March Madness Begins

Now that the Olympic Flame in Sochi has been extinguished and the athletic spotlight is no longer focused on the world's greatest winter athletes, I too, must re-direct my spectating attention.  I have not ignored my children for the last two weeks, but I have checked hockey scores while sitting at a youth basketball game.  Last year, I gleefully recounted the final two games of the basketball season as Eldest and Middle each completed an undefeated season.  Neither is undefeated this year, but we have a new wrinkle.  For the first time in my career as a sports parent, we have playoffs.

Our boys play most of their sports in the local youth "house" league.  Last fall, Eldest was selected for the all-star team in soccer, but we have never had the desire to push them into a travel league, even if we believed they were good enough.  Being in a local "house" league up to their current ages means that the results of games are not recorded, records are not kept, playoffs are not played, and champions are not crowned.  In general, this is good.  They get the experience of winning and losing, without the pain of really losing something of value.  This is particularly good for Eldest, who tends to get emotional when games don't go his way.  The "sweet" example of this is that he was crying when his basketball team was losing in the 4th quarter this past weekend.  He wasn't the only one on his team crying.  Ironically, they played a solid 4th quarter and won.  The "scary" example was when he told me he wanted to throw a basketball at the opposing coach's head after a loss.  I like the competitiveness, but need to rein in the violent tendency.

In 4th grade basketball, the league starts to keep the scores of games, team records, standings and playoffs.  Eldest's team finished in a tie for 3rd in the league (out of 22 teams) and lost the tie breaker (points allowed - apparently the CYA punishes the Loyola Marymount of 4th Grade), so they are seeded 4th.  They get a bye to the Round of 16.  The playoffs start for us on Saturday, March 1.  March Madness indeed.

The excitement of a tournament is the day to day advancement.  The stress is the possibility of an abrupt end to the season.  Each win means a new game, any loss a one way ticket home.  At some point in the next 5 days, Eldest will head home after a basketball game with either a championship trophy or tears in his eyes.  I see no scenario giving us a happy medium between these two possibilities.  I imagine several boys from our team in tears if they don't get that trophy.  I've seen it before this season when the stakes were not as drastic.

The interesting question is how Dad handles all of this.  My natural competitiveness makes me one of the more vocal parents during games.  I am very conscious of what I am saying, and (at least as a parent) always keep it positive.  However, the excitement and stress of the tournament will be felt by parents, just as much as players.  To make matters worse, officiating is sketchy at best.  I have no problem with sketchy officiating in a meaningless house league game.  I have no problem with inexperienced officials who may miss things or "swallow the whistle" to let the boys play.  I do have a problem with a referee who calls 3 second violations and tight travelling, but has no idea what a moving screen is or reaching in.  I have held my tongue, but this is the playoffs.

I am looking forward to this sail into unchartered waters.  I want to see how Eldest handles his first foray into meaningful sports competition.  I want to see how I do.  I really want to see how the Wife handles all of this.  She is definitely the softer side of our parenting partnership.  My natural reaction to crying after a loss is "You lost.  It happens.  It'll happen again.  Get over it."  The Wife is somewhat more sympathetic.  She worries about Eldest to the extent that she is leaning towards going to Middles non-playoff game instead of Eldest's playoff game tomorrow.  Leaving me to handle a first round upset loss, should such a tragedy occur.  We will all be there for the second round, though.  And hopefully, the semis and Finals, Monday and Tuesday.

Reflections on What Has Happened

1. William and Mary Men's Swimming in second place after 2 of 4 days in the CAA Swimming and Diving Championship.  Looking for their first title ever.  Go Tribe!!

Predictions Recap

I think I nailed that "darling of the Olympics" call:



Predictions

I'm taking a break from predictions.

What to Watch For

1.  UVA-Syracuse.  Saturday 4:00 pm.

2.  Oscars - Sunday Night.

3.  CYA 4th Grade Basketball Playoffs.  Full report to come.


Random Fact of the Day

I have done my last Random Fact of the Day for a while.  Again, this is somewhat random and it is a fact.

Fat Old Man Update

I'm still fat and old.  A hip injury has kept me somewhat sidelined for a while, but I got in the pool twice this week.  2850 on Monday, 2750 on Wednesday.  I even looked at Masters swim meets again.  I'm not doing one this spring, but I may consider something in the fall.

Good Bye, Old Friend

Once again, we say good bye to the quadrennial athletic competition that is the Olympicss.  Perhaps we should call it biannual, since it was a mere 18 months ago that we were saying a fond farewell to Londan and will be only two and a half years until Rio, but winter and summer are different, if only for the falling and the stretchers on snow.

When London 2012 ended, I felt empty.  For more than three weeks I posted on this blog fairly regularly.  It was the first time I had attempted anything like this, and was done despite the duties of a parent and husband, a job and an attempt at that time to exercise on a fairly regular basis.  I was drained and exhausted, but at the same time felt like I had lost some motivation to do something different.  I didn't relocate the motivation on such a regular basis until two weeks ago.

As Sochi 2014 comes to a close, I don't have the same empty feeling.  Perhaps that is because, this being February instead of August, I still have basketball games for the boys, committee meetings for volunteer opportunities, snow on the ground and all the expected life obligations that seem to disappear in August.  Maybe its because I have given up the exercise thing (not entirely, see below.)  Maybe it is because the Winter Olympics are not as all encompassing as the Summer Olympics.  Who knows?  All I know is that getting this final Sochi 2014 post completed was a little more difficult than the final 2012 London post.

I enjoy the Winter Olympics for some of the same, but also for very different, reasons that I enjoy the Summer Games.  In both, you get to watch some of the best athletes in the world compete in events not frequently aired on national television in prime time.  I enjoy learning about the countries and people where the Games are held, and I thank Mary Carillo for the work she did.  In the summer, I enjoy watching people doing things I once did, although not even remotely on the same level.  In the winter, I enjoy watching people do things I wish I had, like biathlon and luge and speedskating, but missed my chance because of geography, opportunity, or any number of other reasons.

The Winter Olympics are more foreign.  Alpine skiing is something people in the mid-Atlantic region do for vacation, not an everyday activity.  I have no idea where to learn to speedskate.  I used to do something similar to skeleton down the giant hill in the neighborhood where I grew up, but I've never seen a car on a sliding track, or a banked curve on that street.  On occassion after big snows (meaning about once a decade) I will see someone cross country skiing down the street.  Those people always get funny looks.  Where do they even get those skis?  And who thinks, hey, just in case we get 2 feet of snow for the first time in 25 years and I can get out before the road is covvered in dirt and salt, I'm going to drop a few hundred dollars on cross country skis?  (Actually, I'm kind of tempted.)

The Winter Olympics are also much smaller.  Fewer events make for easier keep up with television watching.  The one problem was that many events were played more than once.  Part of this was because of the time change (showing all figure skating live during the day and the key players and Americans at night.)  However, in some cases, this went way too far.  Did they really need to show the parallel snow board live on NBCSN in the middle of the night, on tape for NBC's afternoon coverage and AGAIN at prime time?  Couldn't they have shown some curling during one of those times?  Even the events I loved, like biathlon, were often shown two or three times.  When live coveregae is shown at 4 am, I can understand showing part of it when the sun is up in the US, but three times is just too much.  I have a DVR.  I am very good with it.  I don't need you to show me the Women's biathlon 3 times.  Show me something else.

With that complaint aside, I enjoyed the Winter Olympics.  Sochi, aside from the non-winter weather, was beautiful.  The mountain pictures were spectacular.  The daily drama of whether Bob Costas could work or the "infection" had taken over his entire face was enjoyable.  Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski are legitmate stars and Terry Gannon was the perfect straight man.  There were no terrorist attacks.  For the sake of the viewers, the athletes and the fans, things were perfect (a few hotel issues being the exception).  Other than the spectacular failure in Men's Hockey, things went swimmingly for Vladimir Putin.  I guess that is the one bad thing.  This jack-ass actually pulled it off.

So, here are a few of my favorites, some of which you already know:

1.  Favorite sport - Biathlon.  Great competition, great drama, spectacular visuals.  This sport should always be contested at night under the lights.

2.  Favorite athlete - Gabriela Soukalova.  The Czech Biathlete won two silver medals (to go along with three 4th places) and looked spectacular with every slide of the ski and every shot of the rifle.

3.  Best Performance - Darya Domrachava.  Three gold medals in biathlon.  And dominant in every race.

4.  Favorite Gold Medalist - Sage Kotsenburg.  He won the first gold medal of the games, becoming the first American to win an Olympic medal on Russian soil, and looked like he was having more fun than anyone doing it.

5.  Sport I enjoyed learning more about - Curling.  I started to learn about curling during the 2006 Olympics.  Every 4 years I learn more.  If you want to call it shuffleboard on ice, I am not going to argue, but this game is fascinating from a strategic point of view.

6.  Best Job - Chris Collinsworth.  As far as I could tell, all he did was go to an event, then talk about it for 3 minutes the next day.  I need this gig.

7.  Biggest non-controversy - Women's Figure Skating.  Aside from what I said a few days ago, Adelina was better.  Unless you are a pretentious jack-ass who wants to pretend like you have a better eye for who is more "artistic", or whetever ridiculousness you want to claim.  Adelina skated for the gold.  Yuna skated out of obligation.  It showed.

8.  Worst Moment - Women's Hockey.  Blowing a two goal lead with less than 4 minutes to play is just devastating.  Their expressions on the medal stand were justified.

9.  Most Dominant Performance - Dutch Speed Skating.  36 medals awarded, 23 went to the Dutch.  12 events, 8 won by the Dutch, 5 Men's events, 3 swept by the Dutch.  We don't even do that well in swimming.

10.  Favorite Moment - Hard to say.  I was glad to see fellow West Potomac High School Alum Ashley Wagner redeem herself with three clean programs, but I like Gracie Gold more.  It was great to see Meryl Davis and Charlie White win their gold, but that was expected.  Mikaela Shiffrin's gold in slalom was a phenomenal "Hello, World" moment.  I tend to lean American and root against France almost as much as I root against the Redskins, but watching Martin Fourcade raise his arms in triumph to the crowd after a clean final shooting stage in the Biathlon Pursuit, even though he still had 3 km to ski, was an entertaining moment.  I was watching the best in the world, perform at his best.  But I can't do it, so let's go with the Heartbreaker's final stone to win the Bronze medal in curling.

