Canada must have been completely surprised and humiliated by the 5-3 beating they took in the preliminaries, because after a tentative start, they came on like gangbusters; taking control and shooting well.

After Canada hammered at US goalie Ryan Miller for a while, Johnathan Toews scored the 1^st goal for Canada. During this tournament, the first team to score has been the one to win, so it didn’t look good for the US. In the second period, Corey Perry broke free and caught the US defense looking, scoring another for Canada.

 The US finally got one in with 7 minutes left in the 2^nd. Ryan Kesler got the deflection past Canada’s goalie, Roberto Luongo.

 I was watching the game with a friend (he’s not a huge hockey fan) and at 3 minutes to go in the third period he commented it was pretty much over.  I replied that three minutes was a lot for hockey; anything can happen.  I made a good call on that one. The US bore down on Canada, ruthlessly pressing to gain an advantage. Then, with only 24 seconds to go Zach Parise got an opportunity and shot around Luongo to tie it up and put the game into sudden-death overtime.

 With the four-on-four instead of the full team it seemed like the play was slower again, each team carefully searching for an opening, curbing the previous aggression.  The fevered press by the USA that got the last goal was replaced with a focus on defense.  Canada attempted more shots, and closer in. The US attempts were further away and less frequent.

The incredible game ended when Canadian star Sidney Crosby slipped the puck through Miller’s legs scoring for the win. The Canadian crowd went wild, the celebration beginning.  Ryan Miller fell forward on the ice, hopes for gold crushed.

 Though I would have preferred to see Team USA bring home the gold, it was a great game; exciting to watch, interesting to talk about.  I’m glad I was able to catch this one.

It was a race in yet another messy, sloppy foggy day on the mountains surrounding Vancouver. All of the quarterfinals were decided when there was a fall by one of the two racers.

The silver went to Austria’s Benjamin Karl, and the bronze went to Mathieu Bozzetto of France.

 On an interesting side note; I found out today that Goeff Bodine of NASCAR fame got interested in bobsleigh in the 1990s and helped design the Night Train sled. What a cool bit of cross-sport cooperation!

 Defending champions Germany 1, piloted by Andre Lange, won silver, just .38 seconds behind. The giant Germans always made me laugh with their high-fives and bear-like huzzah just before they pushed to start. I had no idea what a testosterone-laden sport this is.

 Canada-1 finished third for the bronze.

Razzoli delivered, beating Kostelic by .16 seconds.  Tomba roared with delight and hugged Razzoli tightly. I wonder if Razzoli takes after Tomba in his social side?  There are still stories floating around about the wild nights he spent celebrating in Calgary.

Andre Myhrer of Sweden is bringing home the bronze, also a milepost for Sweden.  This is the first medal for the country in Alpine skiing in 22 years.

Bode Miller missed a gate in his first run, disqualifying him from the competition.  Ted Ligety also skied out, leaving the US with no contenders.

Midway through the 10^th end when the score was 6-3 Canada, the crowd spontaneously broke into their national anthem. It was a pretty stirring moment. Norway’s skip, Thomas Ulsrud, was behind Canada’s Kevin Martin; you could tell he was saying something nice about the crowd reaction. 

One thing I like about curling is everyone seems incredibly sportsmanlike.  No huge arguments, no ill will. A good sport, I think.

Earlier today, Switzerland beat Sweden 5-4 to earn bronze.

US women did not fare as well. Though they held a good pace for much of the race, Catherine Rainey-Norman fell further and further behind teammates Jennifer Rodriguez and Jilleanne Rookard in the competition for bronze. The two lead women actually crossed the finish line before team Poland, but Rainey-Norman was just too far back to get the win. Gold was claimed by the German team for the second year in a row, edging the Japanese by a scant 2 hundredths of a second.

