Olympic Notebook for Feb. 19th - Day Eight 'not so Great' but Day Nine 'looking Fine'
Well after the euphoria of Day Seven, Day Eight was a bit of a reality check after a variety of disappointments and underwhelming performances. Day Nine though is shaping up nicely despite the being down 2-0 to Finland after 1 period.
A few notes:
Men's Hockey loses to Suisse
For a loss, oddly this one didn't hurt all that much. Switzerland played their guts out and scored another huge victory. I won't go on cause i blogged live during the game, but the short version is, ... Way to go Switzerland for stepping it up and (with your 2 huge wins) welcome to the big leagues.
Men losing to Finland
Underway now in the second which must be better than the first in which Canada stood around and watched Finland put on a clinic in team play, skill and hustle. I am bit peeved right now so will hold my tongue in anticipation of a spirited comeback.
Speed Skating
Jeremy is broken... a lackluster performance in the 1000m makes me wonder why the announcers are even asking Wotherspoon if he plans to come back for 2010 cause the way he performed at this games (and last for this matter) is just weak and not worthy of the slot if he is not commited to massive clutch improvement. Sorry man, i am a fan and cheer for you every race but I am done. Build the oval in Richmond and let's get some youngsters training to take the torch.
Cindy Klaussen however is better than expected with 3 medals already, the most recent, a Silver in 1000m with her fave 1500m still to go. (The adorable) Timmer from Netherlands won Gold and (the scandalously sultry) Anni Freisinger scoring Bronze.
Bobsleigh
Fun to watch, the sleds are cool (note: all sleds must weigh the same with riders on board which is what you want heavy guys who can run fast so they can push the heavy sled, rather than skinny fast guys who would have to push a heavier sled, dig?).
Veteran Pierre Leuders and partner Lascelles Brown (welcome to Canada bro) did not disappoint with improvements each run including the final runs in the evening with snow falling - great scenes and great Silver medal finish. Canada 2 sled finished 10th if i recall correctly, boding well for 2010.
Ski Jumping
I only saw clips but i love this sport, so graceful to watch (as i posted to Boris's blog, re: fave from SLC, "Ski jumping, which should be called Ski Falling, blew my mind - the massive size of the hill, the wee-ness of the skiiers and the gracefullness of the whole routine. One second the jumper is a speck atop a masive tower, and a blink later, the skier is sliding to a stop next to you in a puffy suit, after a controlled fall that must feel like a flying for a hour when you are doing it.")
Again with a ski jump somewhere besides Calgary, this is a sport which Canada could improve in in future games. Young Read (nephew of Ken) finished like 30th so not to bad.
Curling
The people's champion in Italy - curling is scoring huge rating in the bocce-enthusastic country. The Italian men beat Canadian men to put pressure on their hopes of making the playoffs. Ditto for the Women who also dropped to 4-3 to Japan but then came back today with a win against Italy as did the men who beat up on New Zealand. So both rinks are looking solid to advance to the playoff.
Alpine Skiing
Great performances by skiing legends Aamodt and Meier kept Eric Guay off the podium after he turned in a great run after being questionable due to a leg injury. He took an injection and skiied his guts out and sat fourth til the Herminator did his usual dominant run (if he doesn't crash, he medals it seems) - way to go 4th place for Guay though.
Other CDN Super G'ers were a bit hosed since they had to re-ski due to weather issues. After the first run, our lads were sitting well but after the race was called, their runs on the restart didn't merit medals. The guy who was really pissed was the Frenchman who was sitting first after the cancelled run and botched his 2nd misses a gate and squirrelling down the hill in obvious anger and crashed through the exit area hollering epiphets to the worldwide audience.
Other news
Austria cross country ski team got shook down by the Italain fuzz in a early morning raid which seems selective and fishy to me. That didn't stop, CBC heel Terry Liebel from asking Beckie Scott and Sarah Renner about it over and over again (shut the hell up woman!).
In other hockey games, ... Slovakia continues to roll winning over Kazakhs, Russia is on track and beating up on Lativa (whoa re out of gas) and the USA is still scrambling after losing to Sweden who are trying to find consistency.
All for now, heading to Whister for tubing after game. Go Canada!
