Day 14 held one of the events that many people look forward to the most, that is, the ladies’ free program. Today was also the continuation of the second run for the women’s giant slalom, the women’s 4×5 km cross country skiing relay, curling semifinals, the men’s aerials final, women’s hockey finals, and the nordic combined long hill/10 km sprint.

In figure skating, Kim Yu-Na of South Korea blew the competition away, receiving the highest score since the new scoring rules were put into place. Mao Asada of Japan won the silver, while Joannie Rochette of Canada won the bronze. All three skated well, although Rochette had a couple tiny mistakes. The United States’ Mirai Nagasu gave a lovely performance for fourth place, while Rachael Flatt gave a solid performance for seventh place. This marks the first time since the 1964 Innsbruck games where a skater from the USA did not make the medals stand in ladies’ figure skating.

The ladies finished the second run of their giant slalom today. Julia Mancuso had the third fastest run of the day, but it was not enough to bring her back from yesterday’s disastrous rerun, after being stopped because of Lindsey Vonn’s crash. Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg took the gold.

In the ladies 4×5 kilometer relay, Norway won gold, Germany was second, and Finland was third. As in yesterday’s men’s race, the gold medal anchor was well ahead (Marit Bjørgen), while the real race was for silver. While Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla made up a lot of time in the third leg, the lead was lost in the fourth leg, and they came in fifth. Kikkan Randall of the United States finished her leg in fourth place, but the US wasn’t able to keep up with the Nordic countries, and came in 12th.

In men’s curling, Canada will play Norway on Saturday for gold and silver medal determination. Sweden and Switzerland will play for the bronze medal. Tomorrow, the women’s Canadian team will play Sweden for the gold, while Switzerland will play China for the bronze.

In men’s aerials, Alexei Grishin won the gold for Belarus, while Jeret “Speedy” Peterson won the silver for the United States. Liu Zhongqing of China took the bronze.

The Canadians must be happy today. Their women’s hockey team beat the United States for the gold. The US took the silver, while Finland won the bronze.

The United States had a great day in Nordic Combined. Bill DeMong won the gold medal, and Johnny Spillane took the silver. The United States had never even won a medal in Nordic Combined prior to these Olympics, and this year, not only does the US get its first medal, it gets four medals, one of them being gold. In fact, the US received more Nordic combined medals than any other country this year.

The United States continues to lead the medal count with 32 medals. Germany is second with 26, while Norway has 19.

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.

One of the more recent controversies in the Olympics (and there have been plenty) involve women’s ski jumping. There are two separate disciplines, ski jumping and nordic combined, that involve ski jumping, and women are excluded from both of them. My question is… why?

Olympic rules require that any new event added to the Olympics must include women. That’s why when they added snowboardcross, or ski cross, they have both women’s and men’s events. Double’s luge has technically been coed since 1992. These old rules don’t require that the IOC add women’s events to already existing disciplines, like ski jumping.

Women have tried to get ski jumping added since 1998. For 2010, the ski jumpers even tried, unsuccessfully, to force inclusion. Their request was shot down.

Gian Franco Kasper, IOC member and president of the International Ski Federation (FIS), was quoted as saying in 1995 that ski jumping “seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view.” I believe that a similar argument was made for running the 800 meter competition… after the 800 meter competition in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, some of the women dropped to the ground from exhaustion. Doctors were quoted saying that women who competed in such events would “become old too soon”. After that event, all races longer than 200 meters were banned until 1960.

Will we see women’s ski jumping in the 2014 Sochi Olympics? So far, I haven’t seen anything to suggest it. There currently isn’t a world cup competition for women’s ski jumping, only a continental cup. I do think that there’s a good chance that it will be included in the 2018 Olympics, and by 2022, I’d be surprised if it was not included. But that will probably be too late for today’s ski jumpers.

More information on women’s ski jumpers can be found at Time.com. For information about the 1928 Amsterdam Race, see The Complete Book of the Olympics, 2008 Edition, pp. 305-306. Photo of Lindsey Van, US ski jumper.

On the second day of competition, Canada finally received its first gold medal while hosting an Olympics. Alexandre Bilodeau skied an outstanding performance in the men’s freestyle moguls in order to take home gold. US skier Bryon Wilson came in third for the bronze, while Australia’s Dale Biggs-Smith got the silver.

Johnny Spillane made history for the United States on day 2. The US had never received a medal in Nordic Combined, until today. Johnny Spillane came in second, behind France’s Jason Lamy Chappuis, to take the silver medal.

It snowed last night in the mountains of Vancouver, which was a mixed blessing. Officials said that the snow was too soft, but now there is more of it. Let’s hope that it doesn’t rain. The postponed downhill skiing competition is supposed to begin tomorrow.

Germany’s Felix Loch, who some have surmised might be the next Georg Hackl, didn’t disappoint the people who had hopes in him. He won the gold medal in men’s luge. German David Möller received the silver, while Italy’s Armin Zöggler, who was one of the favorites for gold, came in third.

The Vancouver Medal Count chart has been updated through today. So far, the United States has won seven medals; Germany, France, and Canada three; Korea and Italy two. Ten other countries have one medal.

The Nordic combined event is a sport that combines ski jumping and cross country skiing. It is a male-only sport (as far as Olympics go), as there is no women’s ski jumping (other than freestyle aerials) that will be in Vancouver (that may change for 2018, perhaps Sochi 2014). America is hoping that will change in 2010. Three athletes, Todd Lodwick, Bill Demong, and Johnny Spillane, will be competing for team USA at Vancouver. The fourth spot will either go to Torino Veteran Brett Camerota, or 19 year old Taylor Fletcher, who was too young in 2006 to compete.

Shani Davis, a versatile speed skater who was originally set to compete in all five distances for 2010 (he is also a short-track speed skater, but he is not competing in short-track during the Olympics). If he had stayed in all five events, he would have been the first US skater since Erik Heiden to compete in all five events. He is the first black skater to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics for an individual event.