Tag: 2014 olympics

olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Alpine skiing, men’s combined

Posted on by Beau Dure

Swiss time was not running out in Russia today, with Sandro Viletta taking Olympic combined gold ahead of a cast of the usual suspects.

Date: 14-Feb

Sport: Alpine skiing

Event: Men’s combined (one run each of downhill and slalom)

Medalists: Sandro Viletta (Switzerland), Ivica Kostelic (Croatia), Christof Innerhofer (Italy)

SportsMyriad projections: Alexis Pinturault (France), Ted Ligety (USA), Aksel Lund Svindal (Norway)

How U.S. fared: Defending champion Bode Miller and world champion Ted Ligety were out of contention after the downhill. Miller, at one time a great slalom skier but not as much in recent years, was 12th after the downhill, 1.43 seconds off the lead. Ligety was 18th, 1.93 back.

Ligety wasn’t totally out of it, but he lost a full second to the early leader, Slovakia’s Adam Jampa, just on the bottom third of the slalom course. He knew that wouldn’t stand.

Miller gave up a lot of time early in the slalom. He pushed hard at the end but was only third with 11 seeded skiers to go.

Andrew Weibrecht, the surprise super-G medalist in 2010, straddled a gate in the slalom and slid a few meters on his stomach.

The surprise: 22-year-old Jared Goldberg. The first-time Olympian and second-year World Cup skier had a good downhill run, taking 15th. And then he made his way through the slalom course only 0.17 seconds slower than Ligety. Overall, that put him 0.10 ahead of Ted. Remember the name for the future.

Final results: Miller sixth, Goldberg 11th, Ligety 12th, Weibrecht DNF

What happened: Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic is always a contender in this one — no longer great in other disciplines but still enough of an all-rounder to figure in the mix here. And somehow, Kostelic’s father drew the assignment for setting the course. Again.

And the course chewed up a couple of the contenders. France’s Alexis Pinturault, who usually makes up time in the slalom, went out early. Italy’s Peter Fill straddled a gate.

Through 16 skiers in the slalom, early starter Adam Zampa still had the lead. Switzerland’s Sandro Viletta broke through with the second-fastest slalom, taking the lead by 1.14 seconds.

Before the top 10 from the downhill took the course, the tentative podium was Viletta, Zampa and Bode Miller. Surely that wouldn’t stand, right?

Switzerland’s Carlo Janka has a better resume than most, but he came across in fourth. Italy’s Christof Innerhofer, the downhill silver medalist and a World Championship runner-up in this event in 2011, cut quickly through the bottom of the course to take second, bumping Miller off the podium.

Then came Kostelic, skiing his father’s course. He got onto the tentative podium ahead of Innerhofer, but he was surprisingly cautious and didn’t catch Viletta.

Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal is the greatest skier of the past several years. But the senior Kostelic’s course tripped him up in 2010, and he worked his way through it slowly, finishing out of the top five.

The last five seeded skiers faced the challenge of converting their strong downhill form into a fast run down this rough course that took out one-quarter of the skiers who had gone before. Austria’s Matthias Mayer, looking for a medal to add his surprising downhill gold, went slowly and missed the top 10. The Czech Republic’s Ondrej Bank looked like he was skiing in fear of the gates, finishing but missing the top five.

Last seeded skier: Could Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud make up for Svindal’s exit? He went out smoothly in nice control. He gave up time to Viletta’s splits but was still in contention for the podium until the very end, falling a half-second short of the podium.

Viletta doesn’t have the biggest name in the sport, but he’s not a shocking gold medalist. He was fifth in the 2013 World Championships and fourth in the lone World Cup race in this discipline so far this season. The other two medalists are no surprise — particularly when one’s father sets the course.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Cross-country skiing, men’s 15k

Posted on by Beau Dure

It’s Dario Cologna’s week. The Swiss skier picked up his second gold medal on another warm, slushy day in which the best-finishing Norwegian, Chris Andre Jespersen, wore tight shorts.

