Tag: sochi 2014

olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Speedskating, women’s 500 meters

Posted on by Beau Dure

Russia’s Olga Fatkulina delivered a crowd-pleasing silver, Margot Boer extended the Dutch success with a bronze, but defending champion Sang-Hwa Lee beat everyone. We mean everyone. Her second heat was an Olympic record 37.28 — impressive considering the old record was in the altitude of Salt Lake City — and her total time of 74.70 was also an Olympic record.

Date: 11-Feb

Sport: Speedskating

Event: Women’s 500 meters

Medalists: Sang-Hwa Lee (South Korea), Olga Fatkulina (Russia), Margot Boer (Netherlands)

SportsMyriad projections: Sang-Hwa Lee (South Korea), Olga Fatkulina (Russia), Heather Richardson (USA)

How U.S. fared: Richardson was in range of the podium after finishing fourth in the first run at 37.73 seconds. But she was 0.29 seconds slower in the second run while other skaters improved, sliding to eighth. She’s better in the 1,000.

Brittany Bowe, also better in the 1,000, was fell back in 17th after the first run but improved a bit to 13th in the second. Lauren Cholewinski was 15th. Sugar Todd was 29th.

What happened: Richardson was in the 14th pair of the second heat but dropped off the pace set by Margot Boer one pair earlier. She knew at the finish she wasn’t going to medal.

The 15th pair of China’s Hong Zhang and Germany’s Jenny Wolf moved into the podium places, but that would be temporary.

Olga Fatkulina brought up the crowd noise with the 16th pair. And she delivered. Her time of 37.49 bested her first-run time of 37.57. Lee had gone 37.42 in the first run and would need another strong run to beat the home favorite.

Strong? Yeah, pretty much.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Biathlon, women’s pursuit

Posted on by Beau Dure

The USA’s Susan Dunklee got up as high as fourth, but biathlon stars Darya Domracheva and Tora Berger showed their class with powerful performances to take the top two places in the pursuit, with the bronze reserved for a long-serving veteran.

Date: 11-Feb

Sport: Biathlon

Event: Women’s pursuit (10k, start order determined by finish in the sprint earlier in the Games)

Medalists: Darya Domracheva (Belarus), Tora Berger (Norway), Teja Gregorin (Slovenia)

SportsMyriad projections: Tora Berger (Norway), Gabriela Soukalova (Czech Republic), Valj Semerenko (Ukraine)

How U.S. fared: Susan Dunklee was only 42 seconds back at the start after her strong 14th-place finish in the sprint. Sara Studebaker started 44th, 1:53 back. Annelies Cook started 53rd, 2:17 back.

Dunklee shot cleanly at the first stage and passed a couple of contenders, including Tora Berger. She was 10th after the first shoot and got as high as sixth before missing one of second-stage shots to fall back. She latched onto the contenders, though, and shot cleanly again at the third stage to move back into sixth. At the 6.9k mark, she was a stunning fourth. The official stats feed briefly showed her cleaning the final shooting stage, but no — she missed three, then fell back to 18th.

Studebaker missed three at the first shoot, then settled down to miss only two more and finished 51st. Cook also missed five on the day and finished 54th.

What happened: Darya Domracheva and Tora Berger had a bit of work to do from the start, taking the course a little more than 30 seconds behind sprint winner Anastasia Kuzmina.

And Kuzmina stayed away from the start. She took time on her fifth shot at the first stage, but she converted all five. So did most of the skiers behind her.

Domracheva reeled in Kuzmina through the second lap, then capitalized when Kuzmina missed. The Belarus skier took the lead, with France’s Anais Bescond and Italy’s Dorothea Weirer in pursuit. Kuzmina dropped to fourth. Berger shot cleanly but was content to be in a chase pack along with Gabriela Soukalova, who was making a charge after a disappointing sprint.

The first standing shoot separated the contenders. Domracheva came in, calmly knocked down all five, then skied away before the others had even started shooting. Kuzmina shot cleanly and was alone in second. Then came a pack of four, including expected contenders Berger, Soukalova and Ukraine’s Valj Semerenko … and the USA’s Susan Dunklee?

Domracheva left an opening in the final shooting stage, missing one shot. But she was hardly the only one to miss. Kuzmina missed. Berger missed. Soukalova missed. Dunklee missed three times.

