Sochi Winter Olympics 2014: Day 8 Winners and Losers

And on the eighth day, they rested.

While Johnny Weir, Tara Lipinski and the wonderful sprites on ice got a day off, the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games somehow soldiered on.

With no figure skating with which to contend, the spotlight shined on the slopes, where the Americans faltered and the Europeans reigned supreme.

Then it was back to the rink, where history hung over an epic hockey match between the Americans and Russians.

As always, four long years of trouble and toil boiled down to a single opportunity for these amazing athletes. Some rose to the challenge, while others faltered.

Let's take a peek at some of each.

J.R. Celski, 23, was supposed to be the next Apolo Ohno, the future of American short-track speedskating. If that's true, it's a dystopian future, bleak and dark.

Celski fell in the quarterfinals of the 1,000-meter short track, tripping over one of the markers on a turn. He was the only one who failed to finish in the quarterfinals, leaving the gold to Russia's Victor An.

Celski's Olympics will continue in the 500-meter and 5,000-meter races over the next week. But his best races have already come and gone and so too have his chances at making a splash in Sochi.

Much of the praise for America's thrilling 3-2 overtime win over the host nation in hockey will go to T.J. Oshie, a right wing for the St. Louis Blues. He scored the winning goal in a shootout that lasted forever, and certainly deserves some credit.

But let's avert our gaze from the glory boys on the offense for a moment and pay attention to the true hero of the game—Los Angeles Kings goalie Jonathan Quick. He shut down the powerful Russian trio of Ilya Kovalchuk, Pavel Datsyuk and Yevgeni Malkin in the final stanza to win the game for the U.S.

Quick stopped five shots in the shootout to keep his country in the game.

"You have a decent idea of what they are going to do," the soft-spoken Quick said after the game on NBCSN. "But those three are three of the best players in the world."

The win puts the U.S. in the driver's seat in both Group A and in the race toward Sochi gold.

Patrick Kane owes Jonathan Quick and T.J. Oshie a round or 10 at the bar tonight in Russia. Kane, the 25-year-old Chicago Blackhawks center, was all set to be the game's goat. 

In overtime, Kane broke from the pack with a breathtaking suddenness. It was him, open ice and the goal, just one man standing in the way of glory. Russian goalie Sergei Bobrovski was the loneliest man in the world, solo on a deserted island, the thousands inside the Bolshoy Ice Dome unable to help him no matter how much they willed it.

A glove save later and Bobrovski could have unseated Vladimir Putin if Russia held an election in that moment. Oshie, who took six of the American's eight penalty shots in a thrilling shootout, would later redeem Kane, eventually out-dueling Bobrovski to carry Team USA to victory. 

But that can't erase the overtime when Kane had the chance to be a hero and failed.

Charlotte Kalla of Sweden had some ground to make up in the women's cross-country relay. Skiing the anchor leg, she started in third place, 25.7 seconds behind the leaders. Against some of the best skiers in the world, winning the gold was a seemingly impossible task.

Close on her tail was Marit "Iron Lady" Bjoergen, the Norwegian legend who won her fourth gold medal earlier in the Games. Perhaps inspired by, or in fear of, one of the all-time greats, Kalla skied the race of her life. She left Bjoergen in the dust and, on the final turn, won a race to the finish against Finland's Krista Lahteenmaki.

Kalla was humble after the race, but teammate Anna Haag put it all into perspective, telling reporters (via The Washington Post), "Charlotte was skiing like a god."

After finishing just eighth in the 1,000-meter race, speedskater Shani Davis sought redemption in the 1,500 today in Sochi. But his destiny in these games, it seems, is disappointment, as he was only the 11th-fastest man on the ice.

While age may be the true culprit, yesterday much of the blame shifted to his new Under Armour cutting-edge suit. The company's innovative vents meant to shift the air have been called a bust. Today he was back in the same suit he had significant success in during the World Cup in January.

It made little difference. The Davis era is over. 

Austrian Anna Fenninger took advantage of her competitors' epic failures to ski her way to gold in the super-G. 

It was a truly treacherous course. Eighteen of the 49 competitors failed to finish the race. Fenninger, however, learned from the carnage and steered clear of trouble, beating German star Maria Hoefl-Riesch by just over half a second. 

American medal hopeful Julia Mancuso finished a disappointing eighth.

Some athletes handle defeat with grim stoicism. John Daly is not one of those men.