Date: 14-Feb

Sport: Cross-country skiing

Event: Men’s 15k classical

Medalists: Dario Cologna (Switzerland), Johan Olsson (Sweden), Daniel Richardsson (Sweden)

SportsMyriad projections: Alexey Poltoranin (Kazakhstan), Maxim Vylegzhanin (Russia), Petter Northug (Norway)

How U.S. fared: Not a good event for the Americans. Noah Hoffman led the way in 31st, 2:33 back. Then Erik Bjornsen (38th, 3:15), Brian Gregg (47th, 4:12) and Kris Freeman (52nd, 4:25).

What happened: We all had Finland’s Iivo Niskanen in our projections, right? You know he’s important when his FIS results page doesn’t have his picture. And how about that … one World Cup top-10?

He did win the U23 World Championships in this event last month. So when he started 13th and immediately set jaw-dropping split times, he got some attention. Then when most of the favorites couldn’t match those split times, the cameras made sure to follow him around the course, all the way to his theatrical fall after finishing.

But sometimes, a good skier has an even better week. So it was no surprise when Switzerland’s Dario Cologna, the skiathlon winner earlier this week, started beating Niskanen’s split times. So did Sweden’s Johan Olsson, the World Championship runner-up.

The other contenders weren’t in the picture. Petter Northug, clearly not at his best this week, didn’t even start. Alexey Poltoranin, the pick of NBC’s Chad Salmela as well as SportsMyriad, came across the splits in the top 10 but no higher. Martin Johnsrud Sundby was fifth at the first checkpoint but faded.

Russia, desperate for a medal after some close calls, threw some surprising names into the mix. Maxim Vylegzhanin, a very close fourth in the skiathlon, wasn’t racing. Alexander Bessmertnykh, with one World Cup podium in the past four years, finished in a very tentative second place but was knocked off the podium within seconds.

Cologna started one place behind Olsson, and they came into the finish together. And they took the top two places — Cologna at 38:29.7, Olsson 28.5 seconds back. Niskanen was 39.0 seconds behind them.

The last serious threat to the podium was Sweden’s Daniel Richardsson, who was 11th at the 8k mark but saved his best for last. He could see the time he needed as he struggled to find some energy down the stretch. He pushed his poles as hard as he could, lunged and … beat Niskanen by 0.2 seconds.

Full results

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medal projections, olympic sports, winter sports

Best/worst, Sochi medal projections vs. reality: Feb. 13

Posted on by Beau Dure

Anyone else beginning to think US Speedskating’s super suits aren’t so super? Apparently.

And speedskating is the event responsible for the biggest changes from the original projections. It accounts for most of the USA’s drop, and it accounts for the Netherlands’ lofty rank in the medal table.

Here’s how things are shaping up …

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, Norway would have 32, and then we’d have a three-way tie at 29 — Canada, USA, Russia. Interesting. Then Austria and the Netherlands at 22, Germany 20, Sweden 14, Switzerland 13, France 12, South Korea 10.

Someone asked about gold medal projections. The original projections there: USA 15, Norway 14, Canada 10, Germany 8, Russia 6, Netherlands among a big group at 5.

The new pace through Thursday would have a four-way tie at 10 each: USA, Norway, Germany, Canada. Then Netherlands 8, Russia 7, Austria 6.

DOWN

Norway (-2 today, -7 overall): The story continues — still getting some medals at the Nordic venue, just not quite as many as expected. Marit Bjoergen and Emil Hegle Svendsen are usually good bets, but not today in the soft snow.

US Speedskating: Yes, we’re breaking them out separately. It’s one thing for Heather Richardson to miss the podium in the 500, where’s she good but not great. But when she and Brittany Bowe miss out in the 1,000 a day after Shani Davis did the same, then the team is in an 0-for-4 hole. That’s two-thirds of the USA’s current deficit of six.

The better news: The USA swept freestyle skiing’s men’s slopestyle, only the third such sweep in U.S. Winter Games history.

STEADYING

Germany (+1 today, -3 overall): They don’t always win medals, but when they do, they tend to be gold. Seven of their 10 medals so far are gold. Today, they picked up their expected gold in the luge relay along with their first silver — Erik Lesser in biathlon.

South Korea (even today, -5 overall): Picked up a short-track medal as expected.

