Winter Olympics - Vancouver (Feb 12-28, 2010)

[Laura (Lori)]

SHORT TRACK TONIGHT! SHORT TRACK TONIGHT! SHORT TRACK TONIGHT!

Ladies' 500M medals - Men's 100M and Relay heats... be there. ;D

[Laura (Lori)]

Men's 1500M racing on Saturday, Feb 13...

Apolo Ohno[glow=gray,2,300]SILVER[/glow]

JR Celski[glow=brown,2,300]BRONZE[/glow]

Here's my wrap-up of how it went down:

Heats

Jordan Malone started last and remained in that position throughout most of the race - then with about 3 laps to go, he easily passed into 5th position. The he tried a tight inside pass on Nicolas Bean (ITA) and Jumpei Yoshizawa (JPN). He got an elbow by Bean then ricocheted into Yoshizawa, sending the Japanese skater into the pads. Jordan finished in the 3rd qualifying positioin, but unfortunately, he was DQ'd in that race - Yoshizawa was advanced because he was in qualifying position at the time of the foul.

Apolo Ohno started last and stayed there as the skaters ahead of him exchanged positions multiple times. Guillaume Bastille (CAN) had the lead but slipped with 9 laps to go - he quickly caught up and stayed behind Ohno until 3 laps to go, when both began making their moves. Ohno went first on the outside, passing Mattei (FRA) and Darazs (HUN), then Gysel (BEL) and Jaworski (POL) to take the lead with 2 laps to go. As Bastille tried to move into 2nd place, the Polish skater slipped and took him out, leaving Apolo to cruise easily to the finish.

JR Celski was third off the start, and slowly fell back to last place behind Jung-Su Lee (KOR). With 10 laps to go, JR followed the Korean on the outside, settling into 3rd place behind Lee and Takamido (JPN). With 4 laps to go, JR made an inside pass on Takamido, who quickly dropped back, leaving Rodigari in third. Lee, Celski and Rodigari kept this order to the finish line.

Semifinals:

Apolo Ohno - after 1 false start (charged to Korean Jung-Su Lee), Apolo started last of 7 skaters, but quickly passed the Hungarian skater. The early pace was slow which - according to the announcer - favored Charles Hamelin (CAN). With 9 laps to go, Apolo passed 3 more skaters and settled into 3rd place behind Lee and Hamelin. With only the top 2 advancing, 3rd place wasn't good enough. With 2 laps to go, it looked like Apolo would try an outside pass on Hamelin, but instead he cut to the inside, easily passing the Canadian, but then found himself in tight quarters with Lee in the next turn. Lee was squeezed to the outside and threw his hands up, surely hoping to draw an inquiry into Apolo's pass. There was no foul called, Lee retained the lead, Apolo second, and Hamelin was out. Hamelin would later finish first in the B Final.

JR Celski started first from the inside lane but quickly settled into third. For the next 5 laps there was lots of passing, and JR was anywhere from first to 4th. With 7 laps to go, JR passed the pack fairly easily on the outside and went from 4th to first. In the last few laps, Si-Bak Sung (KOR) tried to pass several times, but JR held him off brilliantly. Coming out of the final turn, however, Sung nipped JR at the finish line - both skaters advanced.

Final

This race had an incredible number of position changes - too many to note. As the pace began to quicken with 6 laps to go, Apolo Ohno was in the lead followed by 2 of the 3 Koreans, and JR Celski in 4th. With 2 laps to go, there was some jostling with Apolo as the 3 Koreans tried to take the top 3 positions. Entering the final lap, Apolo retained 3rd place, with JR in 5th. In the first turn of the final lap, Ho-Suk Lee passed Apolo on the outside, and it appeared to be a Korean sweep of the podium. But in the final turn, Lee attempted to better his 3rd-place position with an inside pass on his teammate Si-Bak Sung. As Lee cut in front of Sung, they clipped skates and both Koreans went into the pads. As a result, Apolo claimed the silver medal and JR the bronze. ;D

GOLD: Jung-Su Lee (KOR)
SILVER: Apolo Ohno (USA)
BRONZE: JR Celski (USA)

Next: The Ladies!

[Laura (Lori)]

Ladies' racing from Saturday, Feb 13 (all qualifying rounds) - my personal wrap-up:

500M Heats

Katherine Reutter - A scary start... 2 false starts, and both of them looked like they could have been charged to Katherine. They never announced who got the first FS, but the second was obviously Katherine. The announcer said "This could be bad..." But thankfully the first FS had been charged to the Korean skater, Hae-Ri Cho.

