Vancouver '10 Games

LooseCannon said:
The first Dutch has already gone - Blokhuijsen, and he is in 1st. Canada's best medal hope will go on the next pairing after they resurface the ice, Lucas Makowsky. He might squeak us a bronze.
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Doesn't really look like that, he's around the times of Blokhuijsen and Haugli, and I think that to end up in top 5 one must beat Blokhuijsen with 5-10 seconds.

Women's biathlon: Kuzmina from Slovakia in the lead now, and the big favourite Magdalena Neuner finished half a second behind her! The two Swedish favourites have also had a couple of misses, and will probably not be able to shake Kuzmina.

Our own Tora Berger hasn't done her best shooting tonight, and is out of the competition for the top spots. However, Ann-Kristin Flatland managed 5 out of 5 on the first shooting and is still in it!


5000 m: Contin from France is the new leader, with 6:19.58. Very  strong! Henrik Christiansen from Norway takes over 2nd place behind him and pushes Blokhuijsen down to 3rd.

Kramer did what was expected of him - new olympic record, and he's in the lead. Still three pairs left, so this is going to be exciting!

The biathlon ended quite disappointingly for us Norwegians. Flatland ended in 10th and Berger in 33rd. But hats of to Kuzmina who won quite surprisingly!
 
What a shocker! When only Hedrick vs Bøkko remains, Lee from S-Korea is in second! I would normally expect both Skobrev, Fabris and De Jong to beat the Korean, but no!
 
FUCK! Bøkko ended 4th ... and less than half a second from 3rd. How bitter that is.

Anyway, congrats to Netherlands and Kramer, he was very strong, and of course, to the Korean who surprised everyone!
 
Thanks! Yes, that golden medal... he worked 4 years for it!

The Korean was amazing, especially when we know that he is a short track skater, and failed to qualify for that discipline! He's doing long track since last September!   :bigsurprise:
 
Hopefully Canada wins something in women's moguls...we won last time out and it shocked us. Maybe again!
 
LooseCannon said:
Hopefully Canada wins something in women's moguls...we won last time out and it shocked us. Maybe again!
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It was close, really - but Hannah Kearney wouldn't have any of that. Both she and Jennifer Heil did really impressive runs, though.

Of today's events the following are of most interest to Norwegians:

Nordic combined, starting with the ski jumping (small hill) in half an hour, with the 10 km cross-country part later tonight (or today, for the athletes). Our best hope is Magnus Moan, who is very strong in cross-country skiing, but very unstable in ski jumping. If he has a good day in the hill, he will surely put on a fight for the gold.

Biathlon, men's sprint (7.5 km): Here we have two of the big favourites: An obvious favourite is Ole Einar Bjørndalen, with more than 90 World Cup victories, 14 World Championship gold medals and 9 Olympic medals (5 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze). Another candidate for the podium is Emil Hegle Svendsen (often labeled the Crown Prince of Norwegian biathlon) who won two Gold medals in the 2008 World Championships, has been part of the Norwegian relay team which has three consecutive medals in the World Championships (silver in 07 and 08, gold in 09). He already has won 15 World Cup races.

Other big guns in the sprint include Maxim Tchoudov from Russia (with three individual World Championship gold medals) along with several Germans (Rösch and Greis being the first two I think of). Simon Fourcade from France and Simon Eder from Austria are also strong. 

The women's 3000 m speed skating is also tonight. I must admit my knowledge of women's speed skating isn't as great as for the men (mainly because Norway hasn't had any great female skaters in my lifetime). However, I guess it's going to be a German-Dutch duel, with a couple of Canadian outsiders. Our own Maren Haugli can hope for a place in the top 10, but I'll be very surprised if she can finish much higher than 6th. Her best individual result is a 3rd place on 3000m in Heerenveen in 2006.
 
Kearney really blitzed down those slopes - I was shocked.

We have some medal hopes in ladies' 3k speed skating, including Cindy Klassen who won 5 at Turin.
 
Eddies Wingman said:
Biathlon, men's sprint (7.5 km): Here we have two of the big favourites: An obvious favourite is Ole Einar Bjørndalen, with more than 90 World Cup victories, 14 World Championship gold medals and 9 Olympic medals (5 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze).
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Bjørndalen is a living legend. I'll try to catch this tonight.
 
The jumping part of the Nordic Combined is now over, and Moan disapponted me tonight - he didn't do well and even with his great speed in the cross-country part he will have a hard time challenging for the top positions. Now over to biathlon.
 
I think it will make for an interesting sprint, though, with so many 20ish ranked people in the top pack.
 
The big guns are messing up one after another. Bjørndalen, Greis, Fourcade, Sikora ... all are out of it after more or less abysmal shooting. It's now snowing a lot as well, meaning the track will become slower and slower - so it looks good for Vincent Jay from France, who is currently leading at finish. Maybe Emil Hegle Svendsen can also hang on to his 2nd place?
 
That's a shocker, however I'd say that everyone who started among the 25 first, were very lucky with the conditions. The snow shower made the conditions much heavier for those who started after that.

Anyway, hats off to him. Also to Vincent Jay who seems to take his first Olympic medal, what a surprise!
 
I'm sure any biathlete will tell you that the weather is part of the game, and sometimes shit happens.

Besides, I'll take it :D
 
LooseCannon said:
I'm sure any biathlete will tell you that the weather is part of the game, and sometimes shit happens.

Besides, I'll take it :D
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Of course it's part of the game. I just felt like commenting on it, in case someone who wasn't watching the race would read my post. After all, it's relevant information  :smartarse:
 
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