Daly, on the precipice of scoring an Olympic medal, slipped out of the groove at the start and limped his way to a 15th-place finish in skeleton.

"I popped out of the groove. It's happened only a handful of times in my career," Daly said on NBCSN afterward, eventually breaking into tears. "I guess that's what happens when you go for it. I left it all out there on the ice tonight. I don't regret anything, but I wish I could get that last run back for one more chance."

It was heart-wrenching to see, especially later as he realized that redemption was four years away, if it was coming at all. For most athletes, there's always the next game, the next season. Olympians don't have that luxury, adding gravitas to every single run and each and every event.

Latvian behemoth Martins Dukurs was expected to glide to a gold medal in the men's skeleton in Sochi. After all, winning was becoming a habit for the 2010 silver medalist. He had won 24 of the past 28 World Cup races, and Latvia's first gold medal seemed well within his reach.

Instead, Russia's Alexander Tretjyakov, sliding on his home track, won gold over the course of four runs, beating Dukurs by just .81 seconds. Tretjyakov, along with the rest of his team, skipped the final World Cup race of the season to return home and practice specifically for the Olympics. It's a decision that paid off smartly in gold.

There's something liberating about flying through the air, all your troubles a distant memory as the world shrinks to just you, your skis and the snow. But that freedom can come with a deadly cost, as the slightest error can have devastating consequences.

An accident in practice reminded the freestyle skiing world of that harsh reality. Russian skier Maria Komissarova crashed in the third and final jump on a practice run and immediately underwent back surgery.

“The operation is over … it's been successful,” Russian ski federation official Mikhail Verzeba told The Associated Press, revealing Komissarova had fractured her 12th dorsal vertebrae in her lower-middle back.

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Julia Mancuso Fails to Medal in Women's Downhill Final at Sochi 2014

Julia Mancuso failed to ride the wave of momentum to another medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The American was coming off a bronze in the women's super combined, but wasn't able to reach the podium again in the downhill.

NBC Olympics provided word of Mancuso's latest result:

Mancuso entered the Olympics with a lack of hype despite her previous success at the Games. Her medal performances in both 2006 and 2010 showed the big stages always seems to bring the best out of her, at this year was no different at the outset.

She put together a tremendous downhill showing in the first part of the super combined event to take a sizable lead into the slalom. Even though her run in the second half was average at best, it was still enough to add a bronze medal to her collection.

The U.S. Olympic Team also noted it made her the country's first skier to land on the podium at three different Games:

When you combined her great run in the downhill half of the super combined with her experience, it was easy to see why she was one of the top contenders heading into the event.

Mancuso also sports plenty of self-belief. It's something she talked about after winning bronze in her first event, as passed along by Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post:

I've always just had that real belief that I can do it. For me, putting out these dreams and beliefs that I can come in here and have a medal, and everyone being a little skeptical and just knowing in my heart that I can do it, was kind of like crossing the finish line being like, 'See, it works! Believing in yourself really works!'

Given her Olympic success, it's hard to argue with her mantra.

Unfortunately for Mancuso, she wasn't able to capture another medal in the downhill. After putting everything on the line during the super combined, she just wasn't able to muster another elite performance to end up on the podium again.

It's a disappointing result given her downhill greatness during the super combined. That said, even if she leaves Sochi with just one medal around her neck that will be a success. So anything more from this point forward would be a bonus.

She has already added to her legacy of being one of the top American skiers in Winter Olympic history. Failing to medal in the downhill doesn't change that as she looks ahead to her remaining events.

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Winter Olympics 2014: Complete Medal Recap for Day 3 in Sochi

The third day of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics is in the books, and team Canada has grabbed the lead in the medal count with three golds, three silvers and a bronze. Netherlands is tied with them in golds with three and has two silvers and two bronze medals to go along with those golds.

Norway, Russia and the United States round out the top five in the medal count with seven, six and five medals, respectively for each country.

So how did we get to this point?

Well if you missed any of the action on Monday, here is a full recap of each event that handed out medals on Day 3 in Sochi.


Alpine Skiing: Women's Super Combined

Gold: Maria Hoefl-Riesch, Germany

Silver: Nicole Hosp, Austria

Bronze: Julia Mancuso, United States


Julia Mancuso of the United States had a big lead after the downhill event in the morning as she led by nearly half a second over the rest of the field. The slalom was not her strongest showing, though, in the afternoon. Mancuso finished 13th in the slalom and saw her name fall from first to third on the leaderboard. Still, a medal was thrilling for Mancuso.

Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany was one of the favorites to win gold as the defending gold medalist in this event, so there is no surprise there. Nicole Hosp was not favored to win a medal, but after putting together two consistent races, she was able to take home the silver.


Short-Track Speedskating: Men's 1,500 Meters

Gold: Charles Hamelin, Canada

Silver: Han Tianyu, China

Bronze: Victor An, Russia


The short-track speedskating competition was certainly a disappointing day for the Americans, as American favorite J.R. Celski came up just short with a fourth-place finish. The biggest surprise of the day has to be the South Koreans failing to collect a medal in an event they have historically dominated.

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
J.R. Celski was left in disappointment on Monday, but he will get his shot at glory once again in Sochi.
Charles Hamelin looked strong all day as he won his heat race, semifinal race and the gold medal, while Han Tianyu pulled a bit of a surprise by sneaking onto the podium with a silver-medal finish. Victor An of Russia brought home a medal for the home country as well.


Speedskating: Men's 500 Meters

Gold: Michel Mulder, Netherlands

Silver: Jan Smeekens, Netherlands

Bronze: Ronald Mulder, Netherlands


Things could not have gone any better for the Dutch side on Monday as they swept the podium in speedskating for the men's 500-meter race.

The result was a pretty stunning one. The Dutch are extremely good in speedskating, but most expected at least someone from South Korea to get a medal on Monday. That did not happen, though, as the Dutch showed their might and took home the gold, silver and bronze.

Oddly, despite the Netherlands' dominance in long-track speedskating, this was the first time in 90 years of Winter Olympic history that a Dutch skater won the men's 500 meters.


Biathlon: Men's 12.5-Kilometer Pursuit

Gold: Martin Fourcade, France

Silver: Ondrej Moravec, Czech Republic

Bronze: Jean-Guillaume Beatrix, France


Much like in speedskating, the biathlon included a big surprise as well. Martin Fourcade of France was expected by many to medal in the event, but no one thought that Norway would be shut out of the top three and be left off the podium.

Historically, Norway has been very good in the biathlon, but this time they could only manage finishes of fourth and seventh place. Not enough to go home with a medal.


Freestyle Skiing: Men's Moguls

Gold: Alex Bilodeau, Canada

Silver: Mikael Kingsbury, Canada

Bronze: Alexandr Smyshlyaev, Russia


The Canadians were expected to dominate in men's moguls much like they did in the women's moguls, and they didn't disappoint. Canada finished with three of the top four spots in the finals and had another competitor finish in ninth place.

Russia was able to bring home another medal behind Alexandr Smyshlyaev, which put them past the Americans for fourth in the medal count at the end of Day 3.

Patrick Deneen, a medal contender from the United States, only managed to finish in sixth on Monday.

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The Formula to Beat the 2014 Canadian Olympic Hockey Team in Sochi

It is easy to look at the incredible quality of the Canadian roster and think that there is just no way that team should be able to lose. This is the team that boasts the best player in the world, the team that won gold the last time out and the team that just named last year’s leading NHL scorer as an injury replacement because there were 14 forwards the management group liked better than Martin St. Louis when it named the team.

Matt Slocum/Associated Press
It is certain, however, that Canada’s opponent harbor no such illusions about the team.

The Canadian entry in 2006 was blessed with similar amounts of talent and finished seventh in the Turin Olympics, shutout three times in a stretch of four games. And while the Canadians have been careful to try to avoid the mistakes of that tournament—even enlisting the aid of Ralph Krueger, who was behind the Swiss bench for one of those Canadian losses—Turin offers both hope to Canada’s rivals and a realistic approach to beating the favourite.

Ken Hitchcock, who was an assistant coach with the 2006 team and will be behind the bench again for Canada this year, explained to The Globe and Mail’s Eric Duhatschek that a big part of the problem was Canada’s inability to handle the passive defensive system deployed against it in Turin:

Three or four countries barely sent one guy in. Some countries sent nobody in. And so they made us skate through them in the neutral zone and we didn’t necessarily have the foot speed to get through. Teams basically backed off. It was hard slogging for us. I’d never seen that before—and you have to make a lot of plays to get through that type of check. It was a real eye-opener in how different the game was, from the small ice to the big ice. People got a 1-0 lead and they just played defence to win 1-0.

