FREESTYLE SKIING – HALFPIPE:

Canada’s Cassie Sharpe annihilated the competition in ladies ski-pipe. She held first place with her first run, and didn’t even need her second and third runs to beat out the French Silver Medalist and American Bronze. She topped her first run with her second run and went for a victory lap on the third.

SKICROSS:

We saw Canada’s Brady Leman seek the ultimate redemption. The day before the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Leman suffered a broken leg; in Sochi 2014, he had a disappointing 4th place finish off the podium; finally, PyeongChang 2018: Gold Medal!

In the women’s event, for the third games in a row, Canada took the Gold medal, and for the second games in a row Canada took Silver, as well. Reigning gold medallist Marielle Thompson crashed in the qualifying round, while Sochi silver medallist Kelsey Serwa upgraded her medal to Gold in Korea. Her best bud, Brittany Phelan took silver and Switzerland Bronze.

SNOWBOARDING

This was the first year for the Big Air event at the Olympics. Everyone wants to be the first.

Ladies’ Big Air – Austrian Anna Gasser pushed American snowboard pioneer Jamie Anderson to the silver medal spot. New Zealander Sadowski took Bronze, New Zealand’s first Winter Olympic medal in 26 years. At 16 years old, she also became NZ’s youngest flag bearer (for the closing ceremony).

Men’s Big Air – I might say that the highlight of all the freestyle snowboarding commentary and CBC Olympic overnight has been Craig McMorris. He obviously knows what he’s talking about and delivers it with just enough oddity, similes you’d never hear on TV, and a hint of comical drama. As McMorris put it, Max Parrott overcooked some landings and Mark McMorris was unable to stomp either of his first two jumps (you get three jumps, and the top two are summed up for your final score). It would be Sebastien Toutant who would prevail for Canada as the sport’s first Olympic Gold Medallist. USA took silver, and GBR took bronze.

In the women’s parallel giant slalom, Czech Ester Ledecka made history becoming the first athlete to win gold in a snowboard event as well as a ski event.

CROSS COUNTRY –

WOMEN’S TEAM SPRINT:

In the sprint, teams of two compete. The women ski 1.25km circuits and have to tag their teammate. This continues for 7.5 km. Americans Kikkan Randall and Jessica Diggins surprised everyone by winning gold, becoming the first American women to earn an Olympic medal in cross country. Norway’s Marit Bjorgen conquered her quest and became the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time, as she claimed bronze for her 14th career Olympic medal.

30km MASS START:

Bjorgen would go on to also win the 30km Mass Start (and received her medal at the Closing Ceremony, much like marathoners at the Summer Games). She blew way the Finnish Silver medalist by 2 minutes! Sweden captured the Bronze.

In the Men’s 50km MASS START:

Canadian Alex Harvey competing in his final event in his last Olympics. He led the pack, then stuck with the chase pack, then ended up sprinting for fourth place, capturing it by 0.1 seconds. This is the second time that Alex Harvey finished in 4th place. Always a bridesmaid.

Don’t worry Alex, 4th place is important! OAR finished 2nd and 3rd, so we need to sit tight for a few days while their doping results come back. Finland took the Gold.

Interestingly, the 3rd place OAR almost took a wrong turn! It seems impossible, but it happened to Stadlober of Austria in the women’s 30KM Mass Start, who finished 9th.

How is Norway so good:

Norway accumulated 14 medals in Cross Country and 6 medals in Biathlon.

Per the elite director of development:

Until they are 13 years old, score is not tracked in any sport. One of their Olympic Sports psychologists says even on the Olympic team, the emphasis is still on fun and friendships, and only medals after all of that. They are a tight knit group.

Amazing to have a national mentality like that – good, fun, clean sport.

Tidbit: Norway House ran out of golden shoes – they celebrate every gold medal by presenting the medallist with golden shoes, but Norway, who set a record medal haul by any country at a Winter Olympics, won so many gold medals that they ran out of shoes! We’re sure Gold shoes are on backorder.

Some final thoughts:

• Canada’s best medal haul ever at a Winter Games! (This might be the first time that we actually held and kept a consistent top 4 medal standing throughout the entirety of the Games – and ahead of the USA that whole time, too).
• Wear your medals with pride, no matter the colour.
• Kim Boutin – Canada’s Closing Ceremony flag bearer – we are looking forward to seeing more of her. Well-deserved. Mind over matter.
• EDM originated in Korean nightclubs – I had no idea (though, I’m not surprised)!
• We are looking forward to sleeping again!

As quickly as we said Annyeonghaseo, we say Gamsahamnida! Thank you, PyeongChang!

