Tag: sochi 2014

olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Ski jumping, men’s large hill

Posted on by Beau Dure

The Olympic ski jumping venue was built with all sorts of wind-breaking measures in place, but there’s only so much we humans can do about the elements. So leave it to the veteran of veterans — seven-time Olympian Noriaki Kasai — to figure everything out and take the first individual Olympic medal of his career (he had a team silver in 1994) while normal hill winner Kamil Stoch won his second gold of the Games.

Date: 15-Feb

Sport: Ski jumping

Event: Men’s large hill

Medalists: Kamil Stoch (Poland), Noriaki Kasai (Japan), Peter Prevc (Slovenia)

SportsMyriad projections: Gregor Schlierenzauer (Austria), Kamil Stoch (Poland), Simon Ammann (Switzerland)

How U.S. fared: Seems a little cruel to let someone jump and then tell him his suit is too big, disqualifying him, but that’s what happened to Anders Johnson.

Nick Fairall wasn’t too far out of the top 30, jumping 119.5 meters with a wind disadvantage to finish 35th. Nick Alexander was 48th at 111.5 meters.

What happened: Even with wind adjustments figured into the scoring, several of the top 10 ski jumpers in the world couldn’t figure things out in their first jump, taking themselves out of contention. Four-time gold medalist Simon Ammann barely made the top 30 to qualify for the second jump, while other seeded jumpers missed the cut.

Germany’s Severin Freund restored order with a jump of 138 meters in near-zero wind. Austrian favorite Gregor Schlierenzauer looked happy with his first jump, but he was 5.5 meters behind Freund and lost points on wind and style, good only for 14th.

Then it was 41-year-old Noriaki Kasai of Japan, still looking to improve on his fifth-place finish in the 1994 Olympics (normal hill). And that was his second trip to the Olympics. (This is his seventh.) He has a couple of World Championship medals in his career and plenty of World Cup wins, including one this season in a ski flying (really large hill) event. He certainly flew here — 139 meters with excellent style points — to take the lead.

Slovenia’s Peter Prevc jumped into contention at 135 meters. Then came the normal hill gold medalist, Poland’s Kamil Stoch, who leaped as far as Kasai with slightly better wind and style points.

The top three of Stoch, Kasai and Freund had a sizable gap on Prevc and a large advantage over the rest of the pack heading into the second jump.

The second jump saw a few early jumpers go all over the place — one drifted far to the left, and Russia’s Dimitry Vassiliev caught some nice wind to sail 144.5 meters. He got few style points for the landing, just doing all he could stay upright, but the crowd enjoyed the flight. Officials reset the gate a couple of jumpers later, shortening the ramp (they factor that into the scoring along with the wind).

Schlierenzauer moved up a few places on his second jump and stood third, behind Norway’s Anders Fannemel and Germany’s Marinus Kraus, until the last four took their shots …

Prevc: 131 meters from a low gate with bad wind. So certainly not the farthest jump of the round but the best so far. First place with three to go, and Schlierenzauer was out.

Freund: Not … quite. 129.5 meters in minimal wind. The totals came in, and he bent in two and hung his head when he saw the scores, slotting into second behind Prevc. That clinched a medal for the Slovenian and left the German jumper with a nervous wait.

Kasai: The grand old man of ski jumping jumped 133.5 meters and was mobbed by teammates as soon as he skidded to a halt. The scores put him first, clinching a medal at age 41!

Would it be gold, or would Kamil Stoch get the normal hill/large hill double? Stoch was a bit shorter at 132.5, and the wind was similar. Would his lead stand? Yes … by 1.3 points. Stoch celebrated while Kasai was carried off on his teammates’ shoulders.

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Women’s ice hockey, Switzerland-Russia

Posted on by Beau Dure

A classic goaltender’s battle: Russia’s 20-year-old Anna Prugova vs. Switzerland’s Florence Schelling, the two-time Hockey East player of the year at Northeastern University. Prugova was nearly perfect. Schelling was better.

Date: 15-Feb

Sport: Women’s ice hockey

Event: Switzerland vs. Russia

Score: Switzerland 2, Russia 0

What happened: A tense scoreless affair for 30 minutes until Switzerland’s Stefanie Marty scored halfway through the second period. Russia couldn’t convert four power plays through two periods.

The host country came out hard in the third and peppered Florence Schelling, outshooting the Swiss 19-7. But the Swiss did a nice job of clearing traffic so Schelling could see the shots coming.

Russia pulled goalie Anna Prugova with 90 seconds left and piled on the pressure. But the Swiss defense blocked a couple of shots and sent Lara Stalder the other way with the puck. The Russian defense retreated in front of the open net, but Stalder calmly buried her shot to seal the game and a semifinal date with Canada.

Ominously, just after the final horn sounded on the Russian women’s Olympic hopes, the men conceded a go-ahead goal to the USA.

Stats

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Short-track, men’s 1,000 meters

Posted on by Beau Dure

That’s Olympic short-track. Another good day to toss out that phrase, with two favorites down in the quarterfinals. And do you think South Korea regrets keeping Hyun-Soo Ahn out of the 2010 Olympics and letting him slip away to Russia as Viktor Ahn?

Date: 15-Feb

Sport: Short-track speedskating

Event: Men’s 1,000 meters

Medalists: Viktor Ahn (Russia), Vladimir Gregorev (Russia), Sjinkie Knegt (Netherlands)

SportsMyriad projections: Charles Hamelin (Canada), Viktor Ahn (Russia), J.R. Celski (USA)

How U.S. fared: All three went out in the quarterfinals. Chris Creveling was just a hair slower than the top two in his race.