UP

Netherlands (+2 today, +8 overall): Projected for four medals through this point. They have 12. Can we have speedskating events like “1,000 meters for skaters from somewhere else”? Maybe after we institute “badminton for people not from China” in the summer.

Sweden (+1 today, +4 today): Though, oddly enough, they have no gold so far.

China (+1 today, +2 overall): Gold in each form of speedskating today.

Latvia (+1 today, +2 overall): Slightly exceeding expectations on the sliding track, with one luge medal each of the last two days.

HIGHLIGHTS

Best Sarah McLachlan influence: Slopestyle medalist Gus Kenworthy is trying to bring a family of stray dogs back to the USA.

Least surprising way technology is changing the Games: Why wait to bump into someone to find a dating prospect? Slopestyle gold medalist Jamie Anderson says dating app Tinder is quite popular in the mountains. Hey, isn’t your event over?

Best performance by an athlete representing Togo: Mathilde-Amivi Petitjean was 68th in the women’s 10k classical cross-country race.

Best reason not to be too cynical about the Olympics: Mike Wise on the kids who share a bond of childhood illnesses with Shaun White. They got to meet him just as a bunch of folks back home were snarking on him.

Best hockey fan:

Most likely to carry the U.S. flag: Nordic athletes.

Best bounce-back: Lowell Bailey wasn’t happy with his Olympics so far, but posting the best result by an American man in Olympic biathlon will change that.

Biggest wipeout: The women’s 500-meter short-track final …

https://twitter.com/WillieCornblatt/status/433937989299761154

Strangest way to deal with back pain: “Changing poopy diapers,” says Noelle Pikus-Pace, who’s second after the first day of women’s skeleton. No, that just takes your mind off it.

Worst accident: A forerunner (track-tester, basically) at the bobsled venue ran into a track worker. Initial word: leg fractures, not life-threatening injuries.

Worst wardrobe malfunction: Come on, slopestyle skiers — save the baggy pants for the mall.

Strangest wardrobe: A couple of U.S. cross-country skiers opted for tank tops in the balmy weather, looking for a bit as if they were wearing nothing under their bibs.

Today’s weather in Pyeongchang, host of the 2018 Olympics: Cold

FULL TABLE

[gview file=”https://duresport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014-medal-projections-feb13.pdf”%5D

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Figure skating, men’s short program

Posted on by Beau Dure

Russian legend Evgeni Plushenko fell in pain and couldn’t keep going. American Jeremy Abbott fell hard into the side of the rink but won over the Russian fans by getting back up and completing an otherwise strong program. Meanwhile, Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu had the best point total in an international event, and the USA’s Jason Brown was among a gaggle of skaters with a legitimate shot at bronze behind Hanyu and Patrick Chan.

Date: 13-Feb

Sport: Figure skating

Event: Men’s short program

How U.S. fared: Jeremy Abbott went up for his first jump, a quad-triple combination, and wiped out like a short-track skater on the quad landing. He slammed hard on his side and skidded hard into the boards. For a few seconds, it seems as if he would follow Evgeni Plushenko in withdrawing.

But Abbott got up, tentatively went across the ice, heard the crowd, and kept right on going. He got through the rest of his program with hardly a bobble.

It wasn’t as if the judges went overboard with sympathy. They still gave Abbott a negative Grade of Execution on his triple axel. He scored a 72.58, pretty good for someone who nearly broke himself in half attempting his first jump. No medal for him, but if anyone ever questions the guts that figure skaters bring to the ice, show that clip. He’s in 15th.

Jason Brown seems to be a Prince fan. He skated to Prince music (alas, not one of the classics) and had the old Prince symbol on his back. And he skated cleanly, just without the dazzling jumps of a few others. His 86.00 was ahead of his season best of 84.77. He’s in sixth place, just 0.98 points out of third.

What happened: Not a figure skating fan but looking for a fun performance that actually rocks? Check out Canada’s Kevin Reynolds, who leapt around to some AC/DC.

The favorites threw down in the second-to-last group. Japanese teen Yuzuru Hanyu did a fist bump after landing a flawless quad, and his confidence carried him through. He’s the first person to break 100 in an international men’s short program.