Reflections on What Has Happened (Focus for this will be on US sports and medals, but we will touch on other stuff as time permits)

1. That was a block on Saturday, no matter what Duke fans say.

2.  Glad to see Latvia win silver in 4-man bobsled, even at the expense of Steve Holcomb and Night Train.  Funny to see the sme drivers win gold and bronze in the 4-man and the 2-man.

3.  Jimmy Roberts and Mary Carillo both did a great job with their stories.

4.  Too.  Much.  Snow.  in Virginia.

5.  I would hate to be Emil Hegl Svendson.   Ole Einar Bjeorndalen, winner of more Winter Olympic medals than anyone in history and trying to become the winner of more Winter Olympic GOLD Medals than anyone in history shoots cleanly in the 3 spot of the Men's Biathlon Relay and hands you the lead, and you miss the target 4 times in the last shooting stage to fail to even medal.  He should read my post about teammates.

6.  The Russian National Anthem needs to be sung in male voices.

Predictions Recap

1. US gets bronze in Men's hockey, gold in Women's. - WRONG!!! and WRONG!!!  Wow.  Looked so good a week ago.

2. Mikaela Shiffrin becomes the darling of these games. - Hard to say, but I think I got this one.  Correct

3. US beats Russia in both total medals and golds. - WRONG!!!  That was one heck of a final two days by the host country to take the medal count lead.  Of course, two of their golds were won by an American and three were won  by a South Korean.  But I'm not bitter.  (Yes, I am.)

4. I will watch more biathlon than anyone else in America. - I think I got it when I watched the Men's relay.  Correct

5. Norway wins Men's Biathlon Relay, Bjoerndalen gets his 14th medal.  WRONG!!!  See above.

Predictions

I'm taking a break from predictions.

What to Watch For

1.  The 2014, 2015, 2016 NCAA Basketball Tournaments; The 2014, 2015, 2016 Masters; The 2014, 2015, 2016 Tour de France; 2014, 2015 World Series; Super Bowls XLIX, L and LI; The 2014 World Cup: and many other things before Rio 2016.

2.  My first experience as a parent of a child in a basketball tournament, starting Saturday.

3.  How the Suburban Dad (and Mom) of three young boys handles a teenage girl for the summer.

4.  Local Sports comes back.  Summer Swimming 2014.


Random Fact of the Day

If you have 3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.

Well, duh?

Yesterday, Russian figure skater, Adelina Sotnikova, won the Women's figure skating gold medal over defending champion Yuna Kim.  Both skated well.  Adelina's program was more difficult than Yuna's, but most of what I heard was that Yuna's was more "artistic", or something like that.

Today, or maybe sometime yesterday, some yahoo started a petition to change the results of the figure skating.  The primary complaint is that too many of the judges were Russians, and skating is corrupt, and the home crowd influenced the judging.  Not a word was said about the difference in difficulty of the two programs.

According to an article from the Huffington Post, Adelina won by tailoring her program to the current scoring system.  She did what she needed to win, under the rules of the competition.  Now, at least 1.6 million people want to change that after the fact, because they think, based on an uneducated eye, that Yuna skated better.  This is the problem with figure skating (and a lot of the Winter Olympics "sports".)  They are decided by judges.  Two experts can watch the same performance and disagree as to who performed better.  Johnny Weir said as much during the ice dancing competition, when he declared that the Americans (Meryl Davis and Charlie White) and the Canadians (Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir) are both so good and so close, but skate with different styles, that it really comes down to personal preference in determining who is better.  If you have read previous posts, you know I love Johnny Weir.  This comment makes me love him even more.  He admits that bias comes into play.  Many people in the skating world don't want to admit that.  They want to pretend that the winner is the best skater, just like the winner of the 100 meter dash is the fastest runner.  That is simply not true.

Figure skating has a history of disputed results.  Just four years ago Evan Lysacek won the gold medal without attempting a quad.  Evgeni Plushenko complained that no one should win the Olympic Gold Medal if they don't do a quad.  Of course Plushenko was biased, because he won the silver medal that year.  His comments, though, ignore the fact that Lysacek did something very similar in 2010 to what Adelina did in 2014.  He skated to the rules.  He racked up points by performing lesser jumps to perfection, rather than going for the more valuable jumps, but not completing them.  In doing so, he won gold.  That can't happen today for reasons I don't know (either scoring system has changed to reward a quad more or too many people attempt quads, so you won't be able to beat all of them without doing them yourself), but it was possible four years ago.

Once again, we have an allegedly disputed result.  Well, duh?  Any time you you include an artistic element in the scoring of an athletic competition, you are opening yourself up to controversy.  Add to that the third biggest athletic spectacle in the world (behind the Summer Olympics and the World Cup) and a competition between nations and people are always going to complain.  According to the Yahoo article linked above, about 90% of the signatures on the petition are from South Korea.  Well, duh?

A year and a half ago, I explored whether the "sports" in the Summer Olympics should remain in the Olympics based on several criteria.  In that discussion, I used the term "sport" in quotes, because I have a very specific definition of a sport.  I did not go into that, because I had a different purpose.  It may be time to explore "sports" a little more.

Nah, I don't have that kind of time right now.  To be simple, I believe a sport must be objective.  I have no problem with events that are not objective.  I enjoy the skating in the Winter Olympics and gymnastics in the Summer Olympics, but I maintain these are not sports.  They are athletic, they take a ton of effort, practice, hard work and talent.  The people who compete in these (and other) endeavors are phenomenal athletes.  Of course, so are the people in cirque du soleil.  And that is fine.  But if you are going to have a competition that involves judging and "artistic" elements, you are going to have differences of opinion.  This is a fact, not a controversy.

There have been controversies in the past, legitimate corruption.  Yesterday's result was not a controversy.  It was a difference of opinion.  And a bunch of whiney people who don't understand how the game is played.  Adelina understands how the game is played and she played it to perfection.  That alone is worthy of a champion.

As for all these non-sports competitions in the Winter Olympics, I'll leave them in for now.  Maybe in four years I'll decide which competitions to cut from the Winter Olympics, but not now.  Figure Skating will stay, though.  Otherwise, NBC will lose most of their ratings and I will lose Johnny Weir.  We can't have either of those happen.

Reflections on What Has Happened (Focus for this will be on US sports and medals, but we will touch on other stuff as time permits)

1. Loved the Women's Biathlon Relay.  US had their best finish ever, coming in 7th.  I believe my newest Olympic goal of seeing the US win a biathlon medal will be achieved in my lifetime.

2.  The Ski Cross quarterfinal that ended with one guy on his feet and three sliding across the finish line off their feet was hysterical.

3.  I really, really hate Canadian hockey right now.

Predictions Recap

1. US gets bronze in Men's hockey, gold in Women's. - Still pending and sadly still possible, and

2. Ashley Wagner shocks the world with a bronze. - Pending and tonight will decide. (She won't do it, though; Gracie will.)  WRONG!!!  and WRONG!!!

3. Mikaela Shiffrin becomes the darling of these games. - Not as close to wrong as yesterday.

4. US beats Russia in both total medals and golds. - Pending, and very close, but we are doing it so far.

5. I will watch more biathlon than anyone else in America. - Almost correct.

6. Putin will be on TV more during these Olympics than Kate Middleton was in 2012. And that's a bad thing, because Kate is much more fun to look at, for everyone except my Baltic States Insider. -Correct.  He officially passed her at 7:45 this morning.

7. Yuna Kim gold in figure skating. Lipnitskaya Silver. Gracie Bronze.  - WRONG!!!, WRONG!!! and WRONG!!!

8.  Norway wins Men's Biathlon Relay, Bjoerndalen gets his 14th medal.  Pending

9.  US 4-3 win over Canada in Men's Hockey.  WRONG!!!

10.  Sweden 5-2 win over Finland in other semi.  WRONG!!!


Predictions 

1.  I should stop predictions because I have become pretty bad at them.

2.  The Netherlands win both Speed Skating Pursuit Gold Medals.

3.  The city of Philadelphia does not get the 10 or so inches of snow needed to make this the second snowiest winter ever.

What to Watch For

1.  One last chance to see biathlon under the lights in the Men's Relay.

2.  I suppose the hockey gold medal game is happening, but...

3.  Four Man bobsled.

4.  Time to start thinking about post Olympics


Random Fact of the Day

Phil and Amanda Kessel scored 8 goals in the 2014 Winter Olympics.  Twelve of the 20 teams that competed in the Men's and Women's Hockey failed to score more than 8 goals.

Choking Dogs

Editor's Note:  Although this was written and published after the Women's Free Skate, the writer was unaware of the specific events that occurred during the Women's Free Skate at the time it was written.

During the Women's Short Program yesterday, Yulia Lipnitskaia fell.  My Baltic States Insider told me she saw a headline that said only:  LIPNITSKAIA FALLS.  Never mind that this should not have been the biggest story in any country.  In most countries, the biggest story was Yuna Kim was leading and in position to become the first back to back winner of the Women's Figure Skating event since Katarina Witt.  Let's all take a moment and remember the visual joy that Katarina Witt gave us for so many years.  In the United States, the biggest story was that all three of our skaters had performed well, and were at least within striking distance of a medal.  In Italy and Russia, the story should have been that one of their skaters was in the top three, and less than one point behind the Queen.  Sadly, all the Russians seemed to care about was the mistake of a 15 year old girl.

While watching the telecast last night, after Lipnitskaia fell, someone (I believe it was Sandra Bezik, but I don't specifically recall) asked whether the weight of expectations had finally taken its toll on this 15 year old girl?  Essentially, the question was whether she choked.

Also yesterday, the Russian Men's hockey team lost in the quarterfinals to Finland.  NBC has hired a Russian television talk show host named Vladimir Posner to give viewers the Russian perspective on all things Sochi 2014.  Posner has stated, on too many occasions, that if the Russians win the gold medal in hockey, nothing else matters...and if the Russians fail to win the gold medal in hockey, nothing else matters.  I have heard that Vladimir Putin has said the same thing.  For the second Olympics in a row, Russia will fail to win any medal, much less gold.