The Canadian coaches and management have made efforts to adjust to that style of game, relying heavily on speed and puck-moving ability in putting the roster together and pre-scouting the opposition so as to have a better idea of the tactics the team is likely to face.

There are two key lessons to take away from Hitchcock’s comment.

The first is that Canada, until it shows otherwise, may still be vulnerable to the passive defence popular in European leagues. The other is the extent to which the Canadians were neutralized by being caught by surprise.

For Canada’s opponents, both revelations are valuable in that they show the importance of having dynamic coaches capable of presenting Team Canada with strategies it has not anticipated and which are less popular in the NHL than overseas.


Another factor contributing to Canada’s loss in Turin was poor discipline, as players accustomed to the looser standard of officiating prevalent in the NHL struggled to adapt to stricter IIHF rules. In the deciding game in 2006, Russia’s winning goal came on the power play after Todd Bertuzzi took an interference penalty miles from the defensive zone.

In fact, encouraging the Canadian team to play as physical game as possible is likely to work in the favour of the opposition. Not only are hits more likely to result in penalties in the Olympic game, but because of the bigger ice there is generally plenty of time to get the puck away before a player from a team intent on finishing every check arrives.

Additionally, while North American hockey exalts dirty goals and just getting pucks on net—because that is what works on an NHL rink—the European tendency to "pass the puck into the net" is something Canada’s opponents should embrace. It is harder to get the puck back once surrendered on the bigger ice, so just blasting it from everywhere is a suboptimal strategy, and it's one Canadian players may default to.

There is a broader theme to all of these individual points.

Canada’s players have played the majority of their careers on NHL ice, under North American rules, and while hockey is hockey, the differences between the North American game and the European game are very real and very relevant. The job of Canada’s opponents is to play to the strengths in their games that make them better-suited to the big ice than Canada.

Those strengths include coaches who have spent the majority of their careers devising and defeating big ice systems, players who were schooled in a system that encourages east-west rather than north-south play and an overall philosophy that encourages puck possession and creativity over finishing checks and making the simple play.

Ultimately, the way to defeat Canada is not by embracing the things Canada does. The road to victory over the Canadians lies in executing a European game better than Canada can adapt their own game to Europe.

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Bode Miller Fails to Medal in Men's Downhill Final at Sochi 2014 Olympics

Bode Miller, who was one of the top contenders in the men's downhill event, failed to earn a place on the podium Sunday. The American's eighth-place finish was a major disappointment on Day 2 of the 2014 Olympics after he saw so much success four years ago.

Making his fifth Olympic appearance for the United States, the 36-year-old was coming off his best Games after winning three medals, including a gold, in Vancouver.

He was confident about his chances in 2014. Barry Svrluga of The Washington Post provided comments from the skier ahead of the competition. Miller felt his preparation was putting him in a position to succeed:

I'd say I have a lot more experience. I know what the process is. It's easy for guys who are so excitable to push too hard, to do too much too early. I definitely know that winning a training run doesn't matter much. I've done that so many times. I think I have a good process for how to build into a race.

Unfortunately for Miller, things didn't play out as he hoped. Coming up short of the podium amid such high expectations is shades of 2006, when he arrived to Turin, Italy, with plenty of hype but failed to win a single medal.

Make no mistake: The Sochi course was providing a formidable test for the skiers. Miller had solid training runs, though, and appeared poised to bring home another medal.

A lack of regular competition over the past couple of years due to a knee injury could have been a factor. He hasn't needed that extra gear as often as he would have probably liked in between Olympics, but he arrived to Sochi healthy and ready to go.

In the end, it simply didn't translate into success in the downhill, the first Alpine skiing event of the Games. It shows that the margin for error, even for the top athletes in any discipline, is extremely thin on the Olympic stage.

The failure to medal in the downhill event will put extra pressure on Miller for the rest of the Olympics, but as Charles Robinson of Yahoo! notes, his best opportunities to medal are in front of him:

If he can bounce back, the event will become an afterthought. If not, it will get viewed as the start of another frustrating Games for the American.

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Team GB ready to alter perceptions of winter sports at Sochi 2014

Despite the obvious geographical and climatic challenges Britain has several genuine medal hopes in the Winter Olympics.

