlon. They got two in biathlon and another in aerials.

Sweden (+2 today, +6 overall): Through this point, they were projected for one medal. The cross-country skiers doubled that in one event today.

HIGHLIGHTS

Best retro look: Someone needs to dress like the bobsledders from 1924, when it appears nearly everything was held outside.

Best retro performance: British figure skating legends Torvill and Dean returned to Sarajevo to re-create an iconic gold medal performance in the rebuilding city.

Best use of a meme for an artificial holiday: Ashley Wagner’s Valentine’s Day card.

Best blending into a crowd by a king: Seriously, which guy is he?

Most ironic drink: Gold medalist Sage Kotsenburg has a drink named after him at Deer Valley. He’s still too young to drink. And Deer Valley doesn’t allow snowboarders.

Toughest expectations: China’s aerialists.

Weirdest streak: Croatian skier Ivica Kostelic

Best perspective on a weird streak: Croatian skier Ivica Kostelic.

Worst lack of respect for a cool music group: Afro Celt Sound System provided the music for Sweden’s Alexander Majorov in the men’s free skate, but they were credited as “Afro Celtic System,” and NBC’s otherwise excellent Tara Lipinski was befuddled by the sound.

Worst media overkill: Look, cross-country coaches help skiers from other countries all the time. Nice that we all recognized Canada’s Justin Wadsworth (a former U.S. skier) for it, but can we quit calling him now? He’s a little busy.

Worst timing for a car accident on the way to the airport: Germany’s eyes turn to Alpine skier Felix Neureuther, who was driving to the airport to go to Sochi on Friday but hit a road barrier. German doctors are checking him for whiplash.

Worst timing for a herniated disk: The Swedish hockey men lost their captain, Henrik Zetterberg.

Is anyone here NOT hurt?:

Best … um … worst … um … hmmm …:

FULL TABLE

[gview file=”https://duresport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014-medal-projections-feb14.pdf”%5D

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Skeleton, women’s

Posted on by Beau Dure

Noelle Pikus-Pace finally got her Olympic medal while Britain’s Lizzy Yarnold ran away and hid from the field.

Date: 14-Feb

Sport: Skeleton

Event: Women’s, runs 3 and 4

Medalists: Lizzy Yarnold (Britain), Noelle Pikus-Pace (USA), Elena Nikitina (Russia)

SportsMyriad projections: Noelle Pikus-Pace (USA), Lizzy Yarnold (Britain), Shelley Rudman (Britain)

How U.S. fared: The perseverance of Pikus-Pace paid off with silver. The 2005 World Cup champion missed the 2006 Olympics after a runaway bobsled shattered her leg in October 2005. She came back to win the 2007 world title but was fourth in the 2010 Games. She retired but decided to come back for another run. She reached the podium in the last four races of the 2012-13 World Cup season and co-dominated the 2013-14 season with Britain’s Lizzy Yarnold — four wins, two seconds, a third place and a controversial DQ.

She wasn’t able to mount much of a challenge to Yarnold this time, giving up at least 0.19 seconds in each of the four runs. But she kept a comfortable lead over the rest of the field.

Katie Uhlaender also has been through a lot in her career. After her Olympic debut — sixth in 2006 — she won the next two World Cup titles. But injuries knocked her out of form, and she wasn’t a factor in 2010. She came back to win the World Championship in 2012. Her World Cup results this season were marginal, but she was gearing up for a run here.

And she made one. She was a close fourth after the first day, slipped back to fifth after the third heat, then charged in the last heat … missing a medal by 0.04 seconds.

What happened: Lizzy Yarnold left no suspense. She set a track record in the first heat and broke it in the third. She had the fastest time in each heat and cruised to victory.

The Russian sliders took full advantage of their home track despite some inconsistency. Elena Nikitina set a start record in the first heat and was only 0.05 behind Yarnold.

In the final heat, Uhlaender passed Russia’s Olga Potylitsina, only to see Nikitina squeeze out just enough speed to bump her from the podium.