In the Women's Hockey gold medal game, the US had a 2-0 lead over Canada with less than 4 minutes to play.  After two Canadian goals in 3 minutes, the teams were staring at a sudden death overtime, during which Canada scored to win the gold medal for the fourth straight time.

Did the US Women choke?  Did the Russian Men?  Did Lipnitskaia?  According to Wikipedia, "in sports, a "choke" is the failure of an athlete or an athletic team to win a game or tournament when the player or team had been strongly favored to win or had squandered a large lead in the late stages of the event."  By this definition, the US Women's team choked, The Russian Men's team did not, and Lipnitskaia may have depending on whether you think the term "win" means to win the gold, or win a medal.  She was heavily favored to win a medal, but Yuna Kim was favored to win gold.

Sally Jenkins, a columnist for the Washington Post who I believe is a little too preachy a little too much of the time wrote an article under the title, "Figure skater Julia Lipnitskaia succumbs to weight of all of Russia."  I don't know who writes the titles for these articles and I have no idea if Jenkins thinks Lipnitskaia choked under pressure or not.  I read the article and her main point seems to be that too much was asked of a 15 year old girl.  And make no mistake, Lipnitskaia is a girl.  Jenkins said that having Lipnitskaia perform in the team competition and the individual may have been too much.  To a certain extent, Jenkins is blaming age, pressure and lack of experience for Lipnitskaia's performance in the short program.  I'm a little surprised she didn't blame Putin.

Is it possible that a competitor simply made a mistake while trying to complete a very difficult athletic maneuver on ice?  Or do we have to play mind games with a fifteen year old?  Swimming, running, weight lifting, these are all pursuits easily accomplished.  Go as fast as you can on land or in water, lift as much as you can.  There are other sports like this, but these stand out to me.  Not one Winter Olympics competition is this simple, because they all are performed on ice or snow.  Something can always happen.

Shaun White, the best in the history of his sport, misses a jump by a few inches and fails to medal.  Is he a choker?  Is he over the hill?  Did he have a bad day at the wrong time?  Was the snow a little funky because he is competing in a summer resort area?  Ole Einar Bjoerndalen misses 4 of 5 targets in the last shooting range of the Mass Start biathlon.  Is he a choker?  All Bjoerndalen and White were trying to do was make history, Bjoerndalen as the all time leading medal winner in Winter Olympics history and White as the first American to win gold in the same event in three straight Winter Olympics.  No one said the pressure was too much for them.  But that 15 year old girl?  She just couldn't take it.

The Russian hockey team is another story altogether.  The people who aren't claiming Ovechkin can't lead a team and the country put too much pressure on them and the coach is an idiot and they are just a bunch of chokers decided to take a look at the team.  Russia made the same mistake with their hockey team as the US used to make with their basketball team.  They put together a group of stars with no thought how those stars would mesh together as a team.  USA Basketball did this in 2004 and found themselves holding a bronze medal to match the ones won in the 1998 and 2006 World Championships and their 2002 6th place performance.  At that time, someone decided that the 12 best players don't make the best team.  Mike Krzyzewski was brought in to build a team.  Sure most of the players were the names you would expect, but the occasional Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd or Carlos Boozer, brought in to fill a specific role, can make a big difference when the rest of the world is starting to catch up with you.  I heard that TJ Oshie, who is a good player, was put on the US team specifically because of what he can do in a shootout.  Worked out pretty well, didn't it?

The Russians didn't choke, they just aren't that good anymore.  Don't get me wrong, they are a good team, but there are only 12 teams in the Olympics.  They are all pretty good.  The Soviet Union may have had enough talent to win if they didn't have a real team, but we will never know.  Not only were they the most talented on paper, they were a finely tuned machine, working together to crush everyone.  Russia can't do that today.  The rest of the world has caught up in talent, and they haven't adapted.

The talent gap in basketball stills swings to the US, but it only took one Olympic failure for us to change things.  We lost in 1988, then started bringing the pros.  We lost in 2004, then changed the way the team was selected.  Russia never did that.  Since the breakup of the Soviet Union and the Unified team in 1992, Russia has won 2 medals in 6 Olympics, a silver in 1998 and a bronze in 2002.  Maybe it is time to stop expecting gold and start working for it.  These guys didn't choke, their hockey federation and their General Manager and their country and their President let them down by expecting them to win without giving them the proper tools to do so.

Lipnitskaia didn't choke either.  She skated well and she fell.  It happens.  It happens to 15 year old girls, it happens to 19 year old boys, it happens to 28 year old men and (figuratively at least) 40 year old men who have won more medals than anyone else in the Winter Olympics.

As for the US Women, yeah, I got nothing.  They choked.

Reflections on What Has Happened (Focus for this will be on US sports and medals, but we will touch on other stuff as time permits)

1. Ted Ligety didn't win the Giant Slalom, he crushed it.

2.  Congratulations to Lauryn Williams on becoming the 5th person to win an Olympic Medal in both the Summer and Winter Games.

3.  Biathlon under the lights is simply awesome.

4.  Congratulations to Ole Einar Bjoerndalen for winning gold in the Biathlon Mixed Relay.  Bjoerndalen has now won more Winter Olympic Medals than anyone.  I expect him to get one more.  Then he will only be 8 behind Michael Phelps.

5.  The Heartbreaker takes bronze.  Team GB beat the Swiss in the Women's Curling Bronze Medal Game.  She'll be back for more in 2018.

6.  Norway seems to have finally figured out their cross country skiing equipment issues, winning the Women's Team Sprint Final and the Biathlon Mixed Relay.

7.  Wow we suck at speed skating this year.

Predictions Recap

1. US gets bronze in Men's hockey, gold in Women's. - Pending, and WRONG!!!

2. Ashley Wagner shocks the world with a bronze. - Pending and tonight will decide. (She won't do it, though; Gracie will.)

3. Mikaela Shiffrin becomes the darling of these games. - Really, really. really close to wrong.

4. US beats Russia in both total medals and golds. - Pending, and very close, but we are doing it so far.

5. I will watch more biathlon than anyone else in America. - Still pending, but so far, so good.

6. Putin will be on TV more during these Olympics than Kate Middleton was in 2012. And that's a bad thing, because Kate is much more fun to look at, for everyone except my Baltic States Insider. - So far, so good.

7. Yulia Lipnistkaya gets confused for a lost child and almost misses the Women's Short Program.  No report on this, but maybe that is why she fell.

8. Yuna Kim gold in figure skating. Lipnitskaya Silver. Gracie Bronze.  - Pending

2. Bronze for US in Nordic Combined Team event.  WRONG!!!  The perfect storm of 2010 may have been an aberration.

Predictions 

1.  Norway wins Men's Biathlon Relay, Bjoerndalen gets his 14th medal.

2.  US 4-3 win over Canada in Men's Hockey.

3.  Sweden 5-2 win over Finland in other semi.


What to Watch For

1. Hockey.  Can US ever beat Canada?  If it goes to a shootout, is TJ Oshie the only guy out there?

2.  Ski Cross.  Or demolition derby, whatever you want to call it.

3.  Women's Biathlon Relay.  The Biathlon under the lights truly is the best thing to watch in these games.

4.  Will the US win any Speed Skating medals in these games?  Eric Heiden, Bonnie Blair, Apolo Ohno, your legacy is dead.

Random Fact of the Day

As of Thursday, 10 Speed Skating events have been contested.  The Netherlands have won 6 of the 10 events, swept the podium in 4 of the 10 events, and won at least one medal in all 10 events.  The Netherlands is third in the medal count with 22 medals.  21 of those have been won in Speed Skating.

Teammates

This morning I watched the Women's Cross Country Skiing Team Sprint Competition, while making breakfasts and lunches for several small people.  I was admittedly a little distarcted and the coverage was a little disjointed, because of commercials.  From what I gathered, the team competition consists of two skiers for each country.  They ski like a relay, but each team member must ski 3 legs.  So, if you go first, you ski for about 3 minutes, then you get a 3 minute break while your teammate skis, then you ski again, another break, then a third time out on the course.  Chad Salmela called this organized torture.  I think he's right.

In the opening leg, Sophie Caldwell, who recently had the best finish ever for a US Cross Country Skier in the Olympics (6th in the Individual Sprint Finals) was in 4th place.  In the second leg, Kikkan Randall, who almost fell over at the end of the semifinals because she was so tired, fell to 6th.  I immediately assumed that Caldwell was skiing well enough to compete for a medal and Randall was keeping her down.  I saw the splits on the NBC Olympics website and I was completely wrong.  They both skied about the same.  Their 8th place finish was a team effort.

Of course, it was a team effort no matter what.  That is the point of a team competition.

I spent the majority of my teenage years competing in individual sports.  I played baseball until about 4th grade, basketball until 6th grade and soccer through 8th grade.  I swam through college and ran track and cross country in high school.  Swimming is an individual sport.  Running is an individual sport.  People create teams and point structures for team competitions, but in their true natures, these are individual sports.  The points awarded for a team score are based on the individuals' performances.

I have argued with people on this issue.  In swimming there is no argument.  You swim, by yourself, in a lane, separated by lane ropes that are designed to catch waves.  There is no helping your teammate during a race.  In running, in theory, you can have people run together and create drafts.  I never did this, but I can envision a situation where there is a team benefit.  In that sense, there is more of an argument, but I am going to stand by my conclusion, this is an individual sport.

However, I believe most people in an individual sport crave a team.  Examples of this can be found everywhere.  When David Wise won the Ski Halfpipe competition, his "teammates" on the US Team swarmed him.  Same thing happened to Noriaki Kasai when he landed the jump that guaranteed him a silver medal in the Individual Large Hill Ski Jumping Competition.  Three Japanese guys, with jumping suits half off, all ran out to jump up and down with Kasai.  None of them were winning a medal, but you wouldn't have known that from the celebration.

