This last week was nuts! Ice events recap

Posted on by admin

The last week!

The last week has been busy! There has been so much to capture (remember: 102 medal events); you probably know most of the results since interest typically picks up in the second week, but we have to leave some comments, obviously 🙂 Let’s recap the ice events first. Snow events next.

 

FIGURE SKATING:

ICE DANCE

Justice. Victory. Scott and Tessa capped off their career (we think) with a ‘pull-out-all-the-stops’ free skate. I don’t think I have to say much about it. If you saw, you know it was beautiful. If you didn’t see it, you should see it. HERE! (https://olympics.cbc.ca/video/condensed-events/figure-skating-cut-down-dance-free-program/)

Scott and Tessa blew away the competition, including the Silver French duo of Papadakis and Cizeron – maybe not on the scoresheet, but we all know (as do all news outlets) that we avoided another SalĂ© and Pelletier-esque figure skating judge scandal. Scott and Tessa know it, too, but Scott put it best, “You know the best part? That I don’t have to care anymore!”

S&T will always be three-time ice dance gold medallists in our hearts.

The American brother and sister combination of Maia and Alex Shibutani won the bronze.

Canadians Weaver and Poje finished 7th and Gilles and Poirier finished 8th. Top 10 finish for all Canadians!

 

WOMEN’S EVENT

Russia sent their teenagers to take care of business. It was the ‘nearly-16-yr-old’ Zagitova who took the Gold medal, and her 18-yr-old training partner. Canadian Kaetlyn Osmond, inspired by fellow Canadian Joannie Rochette at the Vancouver 2010 Games, showed a perfect Black Swan combination of athleticism and artistry to post a season’s best and capture the Bronze medal. Osmond is yet another story of athletic perseverance. In September 2014, she broke her fibula in two places above her ankle and considered retirement. We are happy she decided to return.

 

SHORT TRACK:

In the much anticipated women’s 3000m relay, ticket holders were treated to some drama!

In the B-final, the Dutch set a world record to win, what they assumed, fifth place overall, defeating Hungary by 0.13 seconds.

Meanwhile, in the A-final, it was a strong race for Canada, China and South Korea. Italy was happy to skate strong in 4th position most of the race. With a few laps remaining, during an exchange, the South Korean ‘pusher’ tripped, causing some mayhem for Canadian Valerie Maltais. Maltais slid just inside one of the track markers into the end cushions (with the Italian) while her teammates attempted to tag her in order to continue the race.

Korea and China vied for gold and silver while Canada and Italy continued their race, knowing there was still a Bronze on the line and anything could happen!

In the end, South Korea edged out China, followed by Canada beating out Italy. But, you can’t immediately rely on the scoreboard for the results. Canada and China were both penalized, moving Italy to second place and, in a rare occurrence, the Dutch, were promoted from fifth to Bronze! This is why it’s so important to win every race, you don’t know when a catastrophe happens, and you don’t know when an athlete is going to get caught for doping.

I’ve been trying to figure out why Canada and China were penalized:

  1. At first, I thought it was because after Maltais slid inside the track marker, Canada didn’t tag in, then tag up (go back to the centre, and around the marker). It’s like cutting a corner, and having to go back around so that you didn’t cheat. But, veteran Marianne St-Gelais says that she tagged up.
  2. During the final sprint for the finish line between China and Korea, it looked a little congested with the Chinese and Korean ending up very close to Canada’s Kim Boutin (who was skating around the middle, watching St-Gelais finish) near the finish line. Apparently, Boutin crossed from the middle into the racing lane (but did not make contact with anyone) may have been the penalty. Upon review of the final stretch, yes, Boutin was nearly shoulder to shoulder with the Chinese skater, however what is even more interesting is that it’s not clear where the middle of the ice is actually separated from the race track. There is no line to separate; further, the only line drawn on the ice (the start line) extends inwards of the lane markers, so if you have your eye on the markers as your imaginary line, you’d be wrong.
  3. China. They were penalized on the final exchange when the active Chinese skater moved from an outside lane to the inside, briefly brushing shoulders with the South Korean skater.

We aren’t 100% sure on any of this since officials do not have to explain their rulings to the coaches. Do we have to say this is odd

Moving on


On the Men’s side, Hungary sure picked a great coming out party. They won their first ever Winter Olympics Gold Medal by winning the 5000m relay. China took second and Canada won Bronze! The South Korean team experienced a fall, but it wasn’t as dramatic as the women’s relay.