J.R. Celski simply tripped over one of the little markers in the turns. He skidded into the padding and didn’t finish the race.

Eddy Alvarez was unlucky. Canadian favorite Charles Hamelin fell just in front of him. Alvarez had no chance to avoid Hamelin, and they went together into the pads. The judges, though, saw no reason to advance Alvarez to the semifinals.

What happened: Utter carnage in the quarterfinals, with favorites Hamelin and Celski out along with all the other North Americans and most of the Western Europeans. The semifinals wound up with two South Koreans, two Chinese skaters and three Russians. The Netherlands’ Sjinkie Knegt was the outsider.

First semifinal: The two Korean skaters settled to the back for the first couple of laps. Han-Bin Lee tried to pass in a corner but barged into Knegt. Lee drifted to the outside and let the contenders lap him, as if expecting the DQ. Russia’s Vladimir Gregorev and South Korea’s Da Woon Sin easily advanced, and Knegt was sent through to the final on Lee’s DQ.

Second semifinal: The two Russians settled in behind the two Chinese skaters. Wu Dajing kept taking a wide turn. With two laps to go, the Russians pounced and got ahead of Han Tianyu. Then Viktor Ahn got ahead of Wu, but Elistratov was unable to make it a three-Russian final.

So we still had a powerhouse final with half of the 2013 World Championship final — Sin and Knegt but not Hamelin and Celski. And Grigorev had been a semifinalist in that event. Ahn was second in the 2013-14 World Cup season, and he just happened to win this event while competing for South Korea in 2006. Wu also had a strong resume.

The B final — always important because the winner can grab a medal if a couple of skaters are disqualified from the A final — had just two skaters thanks to Knegt’s advancement and Lee’s penalty.

Then the big moment, and the two Russians just took control. Ahn and Grigorev weren’t seriously challenged and finished 1-2. Knegt passed the surprisingly lethargic Sin for bronze. Sin was later penalized and dropped to fifth, with Wu a close fourth behind Knegt.

(BTW, we’re still saying “Ahn” rather than “An” until we get an actual explanation as to why the “h” should be dropped. Changing from “Hyun-Soo” to “Viktor” when changing countries makes sense, but why one letter of the last name? Translation from Korean to Russian and then English?)

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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.

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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.

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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: Figure skating, men’s free skate

Posted on by Beau Dure

A comedy of errors in the Olympics sees Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu win because they’d already bought a gold medal and had to give it to someone.

Date: 14-Feb

Sport: Figure skating

Event: Men’s free skate

Medalists: Yuzuru Hanyu (Japan), Patrick Chan (Canada), Denis Ten (Kazakhstan)

SportsMyriad projections: Patrick Chan (Canada), Yuzuru Hanyu (Japan), Daisuke Takahashi (Japan)

How U.S. fared: Jeremy Abbott had already won over the crowd with his determination in finishing his short program after a horrible fall. Still in pain, he changed his quad to a triple and a triple-triple to a triple-double, and Johnny Weir thought he looked tense. But the program was clean, getting positive Grades of Execution (GOE) on each element, and the crowd enjoyed his creative moves to a Muse soundtrack. His free skate score was a personal-best 160.12. His total of 232.70 was second through the first two groups, just 0.29 behind the Czech Republic’s Tomas Verner, and he wound up 12th.

Jason Brown was among the gaggle of skaters with a legitimate chance at a bronze medal after the short program, but given the lack of high-scoring elements in his program (in other words, no quad), he needed to be perfect, and he wasn’t. Not bad, though, and he took ninth.

What happened: You can always count on the guy from Uzbekistan to bring things to life. Misha Ge, with a lopsided scarlet hairstyle, skated to a medley of dance tunes, ending with Tutti Frutti and finishing in the same pose as Val Kilmer in Top Secret. The judges only gave him a 6.43 in choreography because they’re squares. He, Abbott and quad-master Kevin Reynolds of Canada were the highlights of the second group.

All 12 remaining skaters came in with a legitimate shot at the podium, but no one in the second-to-last group really impressed. Kazakhstan’s Denis Ten, a contender coming in but only ninth after a wobbly short program, put one hand down on a jump but otherwise made few errors, moving into first at 255.10.

And yet Ten’s score stood up as the first two of the last group simply didn’t take advantage of the opportunity. Spain’s Javier Fernandez stepped out of a couple of elements; Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi didn’t convert any of his three biggest jumps.

Surely Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu, the leader after the short program, would put things right. Nope. He fell on his opening quad. Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski assured the NBCSN audience that he has recovered from similar mistakes to win in the past. Then he fell again. He still took the lead over Ten but was nowhere near the score he wanted.

So surely Canada’s Patrick Chan, the three-time world champion, would assume control, right? When he landed his quad-triple combination, it certainly seemed that way. Then it all started to go wrong. Two hands down on his next quad. Two more hands down as he spun out of control on a triple axel. Another awkward landing. Added up the numbers, and … Hanyu kept the lead. In fact, Hanyu had a higher free skate score than Chan — 178.64 to 178.10 — to add to his lead from the short program.

Those would be the gold and silver medalists despite all the errors. The battle was on for bronze with two skaters left and Denis Ten trying to hang on.

Germany’s Peter Liebers came into the evening with a 1.98-point lead over Ten and an 0.04-point lead over Jason Brown. He wiped out on his opening quad and was downgraded on a triple axel.

So Brown had the open door to win an improbable bronze if he could just skate his relatively simpler program more cleanly than the others had done. But he still needed a career best to reach the medals, and a couple of shaky landings early wiped away that chance.

It was Hanyu, Chan and Ten. None of whom skated well, but they dared to attempt tough jumps and won a battle of attrition.

Quote: 

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