Missy Franklin is the best female swimmer in the world.  After the 2012 Olympics, when she was a rising senior in high school, she could have foregone college wimming and signed endorsement deals worth at least one million dollars, and possibly much more.  She declined because she wanted one more year of HIGH SCHOOL competition.  She chose to swim in college (a decision passed on by Michael Phelps many years earlier) in large part because she wanted to be part of a team.  In an article I read at the time, Missy said she wanted to go to college to meet her future bridesmaids.  If she gets hurt, or somehow just loses her edge, she will have lost millions of dollars over a 4-8 year period.  Even if she goes to Brazil and outperforms her 5 medal (4 gold) performance from London (which she will be favored to do), she will have passed up 2-4 years of making up to $2 million per year.  That is what a team was worth to her.

Coming back to these Games, watch the relays.  The Swedish Women were climbing all over each other upon winning the 4x5K Cross Country Relay.  The Norwegian Women did a photo-op jumping celebration after winning today.  The Russian Men's Team stood at the finish line, arms open, waiting to greet their anchor leg, coming in for the silver medal.  The French, having won the bronze, celebrated just like the Swedish women, climbing on top of each other in a mountain of celebration.

I swam competitively for 17 years.  My greatest memory was a relay.  I can still remember just about everything from that relay, which happened almost exactly 25 years ago.  There is something different about competing for a group, rather than for yourself.  In that relay, all four of us swam over our heads.  We swam over our heads because we were swimming for something other than ourselves, we were swimming for each other.  Jason Lezak won one individual bronze medal in 4 Olympics.  However, in 2008, he swam the fastest relay split ever and made up a body length deficit on the world record holder as the anchor leg of the 4x100 freestyle relay.  There is no way he ever does that for himself.  He did it for Michael Phelps and for history.

We are social creatures.  We crave interaction.  We crave touch.  We may reach our potential when we compete for ourselves.  We reach more when we do it for others.

Reflections on What Has Happened (Focus for this will be on US sports and medals, but we will touch on other stuff as time permits)

1. Television coverage is becoming a little too personal.  I didn't need to see Bode Miller crying.  I didn't need to hear a ski halfpipe competitor screaming in pain when he tore up his knee.  I didn't need to hear several snowboard cross competitors screaming when they crashed.

2.  Nice bobsled positioning for the US heading into the final 2 runs (over for now but on Prime Time tonight.)

3.  I enjoy the objective competitions more than the subjective.  Cross country skiing, bobsled, biathlon, things like that.  I need to do a Real Sports blog for the Winter.

4.  Why are the Dutch so good at speed skating?  Why do we suck this year?  Have I already asked these questions?

5.  I am glad I am not in Russia today after the loss to Finland.  Many a drunk Russian I am sure.


Predictions Recap

1. US gets bronze in Men's hockey, gold in Women's. - Pending, but looks like I may have undersold us.

2. Ashley Wagner shocks the world with a bronze. - Pending and tomorrow will decide. (She won't do it, though; Gracie will.)

3. Mikaela Shiffrin becomes the darling of these games. - Really, really. really close to wrong.

4. US beats Russia in both total medals and golds. - Pending, and very close.

5. I will watch more biathlon than anyone else in America. - Still pending, but so far, so good. Who was that woman on the telecast this morning? Did Chad get Bob's infection?.

6. Putin will be on TV more during these Olympics than Kate Middleton was in 2012. And that's a bad thing, because Kate is much more fun to look at, for everyone except my Baltic States Insider. - So far, so good.

7. Yulia Lipnistkaya gets confused for a lost child and almost misses the Women's Short Program. Pending. I will check on this tonight.

8. US Men get 1 medal in Nordic Combined. let's say silver for Taylor Fletcher.  WRONG!!!

9. US Women's Short Track Relay breaks the drought with a bronze.  WRONG!!!

10. 1-2-3 finish for Holland in Men's 10,000.  Correct

11.  The Heartbreaker continues her run with a victory over Canada in Curling semis.  WRONG!!!  The Heartreaker broke my heart with a loss.

12.   Norway gets silver in Men's Cross Country Team Sprint.  WRONG!!!  4th

Predictions

1.  Yuna Kim gold in figure skating.  Lipnitskaya Silver.  Gracie Bronze.

2.  Bronze for US in Nordic Combined Team event.


What to Watch For

1. Women's Figure Skating.  I doubt NBC will show anything else.

Random Fact of the Day

According to an article in the Washington Post, our long, cold snowy winter is not yet over.

Time is Not on Our Side

With all due respect to the Rolling Stones, Tiii-iii-iime is not on our side.  Time is a constant and a constant pain.  It is how we measure our athletes (most of the time), it is the one thing that always stops our athletes (eventually) and it is messing with my Olympic experience.

I know I have mentioned the time difference before, but Tony Kornheiser mentioned on his radio show today that he has not watched the Olympics at all because of the time change.  So I decided to explore the concept of time a little deeper.

There is no question that the time change is difficult to handle.  I consider myself a master at avoiding information, but with today's technology and the media race to be first, it is almost impossible.  While I was writing this I received an email from the Washington Post with the results of today's ski halfpipe.  Before I could even think, I saw what that result was.  This has happened several times in the last 10 days.  On days when the US has a favorite to win the gold medal, I know that we didn't win it by the absence of an email from the Washington Post.  Shaun White's failure to medal was bigger news than anything outside a natural disaster or mass tragedy.  I don't have the Olympics schedule memorized (I know, I know, what am I doing), so I have to look for information for my predictions and what to watch for.  Without fail, I learn something that has happened.  It is impossible not to.

NBC also has a habit of repeating events.  Yesterday was President's Day and I had the day off.  I woke at 5 am and watched the Women's Biathlon Mass Start live on NBCSN.  NBCSN replayed the race during their afternoon coverage (about 4 pm) and NBC played some of it during their prime time coverage, or late night coverage, it all eventually blends in my mind.  When you onsider events like aerials and ski jumping, where they are showing qualifying and finals, I sometimes lose track of what I am watching and what I have seen.

Add to that the weather and health conditions in my house.  Through weather, I was home on Thursday, through health, I was home last Tuesday.  When I am home all day, I see live coverage during the day, so the time difference makes no difference.  When I am at work, I don't see anything until the evening when I get home.  SO sometimes I am writing in the afternoon with full knowledge of the day's events (like yesterday) and sometimes I am trying to stay blind of the day's events (like today).  This also makes my predictions and what to watch for more difficult.  I am sometimes writing about two days and predicting two days in advance.  I have no idea what day it is, what time it is or where I am.  Am I in Sochi.  It is sunny and warm outside right now, so it certainly feels like it.

Time change is not the only time element on display.  Time catches up with everyone, and this morning I saw a sad case, indeed.  The Men's Biathlon Mass Start was finally competed today.  Ole Einar Bjoerndalen is a legend in the sport who recently tied the record for most medals won by any Winter Olympian (12).  He is 40 years old.  This morning, he was in 4th place at the 4th and final shooting stage of the race, with a record breaking 13th medal in his grasp.  If you have not watched biathlon, well, you are just plain missing out.  However, it is important to know that at each shooting stage the competitors must shoot at 5 targets.  More than half usually hit all 5 targets.  Almost everyone else hits 4.  On some occassions, someone only hits 3, but that is pretty rare.  Bjoerndalen hit 1 of 5.  One.  One target.  In three Olympics of watching biathlon I have never seen that happen before.  I don't doubt that it has happened, I just have never seen it.  To see it from a record breaking performer, who won a gold medal in these games, was surprising.  Until you remember that he is 40 years old.  Time catches us all.  I still think Bjoerndalen will win his record breaking 13th medal in the biathlon relay (whenever that is and I can't check for fear of seeing results), but today, on that 4th shooting stage, time caught up to Ole Einar Bjoerndalen.

I have seen a number of older athletes competing at these games.  Sometimes they perform well, sometimes they don't.  Whenever they do perform well, and Evgeny Plushenko's Team Figure Skating routine comes to mind, some commentator (I'm looking at you Scott Hamilton) says that age is just a number.  No, no it's not.  Age is your number.  You can overcome it sometimes, but the bigger your number gets, the harder it is.  Eventually it gets you, whether with a twinge in the back that makes you withdraw from the individual figure skating event or 4 missed targets in 1 shooting range.  Scott Hamilton should know this.  Time is the reason he is in the booth and not on the ice.  It is a cliche, but a cliche worth repeating, time is the only opponent undefeated in sports.

Time beat Bjoerndalen.  Time beat Plushenko.  Time beat Hamilton.  Time beat Kornheiser.  And time is beating me, in more ways than one.

Reflections on What Has Happened (Focus for this will be on US sports and medals, but we will touch on other stuff as time permits)

1. The Men's 15K Biathlon Mass Start was finally competed.  Martin Fourcade proved he is the best biathlete in these games, even while failing to win his third gold medal.  Fourcade lost in a photo finish to Norwegian, Emile Hegl Svendsen, but almost stole the race at the line.  Much like ice dancing, I like that Frenchman a lot more than I care to admit.  Americans again failed to medal.

2.  Russia lets out a collective sigh with a 4-0 win over Norway to get to the quarterfinals in Men's Hockey.

3.  Steve Holcomb and Steven Langton won the first US medal in 2 man bobsledding since 1952.  Holcomb is competing with a calf injury.  He has this goofy tape on his calf that is supposed to help with pain.  Keri Walsh wore the tape in Beijing.  I have some on my hip right now.  Doesn't do a thing, except pull on my leg hairs.

4.  Belarus won another gold medal, this time in Men's Aerials.  Who knew Belarus was the Aerials capital of the world?  Who knows where Belarus even is?  Who knew it existed before I made it a major theme of this blog?  My Baltic States Insider, that's who.

5.  Someone at the Washington Post is reading my blog and stealing my ideas.

6. Why do we suck so bad at speedskating this year? Short and long. Did I already say that?

7.  Why does every NBC studio host have to interview every US gold medalist and hockey hero?  Isn't one interview enough?

8.  Bob Costas returned.  This ruined the most exciting part of every Prime Time show for the last week:  Would Bob return and who was filling in for him?


Predictions Recap

1. US gets bronze in Men's hockey, gold in Women's. - Pending, but looks like I may have undersold us.

2. Ashley Wagner shocks the world with a bronze. - Pending and tomorrow will decide.  (She won't do it, though; Gracie will.)