That nasty fog and wet snow continued for the women trying to compete in the slalom. The fog cut visibility so much it was tough for us to see the skiers, let alone them the narrow poles they had to navigate. The comment was made that they were almost forced to ski by feel and memory alone. The wet snow and warmer weather made the course rough and very difficult to navigate.

Maria Reisch of Germany got her second gold of the games, handling the tough conditions with great control. It was bittersweet for the skier, as her sister was unable to finish the course and join her in victory. Marlies Schild of Austria finished second, Sarka Zahrobska of the Czech Republic, third.

US favorite Lindsey Vonn was unable to finish, but didn’t seem too upset since she’s still bringing home two medals this year.

Silver went to Austria, who came in 38.6 seconds behind. Bronze went to Russia who finished a close .2 seconds behind Austria. The US team finished a tepid 13^th.

In men’s speed skating, the US three-man team surprised everyone by handily beating the much-favored team from the Netherlands. Made up of veteran Chad Hedrick and two 19-yr-old newcomers, Brian Hansen and Jonathan Kuck, the USA team looked liked they’d be defeated as predicted in the early laps.  But communication problems between the Dutch team cost them the lead; the US barreling down the ice with the Dutch scrambling to regain the lead. The US managed to hang on, winning by .4 seconds and advancing to the finals.

The final four in the women’s short track were Katherine Reutter of the US, Wang Meng and Zhou Yang of China, and Park Seung-Hi of South Korea. There were no false starts and no big crashes, but after being passed, something happened to Yang and she dropped back far behind the other 3 skaters.  It didn’t look like anything big; perhaps she just lost her stride and couldn’t get her momentum back. Wang Meng, the bright star of short track this Olympics, held a strong lead the entire race, barely bothered by those behind her. She finished gold, making her the 1^st woman to win 6 medals in short track and China the 1^st country to sweep all the women’s short track events. A jubilant Reutter got her skate over the line second for silver, and Park Seung-Hi got bronze.

The 45 laps of the men’s short track team relay looks like a well-choreographed dance during the exchanges. They don’t actually pass a baton, just touch, then the old skater shoves the new skater forward to try and gain ground. Each skater must only skate 1 lap, so you can plan a strategy around who’s stronger and make exchanges accordingly

The skaters began in a tight pack, but Canada pulled ahead midway through and maintained a steady lead to end, the hometown crowd wildly cheering.

The US team consisted of JR Celski, Travis Jayner, Jordan Malone, and Apolo Ohno. At first, they did not look strong and stayed mainly in the fourth position, but a mighty final effort from Apolo Ohno got the team bronze, just behind Korea.  The win gave Ohno his 8^th Olympic medal; maybe it made up a little for his disqualification earlier today.

 It looked like second place would go to a shocked Ohno, but after close examination, he was disqualified and denied the silver. It looked to me like Ohno barely touched him, but you never know, he may be a great actor.  After watching short track this year, it looks like they all try to slide in as much contact as they can without the judges seeing. 

Si-Bak was awarded ssilver and Tremblay bronze even though neither really finished.  I guess that’s just how it goes in the wild world of short track.

 The level of play was amazing; I didn’t think rocks were capable of sliding that way.  It was one difficult shot after another.  Double take-outs, stealing points, the whole gamut of plays occurred over and over.  By the 6^th end the score was 4-2 and it looked like Sweden might be able to take it away. Canada came back with some skillful strategy tilting the scales so that it was 5-4 by the beginning of the 8^th. The 8^th was scoreless, and Sweden tried to keep the 9^th the same, so they could try and score with the final rock, but they missed a key slide and Canada took advantage for 1 more.  The crowd was so excited in the 10^th I don’t know if any of the players could hear each other call across the ice for directions.

 Just when it looked like Canada had it closed out, they made a bad shot, setting Sweden up to take 2.  The Swedes pulled it off and the match went into an extra end. It all came down to the final slide by Canadian skip Cheryl Bernard.  Sweden had 2 rocks in the house, on fairly close to the button.  Bernard managed to knock one rock and it just kissed the other, pushing it into the button. Sweden had it won.

