An American First, Family Affair Pt. 3, the End of an Era, and NBC goes to its Bullpen: Sochi Day 6

     For those of you tuning in to NBC's Primetime coverage last night, you may have been questioning the accuracy of your vision.  No, you don't need to run out and get glasses, that really was somebody other than Bob Costas anchoring the Olympics, something that hasn't happened since 1998.  The reason for the sudden switch?  Well, that's quite simple.  It turns out that Costas hasn't been wearing those glasses all week in an attempt to look like an aged Harry Potter.  He's actually been in the throes of an eye infection, one that left him looking, in the words of Matt Lauer, "like the losing boxer in a prize fight".  And so, yesterday marked the first time in 26 years that Costas would miss an Olympic broadcast.  But the show must go on, and so Matt Lauer was pulled from the couches of the Today show to come over to the Fortress of SolitudeInternational Broadcast Center.

     And with that, it's back to Rosa Khutor where the Women got their crack at the Slopestyle course.  One difference though, this time they're on skis.  The competition was dominated by skiers from Canada(because what else is new), but one of the winners was Canada's Kim Lamarre, who has yet another family connection to the Olympics.  Her Grandmother was a Alpine Skier in the 1956 Winter Games.  Lamarre continued the family tradition and actually bested her Grandmother's performance by taking home the Bronze.  Team USA won Silver, and Canada won the Gold.

     Also on the slopes was the Men's Halfpipe event.  Going into this one, Shaun White was the center of attention, as his quest for a 3rd straight Gold was ever-present.  Once the heat started though, all eyes left White and moved over to an iPod.  No, not the ground-breaking/overpriced MP3 Player from Apple, but Iouri Podladtchikov, the 23-year old competitor from Russia, competing for Switzerland.  This is a guy who has invented his own ground-breaking snowboard trick, the YOLO flip.  This entails doing a 1440 in the air(which is 4 full revolutions).  Needless to say, it's quite the crowd-pleaser.  After Padladtchikov wowed the crowd, two Japanese phenoms got their own runs in.  And then it was all up to Shaun White.  A big problem that has persisted all through these Games has been the warm temperatures, and those were making the halfpipe not nearly as firm as it should be.  The pipe had already claimed several competitors in the prelims, and it reared its ugly head again in the Finals.  White was well into his first run when the sloppiness of the terrain ate his momentum and caused him to crash.  On his second run, he did better, but was still unable to best Padladtchikov.  Thus, the 23-year old won Gold, and the King of the Halfpipe had been dethroned.

     But it wasn't all bad news for Team USA last night, especially after what went down at the Sanki Sliding Center.  Luge has been a part of the Games since the 1964 Innsbruck Winter Games, and in all that time no American has ever made it onto the podium.  Well, Erin Hamlin changed all of that last night.  Racing in memory of her Grandmother, who had passed away in December, Hamlin turned in a quality performance that ultimately was good enough to get her the Bronze, the first Olympic Medal ever earned by Team USA in Luge.  Hamlin wasn't the only attraction from Team USA though.  Kate Hansen has earned herself a cult following online for her warmup routines, which see her shaking it to Beyoncé.  She may have gotten 10th Place at the Olympics, but she's blowing it up on social media.  And you know what they say about the Internet, what's up there lasts forever.