3. Mikaela Shiffrin becomes the darling of these games. - Really, really. really close to wrong.

4. US beats Russia in both total medals and golds. - Pending, and very close.

5. I will watch more biathlon than anyone else in America. - Still pending, but so far, so good. Who was that woman on the telecast this morning?  Did Chad get Bob's infection?.

6. Putin will be on TV more during these Olympics than Kate Middleton was in 2012. And that's a bad thing, because Kate is much more fun to look at, for everyone except my Baltic States Insider. - So far, so good.

7. Yulia Lipnistkaya gets confused for a lost child and almost misses the Women's Short Program. Pending.  I will check on this tonight.

8. Historic US Medal in Men's 15K Biathlon.  WRONG!!!

9. US Men get 1 medal in Nordic Combined. let's say silver for Taylor Fletcher.  Pending

10. US Women's Short Track Relay breaks the drought with a bronze.  Pending

11. Russia beats Norway in hockey.  Correct

12. Slovakia beats the Czech Republic to set up quarterfinal with US in hockey.  WRONG!!!


Predictions

1.  1-2-3 finish for Holland in Men's 10,000.

2.  The Heartbreaker continues her run with a victory over Canada in Curling semis.

3.  Norway gets silver in Men's Cross Country Team Sprint.


What to Watch For

1. Women's Bobsled. Lolo Jones tries to get that elusive Olympic Medal.

2. Biathlon Relays. Assuming no fog.

3.  Biathlon Mixed Relay.  You have to love an event that combines men and women and does not involve ice skates.  Can we do more of this?  A Mixed 400 freestyle relay?  A mixed 4x100 relay in track?  Well, maybe not - no reason to give Jamaica another event to beat us in.

Random Fact of the Day

Prince Hubertus von Hohenlohe is a 55 year old slalom skier and pop singer known as Andy Himalaya and Royal Disaster.  He is descended from a royal dynasty from an area in Germany.  He was born in Mexico and has dual citizenship in Mexico and Germany.  He founded the Mexican Ski Federation and will be competing in his 6th Olympic Games this year.  It is possible I was wrong, to him, age may just be a number.  I have also heard that he does not always drink beer, but when he does, he prefers Dos Equis.

How's the Weather?

In Chantilly, VA, the weather is currently  29 degrees fahrenheit under mostly sunny skies.  Outside my front door sits about 6 inches of snow and shoveled piles up to 6 feet high.  Tonight, there is a chance of 1-3 inches of snow.  According to Weather.com, the temperature and outlook for Philadelphia, PA is about the same.

Sochi won the bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics over Pyeonchang, South Korea and Salzburg, Austria.  In Pyeongchang, it is currently 24 degrees fahrenheit.  The high temperatures in the next 5 days will be 42, 43, 44, 44 and 42.  In Salzburg, the temperature is 37.  The highs for the next 5 days will be 57, 44, 51, 46 and 45.  Rain is expected from Wednesday through Sunday.

The 2018 Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.  The weather there is listed above.  Pyeongchang won the bid over Munich, Germany and Annecy, France.  The temperature in Munich is currently 41.  The highs for the next 5 days will be 56, 46, 51, 43 and 46.  Rain is expected Wednesday and Friday.  In Annecy, the temperature is 37.  The highs for the next 5 days will be 59, 50, 53, 45 and 47.  Rain is expected Friday.

The 2010 Winter Olympics were held in Vancouver, Canada.  The temperature in Vancouver is 44.  The high for the next 5 days will be 43, 43, 43, 41 and 42.  Rain is expected through Thursday, with a chance for a little snow on Thursday, as well.

The 2006 Winter Olympics were held in Torino, Italy.  The temperature in Torino is 50.  The highs for the next 5 days will be 52, 55, 59, 53 and 54.  Light rain is expected Wednesday and Friday.

The 2002 Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City Utah.  The temperature in Salt Lake City is 55.  The highs for the next 5 days will be 52, 45, 42, 42 and 46.  Rain is expected Thursday, with a few snow showers on Saturday.

The 1998 Winter Olympics were held in Nagano, Japan.  Temperatures in Nagano are basically the same as those listed for the various cities above.

The 1994 Winter Olympics were held in Lillehammer, Norway.  The temperature in Lillehammer is 34.  The highs for the next 5 days will be 32, 29, 27, 31 and 32, with snow expected Tuesday through Thursday.

Isn't it time we put a little winter back into the Winter Olympics?

The Washington Post ran an article stating that the symbol of these Olympics should be a stretcher.  The main theme of the Post's article is similar to my idea, but was not my inspiration.  Anyone who has read my posts on the Winter Olympics knows that I have grown to love two things over the last week, biathlon and Johnny Weir.  Imagine my dismay at the postponement of the Men's biathlon yesterday and the announcement that the Women's biathlon was to be postponed today?  The reason?  Fog on the course.

I had been planning a weather related post for a few days.  Watching the skiing events in particular made me think weather was an appropriate subject to discuss this year.   Watching the Today Show broadcast from outside in springlike temperatures piled on.  Shoveling a foot of snow last week should have been the final straw.  The biathlon debacle finally put me over the edge.

Aside from my position as a purist in that I believe the Winter Olympics should occur in winter weather, the weather is affecting the competition.  I have already talked about falling, but things are just getting worse.  On the cross country skiing course, the snow is being compared to mashed potatoes.  The downhill skiing event looked like a fight more than a race.  The Super G competitions were even worse.  As I stated yesterday (or meant to, but forgot to finish a sentence) only one of the first eight women to start the Super G finished the course.  In the Men's Super G, one competitor missed the second gate.  Four years of training and hard work over in less than 10 seconds.  The Women's Snowboard Cross qualifying was more a war of attrition than a timed race.  More than one competitor was taken off in a stretcher.  In one of the quarterfinal races, the competitors who advanced were the only three who finished.  The gold medal in Women's Aerials went to the only competitor who landed on her feet.  The landing area in the Aerials looks like it has been filled with talc powder.  The television coverage is talking almost as much about snow, salt and chemicals as the competition.

The visuals don't work either.  In the Women's Cross Country relay, one of the US skiers was wearing a sleeveless  top.  Most of the competitors were in short sleeves.  No one wore a hat.  I have seen video of people frolicking in the waters of the Black Sea.  The main Olympic park is full of people casually strolling from venue to venue in short sleeves or light jackets.  Off the mountain, not a snowflake is to be found.

This is not the first time.  I remember the numerous events suspended and even shortened in Vancouver for the same reasons.  Snow had to be shipped into Vancouver for the skiing events.  For Sochi, Russia has tons of snow in reserve, in case it is needed.  Luckily that has not been the case, but the carnage left by the rising temperatures should be more embarrassing than the need to ship in snow would have been.  I remember issues in Torin, even if I can't recall specifics.  Same with Nagano, which is on basically the same latitude line as Washington, DC.  Reports from these games go back to Lillehammer for the last time the Winter Olympics looked and felt like the Winter Olympics.

I imagine the Winter Olympics as the quaint little winter town in contrast to the vast monstrosity of the Summer Games.  I was in college when the Olympics were in Lillehammer and I remember Tommy Moe's surprise gold medal in the downhill, Nancy and Tanya and David Letterman's Mom.  I also remember that Lillehammer looked like a quaint, winter village.  That's how I always want to remember the Winter Olympics, not with mashed potato snow, stretchers, fog delays and beautiful pictures of a water resort town.

For fun, the cities expected to bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics are Krakow, Poland; Oslo, Norway; Almaty, Kazakhstan; Lviv, Ukraine; and Beijing, China, with snow events in Zhangjikou.  I'm rooting for Oslo...or Almaty.

Reflections on What Has Happened (Focus for this will be on US sports and medals, but we will touch on other stuff as time permits)

1. The Women's 12.5K Biathlon Mass Start was competed.  Belarussian Darya Domracheva won her third gold medal of these games.  That's one winter gold for Belarus from 1994 through 2010.  Three for Domracheva in 2014.  Today's performance was dominant, just like the pursuit.  Gabriela Soukalova, who is great fun to look at, finished second.  American Susan Dunklee skied well and finished 12th, highest finish for an American woman ever, but not good enough for me to get that prediction right.

2.  On February 17, 2006, Sweden upset the US in the semifinals of the Olympic Hockey tournament.  On February 17, 2014, the US demolished Sweden.  Gold medal game v. Canada, as expected.

3. The Heartbreaker strikes again.  Big win v. Russia to quiet the home crowd and keep Team GB in the medal hunt.

4.  Congratulations to Bode Miller for his bronze medal in the Super G.  Bode adds to his record number of medals for a US Alpine skier and joins Andrew Weibrecht, the surprise silver medalist, in breaking a fairly poor performance so far for the US in Alpine skiing.  Weibrecht was a joy to watch.  He barely maintained control throughout the race.

5.  Lindsey Jacobellis came into the 2006 Olympics as the favorite to win the gold in Snowboard Cross.  She fell on the last jump of the finals with a huge lead.  Lindsey Jacobellis came into the 2010 Olympics as a favorite to win the gold in Snowboard Cross.  She fell during the semifinals.  Lindsey Jacobellis came into the 2014 Olympics as the favorite to win the gold in Snowboard Cross.  She fell late in the semifinals with a huge lead.  perhaps the Olympics just aren't her thing.

6.  Why do we suck so bad at speedskating this year?  Short and long.  Did I already say that?

7.  I enjoy ice dancing a little more than I would like to admit.


Predictions Recap

1. US gets bronze in Men's hockey, gold in Women's. - Pending, but looks like I may have undersold us.

2. Ashley Wagner shocks the world with a bronze. - Pending

3. Mikaela Shiffrin becomes the darling of these games. - Really, really close to wrong.

4. US beats Russia in both total medals and golds. - Pending, and very close.

5. I will watch more biathlon than anyone else in America. - Still pending, but so far, so good.  And I still love Chad Salmela.

6. Putin will be on TV more during these Olympics than Kate Middleton was in 2012. And that's a bad thing, because Kate is much more fun to look at, for everyone except my Baltic States Insider. - So far, so good, but Morgan Miller, Bode's wife, is giving Putin a run.

