A tie is like kissing your sister, according to an old saying. Someone forgot to tell German Bobsledders Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis this, as they looked like they would have kissed their sisters, their brothers and any and every Canadian in the world when the duo of Justin Kripps and Alexander Kopacz finished with the exact same time after four runs down the course in the Alpensia Sliding Centre. The course in this year's Olympics is 2018 meters long. Each team slides down the course 4 times. Each run takes a little more than 49 seconds and the sleds reach a top speed of 86 or 87 miles per hour. After all that, these two teams finished with the exact same time. The people who looked like they were going to be forced to kiss their sisters was the Latvians, who finished 3rd, .05 seconds behind.
A tie in the Olympics is not unheard of. The last time the Canadians won a gold medal in this event was in, wait for it,..., a tie, in 1998. The most memorable recent tie in Olympic competition was the three way tie for second in the Men's 100 Fly in 2016. This was memorable because three people tied for silver and one of them was Michael Phelps. Most people don't realize people can swim as fast as him, much less beat him. The worst tie in the history of sports was the 2002 Pairs Figure Skating, when the Russian pair "won" the gold medal, then the Canadian pair (who most people thought were better) was given their own gold medal along with the Russians after evidence of collusion to give the Russians the gold medal was found. How do you end up in a tie when there is judging? Why are the Canadians always in a tie?
There have been 29 ties for medals in the Winter Olympics. Nine of those ties have been for gold. Of those nine, only two have been in the Bobsled competition and both involved Canada, 1998 and this year. Why, Canada? Why? Interestingly, every Winter Olympics except 1932, 1936, 1976, 1984, 1988, 1994 and 2006 have included at least one tie for a medal. OK, that wasn't that interesting. (Of more interest, every Summer Olympics has had a tie for a medal except the 1932 Los Angeles Games. We'll have to figure that one out.) Of the ties in Winter Olympics, the sport with the most ties is Speed Skating, accounting for 12 of the 29 ties, including 3 ties in the 1968 Games, all for the silver medal. In the Women's 500 meter Speed Skating in 1968, three Americans tied for the silver medal. Alpine Skiing is second, with 6 ties. Luge has had one tie, in 1972, and then they decided that ties were unacceptable, so now they time to the one thousandth of the second, instead of the one hundredth. Luge is just a little too good for ties, and for all of us for that matter.
With all these ties, I was asked what happens when there is a tie. Being your go to guy for Olympic information, I checked it out. Unfortunately, I was not able to find a lot of information. You would think with ties in every Summer Olympics except one, people would be curious. Maybe they are spending too much time playing curling with brooms and a Rumba to care. However, my readers, well at least one, is curious, so I tried to figure it out.
First the fascinatingly obvious. Please feel free to skip over this paragraph, but, since most of the articles I found cover this, I thought I would too. If two people tie for gold, no silver is awarded. If two people tie for silver, no bronze is awarded. If two people tie for bronze, well, good for them. If three people tie for gold, no other medals are awarded. This seems pretty obvious and simple, but maybe not.
Second, the IOC comes prepared with more medals than they need. In Sochi, they brought 46 extra medals (no word on colors) to prepare for the inevitable ties (which happened in the Men's Super G and the Women's Downhill). Each medal is individually inscribed for the event, so there is some work that needs to be done, but they are generally ready.
Third, the National Anthem. If two people (or teams) tie for gold, both National Anthems will be played. I can't figure out what order. I wonder if the American Anthem was played twice in 2000 when Gary Hall Jr. and Anthony Ervin tied in the 50 free. Probably not.
Finally, the medal stand photo looks a little weird. Especially when Michael Phelps, Chad le Clos and Laszlo Cseh tie for silver, so one guy is standing on top and three are standing next to him.
I have no sisters, so I don't know what it is like to kiss them. I have tied in sports. I never felt that bad about it. When I tied a friend I was happy for him and me. When I tied someone I didn't know, I was...well, I was happy for him and me. When my boys finish in a tie, especially in a team sport, everyone walks away happy. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. You can't have a tie in a tournament, or in the Super Bowl or the World Series or the World Cup. I get that. In the Olympics, I can understand the luge position, but I don't agree with it. Swimming has had several ties, and if you pay enough attention, you can often discover who would have won if the times were taken to the thousandth. But why? On Monday, I watched two large German men run around a small icy area hugging every Canadian they could get their hands on to celebrate a shared victory. I saw pictures of four very large men with giant grins, two holding up a Canadian flag and two holding up a German flag. I can't say why this is a bad thing.
Reflections on What We have Seen:
1. Monday I watched the US Men's and Women's teams win very exciting Curling matches. In both, the US had to make a clutch shot at the end to seal the victory. As the commentator said, "If you don't love this, you don't love curling." Who is he kidding? EVERYBODY loves curling.
2. The Ski Half Pipe is just not as exciting as the Snowboard Half Pipe.
3. The Women's Snowboard Big Air competition starts atop a giant ramp built over a road. That was pretty cool. Then The Wife pointed out the little elevator going up the scaffolding to, presumably, take the athletes up to the top. If I could snowboard (which I can't), and I could go down that ramp (which I can't) and I could do a bunch of spins and flips (which I can't) and I could stop before hitting the fence (which I couldn't even come close to doing), I still would not be able to compete in this sport, because I would be TERRIFIED to go up that elevator.
4. Love Biathlon. Can't say that enough.
5. Great Britain Speed Skater Elise Christie is one of the most talked about Speed Skaters at these Games. In 2014 and 2018 she competed in 6 events. She has been disqualified in 5 events and crashed at least 3 times.
6. Watched a little Ski Jumping. Learned a little about wind and points. Tried real hard, but I just can't seem to care.
7. I really wish our Men's Hockey team had beat the Czechs so I could say we beat Czechoslovakia.
8. The US seems to be getting a lot of 4th places and we are currently tied for 4th in the medal standings. Odd coincidences all around.
9. Anyone who does an Ice Dancing routine to music from Moulin Rouge deserves to win gold.
10. A doping scandal involving a Russian Curler. You could not come up with a better doping story.
10. I got a news alert about THE MOST EXCITING THING TO HAPPEN IN 2018 this morning, but will not comment until I get to see it.
What to Watch For:
1. Women's Hockey Gold Medal Game. U-S-A! U-S-A!
2. Women's Bobsled. U-S-A! U-S-A!
3. The US Men's Curling Team made the semifinals!! U-S-A! U-S-A!
4. Cross Country Skiing. Big news. Big news. BIG NEWS!!
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