Apolo wins his 8th medal!

The women's curling gold medal game was really close. Sweden tied it up with Canada in the 10th (last) end (round), so they had to do an 11th. It came down to the last shot. Sweden's Anette Norberg made it a tough one for Canada's Cheryl Bernard, and she didn't quite get it. So Sweden won the gold. The crowd was loving it through the whole thing--they cheered, whistled, even did the wave. I was rooting for Canada, but at least they got silver!

In the 500m short track final, Apolo Ohno started out in 4th, but on the last lap, the Canadian in 3rd fell, and then the Korean in 2nd fell, so he passed them to get 2nd place. But Apolo had his hand on the Canadian's back as he fell, so he was disqualified. The thing is, though, skaters touch each other slightly like that all the time to prevent run-ins, and I really don't think Apolo caused the Canadian to fall. So that really sucks. Canada ended up 1st and 3rd, South Korea 2nd.

Katherine Reutter won silver in the 1000m, and Wang Meng of China won gold, which means China won gold in all the women's events this year. That's pretty amazing.

The US got bronze in the 5000m relay. It was a really close race. We were in 4th most of the time, but Apolo finished up and passed China at the end to win bronze. Now Apolo has 8 medals overall, the most of any short track skater and any US Winter Olympian.

Lindsey Vonn missed a gate in the women's slalom, so no more medals for her, but she got what she came to get--gold in downhill. And her bronze in super G was a plus. I'm happy for her. Her really good German friend Maria Reisch won gold, though. So cool!

I finally got to watch some curling

Canada won their curling match against Switzerland today 6-5, so they'll be in the gold medal match with Sweden tomorrow. I don't actually know all the rules of curling, but I know basically what's going on, and I never get to watch the sport any other time, so I like to catch as much as I can during the Olympics. What sucks is that the matches are mostly broadcast in the afternoons, which is when I have class and other stuff I have to do.

Canada won the gold in women's hockey against the US (silver) 2-0. That was their 3rd Olympic gold in a row. The men's team plays Sweden in a semifinal game tomorrow.

The US went one-two in nordic combined large hill. Bill Demong won gold, Johnny Spillane won silver. That mean Spillane won a silvers in all of his events, normal hill, large hill, and team. The sport has never been big in America, but maybe now it'll start to pick up. I really enjoy watching it. Here's a nice article on it.

American Jeret Peterson won silver in men's aerials. His first landing was pretty rough, but his second was nice and he pulled a bunch of points with a great trick called the "Hurricane."

Kim Yu-Na of South Korea won gold in figure skating, to Gershwin's "Concerto in F," another awesome music choice (with James Bond). She made her whole routine look super easy, but of course it wasn't. She got a record score again. Her country was putting a LOT of pressure on her to win, and she was the best by a long shot, so I'm really glad she got it. Mao Asada of Japan won silver with a program to Rachmaninov music. She became the first woman to land 3 triple axles in the same competition, but she made a couple other mistakes, so wasn't able to catch up to Kim. Joannie Rochette (the woman whose mom died) won bronze with a great program. What a great finish for her. American Mirai Nagasu skated to music from Carmen, and again, REALLY good spins. She got 4th place at her first Olympics, at 16 years old--that's pretty cool.

A long recap

Oh, man. I haven't been able to watch the olympics at all since last Thursday! I've been scrambling to get my film project done, and last night I went to bed at 6pm since I didn't sleep at all the night before (worked 9pm-11am). Well, that's all finished now (thank God), so now I have to catch up (via nbcolympics.com).

Bode won silver in the super G, and then the gold in the super combined. So that's a medal of each color (bronze in downhill) for him! Woot! He just kept getting better with each event! But then he missed a gate in the giant slalom 'cause he lost his balance. :( He's still got the regular slalom to go, though. Here's a great article on him. I frakin' love him.

Lindsey Vonn got a bronze in the super G. Now she has 2 medals. But she fell in the giant slalom (it was really foggy), breaking her pinkie. Julia Mancuso was skiing right behind her and had to stop her run and redo it. She ended up finishing 18th after the first run, which means she probably won't medal after the second. That really sucks, especially since this is a good event for Julia--she won gold in Torino. Apparently she now has somewhat of a grudge against Lindsey, which is kinda weird. Read about it here.

