The United States is currently in eighth place, with one silver medal and one bronze medal. The US bronze medalist, in the men’s sitting 2.4 km biathlon pursuit, is Andy Soule, who is a war veteran who lost both of his legs in the War in Afghanistan (appropriate that a soldier would do well in biathlon). Stephani Victor (an appropriate name) is the US silver medalist in the sitting women’s slalom.

In sledge hockey, Canada, the United States, Norway, and Japan have won their games so far. It would be interesting if the United States and Canada would meet again in the sledge hockey finale. Maybe the US would win this time.

The Russians aren’t happy. They’re so upset, in fact, that president Medvedev is asking the people responsible for preparing the Olympic athletes to resign. Those that don’t, he threatens to fire. Russia only won three gold medals, and 15 medals overall. They were hoping to win at least 30 medals, and place in the top three countries winning medals.

I can see how they might be disappointed. Once powerhouses in figure skating, they fail to reach the podium at all in pairs or the ladies skate, breaking a streak that has been going on for decades. Evgeni Plushenko wound up with silver when he was hoping for gold. They didn’t exactly have a hot year.

I have been thinking over the last couple of weeks about what it takes for a country to have a lot of great athletes. The country really has to invest in a sport to see medals. The United States Ski Team wasn’t able to fund the ski cross team, and we had two competitors, no female competitors, and no medals. It does have money for skiing, and we had Lindsey Vonn, Bode Miller, and Julia Mancuso.

Russia is not in its economic heyday right now. In fact, they haven’t been doing well for quite some time. It takes years to make a champion, especially in sports like figure skating. If the people (or government) of Russia does not invest in its athletes, they’re not going to see results. And that takes money.

China has been doing well in the Olympics, and I expect them to do better in the future. China has a growing economy, and invests the time and money in its athletes. They work even their snowboarders hard. They will probably do well in both London and Sochi.

Will Russia get back to its glory days? I think that they can perform better in Sochi than they did in Vancouver. Russia is improving economically, while at the same time the Western nations are having a tough time supporting their athletes. They could do better in Sochi, but I’m not sure that they have enough time to become the Russian powerhouse that they once were. Not in four years.

The biggest (competitive) event of Vancouver day 17 for most North American viewers had to be the gold medal hockey game between the United States and Canada. It went into overtime, with Canada winning 3-2. Sidney Crosby made the wining goal for Canada.

The Vancouver games were not perfect. There were a couple of flaws, including the door that would not open during the torch lighting, the “green” faux Zamboni machines that broke down, the lack of snow, and some problems with timers. But overall, the Olympics turned out well.

The games were good for Canada as well. Canada received a grand total of 14 gold medals, which was more than any other country in all of Olympic history. A few teams have received 13 gold medals, including the Soviet Union in 1976 and Norway in 2002, but none had ever won 14. The United States did well too, in the overall medal count, with 37 medals total. That isn’t the highest ever; I believe that honor goes to Germany in 2002, with 46 total medals, but it is the highest that United States has ever received. Their previous record was 34 in Salt Lake City.

The only event left on the Olympic schedule is the closing ceremonies… I also have to catch up on some of the broadcasts that I Tivo’d and didn’t have the chance to see in the past couple of weeks. They should be excellent. Good job Canada!

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.

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.

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.

Today was a quiet day for competition. The big event for the day was the ice dancing finals. The cross-country team sprints for men and women took place, as well as freestyle skiing aerials qualifications, ice hockey semifinals, and the ski jumping team large hill.

Ice dancing was great this evening. Meryl Davis and Charlie White skated an awesome performance to Phantom of the Opera. It was enough to win the silver medal. Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir came in first, although I personally did not find it as engaging as the second place performance. Russia came in third, while USA’s Belbin and Agosto finished in fourth (but they skated great).  This placement marks the first time anybody from North America has won an ice dancing gold medal.  Sinead and John Kerr, British siblings, performed an interesting move where Sinead picked up her brother! Another performance that I enjoyed was Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France skating to “The Impossible Dream”.

In the cross country team sprint, Norway won gold for the men, while the Germans won for the ladies. German men took silver for the men, while Sweden won silver for the ladies. The Russian men and women both won bronze.

It was a good day for Germany and Norway in ski jumping as well. They took silver and bronze, respectively. Austria took the gold with a runaway win. The US team did not qualify for the finals, and Simon Amman did not compete today, as Switzerland did not have a team in the competition.

The aerials qualifiers were held in freestyle skiing today. The United States qualified two men, Ryan St. Onge and Jeret “Speedy” Peterson. Scotty Bahrke, Shannon Bahrke’s younger brother, did not qualify, along with Matt DePeters. It was an exciting event to watch.

The women’s ice hockey semifinals took place today.  The United States beat Sweden, while Canada beat Finland, to make it to the gold medal round, which will take place on Thursday.

Ladies figure skating begins tomorrow, as does men’s giant slalom and the debut of women’s ski cross. It should be a good day. Currently, the medal count stands at 25 medals for the US, 21 for Germany, and 14 for Norway.

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.

The women’s Super G took place today. Lindsey Vonn won the bronze medal, but the gold went to Austria’s Andrea Fischbacher, who had never won an Olympic medal before.

The Large Hill individual event took place in ski jumping, and the medal results were exactly the same as they were in the normal hill. Simon Ammann of Switzerland won the gold, I believe making him the ski jumper with the most gold medals ever. Peter Frenette was the top US ski jumper, but at position 32, he didn’t move on to the second run.

Marcus Hellner of Sweden won the men’s 30 km pursuit in cross country today. So far, all the men’s cross country medals have gone to different people.

Shani Davis won the silver medal in the 1500 m speed skating race; Mark Tuitert of the Netherlands came home with the gold. In short track, Chinese skater Zhou Yang won the gold medal; the United States’ Katherine Reutter came in fourth in the final round. Apolo Ohno came in third in the 1000 m men’s race, making him the most decorated skater ever, with 7 medals.

As of right now, the US has won 23 medals, six of them being gold.

On the fourth day of the Olympics, downhill skiing finally resumed with the men’s downhill. After a much-hyped Torino Olympics where Bode Miller came home empty handed, he finally returned to the medal stand with a bronze medal. Switzerland’s Didier Défago won the gold.

In women’s cross-country skiing, Charlotte Kalla won the gold medal in the 10 km individual race for Sweden. The last time a Swedish woman earned a medal in an individual cross-country event was at the 1968 Grenoble games, when Toini Gustafsson won a gold medal in the 10 km classical event (the Swedish team of Lina Andersson and Anna Dahlberg won a gold medal in 2006).

Seth Wescott won a second gold medal in snowboardcross for Team USA, after falling down in the initial qualification run. Since snowboardcross debuted in 2006, this means that the only person to have ever earned a gold medal in men’s snowboardcross is Westcott.

In the two other events where medals were decided, Switzerland took home a gold medal in men’s 15 km cross-country skiing, while South Korea’s Mo Tae-Bum won the gold medal in the men’s 500 m speed skating event.

So far, the United States has won nine medals, while France and Canada both have four. Switzerland, Germany, Korea, Norway, and Italy have each won three medals. The Czech Republic and Japan have each won two medals, and nine other countries have won one medal. My 2010 medals chart has been updated through today’s events.