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 Salé 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!

BOBSLEIGH – 2-MAN

Wearing a Team Korea Coach jacket, Team Canada legend Pierre Lueders looked on as one after another, the three Canadian sleds posted top-10 finishes in the final heat of competition. Finally, the top ranked sled out of the first three heats, Canada-1 piloted by Justin Kripps and pushed by Alexander Kopacz, slid smoothly down the track to tie the Germans for Gold (Latvia took the bronze)! 20 years ago, Pierre Lueders (who mentored Kripps) stood atop the podium alongside the Italian team to share the gold medal in a tie as well.

Watching the Germans, and others, maul the Canadian sled in celebration was something else. Kripps and Kopacz didn’t realize for a while that they had tied – they thought the Germans were just being nice! Kopacz was in the locker room when he still asked one of the German sledders if they had won!

MEN’S AERIALS

Award for the best wipe out goes to the Belarusian, Stanislau Hladchenko. Attempting to match his female Belarusian counterpart, Huskova, atop the podium, Hladchenko went huge on his final jump but wound up bouncing and flipping down the hill like a cartoon character. He appeared to be physically okay.

Canadian Olivier Rochon was vying for Canada’s first ever gold in aerials. He pulled a move that no other skier can pull, but over rotated and couldn’t find the landing. Meanwhile, the final jumper, Chinese Zongyang Jia, was slated for the gold. The final score took a long time to show up on the board, but when it finally did, Jia stood shocked that he would only take home a silver. Ukraine took home their first men’s aerials Gold, and OAR bronze.

MEN’S SKIING SLOPESTYLE

Canada’s Alex Beaulieu-Marchand grabbed a bronze medal to increase the country’s medal count. The Canadian men’s moguls team cheered on as 3 of 4 Canadian skiers made it to the final round (A.B-M, Teal Harle, Evan McEachran). Harle and McEachran finished 5th and 6th, respectively. Norway took Gold, while USA took Silver.

ALPINE – MEN’S GIANT SLALOM

The wind was calm enough to run the event, which was won by Austrian Hirscher, Norway took the Silver and France the Bronze. France also grabbed the 5th, 6th and 7th positions. Canada’s Erik Read came 11th.

NORWAY continued to show their nordic strength earning bronze in Biathlon 15km, and Gold in the men’s 4x10km relay. In ski jumping, the moustache, Robert Johannson, helped his team earn Team Gold. Johannson has medaled in each ski jump event.

Back to the Rinks:

CURLING –

Rachel Homan and her Canadian rink are on an upswing, having won their last 3 matches after losing the first 3. Kevin Koe’s Canadian men’s rink are balancing things out, now on the downswing (won the first 3 and lost their last 3).  Top four teams will advance to the semifinals. Each team has 3 games left.

SPEED SKATING

Long track continues to be the sport of failure – as in, if you don’t win Gold, you’re a failure! I thought this was only a Dutch way of thinking, but we saw in the women’s 500m, Korea’s Lee Sang-Wha reduced to tears when she won silver. The Japanese gold medalist Nao Kodaira and Bronze medalist Karolina Erbanova (Czech) consoled her as they all skated their victory laps.

Team Pursuit quarter finals are complete. The Canadian women advance to the semis which will take place on Day 12. The Canadian Men will settle for the D-Final vs. USA.

HOCKEY –

The women’s hockey semifinals took place on Day 10, and to no surprise, Canada will meet the USA in the Gold medal match on Wednesday night (ET).

Canada sent OAR packing with a 5-0 win. Wakefield grabbed a couple goals on a pair of beautiful setups, Poulin sniped a backhand off a sweet move by Daoust to fool the OAR defender, Emily Clark scored her first Olympic goal and Johnston netted a bit more safety.

In the earlier game, the USA physically manhandled Finland 5-0, complete with cheapshots before and after the whistle. It’s infuriating to listen to the USA post-game interviews talking about how much they are smiling on the ice, having fun … yes, having fun with intentional knee on knees, shots to the back of the head when the Finns are already down on the ice. Sounds like a fun game.

See you Wednesday, USA. Let’s hope that Team Canada maintains their composure and plays their game. Don’t get sucked in.

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.

Golden Day on the Long Track

TJ Bloemen added to his silver medal from the 5000m race with a gold in the 10,000m race. He maintained smooth composure for the entire race and set an Olympic record in the process. Bloemen was born in the Netherlands to a Canadian father. We know the Dutch take their Speed Skating seriously; it is more difficult to make the Dutch Olympic team than it is to actually win a gold medal – we saw the disappointment that Ditch skates feel when they do not win gold.