When they finally had a clean start, Katherine took first place from her 3rd-lane start position and led wire to wire! Cho took the 2nd qualifying spot.

Alyson Dudek - after a false start charged to Annita Van Doorn (NED), Aly took 3rd position behind Arianna Fontana (ITA) and Van Doorn, but immediately passed Van Doorn for 2nd place and never relinquished that position, easily qualifying for the next round.

The 500M was finished and medals were awarded on Wednesday, Feb 17...

3000M Relay SemiFinal

Teams - Italy, USA, Netherlands, Korea
USA Skaters - Alyson Dudek, Katherine Reutter, Kimberly Derrick, Lana Gehring

Aly Dudek led off, placing USA in third position for the first exchange (to anchor Katherine Reutter); the next skaters in the order were Kimberly Derrick and Lana Gehring. The USA maintained their 3rd place position until Korea passed Lana with 22 laps to go.

On the exchange with 19 laps to go, the Dutch skater's legs went wide as she pushed her teammate, causing the Italian skater to go down - this left USA solidly in 3rd position, but as Kimberly Derrick tried to avoid the melee, she lost ground and we had some catching up to do.

With 13 laps to go, the Koreans had pulled away, but Katherine was 'reeling in' the Dutch team, making up a lot of ground. With 9 laps to go, the Dutch were finally passed, leaving USA in the second qualifying position, and they remained there all the way to the finish line.

The relay finals will be contested on Feb 24...

[Laura (Lori)]

The second day of ST was last night, Feb 17 - the Men's 1000M heats, 5000M relay semifinals, and the medal rounds for the Ladies' 500M.

Here's what happened:

Men's 1000M Heats

Travis Jayner came off the start in 3rd place - but with 5 laps to go, he made an inside move to take the lead with the Chinese skater, Jialiang Han, right behind him. They maintained those positions until the final lap, when Han made an inside pass on Travis to take the lead. Travis was still comfortably in qualifying position, but in the final turn, the unthinkable happened - Travis hit a block and wobbled just enough for Nicolas Bean (ITA) to slip in for the 2nd qualifying position. Travis does not advance.

“Technically I was good, physically I was good and mentally I was good, said Jayner. “A big part of Short Track is that things don’t work out as planned.” ~ from USOC Pressbox

Apolo Ohno also entered the first turn in 3rd place. With 4 laps to go, he passed the Russian on the outside, then with 2 laps to go, he set up an inside pass on the Chinese skater to take the lead, which he held to the end.

“The 1,000m is a very tough race. As you'll see come Saturday, the first round of the quarterfinals are going to be ridiculously stacked,” said Ohno following the race. “They could be finals themselves.” ~ from USOC Pressbox

JR Celski came off the start in 2nd place, but dropped back to last. With 3 laps to go, JR passed on the outside to 3rd, and in the next-to-last lap, attempted to pass the Belgian, who did a great job holding him off. In the final turn, JR passed Belgium on the outside to qualify.

5000M Relay Semifinal

Teams - Italy, Korea, USA, France
Participants - Travis Jayner, Apolo Ohno, Simon Cho, JR Celski

First up for the USA was Travis Jayner, followed by (anchor) Apolo Ohno, Simon Cho and JR Celski. USA started off in 4th and held there until, with 29 laps to go, the Italian and French teams tangled up and crashed. USA maintained 2nd position throughout the rest of the race, qualifying easily for the Final, where they will skate against Korea, China, Canada and the French, who were advanced because of the collision with the Italians.

The men skate again on Saturday, Feb 20 - the 1000M medal events.

[Laura (Lori)]

And now - the Ladies' 500M...

Quarterfinals

Katherine Reutter was in a tough QF heat - Katerina Novotna (CZE); Kalyna Roberge (CAN) and Seung-Hi Park (KOR). Katherine had the inside (best) lane at the start. False start charged to Novotna...

Katherine had an excellent start - first off the blocks and led wire-to-wire. Roberge gets the 2nd spot...

NOTE: Katherine set a new Olympic record in this heat, but it was short-lived... Meng Wang broke the record in the very next heat...

"Going into the first race I said to myself 'I want to set an Olympic record,' and I did,” said Reutter of her brief reign after her race. “From now on I can say I was an Olympic record holder." ~ from USOC Pressbox

Alyson Dudek started her QF heat in Lane 4 - she found herself in the back of the pack at the start and was never able to recover - she did not advance.

