There are a lot of different cycling events. Some are short events that take place on a track. There is a long road race; in Beijing, riders were able to ride by some great places like the Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China. BMX has recently been added to the Olympics.

Cycling seems to be a popular sport with Olympians that compete in both the Winter and Summer Olympics. You may remember Chris Witty (another C word), who took the gold in the 1000m women’s speed skating event in Salt Lake City. Although she didn’t medal, she did place fifth at the cycling time trials for the 500m event. Clara Hughes received a gold medal in the 5000m speed skating race in the Torino Olympics, as well as two bronze medals in the 1996 Atlanta games.

Shannon Bahrke, who you might remember won a silver medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, is retiring from mogul skiing. Although she will be leaving athletic competition, she has plenty of things that will keep her busy. Her brother, Scotty Bahrke, is still competing.

She is currently engaged to Matt Happe, and plans to marry him in Hawaii on September 10, 2010. The two run Silver Bean Coffee together.

She would like to have kids in the future, and is interested in being an Olympic commentator.

Most of the competition is concluding in Vancouver; the only events left are the hockey finale, the men’s 50 km mass start, and the closing ceremony. Today there were several final events contested.

The men’s slalom concluded the alpine skiing events. Italy’s Giuliano Razzoli won the gold; Ivica Kostelić of Croatia won the silver. If that name sounds familiar, it should; Ivica is Janica Kostelić’s older brother. She won six medals in Salt Lake City and Torino. This is Ivica’s second medal of these games, and third total. Sweden’s André Myhrer won bronze. Nolan Kasper of the United States came in 24th; Bode Miller did not finish his first run.

Four man bobsled also concluded; the United States continued to do well and won the gold medal. Germany won the silver, and Canada won the bronze.

Cross country skiing’s equivalents of marathons began today with the women’s 30 km mass start. The winner’s names are probably familiar to you if you have been following these events. Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland came in first, Marit Bjørgen of Norway won the silver, and Finland’s Aino-Kaisa Saarinen won the bronze. Kikkan Randall came in 24th for the United States.

Curling concluded with the men’s final and bronze events. Canada won gold, leaving Norway in second place. Switzerland beat Sweden for the bronze medal.

Men’s ice hockey finals began with the bronze medal game. Finland beat Slovakia for the Bronze. The big game is tomorrow, with Canada playing the United States.

The men competed in parallel giant slalom, concluding the snowboarding events. Canada’s Jasey-Jay Anderson won gold; Austria’s Benjamin Karl won the silver, while France’s Mathieu Bozzetto won bronze.

Canada was having a great day today. They won the men’s team pursuit in speed skating, with the United States winning silver. The Netherlands took team pursuit bronze. The US women’s team pursuit team lost to Germany in the semifinals; Germany went on to beat Japan in final A for gold and silver. The United States raced Poland in final B for the bronze, and Poland won.

With only two events left, the United States has a total of 36 medals, and will have the most medals out of all countries at the conclusion of the games. The US will get one more medal in hockey; it will either be gold or silver. The United States is unlikely to get any medals in cross-country skiing. Canada, after never winning a gold medal on home turf ever, is guaranteed to walk away with the most gold medals, they currently have 13. Germany has 10 gold medals and is second in the total medal count, with 29. The United States has a total of 9 gold medals and could get one more tomorrow.

One of the most exciting athletes to watch during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics is Lindsey Vonn. With plans to compete in all five alpine skiing events, Vonn was one of the favorites to win gold as the weeks coming up to the Olympics approached.

Unfortunately, while training for the Olympics, Vonn got into an accident and badly bruised her shin. There was a question of whether she would even be able to compete. Fortunately, weather conditions postponed the first date that she would have to race, giving her more time to compete. Still, she was in a lot of pain when she made her downhill race, which she won gold in. Her reaction to winning the gold was exciting to see; unfortunately, I can’t find a good link to it for you.

The 2010 Vancouver Olympics are Vonn’s third Olympics. In 2002 and 2006, she skied as Lindsey Kildow. She married her husband, Thomas Vonn, in 2007. She never received a medal until this Olympics. She is one of the most physically fit competitors around, using men’s skis in most of the events. These are longer, but can be more difficult to control.

Vonn is scheduled to race in the Giant Slalom today, and the Slalom on Friday.

I’m posting a little earlier than normal… I had to babysit a friend’s kids last night and take them to school. I had the chance to watch some today’s afternoon events, but I’ll have to catch ladies’ figure skating tomorrow morning.

Today was the nordic combined team event. The United States had never received a team nordic combined medal since its introduction in the 1988 Calgary games; their highest position before was 4 in Salt Lake City. The win must have been especially exciting to Todd Lodwick, who has been participating in this event since the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. Austria won the gold medal, and Germany won the bronze. Finland, who was in the lead at the end of the jumping portion, ended up coming in seventh.

In biathlon, it was the women’s 4×6 km relay. Russia took gold, France won the silver medal, and Germany came in third.