Bloeme received his citizenship in 2014 after not making the Dutch Olympic team for Sochi, so he decided to compete for Canada. Canada welcomed him with open arms and Bloemen has proven to be a great asset to the Canadian team, teaching them new approaches to training.

The Netherlands’ Bergsma skated to a Silver medal and Italy’s Tumolero took Bronze. One Dutch team member that was unexpectedly left off the podium was Sven Kramer, the Dutch King.

SILVER TEAM LUGE

Canada, no doubt amped by Alex Gough’s Bronze the other day, proved again how well they work as a team. The Luge Team Relay consists of four sliders: women’s singles, men’s singles and men’s doubles. Canada’s team was made up of the same four sliders (Alex Gough, Sam Edney, Tristan Walker and Justin Snith) who were part of the fourth place finishing team in Sochi 2014 after Russian doping and tampering scandals (we are still waiting to be promoted to Bronze for the Sochi games). Enough about the past, Canada slid into Silver medal position in PyeongChang, edging out the Austrians by 0.1s!
If you’re wondering how lugers speeding at over 100km/h pass a baton to each other, it’s a little simpler than that: the woman luger heads down first. When she gets to the end, she has to sit up and slap an overhead paddle, triggering the next luger. Singles men go second and the doubles go last. The cumulative time is the team time. If you’re wondering what happens if you don’t slap the paddle, we’re not sure (Google probably knows). Slovakia’s single man slider came close to missing the paddle!

BRONZE! – Figure Skating Pairs

In what is likely their last Olympics, Canada’s Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford pulled out all the stops in the Pairs Free Skate, hoping to add to their medal tally of the games. Duhamel had one bobble with a hand touching the ice on a landing, but other than that, the pair who finished 7th in Sochi had a nearly perfect skate. Overcome with emotion at centre ice, the duo didn’t want to get ahead of themselves until they saw the scores. The two were soon able to celebrate their bronze medal officially, they had done it – what a way to end their Olympic careers! Back on Monday, when the Canadians won gold in the team event, Radford became the first openly gay athlete to win a Winter Olympics gold medal. Last night, he became the first openly gay athlete to win multiple Olympic medals. Check out this Global article.

It is also important to note this year that Canada House is doubling as Pride House. It was a concept start by the Canadians in Vancouver, shut down by the Russians in Sochi (no surprises there), and this year in Korea, the organizing committee was unable to raise the necessary funding for the LGBT centre at the Olympic Village. Canada stepped in. Check out the whole story here.

Germany took the gold medal spot and China Silver.

Alpine Skiing

It has been windy and icy, making it difficult for competition to get going. It’s a miracle when someone 

Men’s Downhill

Norway would walk away with two medals finishing in Gold and Silver for Svindal Aksel Lund and Kjetil Jansrud, and Switzerland’s Beat Fauz winning the bronze. The time difference that separated these finishes were 0.18 of a second! Close race!

Ladies’ Giant Slalom

Ladies’ Giant Slalom concluded with the United States’ Mikaela Shiffrin winning the gold, Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel with the silver, and Italy’s Federica Brignone with the bronze. This one was also close with 0.46 of a second differentiating the top three medalists!

Biathlon

Scandinavian countries continued to dominate the cross country-based sports.

Women’s 15km Individual

Sweden’s Hanna Oeberg won the gold medal, Slovakia’s Anstasiya Kuzmina with the silver, and Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier with the bronze.

Men’s 20m Individual

The gold, silver, and bronze went to Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe, Slovenia’s Fak Jakov, and Austria’s Dominik Landertinger respectively.

Cross-Country Skiing – Women’s 10km Free

Norway came out with two medals in this event, a gold and a bronze by Ragnhild Haga and Marit Bjoergen. However, two bronze medals were won and Finland’s Krista Ramakoski also won the bronze. The silver when to Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla.

Curling

It was a busy day in curling with 12 round-robin games between the men’s and women’s side! The Canadian women’s team played twice. The first game was against South Korea, it was a tight game but it seemed like the Canadian team were a little nervous as some of their shots could have been better. However, Skip, Rachel Homan, did connect on some important shots to keep the games close. Unfortunately, Canada lost 6-8 to South Korea. Their second game was against Sweden and unfortunately, they lost again 6-7 in extra ends. The team seemed a bit inconsistent but hopefully they will pick it up for the next games! Keep your head up and don’t give up!