 One of the interesting things about curling, the players are “regular” people. Canadian skip Cheryl Bernard is a stay-at-home mom.  I’ve heard the commentators refer to players on various teams as bartenders, part-timers at hardware stores, just regular folks who play this game for the love of it. Unlike, say, a cross country skier, conditioning isn’t that big a part of the game, so you can have a job.  Plus, let’s face it, how many huge curling endorsement deals have you heard of? These folks have to work to put food on the table.

 I have to wonder, what happened to Finland?  This wasn’t supposed to be the rout it ended up.

 The USA is now assured at least silver as they head to the final against the winner of this evening’s match-up between Canada and Slovakia.

Tina Maze of Slovenia finished a close second for silver. Elizabeth Gorgl of Austria, who had the fastest time on the 1^st run, won bronze.

American Julia Mancuzo, the defending champ, had a bad run yesterday, finishing 18^th.  She had the 3^rd fastest run today, but she would have had to fly down the mountain in order to make up for her poor 1^st run, so she came in 10^th.

I wonder what the results would have been without that fog? It’s a roll of the dice when there’s bad weather, you never know who will be up and how it will affect them. Sometimes it doesn’t seem “fair” but that is the risk you run with an outdoor sport.

Rachael Flatt was a victim of the scoring system, receiving about eight points in downgrades, in spite of performing a routine that looked simply marvelous. That put her in only second after skate. But she didn’t stay there long as Japan’s Miki Ando passed her for first.

And then it was Kim Yu-Na’s turn. So much pressure on this young lady. A whole nation’s hopes riding on her. I don’t think we, here in America, fully appreciate how other nations view their Olympic athletes. Sure, we love it when Apolo Ohno wins. And we hate it when Lindsey Vonn crashes. But they do not come home to feel like the whole nation is disappointed in them. But Kim Yu-Na has stated that is her fear. Not just that the entire nation would be disappointed but that they would turn their backs on her. I can’t even imagine what kind of pressure that would place on a young person. Fortunately, she rose to the challenge beautifully.

Mao Asada didn’t seem in the least intimidated, coming out to perform the first three triple axels by a woman in a program. However, she had a few little bobbles that made it almost impossible for her to pass Kim Yu-Na. Not to say that the program wasn’t beautiful. It seemed almost certain that she would take the silver.

I always want the Americans to win, but in this particular case, I’d be perfectly happy to let Joannie Rochette have a medal, instead. She skated beautifully, under any circumstances. But especially given the emotional weight she’s skating under. And after she skated, she was in third.

While I like Mirai Nagasu, I just couldn’t really hope for her to overtake any of the top three. She’s 16. She should certainly be back for future Olympics. She skated a great program. It was enough for fourth but not enough to take over third.

It was a beautiful not of skating. There was artistry, athleticism and sweetness. Congratulations to all of the ladies.

I would like to state, for the record, that there are two spins being performed in ladies figure skating that I just don’t enjoy. One, the spin that looks like doing the splits standing up holding onto your skate. It’s not attractive. And, two, the one where they sit and put their nose to their toes. Again, not attractive. I have no doubt these are difficult spins. But NOT pretty.

Other than those, I still really enjoy figure skating. And I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with skating over the next four years.

 There was a feeling of deja vu when you saw Jaret “Speedy” Peterson at the top of the hill preparing for his final run in men’s aerials.  4 years ago he was in position for the bronze when he attempted his signature jump the hurricane.  But that time, he blew the landing and didn’t get on the podium.  The tried the hurricane during practice today, falling at the landing. It would have been easy to take the advice of others and not attempt the difficult jump.  But this year, he needed the difficulty to get the points needed to finish high. He made the jump, triumphantly sticking the landing.

 Liu Zonyang won bronze.  The 18-yr-old from China had very compact form during his jump, but wheelied a little on the landing. He’s so young, I’m sure we’ll see him in 4 years.