A huge upset occurred in the 10,000 m men’s speed skating event today. The favorite, Sven Kramer of the Netherlands, crossed the finish line in less time than any of the other skaters. Unfortunately for him, he forgot to cross into the other lane during one of the 25 laps. What would have been the second gold medal for him went to Lee Seung-Hoon of Korea instead. The United States’ best performance in this event was by Jonathan Kuck, who came in eighth.

Women’s ski cross made its Olympic debut, with no Americans competing. The ski cross team has to fund their own way; I am not completely sure whether the reason why they did not go to the Olympics was due to funding or not, but I’m guessing that it at least had a part. The Canadian, Ashleigh McIvor, came away with the first gold.

After beating Germany today, the Canadian men’s ice hockey team has advanced. If both the US and Canadian teams win their events in the quarterfinals and semifinals, they will meet up in the finals.

As far as good moments go, Evan Lysacek won the gold medal in men’s figure skating. I haven’t had the chance to see his performance yet, but his short program was outstanding. Johnny Weir came in sixth, and Jeremy Abbot improved his standings from Monday night to come in ninth overall. Evgeni Plushenko had to be satisfied with silver. Interesting to note, whenever an American world defending champion in men’s figure skating is at the Olympics, they have always won gold.

The ladies didn’t take halfpipe gold (that was Torah Bright, the Australian flag bearer), but the United States did get silver and bronze. Hannah Teter came back to the medal stand for the silver, while 2002 gold medalist Kelly Clark earned the bronze.

In speed skating, the Netherlands had a good day, as they earned silver and bronze in the 1000 meter women’s event. Christine Nesbitt of Canada won home gold, however.

In the 20 km individual biathlon event, there was a tie for the silver medal, and Norway earned one of them. Norway’s Emil Hegle Svendsen also won the gold.

Lindsey Vonn fell during the slalom portion of today’s super combined. Her German friend, Maria Reisch, won the gold. The United State’s Julia Mancuso came home with her second silver of the games, and Sweden’s Anja Pärson won the bronze. Vonn should be able to compete in the next event, the Super G, on Saturday.

I haven’t been following hockey or curling, but it looks like the United States, Canada, Finland, and Sweden are in the ladies’ hockey semifinals. The United States and Canada could face each other in the finals. That would be an interesting game. The men are still trying to determine who will make the quarterfinals. I’m not sure how the curlers are doing.

On day 1 of Vancouver 2010’s competition ski jumping, speed skating, and biathlon took place early on. Women’s moguls, male luge, and short track speed skating will occur later on in the day.

Fog and slush delayed the men’s downhill competition today, and it has been postponed.

Yesterday, all three US ski jumpers qualified for today’s run, but they didn’t make it to the second run today. Switzerland’s Simon Ammann took gold, becoming the first ski jumper to win multiple gold medals on the Normal Hill. His first gold was in 2002 in Salt Lake City.

The Netherlands expected Sven Kramer to get the gold medal in the 5000 m distance in speed skating, and he didn’t disappoint. Lee Seung-Hoon of Korea was a surprise with the silver medal. Team USA’s skaters aren’t as strong at this distance; Chad Hedrick came in 11th, Shani Davis was 12th, and Trevor Marsicano came in 14th place.

The women’s 7.5 km biathlon was won by Anastazia Kuzmina of Slovakia. The favorite, Germany’s Magdalena Neuner, came in second. The top US showing was by Sara Studebaker, who came in 45th place (out of 89 competitors).

Luge will go on, but safety measures have been put in place. For one thing, a large wall was constructed on that dangerous turn, and the ice has been reshaped to make it slower. Additionally, competitors will start at lower gates, so that they will not be going as fast. The officials said that the track was not to blame for yesterday’s accident… sure.

All medal winners for today’s events have been entered into my medal count chart.

So far, fate has seemed to keep me away from the Olympics. During the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympics, I lived in Italy, and during the Torino 2006 Olympics, I lived in the United States. Although I wasn’t able to attend either, I did have the opportunity to watch both.

One of the biggest events of the 2002 Olympics was the skating scandal, which ended up changing the way that figure skating was judged forever. The French judge was pressured to vote for the Russian skaters, Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, no matter how the other skaters did. The Russian pair made a minor technical mistake during their skate. Jamie Salé and David Pelletier, the Canadian team, skated flawlessly. Salé and Pelletier were later upgraded to duplicate gold medals, and the judging system was changed for the 2006 Torino Olympics.

2002 was the year we had two Chinese short track speed skaters named Yang Yang. At first, they were designated Yang Yang (S) and Yang Yang (L), for small and large. Yang Yang (L) didn’t like being called large, so she changed the designation to Yang Yang (A) instead, for August, her birth month. Yang Yang (A) went on to become the first Chinese athlete to win a gold medal in the winter Olympics.

The 2002 Winter Olympics was the first Olympics to be held after the 2001 terrorism attack on the World Trade Center. Although the world climate has changed a little since then, at the time, most of the world was sympathetic towards the US, who had just been the victim of a horrific attack, yet some complained that the opening ceremonies were a little too jingoistic.