Spain’s Javier Fernandez followed with a good program despite a couple of missteps here and there. Then came the other big favorite — Canada’s Patrick Chan, skating to Rachmaninov. His opening quad-triple combo was a nice answer to Hanyu’s challenge — add the +2.00 Grade of Execution, and he got 16.40 points just on that. But he had to step out of a landing on a triple axel. With the arena so quiet you could hear Chan’s skates scrape across the ice, the Canadian nailed the rest of his program for a strong 97.52, well ahead of Fernandez and Brown — and certainly in striking range of Hanyu.

French veteran Brian Joubert, accomplished everywhere but the Olympics, closed the penultimate program with a clean, conservative program.

In the last group, Kazakhstan’s Denis Ten had the potential to challenge the leaders, but he fell badly on his opening quad and could only salvage an 84.06.

Germany’s Peter Liebers sparked a debate between NBC commentators Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski. Weir thought he was solid but not memorable. Lipinski disagreed. The judges didn’t give him great component scores, but he moved ever so slightly ahead of Brown at 86.04.

China’s Han Yan stumbled a bit to get an 85.66. The last two were the Japanese, starting with Daisuke Takahashi. The defending bronze medalist underrotated his opening quad and landed on two feet. He wound up joining the logjam between third and 10th.

Tatsuki Machida, who won a pair of Grand Prix events this season, joined the end of that logjam by failing to finish a couple of his planned elements. He’s at 83.48 points, just 3.5 behind Fernandez in third.

Quote: “The second I stood up and the crowd was screaming, I had to finish.” – Jeremy Abbott on NBC

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Curling, day 4

Posted on by Beau Dure

The U.S. women finally got one on the board, while the Canadian women and surprising Chinese men remained unbeaten.

Date: 13-Feb

Sport: Curling

Event: Day 4 of group play, with two women’s session and one men’s.

How U.S. fared: The damage for the U.S. men was done in the third end. John Shuster missed two hit-and-roll attempts, letting Britain steal two points and take a 3-0 lead. The teams scored nothing but singles the rest of the way, and Britain won 5-3.

The U.S. women, idle in the morning session, finally put together the game they needed. Erika Brown pounced on a Japanese mistake in the fourth end and lined up a phalanx of rocks in the house, stealing two and leading 4-2. After trading singles, Brown scored two in the eighth to go up 7-4, kept Japan from posting a big number in the ninth, then held her nerve on an open draw in the 10th for the 8-6 win.

What happened:

Morning session (women): Unbeaten Canada took on winless Denmark, and you can guess the result. Tied 3-3 after three, Denmark could do anything with the hammer in four straight ends, giving up two steals to fall behind 5-3. Denmark finally tied it in the eighth but gave up three in the ninth, then conceded.

The other two games were tied heading into the 10th, and each team with the hammer scored one for the win. Britain moved to 2-2 with an 8-7 win over China, and Sweden handed Switzerland its first loss in a 9-8 decision.

Afternoon session (men): Denmark gave Canada a good game but needed a steal in the 10th with the game tied at 6. Danish skip Rasmus Stjerne Hansen missed the whole house with his last shot, giving Brad Jacobs the easiest possible draw. He convered for a 7-6 win, moving the Canadians up to 3-2.

Norway trailed 5-3 in the 10th and made a cheeky attempt at a nearly impossible shot. With no rocks in the house, Thomas Ulsrud needed to bump one of his guards into the rings AND somehow get his shooter in there as well. He got the bump but couldn’t quite keep the shooter. That’s Norway’s first loss, and Sweden is 4-1.

The shocker was winless Russia against one-win Switzerland. The Swiss had it locked down — up 6-4 with the hammer heading into the 10th. But Sven Michel’s hammer slid a couple of feet too far, giving Russia a steal of THREE and a 7-6 win.

Evening session (women): Switzerland had been 3-0 through three days, but after a loss in the morning session, Mirjam Ott’s rink had to come back against Canada. The Canadians stole a couple of points to lead 5-2 through six, made things interesting by conceding a steal of two in the eighth, then slammed the door by scoring three in the ninth. Final: 8-5.

