Combo catch up!
Day 7
LADIES’ AERIALS
Belarus took home their second straight Aerials Olympic gold medal. In a Super Final littered with bobbles, over-rotations and wipeouts, Hanna Huskova was able to hold onto her landing and hold onto the top of the podium. For China, the Gold medal continues to elude them. Both Chinese jumpers, Kong and Fang, faulted on their final jumps, but given a combination of attempting highly technical jumps and that other skiers had poor jumps, Zhang still managed Silver and Kong Bronze (26 points behind Huskova!).
Shoutouts to Belarusian, Alla Tsuper, the reigning Gold Medallist from Sochi. A mom of three, she spent most of the year away from her family for training. She had a massive fall on her landing to miss the podium for 4th place.
Aerials packs an interesting game of strategy. In the finals, the pool of 12 is reduced to a pool of 9, then finally 6 for the Super Final. Each skiers gets one jump per round, further, skiers are not allowed to repeat their jumps from round to round, so you need to do well enough to move on, but at the same time, keep your big tricks for the final.
MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY 15km FREE
Norway did not take the top spot in this one, but settled for Silver. Swiss Skier Cologna took Gold, and a Russian took Bronze. Canada’s Alex Harvey was happy to crack the Top 10 with a 7th place finish.
CURLING –
Canadian women lost to Denmark in extra ends, taking their record down to 0-3. This is only the round robin, so we are looking for a comeback!
In the 5th end, there was some mild controversy when Denmark burned their rock (touched it with their broom). The rule is that the opposing team, Canada, has the option to remove the rock from play. The modern day etiquette is that you reset the rocks to where you think the rocks would have landed.
With 3 Denmark rocks in scoring position, Canada’s Homan (Skip) quickly decided to remove the rock from play (allowable per the rules). Apparently, this shocked everyone. This move turned the play around and Canada (who was down 4-2) was able to clear the house and score 4 points to take the lead.
What would you do?
The Denmark skip tweeted, “I was thinking I’m pretty sure karma will hit you at some point.”
I understand there are expectations, but that’s a bit childish. The play was legal and Canada was down 4-2 with 0 wins in the round robin so far. It would be like turning down a penalty shot in hockey when you’re down 2-0.
The Men’s team staved off a Korean comeback to hold onto their win. They are undefeated.
DAY 8
It was another busy day for Canada (and the Olympics in general)
SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING
In the men’s 1000m, Charles Hamelin (who set an Olympic record in the qualifying heats) was looking to medal in the event in which a medal has eluded him, but in the semis he was penalized with an illegal move on teammate Samuel Girard. Girard was advanced to the final, which would prove to be his golden ticket! In the final, he jockeyed with US skater, Krueger, but kept the lead for most of the race; good thing since the Hungarian skater came from last place and impeded both Korean skaters while sliding into the mats himself.
There was no need for a photo finish as Girard comfortably took the gold, USA silver and Korea bronze.
On the women’s side, Marianne St-Gelais was looking for a medal to make up for disappointing DQ in the 500m. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in the cards for St-Gelais as she DQ’ed again in the semi finals while Kim Boutin made it through unscathed. In the Final, Boutin and the pack started off the usual way: with a slow game of “who’s going first?” Boutin would soon make a move to the front of the pack, and I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t sure if she’d have enough gas left in the tank for the final stretch, she held on and came away with the Bronze while Korea’s Choi Minjeong (DQ’ed in the 500) took Gold and China’s Li Jinyu won silver. Dutch skater Jorien Ter Mors, who has been pulling double duty winning the 1000m long track, finished 5th.
ALPINE – WOMEN’S SUPER-G
Ter Mors isn’t the only one participating in multiple sports at PyeongChang. Czech world championship snowboarder, Ester Ledecka competed in the Super-G, aiming for a top-15 finish. She also borrowed skis (where were hers?). She finished first but when she saw her time, she immediately thought, “There must be a mistake!” After finishing first, she wants to compete in the Downhill on Wednesday before Thursday’s snowboarding parallel giant slalom.
American Lindsey Vonn was first out of the gate, which has proven to be a disadvantage on this icy, wind blown mountain. She made a costly error which dropped her to a 6th place finish. She will have another chance to do it for the American people (not Trump) in the Downhill.
WOMEN’S SKELETON
In the women’s event, Great Britain’s Lizzy Yarnold defended her gold medal (the first Brit to accomplish this). Germany’s Loelling took silver and fellow Brit, Deas bronze. Canada’s Vathje finished top 10 (9th), Channell 10th and Rahneva 12th.
FIGURE SKATING – MEN’S FREE SKATE
All eyes on Patrick Chan, hoping he can overcome the triple axel curse in his final Olympics. Sadly it didn’t happen – but you could tell he was putting it all out there for himself. Chan may have finished 6th but will always be regarded as a master of bringing technical ability together with artistic talent.
Despite a few bobbles Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu prevailed to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals; all of this after a 4 month layoff due to ligament damage in his right ankle. The number of stuffed animals thrown onto the ice was astounding – you may have noticed many of them were Winnie The Pooh. A little googling explained, Hanyu began carrying around a good luck charm tissue box with Winnie The Pooh on it. The box is always arranged on the side boards so Pooh bear has a good view of Hanyu while he skates. Apparently, he has also been known to bring the box with him to press conferences. In case you were wondering, he donates his gifts to the community in which he is gifted them.
Japan’s Shoma Uno took the silver and Spain’s Javier Fernandez the Bronze.
CROSS COUNTRY – WOMEN’S 4x5km RELAY
Norway took the relay gold, which included 37-year-old team member Margit Bjoergen, who is now tied for most winter Olympic medals of all time. Sweden took Silver and OAR Bronze.
MEN’S HOCKEY
Team Canada lost in a shootout to the Czech Republic. Canadian Maxim Noreau was looking to tie the shootout to keep Canada alive when he beat the Czech goalie, Pavel Francouz, only to have his puck hit the far lost.
Team Canada’s next game is Monday morning 7:00am ET vs. the host South Korea.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
In quarterfinal action, Finland best Sweden 7-2 to advance to the semis vs USA, while OAR defeated Switzerland and will now take on Canada on Monday morning at 7:00AM ET – good thing Monday is a holiday! Finland will take on USA at 11pm ET Sunday night.