Of the contenders, only Valj Semerenko emerged from the final shoot unscathed. But she was 36.6 seconds behind Domracheva, and she faded off the podium on the final lap.

Berger charged quickly into second position. Soukalova also was charging but had two more skiers to catch.

Domracheva was on a virtual victory lap by that point. She had time to soak in the roars as she skied to the finish with the flag of Belarus in hand.

Berger was easily in second. Third place went to veteran Teja Gregorin — a four-time Olympian (one cross-country, three biathlon) getting her first medal. Soukalova, Semerenko and Kuzmina followed.

Full results

 

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Cross-country skiing, men’s sprint

Posted on by Beau Dure

Think short-track has crazy crashes? Take a look at the final of an eventful men’s sprint, in which several favorites fell short in elimination rounds, a couple more were wiped out in a NASCAR-style crash, and another literally fell across the finish line to take bronze.

Date: 11-Feb

Sport: Cross-country skiing

Event: Men’s sprint

Medalists: Ola Vigen Hattestad (Norway), Teodor Peterson (Sweden), Emil Joensson (Sweden)

SportsMyriad projections: Emil Joensson (Sweden), Petter Northug (Norway), Nikita Kriukov (Russia)

How U.S. fared: Andy Newell qualified 17th, Simi Hamilton 21st. Not advancing to the elimination rounds: Torin Koos (t-37th) and Erik Bjornsen (39th).

Hamilton was in the first heat and immediately broke a pole, as if extending the U.S. misery from Kikkan Randall’s shocking elimination a couple of minutes earlier. He got back in the mix but couldn’t fight through traffic at the line, finishing sixth in the heat.

Newell did well to get in contention in his heat, but he couldn’t catch Norway’s Eirik Brandsdal for second or hold off France’s Renaud Jay for third. The heat was fast, so Newell had a shot to go through as a “lucky loser” (the two fastest times aside among third- and fourth-place finishers), but three Swedish skiers took off fast in the next heat and bumped Newell out of contention.

What happened: It was a rough start for some of the contenders. Nikita Kriukov needed a photo finish just to get third in his heat, and he was quickly bumped out of lucky loser contention. Petter Northug was left in the dust in his heat, but it was fast enough to get him through. Emil Joensson was the exception, taking first in the fastest of the five heats.

Switzerland’s Dario Cologna defended his skiathlon title a couple of days ago after overcoming an ankle injury this season, but it was costly in the sprint — he fell twice in his heat and barely finished. Not his best event, anyway.

First semifinal: Russia’s Anton Gafarov fell on a sharp downhill turn and stayed down, coming into the stadium nearly three minutes after the leaders in an event that takes less than four minutes. The other five had a blanket finish — 0.76 seconds between first and fifth. Norway’s Ola Vigen Hattestad had a little bit of daylight for first, followed by Sweden’s Teodor Peterson and one more from each country — Norway’s Anders Gloeersen and Sweden’s Marcus Hellner. They went through as lucky losers.

The second semi was slower and more tactical. But Northug, the 2010 bronze medalist in this and four-time medalist overall in Whistler, still couldn’t get in and wound up 16 minutes back. Joensson and Russian favorite Sergey Ustiugov got ahead and held off a challenge from Austria’s Bernhard Tritscher.

The final: Joensson, who has tons of World Cup hardware but no success in the Olympics, dropped far back a few seconds in. Then a massive crash in the downhill turn! Hellner and Gloeersen fell separately, and Ustiugov tripped over Hellner. Joensson, who looked like he was on the verge of dropping out, suddenly pulled into third.

Hattestad and Peterson were ahead of the drama, and there was no way anyone would catch them. Hattestad got a comfortable lead (in sprint terms), and Peterson pulled up on the straightaway, unable to catch him. Then the improbable bronze for Joensson, who collapsed after the finish line, nearly 20 seconds back. Gloeersen came in fourth. The disappointed Ustiugov made his way across 30 seconds later. Then it was Hellner.

Joensson needed to be helped away from the line. The gold and silver medalists, though, felt no pain.

Full results

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Freestyle skiing, women’s slopestyle

Posted on by Beau Dure

Another big day for North American action sports athletes, with Devin Logan taking silver between Canadians Dara Howell and Kim Lamarre. But the competition had a lot of crashes — one horrific.