7. Yulia Lipnistkaya gets confused for a lost child and almost misses the Women's Short Program. Pending

8.  Gold for Davis/White in ice dancing.  (Yeah, I'm hoping for a cheap correct.)  Correct  And well deserved.  Johnny Weir was on his game as well.

9.  927 Russian suicides were saved by former Capital Semyon Varlamov in the shootout v. Slovakia today.  Can't find any news stories on this, but I am going to say WRONG!!! because it was over 1,000.

10.  US Medal drought continues in Women's 1500m today.  Correct This seems like a cheaper prediction than the ice dancing at this point.

11.  Historic US Medal in Men's 15K Biathlon.  Pending

12.  Historic US Medal in Women's 12.5K Biathlon.  (Neither of these are likely, but if it happens, I can say I predicted it.)  WRONG!!!

Predictions


1.  US Men get 1 medal in Nordic Combined.  let's say silver for Taylor Fletcher.

2. US Women's Short Track Relay breaks the drought with a bronze.

3.  Russia beats Norway in hockey.

4.  Slovakia beats the Czech Republic to set up quarterfinal with US in hockey.


What to Watch For

1.  Men's Bobsled.  Last 2 runs on prime time tonight.

2.  Women's Bobsled.  Lolo Jones tries to get that elusive Olympic Medal.

3.  Biathlon Relays.  Assuming no fog.

4.  Parallel Slalom.  As if there aren't enough ridiculous events already.

Random Fact of the Day

I have to get Middle to swim practice.  It is true, it is random, and it is all I can come up with right now.

Not a Miracle

In my effort to see as much of the Olympics as I can, while maintaining some level of sanity and not completely ignoring my obligations to my family and employer, I skip over much of the analysis.  My priorities are to see the action, learn a little more about the sports I am watching, and maybe learn a little something about the athletes.  I don't have time to hear someone tell me what they expect to happen before it happens.  Because of this, I skipped over much of the pre-game discussion before the US-Russia hockey game.  However, through the wonders of a DVR, I was able to see much of the imagery.  It is possible I missed the main point, however, they showed a lot of clips from the US-USSR game in the 1980 Olympics.  I understand this was US-Russia, but this was NOT the miracle on ice.

I understand most people reading this will probably say to themselves, "Yeah, I know that."  I still need to get this off my chest.  There is too much comparison to the 1980 game.  Even after the fact, too much comparison to the Miracle On Ice.  Even the White House got into this ridiculousness with a tweet stating, "Congrats to T.J. Oshie and the U.S. men's hockey team on a huge win! Never stop believing in miracles. #GoTeamUSA -bo."  Never stop believing in miracles?  I have not searched social media enough to know if this was a common reaction to the US win over Russia yesterday.  Again, I don't have that kind of time.  If it is, this country has gone too far even for my help.

The 1980 Olympic hockey game between the US and the Soviet Union, commonly known as the Miracle on Ice, is the greatest moment in sports history for the United States.  This is a fact, and but for the fact that it is not a random fact, would be my Random Fact of the Day.  Fans of particular teams my claim that the year they won the Super Bowl or the World Series was a great moment.  If they claim it was the greatest sports moment ever, they are wrong.  This in non-negotiable.  The greatest moment in US sports history was the moment Al Michaels yelled into a microphone, "Do you believe in miracles?...Yes!"

Calling yesterday's victory a miracle, or comparing the game, prior to or after the fact, to the 1980 US-USSR game is not only an insult to the young men who achieved that victory 34 years ago, but is also a cornucopia of idiocy not seen to often in these parts.  NBC, please?  Mr. President, really, just don't go there.  And to anyone else out there who somehow thought US v. Russia in 2014 is in any way related to US v. USSR in 1980, please, before you watch any more hockey, go learn something about the game.

Without thinking too hard, here are some of the myriad of differences between 1980 and 2014.

1.  Russia is a different country than the USSR.  Yes, the bulk of the USSR was the land mass now and previously called Russia, but they are not the same thing.  In 1980, we were playing the Soviets, a country that has now split into 15 different countries.

2.  The world is not, whether in reality or perception, split into two opposing and conflicting political ideologies led by two superpowers.

3.  For that matter, there really is no superpower in the world anymore.  And if there were any superpowers, Russia isn't one of them.

4.  In 1980, I had not spent the prior decade cheering for the biggest star on the Russian team.

5.  In 1980, I had not spent the last 5 years hating the US coach.

6.  The Russians didn't beat the US 10-3 two weeks ago.

7.  The US team is not currently made up of college kids, or recent college kids.

8.  The Russians are not the dominant hockey team in the world.  The Soviets won the Olympic gold medal in 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976.  After the fact, they won in 1984, 1988 and the Unified Team (made up of many of the former Soviet republics) won in 1992.  Coming into 2014, the "dominant" team in hockey is Canada, who won 2 of the last 3 gold medals.

9.  The US is pretty good now.  While the Soviets were winning every gold medal from 1962-1976, the US won one, a silver in 1972.  Coming into 2014, the US has won 2 silver medals in the last 3 Olympics, losing to Canada in the Gold Medal Game twice.  Russia has not won a medal since the bronze in 2002.

After the game ended, my Volleyball Insider texted me, "Huge win."  He was right, it was.  The top teams coming into this tournament were expected to be Russia, Canada, Sweden and the US.  Any one of those teams beating another is big.  The win put us in position to jump right to the quarterfinals, a position we solidified by beating Slovenia today.  But the political climate, the success of the two teams, the make-up of the two teams, the stakes, just not the same.  Please, please, please, don't get caught up in the moment.  Don't think I am an old fogy who just thinks things were better in my day.  Let the Miracle be what it was, the Greatest Moment in US sports, and let yesterday be what it was, a huge win in 2014.

Reflections on What Has Happened (Focus for this will be on US sports and medals, but we will touch on other stuff as time permits)

1. Both Cross Country Skiing relays were enjoyable.  The Women's was the best.  Swedish anchor Charlotte Kalla came from 25 seconds back to win.  She made an awesome inside move on the last turn to take the lead and outsprinted Finland and Germany for the win.  This event demonstrated what the Olympics should be about, great athletes performing at their best.  The Americans had a disastrous first leg that put them completely out of it in both relays.

2.  The commentator for the Women's Aerials Finals should have been Charlie Tweeder.  The competition was more America's Funniest People Falling on their Butts than world class athletic competition.  It doesn't quite have the ring of America's Funniest Shots in the Nuts, but it is the same idea.  This is now example #1 that too many X-Game events have been added to the Olympics.

3. The Heartbreaker strikes again.  Eve Muirhead scored 3 points in the 10th end to steal a win from Korea.

4.  One of the first competitors in the Women's Super G completed the course.  Perhaps that one jump was a little close to the next turn.  Anna Fenninger, in her cheetah helmet, won gold. 

5.  John Daly, no not the golfer, had the worst start I have ever seen in any sliding event ever.  (You can see it at 2:08 here.)  This demonstrates what the Olympics is sometimes about, heartbreak.  All one can ask for is to perform their best on the biggest stage.  Sometimes, it just doesn't happen.

6.  Why do we suck so bad at speedskating this year?  Short and long.  Did I already say that?

7.  I saw both the US Men and Women snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on the last stone in curling.  Perhaps, this just isn't our game.


Predictions Recap

1. US gets bronze in Men's hockey, gold in Women's. - Pending, but looks like I may have undersold us.

2. Ashley Wagner shocks the world with a bronze. - Pending

3. Mikaela Shiffrin becomes the darling of these games. - Pending, but Gracie Gold's performance in the Team competition suggest this may turn out incorrect. Not to mention Kate Hansen.  And our general lack of success on the slopes recently.

4. US beats Russia in both total medals and golds. - Pending, but not looking good Saturday night.  Of course, Russia has two medals, including one gold, because they went shopping for a short track speed skater from South Korea.

5. I will watch more biathlon than anyone else in America. - Pending, but so far, so good  And I still love Chad Salmela.

6. Putin will be on TV more during these Olympics than Kate Middleton was in 2012. And that's a bad thing, because Kate is much more fun to look at, for everyone except my Baltic States Insider. - So far, so good.  He even showed up at the Men's Cross Country relay today.

7. Yulia Lipnistkaya gets confused for a lost child and almost misses the Women's Short Program. Pending

8. Middle does not become the 5th of 5 family members to get sick this week. (Yes, that is a hope more than a prediction, but positive energy into the universe.) - Correct ,but hopefully I haven't jinxed things for this week.

9.  Ted Ligety gets silver in Super Combined.  WRONG!!!  12th

10.  US beats Russia in hockey.  Correct

11.  Pikus-Pace gets silver in skeleton, Uhlaender bronze.  Correct and WRONG!!!  After a disappointing 4th in Vancouver and a 2 year retirement, She Pikus-Pace finally won her medal.  Uhlaender missed the bronze by .04 seconds.

12.  At least 1 more medal for US in Women's Aerials.  WRONG!!!  Ashley Caldwell, from Virginia, had the highest score in the competition, but she did it in qualifying and couldn't match that result in the finals.

13.  Silver for Mancuso in the Super G.  WRONG!!!  Perhaps I should stop predicting what I want to see, Mancuso tie Bode Miller.

14.  Shani Davis continues the US drought in speedskating in 1500.  Correct And wow are we bad in speed skating this year.  Ask Mars Blackmon.  It isn't the suits.


Predictions


1.  Gold for Davis/White in ice dancing.  (Yeah, I'm hoping for a cheap correct.)

2.  927 Russian suicides were saved by former Capital Semyon Varlamov in the shootout v. Slovakia today.

3.  US Medal drought continues in Women's 1500m today.

4.  Historic US Medal in Men's 15K Biathlon.

5.  Historic US Medal in Women's 12.5K Biathlon.  (Neither of these are likely, but if it happens, I can say I predicted it.)

What to Watch For

1  Men's Bobsled.  More Biathlon.

2.  Women's Hockey semifinal:  US v. Sweden.  I believe in MIRACLES!!!  Oh wait, that wouldn't be good.

3.  Men's Aerials.  Can they stay on their feet?

4.  Snowboard Cross.  The best addition to the Winter Games in my memory.

Random Fact of the Day

Belarus competed as an independent country for the first time in the 1994 Winter Olympics.  From 1994 through 2010, they won 1 gold medal.  On February 14, 2014, they won 2.