It is a long way, figuratively and metaphorically, from Eddie the Eagle in Calgary to Lizzy Yarnold's ambitions for Sochi. If the have-a-go ski jumper who finished dead last in 1988 epitomised the plucky British loser trying and failing with limited funds, the focused and supremely fit skeleton world No1 represents a new breed of Team GB athletes who hope to return with their best medal haul.

Whereas Eddie Edwards was more than happy to be there, his dismal performance forcing the IOC to change the qualification rules, ask Yarnold how she hopes to do and she will stop smiling and say: "I am a very process-driven athlete so I visualise the track a lot. I visualise the feelings of going out to the block and seeing the crowd. I don't enter any race to come second."

Having never stepped on a sled until six years ago, she was discovered by the Girls 4 Gold talent spotting system and has had her natural talent for the sport honed to the point where she won this year's World Cup as part of a system lubricated by public money. In skeleton, Britain has won a medal in every Games it has been included and Shelley Rudman has a realistic chance of repeating her medal-winning feat of eight years ago. In the men's and women's curling, in bobsleigh and short track speed skating there are genuine medal hopes.

Among the breed of "fridge kids" – the 13, largely youthful, snowboarders and freestyle skiers who will hurl themselves off jumps and down half-pipes in some of the most spectacular action of the Games – it is hoped that at least one or two will win medals, with James Woods and Katie Summerhayes leading the charge.

The story of Britain's summer Olympic rebirth has been well told. A solitary gold in Atlanta was transformed through the introduction of National Lottery funding and a world-class performance system into the glut of precious metal in Beijing and London.

The numbers are inevitably smaller in winter sport, and Britain's obvious geographical and climatic challenges when it comes to the Alpine events will always be a factor, but those in charge of investing £14m into the handful of sports where there are genuine medal chances believe there could be a sea change in the way we view winter sport. "We have got more potential across more sports than we've ever had going into the Games. This is different," said Liz Nicholl, the UK Sport chief executive, who has overseen a total investment that has more than doubled on the Vancouver cycle.

"This is almost like the first coming of age of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic teams because they've been benefitting from National Lottery investment over a period of time. Their systems are becoming more sophisticated, we're recruiting and keeping good people."

The structure created around short track speed skating in Nottingham, skeleton in Bath or curling in Stirling has direct parallels with the approach taken by cycling in Manchester. Training is centralised around a high-performance centre using the very best psychologists, research, nutritionists and sport scientists to refine endlessly the search for the best talent.

In events that rely heavily on equipment, the research undertaken by McLaren and BAE Systems to make sleds go faster is part of the perennial search for the marginal gains that will give British teams the edge. Yet all involved also caution that winter sport is more unpredictable than most – the facilities, the weather and the order of competition can make a huge difference to the outcome.

"I can't remember a time when we had as many as five world championship medallists in Olympic and Paralympic winter sport a year before the Games. A combination of a track record of success and a team that is better prepared than ever," said Simon Timson, the UK Sport performance director who made his reputation in the skeleton before moving to the England and Wales Cricket Board and then taking on his current role in 2012.

"We have more experienced performance directors, more experienced coaches and more experienced scientists and engineers than ever before. Our talent pool is nowhere near as big as summer Olympic sport. So it's down to people performing on the day. Everybody will be upping their game and we've got to respond accordingly."

The "no compromise" mantra by which UK Sport invests its money results in some stark choices and the black and white process can seem overly prescriptive. If you cannot prove as a sport that you are capable of winning a medal at this Games or the next one, then there is no money. That leaves some impressive athletes struggling for funds. Chemmy Alcott, the downhill skier, below, who has battled back from a horrific injury to take part at her fourth Olympics, is one of those who is highly unlikely to win a medal but has consistently been Britain's best over many years. "Funding is quite a sensitive one. I've not had much but I've had great support from sponsors and the public. I don't feel alone in the start gate, a lot of people have invested in my career," she said.

"Obviously you have to support people you believe can win but it's a vicious circle because if you don't support future grassroots sports how are they going to get better? But it's very easy to waste energy on politics and bitterness. I just want to go out there and ski fast for Team GB."

Overall, though, it is hard to argue with a system that has delivered so spectacularly in summer sport. The fervent hope of the 56 athletes and 70-plus coaches and support staff, most of whom are due to march around the Fisht Stadium during lavish opening ceremony, is that the Sochi Games will alter perceptions. If they hit the bottom end of UK Sport's target of three to seven medals, it will be their best return since the 1936 Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Then, Hitler used the Games as a platform for Nazi propaganda and critics of Vladimir Putin's Russia have drawn parallels between the two. Four medals would equal the best return, in Chamonix in 1924. In the 90 years since, Britain has won 23 medals.

