Olympics

It’s All About The Hardware

Through 10 days of the 20th Winter Games, Germany holds the lead in the medal count with 18, including seven gold, seven silver, and four bronze. Norway is close behind with 17, Austria and the United States have 15 each, and Russia has collected 14 so far.

Austria was the big winner yesterday, collecting five medals in three events. Michaela Dorfmeister and Alexandra Meissnitzer took gold and bronze, respectively, in the women’s Super-G alpine skiiing event, leaving top American skiier Lindsey Kildow in seventh place. Kildow suffered a serious crash the other day and hasn’t really been the same since. In the men’s Giant Slalom, Benjamin Raich and veteran Hermann Maier also brought home gold and bronze for Austria, while US talent Bode Miller finished in a tie for sixth. Bode had a terrible first run but set the pace with a blistering second attempt. (I’m thinking a little nip from the bottle during the intermission helped ease those nerves.) Finally, Austria collected gold in men’s team ski jumping, which is I think one of those events we Americans say we’re not interested in and don’t understand because we never win it.

Speaking of American medal winners, the US took the bronze in women’s ice hockey after a 4-0 win over Finland, while Canada won the gold with a 4-1 victory over Sweden. NBC’s commentators all tried to paint the US bronze as a huge positive for the sport because it is no longer a two horse race between Team USA and the Canucks. I think the American ladies just took their eye off the puck for a minute, believing they were going to skate on through to the finals, but we’ll see if Sweden can still compete in four years.

And last but not least, the US Olympic squad made history last night winning their first medal in ice dancing in thirty years. Tanith Belbin, who was a Canadian until a month ago, and Ben Agosto won the silver after managing to not fall during their free dance routine. Russians Tatyana Navka and Roman Kostomarov didn’t fall down so well they won the gold, while the Ukranian pair of Yelena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov were good enough at not falling down to win the bronze. Congrats to all for not falling down.

Related Posts

• No Related Post