Tag: canada

olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Curling, men’s gold medal game

Posted on by Beau Dure

Canada’s Olympic victory was never in doubt, as the curling-mad country swept men’s and women’s gold for the first time.

Date: 21-Feb

Sport: Curling

Event: Men’s gold medal game, Canada vs. Britain

Medalists: Canada, Britain, Sweden

SportsMyriad projections: Canada, Sweden, Britain

What happened: Canada jumped out in front early. Brad Jacobs’ team got a lot of rocks in play in the first end, and David Murdoch needed to take out two of them just to limit the damage. Jacobs scored two with the hammer.

Murdoch had a chance to tie in the second with a takeout, but his rock rolled as well, holding Britain to one.

It got worse. Canada again got a lot of rocks in play in the third, and British vice-skip Greg Drummond got his own rocks out of the house instead of Canada’s. Drummond rebounded to remove three of Canada’s five rocks with his next shot, but Murdoch was powerless to prevent Canada from scoring three for a 5-1 lead.

Murdoch had a tough shot for two in the fourth. He missed. A measurement confirmed a steal of one for Canada and a 6-1 score.

Canada piled on, getting some rocks in the front of the house to limit Britain to one in the fifth. A couple of botched British shots early in the sixth end left Canada in good shape to score two once again and lead 8-2.

Britain needed a big end. The seventh end wasn’t it. Murdoch had a shot for two but could only get one, trailing 8-3 without the hammer.

Murdoch managed to create some chaos in the house in the eighth end, but Jacobs cleared it out, and when Jacobs completed a takeout for a 9-3 lead, Murdoch conceded.

Full results | Recaps with diagrams

0
olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Curling, women’s gold medal game

Posted on by Beau Dure

The women’s curling Olympic title has returned to Canada at last. The teams weren’t the same as the 2010 final, when Sweden rallied on Canada’s gruesome errors to win gold, and neither was the result. Jennifer Jones and company wrapped up a perfect sweep through the Games.

Date: 20-Feb

Sport: Curling

Event: Women’s gold medal game, Sweden vs. Canada

Medalists: Canada, Sweden, Britain

SportsMyriad projections: Sweden, Britain, Canada

What happened: Jennifer Jones, perfect so far in these Games, looked a little uncertain in the first end. She had the hammer and needed a takeout to score one and prevent a score of three. She did, but it nearly hit a guard and nearly rolled too far away. Disaster averted, but would Jones be able to get back in the form she had shown so far in Sochi?

Maria Prytz, not the Swedish skip but the curler tasked with throwing the last rocks, scored an impressive single in the second, knocking a guard into one of her own rocks and dislodging one of Canada’s from the rear.

After a blank third end, Prytz was only able to take out one Canadian rock when she wanted two, leaving Jones an easy draw for a 3-1 lead. But Prytz got it back with a double takeout in the fifth.

Canada wasn’t looking as solid as it had. Using curling’s scoring system — four points or 100% for a well-executed shot, then three, two, one or zero for those that fall short — vice-skip Kaitlyn Lawes was shooting less than 60%, well down from her tournament average of 81%. More than once, she strolled back along the ice and slammed the tip of her broom to the floor in frustration.

They blanked the next two ends, carrying a 3-3 tie into the eighth. But Lawes again struggled with her two shots. After Prytz’s last shot, each team had one rock in the four-foot. Canada couldn’t quite tell which was closer. Jones tried to draw to the center and perhaps nudge Sweden’s rock just a bit. She did neither. The measuring stick came out, and Canada was relieved to score one and take a 4-3 lead — still less than they wanted with two ends to play.

Lawes improved with her deliveries in the ninth end, the second taking out a Swedish rock and leaving four Canadian stones in scoring position. Then Sweden’s Christina Bertrup had a rare miss, sliding her stone between two Canadians stones and out the back of the four-foot. Three Canadian stones were still in scoring position. Jones made it four with a draw to the top of the button.

Prytz responded with a raise, displacing the rock Jones just threw at the top of the four-foot but leaving one Canadian rock closer. Then Jones’ last rock covered half the button, leaving Sweden virtually no chance to score a double.

swe-can 1

But Prytz still had a chance to score one. Instead, Prytz’s hammer was a disaster. Needing to get to the button and dislodge Jones’ stone, she instead knocked her own previous stone out of the four-foot. Canada stole two, taking a 6-3 lead into the 10th.

swe-can 2

The 10th was anticlimactic. Canada kept clearing rocks, making a Swedish triple impossible. Jones had tears of joy in her eyes as her teammates took their final shots, and her own takeout sealed the 6-3 win and the gold.

Full results | Recaps with diagrams

0
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: 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

0
olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Curling, day 1

Posted on by Beau Dure

The U.S. teams had a rough start and the Russian fans partied and squealed as if Justin Bieber was throwing the rocks as curling finally got underway in the 2014 Olympics.

Date: 10-Feb

Sport: Curling

Event: Day 1 of group play, men’s (two sessions) and women’s (one)

How U.S. fared: The men had a bye in the morning session, then fell in a deep hole early against Norway. John Shuster was visibly and audibly annoyed with his last shot in the third end (out of 10), which gave Norway an opening to shoot for three and a 5-1 lead. Shuster calmly drew for two in the fourth to cut it to 5-3 and held Norway to one in the sixth, but a missed double takeout attempt gave Norway a steal* of one and a 7-3 lead. Shuster wound up needing to steal three in the 10th, and that wasn’t happening. 7-4 final.