Those inside the camp, including the British Olympic Association chairman, Lord Coe, believe that there has been a change in mindset to match the shift in medal potential. The Sir Clive Woodward-inspired "one Team GB" rhetoric that was easy to mock pre-London 2012 but helped to produce the best performance since 1908 has been infused throughout the smaller winter squad.

The modern model of high-performance sport may have resulted in fewer mavericks but it has produced a generation of highly focused athletes who no longer see turning up to get the kit as the limit of their ambitions.

Jon Eley, the speed skater who will carry the Union flag around a $600m stadium that will be used just twice, for the opening and closing ceremonies, has been reading Sir Alex Ferguson's latest book for inspiration. He said there was now an expectation of success and that the medal target was well within their grasp. "We have to put in some hard work and stay focused and strong," he said. "If we do what we have come here to do we should achieve that."

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Sochi 2014: How I became the Private Gomer Pyle of the Winter Olympics

Mercifully, the time for scene-setting is now over, so let the snow and ice-capades of the 22nd Winter Olympiad begin.

You will be aware by now that a shivering swarm of the world's media converged on Sochi this week. Their brief: scene-setting in the buildup to the Winter Olympics. It was a task that appeared largely to involve the chronicling of security threats, legalised homophobia and their own appalling working conditions. We've all heard the stories: beleaguered journalists roaming the shores of the Black Sea frantically beachcombing for functional scraps of wi-fi.

The curious case of the Sochi double toilets
Tuesday 4 Feb 2014
We've all seen the pictures: amusing toilets with accompanying guidelines that appear to outlaw angling in them. Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day. Advise him not to fish and he'll make you an object of global derision on Twitter and Facebook.

Against this backdrop of diligently documented paranoia, fear, hatred and assorted workers' rights abuses, a fortnight-long festival of sliding is due to break out. In the wake of a mirth-inducing opening ceremony that will no doubt further showcase the eccentricities of funny foreigners and their funny foreign ways, the world's foremost winter sports practitioners will don garish Lycra and take to the ice and snow to do battle against the elements and each other in their collective bid for Olympic glory. This column has not been lucky enough to be dispatched to witness their exploits at first hand; it has been working diligently behind the scenes much closer to home.

It all started before Christmas, when a colleague and I were despatched to the University of Bath, a seat of learning and sporting excellence in a beautiful English town, where the cream of Great Britain's sliding elite had gathered for a media briefing: speed-skaters, skeleton-sliders, curlers, snowboarders, ice dancers, skiers and bobsleigh drivers. For a land mass boasting large areas where light snowfall invariably prompts the total breakdown of local infrastructure, Britain seems to produce a surprising number of athletes who thrive in freezing conditions. They seem, to a man and woman, very nice people, albeit people who had quite clearly been very carefully trained in the field of straight-batting queries from journalists. None of them had opinions they were prepared to venture on Russian homophobia. With a couple of high-profile exceptions, pretty much all of them hoped to finish in the top 10.

Some weeks later I found myself en route to Ostersund, a small town in Sweden where the good people of the TV station Eurosport had invited me to try my hand at the Olympic sport of biathlon. One of the more bewildering of the many perplexing disciplines to be contested in Sochi, it combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting and originated as an exercise for Norwegian soldiers.

Long an object of bemusement for the apparent randomness of the disciplines involved, winter biathlon once prompted the comedian Jerry Seinfeld to muse that it's like combining swimming and strangling a guy. "Why don't we have that?" he wondered, with the inquisitive air of a man who has never seen or played a game of water polo.

Hailing from a particularly flat part of Ireland where food can be purchased in shops, I have never felt compelled to either ski or shoot a gun and it quickly became apparent that I was predictably and comically inept at the former. With rifle in hand, however, it was a completely different story and as I peppered target after target – 13 in a row, it took two to get my eye in – from 50 metres, it occurred to me that I was biathlon's answer to Private Gomer Pyle.

The slow-witted, overweight and clumsy marine cadet from Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Gomer Pyle is the cruel nickname bestowed upon a mentally unstable recruit who is largely useless but eventually shows stunning aptitude for marksmanship, only to blow his own head off while having a breakdown in a communal latrine not entirely dissimilar to those currently prompting no end of mirth in Sochi.


