The American Sweep, a Return to the Olympics, and Drama at The Iceberg: Sochi Day 8

     Today's coverage takes us to 3 different venues.  First up, Rosa Khutor for the Men's Ski Slopestyle Competition.  The most compelling competitor in this field coming in was Nick Goepper hailing from Lawrenceburg, Indiana.  In order to effectively train, he actually built a small course in his backyard.  The work seems to have paid off, as he wound up taking home the Bronze Medal.  Not just that, but the podium was actually swept by Americans, which led to this nifty moment at the medal ceremony:

    After that groundswell of American pride, we moved over to the Sanki Sliding Center, where the Skeleton competition was heating up.  Team USA was represented by Noelle Pikus-Pace, who had actually come out of retirement for the Olympics.  She had competed in both Salt Lake City and Vancouver, but had been forced to sit out of the 2006 Games due to a freak accident.  After the 2010 Games, she retired to focus on her family, but was eventually urged to come back to the sport, which she did so for Sochi.  She wound up finishing the first day in second place, which was a solid positioning.  Also at Sanki, the British competitor set the course record for the track, and the Russian competitor set the record for quickest start.  The Skeleton finals would come tomorrow.

     And now for the moment you've all been waiting for, lets head over to the Iceberg.  Today's figure skating heats were dramatic, and that's an understatement.  Today saw the start of the Men's Singles heats, with the Short Program being held.  Starting off the competition was the Russian hero Yevgeni Plushenko, who had skated brilliantly in both of his heats in the Team competition.  However, as he was warming up for the skate, he came down from a jump strangely and immediately winced in pain.  After consulting with the coaches, Plushenko made his way over to the judge's table and took himself out of the competition.  When the withdrawal was announced over the loudspeaker you could have heard a pin drop in the room.  Shortly afterwards, Plushenko officially retired, calling it a career after winning 4 Olympic Medals in 4 Games, and taking over 50 Medals in various International Competitions.  After that, Jeremy Abbott was up for Team USA.  Abbott started off his program just fine, but then wiped out hard on the ice just a few seconds in.  However, he got back up and finished his program.  But all of that was just a warmup for the main event of the evening: Yuzuru Hanyu.  The 19-year old skater from Japan had already wowed the crowd when he skated in the Team competition, but that proved to be just a warmup.  In his Short Program, Hanyu scored 101.45 on the Short Program.  Let me reinforce that for a second: he scored 101.45.  That's not just the best performance from Sochi, that is the highest score EVER in the Short Program.  That's right folks, we just watched history being made before our eyes.  And that's just another day at the Olympics.