The rest of the Women’s results were split are as follows:

• Denmark 5 vs Japan 8
• China 6 vs OAR 7
• Great Britain 4 vs United States 7

The second round of games were:

• China 7 vs Great Britain 8
• United States 5 vs Switzerland 6
• South Korea 5 vs Japan 7

On the men’s side of things, there were 4 games played. Canada beat Norway 7-4 with Skip Kevin Koe leading the way. United States lost to Italy 9-10, Denmark lost to Switzerland 7-9 and Great Britain beat Japan 6-5.

Ladies’ Aerials Qualifications

Canada’s Catrine Lavallee finished 16th, not enough to move on to the Final.

Men’s Hockey

Group C action consisted of Finland vs Germany and Norway vs Sweden. Finland was victorious against Germany 5-2 and Sweden blanked Norway 4-0.

Group A action saw the Czech Republic play against South Korea with the Czechs winning 2-1.

Switzerland was no match for Canada. The boys played strong and came out winning 5-1!

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

To close out Group A action, the much anticipated battle of the titans, USA vs. Canada kept us up into the early hours of the morning. It was a good hard battle for both teams, but not without some questionable actions that make you reconsider your faith in humanity (we won’t get into that).

The Red and White are back. After several years, Canada has a good pool of young blood, and a lot of pep. They just click. Head Coach Laura Schuler is using her veterans as utilities and to keep the rookies level, she also hasn’t been afraid to start the Rookie line every game.

Veteran Agosta opened the scoring and Rookie Sarah Nurse scored the winner popping the cookies off the top shelf short side.

The USA managed to bring it within one and later were awarded a penalty shot after there was a scrum in the Canadians’ crease; in the mess, Canada ended up with a hand on the puck in the crease. The penalty shot was no problem for Lacasse; in fact, it was child’s play as Lamoreaux tried to pull my personal between the legs move – I could have told her that never works!

The game ended with a 2-1 Canadian win, but not without the USA crashing the net and elbowing Canadian goalie Lacasse in the head (and that’s all I’ll say about that). With that win, Canada extends its Olympic winning streak to 23 games.

The other wise of Group A action saw Finland beating OAR 5-1.

Men’s Skeleton

There are three Canadians in the event: 17th – Kevin Boyer, 21st – Dave Greszczyszyn, and tied for 25th – Barrett Martineau. South Korea’s Sungbin Yun set a track record of 50.28 and a start record and finished with 1:40.35 after two runs. He sits at first with OAR’s Nikita Tregubov and Latvia’s Martins Dukurs sitting at second and third.

Men’s Snowboard Cross

The men’s snowboard cross was a quick one day event, concluding with the gold, silver, and bronze going to France’s Pierre Vaultier, Australia’s Jarryd Hughes, and Spain’s Regino Hernandez.

Day 5 saw the start of Men’s Hockey; the first time in 20 years where there would be no NHL players. A recent poll done before the Olympics showed that only 40% of Canadians were still interested in watching, 43% would still watch but didn’t care as much, and 17% would not watch it at all. Where do I stand on all of this? To me the Olympics is where all the BEST athletes come together to put on a great show for the entire world regardless if they’re professional or not. It is an international stage where the best athletes come together to compete to be called the Olympic Champion.

With that in mind, I was very disappointed to hear that the NHL was not allowing its players to compete at the Olympics because they fear risking profits and injuries to their players. Representing your country is a great honour and I wish more NHL athletes would realize this and follow other athletes like legend Therese Brisson, who left her position as a professor at the University of New Brunswick to compete in the Olympics because they wouldn’t grant her a leave of absence. Of course, she wasn’t making millions of dollars like the NHLers, so a slightly different situation but she gave up her job to compete for her country. I can’t help but wonder, what if the bigger names of the game had banded together to go to the Olympics, how would the NHL react?

With all of that said, I must say the Men’s hockey witnessed today is not bad! People might think teams are composed of old washed up hockey players still hanging onto their playing careers but that’s not the case! Yes, they’re a little older and we might not know them well, but these players have heart! They know they have been given an unique opportunity to come to the Olympics to represent their countries and they’re soaking it all in! The skills and pace of the game is great and the best part? There are NO favourites to win; any team can be the Olympic Champion and that’s what makes this an interesting tournament! I encourage you to get behind Team Canada and to cheer on these athletes!

Now, onto the scores! Slovakia beat the OAR 3-2 in Group B action. It was a “stunning upset” but as I mentioned before, any team could win the gold this year! Slovenia took on the United States and beat them 3-2! Slovenia was down 2 goals with 2 minutes left in regulation but rallied back to beat the United States in OT!

Group A action starts tomorrow with Canada taking on Switzerland and South Korea vs Czech Republic both at 7:10am EST. I will be part of the 40% and say Go Canada Go!

