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.

On day 10 of the Vancouver Olympics, Bode Miller finally won his first gold medal, in the Super Combined. After a disappointing 0 medals in Torino, I’m sure that he’s pretty happy.

Both the men’s and women’s mass start events took place in biathlon. If you have been following the biathlon results, you may recognize Germany’s Magalena Neuner, who won the gold medal in women’s pursuit, and received a silver medal in the sprint. Evgeny Ustyugov won the men’s medal for the Russians.

The two-man bobsleigh event concluded today; the German team of André Lange and Kevin Kuske came in first. A second German team took the silver medal, while Russia won the bronze. The three teams from the United States placed sixth, tenth, and twelfth.

Ice dancers held their Original Dance competition today. Meryl Davis and Charlie White did well, while Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto came in fourth again. Tomorrow’s final night of competition, with the Russian team of Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, and the Canadian team of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, could be close.

Ski cross made its debut today, with Switzerland’s Michael Schmid winning the first gold medal ever. US skiers Casey Puckett and Daron Rahlves qualified for the heats, but were eliminated in the first round.

Ladies’ speed skating continued with the 1500 m race. The Netherlands won the gold with Ireen Wust’s performance, while Kristina Groves of Canada won the silver.

The United States now has a current total of 24 medals, with 7 of them being gold.

As the world turns, the IOC removes sports from the Olympic program (like tug of war and baseball), but most of the time, it adds them. We saw the introduction of snowboardcross to the Olympic program in Torino, and for 2010, ski cross has been added to the Olympics.

Ski cross is a lot like snowboardcross, in that four athletes compete to get to the bottom of the hill first. Skiers will face moguls and other obstacles as the race down the hill. Skiers are not supposed to push each other, but like snowboardcross and short track speed skating, there is the occasional crash. Athletes who can keep out of these crashes are more likely to make it to the end.

In the United States, the Ski Cross team is currently very small (three men and two women), and athletes have to pay their own expenses. The US Ski Cross team is sending two men to compete in the debut of ski cross at the Olympics, but it is not sending either of its female athletes. I am unsure why, it could be due to funding (if you know, feel free to leave a comment).

Men’s ski cross debuts on February 21st, while the women’s ski cross events will take place on the 23rd.

There don’t seem to be many surprises… most of the team was announced in pieces starting last year. I do have one question though… why are there no female ski cross competitors for Team USA? Are there no female ski cross competitors in the United States? I know that there is a female ski cross competition… they’re scheduled for Tuesday the 23rd. You would think that we would send someone. It is the debut year, it’s a little embarrassing not to be involved. Did we have skiers, but they just didn’t make the cut? After going through the roster, I noticed that we have one ski cross female: Caitlin Ciccone. Why isn’t she going? Anyone know?

With 11 days to go until the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the final Team USA roster has been finalized. It will be released tomorrow.

If you missed Audi’s Truth in Motion that aired this weekend, you can download it for free on iTunes.com, at http://www.itunes.com/truthinmotion. I watched it Saturday, and it was pretty good, although I thought that it was a bit short. I was hoping that it would get more into the lives and training schedules of the athletes, but I guess that they were limited by time (and a longer video might be too long, I guess). It follows the lives of a few members of the men’s and women’s alpine ski teams as they get ready for the first World Cup event of the season. Of course, how they perform on the World Cup circuit determines whether they get to go to the Olympics or not.

You see the dynamics between Tommy Ford, who is new to the team and doing well, and Jake Zamansky, who has been on the team for a while, and if he doesn’t make the Olympic team, he might just end up hanging up his skis, at least competitively. If you hadn’t seen the roster yet, there might be so me suspense. If you have seen the roster (I published it a few days ago here), then you already know how it turns out. Even if you know who’s going to make it, its nice to get to know some of the members of Team USA a little better.

Turns out that Daron Rahlves and Casey Puckett, Team USA’s men’s skicross competitors, will probably be okay by the time the games arrive. Rahlves dislocated his hip yesterday during the Winter X Games, while Puckett hurt his already-injured shoulders a few days before that. Fortunately for them, men’s skicross is scheduled for February 21st, so they will have three weeks from the time of their injuries to recover. Shawn White, who hurt his face during the X Games, will participate in the halfpipe on the 17th; he is also okay.

With the Vancouver Olympics approaching quickly, Olympic athletes are all a-twitter about how they will be headed off to Vancouver soon. Some expect to arrive on Tuesday, while others will be headed for Vancouver this Friday.

This weekend’s Winter X Games may have taken some US Olympic athletes out of the running before they even have the chance to begin. Daron Rahlves and Casey Puckett, who were selected to compete in the Olympic debut of ski-cross were both injured this weekend. Rahlves fell in a quarterfinal race and dislocated his hip, while Puckett aggravated his injured shoulder a couple days prior.

Shawn White also was injured over the weekend, hitting his face on the side of the pipe on Friday. He is evidently doing fine.

Prior to the Torino Olympics, Gretchen Bleiler, Lindsey Jacobellis, and Hannah Teter all skipped the X Games prior to the Olympics. They participated this year and finished without injury.