South Korea put another damper on the Russian fans’ spirits with a comfortable 8-4 win over the hosts, and Denmark stayed winless by missing a tough draw in the 10th to fall 7-6 to Sweden.

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

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Skeleton, women’s first two runs

Posted on by Beau Dure

The expected battle between Britain’s Lizzy Yarnold and the USA’s Noelle Pikus-Pace is going the way of the British at the halfway point.

Date: 13-Feb

Sport: Skeleton

Event: Women’s, first two runs (of four)

How U.S. fared: Noelle Pikus-Pace is 0.44 seconds behind the leader, finishing second in each heat. The minor surprise is Katie Uhlaender, who has a world championship on her resume but not much World Cup success this year. She’s fourth, 0.69 seconds back, and right in the thick of the mix for the podium.

What happened: Russia’s sliders are third, fifth, and sixth, and Australia filed a protest, claiming Russia was warming up on a push track that wasn’t open to others. Protest denied. So prepare for the medal stage of a rare sliding event in which the Germans aren’t contending.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Biathlon, men’s individual

Posted on by Beau Dure

France’s Martin Fourcade took his second gold medal of these Olympic Games. That was expected. Silver for Germany’s Erik Lesser was not. Bronze for Russia’s Evgeniy Garanichev defied all reason. And the USA’s Lowell Bailey had the best U.S. finish ever with a solid eighth-place run.

Date: 13-Feb

Sport: Biathlon

Event: Men’s individual (20k)

Medalists: Martin Fourcade (France), Erik Lesser (Germany), Evgeniy Garanichev (Russia)

SportsMyriad projections: Martin Fourcade (France), Dominik Landertinger (Austria), Emil Hegle Svendsen (Norway)

How U.S. fared: Tim Burke, harboring faint but plausible medal hopes coming in, was the first U.S. athlete on the course, starting 29th. Lowell Bailey, also with a solid World Cup record, started 58th. Then the less experienced guys — Leif Nordgren 62nd, Russell Currier 79th.

Bailey actually got some screen time on the international feed, zipping cleanly through his fourth shooting stage. He missed one on the day and went through the next checkpoint in eighth place and finished the same way, one place behind medal favorite Svendsen. No one left on the course had a shot at displacing him. He wound up 26 places ahead of Ole Einar Bjoerndalen.

Burke missed four shots, all in standing stages, to finish 44th — 4:49.5 off the pace. Currier also missed four, all early, and came in 50th.

Nordgren implausibly missed all five shots in a prone stage. He finished 83rd.

What happened: This is the toughest of the biathlon events — five laps of 4k, with a shooting stage after each of the first four. If you miss, you can’t just fly around a penalty loop and make up time — each miss adds one minute to your time.

And it’s another event with athletes going one at a time. Some contenders’ starting positions:

  • Svendsen 9
  • Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (Norway) 15
  • Simon Eder (Austria) 16
  • Landertinger 19
  • M. Fourcade 31

The early surprise was Lithuania’s Tomas Kaukenas. He started 10th, and yet his split times kept holding up as the contenders went past. Shooting cleanly on the first three stages didn’t hurt. His best World Cup career finish: 22nd. This season? 40th.

Then came France’s Jean Guillaume Beatrix, the surprise bronze medalist in the pursuit. He had never finished in the top 10 in the grueling individual discipline, and yet he shot cleaning and took over the third-stage lead from Kaukenas.

Bjoerndalen, the 40something still chasing career medal records, took himself out of contention with his gun, missing one at each stage. Defending champion Svendsen took himself out with his skis, missing just once but not even taking the lead through the first nine starters.

Kaukenas finally blew up at the last stage, missing three. Eder shot cleanly there, missing just one total, and ripped through the fourth shoot with the lead.

But another stunner emerged. Russia’s Evgeniy Garanichev, the first skier on the course, missed one shot and set the early pace at 50:06.2. With no other times to compare, no one knew just how fast Garanichev had churned through the soft snow on a warm day. When Eder plowed across the finish line 3.3 seconds slower, we got the hint. Garanichev is a good sprinter but had never finished in the top seven of a World Cup individual.