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Now that there are no NHLers in the Olympics, I really do enjoy that the spotlight is on the Women’s team a bit more! They deserve it! These athletes work so hard to get to where they are, sacrificing their careers, family, etc., to represent their country. You should check out women’s hockey if you haven’t already. If you like what you see, remember that there is a Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL), where the current national players play in non-Olympic years. It is family friendly and much more affordable to attend than the NHL games and the players are fast and fierce!

Highlight of the night for Women’s hockey? Korea scoring their first Olympic goal! While they might not have won the game against Japan (lost 1-4), Rani Griffin gave the crowd something to cheer for! The crowd went nuts, the North Korean Cheerleaders went nuts, we all went nuts! Many stuff animals on the ice! It was great to see the support the Korean team has from their country (both North and South)! Our behind the scenes message from the refs, “we don’t care who wins, obviously, but we want South Korea to score – this place will go nuts!” It was nice to see that the officials immediately set the puck aside at the timekeeper’s box, which was swiftly taken away by a volunteer – hope that puck is safe!

Sweden lost to Switzerland 1-2 with Muller scoring another goal to continue her strong presence at the games.

Canada takes on their rivals, the United States, at 10pm ET. Get the coffee ready for tomorrow morning because this is a must watch game leading up to the semis! It might not be for a medal yet but it’ll be a great game as usual!

PAIRS FIGURE SKATING

After the short program, Canada finished #3 – Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, #12 – Julianne Seguin and Charlie Bilodeau, and #13 – Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro. Funny story: Duhamel was having quite a day leading to the competition. Her hanger with her dress broke in the wind and she almost got onto the wrong bus to the wrong venue! Luckily she was saved by Germany figure skater Bruno Massot, who got her onto the right bus and to the correct venue. Phew!

China’s Wenjing Sui and Cong Han finished first and OAR’s Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov finished second. The Canadians are still in the hunt for a medal! Hopefully, Duhamel will have a smoother day for the next day of competitions! Interesting fact: the North Korean pair qualified for the competition through the conventional method and skated wonderfully. The crowd cheered very loudly for them and they scored their personal best!

Mixed doubles curling GOLD for Canadians Morris and Lawes; the two made history as the first to win medals in multiple curling events.
We still don’t know why Swiss didn’t play to the end – it’s for the Gold!! But what we do know is that the beer tastes just as good after playing mixed doubles, right Morris?

Canadian Bronze in women’s 500m short track — sad that Marianne St-Gelais was not in the final (she was disqualified in the semis), but she is a friend you can count on as she was trackside for Kim Boutin’s race and the first to give her a gigantic hug when South Korea was disqualified, moving Boutin into Bronze position.

LUGE! – Germany’s Geisenberger, the defending Olympic gold medallist, made history winning back to back Gold medals. She holds the record for most world cup victories in history. Her teammate Eitberger brought home the Silver and Canada’s Alex Gough won Canada’s first ever Luge medal with Bronze. When it was clinched, the mauling celebration by the Canadians was one for the history books.

<<EDIT>>

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Day 4 saw 2 games in action; Canada vs Finland and the United States vs OAR. Unfortunately due to the time difference, if you wanted to catch the Canadian game live, you would have had to get up at 2:40am ET. Sorry Team Canada! For us working during the day, sleep won! BUT we did record it and watch it later in the day. It was very hard not to let social media spoil the game for us but we did it!

Canada started their rookie line again and came out strong! How strong? So strong that the announcer couldn’t even finish telling us that Agosta was a Vancouver PD Constable when the next line scored within 35 seconds into the game! Poulin would score the second goal and Daoust the third to add to her strong performance at the Olympic games so far!

Biggest controversy of the game was Rebecca Johnston’s goal. Yes, that’s right, GOAL! After a goal review, it was ruled that there was not enough evidence of the puck crossing the line. I don’t know what the goal judges were looking at but based on the angles that we saw as viewers, that was definitely a goal! You can see the puck over the goal line at the corner of the net. Unfortunately, it was ruled against the Canadians and the action continued in the Finnish defensive end.

Saulnier would take advantage of a bad line change from the Finns and score on a breakaway making history as the first Nova Scotian woman to score in the Olympics. The 44-year old Finnish player, Valila, would ruin the shutout for Szabados and score the Finns’ only goal of the game for a final official score of 4-1.

The United States beat the OAR 5-0 and will meet the Canada tonight at 10pm. A much more doable time for us fans! Tune in to see the rivals take on each other!

