Olympic Notes 2
As a longtime fan of the Olympics, winter version in particular, it sure is fun having them take place in my hometown.
Referring back to my earlier post on medal expectations, after 6 days Germany and Canada are pretty much tracking as expected. But the U.S. has had a huge opening few days, racking up 14 medals where they were only expected to be at 10 so far. I said (not on the blog, but trust me) ahead of time that I expected the U.S. to top the medal count, and my reasoning was that they had so much depth in so many events that they had a good chance to capitalize on mistakes by other teams and surprising performances by their athletes. Trust the U.S. to try and own 'our' podium :) Still, watching great athletes like Shaun White, Shani Davis and Lindsey Vonn win their events today, it's hard to begrudge them their success too much.
Not to say that the race to top the medal standings is over (don't panic, remember), but the way the U.S. is going, it could be soon.
But enough about the U.S. :) I don't imagine I'll ever forget Alexandre Bilodeau flying down the hill to gold in the moguls. And congratulations to Maelle Ricker for a dominating performance in the women's boardercross.
I also have to mention the great sportsmanship shown by Kalyna Roberge in the women's 500m short track event. Sitting in third place in her 500m semi-final, with only 2 advancing to the final, she could have taken a chance of making a dangerous pass on teammate Marianne St. Gelais, risking both of them going down - as happened to the Koreans who were 1-2-3 on the final corner of the 1500m final on the men's side, before Ho-Suk Lee tried to pass teammate Si-Bak Sung and crashed them both into the boards allowing the U.S. to claim silver and bronze.
But instead of making a dangerous pass, you could see Roberge pull back to avoid crashing into her teammate, and St. Gelais would go on to make the final and claim a silver medal on her 20th birthday. Kudos to her, Roberge, and also Jessica Gregg who came oh so close to a medal finishing in fourth.
I hope everyone else is enjoying the Olympics as much as I am so far...
Referring back to my earlier post on medal expectations, after 6 days Germany and Canada are pretty much tracking as expected. But the U.S. has had a huge opening few days, racking up 14 medals where they were only expected to be at 10 so far. I said (not on the blog, but trust me) ahead of time that I expected the U.S. to top the medal count, and my reasoning was that they had so much depth in so many events that they had a good chance to capitalize on mistakes by other teams and surprising performances by their athletes. Trust the U.S. to try and own 'our' podium :) Still, watching great athletes like Shaun White, Shani Davis and Lindsey Vonn win their events today, it's hard to begrudge them their success too much.
Not to say that the race to top the medal standings is over (don't panic, remember), but the way the U.S. is going, it could be soon.
But enough about the U.S. :) I don't imagine I'll ever forget Alexandre Bilodeau flying down the hill to gold in the moguls. And congratulations to Maelle Ricker for a dominating performance in the women's boardercross.
I also have to mention the great sportsmanship shown by Kalyna Roberge in the women's 500m short track event. Sitting in third place in her 500m semi-final, with only 2 advancing to the final, she could have taken a chance of making a dangerous pass on teammate Marianne St. Gelais, risking both of them going down - as happened to the Koreans who were 1-2-3 on the final corner of the 1500m final on the men's side, before Ho-Suk Lee tried to pass teammate Si-Bak Sung and crashed them both into the boards allowing the U.S. to claim silver and bronze.
But instead of making a dangerous pass, you could see Roberge pull back to avoid crashing into her teammate, and St. Gelais would go on to make the final and claim a silver medal on her 20th birthday. Kudos to her, Roberge, and also Jessica Gregg who came oh so close to a medal finishing in fourth.
I hope everyone else is enjoying the Olympics as much as I am so far...
Labels: vancouver 2010, winter olympics
posted by Declan at
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
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