The Canadian challengers didn’t figure out the track until the last heat, when they tied for second. By then, it was too late to topple Yarnold, the Americans and the Russians.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Curling, day 5

Posted on by Beau Dure

The men are two-thirds of the way through their round-robin, and three teams have separated — China, Britain and Sweden are 5-1. Canada is holding the last playoff spot at 4-2, with Norway at 3-3. The USA has a mathematical shot at 2-4 and missed being even by about an inch.

The women are all looking up at 5-0 Canada, then Sweden (4-1), China (3-2) and Britain (3-2). The USA, which brought its most experienced team ever, is completely out of it at 1-5.

Date: 14-Feb

Sport: Curling

Event: Day 5 of group play, with two men’s sessions and one women’s

How U.S. fared: The figure skaters had trouble hitting quads today, but John Shuster and the U.S. men hit two, scoring four in the third and four in the seventh. Up 8-4 after eight ends with the hammer, Shuster and company let it get a little too interesting by conceding a steal in the ninth and missing some takeouts in the 10th. But Shuster cleared the house pretty well with his first shot in the 10th, and Germany conceded the 8-5 decision.

Things can’t get any worse for the U.S. women. Facing winless Denmark, the USA gave up doubles and scored singles. Down 6-2 after six ends, Erika Brown came up well short on a draw to give up a steal of two in the seventh. Needing a miracle, Brown gave up another steal in the eighth and conceded, down 9-2. That’s the USA’s fifth loss, and they’re all but mathematically out of it.

Shuster was back in action in the evening and rebounded from giving up a steal but scoring three in the third with a nifty hit-and-roll and a solid takeout to tie it at 3. It all set up nicely from there: The teams traded doubles, the USA stole a point in the seventh, the eighth end was a blank, and Russia was held to a single in the ninth to make it 6-6. But a couple of wayward shots left Shuster needing to make a tough shot to squeeze a U.S. rock alongside two Russian rocks. Shuster’s rock rolled just slightly away from center. Both teams looked over the center of the house for a few seconds before Shuster tapped the Russian rock to concede that it was a hair closer. Russia 7-6

What happened:

Morning session (men): Canada put up four in the seventh and three in the ninth to wipe out Norway 10-4. Sweden and China were much closer than that, going to an extra end before Niklas Edin made the clutch draw for Sweden in a 6-5 win.

Afternoon session (women): Russia was in the closest game of the session, giving its enthusiastic fans a chance to pay full attention. The home team took a 6-3 lead into the 10th, and the fans roared as Anna Sidorova took out both Swiss stones to force a concession.

The other games were much less dramatic. China scored three points in three different ends — second, fifth and seventh — then stole two in the eighth to make South Korea concede an 11-3 decision. Britain took a 7-3 lead in the seventh, then stole five to beat Japan 12-3.

Evening session (men): Denmark surrendered a 5-1 lead at the halfway point against Britain, giving up three in the sixth and then a steal in the ninth. They still only trailed 7-6 with the hammer in the 10th. It came down to one shot in which Denmark could potentially score five or give up one. They gave up one, and Britain won 8-6.

The other two games were also close. China scored one with the hammer in the 10th against Norway to win 7-5, and Germany held Switzerland a single in the 10th to win 8-7.

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

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Men’s ice hockey, Finland vs. Norway

Posted on by Beau Dure

In the Scandinavian matchup, Finland is undefeated against Norway. They kept it that way tonight with a blowout.

Date: 14-Feb

Sport: Men’s hockey

Event: Finland vs. Norway

Score: Finland 6, Norway 1

What happened: Finland came out firing as they scored two goals in a 1:05 span in the 1st. The Finns dominated play. After another goal with 2:30 left in the period, the Norwegians changed their goalie.

In the second the Finns still dominated and scored two more goals on the backup goaltender, Lars Volden. The goals were from Korpikoski and Jokinen three minutes apart.

In the third period Norway started off with a 5-on-3 power play and scored to make it 5-1. To put the nail in the coffin, Maatta scored with 2:19 left in the game. Final score 6-1 Finland.