I'm sad I missed ski cross. This was the sport's olympic debut, and I'd never seen it before. But they have it online, just like everything else. Canada won gold in the women's, Switzerland in the men's. I'm really glad they added this event. Now skiiers get to race against each other at the same time, too.

The US got the first ever silver in the team nordic combined, second medal for the US in this sport period, which is awesome.

Shani Davis won silver in the 1500m short track, Mark Tuitert of the Netherlands won gold. Man, Tuitert was fast!

Katherine Reutter barely missed a medal in 1500m short track. She bumped one of the South Koreans and fell back to last place. She worked her way up to 4th, but wasn't able to catch the top 3. Zhou Yang of China won by a long shot. In the women's 3000m short track relay, South Korea won the race and the US got fourth, but South Korea got disqualified for contact with China, who was then awarded the gold. So we ended up with bronze. Sucks for South Korea for sure, but China is definitely celebrating.

Apolo Ohno won bronze in the 1000m. His semifinal race was great. In the final, he messed up a bit on a pass just as the South Koreans made their move and he fell back to 5th, but he worked back up to third as the Koreans took it away. Now Apolo is has the most medals of any American Winter Olympian.

Virtue & Moir of Canada won gold in ice dancing--their original dance was really good, and their free dance was really f-ing good, too, and very beautiful. They had some awesome lifts, and the crowd loved them (obviously). Davis & White of the US won silver--their original dance was a really cool Indian dance, and their free dance was to Phantom of the Opera. Domnina & Shabalin of Russia won bronze--their free skate was to Requiem for a Dream. Belbin & Agosto of the US got 4th.

Kim Yu-Na of South Korea leads after the women's figure skating short program. I really liked her performance, which was to James Bond music, and she scored a world record, too. Mao Asada of Japan is in 2nd. Joannie Rochette of Canada is in 3rd. She found out her mom died like a day before she had to compete, so it's pretty amazing she was able to compose herself to perform so well. Miki Ando of Japan in in 4th--she's a good jumper, but other than that, nothing special. Rachel Flatt of the US is in 5th. She's basically the perfect student athlete. Apparently she's a straight-A high school senior who is applying for a bunch of elite colleges. She skated a neat program to swing music. Mirai Nagasu of the US in 6th--her spins were really cool. She skated to a strange rendition of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Bobsled is fun to watch. The cameras cut so quickly because the sled goes by so freakin' fast--90 mph finishes! Germany dominated in luge and skeleton, but Canada and the US shut them out on women's two-man. Canada won gold and silver, US bronze. The top German team was in medal contention, but they flipped their sled on the last run (they were both alright).

I enjoyed watching women's aerials tonight, if for no other reason than to hear Jonny Moseley's commentary. But there was another reason--the jumping was excellent. No one fell! Lydia Lassila of Australia (the "Flying Kangaroo") won gold, interrupting the possible Chinese sweep. China did get silver and bronze, though.

Here's a weird little video: In Case You Missed It

Maybe now Plushenko's head will shrink a little

Evan Lysacek won men's figure skating! He only wobbled slightly on one jump, but otherwise--clean. His music was Rimski Korsakov's "Scheherazade," which is a great piece, and he even had cool sparkly snakes on his costume. His routine was significantly more impressive than Yevgeny Plushenko's. Plushenko made a lot of little mistakes on jumps, which is what dropped him down to second--he looked pretty irked at the medal ceremony. Daisuke Takahashi won bronze.

I really liked Johnny Weir's program. He had really cool music called "Fallen Angel." I was wishing he might medal, but he wasn't able to come up from 6th place. He did really well, though! He was satisfied.

I enjoyed Takahiko Kozuka's performance, as well (another electric guitar piece), but he was too. He got a personal best, and I bet he'll come back in 4 years and be really really good.

In the super combined (downhill + slalom), Maria Riesch of Germany won gold, Julia Mancuso won silver, and Sweden's Anja Paerson won bronze. Lindsey Vonn did well on the downhill, but she caught a ski on a one of the gates and fell in the slalom.