All Praise Johnny Weir

If you told me two weeks ago that Johnny Weir would be commentating for the Olympics, I would have predicted disaster.  After all, this is the man who wore a costume that looks like a swan for a skating competition.  I'm not sure why I didn't think Weir would be a good commentator.  Probably because of the diva element.  Johnny Weir is, or at least was, a diva.  He was all about Johnny Weir, and didn't really care what others thought.  He was often about Johnny Weir intentionally in the face of what others thought.  To be a good commentator, you don't have to do things because of what others think, but you do have to take into consideration other people.  As a color commentator, I want someone who will not treat me like an idiot, but who will give me insight into the competition.  I also want someone who understands that he is not the show.  I am watching an athlete, I am not listening to a commentator.  I think this was my main concern.  Could Johnny Weir rein in Johnny Weir?  He certainly didn't do it as a skater.

Yesterday was a snow day (see predictions, below.)  I was home, and when I wasn't shoveling snow, I was watching all day Olympic coverage.  Johnny Weir has teamed with Tara Lipinski and Terry Gannon (play by play) as the daytime skating commentators.  In NBC's effort to overwhelm the viewer with figure skating coverage, they show the skating live in the afternoon, with the daytime team, then show it again in prime time, with the prime time team of Scott Hamilton and Sandra Bezic.  Sometimes they also show it on tape during the late afternoon coverage.  As I have said before, I don't mind figure skating, but this year, they are overdoing it...just a smidge.

The Men's Short Program was yesterday.  I watched several skaters.  I had seen afternoon coverage before, but yesterday was the first time I really got a feel for Johnny Weir as a commentator.  I love Johnny Weir.  I could not have been more wrong.

Johnny is understated.  He is informative.  He has a soothing voice.  He is certianly knowledgeable.  He knows when to shut up.  The only criticism may be that he doesn't talk enough.  He is the best commentator at the Olympics and the biggest surprise of this year's coverage.  I have to say it again.  I love Johnny Weir.

Next to Johnny Wier is Tara Lipinski.  She is also surprisinlgy good.  She's no Johnny Weir, but let's be honest, who is?  Tara and Johnny like to coordinate their outfits.  Sadly for Tara, she loses in this department as well.  This is beside the point, which is afternoon figure skating is as enjoyable as figure skating can be.  Occassionally, Tara makes comments that make me think, "your time's over Tara, it's not about you."  Most of the time, though, I even enjoy Tara.

In the evening, we get Scott and Sandra.  I like Scott Hamilton.  He is knowledgeable, his enthusiasm is genuine and he gives you great fodder for parody.  He's no Johnny Weir, but let's be honest, who is?  I can handle Scott Hamilton.  Sandra Bezic is unbearable.  She is melodramatic.  Her voice is grating.  She offers no helpful analysis.  She gushes.  I wanted to strangle her during the doubles competition when Hamilton was telling the viewers that a pair was going to end with side by side triple lutzes and she yelled the words "side by side triple lutzes" as Hamilton said this.  This demonstrates her misunderstanding of when to shut up.  She isn't even close to Tara Lipinski, who has been doing this for all of about 12 minutes.  Obviously, she's no Johnny Weir, but let's be honest, who is?

Scott Hamilton and Sandra Bezic have been doing Olympic commentating since at least 2002.  I don't know if having two commentating teams is a way of beginning a transition away from Scott and Sandra or was done for some other reason.  I would love to see Johnny Weir as the main guy.  I would really love to see Sandra Bezic put out to pasture.  I hope someone at NBC realizes that they have found a gold mine and keeps Johnny moving towards the main chair.  I hope that same person gives the big boot to Sandra.  Tara can come along for the ride.  Hopefully Scott just wants to retire.  Regardless, all praise Johnny Weir, my new favorite commentator.

Speaking of NBC's coverage, a few other thoughts on the talent:

1.  Matt Lauer has filled in perfectly for Dr. Evil and his demonic eyes.  If I worked for NBC, I would have a lot of fun pointing out to Costas that Lauer is doing great and they bring the Today Show to the Olympics every time and Costas looks pretty expendable right now.  I like Costas and I am not serious about replacing him, but I would certainly be having fun with this.

2.  On that note, Lauer should be asking for a big raise.

3.  Rebecca Lowe, the British woman working in studio in the afternoon, is a pure joy.

4.  Dan Patrick is, and always has been, great.

5.  Dan Jansen is OK.  He is what I expect from most analysts.  Doesn't make me turn the sound off, but doesn't do anything for me either.

6.  Chad Salmela is awesome in biathlon.  This guy can't control himself (usually) and, intentionally or not, often starts screaming into the microphone.  The excitement is infectious.  Sadly, in yesterday's 20K, he was subdued.  Hey Chad, I like Johnny's understated style.  From you, I want crazy.  Drink all of your coffee tomorrow.

7.  Al Trautwig is the epitome of professionalism and always makes me feel like I am watching something I really want to see.  I wish he would go back to the Tour de France.

8.  Rowdy Gaines is awful.  I know swimming isn't in the Winter Olympics, but this needs to be said every chance possible.

Reflections on What Has Happened (Focus for this will be on US sports and medals, but we will touch on other stuff as time permits)

1. Martin Fourcade proved once again that he is the best biathlete in the world by winning the Men's 20K.  I do wonder whether a perfectly groomed 3 days stubble is a required element of the French Biathlon Team's uniform.

2.  Thank God the IOC went along with adding the freestyle events to the Olympics.  Podium sweep for US in Men's Skiing Slope Style, to go along with 2 golds in Snowboard Slope Style and a silver in the Women's Skiing Slope Style.  Bronze medalist, Nick Goepper, is from a small town in Indiana and raised money by doing odd jobs around town, including babysitting.  I imagined him, as a 17 year old freestly skier babysitting my three boys.  Our health insurance premiums would have tripled.  I don't think our house would still be standing, but they would have had a lot of fun.

3.  Both US Curling teams finally have a win.  The Men's team put up two 4 point ends against Germany.  That is unheard of.  Only thing more ridiculous than that would be a 7 point end, but that would never happen...

4.  Hockey started.  The Washington Capitals are doing great, with goals from Ovechkin and John Karlson.

5.  Luge relay was fascinating.  The woman slid down, then had to hit a big target with her hand at which point a gate opened to let the man slide down, then the same for the two man sliders, who hit the target to stop the clock.  Enjoyable to watch.

6.  Why do we suck so bad at speedskating this year?  Short and long.

7.  Nordic Combined was kind of a disappointment.

8.  Nice 1-2 finish for US in Women's Snowboard halfpipe.  I feel bad for Hannah Teter, though.  She is a previous gold medalist and finished 4th this year.  She has joined Matt Damon as basically a garbage man for that.

9.  Really hoping for the best from Jason Brown, 6th after the short program, but less than a point out of 3rd.

Predictions Recap

1. US gets bronze in Men's hockey, gold in Women's. - Pending

2. Ashley Wagner shocks the world with a bronze. - Pending

3. Mikaela Shiffrin becomes the darling of these games. - Pending, but Gracie Gold's performance in the Team competition suggests this may turn out incorrect. Not to mention Kate Hansen.

4. US beats Russia in both total medals and golds. - Pending, but looking good.

5. I will watch more biathlon than anyone else in America. - Pending, but so far, so good.  Enjoyed the Men's 20K.

6. Newfound US dominance in Nordic combined will continue. - WRONG!!!  Apparently they can't figure out the jumping hill.

7. Putin will be on TV more during these Olympics than Kate Middleton was in 2012. And that's a bad thing, because Kate is much more fun to look at, for everyone except my Baltic States Insider. - So far, so good.

8. Vladimir Putin makes a move on Meryl Davis.  We'll never know, but...

9. Yulia Lipnistkaya gets confused for a lost child and almost misses the Women's Short Program. Pending

10. Washington DC comes to a grinding halt on Thursday from snow.  Correct.  But surprisingly for only one day.

11. Middle does not become the 5th of 5 family members to get sick this week. (Yes, that is a hope more than a prediction, but positive energy into the universe.) - Pending

12. Russians win Pairs Figure Skating. Germans get Silver. US finishes 6th.  Correct.  And WRONG!!! (Russians also got silver) and WRONG!!!  (9th)

13. Two medals for US in Women's Snowboard Halfpipe.  Correct

14. 3-1 win over Slovakia in Men's Hockey.  Correct and WRONG!!! (Even I wouldn't have predicted a 7-1 opening win.  That's like predicting a 7 point end in curling.)
 
15. Bjoerndalen fails to get his 12th medal in 20K Biathlon.  Correct

16. Women come through in curling v. Japan.  Correct

Predictions

1.  Ted Ligety gets silver in Super Combined.

2.  US beats Russia in hockey.

3.  Pikus-Pace gets silver in skeleton, Uhlaender bronze.

4.  At least 1 more medal for US in Women's Aerials.

5.  Silver for Mancuso in the Super G

6.  Shani avis continues the US drought in speedskating in 1500.

What to Watch For

1.  More curling.  More hockey.

2.  Women's Cross Country relay.  US could medal.

3.  More curling.  More hockey.

4.  More snow, apparently


Random Fact of the Day

Snow shoveling makes your arms hurt in odd places.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Winter Olympics Debacle

As an arrogant American, that is what I feel like we are watching so far.  Realistically, I understand it is early and a lot will still happen, but it just doesn't feel like we, as a country, are putting our best foot forward so far.

It all started so well.  Sage Kotsenburg won an unexpected gold in Men's Snowboard Slopestyle.  Ashley Wagner performed well, Gracie Gold performed very well, Meryl Davis and Charlie White dominated and the rest of the US Figure Skating Team did their part to earn a bronze medal.  Jamie Anderson met expectations and won gold in Women's Snowboard Slopestyle.

