The World Competes

The thirteenth day of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic games were exciting and held a few upsets. The snow returned to Vancouver yesterday, and weather has been affecting some of the events.

It was unlucky day 13 for Julia Mancuso and Lindsey Vonn. Vonn crashed in her Giant Slalom run, injuring her pinky. Race officials decided to compress the start times for all the skiers, and Mancuso started her race before learning of the crash. Officials had to stop Mancuso’s run halfway through, and she had to go back up to the start house to redo her run. However, her run wasn’t quite as good the second time, and she ended up in 18th place after the first run. They postponed the second run until Thursday. Mancuso was visibly upset, and I don’t blame her. Of course, Vonn didn’t ask to crash either.

The two-woman bobsleigh event took place today, and Canada took the first two spots (once they got their first gold on home turf earlier in this Olympics, they have really turned the spigot on it seems, with a total of 7 golds so far). The team with Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse won gold. Meanwhile, the United States took another bronze, with Erin Pac and Elana Meyers taking the third best time.

The cross country skiing men’s 4×10 km relay had an exciting final. Sweden came in first, but the silver medal position was where the real excitement was. Petter Northug of Norway was more than a half minute back when he started the anchor leg of the relay. Martin Koukal of the Czech Republic and Emmanuel Jonnier were far in front of him. During his leg of the race, Northug caught up to Koukal and Jonnier, and overtook them both in the final minutes for the silver. Koukal of the Czech Republic ended up with the bronze.

In freestyle skiing, the women’s aerials final ended with a bang… or more like… a disappointing fall for China. Xu Mengtao was all set to win the gold… all she had to do was finish her trick with a good landing. That wasn’t to be. Lydia Lassila of Australia walked away with the gold.

In ice hockey, the US and Canada both advanced to the semifinals. If they both win their next games on Friday, they’ll duke it out in another showdown.

In women’s speed skating, the top two positions in today’s 5000 m race were the same as in the 3000 m race. Martina Sáblíková of the Czech Republic won the gold, while Stephanie Beckert of Germany once again ended up with silver. Clara Hughes, the Canadian flag bearer, won the bronze.

Short track speed skating was interesting to watch as well. In the men’s 500 m, Apolo Ohno and Simon Cho advanced to the semifinals on Friday. The big upset was in the ladies’ 3000 m relay. The United States team came in last place; however, because one of the Korean skaters bumped the Chinese skater, the judges had to decide on whether to disqualify the Koreans or not. While the Koreans took their victory lap, the judges deliberated. Those of us watching on television knew the results once we saw the Chinese skaters start to shout. The Koreans were disqualified, the Chinese were bumped up to the gold medal, and the United States won the bronze just for showing up.

As far as the medal count goes, the United States, Germany, and Canada all have 7 gold medals. The US has 28 total, while Germany has 24 and Norway has 18.