The Americans were definitely helped by the weather today. I’m beginning to learn a bit more about ski jumping. A tiny bit. Enough to know that a tail wind is not a good thing. You see, I’ve been recently told that ski jumping is not about falling, it’s about flying. You need a head wind for that. Some of the strongest skiers received tail winds that meant they were pretty much out of it before the skiing ever started.

So, going into the cross country portion, Johnny Spillane was second, and Bill Demong was sixth. By the end of the third lap, the front group included Spillane, Demong and Austria’s Bernhard Gruber. This allowed Spillane and Demong to work together to an extent. But when it comes down to it, it’s an individual sport.

And when everything was said and done, the Americans had a gold and silver. Bill Demong won the gold, Johnny Spillane took the silver. The bronze went to Bernhard Gruber.

Johnny Spillane almost ended up in third after falling briefly in the final lap. Coming into the stadium these were the only three really in the race. You couldn’t even see any of the other facers.

I hope that this is a great step forward for this program for the United States. This is a desperately underfunded/unfunded sport America. Many of these athletes end up pretty much on their own for covering their costs. And there aren’t exactly endorsements lined up around the block for the athletes. So, maybe a gold and three silvers will change all of that.

German took the silver, and Finland took the bronze. The Americans were in 12th.

Canada took control in the first period; Marie-Philip Poulin scored both goals.  Perhaps it was nerves on the part of the US that allowed those two goals since the second and third periods were scoreless.  Canada still dominated the game; even during power plays the US just couldn’t push through their defense. Canadian goalie Shannon Szabados was amazing, blocking 28 shots.  But it shows just how evenly matched the teams are that US goalie Jessie Vetter made 27 saves.

Let me tell you, this was a knock-down drag-out battle between the two teams. Their skills are good, they played hard and fast, and the aggression on both sides was high. They went as far as they could without legal checking.  I saw one US player literally sit on a Canadian player then push her to the ice before she got off and resumed playing.  All this, of course, done behind the single ref’s back.  There was pushing, tripping, high-sticking, bad mouthing and everything else that usually goes with a heated rivalry.  Of course, unlike the men’s teams these players have been back-and-forth for years.  They will not be going back to their respective NHL teams, patting each other on the back and becoming buddies again. Some of the women may have been teammates in college, but as soon as they committed their loyalty to their country’s team, all bets were off. 

The handshake at the end of the game had the jubilant Canadians with helmets off and huge smiles.  Many of the US players kept their helmets on, perhaps to hide the tears until they could compose themselves.  Usually, a silver at the Olympics is a huge triumph, but during the medal ceremony Finland seemed much happier with their bronze (won in overtime against Sweden) than the US with their second place medal.

All I can say is I’m looking forward to the next Winter Olympics. I hope there are more countries with the wherewithall to nurture  their talented young women and promote the sport to higher levels.  I’d like to see more games like this one.

Kristi Yamaguchi spends time with her daughter Kira at the P&G Family Home

I had the pleasure of talking with Kristi Yamaguchi on the phone today. Yes, she really is as nice as she seems. I asked her some questions about the current Olympics and the newish scoring system, but I also wanted to talk to her about advice for young athletes and their families.

I first talked with her about the quad controversy from these Olympics, which is not so very different from the athlete/artist/triple axel controversy of the 1992 Olympics. I asked whether a single element should be allowed to dominate a program and how the current system affects that. She said that the current system is trying to make the scoring more objective, but that there’s a danger to taking the human element out of skating.

“Skating is always going to be subjective. No matter what system you put in place, there is an element to the sport that is so human, so emotional that if you take that out of it it becomes any other just athletic competition only, and that’s not what skating has always been about. I’m just hoping our sport doesn’t go in that direction.”

When asked about the pros and cons of the scoring system, Kristi said it does acknowledge difficult moves but that in an effort to raise the level of difficulty, every move has become calculated to rack up points, leading to performances that are sometimes technically great but not beautiful, that it can create a “connect the dots” form of skating.