From Jimmy Halmhuber

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Men’s ice hockey, Canada-Austria

Posted on by Beau Dure

Let’s see — the country in which hockey is a way of life, or the team with only three NHL players on the roster? Who are you picking?

Date: 14-Feb

Sport: Men’s hockey

Event: Canada vs. Austria

Score: Canada 6, Austria 0

What happened: Drew Doughty and Shea Weber scored at roughly the 5- and 10-minute marks to stake Canada to a 2-0 lead after one. Canada’s Jeff Carter took a tripping penalty just 29 seconds into the second period, then came out of the box and scored within 10 seconds. Then scored again 90 minutes later. Then again later in the period. That’s a natural hat trick.

Austrian goalie Bernhard Starkbaum stopped a penalty shot from Corey Perry but surrendered a short-handed goal to Ryan Getzlaf a couple of minutes later. Austria switched goalies, and Mathias Lange stopped all 15 Canadian shots in the third period.

Stats

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Ski jumping, men’s large hill qualifying

Posted on by Beau Dure

This round only cuts the field from 61 to 50, and the top 10 get a bye, anyway. The top 10 can take practice jumps, but the pressure’s on everyone else to take the remaining 40 spots.

Date: 14-Feb

Sport: Ski jumping

Event: Men’s large hill qualifying

How U.S. fared: Survive and advance is the name of the game, and Nick Alexander (30th, 120 meters), Nick Fairall (31st, 120 meters) and Anders Johnson (36th, 112 meters) did just that. Peter Frenette (43rd, 111 meters) did not.

What happened: Nothing of consequence, but it’s always cool to watch.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Freestyle skiing, women’s aerials

Posted on by Beau Dure

Alla Tsuper of Belarus got the medal she’s been chasing for 16 years.

Date: 14-Feb

Sport: Freestyle skiing

Event: Women’s aerials

Medalists: Alla Tsuper (Belarus), Xu Mengtao (China), Lydia Lassila (Australia)

SportsMyriad projections: Xu Mengtao (China), Lydia Lassila (Australia), Danielle Scott (Australia)

How U.S. fared: Ashley Caldwell had the highest score in qualifying at 101.25. She went for a big jump in the first final, which cut the field from 12 to eight, but she slammed her back on the landing. Her 72.80 was not enough to advance.

Emily Cook squeaked through qualifying at 80.01 and was again just above the cut line in the first final with an 82.21.

What happened: Both Russians wiped out in the first final. They were eliminated, along with Caldwell and Australia’s Danielle Scott. The best to that point was Alla Tsuper of Belarus, the five-time Olympian who finished fifth in the 1998 Olympics and fourth in the 2007 World Championships but never earned a major medal. Could the 2002 World Cup champion add another bit of hardware 12 years later?

The second final trimmed the contenders to four, and Cook wasn’t the only one with trouble on the landing. Xu Mengtao (China) and Lydia Lassila (Australia) were solid, scoring 101.08 and 99.22. Li Nina, second to Lassila in 2010, clinched her spot at 89.53, and Tsuper ended China’s hopes of a sweep with an 88.50 to Cheng Shuang’s 87.42.

The four-person final: Tsuper (degree of difficulty: 4.050) flat-out nailed it. The next two did not. Li Nina (difficulty: 4.425) landed on her side, nowhere near standing up. Lassila (3.900) got her skis on the ground but tumbled onto her back. That left world champion Xu (4.175), who stayed on her skis but so nearly toppled backwards. Up to the judges and … no! It’s Alla Tsuper with the win, then Xu, then Lassila.

And spare a thought for Ashley Caldwell, who posted the highest score of the whole competition but finished 10th.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Biathlon, women’s individual

Posted on by Beau Dure

Olympic pressure is especially tough in this race, where each missed shot costs an athlete one minute. Several contenders shot themselves right out of the race. But Darya Domracheva showed her class, missing just once and skiing very well as Belarus took two medals.

