On February 12, 2010 the Winter Olympics started up in Vancouver, Canada. Before the opening ceremonies started we learned of the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili a Georgian Luger, who died during a practice run.
The first gold of the Olympics went to Anastasia Kuzmina (SVK) in the women’s biathlon. Sven Kramer (NED) won the gold in men’s 5,000M speed skating breaking an Olympic record. The United States won their first gold after Hannah Kearney won gold in women’s freestyle skiing. Lee Jung-Su (KOR) beat out Apolo Anton Ohno (USA) for the 1,500M short track speed skating gold medal. Mo Tae-Bum (KOR) won gold in the men’s 500M speed skating.
As the first week came to an end the United States stars started to rack up some gold medals; with Lindsey Vonn in downhill skiing, Shaun White on the halfpipe, Shani Davis in 1,000M speedskating, Evan Lysacek in figure skating, Bode Miller in super combined skiing. Then the United States continued to medal with Julia Mancuso winning silver in downhill skiing and the super combined, Hannah Teter won silver and Kelly Clark won bronze in halfpipe snowboarding, Bode Miller won silver in super G skiing, Lindsey Vonn won bronze in super G skiing, Shani Davis won silver in 1,500M speedskating, Apolo Anton Ohno won bronze in 1,000M short track speedskating, and Chad Hedrick won bronze in 1,000M speedskating. In the preliminary groupings team USA stunned team Canada 5-3 in men’s hockey. Entering week two of the Olympics the USA lead in the medal count with 24.
In the second week Lee Seung Hoon (KOR) won gold in men’s 10,000M speedskating breaking an Olympic record, Marcus Hellner, Anders Soedergren, Johan Olsson, Daniel Rickardsson (SWE) won gold in the men’s 4×10 cross country relay, Bill Demong (USA) won gold in men’s nordic combined large hill as Johnnny Spillane (USA) won silver, Sweden 7-6 over Canada to win gold in women’s curling, Canada 6-3 over Norway to win gold in men’s curling, and Charles Hamelin (CAN) won gold in men’s 500M speedskating as Apolo Anton Ohno got disqualified.
Some of the biggest news that came from the Olympics happened in five events; women’s 3,000M speedskating relay, men’s short track speedskating 5,000M relay, men’s four man bobsled, women’s hockey, and men’s hockey. In the women’s 3,000M speedskating relay Sun Linlin, Zhang Hui, Wang Meng, Zhou Yang (CHN) won gold after the officials disqualified Korea, which moved Canada into silver and USA into bronze. In the men’s short track speedskating 5,000M relay Francois Hamelin, Francois-Louis Tremblay, Charles Hamelin, Guillaume Bastille, and Olivier Jean (CAN) won gold with the USA winning bronze, which gave Apolo Anton Ohno his record 8th medal. In the men’s four man bobsled Steve Mesler, Curt Tomasevicz, Steven Holcomb, and Justin Olsen (USA) won gold, it was the first gold for the USA since 1948. In women’s hockey Canada won gold over the USA 2-0. After the game there was some controversy with the Canada players bringing out beer, champagne, and cigars on the ice, they did apologize afterward. Before the most watched event of the Olympics the USA hockey players had to have their flights home rescheduled after the NHL Players Association booked them to return prior to Sunday’s gold-medal game against Canada.
As for the game, team Canada won gold over the USA in men’s hockey 3-2 in overtime. For team USA Parise scored the game tying goal with 24 seconds remaining. In overtime Sidney Crosby scored the gold medal winning goal. That game was the most watched hockey game since the 1980 gold medal game. The final medal count was USA with 37, Germany with 30, and Canada with 26.
The Olympics over the past two weeks were great to watch. I can’t wait until 2012 for the Summer Olympics.
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