I love the US women's snowboarding team. They're chill. NBC had a special on Kelly Clark, Gretchen Bleiler, and Hannah Teter--they're all really good friends. Gretchen Bleiler fell on a difficult trick in her first run of the finals, and then caught the lip on an easier trick in her second, so she didn't place. Kelly Clark rode with an iPod, and she started singing at the beginning of her second run (to get in the zone, I guess), and got a 42.2 to win her the bronze. Torah Bright of Australia had a really bad first run (score of 5.9), but her second was awesome, with at score of 45.0 (out of 50), winning her gold. Hannah Teter was in first position after the first run, but she wasn't able to beat Torah's score, so she took silver.

More medals!

We went one, two in women's downhill skiing. Lindsey Vonn won gold and Julia Mancusa won silver. While I didn't get to watch them compete live, I watched the medal ceremony, and I felt so happy for Lindsey. She had a leg injury recently, but she still pulled off a gold medal performance. It was great luck that the bad weather hit, allowing her some extra time to recover. Plus, the course was especially tough because the snow was hard and packed together--a lot of people crashed. I'm really impressed that Lindsey was able to do so fracking well with pain in her shin!

No medal for the women's short track 500 (Katherine Reutter skated well early on, but didn't make the cut for the A final). Canada got silver, though. The men's final for the 5000m relay hasn't been skated yet, but our team qualified for the A final. And Apolo and JR qualified passed through their 1000m heats, as expected. (Also, the US women's 3000m relay team will be in their final.)

American Shani Davis of won gold in 1000m speed skating. No surprise there. American Chad Hedrick won bronze--also no surprise. And a Korean filled in the silver spot--again, no surprise. Nice results, but not altogether exciting. I love that Shani got to win two olympics in a row, though. He was the first black athlete to win an individual event Winter Olympic gold in 2006, and he does it again the next time to also become the first man to win back to back golds in the 1000m.

We also got gold and bronze in the men's snowboarding halfpipe through Shawn White and Scotty Lago, respectively. Shawn pulled off his "Double McTwist 1260," a crazy turny, flippy trick that he made up and that no one else has tried to land. He's pretty entertaining--he throws out a lot of peace signs, and he's been doing tricks since he was a little kid! He's the Tony Hawk of snowboarding.

As for other countries, Germany got another medal (bronze) in luge (men's doubles)--they've won 5 out of 9 possible medals. And Norway has won 3 medals in cross country so far (nothing for the US). It's nice to see other countries dominate sometimes, too.

Bob Costas interviewed Stephen Colbert on the late night coverage. I could hear the set crew laughing as it was being filmed. It was pretty funny, no thanks to Costas. NBC isn't used to having a Comedy Central man around (that's why they waited till late at night to air it). At the end, he went over and curling up by the fire to get warm, saying, "That's what I love about NBC--the authenticity. Everything's real."

Speaking of late night coverage, Mary Carillo is the host for that segment, and I really like her. She's a good interviewer--much better than Costas--and she actually knows what she's talking about, probably because she used to be an athlete (tennis). Chris Collinsworth is good, too (former football player), but he only does special stories. I wish he was an anchor.

Great day for men's figure skating--not so much for everything else

We haven't won any medals in luge, but the Germans have won 4 out of 6! Gold and silver for the men, and gold and bronze for the women. They did really well in Torino, too.

In Torino, Lindsey Jacobellis lost gold in snowboard cross because she did a trick on the last jump in premature celebration and ended up falling, letting the 2nd place girl pass her. Lindsey still got silver, but it was really disappointing, because she had gold in the bag until that slip up. She had a chance to redeem herself this year, but she didn't even make it into the final run--she went off course in the semifinal. Too bad. =/ Maelle Ricker won this time, gaining Canada their first snowboard cross gold, which is nice.

In the men's figure skating short program Yevgeny Plushenko of Russia got the highest score. I didn't care for him performance, though. The choreography looked like random spasms--they were really fast during slow music. It just looked weird.

Evan Lysacek of the US is in second. His music was Stravinski's "Firebird," and he did the music justice--nice jumps, amazing footwork. I saw no mistakes at all, and I never took my eyes off him. He's only trailing Pleshenko by .55 points.

Daisuke Takahashi and Nobunari Oda of Japan are in 3rd and 4th, respectfully. They did really well, but I thought Oda's skating looked really mechanical.

Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland (5th) skated to "William Tell" music, with cool spins and great musicality. It was really fun to watch. He messed up a couple jumps, though.

The ever flamboyant Johnny Weir of the US (6th) skated pretty well. He had quite a strange costume, as usual.

Jeremy Abbott of the US skated to Jeff Beck's cover of "A Day in the Life" by The Beatles. He skated really well, but he missed 2 big jumps, so his chances of medaling are pretty much out the window. It's really sad. I liked his performance a lot.

My favorite performance was by Takahiko Kozuka of Japan, who skated to Jimi Hendrix's "Bold as Love." His pants were made to look like jeans, and his shirt was very psychedelic; he had cool footwork and a nice ending. He's in 7th for now.

Monday primetime

Bode Miller, one of my favorite Winter Olympians, won bronze in men's downhill skiing, just 9 hundredths of a second behind gold winner Didier Defago of Switzerland (who skied a basically perfect run), and just 2 hundredths behind silver winner Askel Lund Svindal of Norway. At the Torino games in 2006, Bode was the favorite to win a bunch of medals, but he didn't place in any of the 5 events he was in (he got 4th a couple times). The press really ragged on him for it, which I found extremely annoying. The thing about Bode is that he takes risks, and sometimes that leads to mistakes. He doesn't like playing it safe because he feels like that's a cop-out. He's a damn good skier, and I hate how the press had treated him. NBC's website has a great article on his recent win, though.

NBC showed the medal ceremony for the men's moguls during primetime--Alexandre Bilodeau of Canada won gold, Dale Begg-Smith of Australia won silver, and Bryon Wilson of the US won bronze. They had a little feature on Bilodeau, 'cause he won Canada's first gold ever on hom soil, and because he has a brother with cerebral palsy. His story is really cool and inspiring, to be sure, but they seemed to completely ignore Bryon Wilson. As Wilson was awarded his medal, Bob Costas just kept talking about Bilodeau as though Wilson was from some other country. He's our own and he won bronze! He should be mentioned, too, for crying out loud!

American Seth Wescott won gold in snowboard cross (4 boarders racing) by being steady and letting others make mistakes so he could work his way to the front, just like he did in Torino. He's a super smart boarder. Kinda like Apolo in short track.

Shen & Zhao of China won the gold in pairs figure skating. They became the first to win Chinese Olympic gold for this event. I liked their program's choreography--it went well with the music, but they made a few small mistakes. They had enough of a lead from their short program score to stay on top, though. Good for them!

Pang & Tong of China won silver from being 4th after the short program. They had neat Spanish themed music, nice throws--it was really well-done. I couldn't see any mistakes besides being a little off on synchronized spins. Their free skate program was the best.

Savchenko & Szolkowy of Germany won bronze. Szolkowy (the guy) fell on a jump and they made some small mistakes, but I definitely liked it better than their weird short program. They had cool lifts and spins and nice music--from John Barry's "Out of Africa" score.

Kavaguti & Smirnov of Russia got 4th place, ending the Russians' streak of winning this event 12 times in a row. They messed up their throws and they were pretty out of synch. I didn't really like their performance that much, anyway. I thought Zhang & Zhang did better. Besides, it's nice to be reminded that the Russians are fallible.

The Americans and Canadians didn't skate too well...

Olympics time!

The opening ceremonies were last Friday. I enjoyed them a lot--more than Beijing, even. It wasn't too gawdy, but it wasn't too mediocre. I loved the special effects with the video projected onto the floor, especially when it looked like whales were swimming across what looked like a giant pool. There was also a lot of people spinning around in suspended in harnesses, which was impressive to watch. The tap dancing fiddlers were cool, too. Canada is a strange mish-mash of cultures--English, French, Scottish, Inuit.

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A lot happened on Saturday.

I was reintroduced to Chris Collinsworth, who always does the Olympics coverage with Bob Costas. (I love Collisworth. Costas, not so much.)

We won gold and bronze in women's moguls, which is always exciting to watch--4 people fell in the finals, including 2 Americans (no severe injuries).