After switching gears to talk about advice to young athletes, I asked for the best advice she had for aspiring athletes. She stressed the importance of setting goals, not just the big “I want to go to the Olympics” goals, but intermittent, attainable goals in the meantime. Goals that a young athlete can accomplish and feel good about now, on the road to greatness.

When it comes to encouraging the dream without sacrificing the family, she said that it’s about organization and the parents taking on perhaps separate roles. Her Mom traveled with her, while her Dad stayed home and helped keep her siblings’ lives on track. But she admitted that having a world class athlete is going to require some sacrifices by the family.

Should your athlete even make the sacrifice? Kristi said that they should be encouraged to look inward and evaluate that. She said that all athletes come to a crossroads where they have to decide whether this is really the path for them.

“I think you really have to let the athlete look inside him or herself and really ask the question ‘why am I doing this’ and ‘can I imagine my life without this sport?’.”

Her moment came around Junior High, as she made the transition from local to state events and then on to competitions at the national level. As that required more and more time, she had to make the conscious decision that this was something she wanted to do.

As we saw this week, being a great athlete doesn’t necessarily always result in someone who is such a nice person. When asked what her parents did to encourage being a good sport, she indicated they stressed sportsmanship from a very young age and always reassured her that they just wanted her to try her best and that they would love her regardless of the outcome. They also stressed respect for fellow competitors:

“Even though you’re competing against other people, you need to respect their talents and what they do and be happy with your own performance.”

She said she would certainly encourage her daughters if either of them wanted to pursue competitive athletics, as both she and her husband (who was a hockey player) feel that they got so much out of sports. Plus, it kept them out of trouble in life, which was something I hadn’t really thought of. I guess if all of your time is taken up skating, there’s little time left over for shenanigans.

Finally, when asked how parents could help their kids prepare for life beyond sports, Kristy said her parents had always stressed school and her education. Even as she became more competitive, that was a priority and if her grades slipped, then ice skating time had to be dialed back. They always encouraged a balanced life.

I finished up by asking her a couple of lighter questions. I asked her about her favorite Winter Olympics events to watch, other than figure skating. While she did single out ice hockey and short track skating, she said she really enjoys all the sports.

And when asked about the most memorable figure skating of these Olympics? She thought Evan Lysacek was great. But she was particularly impressed by the ice skating battle between the top teams.

“It took ice dancing to another level… I haven’t enjoyed ice dancing like that in years and years.”

It was really a lovely chat that I thoroughly enjoyed. I hope there are some nuggets for those of you who are raising athletes. And for the rest of you, I hope you enjoyed reading this interview half as much as I enjoyed the experience of speaking with Kristi Yamaguchi.

Kristi was speaking to me from the Proctor and Gamble Family Home. You can learn more about their program supporting Olympic athletes’ families on their Thank You, Mom website. They also have some cool videos of athletes’ Moms (or Dads).

Women’s aerials also awarded medals tonight. The Chinese are coming on strong as aerialists, coming in second and third. But the gold was reserved for Australia’s Lydia Lassila.

Take the 500m qualifying races today. Generally, you’re looking at 40-45 seconds. Come on, you can pay attention for 40 seconds.

The women’s 3000m relay on the other hand requires you to pay attention for about five minutes. The Americans were far back by about half a lap, leaving a three team race between South Korea, China and the Canadians. When it was over, that’s the order of the finish, but then the judges had to look at whether a South Korean skater fouled a skater from China. South Korea was doing their victory lap while the judges were still looking at replays. The Americans were waiting to see if they might end up with a medal by default. In the end, South Korea was denied a gold after being disqualified, and the American women won their first short track medal in 16 years. That’s going to be controversial with the South Koreans, but that’s short track.

Hopefully, Lindsey will be okay and hopefully Mancuso will be able to make a comeback tomorrow.