Tag: sochi 2014

olympic sports, winter sports

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

Posted on by Beau Dure

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

Date: 14-Feb

Sport: Ski jumping

Event: Men’s large hill qualifying

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

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

Full results

0
olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Freestyle skiing, women’s aerials

Posted on by Beau Dure

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

Date: 14-Feb

Sport: Freestyle skiing

Event: Women’s aerials

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Full results

1
olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Biathlon, women’s individual

Posted on by Beau Dure

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

Date: 14-Feb

Sport: Biathlon

Event: Women’s individual (15k)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Full results

0
olympic sports, winter sports

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

Posted on by Beau Dure

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

Date: 14-Feb

Sport: Men’s hockey

Event: Sweden vs. Switzerland

Score: Sweden 1, Switzerland 0

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

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

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

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

Stats

0
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

0
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

0
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

5
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

0
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

0
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

0