Semifinals

Katherine Reutter, Lane 1, started in third position at the first turn, and sadly finished last behind Jessica Gregg (CAN), Arianna Fontana (ITA) and Yang Zhou (CHN).

The ladies skate next on Saturday, Feb 20 in the 1500M...

[Laura (Lori)]

Winter Olympics are the real reality show
by Bill McMillen / February 19, 2010 / Mojave Daily News

www.mohavedailynews.com/articles/2010/02/19/news/opinion/opinion2.txt

Every time I turn on the television, there’s Olympic coverage somewhere — either on NBC, MSNBC CNBC or USA. Between the live events and the taped recap shows, you can (if you don’t have anything else to do) watch 12 to 18 hours of Olympics each day.

To me, that’s a little overkill. Well, maybe. Maybe not.

The Winter Olympics have provided us some cultural memories, like the “Miracle on Ice” when the underdog U.S. men’s hockey team won the gold in 1980, Eric Heiden winning five gold medals in speed skating (also in 1980) or, more recently, Apolo Ohno bringing short-track speed skating out of obscurity.

You watch because you never know who the next Peggy Fleming (OK, I’m showing my age) will be or when the next “I’ve never seen that before” moment will come.

My wife is a big fan of ice skating, an admirer of a sport that combines grace, creativity and athleticism. I can handle it in small doses while she could watch it for hours (as evidenced by the fact we’ve been recording about six to nine hours of Olympics every night since the Games began last weekend).

I like curling — for those of you unfamiliar with the sport, it’s sort of like bocci meets shuffleboard meets marbles, played on a long, narrow sheet of ice. The reason I like it is because it’s an offbeat game, complete with “sweepers” who help guide the “stones” down the ice toward their target by feverishly sweeping a path on the surface of the ice.

There’s strategy involved — throwing guards, knockouts and point-scoring attempts to “the house.” It’s a game that is as cerebral as it is physical.

It’s a game I think I would play if I lived in a locale where it was popular, like Canada or some northern U.S. cities or anywhere in northern Europe. It doesn’t require an abundance of athleticism (which fits me perfectly) but it does require some skill. So does pinball, which used to be one of my favorite outlets before the advent of video games ultimately led to the demise of the mechanical dinosaurs.

Anyway, it’s difficult for some people, especially here in the Southwest, to get wrapped up in some of the winter sports. We may be familiar with them, but it’s not something we do on a regular basis.

NBC, though, is bringing it to our homes. Repeatedly. The network does a fair job of telling us the compelling stories, like Lindsey Vonn’s injury that could have been a setback to her medal hopes in the downhill skiing competition, or Shani Davis’ pursuit of history in men’s speed skating (he’s already the first African American to win an individual gold medal in the sport) or Shaun White’s continued domination of men’s snowboarding and Lindsey Jacobellis’ continued heartbreak on the women’s side.

They also try to make less-than-compelling stories seem compelling. But hey, you’ve got to do something to fill those 12 hours of daily coverage.

Still, it’s figure skating and hockey that drive the Olympics — and the Olympic ratings. The other sports get their share of coverage — rightfully so, I guess — and do attract viewers, especially the younger viewers the networks and advertisers covet.

While noting that TV ratings of the 2010 Games are higher than anticipated, analysts provide some somber reasoning: More people are staying at home, either because they don’t have a job to take them away from the TV or they don’t have the disposable income to pursue other ventures outside the house.

Americans — I would assume this also applies to people in other nations — seem to have an infatuation with reality TV. How else could “Survivor” survive for so long? The Olympics is true reality TV, much of it shown in real time. We don’t have to wait until the end of the show to see who’s voted off the island and who stays; we witness it as it happens, as they crash on the downhill course, fall on the ice or score the game-winning goal.

It’s showing us people who are very good at doing things we can’t do. I don’t know many folks around here who can throw a triple Lutz or who can do a 1080 on the halfpipe or scream down a mountainside at 70 mph without missing a gate.

The benefit of the Winter Olympics, too, is that they happen every four years and not every season, which may be one reason the Olympics overwhelmed “American Idol” in the ratings this week. It’s rare enough to be interesting and most people find something in the mix to at least pique that interest for a little while. And we know we can skip “Idol” for a week or two and still catch up later in the season.