Date: 11-Feb

Sport: Freestyle skiing

Event: Women’s slopestyle

Medalists: Dara Howell (Canada), Devin Logan (USA), Kim Lamarre (Canada)

SportsMyriad projections: Kaya Turski (Canada), Tiril Sjaastad Christiansen (Norway), Keri Herman (USA)

How U.S. fared: Keri Herman squeaked through qualification and was all smiles at the start of the final, but her first run was a mess just a few seconds in, as she lost her balance on a rail and landed awkwardly. The rest of that run was mere practice. She didn’t look confident on her second run, missing a couple of landings and bailing out of the last obstacle. Kept her smile, though.

Julia Krass made a bit more of her first run but had a couple of shaky landings and a frightening finish, slamming her back and head to the snow off her last jump. Her second run was a series of awkward landings,

Devin Logan, got things right. The only hiccup in her strong first run was a little bit of shakiness off the last jump. She scored 85.40 — the leader at the time, then second when all the skiers had gone once. She went for broke on the second run and looked like a contender to move up until crashing on her last jump. We’ll see her again in the halfpipe.

Maggie Voisin, the youngest U.S. Olympian at age 15, was injured in training and could not compete.

What happened: Qualification had a shocker — Canadian favorite Kaya Turski fell on each run and didn’t make it through. With Norway’s Tiril Sjaastad Christiansen missing the Games through injury, that was two favorites out before the final.

The first run of the final was mostly a mess. After Herman slipped on her first rail, Switzerland’s Camillia Berra outright crashed at the same spot. Other skiers struggled to land their tricks.

Finally, Australia’s Anna Segal landed a 720 and a few other slick tricks without major difficulty. The 2009 X Games winner and 2011 world champion took first place at 77.00 points. Logan followed a couple of skiers later.

The best was last in the first run — Canada’s Dara Howell went big and clean for a 94.20.

The errors continued in the second run. Berra looked heartbroken after her run.  Segal couldn’t quite rotate her 720 and crashed, remaining in bronze medal position from her first-run score.

Sweden’s Emma Dahlstrom, fourth after her first run, had another decent but not spectacular run, adding a couple of points to her score but not quite enough to move up.

Canada’s Yuki Tsubota made a decent charge but crashed hard on her last jump, not quite reaching the downslope. The impact dislodged a ski and some other equipment, and the medical crew was out quickly and took her away on a stretcher.

Britain’s Katie Summerhayes showed remarkable composure as the next athlete to go after Tsubota’s crash, but she touched her hands down on a couple of landings, not quite clean enough for the podium.

That left two more Canadians — Kim Lamarre, who crashed on her first run, and leader Dara Howell. Lamarre simply nailed it — a couple of nifty tricks and impeccable form on her simpler efforts. She moved up to bronze, bumping Segal off the podium.

And that result clinched gold for Howell before her final run. The Canadian champion did a celebratory final run, getting nice air but not trying anything spectacular.

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medal projections, olympic sports, winter sports

Best/worst, Sochi medal projections vs. reality: Feb. 10

Posted on by Beau Dure

Norway continues to slide away from its projected record medal haul, but South Korea was the country that had the no-good, horrible, very bad day.

The USA may trail in the medal count but is still right on projection. So is Canada. You’d think North American bias would kick in at some point.

CURRENT PACE

The original medal projections were: Norway 39, USA 35, Canada 30, Russia 26, Germany 23, Austria 22, South Korea 15, Netherlands 14, France 12, Switzerland 11, Sweden 10

If the rest of the projections were to come true, the final medal count would be: Norway 35, USA 35, Russia 30, Canada 28, Austria 22, Germany 21, Netherlands 17, France 12, Sweden 12, South Korea 11, Switzerland 11

DOWN

South Korea (-3 today, -4 overall): The speedskating-mad nation is 0-for-4 in projected medals so far, missing out today on two medals in short-track and one in long-track.

Norway (-1 today, -4 overall): Ole Einar Bjoerndalen can’t win them all, but what happened to Emil Hegle Svendsen?

UP

Netherlands (+2 today, +3 overall): A sweep in a sprint speedskating event? Go figure.

