Tag: sochi 2014

olympic sports, winter sports

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

Posted on by Beau Dure

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

Date: 19-Feb

Sport: Cross-country skiing

Event: Women’s team sprint (classical)

Medalists: Norway, Finland, Sweden

SportsMyriad projections: Sweden, Finland, Norway

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

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

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

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

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

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

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Alpine skiing, men’s giant slalom

Posted on by Beau Dure

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

Date: 19-Feb

Sport: Alpine skiing

Event: Men’s giant slalom

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Snowboarding, women’s parallel giant slalom

Posted on by Beau Dure

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

Date: 19-Feb

Sport: Snowboarding

Event: Women’s parallel giant slalom

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

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

How U.S. fared: No entries

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Full results

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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.

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