Skeleton: how to hurtle down an ice-track on a 'tea tray' – Winter Olympics 2014 video
Having finally found exactly half a sport I'm not terrible at after a lifetime of trying, it was back to Bath University to experience the skeleton, a hair-raising suicide-hurtle disparagingly known to laymen as That Thing With The Tea Tray. For a nation that has no ice chute through and around which participants can arrow at speeds of up to 95mph protected only by a helmet, Great Britain is remarkably good at skeleton, having produced reigning Olympic champion Amy Williams (now retired), as well as genuine Sochi gold medal hopes Shelley Rudman and Lizzy Yarnold.

The trio's success has been attributed in no small part to Bath's 140m long push-start track, down which I was lucky enough to find myself not so much careering as rolling reasonably sedately, headfirst with my chin a few inches off the ground, at a fairly leisurely 30mph just last week.

Rolling on wheels down a track that boasts neither curve nor camber, it bears as much relation to the experience of actual skeleton as gently plodding along Blackpool beach aboard a donkey does to riding a racehorse in the Grand National but, needless to say, I was terrified. Mercifully, the time for scene-setting is now over, so let the snow and ice-capades of the 22nd Winter Olympiad begin.

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Olympic Figure Skating Schedule 2014: TV Info and Top Storylines in Sochi

In accordance with several other changes to the Winter Olympics, one of the event's most stable mainstays will also add in a new wrinkle.
The Olympic Committee decided that there's no "I" in "figure skating," adding in a team element that gives everyone another chance at earning a medal. Should we tell them about the two I's in figure skating?
This will not involve team members tossing a skater into the air as she spins into the arms of a waiting teammate, but each country will select one entrant for each program, and the points will be added up and ranked as a unit.
Will this new aspect of Olympic figure skating work out well? What else is worth watching, and where and when can viewers watch it? Here's all the essential information.
2014 Olympic Figure Skating TV Schedule Date Event NBC Sports Airing (ET) NBC Airing (ET) Feb. 8 Women's Short Program, Pairs' Free Skate 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. 8-11:30 p.m. Feb. 9 Team: Men's Free Skate, Women's Free Skate, Free Dance 10 a.m.-1 p.m. 2-6 p.m., 8-11:30 p.m. Feb. 11 Pairs Short Program 10 a.m.-1:45 p.m. 8-11:30 p.m. Feb. 12 Pairs Free Skate 10 a.m.-1:45 p.m. 8-11:30 p.m. Feb. 13 Men's Short Program 10 a.m.-3 p.m. 8-11:30 p.m. Feb. 14 Men's Free Skate 10 a.m.-2:15 p.m. 8-11:30 p.m. Feb. 16 Short Dance 10 a.m.-2 p.m. 7-11 p.m. Feb. 17 Free Dance 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m. 8-11:30 p.m. Feb. 19 Women's Short Program 10 a.m.-3 p.m. 8-11:30 p.m. Feb. 20 Women's Free Skate 10 a.m.-3 p.m. 8-11:30 p.m.

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Sochi Olympics: No Silver Lining in Bode Miller's Downhill Disappointment

"What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger." If there is a silver lining to the disappointing run for Bode Miller in final of the men's downhill at the Sochi Olympics, it's that the Russian course didn't in fact kill him.

Something tells me a silver lining, especially one like that, does not feel as good as a gold medal might. Unfortunately for Miller, mistakes on the icy downhill trail pulled him far out of metal contention in the marquee Alpine event, finishing a disappointing eighth by race's end.

There is no silver lining in losing when you enter the final as the favorite.

Much like his Olympic career, Miller had a fascinatingly turbulent experience on the men's downhill this week. After training on Saturday, Miller looked like a clear favorite in the event, well out ahead of the field as he carved up the competition. He won two of the three training runs, setting a course record in his third time down the hill on Saturday.

And yet, the ever-outspoken Miller made more news for his comments after the training than his pace on the slopes, telling reporters, via Yahoo! Sports' Charles Robinson:

It is so damn fast and the snow is so hard that you don't want to sacrifice edge pressure and grip on the snow for aerodynamics. …If you are not totally focused, this course can kill you. It is one of those courses where I don't think you are safe going easy.

So at least there's that. Live another day, as it were. Sadly, for the 36-year old Miller, living another day in skiing terms provides little solace in what will almost certainly be the last Olympic downhill competition of his career.

