Olympics

The Russian Mob Is Out To Get Precious Metal

This is only the fifth Winter Olympics to be held since the breakup of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1990s, and it seems like it has taken this long for the Russian team to finally find its identity. In 1992 they competed with athletes from the former republics under the Unified Team banner, and then through the rest of the decade it looked like they were just trying to fit in with everyone else. This year in Torino, though, the Russian athletes have been sporting jackets emblazoned with “??????” across the front in big red letters, recalling the days of the C.C.C.P. when they were the most feared athletes in international competition. (By the way, Johnny Weir is one of the more frighting athletes in international competition but not because of he likes to wear retro U.S.S.R. gear.)

Anyway, all of this is a long way to get to the news that Team Russia had a pretty good day yesterday, winning three medals and upping their count to 19. Their women’s biathalon squad upset Germany and took the gold in the 4×6km relay, and if you don’t think that’s a big deal then you must be a true, blue American. In freestyle skiing, Vladimir Lebedev won the bronze in men’s aerials, finishing behind Han Xiaopeng of China and Dmitry Dashinski of Belarus. USA’s Jeret “Speedy” Peterson pulled out his patented “Hurricane” move but failed to stick the landing, and since freestyle skiing is a judged “sport” like floor gymnastics and ice dancing he only placed in 7th position. (Am I the only one disturbed by the fact that the Chinese qualified two skiers in the finals and could have had four? We cannot allow the center of the extreme sports universe to shift to Beijing, people.)

Of course the big news of the evening was the finale of the ladies figure skating. Irina Slutskaya, a favorite to win a gold medal, stumbled once in her program and had to settle for bronze, while Shizuka Arakawa of Japan took first place and Sasha Cohen won the silver, despite the fact that she fell on her first two jumps. This is probably Slutskaya’s last appearance at the Olympics, so it’s a little disappointing to see her career end without a gold medal, but Arakawa managed to win Japan’s first gold in figure skating and their only medal so far in these Winter Games, so maybe it all balances out in the end. Cohen, meanwhile, has come up lame in two successive Olympics and appears well on her way to becoming our next Michelle Kwan.

As for the medal standings, Germany continues to lead with 24 , including nine gold and 10 bronze, while the United States is in second place with 20. Austria, Canada, and Russia are all tied in third place with 19 medals apiece.

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