Russia (+1 today, +4 overall): Missed out in biathlon but got one in short-track and grabbed a stunner in moguls.

RIGHT ON TARGET

USA (even today, even overall): OK, so today’s medal (Julia Mancuso, Alpine combined) came in a different event than the projection (Patrick Deneen, freestyle moguls). They still have two golds and three bronze, exactly as projected.

Canada (even today, -2 overall): Two medals in moguls? Called it. Medal in short-track? Gold instead of projected bronze.

HIGHLIGHTS

Biggest clutch performance: Julia Mancuso could stumble down every hill on the World Cup circuit, and you’d still have to take her seriously in the Olympics. She tore up the downhill phase of the combined and managed to hang on to the podium in the slalom.

Biggest disappointment: Neither U.S. curling team looked particularly good.

Wildest game: Men’s curling: Denmark 11, Russia 10. Going by Bill Mallon’s factsheet, I don’t think we’ve seen a higher-scoring game in the modern era.

Media trend we’re all sick of reading: Hey, curling is actually an interesting sport! Wow! We wouldn’t know that … if we hadn’t been alive in 2010. And 2006. And 2002. And for some of us, the years in between.

Best tribute/cry for help: Trade for Kessel! The other one!

Picture that says it all: NED, NED, NED

More on Storify

FULL TABLE

(minor correction to fix Italy/Japan confusion)

[gview file=”https://duresport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014-medal-projections-feb10-1.pdf”%5D

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Freestyle skiing, men’s moguls

Posted on by Beau Dure

Oh Canada. The two big favorites came through, and Russia picked up a surprise bronze. The two American contenders were undone by catastrophe and conservative jumps.

Date: 10-Feb

Sport: Freestyle skiing

Event: Men’s moguls

Medalists: Alex Bilodeau (Canada), Mikael Kingsbury (Canada), Alexandr Smyshlyaev (Russia)

SportsMyriad projections: Mikael Kingsbury (Canada), Alex Bilodeau (Canada), Patrick Deneen (USA)

How U.S. fared: Bradley Wilson got to the first final round (20 skiers) but crashed on his first landing. Incredibly, he popped up and still posted a fast time, but the damage to his score was done, and he didn’t advance.

Patrick Deneen, the 2009 world champion, bailed on his first qualification round but led the second qualifier (22.38 points) to cruise into the final rounds. He wasn’t great in the first final round (22.27) but advanced in ninth place. He turned it up a notch in the second final round (12 skiers), getting down the course quickly and surprising with a strong first jump to get 23.32 points. A conservative second jump nearly cost him a spot in the third and final final (sic), but he grabbed the last spot.

Deneen went first in the final and once again went very fast, racking up time points. But he had a difficult first landing and again had a conservative second jump, good for only 22.16 points.

What happened: It was a compressed day of competition — two qualification rounds (excluding the lucky 10 who qualified from the first round), then three final rounds. The qualification rounds were in soft snow, and many skiers struggled with their landings and turns. Australia’s Dale Begg-Smith, 2006 gold medalist and 2010 silver medalist, didn’t complete a clean run and failed to advance.

Canada’s Alex Bilodeau had a shaky run in the first final but got through in eighth place. Japanese contender Sho Endo did not, despite landing one of the more spectacular jumps of the competition, with more twists than most people can count with the naked eye.

In the second final, which cut the field down from 12 to six, Bilodeau came back with 23.89 points. Two of his Canadian teammates, Mikael Kingsbury (24.54) and Marc-Antoine Gagnon (24.16) bested that mark and left Deneen sweating on the qualification bubble. But the fourth Canadian, Philippe Marquis, came up short and looked surprised when the scores were announced. That left three Canadians, Deneen, Kazakhstan’s Dmitry Reiherd and Russia’s Alexandr Smyshlyaev in the final.

After Deneen’s run, Reiherd landed a fancy twisting second jump to move into first. Smyshlyaev beat that with a sensational run for 24.34 points.

Up came the Canadians. Defending champion Bilodeau set a very high bar at 26.31. But Gagnon spoiled the sweep possibility at 23.35, finishing behind Smyshlyaev. It all came down to favorite Kingsbury, who did exactly the same jumps as Bilodeau but was a little off on the first landing. It was 24.71 for Kingsbury, and it was a Canadian 1-2.