In individual racing over the last week, the men took to the 500m. Charles Hamelin continued his streak of PyeongChang; his streak of unfortunate penalties. Hamelin did not make it past the heats however Samuel Girard was able to command his way to the finals, but missed the podium by less than 0.07s. China’s Wu won gold with a world record while Korea took silver and bronze.

The story of the games continues to be Kim Boutin. She picked up silver in her 1000m, picking up a medal in each individual race! She has been my top pick for flag bearer since her 1500m performance.

 

LONG TRACK:

Team Pursuit – back in 2010, I accidentally bought Team Pursuit tickets instead of team relay. I lucked out, witnessing the new Olympic sport at the time. Neither Canadian team managed to podium, though the women came closest, in 4th place. It’s always an interesting race to watch as anything can happen. Concentration is required to keep your stride and your draft with your teammates, not to mention, you have to overcome your lactic acid. A wrong move could put you on your backside; we saw a near miss with the Americans, but they kept it together to take the Bronze over Canada by half a second. Somewhat shockingly, Japan took the gold over the Dutch.

The new sport this year was the Mass Start.

How this works:

  • 12 skaters per semi
  • Top 8 advance per semi
  • There are 16 laps
  • Certain laps are called “Sprint Laps” where skaters accumulate points for finishing first, second, third.
  • The ultimate winners of the race get 60 points for first, 40 for second and 20 for third.
  • The sprint points matter most for the placement of 4th-8th positions and are also there for skaters to demonstrate ‘alertness’ throughout the race.

Interesting tactics come about as women who do not expect to crack top three will instead focus on their sprint laps to rack up qualification points. In the women’s race, Canada’s Keri Morrison advanced to the final, while teammate Ivanie Blondin experienced disappointment when she fell in the semis and missed the final.

In the Final, Alusalu of Estonia pulled away from the pack extremely early. She held the lead for many laps (sometimes by half a lap!). It appeared her tactic was to win all sprint laps (which she did), knowing she would eventually be overtaken by the pack. By the end, Japan crossed first, followed by South Korea and the Netherlands. Alusalu’s plan worked, as she finished fourth.

 

BOBSLEIGH – WOMEN’S:

Double gold medallist, Kaillie Humphries had a new teammate, Phylicia George, in her quest for a third gold medal. She overcame technically accurate yet slow heats on the first day to push up into Bronze Medal position. For the third games in a row, Humphries found the podium. Germany took gold, USA silver.

In the Four-Man, Canada’s Kripps and his team entered the final heat in third position. Unfortunately, Kripps’ sled took one bad corner, landing them in 6th position. The Korean team, coached by Pierre Lueders, looked like they were having a slow ride as their split times kept showing up in the red. However, somehow, the Koreans (who were strategically pulled from the World Cup to focus on perfecting their home track performance), tied the second place Germans. The silver medal is Korea’s first ever Olympic medal in Bobsleigh.

Germany also took the gold medal.

HOCKEY:

There is no Olympic summary of ours complete without a mention of hockey.

Many of us were up until 3:00 AM as we held our breath waiting for a 5th gold medal for the Canadian women. A poor line change for the Canadians allowed the Americans to tie up the game, sending the match to overtime, then a shootout, then a sudden death shootout. Canada has never been great at shootouts. For the first time in 20 years, USA won Olympic gold. It seemed fitting that aside from the rookie USA goalie Rooney, the veterans were responsible for the win, Knight and the Lamo-ramas all scored in the final. Former USA captain, Canada’s Former Public Enemy #1, Angela Ruggiero, was able to hand out the medals to her former teammates as the IOC representative – well, that’s nice. Hopefully now, Knight, Duggan and the Lamo twins can all retire happy.

On the Men’s side, Canada brushed off their semifinal loss to Germany and regained their focus to take on the Czechs for the Bronze medal. It was a back and forth game, goal after goal, review after review. Heading into the third, Canada was leading 3-1. Needless to say, the third period was exciting as the score ended 6-4 in favour of Canada.

In the gold medal game, OAR beat Germany 4-3 – we didn’t stay up for the game, but watching the replay, looks like it was exciting – another OT game!

One goal stands out for me – the third OAR goal (to tie it): a German player, in their defensive end, lost his helmet and had to leave the ice immediately (as is the rule). The play continued and Russia scored. Wear your equipment correctly, kids! We’ve already seen in Figure Skating how equipment malfunctions can make or break your performance.

OAR went on to win OT on a powerplay goal.

Award for the dumbest comment by anyone this games:

Ilya Kovalchuk, “…It’s too bad politics took over the sport.” (regarding how unfortunate it was that they had to sing the Russian anthem to the tune of the Olympic anthem).

Last time I checked, clean sport is part of sport!

On to a recap of the Snow Sports!