Closing comments

I'm sad that Bode skied out on the slalom on Saturday, but he had a good Olympics overall. I'm really happy for him.

The US men's 4-man bobsled team won gold on Saturday, which is pretty cool.

It's too bad that the US lost to Canada in men's hockey on Sunday, but they still got silver. I'm happy for Canada. Same thing happened for the women.

I didn't watch the closing ceremonies on Sunday night 'cause I was at work, and I didn't want to stay up for the late night replay because I was still pretty sick from the cold I had all weekend, but I watched the highlights online. I found it quite hilarious that they had a gag on the torch malfunction from the opening ceremonies, relighting it and everything. Alanis Morissette and Neil Young performed, which is kind of awesome. And William Shatner and Michael J. Fox made appearances. And the Royal Mounties danced around. I'm sad I missed it.

The next Winter Olympics will be in Sochi, Russia. I bet those games won't be quite as friendly as these. It's hard to beat the Canadians in friendliness.

The Canadians won the most golds (14), but they're 3rd in the medal count overall. Germany is 2nd. And the US is first.

Here are some neat videos: Defining moments, Top 10 finishes, Top 10 wacky moments, Best of the Games: Emotions,

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!

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.

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...