BIATHLON

Men’s

The 10km sprint concluded with Germany’s Peiffer winning gold, Czech’s Krcmar with the silver, and Italy’s Windisch with the bronze. In the 12.5km pursuit France won gold, Sweden with the silver, and Germany with the bronze.

Women’s

In the 7.5km sprint, Germany’s Dahlmeier took the gold, Norway with the silver and Czech with the bronze. Adding to her hardware, Dahlmeier would win another gold in the 10km Pursuit for Germany again, Slovakia with the silver, and France with the bronze.

On a separate note, I think it is important for everyone, not just Canadians, to support Canadian Bronze medalist Kim Boutin right now. After winning the bronze in the 500m Short Track for speedskating, Boutin has been receiving death threats from South Korean fans due to a controversial call between Boutin and South Korean speedskater, Minjeong Choi. Boutin finished 4th but after a review by the officials, Choi was disqualified for bumping Boutin, thus, promoting Boutin to a bronze medal. This obviously did not sit well with the South Korean fans but the death threats are a little extreme. Currently, the police are investigating these threats but let’s all support our fellow Canadian, Boutin, and hope that she will be safe and move on from this to enjoy the rest of the games.

Other notable mentions

Lenny Valjas earns Canada’s best ever Olympic result in Men’s Cross Country Classic sprint!

Denny Morrison skated in the Men’s 1500m Long Track. Since winning a Bronze medal in Sochi in this event, Morrison had two separate brushes with death; first a motorcycle accident, then a stroke. He seized his new found life and made it back to the Olympics, unfortunately, no medal this time around.

Go Lenny and Denny! Go Canada!

MIXED DOUBLES’ CURLING
Lawes and Morris avenged their round robin loss to Norway to move into the Gold Medal match. Switzerland sent OAR to the Bronze medal, guaranteeing another medal for Canada and the Swiss. Colour for each TBD Tuesday morning.

The big event of the night in ET (midday in Korea) was TEAM FIGURE SKATING.

10 countries were reduced to 5 (Top 5 made it through to the second half of competition). The evening started with the Men’s Free Skate. Would Patrick Chan stay on his feet this time? If you’re not holding your breath every time he sets up for a jump, you’re obviously not watching. Chan did not disappoint as he landed two quads early in his routine. Though, he wouldn’t be completely fault-free as he fell on a triple and stumbled once after. Outside of those two errors, it was a clean run that added to Canada’s first place standing.

Gabby Daleman of Newmarket took on the Ladies’ free skate. I didn’t realize that teams are able to skate different team members in the free skate from the short program. Gabby’s program was flowy and enjoyable and with her 3rd place finish, Canada clinched the Gold Medal without Scott and Tessa having to complete their ice dance – they still did it, though, and it was beautiful. You might need a slow-motion replay to catch this, but check out the new scissor spinning move where Tessa locks her legs around Scott’s neck; she leaps in a backflip to get her legs up around his neck! Check it out next time.

Canada can enjoy their gold for a few days until the individual programs begin. OAR took the silver while the USA was not far behind with bronze.

MEN’S MOGULS:
Exciting morning as witnessed from the CBC public lounge.

All Canadians made it through to the Top 20. Skiers would have to qualify top 12, then top 6 for the Super Final. While trying to qualify for the Top 12, Canadian Philippe Marquis, skiing with recently torn ACL, unfortunately could not push past the pain after landing awkwardly on his first jump; after pounding a few moguls in the middle section, he had to pull up and end his run.

Meanwhile, teammates Mikael Kingsbury and Marc-Antoine Gagnon kept their focus making their way to the Top 12. They managed to avoid the DNF fate that found three others in the pre-Super Final Final – seriously, was something awry with that first landing pad?

Onto the Top 6 Super Final: Gagnon hit the moguls first setting a high standard; he held onto silver medal position until teammate Kingsbury showed the world why he is the King (not just because of his name). He raced down the course as we all sat biting our nails (figuratively). Fast and flawless, this was his race.

Alex Bilodeau told us in Sochi 2014 to watch out for Kingsbury – he was right. Kingsbury came away with the gold medal, Matt Graham of Australia Silver and unlikely Japanese Daichi Hara took Bronze. Hara has very few Top 10 finishes at World Cup events over the last year – needless to say, he is likely ecstatic about his Bronze!