Another part of the dynamic is that many of the network primetime shows are in “repeat mode.” Most of my favorites fall into this category, so rather than watch a rerun of “CSI,” “Bones,” or “House,” I’ll tune in to the Olympics. I may even pay attention to some of it.

In the meantime, we’ve got some 30-plus hours of Olympic coverage on our DVR that we’ll probably never take the time to watch — unless, of course, there’s figure skating or curling on it.

Bill McMillen is city editor for the Mohave Valley Daily News.

[Laura (Lori)]

More Olympics tongue-in-cheek stuff from the blog "What Is True / Slant?"

Olympics: Ain’t That America?
Zach Dundas, Renegade Sportsman

The Vancouver Winter Olympics (Sponsored by Spring!) are coming in for a lot of abuse, much of it deserved. When you have athletes getting killed, big-time venue and ticketing failz, horrible weather and weird security breaches, you are halfway down the road to Goodwill Games-ville.

Yes, yes, yes. But allow me, for a moment, to rise to the Games’ defense. As I have previously written, the more unpopular the Winter Games become, the more I seem to like them. The puritanical Left dislikes the Olympics in general because they’re all nationalistic, etc. (And, in this particular case, because the Games are taking place on “stolen Native land”—a factor, undeniably connected to much troubling political history, that never seems to dissuade liberal-minded people from flocking to the restaurants, bars and coffee shops on Robson Street, which are presumably also on stolen Native land.) The Pleistocene relics who dominate mainstream American sports media dislike the Olympics because they involve weird foreign sports and weird foreigners.

Read the entire article at:

trueslant.com/zachdundas/2010/02/18/olympics-aint-that-america/

[Deleted]

And then we have this interesting article about....GOOGLE...what else?

Skaters, Snowboarders Generate Olympic Buzz
Participants in skating and snowboarding competitions are generating the most buzz out of athletes competing in the 2010 Winter Olympics, according to The Nielsen Company.

The Nielsen Company analyzed online discussions concerning 25 high-profile athletes and medal winners involved in the Winter Olympics and found that American speed skater Apolo Ohno is the most buzzed-about athlete so far, despite the fact that he had only won one silver medal at the Olympics when the research was conducted. However, Ohno’s quest to pass Bonnie Blair as the most decorated American at the Winter Olympics still made him the most blogged-about, tweeted and discussed Olympic athlete online.(via MarketingCharts).

Ohno was followed by US snowboarder Shaun White, who is currently trying to change his nickname from “The Flying Tomato” to “The Animal.” White has numerous product endorsements, a rebellious public persona that makes him popular with young people, and is a heavy favorite in this year’s Olympics.

The third-most discussed athlete, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, was tragically killed in practice prior to the opening ceremonies. The publicity surrounding his death led to Kumaritashvili being the only non-US or Canadian athlete, as well as the only non-skier, skater or snowboarder, to make the top 10 list.

Looking at the athletes ranked fourth to 10th, six are from the US and one is from Canada, freestyle skier Alexandre Bildeau. The other six US athletes consist of three skiers, two snowboarders and a figure skater.

Vancouver Benefits from Games Buzz

Olympic host city Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada showed an increase in mentions equal to and closely mirroring that of the Games themselves. The increase in exposure and buzz is perhaps one reason cities compete so intensely to secure the Olympics.

Brands See Boost with Olympics Buy

Brands, as well as athletes and host cities, appear to be benefiting from Olympics buzz, according to MediaBuyerPlanner. NBC is saying that brands that advertised during last Friday’s telecast of the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics reaped big benefits from their advertising dollars.

NBC commissioned research from Google, which showed huge spikes in search queries for brands that were featured during the night. In addition, NBC cited research data from Nielsen IAG which found that auto ads which ran during the opening ceremony had brand recall levels 41% higher than their prime time average, while likability scores were almost 50% higher, and message recall jumped 67%.

[Deleted]

Regarding the ladies 500 above: Did you know there was a false start and the athlete's were called back. Katherine was so in the zone she did not hear the call back and was half-way around the ring--burning all of that energy--when they finally got her back to the line.

All-in-all Katherine set an Olympic Record, moved from 8th in the world to 7th in an event that is not considered her specialty, so I would think she would think she had a good day!

[Laura (Lori)]

Feb 19, 2010 17:58:05 GMT -8 gasp said:

Regarding the ladies 500 above: Did you know there was a false start and the athlete's were called back. Katherine was so in the zone she did not hear the call back and was half-way around the ring--burning all of that energy--when they finally got her back to the line.