The best part was the first short track speed skating event, 1500m. Americans Apolo Ohno and JR Celski were up against a slew of Koreans, and it looked like they were going to sweep the board, but 2 of them ended up falling, allowing Apolo to slip in for silver and Celski got bronze. That medal means Apolo is tied with Bonnie Blair as the most decorated US winter olympian. He'll probably end up being the Michael Phelps of this year's Winter Games.

Apolo in the semifinals: He likes to start in the back and sneak his way up to the front.

The worst part was the bad training accident on the luge track. Nodar Kumaritashvil from Georgia died in a bad crash. NBC decided not to air the footage, which I think was a good idea. You can find it online real easily, though, if you even want to see it. It's not pleasant. They changed the coarse a little because of it, and the start point is now lower.

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On Sunday, I was at the Collegian office all day, so I missed both the prime time coverage AND the late night replay (it was a long night). So I had to catch up online at nbcolympics.com. It's a great site. They have full replay videos on there, but I can't get to them because I don't pay for a cable service (you have to register your cable info in order to watch the premium videos). The recaps and highlights were pretty good, though.

American Bryon Wilson got the bronze in men's moguls, and Alexandre Bilodeau won Canada's first gold of the games, which is also their first gold won on home soil, which is neat for them. the silver went to Dale Begg-Smith, who is actually from Vancouver, but he competes for Australia--I guess 'cause he moved there. Kinda weird. Anyway, Jonny Moseley did the break down video on the website. (Moseley competed in Salt Lake City in 2002 with his new trick called "The Dinner Roll," which didn't win him a medal (he got 4th), but made him awesome.) I love Moseley--he's party of the reason why I first got into the Olympics way back when.

After the short program for pairs figure skating, the top Chinese team (a married couple--Shen Xue & Zhao Hongbo) broke their own world record score. They skated to a really cool instrumental version of Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever," and their jumps and choreography were spot on. They won bronze at the last 2 Winter Games, so it'd be kinda nice to see them finally win gold (I'm rooting for them), but the Germans are only .70 points behind them (I thought their program was kinda boring--they were dressed as mimey clowns, but the music and footwork was slow). The Russians are in third (their program was alright--the music was boring, though). 2 other Chinese teams, Pang & Tong and Zhang & Zhang are in 4th and 5th, respectively (their music was nice--the Chinese know how to pick good music... and costumes... and choreography).

Americans Amanda Evora & Mark Ladwig are in tenth, which kinda stinks, but if they do amazingly in the free skate and some other teams mess up they could still have a chance to medal... maybe... (probably not). The other American team is in 14th place. :(

Johnny Spillane won silver for the US in men's nordic combined (ski jumping/cross country--jump score determines start time on race). He started with a pretty good jump, and then skied really well. The race had a really close finish--Spillane was leading until Jason Lamy Chappuis, a French guy, passed him in the last few meters. The highlight video is really funny. The commentator is screaming at the top of his lungs, he's so excited! And everyone collapses after crossing the finish line. Haha! They were definitely pushing themselves!

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P.S. - Sam and I had a good time celebrating Valentine's Day Eve on Saturday. We ate at Johnny Carino's, shopped at Vintage Stock, went to see The Princess and the Frog (which he liked), and watched the prime time Olympics coverage. It was nice.

I Want More Snow Days

Ugh. It's only 3 weeks into the semester and I'm already tired of school. Getting last Friday off because of snow and ice put me in the no-school mood and I'm still in it. Good thing my schedule isn't too strenuous. If it was, I'm not sure I could make it!

Nah, I could, but it'd be torture. So far, band, poetry, and digital recording II have all been great. I've had no desire to skip them and the homework either nonexistant or interesting. ASL IV hasn't been too bad, either. I'm liking it a lot better than last semester--probably because of the new professor. Astronomy is a doozy, though. Most of the stuff I'm supposed to be "learning" is stuff I already know, and the homework is fairly heavy and boring. I've already skipped that class 5 times. I know, I'm bad. But there's no attendance policy and the prof puts all the powerpoints online, AND my sleep schedule is wacked out.

Astronomy is my earliest class--at 11am. Now that's not early by any means, but when a person doesn't fall asleep until 3am or later, it sure seems that way. I'm in the process of trying to fix my sleep schedule, but so far I haven't made much progress...

Seniors got letters in the mail today from Signature Anouncements about ordering graduation announcements. It really can't come soon enough, I tell you.