2014 Winter Olympics

At the end of Day 3, Germany Women finally get their first medal (a Gold). Also, we have our third new leader in three days: realjohnboy's team moved up with a very strong showing; out of 15 possible medals awarded today, his team got points from all but two of those medals. Impressive!

On a side note, since Jahiegel's team still needed another Group B team, because I felt badly about the Norway "Group B" fiasco, and because there was only one Group B team left without a medal (South Korea), I generously assigned South Korea to his/her open slot (though if Jahiegel's team wins because of this, I'll think differently!)...

Anyway, here are the scores today:

Rank Username Total
1 realjohnboy 91
2 McGentrix 90
3 tgordon92 88
4 wheel158 87
5 sdelong 82
5 Jahiegel 82
7 fbaezer 74
8 ossobuco 73
9 Ticomaya 70
9 Skin Rip 70
11 ehBeth 65
12 Iautah 59
13 jespah 56
14 wheel158_son#1 47
15 tsarstepan 41
16 Ecartmill 39
17 olympics2014_Nick 36
18 olympics2014_Laura 35

At least being from a country that has bugger all Winter Olympians, we get to see athletes from other countries.

Neat graphics!

I'm supposed to be fitting new soffits today, but rain thunder and lightning has stopped play.
So.....I'm now watching the Ladies Curling (like bowls on ice, with a fair smattering of housework) and team GB are taking on the USA.

In this PC world, am I allowed to say that every single one of them have exquisite bottoms? Must be all that broom work.

GB have just won the first 'end'.

Best helmet pictures from Sochi -

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2014/feb/11/sochi-2014-10-amazing-helmet-designs-at-the-winter-olympics-in-pictures

There are ten in the article; here's one:

GB Ladies just won the 5th end by 7 stones to 1, a new Olympic Record!

Overall they're leading 9 to 3.

HOLD! HOLD!

I'll now distract myself from the bottoms and look at Osso's helmets.

Benny Hill would have a field day with this post.

Love the Canadian designs!

Why didn't the Brits think of that? We could have had a grumpy old bulldog.
I bet you see a bulldog at the next Winter Olympics.

Now I'm liking Seamus O'Connor (ireland, wrist injury) and Ayumu Hirano (japan) and Gregory Bretz 9 (u.s.a) in the half pipe for no good reason except that I liked this Guardian post and the photo of O'Connor (he's wearing pants!).. never heard of any of them, of course.

"Good news for Ireland: Seamus O’Connor has qualified for the men’s halfpipe. Ayumu Hirano is one of four riders who go straight to the final after a brilliant first run of 92 points. The American Gregory Bretz was eighth and also makes the semi-finals."

Seamus O'Connor of Ireland competes in the Snowboard Men's Halfpipe Qualification Heats on day four of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Ah, O'Connor's out, but Gregory Bretz got into the finals. Just saw the youtube video of Shaun White's perfect 100 halfpipe back in 2o12. Wow and wow. (I can see youtube if if shows up in the Guardian)

One of the reasons I tend to like the guardian bloggers commentary is they're basically nutso, which makes the commentary fairly lively. Also, this comment notwithstanding, they tend to be sympathic to all.

Here's an example -
"There are those days. You wake up. You’ve slept through your alarm. You step out of bed. You stand on a phone charger. You hobble downstairs, You put the kettle on. You discover there are no teabags. You put toothpaste on your toothbrush. You stick it under the tap, The water pushes the toothpaste off. You get dressed. You look down at yourself. Your T-shirt has a huge curry stain on it. You change. You put your coat on. You can’t find your keys, you can’t find your keys, YOU CAN’T FIND YOUR KEYS.

The US team have been the equivalent of that sort of morning through the medium of curling. Finally, though, they pick up a double in the fifth end, reducing their arrears to 9-3."

Did I really read that only 6 of the 19 cities to have held a winter olympics could do it again because of climate change? Apparently even Sochi is using snow from last winter store up a mountain.

They're coastal, aren't they? Not that coasts don't ever get snow.. though I'm nice and ignorant on a lot of that, just from my own memories. Wonder what the common location of sites denominator is, say re altitude, or if it's just about weather change lately.

At the end of Day 4, Canada is really starting to rack up the medals. Germany Women and Norway Women also have good days. McGentrix regains first place on the leaderboard, and we're starting to see some separation between the teams:

Rank Username Total
1 McGentrix 121
2 wheel158 117
3 tgordon92 113
4 realjohnboy 111
5 Jahiegel 108
6 fbaezer 105
7 sdelong 100
8 ossobuco 97
9 Skin Rip 93
10 Ticomaya 89
11 Iautah 85
12 ehBeth 82
13 jespah 79
14 tsarstepan 68
15 wheel158_son#1 60
16 Ecartmill 57
17 olympics2014_Nick 54
18 olympics2014_Laura 53

My new word - at least for a week:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/five_ring_circus/2014/02/09/billy_morgan_sochi_an_olympic_snowboarder_said_huck_it_and_the_bbc_freaked.html

Opa!

At the end of Day 5, the Netherlands continues to shock/dominate in long-track speed skating. To put things in perspective, the Netherlands trails only Canada in medal points (34 to 30). Also having good days are: Germany Men, USA Women, Russia and Switzerland.

Today also brings us our 4th new leader in 5 days, as wheel158 takes over first place on the leaderboard by a slim margin:

Rank Username Total
1 wheel158 145
2 McGentrix 142
3 tgordon92 141
4 realjohnboy 139
4 fbaezer 139
6 Jahiegel 134
7 sdelong 120
7 ossobuco 120
9 Skin Rip 116
10 Ticomaya 115
11 Iautah 109
12 jespah 97
13 ehBeth 91
14 wheel158_son#1 85
15 tsarstepan 83
16 Ecartmill 78
17 olympics2014_Nick 63
18 olympics2014_Laura 62

And I see Johnboy and Fbaezer are scooting along closely behind the leaders..

The New Yorker's Daily Cartoon, today:

Evgeni Plushenko withdrew. Russia will have no male figure skaters competing for an individual medal.

This is throwing my strategy completely out of whack!