Date: 14-Feb

Sport: Biathlon

Event: Women’s individual (15k)

Medalists: Darya Domracheva (Belarus), Selina Gasparin (Switzerland), Nadezhda Skardino (Belarus)

SportsMyriad projections: Tora Berger (Norway), Darya Domracheva (Belarus), Andrea Henkel (Germany)

How U.S. fared: The perpetually smiling Susan Dunklee went out faster than some of the contenders around her but missed the last of her prone shots. She missed four more along the way and wouldn’t repeat her terrific results from the sprint and pursuit, finishing 34th.

The surprise was Hannah Dreissigacker, the inexperienced athlete who joined former Dartmouth colleagues Dunklee and Sara Studebaker on this team. Her best World Cup result so far is 56th. She finished 23rd, missing just two shots.

Studebaker missed four and finished 55th. Lanny Barnes, who made it on the team when twin sister Tracy gave up her spot, missed three and finished 64th.

What happened: Most of the contenders had early starting positions, and Darya Domracheva quickly established herself as the one to beat. The Belarussian took bronze in this event in 2010 and won the pursuit earlier in the week. She missed once on her second stage but was still well in front.

At the fourth shoot, Domracheva seemed to be hesitating in her unusual routine of starting on the middle target, going left, then coming back to the two right targets. But she took down all five of them and had clearly earned a podium place at the very least. She came across the line in 43:19.6, a staggering 3:47.3 ahead of Russia’s Olga Zaitseva.

A fellow Belarussian was establishing herself as a contender. Nadezhda Skardino (no, not Keri Russell’s character on The Americans) has no World Cup or World Championship success to speak of, but when you hit all 20 targets in an individual, you’re a contender. She care across in second, 1:38.2 behind her teammate.

But one more athlete had shot cleanly and was racing well. Switzerland’s Selena Gasparin, who has two sprint wins this season but has never finished higher than fourth in an individual, steadily picked up time through the splits. She trucked into the finish, beating Skardino’s time by 22.5 seconds.

Gabriela Soukalova, one of the favorites, was still in contention despite two misses. But she finished nearly 20 seconds off Skardino’s pace.

Tora Berger missed three targets early and was slower than Domracheva. Andrea Henkel was ill and didn’t start.

A few more athletes shot cleanly: China’s Yan Zhang, Poland’s Krystyna Palka and France’s Marie Laure Brunet. Palka made it to the top 10 (10th). Brunet finished 17th, Yan 46th,

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Men’s ice hockey, Sweden-Switzerland

Posted on by Beau Dure

A stingy Swiss team frustrated high-powered Sweden, but the Swedish veterans managed to get the only goal they needed in the last 10 minutes for the win.

Date: 14-Feb

Sport: Men’s hockey

Event: Sweden vs. Switzerland

Score: Sweden 1, Switzerland 0

What happened: For two periods, nothing. Switzerland rotated goalies, benching L.A. Kings goalie Jonas Hiller despite an opening 1-0 shutout over Latvia. Reto Berra, who just made the move to the NHL with Calgary this season, proved to be difficult to solve as well.

Sweden, which just lost captain Henrik Zetterberg to a back injury, took a while to get going. Switzerland, which still has more than half its roster in its domestic league rather than the NHL, outshot the Swedes 13-5 in the first period. Switzerland turned that around in the second with 17 shots to Switzerland’s seven.

The breakthrough came on a nice counterattack and a bad rebound. Defenseman Erik Karlsson, leading Sweden in ice time to that point, swung out wide and put a shot on net. Berra made the save but let it slide to his right, where five-time Olympian Daniel Alfredsson quickly swooped in to tap it into an empty net with 7:21 left.

Did we mention Sweden has Henrik Lundqvist in net? And Sweden kept the pressure off him late, pinning Switzerland in its own end and making it difficult to pull Berra. The goalie finally reached the bench with less than a minute left, and Sweden again came up with possession for several vital seconds. Switzerland found an opening on the right wing for one last shot with 10 seconds left, but Lundqvist had it covered.

Stats

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