I hadn't heard that - she did a great job!

Here's my recap of the men's 1000M action last night:

Quarterfinals

Apolo Ohno was 'technically' up against 3 Canadians in this heat - Charles Hamelin (CAN); Nicolas Bean (ITA - but a Canadian); and Tyson Heung (GER - born in Canada) Apolo was third off the start and remained there as Heung and Hamelin exchanged the lead several times. With 2 laps to go, he easily passed Heung and finished second to Hamelin, advancing to the Semis.

JR Celski was first at the start and settled in behind Si-Bak Sung (KOR) for most of the race. In the final lap, Yuri Confortola (ITA) made a couple of great attempts to take second place - but JR was able to hold him off and finished second, qualifying for the Semis.

Semifinals

JR Celski was in a VERY tough semifinal heat - Lee Ho-Suk and Lee Jung-Su (1500M gold medal winner) from Korea, and Francois Hamelin (CAN).

Jr took the early lead, but quickly settled into second place behind Lee Jung-Su. With 6 laps to go, Hamelin made an inside pass on Celski to take the lead. With 4 laps to go, Lee Jung-Su attempted to pass JR, but was held off. Then with 2 laps to go, Lee Ho-Suk swung wide in the first turn and sling-shot from last place into the lead in 7 strides - a beautiful pass! JR immediately tried a very tight inside pass on Hamelin - Hamelin grabbed JR's hips and went down, slowing JR's momentum enough for Lee Jung-Su to make an inside pass to take second place.

Following an official's review, JR was disqualified and Hamelin was advanced to the finals. In slo-mo, it looked like - though very tight - JR did get in cleanly, and from one angle it looked like Hamelin actually tripped up on the Korean's right skate. But - that's short track...

Apolo Ohno - after one false start by Sung Si-Bak (KOR), Apolo came off the start in last place. With 7 laps to go, Han Jialiang (CHN) clipped skates with Sung, losing speed and allowing Apolo to move to third. In the first turn of the final lap, Apolo swung wide then came in tight to pass both Sung then Hamelin to take first place in a very close race. By about a millimeter, Hamelin held the second spot over Sung.

The Final

On the starting line, Apolo Ohno had the inside lane, with the Koreans (Lee and Lee) in a "Ham Sandwich", between the 2 Hamelin brothers.

Apolo took 3rd off the start, with the 2 Canadians in front, the 2 Koreans behind. With 4 laps to go, Apolo made an inside move on 2nd-place Francois Hamelin - there was some contact, and Apolo swung wide and lost speed, putting himself in last place. At the same time, Lee Ho-Suk started passing on the outside, followed closely by Lee Jung-Su. The two methodically passed both Canadians, with Apolo still in last place. In the final lap, Apolo passed Francois Hamelin in the first turn, then Charles Hamelin on the final turn, capturing the bronze medal. In that final lap, Lee Jung-Su passed Lee Ho-Suk to claim an impressive 2-for-2 in these Olympics!

[Laura (Lori)]

And now for the Ladies...

1500M Heats

Kimberly Derrick took off in 1st place, but was passed in successive laps by Nina Evteeva (RUS), Tanis Vicent (CAN) and Sun Linlin (CHN), leaving her in 4th. Needing to pass one of these skaters to take one of the 3 qualifying spots, she was unable to do so, and sadly did not advance to the next round.

Katherine Reutter started in 2nd place and after a few lead changes, found herself in 4th place - with 3 laps to go, she went very wide and passed the pack to take the lead. Wang Meng came with her, and it was a 2-person race for 1st and second - Wang Meng won, with Katherine second, and Tania Vicent third.

Allison Baver made her 2010 Olympic debut in 4th place off the start, then with 8 laps to go, made an effortless pass into the lead. She was gradually worked back to third, then as the pace began to quicken, with 6 laps to go, she made a gutsy move on the outside to regain the lead.

With 3 laps to go, Allison was passed by Lee Eun-Byul (KOR) and Hiroko Sadakane (JPN) - but in the final turn of the race, Aika Klein (GER) attempted an inside pass on Allison, sending both of them into the pads. Klein was disqualified, and because she was in qualifying position at the time of the foul, Allison was advanced. The 3rd-place slot was claimed by Marina Georgieva-Nikolova (BUL).