The women faced Switzerland (coincidentally, at the same time the U.S. women’s hockey team faced Switzerland). Erika Brown’s rink had lost four times to Mirjam Ott’s Swiss, but Ott was cold early, letting the USA lead 2-0 through three ends without having the hammer. A Brown blunder, both in tactics and execution, let Ott take three in the fourth. That gave Brown the hammer for the first time, and she missed twice, giving Switzerland a steal of two and a 5-2 lead. Ott took care of business the rest of the way for a 7-4 win.

What happened: Minor surprise in the morning session (men), with China taking down Denmark 7-4. Two favorites rolled — Britain got four in the sixth end and beat Russia 7-4, Sweden clinically beat Switzerland 7-5.

Canada, by far the biggest curling country, had a matchup that turned surprisingly dramatic at the end. Brad Jacobs’ rink had a comfortable 9-5 lead over Germany after seven, and Felix Schulze had to make a tough shot to claw one back instead of giving up three or four in the eighth. But Jacobs gave up a steal of two in the ninth to cut it to 9-8. Canada nailed things down in the last end to win 11-8.

In the afternoon (women), Canada made quick work of China, winning 9-2. The marquee matchup was Sweden and Britain, where the Swedes eked out a 6-4 win.

Russia, cheered by boisterous fans (perhaps disrupting the USA’s Erika Brown at times), took a 4-1 lead over Denmark but let the Danes steal a couple to tie it at 4-4. Young Russian skip Anna Sidorova had a shot in the ninth that could have gone for four but wound up with two. Russia nearly ran out of time in the 10th end but limited Denmark’s chances, actually stealing one for a 7-4 win.

The evening session, the second of the day for the men, had three fascinating games:

– Sweden beat Britain 8-4 in a matchup of medal contenders, scoring four in the eighth end to break open a close game.

– Canada found itself in a cagey matchup with Switzerland. After four blank ends, the Swiss scored three in the fifth. Canada answered with two, and they traded singles until the 10th, where Canada had the hammer and a 5-3 deficit. Canada’s Brad Jacobs was left with a takeout in which his rock had to stay in the house to score two and force an extra end. He made the takeout, but the rock … just … trickled out. Switzerland with a 5-4 upset. Please console your neighbors to the north.

– Russia’s men kept the cheers going by stealing three in the second end to go up 5-0 on Denmark. The Danes fought back to tie it 7-7 after seven ends. Russia took two in the eighth but whiffed on a big takeout attempt in the ninth, leaving two Danish rocks in scoring position. Danish skip Rasmus Stjerne Hansen made an easy draw for three to take a 10-9 lead into the 10th, by which time all the other games had ended.

And that game kept going, as Alexey Stukalskiy made a pressure-packed takeout through traffic in the 10th to force an extra end. But Denmark frustrated Russia’s efforts to take charge of the house, and when Stukalskiy’s last draw fell short, Russia conceded Denmark’s final shot.

Still a long way to go — they’ll play a full round-robin of 10 teams each before going to a four-team playoff. Maybe Russia’s fans will gain a bit more curling knowledge to go with their enthusiasm by the time we’re done.

Full results

0
soccer

Drawing a line in the stands: Leroux, Day 2

Posted on by Beau Dure

Yesterday’s Sydney Leroux saga had a few predictable outcomes. Late in the day, we heard Leroux wasn’t specifically talking about the game in Toronto on Sunday — in fact, she says the atmosphere there was great! “A positive step forward for women’s soccer,” even.

Of course, by then, it was too late for the Toronto crowd. Many of the mainstream media stories on the web have been updated with Leroux’s clarification — she was talking about an older game in Vancouver, plus Twitter — but a lot of headlines still reflect what her tweet implied: The crowd in Toronto was using racist chants against her.

To respond to one of yesterday’s comments — I don’t see such accusations as “minutiae.” I’d rather be called a bleepity-bleep whatever than a racist. I’ve been called a racist before. It hurts. It cuts to your soul. It is not an accusation to be tossed around lightly and then say, “Oh, I meant those OTHER guys.”

So that’s one lesson learned, and it’s one of many excellent points in Richard Whittall’s column, “Some lessons from the Leroux saga.”

Another lesson is aimed squarely at Canadian fans, in response to attitudes like this:

I’m not going to walk around asking Canadian players what they think of their fans tossing out the c-word and b-word. They shouldn’t have to confront this themselves. Those of us with Y chromosomes should simply know better.

As Whittall put it:

That the rest of the world has set a low bar in acceptable bounds of player abuse isn’t a great reason for Canadian or American fans of womens soccer to do the same.

I’m also still befuddled by people trotting out the notion that this sort of thing happens in men’s soccer all the time, so there’s some sort of double-standard in place. “Balotelli does it” is one of those arguments. Yes, and Balotelli is one the most controversial, if not the most reviled, soccer players in the world.

Europe offers plenty of soccer traditions to emulate. Balotelli’s behavior and fans hurling sexist epithets aren’t among them. Or maybe one day we’ll end borrowing another European tradition — forcing teams to play in empty stadiums.

So, moving forward, we can hope Leroux will quit throwing gasoline on the fire with poorly chosen celebrations and poorly focused accusations. She has made plenty of enemies of non-racist, non-abusive Canadian fans who may have defended her in the past.

But as fans, we all need to take a step back and think about the limits of our fan passions. The Voyageurs immediately spoke out against racism, and that’s terrific. It’s not, however, the end of the conversation about what’s acceptable in the stands.

13