Full results

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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

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap, Women’s luge, first two runs

Posted on by Beau Dure

Erin Hamlin’s long-shot bid for a medal looks a bit stronger at the halfway point of the women’s luge. She raced to the second fastest time in the first run, then improved her start to go a little faster in the second run. The American veteran stands third behind two German sliders.

Date: 10-Feb

Sport: Luge

Event: Women’s, runs 1 and 2 (of four)

How U.S. fared: Hamlin is in terrific shape. She’s just 0.052 seconds behind second-place Tatjana Hüfner and 0.216 ahead of Russia’s Natalia Khoreva.

Kate Hansen, having a bit of a breakout season, is a solid 10th. Summer Britcher moved up from 19th after her first run to 15th.

What happened: Natalie Geisenberger of Germany is simply peerless. She set the track record at 49.891 in the first run and nearly matched that at 49.923 in the second. No one else broke 50. Geisenberger leads by 0.766 seconds, an eternity in luge.

The second German, Hüfner, broke Geisenberger’s start record in the second run to move ahead of Hamlin. But the third, Anke Wischnewski, is eighth. Still, very little separates her from fourth-place Russian Khoreva. Between them are two Canadians, Alex Gough and Kimberley McRae, and Russian favorite Tatyana Ivanova.

No one crashed, though NBC got a bit of mileage out of a practice crash by Sandra Robatscher and showed it to the confused but smiling Italian in the mixed zone for an offbeat postrace interview.

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Biathlon, men’s pursuit

Posted on by Beau Dure

Did Ole Einar Bjoerndalen claim the record for all-time Winter Olympic medals? Not quite. Not yet. It was Martin Fourcade’s day to remind everyone of his consistent excellence, and a fellow Frenchman held off OBE for a surprising bronze.

Date: 10-Feb

Sport: Biathlon

Event: Men’s pursuit (12k) – 60 skiers start in order based on how they fared in the sprint. First across the finish line is the winner.

Medalists: Martin Fourcade (France), Ondrej Moravec (Czech Republic), Jean Guillaume Beatrix (France)

SportsMyriad projections: Martin Fourcade (France), Emil Hegle Svendsen (Norway), Anton Shipulin (Russia)

How U.S. fared: They didn’t have great start positions after the sprint. Tim Burke started 19th, 50 seconds back. He was nearly in the mix after missing just one of his first 15 shots, but he missed again on the last stage and sank to 22nd. Lowell Bailey scattered three misses and placed 38th. Leif Nordgren missed three at the first shooting stage, two at the next and one more at each of the standing stages on his way to 53rd place.

What happened: The margins from the sprint were razor-thin — the top eight started within 15 seconds of each other, so OBE’s advantage was negligible. The favorites caught up quickly and came in for the first shooting stage in a pack.

OBE shot quickly and cleanly. So did Anton Shipulin (Russia) and Canadian surprise JP Le Guellec. Martin Fourcade (France) took his time but shot cleanly, then zipped past OBE on the skis. The pack stayed together, but Fourcade seemed to be making a point.

At the second stage, Le Guellec mowed down all five in no time, taking off with a stunning lead. Fourcade again took his time and got all five. OBE did not, missing his last shot. Shipulin, whose sister Anastasia Kuzmina won gold for Slovakia in the women’s sprint, missed twice. The lead group was down to four – Le Guellec, Fourcade, Dominik Landertinger (Austria) and Jaroslav Soukup (Czech Republic).

Le Guellec tried to pull away, and he paid for it, wiping out on a tight turn that had claimed several skiers earlier. He fell not just behind the leaders but behind a small chase pack as well.

For the third shooting stage, the skiers switch to standing position, a big test. Fourcade missed one. Landertinger missed one. Soukup missed two. OBE came up with a chance to gain ground, but he missed one as well. Fourcade pulled away from Landertinger, who had a clean lead over three new contenders — the Czech Republic’s Ondrej Moravec, Austria’s Simon Eder and Germany’s Simon Schempp. All three shot cleanly at the standings stage; only Eder had a miss at all.

Lurking behind them, not out of it despite missing twice in his first 15 shots: OBE.