Landertinger had shot cleanly. But he came into the stadium and couldn’t beat Garanichev or Eder, taking a precarious third position.

And he knew that wouldn’t hold against the masterful Martin Fourcade. He missed once and was a picture of determination as he knocked down the final five targets and raced out for his final lap. He finally removed Garanichev from first place, coming in at 49:31.7, 34.5 seconds faster than the Russian.

Germany’s Erik Lesser, starting 41st, at least had a better World Cup resume than Garanichev. His clean shooting put him in the mix, ahead of Fourcade at the fourth-shooting checkpoint. The German had coaches around the course to yell at him as he went by — possibly a blessing, possibly a curse. Lesser was never going to match Fourcade’s speed, but he did not Garanichev down to third and shoved Eder off the podium.

Half the field was still on the course, but no one was going to catch Fourcade, Lesser and Garanichev. The two Austrians, Eder and Landertinger, were next. Then the surprising Beatrix and disappointing Svendsen, who clearly isn’t in top form this week.

Quote: “Oh Lowell Bailey – well done. Plays in a band with his father. Might have something to sing about now.” – commentator on the international feed

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Cross-country, women’s 10k classical

Posted on by Beau Dure

You don’t usually see an Olympic cross-country race in short sleeves and tank tops, but that’s what we had here. And in the end, it was a Polish great with a broken foot — Justyna Kowalczyk — surviving the heat to take gold, while 15k skiathlon winner Marit Bjoergen faded and was unable to add to her collection of eight Olympic medals.

Date: 13-Feb

Sport: Cross-country

Event: Women’s 10k classical

Medalists: Justyna Kowalczyk (Poland), Charlotte Kalla (Sweden), Therese Johaug (Norway)

SportsMyriad projections: Marit Bjoergen (Norway), Justyna Kowalczyk (Poland), Heidi Weng (Norway)

How U.S. fared: Sprint finalist Sophie Caldwell didn’t seem to be wearing anything under her race bib. She dressed appropriately and went out fast — through the first 13 skiers, she was second-fastest. Holly Brooks’ time was 7.7 seconds behind her. Ida Sargent had the last start among the Americans and slid into place just ahead of Brooks. Final places: Caldwell 32nd, Sargent 34th, Brooks 35th.

The best race was Sadie Bjornsen’s. The 24-year-old beat several consistent contenders and finished 18th, 1:41.9 behind the winner.

What happened: The favorites all started in the middle of the pack on the warm day for this race against the clock, with each skier taking off at a 30-second interval. If the snow got slushy as the day wore on, the lower-seeded skiers would need to deal with it.

The top contenders were all within a group of five — Poland’s Justyna Kowalczyk started 43rd, Norway’s Marit Bjoergen 45th and Norway’s Therese Johaug 46th. And it was indeed Kowalczyk setting the pace at the 2.2k mark at 5:20. Bjoergen came across just 1.9 seconds back, then Johaug 3.2 back. Two more Norwegians were unsurprisingly in the mix — Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen (starting 44th) and Heidi Weng (42nd). No one else was close.

But by the 5k mark, Weng had fallen back. And Kowalczyk extended her lead over the Norwegians — 9.1 seconds over Bjoergen. Sweden’s Charlotte Falla, starting 40th, slipped ahead of Johaug. Jacobsen, whose brother passed away just as the Games began, had some sort of untelevised mishap and fell 50 seconds back.

Bjoergen came through a 6k checkpoint just ahead of Kowalczyk, but that quickly changed. The Polish skier was digging deep at the 8k mark, and it paid off. When Bjoergen labored up the hill, the Norwegian favorite came across the time check 19.9 seconds back, just ahead of Falla and Finland’s Aino-Kaisa Saarinen. Johaug was the only other skier within striking distance — 4.7 seconds separated third from fifth.

Saarinen was the first of the contenders to finish, taking the lead at 28.48.1. Then came Kalla, furiously double-poling down the stretch and drafting behind Russia’s Yulia Tchekaleva. Kalla took the lead, 11.9 seconds ahead of Saarinen.