Then things started to fall off a bit.  Bode Miller dominated training in the downhill, then finished a disappointing 8th.  He actually blamed the sky.  (I understood the explanation, but it sounds funny.)  J.R. Celski failed to medal in the Short Track 1500.  Both Men's and Women's Curling teams lost their first two matches.  We failed to medal in Men's Moguls.  (Where have you gone, Johnny Moseley, our nation turns it's lonely eyes to you.  Woo woo woo.  Woo woo woo.)  That hasn't happened since 1994.  Kikkan Randall was one of the favorites in Women's Cross Country Sprint Skiing and she failed to get out of the quarterfinals.  Sophie Caldwell had the best finish ever for an American in a Cross Country Skiing event, but still finished outside the medals.

We had a few good results mixed in.  Devin Logan surprised with a silver in Skiing Slope Style.  Erin Hamlin made history with a bronze in the Women's Luge, becoming the first American to win an individual luge Olympic medal.  Kate Hansen finished a solid 10th and wowed the world with her warm-up dance moves.

Then the bottom dropped off.  Shaun White, the face of snowboarding, failed to medal.  Shani Davis, overwhelming favorite to win the 1000 in Long Track Speed Skating, failed to medal.  The Women's Hockey Team lost to Canada.  Julia Mancuso failed to medal in the Women's Downhill.  Sadly, none of that compares to what happened in Women's Curling.

I was home sick yesterday, with a sick child.  I watched a lot of Olympic coverage, as well as several episodes of Phinneas and Ferb.  Rebecca Lowe was the studio host during the early afternoon.  Al Michaels took over for her in the late afternoon.  Rebecca is from England and told Al she was going to the US-GB Curling match, instead of the pairs figure skating short programs.  She gave a brief analysis of curling (experienced US Skip v. young, hotshot GB skip) before the two made a bet on the match.  I can't wait to see what she says to him today.  She has every right to shove her butt in his face and tell him to kiss her ass.

I believe it is necessary to give a quick rundown of curling.  The game has ten rounds, called ends.  In each end, each team throws (meaning slides across the ice) eight stones, alternating with each other.  The idea is to get the stones closer to the middle of a target (called the house) than your opponents.  For every stone in the house that is closer to the middle than your opponents closest stone, you get a point.  Only one team can score in each end and sometimes neither team scores.  There is a strategic reason for that which I won't bore you with now.  Scoring two points in an end is a big deal.  Anything more than two in an end is incredible.

Here are the complete scores for Olympic curling up to the USA GBR - Women's match:

Men:

Ger 8 - 11 Can
Den 4 - 7 Chn
Sui 5 - 7 Swe
Rus 4 - 7 GBR (9)
Swe 8 - 4 GBR (9)
Can 4 - 5 Sui
Den 11 - 10 Rus (11)
USA 4 - 7 Nor (9)
Can 6 - 7 Swe
Nor 9 - 8 Rus
GBR 7 - 6 Ger
USA 4 - 9 Chn (8)


Women:

Swe 6 - 4 Gbr (9)
Sui 7 - 4 US (9)
Chn 2 - 9 Can (7)
Rus 7- 4 Den
Kor 12 - 7 Jpn
Rus 9 - 7 US
Swe 3 - 9 Can (8)
Sui 7 - 6 Den
Chn 7 - 5 Rus
Den 3 - 8 Jpn (8)
Kor 6 - 8 Sui

If the match is just over, you can concede.  If it is tied after 10 ends, you keep going until someone wins.  The numbers in parentheses above tell you the number of ends played in that match.  If there are no parentheses, it was a typical 10 end match.  The NBC Olympics website is annoying, so I did not carefully analyze each match, but I glanced, and the most number of points I saw in any end was 3, which I saw 3 or so times in 23 matches, consisting of 226 ends.

The British "Skip", meaning team leader and 4th thrower, is a 23 year old, fairly attractive superstar named Eve Muirhead.  I am intrigued by Eve and shall hereafter call her The Heartbreaker.  I call her The Heartbreaker, because she has the looks to break some hearts, and what she did yesterday broke many a US curling fan's heart.  (FYI - she definitely looks better when playing, I was unable to find many good pictures of her.  Watch a match if you are interested.)

Curling is a sport of general curiosity in the US.  The comparisons to shuffleboard are not too far fetched (although I am sure a true curling enthusiast would be offended by that comment) and it is somewhat (or perhaps more than somewhat) mocked as an Olympic Sport.  Most Americans don't understand it and don't care.  That's fine.  I enjoy it for the strategy and the yelling.  Often when a player throws their rock they start yelling.  The Heartbreaker is a big yeller.  I don't understand what they are yelling, in English or other languages.  I enjoy curling, but apparently I don't speak it.

Eldest had a school assignment to learn about a Winter Olympic Sport and give a presentation to his class.  This was all accomplished in school (no homework) so I didn't help him with the assignment.  Upon seeing the match yesterday, he was interested both because it was curling, and because he knew who the US "skip" is from his research.  Luckily, he wanted to play on the computer rather than watch the match.  Eldest does not handle losing in any form well.  If Eldest had watched yesterday's match, he definitely would have yelled mean things at The Heartbreaker, and probably would have cried.  The Heartbreaker would have earned her nickname in my house.

As you can see from the scores above, the typical winning score for a 10 end match in the Olympics is 8-9 points.  In 12 of the 23 scores above, the winning team failed to score more than 7 points.  As you know from my general description, scoring 2 points in one end is very good, 3 is very rare and more than 3 is unheard of.  However, in theory, the maximum points that can be scored in one end is 8.  This means you have put all 8 of your stones in the house claoser than any of your opponents stones.  Keep in mind, you are allowed to blast your opponents stone off the house.  Yesterday, in the 4th end, The Heartbreaker and her British teammates put up 7 points.  Seven.  Points.  In one end.  Enough to tie or win half the matches up to that point.  In one end.  I didn't even think that was possible.  Embarrasing doesn't even begin to describe an end where the other team wins 7 points.  That is way more than a bobble in US skip, Erika Brown's twizzle.  That's a downright avalanche.  And, yes, 7 points in one end is an Olympic record.

Well, I got that off my chest.  Thanks.  I should have talked about the weather or how great it is just to be an Olympian.  I should have done my greatly anticipated, You Are Beautiful, post, and WOW do the Winter Olympics give us some high quality material for that post.  I didn't.  I had to complain.  Maybe my Anti-Diving Insider is rubbing off on me.  Hopefully our Olympians are having fun and will take some inspiration fron Devin Logan and Erin Hamlin.  If not, I will continue to bitch about our failures, but I am not alone.  The Austrians and Russians complained endlessly four years ago.

Reflections on What Has Happened (Focus for this will be on US sports and medals, but we will touch on other stuff as time permits)

1. Not a lot of medals to talk about.  I've already covered our failures and successes.  We need to consider changing the title of this section.

2.  Biathlon remains the best spectator sport of Sochi 2014.  Putting it at night under the lights was brilliant.  Ha-ha.  That's almost clever.

3.  Time change is brutal.  I found out the result of everything I was going to predict for today except Nordic Combined, which I have already predicted.  I was wrong on everything, so that is a good thing.

4.  The problems during cross country skiing yesterday were apparently the result of high temperatures and melting snow.  Hmmm...perhaps holding the Winter Olympics in a summer resort city was a bit misguided.  Or, people were hoping to turn cross country skiing into demolition derby.  It was exciting to watch.

5.  Martin Fourcade won the Men's 12.5 K Biathlon Pursuit.  I generally don't root for French people, but this dude is good and was fun to watch.  Biathlon Pursuit is a competition where you start in the order of your finish in the Sprint competition.  So if you win the Sprint, you start first in the Pursuit.  This was made up by someone trying to win more medals.

6.  How do you tie in a competition when you are moving 80 mph?

7.  Bob Costas is being possessed by a demon.  I don't care what they are saying about an "infection", he is becoming evil.  Lauer did well sitting in for Costas, except for the silly Willis Reed reference.

Predictions Recap

1. US gets bronze in Men's hockey, gold in Women's. - Pending

2. Shaun White wins his 3rd gold medal. - WRONG!!!

3. Ashley Wagner shocks the world with a bronze. - Pending

4. Mikaela Shiffrin becomes the darling of these games. - Pending, but Gracie Gold's performance in the Team competition suggests this may turn out incorrect.  Not to mention Kate Hansen.

5. US beats Russia in both total medals and golds. - Pending, but improved yesterday, despite my whining.

6. I will watch more biathlon than anyone else in America. - Pending, but so far, so good.

7. Newfound US dominance in Nordic combined will continue. - Pending, and giddy because it starts today.

8. Putin will be on TV more during these Olympics than Kate Middleton was in 2012. And that's a bad thing, because Kate is much more fun to look at, for everyone except my Baltic States Insider. - So far, so good.

9.   US Women shock Russia in curling.  WRONG!!!

10.   US Men's curling defeats China.  WRONG!!!

11. Vladimir Putin makes a move on Meryl Davis. Pending

12. Yulia Lipnistkaya gets confused for a lost child and almost misses the Women's Short Program. Pending

13. Erin Hamlin will win the first ever medal for the US in luge. Correct

14. See Shaun White prediction above.  See WRONG!!! above, as well.

16. Washington DC comes to a grinding halt on Thursday from snow.  Pending, but so far, so good.  Schools closed activities for tonight, and not a flake has fallen.

Predictions

1.  Middle does not become the 5th of 5 family members to get sick this week.  (Yes, that is a hope more than a prediction, but positive energy into the universe.)

2.  Russians win Pairs Figure Skating.  Germans get Silver.  US finishes 6th.

3.  Two medals for US in Women's Snowboard Halfpipe.

4.  3-1 win over Slovakia in Men's Hockey.

5.  Bjoerndalen fails to get his 12th medal in 20K Biathlon.

6.  Women come through in curling v. Japan.

What to Watch For

1. Does Bob Costas return from his studio hiatus caused by an infection growing across his face?

2.  Two words...Nordic.  Combined.

3.  Men's hockey begins.

4.  Potentially historic snowstorm in southeast US.  We have more winter weather than the winter Olympics.

5.  More Short Track and more Cross Country.  See if you can tell the difference, other than the mushroom helmets.


Random Fact of the Day

The distance from Sochi to Moscow is approximately 1007 miles.  The distance from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City is approximately 688 miles.