Fourcade sailed into the final shooting stage well ahead of Landertinger, surely set to clinch the win by shooting cleanly. The Frenchman took his time again, aimed and fired. Five down, and he pumped his fist to the crowd before taking off for his final lap. Landertinger missed twice, which meant Fourcade would have no company on what amounted to a victory lap.

Moravec also shot cleanly, going 20-for-20 on the day, and he left the range 17.1 seconds behind Fourcade. Then came a surprising Frenchman, Jean Guillaume Beatrix, then a group of about eight — including, astounding OBE, who missed yet again but was still in the mix.

Moravec gave a good chase on the last lap but was never going to catch Fourcade, who had time to wave a few times to the crowd and cameras in his last 100 meters. Behind them, Beatrix just held off OBE. The record can wait.

Quote: “I liked the race today. It was cool and funny and a lot of things happened. I was close to making a really good race today but three mistakes is a little bit too much.” – OBE

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olympic sports, winter sports

Sochi recap: Alpine skiing, women’s combined

Posted on by Beau Dure

Julia Mancuso’s blazing downhill run got the early-rising Twitter crowd excited. German favorite Maria Hoefl-Riesch nailed her slalom and set a pace Mancuso couldn’t match, but Mancuso was thrilled to get down a tough slalom run with the bronze. That’s Mancuso’s fourth Olympic medal (gold in 2006 giant slalom, silvers in 2010 downhill and combined) to go with five World Championship podiums. And she has to be a contender in the upcoming speed events.

Date: 10-Feb

Sport: Alpine skiing

Event: Women’s combined (downhill and slalom)

Medalists: Maria Hoefl-Riesch (Germany), Nicole Hosp (Austria), Julia Mancuso (USA)

SportsMyriad projections: Tina Maze (Slovenia), Nicole Hosp (Austria), Michaela Kirchgasser (Austria)

How U.S. fared: The bad news — two Americans didn’t finish the downhill. Laurenne Ross bumped her feet together, and a ski just popped off. Even if you don’t know skiing, you know that’s not good. Fortunately, she skidded on her side rather than tumbling hard,  and she seemed unhurt.

Stacey Cook started going far too wide early on and finally missed a gate, taking her out of the competition.

Leanne Smith had a less eventful downhill, ranking 20th, 2.38 seconds behind Mancuso. But she was one of several skiers who couldn’t complete a challenging slalom course.

Then there was defending silver medalist Julia Mancuso, who always saves her best skiing for the big events. She scorched the downhill, taking a lead of 0.47 seconds. British skier Chemmy Alcott hugged her at the finish, then yelled to the camera, “See? (unintelligible) at the Olympics!” Indeed she is.

What happened: The contenders fell in line behind Mancuso in the downhill — Lara Gut (Switzerland, 0.47 seconds back), Tina Maze (Slovenia, 0.86), Anna Fenninger (Austria, 0.99) and Maria Hoefl-Riesch (Germany, 1.04). Hoefl-Riesch was off the pace at the start but made up ground through the middle with her technical prowess.

Also lurking were the Austrians — Elisabeth Goergl (1.21) and Nicole Hosp (1.27), though Michaela Kirchgasser left herself a 3.04-second deficit.

Off to the slalom stage, which bared its teeth early as Slovakians Kristina Saalova and Jana Gantnerova skidded off the course. Canada’s Marie-Michele Gagnon, who won the only World Cup combined so far this season, did a spread-eagle face-plant and came up holding her wrist.

Hosp was the first of the contenders to tackle the slalom, and she didn’t disappoint, taking a lead of 1.10 seconds over the rest of the field. Goergl was up next and started losing time early, then straddled a gate to go out of the contest.

Hoefl-Riesch, the defending champion, drove through the course like it was child’s play. She took a 0.40-second lead over Hosp. Fenninger wasn’t going to reclaim that spot for Austria, shedding time throughout the run and falling well back out of medal contention.

Then it was Tina Maze, who set all sorts of records with her World Cup domination in 2012-13. She had a bobble or two on the way down and came across in bronze medal position, behind Hoefl-Riesch and Hosp, with two skiers to go.

Lara Gut came out aggressively. Perhaps too much so. She skidded into trouble, tried to recover but couldn’t make the turn. That left Mancuso aiming at a podium of Hoefl-Riesch, Hosp and Maze. She got one.

Quote: to come

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