Daily Olympic Reviews, Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Ice Hockey, Nordic Combined, Olympics, Sochi 2014

February 20th – Sochi 2014 – Daily Review

Leave a comment

The US women came oh so close to gold against Canada but it didn’t mean the US didn’t win gold on Thursday. They did win gold for the fourth straight day. The last time that happened? I’m not sure if it ever did but certainly not in 2006 or 2010!

Figure Skating

Events:

  • Ladies’ free program

All three US ladies had good short programs but the top skaters were all a significant amount better. That meant the US ladies needed strong routines but also some help from other skaters. Polina Edmunds, was first to go and put up a solid but not spectacular 122.21. She was ninth best in the free skate and finished ninth overall with a 183.25. Gracie Gold was next and skated fairly well. Still there were flaws and her 136.90 was only fifth best in the free skate. She finished fourth with a 205.53. Ashley Wagner was unable to capture the magic either. Her routine looked okay but had a lot of technical problems and she scored a 127.99, seventh best, and finished in seventh with a total of 193.20.

Third place came in at 216.73 so even with really really good programs that would have been a hard score for the US ladies to match. The US leaves Sochi with just two medals but a lot of young talents on the ladies’ side especially.

  • Polina Edmunds –  Finished 9th with a score of 183.25. In the free program scored a 122.21, 9th best.
  • Gracie Gold – Finished 4th with a score of 205.53. In the free program scored a 136.90, 5th best.
  • Ashley Wagner – Finished 7th with a score of 193.20. In the free program scored a 127.99, 7th best.

Freestyle Skiing

Events:

  • Men’s Ski Cross Seeding
  • Men’s Ski Cross 1/8 Finals
  • Women’s Ski Halfpipe Qualification
  • *Women’s Ski Halfpipe Final

In the men’s ski cross seeding round John Teller he put up a time of 1:18.14 and was ranked 20th heading into the final round. He was 2.55 seconds behind the fastest skier. Teller was placed into the fourth heat of the 1/8 finals. In the 1/8 finals he moved from fourth into third but had a hard time pulling into second. He was in second briefly in the middle of the course but fell back to third heading towards the final turn. He tried hard to get into third there but got knocked off the pace when he made contact with the second place skier and finished fourth and was eliminated.

In the qualifying round for the halfpipe two Americans shot to the top early. Brita Sigourney posted the best score of the run, 87.00, and Maddie Bowman went second with an 85.60. Later on Annalisa Drew scored 61.20 which did place her 12th and Angeli VanLaanen scored a 68.20 to go tenth. In run two Sigourney couldn’t improve her score as she got an 80.40. She ended up second in qualifying. Bowman just missed topping her score when she received an 85.20. She finished third in qualifying. When it came back to Drew’s turn she knew she needed a better run to make the final. She delivered a 72.40 which was good enough to get in and finish 11th in qualifying. VanLaanen wasn’t locked in before her run but made sure she got in with an 83.00 that placed her fifth.

In the final Drew wasn’t able to get a big score on her first run and her 66.40 had her seventh after run one. VanLaanen also wasn’t able to make the big time score with a fall and a 13.80 for tenth place. Bowman did go big time and her 85.80 was enough to grab the lead after the first run. Also struggling in run one was Sigourney who took a spill and scored a 27.80 to sit sixth. That meant the US women had it all to do in the second run. Drew and VanLaanen weren’t able to do enough as Drew ended up with a 9.60 and finished ninth. VanLaanen was better on the second run with a 29.60 but that wasn’t enough to move her any higher than 11th. Bowman bumped her score up to 89.00 but had to see if Sigourney could top it to see if she would win gold. Sigourney couldn’t as her score of 76.00 left her in sixth at the end and after one more skier failed to top Bowman she had won herself a gold medal.

Results Summarized:

  • John Teller – Was eliminated after fourth place finish in 1/8 finals. In seeding run he finished in 1:18.14 and placed 20th.
  • Angeli VanLaanen – In the final she finished 11th after scoring a 29.60 on her second run. In qualification round she scored 83.00 on her second run and advanced to the final in 5th.
  • Annalisa Drew – In the final she finished 9th after scoring a 66.40 on her first run. In qualification round she scored 72.40 on her second run and advanced to the final in 11th.
  • Brita Sigourney – In the final she finished 6th after scoring a 76.00 on her second run. In qualification round she scored 87.00 on her first run and advanced to the final in 2nd.
  • Maddie Bowman – She won gold in the final after scoring an 89.00 on her second run. In qualification round she scored 85.60 on her first run and advanced to the final in 3rd.

Ice Hockey

Events:

  • Women’s Gold Medal Game – USA vs. Canada

The US women were oh so close to the gold medal on Thursday. Meghan Duggan gave them a 1-0 lead off a Jocelyne Lamoureux assist midway through the second. They added a second goal early in the third when Alex Carpenter slammed home a pass from Hilary Knight and Kelli Stack. Things look great with five minutes to go. Then Canada started to rally. A goal with 3:26 left made it 2-1. They dodged an empty net goal for the US when the puck hit the post on a shot from the US zone. Canada tied it at two with 55 seconds left.

In OT the US picked up a penalty trying to prevent a breakaway. It didn’t take Canada long to make them pay… just 39 seconds. Canada got the gold medal for the fourth straight Olympics and the US has to settle for silver again. This is a great rivalry and the US mostly owns Canada at the World Championships… but the Olympics have been a harder nut to crack.

Results Summarized:

  • USA Women – Lost 3-2 in OT to Canada. Took home the silver medal.

Nordic Combined

Events:

  • Team Gundersen LH/4×5 km Competition Round
  • *Team Gundersen LH/4×5 km Cross-Country

In the jumping portion of the nordic combined the US got scores of 99.9 from Todd Lodwick (seventh best in round one), 92.5 from Taylor Fletcher (seventh best in round two), 108.0 from Bill Demong (seventh best in round three), and 97.2 from Bryan Fletcher (ninth best from round four). The total team score of 397.6 placed them eighth and they were 1:52 behind leaders Germany to start the cross-country portion.

In the cross-country portion the US got times of 11:52.6 from Bryan Fletcher (fifth best from leg one), 12:37.2 from Todd Lodwick (eighth best in leg two), 11:38.9 from Taylor Fletcher (best in leg three), and 11:34.4 from Bill Demong (second best in leg four). The total time of 47:43.1 was sixth best and the US moved up from eighth before the relay to finish in sixth, 2:21.6 behind the winning Norwegian team.

Results Summarized:

  • USA Team – Finished sixth overall, 2:21.6 behind the winners. Finished 8th in the ski jumping with a 397.6 and started the cross-country relay 1:52 behind the leaders. Finished sixth in the cross-country portion with a time of 47:43.1.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *