Sporty's Olympic Report 7 - Speed Skating, Figure Skating, Hockey, Curling, Ski-Cross, Bobsleigh...
Reporter!Smurf is on an incredible high... So many good things have happened for Canadian athletes in the last couple of days. From Ice Dance, final Olympics, downers for the Dutch and upsets in Curling, right back up to Speed Skating and an amazing finish for the Women's Bobsleigh and Women's Ski-Cross... What a ride!
I’ll start with Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir - the youngest and first North American gold medallists in the ice dance. I couldn’t be more proud, seeing as Scott is from just outside London and Tessa is from London! Yahoo! Way to show the world! P.S. For my British friends, sorry about the twizzles... :)
I would be terribly remiss if I didn't mention the silver medallists from the USA, Tessa and Scott's rivals, training pals and friends. Kudos to Charlie White (anyone else think he looks like a surfer?) and Meryl Davies!
London has two Gold medallists on the board so plan the parade Anne-Marie!
That same day brought some hockey redemption as Canada’s women’s hockey team won their semi-final match against Finland. Kudos to Noora Raty of Finland, without whom Team Finland would have surrendered more than the 5 goals...
Tuesday was geared towards the men’s hockey qualification round... Nervous fans watched as Canada finally came together and beat an overmatched German squad 8-2. Collective breaths were released. On to the quarterfinal against Russia!
From a school project outlining just why ski-cross deserved to be an Olympic sport, to gold medal favourite in Vancouver, Ashleigh McIvor seemed to just mark milestones to the podium. Unlike some struggling world sport leaders, Ashley came flying over the last jump to the finish in style. Hopefully she’ll share some of the joy with her hard luck boyfriend Chris Del Bosco who sadly crashed out of his ski-cross final. Congratulations Ashleigh - right in your own backyard!
Heats completed in the women’s bobsleigh brought 1st and 4th for Canada with a lot of competition from the US . Final heats to be completed on Wed...
Overshadowed by the men’s hockey semi-finals, the ‘sleighers had plenty of support at Whistler Sliding Centre. In the final heat, with Helen Upperton and Shelley-Ann Brown of Canada 2 on top and USA 2’s Erin Pac and Elana Meyers in 2nd, Heather Moyse and Kaillie Humphries knew they were in tough. A run good enough to keep them in 1st place saw a 1 - 2 finish for the two Canadian sleds. Cheers to the women’s bobsleigh team that helped round out wonderful Wednesday!
A smiling (does she ever stop smiling?) Clara Hughes took bronze in the 1,000m, a great finish to the Canadian flag-bearer’s multi-medal career. The crowd at the Richmond Oval couldn’t be happier.
Adding to her individual silver medal was young Marianne St-Gelais in women’s short track relay as Canada’s team (including Tania Vicent, Jessica Gregg (we knew you’d get a medal) and Kalyna Roberge) skated their way to a bronze medal that was quite quickly upgraded to silver with the disqualification of the outraged South Korean team. In a matter of seconds the shouts of joy turned to shouts of rage from Team South Korea as they changed from triumphant gold medallists to angry finishers. The Chinese with silver and the US with bronze were also recipients of the Koreans misfortunes.
Additional controversy at the Richmond Oval occurred when favoured Dutch long track speed skating star, Sven Kramer, was disqualified after an illegal lane change during the 10,000m race. Easily ahead of the field and on his way to an Olympic record to go with the gold, Kramer was DQ’d shortly after crossing the finish line. A visibly distraught Kramer threw his glasses across the ice. A terrible mistake for the veteran skater.
Joannie Rochette, the strength to compete was in you and your whole country stood behind you through your terrible loss. A clean and beautiful short program set up a solid long program just two days later and led you to a bronze medal, the first in 20 years for Canada. Congratulations and greatest condolences at what must be both a happy and sad moment for your family.
On a day where the emotional favourite was Canada’s own, Yun-Ha Kim skate an Olympic record long program to easily secure the gold medal for South Korea. An unimaginable score at the beginning of the night became reality with the absolutely virtuoso performance from the 19 yr-old. Bravo!
Impressive challenges were provided by Mao Asada of Japan and Mirai Nagasu of the USA. Two triple axels from Mao Asada were not enough to overcome the tremendous lead Ms. Kim had built in the short program nor the impressive finale performance. Women’s figure skating looks to be a battle for the next few years and Sochi will be a treat!
Kudos to the pro-Canadian crowd for their rousing cheers for Italian skater Carolina Kostner who had a tough night but received great support from the crowd as the encouraged her to the finish.
Cheers also to Canadian Cynthia Phaneuf, competing in her first Olympic Games, who was entirely overshadowed Joannie’s loss. We Believe in you, too!
The men’s and women’s curling brought both nods of ‘I knew they’d get through’ to ‘wow, he’s out of the medal round’. Great Britain’s David Murdoch was touted as Kevin Martin’s nemesis as Martin hadn’t beaten him. Unfortunately for Murdoch, his Olympics ended before the medal round.
Now, both men’s and women’s teams go for gold, knowing they have at least the silver in hand... but that’s not what they came to Vancouver for! Good luck Kevin and Cheryl! P.S. Games were paused while an impromptu rendition of O Canada roused the crowd. Cool!
Thursday night also produced a much-anticipated (at least if you are a women’s hockey fan) gold medal match between the USA and Canada. The US was intent on spoiling Canada’s dream of winning gold at home, the same way Canada had in Salt Lake City in 2002. Expected to be a tight and hard-fought game, the Americans looked to have the advantage in the first period as the Canucks suffered through two nerve-wracking 5 on 3 powerplays against. Managing to stave off the US long enough to score two goals, both from Marie-Philip Poulin, Canada rode the netminding of Shannon Szabados and some stellar defense to bring home the gold at home to a roaring crowd.
Just a note on the US team - there are those who say you are sore losers, but I think anyone who has participated in a game of that level has a right to be disappointed when the game is lost. Also, will someone please explain why they don't put Angela Ruggiero up as a winger? Anyone?
Way to go ladies - We Believed and you brought us the gold!
The bronze medal went to Finland in an exciting match that was ended in overtime by Karoliina Rantamakki, who ended a rather dismal Olympics for rival Sweden. Star goalie Kim Martin was benched in favour of newcomer Sarah Grahn, but a centring pass off the skate of Erika Holst bounced in with barely 4 minutes left in the first overtime period and pandemonium broke loose for the Finns. With their president looking on and having given them a peptalk, no one could have written them a better script. Congratulations Team Finland!
As an addendum, there have been some negative comments about the celebration that continued after everyone had left the arena. Beer and champagne were consumed on the ice after having started the party in the dressing rooms. I fail to see the significance of trying to rain on the women’s team parade. Apparently some media types felt the need to chastise the women for enjoying themselves. This is not a case of the team getting stinking drunk and causing a ruckus or damage or anything resembling carousing (read: remember the non-apologetic US men’s hockey team in Nagano?). This was a team that didn’t want the party to end and waited until everyone (or so they thought) had left and stayed to savour a very cherished moment. Take a breath everyone. They’re human.
More to come later, this is Reporter!Smurf signing off, happily singing O’ Canada...
I’ll start with Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir - the youngest and first North American gold medallists in the ice dance. I couldn’t be more proud, seeing as Scott is from just outside London and Tessa is from London! Yahoo! Way to show the world! P.S. For my British friends, sorry about the twizzles... :)
I would be terribly remiss if I didn't mention the silver medallists from the USA, Tessa and Scott's rivals, training pals and friends. Kudos to Charlie White (anyone else think he looks like a surfer?) and Meryl Davies!
London has two Gold medallists on the board so plan the parade Anne-Marie!
That same day brought some hockey redemption as Canada’s women’s hockey team won their semi-final match against Finland. Kudos to Noora Raty of Finland, without whom Team Finland would have surrendered more than the 5 goals...
Tuesday was geared towards the men’s hockey qualification round... Nervous fans watched as Canada finally came together and beat an overmatched German squad 8-2. Collective breaths were released. On to the quarterfinal against Russia!
From a school project outlining just why ski-cross deserved to be an Olympic sport, to gold medal favourite in Vancouver, Ashleigh McIvor seemed to just mark milestones to the podium. Unlike some struggling world sport leaders, Ashley came flying over the last jump to the finish in style. Hopefully she’ll share some of the joy with her hard luck boyfriend Chris Del Bosco who sadly crashed out of his ski-cross final. Congratulations Ashleigh - right in your own backyard!
Heats completed in the women’s bobsleigh brought 1st and 4th for Canada with a lot of competition from the US . Final heats to be completed on Wed...
Overshadowed by the men’s hockey semi-finals, the ‘sleighers had plenty of support at Whistler Sliding Centre. In the final heat, with Helen Upperton and Shelley-Ann Brown of Canada 2 on top and USA 2’s Erin Pac and Elana Meyers in 2nd, Heather Moyse and Kaillie Humphries knew they were in tough. A run good enough to keep them in 1st place saw a 1 - 2 finish for the two Canadian sleds. Cheers to the women’s bobsleigh team that helped round out wonderful Wednesday!
A smiling (does she ever stop smiling?) Clara Hughes took bronze in the 1,000m, a great finish to the Canadian flag-bearer’s multi-medal career. The crowd at the Richmond Oval couldn’t be happier.
Adding to her individual silver medal was young Marianne St-Gelais in women’s short track relay as Canada’s team (including Tania Vicent, Jessica Gregg (we knew you’d get a medal) and Kalyna Roberge) skated their way to a bronze medal that was quite quickly upgraded to silver with the disqualification of the outraged South Korean team. In a matter of seconds the shouts of joy turned to shouts of rage from Team South Korea as they changed from triumphant gold medallists to angry finishers. The Chinese with silver and the US with bronze were also recipients of the Koreans misfortunes.
Additional controversy at the Richmond Oval occurred when favoured Dutch long track speed skating star, Sven Kramer, was disqualified after an illegal lane change during the 10,000m race. Easily ahead of the field and on his way to an Olympic record to go with the gold, Kramer was DQ’d shortly after crossing the finish line. A visibly distraught Kramer threw his glasses across the ice. A terrible mistake for the veteran skater.
Joannie Rochette, the strength to compete was in you and your whole country stood behind you through your terrible loss. A clean and beautiful short program set up a solid long program just two days later and led you to a bronze medal, the first in 20 years for Canada. Congratulations and greatest condolences at what must be both a happy and sad moment for your family.
On a day where the emotional favourite was Canada’s own, Yun-Ha Kim skate an Olympic record long program to easily secure the gold medal for South Korea. An unimaginable score at the beginning of the night became reality with the absolutely virtuoso performance from the 19 yr-old. Bravo!
Impressive challenges were provided by Mao Asada of Japan and Mirai Nagasu of the USA. Two triple axels from Mao Asada were not enough to overcome the tremendous lead Ms. Kim had built in the short program nor the impressive finale performance. Women’s figure skating looks to be a battle for the next few years and Sochi will be a treat!
Kudos to the pro-Canadian crowd for their rousing cheers for Italian skater Carolina Kostner who had a tough night but received great support from the crowd as the encouraged her to the finish.
Cheers also to Canadian Cynthia Phaneuf, competing in her first Olympic Games, who was entirely overshadowed Joannie’s loss. We Believe in you, too!
The men’s and women’s curling brought both nods of ‘I knew they’d get through’ to ‘wow, he’s out of the medal round’. Great Britain’s David Murdoch was touted as Kevin Martin’s nemesis as Martin hadn’t beaten him. Unfortunately for Murdoch, his Olympics ended before the medal round.
Now, both men’s and women’s teams go for gold, knowing they have at least the silver in hand... but that’s not what they came to Vancouver for! Good luck Kevin and Cheryl! P.S. Games were paused while an impromptu rendition of O Canada roused the crowd. Cool!
Thursday night also produced a much-anticipated (at least if you are a women’s hockey fan) gold medal match between the USA and Canada. The US was intent on spoiling Canada’s dream of winning gold at home, the same way Canada had in Salt Lake City in 2002. Expected to be a tight and hard-fought game, the Americans looked to have the advantage in the first period as the Canucks suffered through two nerve-wracking 5 on 3 powerplays against. Managing to stave off the US long enough to score two goals, both from Marie-Philip Poulin, Canada rode the netminding of Shannon Szabados and some stellar defense to bring home the gold at home to a roaring crowd.
Just a note on the US team - there are those who say you are sore losers, but I think anyone who has participated in a game of that level has a right to be disappointed when the game is lost. Also, will someone please explain why they don't put Angela Ruggiero up as a winger? Anyone?
Way to go ladies - We Believed and you brought us the gold!
The bronze medal went to Finland in an exciting match that was ended in overtime by Karoliina Rantamakki, who ended a rather dismal Olympics for rival Sweden. Star goalie Kim Martin was benched in favour of newcomer Sarah Grahn, but a centring pass off the skate of Erika Holst bounced in with barely 4 minutes left in the first overtime period and pandemonium broke loose for the Finns. With their president looking on and having given them a peptalk, no one could have written them a better script. Congratulations Team Finland!
As an addendum, there have been some negative comments about the celebration that continued after everyone had left the arena. Beer and champagne were consumed on the ice after having started the party in the dressing rooms. I fail to see the significance of trying to rain on the women’s team parade. Apparently some media types felt the need to chastise the women for enjoying themselves. This is not a case of the team getting stinking drunk and causing a ruckus or damage or anything resembling carousing (read: remember the non-apologetic US men’s hockey team in Nagano?). This was a team that didn’t want the party to end and waited until everyone (or so they thought) had left and stayed to savour a very cherished moment. Take a breath everyone. They’re human.
More to come later, this is Reporter!Smurf signing off, happily singing O’ Canada...