LADIES’ SNOWBOARDING SLOPESTYLE:

The controversial ladies slopestyle finals took place on Day 3. The competition qualification round was canceled due to weather and the ladies were left with only one round, 2 runs each, best score counts. I wondered why the Canadian women didn’t have the ‘sweater’ team uniforms, then was informed that many of the women chose to snowboard without their jackets in an effort to remove the sails from their bodies. The windsocks were flapping furiously, contributing to bodies flying down the hill and some extremely scary falls. A few women managed to layout solid runs, including Canadian Laurie Blouin who left the hill on a first aid sled during training runs a few days ago. She is leaving these games with a black eye and a silver medal. Jamie Anderson of the USA defended her Sochi gold medal and Finland’s Enni Rukajarvi maintained consistency taking home a Bronze medal to match her 2018 X-Games Slopestyle Bronze.

LONG TRACK SPEED SKATING:

When the Netherlands marched into the stadium for the opening ceremony, their team did not look large. I thought to myself, “hmm, small team, they are probably all speed skaters” (I was half joking). You may have come the same conclusion given the medal haul the Dutch continue to have in speed skating. Netherlands took Gold and Bronze in the Women’s 1500m, Japan took Silver.

Other mentions:

In Women’s Ski Jump, Norway claimed their 10th Gold of the games, and their first in women’s ski jumping. Japan’s Takanashi held the Gold position, until Germany’s Althaus smashed Takanashi’s jump, only to have her jump smashed by Norway’s Lundby.

(Interesting note: The officials manually move the takeoff gate up and down the hill based on the wind and this also adjusts the final scores accordingly).

Women’s Hockey – it was another sold out crowd for Korea’s second game; this time against Sweden. I caught most of the third period only – Korea almost had their first goal! We are patiently waiting for this to happen – the crowd will go nuts!

Luge – Reaching speeds over 100 km/h down an icy chute, women have completed 2 of 4 runs and are in 3rd, 6th and 16th position. Time is cumulative, so you have to keep it together for the entire competition! Can’t rely on just one good slide! The final is early tomorrow morning ET.

Day 2 saw Canada grab its first few medals.

SNOWBOARDING – MEN’S SLOPESTYLE

The other night, we saw all four Canadian men, McMorris, Nicholson, Toutant, and Parrot, qualify for the final on the  most interesting slopestyle course I’ve seen in a while (from a couch, not first hand experience, of course). The format for the final includes three runs, your best score counts. You only need one good one!

Mark McMorris, the comeback kid, was looking to improve upon his Bronze from Sochi (and to celebrate surviving his life threatening crash less than a year ago). Many riders were trying for huge tricks (it’s the Olympics after all!), but no one landed a solid clean run until McMorris’ second run which put him in first place (which still left room for improvement).

The third round still left many boarders wanting redos, until USA’s 17 year old Redmond “Red” Gerard put on a Gold Medal clinic, smoothly transitioning to every surface encountered and stomping every landing like his board was magnetic to the ground.

McMorris was unable to land his final jump, meaning his second run was only good enough for a silver medal. That is, until Canadian rival, Max Parrot’s final run relegated McMorris to the bronze position and claim Silver for himself.

SPEED SKATING:

Men’s long track 5000m.

Canada’s TJ Bloemen won silver in another photo finish. After a cat and mouse match up, he edged out Norway’s Pedersen by 0.002s! This type of photo finish is more often witnessed in Short Track! Netherlands continued their Long Track domination taking the Gold Medal.

LADIES FREESTYLE MOGULS

Canada had four skiers qualify for the final day of competition. Skiers had to finish top 12 to make the final, then top 6 to make the Super Final. Justine Dufour-Lapointe and Andi Naude made it through the gauntlet to the Super Final. Justine had a huge run and held the lead with a few riders left – Gold looked promising. However, France’s Parrine Laffont put a quick end to that podium hold, squeaking by with a 0.09 point margin to wait on top of the podium. Naude, who entered the Olympics as the top ranked Canadian and led the pack heading into the Super Final, had a chance to pick up her first Olympic medal. As the final skier, she attacked the course, fearlessly; but a slight error on her first jump put her off course just enough that she was unable to keep her form and eventually she popped off her line and outside the gates, resulting in a DNF.

Everyone was shocked, but Laffont managed to graciously celebrate her Gold, Justine D-L her Silver and Yulia Galysheva won bronze, Kazakhstan’s first olympic medal in moguls.

You have to admire these athletes – they are barely adults, but manage to compose themselves for their fans and the cameras despite such obvious heartbreak. You can guarantee two things:

1. Naude probably shed many tears as soon as she hit her dorm.
2. Naude will we back.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

In the early morning for the Eastern time zone, Finland scared the USA by scoring first, but USA battled back 2-1 then added an empty netter for a 3-1 win. The USA continues their undefeated-opening-match-of-the-Olympics streak.

CANADA vs OAR:

The game started fast, with Canada’s rookie line opening the set. The women in red and black dominated play but were unable to find their scoring streak until the 2nd period.