Semifinals

Allison Baver started from the far outside position and changed position often - as high as 2nd, as low as 5th of 7. As the pace quickened in the final laps, Allison was in third behind Lee Eun-Byul (KOR) and Tania Vicent (CAN) - she battled, but was ultimately passed by Sun Linlin (CHN) and Hiroko Sadakane (JPN), neither of whom were able to catch Lee or Vicent, who advanced to the final.

Katherine Reutter quickly took the lead, then settled in second for a couple of laps. With 11 laps to go, Katherine made an outside pass for the lead, but at the same time, Wang Meng (CHN) passed her, 3 deep on the curve, to take the lead. The pace quickened when Cho Hae-Ri (KOR) and Kalyna Roberge (CAN) passed both Wang and Reutter to take 1st and second, respectively - leaving Wang and Reutter in 3rd and 4th.

With 8 laps to go, Katherine made an outside pass to gain 2nd place - with 4 laps to go, there was a battle with Wang for that spot, and Wang won out. In the 2nd turn of the next lap, chaos ruled - as Katherine made an inside pass, Wang bumped her with her shoulder, causing Katherine to go down, taking Wang and 1st-place Cho with her.

The 2 qualifying spots were won by Erika Huszar (HUN) and Evgenia Radanova (BUL). Wang was disqualified, resulting in advancement for both Katherine and Cho in what promises to be a very crowded final.

The Final

Katherine Reutter started in 2nd, dropped to 4th, then moved back to 2nd behind Zhou Yang (CHN) with 10 laps to go. A couple of laps later, Park Seung-Hi (KOR) took the lead. Then with 7 laps to go, Katherine attempted an inside pass on Zhou, but clipped Park's skate. Nobody fell, but the near-collision put Katherine in the back of the pack and Zhou fell back to fifth. Park managed to stay on her feet and began to lengthen her lead.

With 5 laps to go, Zhou made an amazing comeback and regained the lead from Park and ultimately won the gold medal. At the same time, Katherine began chipping away at the skaters ahead of her and managed to get back to 4th place, but she was too far behind the 3 leaders at that point and unable to medal. So close!

[Laura (Lori)]

The next events for ST take place today/tonight:

1) The medals will be awarded in the Ladies' relay.

2) Men's 500M heats: Apolo Ohno, Jordan Malone & Simon Cho

3) Ladies; 1000M heats: Katherine Reutter, Kimberly Derrick & Allison Baver

Be sure to tune in or set those DVR's!

[Laura (Lori)]

Here's my recap of last night's racing:

MEN'S 500M HEATS:

First up was Simon Cho in his rookie individual race - after a false start by Lee Ho-Suk, Simon was last off the start, but in the first lap he passed the Dutch skater. At the end of the second lap, Lee Ho-Suk made an inside move on the 1st-place Russian skater, and Simon followed. They remained 1-2 for the rest of the race, comfortably ahead of the remaining pair at the finish line. Lee Ho-Suk set an Olympic record in this race.

Jordan Malone - after one false start by Pieter Gysel (BEL), Jordan started in second place. He attempted to take the lead in the 1st turn of lap 3, and appeared to do so, but as Jordan swung wide, Kwak Yoon-Gy (KOR) slipped by on the inside at the same time, leaving Jordan again in 2nd place. It looked like Jordan would advance in 2nd position, but on the final turn he ever-so-slightly grazed a block just as Travis had done in his 1000M heat. In yet another heartbreaking finish, Jordan fell, leaving Kwak and Gysel to take the 2 qualifying positions.

Apolo Ohno - started third behind Olivier Jean (CAN) and Paul Worth (GBR). At the end of lap 2, he passed Worth, and at the entry of the final turn, made an easy inside pass on Jean to take the lead. Apolo finished first, but only by about 2 skate blades length over Jean. Both Apolo and Jean advance.

The 500M Medal event concludes on Friday.

Later: I'll break down the Ladies' races...

[Guest]

What a fabulous Olympic experience our team is having. My heart turned flips when the ladies took the bronze. The girls work as hard as the men do and with a heck of a lot more blood shed. The only thing separating the men from the women is the 3000 meter vs the 5000. They compete at the same level with the same training... yet they are given the "late night" broadcast and not near as much media as the men. Hooray for them.. they deserve the win. Now I wish the men would show their female team mates as much support on their twitter sites as they are for the women's hockey team. Come on guys... show the girls some love!

[Laura (Lori)]

Yeah, Guest - I've been rather bummed that I've had to lose so much sleep to see the ladies - but hey, the Olympics only come around every 4 years, eh?