Bjoergen looked “defeated,” in the words on NBC’s excitable Chad Salmela. As he said that, one of Bjoergen’s skis slipped a little on the uphill.

Then came Kowalczyk, pushing for every last second. She beat Kalla’s time by 18.4 seconds and collapsed into the snow. The leaders: Kowalczyk, Kalla, Saarinen — with two contending Norwegians coming in.

Bjoergen, one of the top skiers ever in this sport, came in pushing just for bronze. She fell 3.1 seconds short.

Johaug was the last skier who could affect the podium, sprinting to bump off Saarinen. It went down to the wire, but Johaug got it by two seconds.

With that, Kowalczyk broke down in tears, overwhelmed by her accomplishment. And why not?

Full results

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medal projections, olympic sports, winter sports

Best/worst, Sochi medal projections vs. reality: Feb. 12

Posted on by Beau Dure

The judging at the Olympics is difficult to follow. Decisions are made for arcane reasons, and it’s hard for those of us watching at home to discern any consistency.

But enough about women’s hockey. Onto the medal updates …

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, the final medal count would be: Norway 34, USA 30, Canada 29, Russia 29, Austria 23, Netherlands 20, Germany 19, Sweden 13, Switzerland 13, France 12, South Korea 10

DOWN

Germany (-2 today, -4 overall): Strange to say Germany’s “down” when you see them ranked first at any news site that ranks countries by gold medals rather than total medals. And it’s not that a lot of German athletes are horribly disappointing. It’s just that they were projected for a lot of medals in particular events. Today it was doubles luge, where they picked up one (gold) instead of two, and Maria Hoefl-Riesch didn’t medal in the downhill.

South Korea (-1 today, -5 overall): Percentage-wise, they’re easily the disappointment of the Games so far. Projected for six medals at this point, and they’ve got one. Things aren’t going well in speedskating for the Korean team or …

USA (-1 today, -5 overall): Shani Davis was favored to win his third straight gold at 1,000 meters. He wasn’t even close to the podium. The better news: The snowboarders picked up the projected gold and bronze in the halfpipe, even if they weren’t exactly the projected names.

UP

Netherlands (+2 today, +6 overall): Always good in speedskating, but now it’s getting a little ridiculous. They’ve won eight of a possible nine medals in the men’s events, then two more in the women’s races. That’s all 10 of their medals.

Switzerland (+2 today, +2 overall): Right on target with two projected medals coming into today, then an unexpected gold (one of the two) and bronze in the women’s downhill.

RIGHT ON TARGET

Australia: Projected for one medal so far, a silver in women’s halfpipe. And that’s what they got.

HIGHLIGHTS

Funniest video: “Videobomb” doesn’t do justice to what Todd Lodwick did to NBC’s Randy Moss. The Nordic combined veteran walked behind Moss’s back when the commentator was doing a stand-up … about Lodwick. So Lodwick got in the camera shot behind him and punctuated the unsuspecting Moss’s report with a few gestures, shrugs and smiles. No one let Moss in on the joke until the end. See it yourself.

Best shot: See the curling recap to see how Canada’s Jennifer Jones hit something that would baffle a physicist. If only curling had style points …

Best finish: Switzerland-Latvia hockey … 0-0 … 0-0 … 0-0 … going to overti- … 1-0!!!

Best throw: Do Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir get credit for landing the first quadruple Salchow throw in Olympic pairs history? The official results say yes. Writers don’t seem to be sure. She made it around four times but two-footed the landing.

Best payoff from cattle sale: Kaitlyn Farrington’s parents sold cattle to finance her snowboarding career. Now she’s a gold medalist. And now she’s going to “dance her face off.” Sounds more painful than crashing in the halfpipe.

Best explanation of a tie: Olympic stats guru Bill Mallon tells us why it wouldn’t make any sense to do 1,000ths of a second in Alpine skiing.

Most pressing question for snowboarding pundits: In the slopestyle, some folks apparently complained that judges were giving more of a reward for clean landings than they were for big tricks. Is that also why Torah Bright is on the halfpipe podium and Hannah Teter isn’t?