Then the flood gates opened. Five solid, unanswered goals showed Canada has most of their systems in order. A few kinks to work out, though, like Lacquette needs to stop taking slap shots for the sake of smashing rubber from the blueline as hard as she can. Patience. Hold on a split second. Look for a pass.

Some favourite goals:

• Poulin feeding Agosta while being tripped up backwards, Agosta patiently looking for Daoust in front of the net who had a beautiful one timer. (Aside: my autocorrect for Agosta: “Shostakovich” – makes lots of sense).
• Johnston roofing it from the doorstep on a two-man advantage. She is one that has gotten better with age and experience – very enjoyable to watch.

Russia had to rebuild its team this year due to the Russian doping scandal. Despite some veterans being cleared based on ‘the rules,’ the coaching staff actively chose to keep the players in question off the roster and band them for life. The Russians are left with 17 rookies and it shows. When losing by a number of goals, it’s easy for inexperienced players to get frustrated and resort to cross checking and other undisciplined penalties.

TEAM FIGURE SKATING

Can we just say that Scott and Tessa are beautiful to watch at Ice Dancing? Half the marks are for presentation and these two really make you feel their dance with every movement and expression – hard to believe that with so much presentation, they still didn’t win Gold in Sochi. They are back, polished and hungry for another gold. Their short program, along with Kaetlyn Osmond’s third place performance in the women’s short program have helped Canada pull ahead in the overall Team Standing. Team Figure skating continues with the free programs tonight (only the top five countries will compete for medals today). Canada could win their first Gold tonight.

Shoutouts to Luge Canadian Sam Edney who finished with a personal best time, good enough for 6th place. He finished just behind Germany’s Felix Loch, who was the Gold medal favourite. A slight error at over 100 km/h opened the door for Austria’s Gleirscher to take the Gold, USA took Silver and Germany’s Ludwig took Bronze.

Stay tuned tonight/tomorrow morning for the end of Team Figure Skating, Men’s Moguls, Women’s 1500m short track, Women’s slopestyle and men’s and women’s biathlon.

PyeongChang Hockey Prep – As told by JT:

So the past two days have been very busy, so I have been a bit tardy adding any posts! Thursday was a busy day, but was mostly filled with meetings and a on-ice test game. We started our day with the handing out of apparel, which included a new IIHF winter jacket with the Olympic logo on the sleeve, a track suit, a hoodie, a polo, Olympic jersey, and helmet with visor. I am glad I brought an extra duffel and left space in my suitcase! And yes ladies, the first thing I did was remove all stickers from the helmet 

Next we had a three hour meeting at the arena where we will be playing. The rink is new and super well done. There are two ref rooms, one drying room for our gear (that is going to smell awesome in the near future), and a standby room with a tv to watch the game. The standbys cannot sit in the stands, and for each game there is a ref and linesman ready to go in the event there is an injury. I can’t discuss the specifics of the meeting, but of course it was related to refereeing the Olympics!

I know a lot of people have been asking to know when I referee, but I am not allowed to post anything until two hours before the assignment as that is when it is released online to the public. They are very strict about this rule. The games are at 4:40 and 9:10pm. Which is quite late, but may be because then fans in North America and Europe can watch the game.

The coolest thing I learned though, is that we will all be wearing microphones. For the referees, it has a dual purpose. First, they have to announce all penalties and coaches challenges. There are two coach challenges, the first is for goalie interference. They can only challenge goalie interference if they still have a time out. If there is less than a minute left in the game, or in overtime, then all goals will be reviewed regardless of whether or not there is a time out left. The second challenge is the off-side challenge (eek!), which can be used on any goal. However, if it is ruled it was not off-side, then the team gets a bench minor penalty! This is the first time there is a coaches challenge at the winter games. The second purpose for the mic, is that all of us have been issued new whistles and the mic picks up our whistles and stops the clock immediately. So no human related delays, which is super cool. So it will be a super accurate clock!

If looking for me on the ice, I am number 53 and a linesman of course.

Last part of the day was the test game at the rink, which was played between two local mens teams. It was to practice coach challenges, the microphones, and arena related incidents such as injuries and broken glass. A different crew got to skate each period to check out the ice, and practice using the mic. I did not have to skate, so I watched instead. Above I took a panorama of the rink to give everyone an idea of what it looks like. After the test game we returned to the hotel at about 1230am and got our new helmets prepared for our ice time the next day. Needless to say, it was a long and tiring day. Tomorrow is an on ice session, meetings, and the opening ceremonies! Very excited!