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

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.