What’s on tap today? Eight disciplines and competition in ten events, but just five gold medals will be awarded.
All times below are ET.
Alpine Skiing
Events: Monday the women begin their alpine skiing events with the super combined. This event is one half downhill and one half slalom. The downhill portion is at 2 AM with four Americans in the 39-woman field. Laurenne Ross will be the first American to go but goes 14th overall. Julia Mancuso goes 22nd, Leanne Smith goes 27th, and Stacey Cook goes 30th. After completing the downhill portion the athletes will compete in the slalom portion at 6 AM. The best total time wins.
Family made it to Sochi! Tomorrow is my first event. Super Combined. Lets see if I can pull it out of the hat like in Vancouver! #FastDreams
Live Streaming: A live stream will be available on the NBC Olympics website and on the NBC Sports Live Extra app. You will probably have to authenticate a cable subscription to watch the live streams of the Olympics.
TV Coverage: The alpine skiing will be included in NBC’s evening Olympic coverage, 8-11:30 PM ET.
The US has only won one medal in curling, a men’s bronze in 2006. The sport has been growing though in popularity in the US. Will that lead to anymore success in Sochi though? One reason to hope, the women’s team did nearly medal at the latest world championships.
Curling’s Olympic History
Curling’s Olympic history is long but also full of holes. The sport was contested in the original Winter Olympics, 1924, but then only as a demonstration sport in the following 74 years. And even then it was only held in 1932, 1998, and 1992. In 1998 Curling was finally added to the Olympic program and has been part of it since then.
Canada has the most curling medals with eight including the most golds, three. Ten countries have medaled with five winning golds. The US has just one medal, a bronze on the men’s side in 2006.
How the Curling Competitions Work
If you’re not familiar with curling it’s not too hard to get the basics down. A curling game features ten ends. Think of these like innings in baseball or frames in bowling. In an end each team will have eight stones they send down towards the target. Four different players will each send two of the stones, with the two teams alternating turns. In the end the team with the stone closest to the center of the “house” scores one point for each of their stones closer to the center than the closest stone of their opponent. The stone does have to be on the house target to score. Sum up the total score from the ten ends and you’ll have the final score of the game. The teams take turn alternating who goes first. If it’s still tied the teams would go to an extra end until the tie is broken.
Ten teams will contest both the men’s and women’s events in Sochi. The events begin with a round-robin portion where every country will face every other country. After that the standings will be used to determine the semifinal matchups.
US Team
The US teams are five men and five women. Four athletes were on the teams in Vancouver, two were on the teams in Turin, one was on the team in Salt Lake City, and one was on the team in Nagano.
* – Was on team in Vancouver
** – Was on team in Vancouver & Turin
& – Was on team in Turin
^ – Was on team in Vancouver & Salt Lake City
% – Was on team in Nagano
In 2010 the men’s team featured Jeff Isaacson as the second and John Shuster as the skip. The team went 2-7 in the round robin finishing tied for last. Their wins came over France and Sweden (who ended up winning the gold).
The women’s team in 2010 Debbie McCormick as their skip and Allison Pottinger as their third. That team went 2-7 in the round robin and finished last. Their wins came over Russia and Great Britain, neither of whom finished in the top four.
In 2006 the men’s team featured John Shuster. That team went 6-3 in the round robin to advance to the semifinals. In the semifinals the US lost to Canada before defeating Great Britain in the final 8-6 to win the bronze medal.
The women’s team in Turin featured Jessica Schultz. The team went 2-8 and finished in ninth place.
The 2002 women’s team featured Debbie McCormick as their third. The team went 6-3 and reached the semifinal round of the tournament. The US lost 9-4 to Switzerland in the semifinals and 9-5 to Canada in the bronze medal final.
The 1998 women’s team featured Erika Brown in third position. That team went 2-5 and finished seventh.
All Times ET, * indicates medals awarded
Monday, February 10th
5 AM – Women’s Round Robin Session 1 – USA vs. Switzerland
10 AM – Men’s Round Robin Session 2 – USA vs. Norway
Tuesday, February 11th
12 AM – Women’s Round Robin Session 2 – USA vs. Russia
5 AM – Men’s Round Robin Session 3 – USA vs. China
10 AM – Women’s Round Robin Session 3 – USA vs. Great Britain
Wednesday, February 12th
12 AM – Men’s Round Robin Session 4 – USA vs. Denmark
5 AM – Women’s Round Robin Session 4 – USA vs. China
Thursday, February 13th
5 AM – Men’s Round Robin Session 6 – USA vs. Great Britain
10 AM – Women’s Round Robin Session 6 – USA vs. Japan
Friday, February 14th
12 AM – Men’s Round Robin Session 7 – USA vs. Germany
5 AM – Women’s Round Robin Session 7 – USA vs. Denmark
10 AM – Men’s Round Robin Session 8 – USA vs. Russia
Saturday, February 15th
10 AM – Women’s Round Robin Session 9 – USA vs. Sweden
Sunday, February 16th
12 AM – Men’s Round Robin Session 7 – USA vs. Canada
5 AM – Women’s Round Robin Session 10 – USA vs. Canada
10 AM – Men’s Round Robin Session 11 – USA vs. Sweden
Monday, February 17th
12 AM – Women’s Round Robin Session 11 – USA vs. Korea
5 AM – Men’s Round Robin Session 12 – USA vs. Switzerland
Wednesday, February 19th
10 AM – Women’s Semifinals
10 AM – Men’s Semifinals
Thursday, February 20th
3:30 AM – Women’s Bronze Medal Match
8:30 AM – Women’s Gold Medal Match
Friday, February 21st
3:30 AM – Men’s Bronze Medal Match
8:30 AM – Men’s Gold Medal Match
US Team’s Recent World Championship History
The 2013 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship was held in Victoria, British Columbia in March-April 2013. The team representing the US didn’t feature any of the Olympians for the US. That team went 5-6 in the round robin portion but missed out on the semifinals.
The 2013 World Women’s Curling Championship was held in Riga, Latvia in March 2013. The team featured Erika Brown as their skip, Debbie McCormick as their third, Jessica Schultz as their second, and Ann Swisshelm as their lead. The team went 6-5 in the round robin beating four Olympic teams (Denmark, Canada, Japan, Russia), but losing to three others (Sweden, Switzerland, China). That put the US into a three-way tie for fourth with Russia and Switzerland. Those two faced off with the winner taking on the US. It ended up being a rematch with Switzerland and the US advanced with a 7-4 win.
In the semifinals the US took on Canada and was down 4-1 after three ends. The US fought back and cut it to 4-3 before Canada pulled back out to a 7-4 lead. The US got it to 7-6 but couldn’t tie it up and fell into the bronze medal match. In the bronze medal match the US took on Canada again (this is a weird playoff format…). The US had an early 2-1 lead but Canada went back in front 4-2 and never gave up the lead going on to win 8-6.
The US has only medaled once in the Olympics, a bronze on the men’s side in 2006. They also finished fourth in 1998 but were ninth in 2002 and tenth in 2010. On the women’s side the best finish by the US was a fourth place finish in 2002. Outside of that they have finished eighth twice (1998 and 2006) and tenth (2010).