Miller is one of the most decorated American Winter Olympians in history, this being his fifth Games. He excels on the slopes and has five medals in his Olympic career, including a gold in the Super Combined at the 2010 Vancouver Games. But he had never finished better than third—also at Vancouver—in the men's downhill.

The former world champion had a chance to finally, after all these years, bring home a downhill gold in Sochi. After Saturday's training runs, it looked like things were meant to be, via Bill Pennington of The New York Times:

Aksel Lund Svindal, who came to Russia as the race favorite, was second and humbly conceded that Miller was the one to beat in the downhill competition early Sunday.

“Is Bode the favorite?” Svindal said. “I think so. He’s been the best skier on the mountain. Me and maybe three other guys can beat him tomorrow. But we’ll see.”

We'll see indeed. Neither Miller nor Svindal won, or even medaled, in the men's downhill, with the title going instead to 23-year old Austrian Matthias Mayer. Christof Innerhofer of Italy and Kjetil Jansrud of Norway took silver and bronze, respectively, while American Travis Ganong finished fifth.

Early in his run during Sunday's final, Miller looked to be in great position to medal, or even win. He was well ahead of the early pace through the first two intervals, besting Mayer's splits by more than a quarter of a second, which in a sport where the difference between gold and bronze was one-tenth of a second, seemed like a lifetime.

And then, disaster.

Well, not "this course could kill you" disaster, but disaster in a more relative sense.

Bode! One gate and the speed was gone... that's racing. Exciting downhill up there! – Julia Mancuso, 9 Feb 2014

Miller had fallen to +0.02 through the third interval, still in medal contention based on his time, but all his speed had been sapped. The chances of making up time waned as he continued down the hill, unable to recover from the midrace slip.

Miller fell far enough back as he hit the final interval that he lost nearly an entire second to the leaders through the middle of the course, finishing in two minutes, 6.75 seconds (+0.52 behind Mayer).

Charles Krupa/Associated Press
What a difference one mistake can make. What a difference one day can make.

It's odd, in a way, that a skier who has five Olympic medals, four World Championship victories and two overall World Cup titles could soon look back on an amazing skiing career and wonder what could have been had a few more things gone his way.

The men's downhill in Sochi was the 16th Olympic event of Miller's career, and while winning a medal in nearly one-third of all the events he has entered is amazing, there is an overwhelming sense of disappointment that has followed his Olympic journey.

Nothing can be more disappointing* than this result in the men's downhill. Not after the training runs. Not after the other riders looked at him as the Sochi favorite.

(*Note: Forgive the flair for dramatic on that one. Surely Torino was more disappointing for Miller who, in his prime at the time, finished no better than fifth in five entered events during the 2006 Olympics.)

Christophe Ena/Associated Press
There were no silver linings on Sunday, other than the fact nobody died. (Yes, there was that, which is obviously important.) While Miller's pre-race comments had his signature flair for the dramatic, he couldn't back that up on the course when it mattered the most.

For Miller, as disappointing as the downhill run must be, his Olympic flame has a little more fire left in it. He needs to hope the loss in the downhill will only make him stronger. At least for one more event.

Later this week, Miller will compete in the Super Combined, the event he won in Vancouver four years ago. If there is in fact a silver lining to the disappointment of losing the downhill, Miller hopes it comes in the form of gold on Friday.

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Olympics Opening Ceremony 2014: Latest Info on Sochi Celebration

The 2014 Winter Olympics are fast approaching, with preliminary events kicking off on Thursday, Feb. 6. The following night will bring the opening ceremony, an event that always brings plenty of buzz, celebration and critique to the host nation. 

Predictably, event organizers have been tight-lipped about the planned processions, preferring to spring the surprise upon the public. With the information available, here's the latest rumors and news surrounding the opening ceremony.

 

Who Will Be the USA's Flag-Bearer?

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Sochi 2014 Olympics: Highlighting Americans Most Likely to Win Gold

With Super Bowl Sunday in the books, the 2014 Winter Olympics will occupy the sports media's attention for much of the month. After finishing atop the medal table at Vancouver in 2010, the USA Olympic team enters the Sochi Games as a fairly prohibitive favorite.

The Olympics presents an opportunity for athletes from lesser-heralded sports to shine in the international spotlight and turn into national heroes. With that in mind, here are a few names you'll be hearing about over the upcoming Winter Olympic fortnight.

 
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