Best explanation of unusual results: “(It) happens.” — Marit Bjoergen

Most quotable commentator: Johnny Weir. He and Tara Lipinski deduced that the French entry in the pairs competition was trying to portray an angel falling from heaven. “It’s not easy to grab someone by the hips after they’ve fallen from heaven.” Can he and Lipinski take over as American Idol judges?

Most well-rounded bobsledder: Johnny Quinn is a former pro football player and nationally ranked Halo player. You may know him from breaking down his bathroom door.

Mightiest fall: Norwegian cross-country skier Petter Northug dominated in Whistler four years ago — gold in the distinctly different events of team sprint and 50k classical, relay silver, and individual spring bronze. And he has been dominant in World Championships and the World Cup since then. This year? Dropped from his next event.

Worst officials: The referees didn’t cost the U.S. women’s hockey team the game against Canada today. The USA’s failure to match Canada’s intensity took care of that. But the officials just flat-out stunk.

Worst bureaucratic overreach: Take off that black armband, Norway!

Worst teammates: All is not well in German luge.

We knew it was warm in Sochi, but …: Maybe Lebanese skier Jackie Chamoun should put a shirt on. (OK, these photos were shot a while ago. But now people want to strip to show support for her. Anyway — the video in that link is absolutely NSFW.)

FULL TABLE

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Figure skating, pairs

Posted on by Beau Dure

Russia, Russia. Then Russia, Russia. The Olympic hosts really enjoyed this night, as their two figure skating pairs were magnificent. Canadian and American pairs had their moments, while Germany’s four-time world champions skidded to bronze.

Date: 12-Feb

Sport: Figure skating

Event: Pairs, free skate

Medalists: Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov (Russia), Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov (Russia), Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy (Germany)

SportsMyriad projections: Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov (Russia), Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy (Germany), Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford (Canada)

How U.S. fared: Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir went for it once again. Depending on your definition of “landed,” they’re the first pair to land a quadruple Salchow throw in the Olympics. Castelli two-footed the landing but was given credit for it. They had a couple more bobbles on the way to a ninth-place finish.

Felicia Zhang and Nathan Barthomay weren’t as technically dazzling but skated cleanly, moving up from 14th in the short program to 12th overall.

What happened: A couple of favorites faltered. Canada’s Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, fifth after the short program, had a fall that removed them from contention. China’s 16-year-old Chang Peng fell and had several more problems as she and Hao Zhang dropped down the standings.

Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch took up the mantle for Canada, building momentum through a clean and flowing program that had Moore-Towers jumping up and down on the ice as the final notes of the music sounded. That performance was the best before the Big Four took the ice.

The Big Four started with the surprise — Russia’s Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov, who had the thinnest resume of the final group. In October, they were a distant third behind their compatriots and Moore-Towers/Moscovitch at Skate America. Not this time. Skating to some music from The Addams Family, the young Russians nailed every element in their program, easily moving into the lead.

That was the warmup for the favorites, Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov. They also hit absolutely everything in an athletic program set to Jesus Christ Superstar. Not only did they get great scores for their elements, but their “component” scores were through the roof — everything at least a 9.46, with a 9.96 for “interpretation timing.” Home-crowd boost? Maybe a little, but no one could deny their greatness. They took the lead over Stolbova and Klimov as the Russian crowd exulted in the performances of their favorites.

Good luck following that, Qing Pang and Jian Tong! They botched their first combination jump — a planned double-double that turned into a double-single — but rebounded with tremendous composure. They slid into a tentative third place with one pair to go.

That pair was the four-time world champion German duo of Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy. The daring duo, in second place after their fun Pink Panther short program, hit trouble right away. Szolkowy tumbled after the first jump in a planned triple-triple combination. They bounced back with aplomb before heading into what NBC commentator Johnny Weir called a gutsy decision — a triple Salchow throw at the very end of the program. Savchenko flew up, spun, then landed with a nasty thud. Their component scores — and their short program — kept them on the podium.

Quote: “It’s not easy to grab someone by the hips after they’ve fallen from heaven.” – NBC’s Johnny Weir on the French pair of Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres.

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