Family Affair Pt.2, History Repeating Itself, Canadian Moguls, and Women's Supercombined: Sochi Day 5

     Today's competition took us back to the Iceberg(a venue which will see use throughout most of the Games) for the heats in Speed skating.  The first heat saw the Netherlands sweep the podium, and in a style similar to Women's Moguls, two of the occupants on the podium were related by blood.  This time around the Dutch had the family domination, with Michel Mulder winning gold, and his twin brother Ronald taking Bronze.

     Speaking of family domination, let's go back to Rosa Khutor, the scene of the domination at the hands of the Dufour-Lapointe sisters the other day.  The Men are up for their turn at the Moguls, and we're in for even more high-flying hi jinks, and more than a few falls.  Starting off with the Prelims, there were a total of 30 entrants into the sport, with the field eventually being pared down to 6 for the medal round.  That is where Alex Bilodeau comes in.  The 26 year old Canadian had already made history in Vancouver when he became the first Canadian to win a Gold Medal on home soil.  Not just that, but he is also renowned throughout Canada for his relationship with his brother, who has Cerebral Palsy.  After the 2010 Games, his brother became almost as famous as he did.  Going back to 2014, Bilodeau makes it into the Finals no problems.  However, one of the American skiers attempts a flashy move on a jump and instead wipes out in the snow.  In the Final round, Bilodeau pulls off a full 1080(that's completing 3 full rotations in the air), and winds up winning the Gold.  Not just that, but one of his countrymen takes the Silver, meaning that 4 out of the 6 medals awarded so far for Moguls have gone to Canadians.

     We then go back to the Iceberg once again for more speed skating.  This time the pack is led by Victor Ahn of Russia.  4 years ago, Ahn competed for South Korea under a different name.  This time, he's back with a new country and a new name.  One other interesting incident from the speed skating heat was a moment of deja vu.  You may or may not remember in 2010, the dramatic finish to one of the speed skating heats, where two South Koreans slid out and hit the wall right before the finish line.  Well, that same thing happened this time in Sochi.  Not just that, but the competitors who slipped were also South Korean.

     Wrapping up the days competition, we journey back to Rosa Khutor(yet another venue which will see use all throughout these Games) for the Women's Combined skiing event.  This event combined both downhill portions and slalom portions, with the scores from each heat being combined to give the final time.  In the downhill portion, the title was ultimately taken by American Julia Mancuso, who blew everyone away by besting the best time by half a second.  Afterwards, on the slalom she didn't do as well, but still pulled it out and won a Bronze, giving her a full set of Gold, Medal, and Bronze(Gold in Turin, Silver in Vancouver).  Rounding out this day of competition, the USA Men's Hockey Team started off their pursuit of Gold with a 9-0 victory over Switzerland.

The Team Finals, the Start of Hockey, Luge, and Biathlon: Sochi Day 4

     The biggest part of Sunday's competition was the wrap-up of the Team Figure Skating competition, which takes us back to the Iceberg to catch it.  After the first 4 heats, the bottom 5 teams were eliminated, which left 5 teams to contend for the Gold.  The Pairs free competition had been held the day before, so that left the Men's, Women's, and Ice Dance portions for Sunday.  The United States competed well on this day, steering the team to a Bronze Medal.  Overall, the Russians won the team Gold, which made Julia Lipnitskaia the second-youngest figure skating gold medal winner, after Maxi Herber, who won Gold at the 1936 Winter Games when she was 2 months younger that Lipnitskaia.

     Additionally, the day's competition saw the first competitions in Ice Hockey, with the Women's Prelims being held.  The finals for Men's Singles Luge were also held, with Germany winning Gold, Russia taking Silver, and Italy receiving the Bronze.  This day also saw the beginning of the Biathlon competition.  For those of you who don't quite remember, the Biathlon is a sport that combines both cross-country skiing and shooting.  It was originally devised as an exercise for Norwegian soldiers, but now is maintained as a sport.  The Women's Sprint competition was held yesterday, and Anastasiya Kumina of Slovakia became the sports first repeat champion.  Russia and Ukraine came in to finish with Silver and Bronze, respectively. 

The First Gold, the Team Semis, and a Sister Act: Sochi Day 3

     So, we’re back to Sochi for a third day, and we’ve got plenty to talk about.  After the pageant and spectacle of the Opening Ceremony(and a bit of getting lucky) we returned to the slopes and the ice to continue the events we started on Thursday.  First up, Men’s Slopestyle.  After automatically qualifying 8 people directly into the finals, there were still 4 spots up for grabs in the semis.  Early favorite Mark McMorris actually had to go through the semis in order to qualify for the finals, which was quite the surprise to everybody.  Eventually, the Finals were held, in which Team USA pushed through and emerged victorious, with Sage Kostenburg winning the very first medal awarded in these Sochi games.

     After that, competition moved over to the Iceberg, where the Team Figure Skating event continued.  After having completed the Men's short program and the Pair short program, today saw the Ice Dance, Ladies, and Pair free competitions.  And that brings up Meryl Davis and Charlie White, the pair who have won 23 Gold Medals in International Competition(there are waaaaaay more International Ice Skating events than just the Olympics) since 2008.  This was the pair that the United States needed after finishing in 7th place and 5th place on the first day of competition.  And things panned out quite nicely for them, as the pair took 1st place in the Ice Dance.  Then came the Ladies short program.  As if the Sochi games didn't already have enough controversy attached to them, the US Figure Skating team was ready and willing to provide more.  In the National Championships, Ashley Wagner had finished in 4th Place, but was sent to Sochi anyway based on her apparent experience internationally.  Needless to say, this ruffled a few feathers.  But once Wagner got onto the ice, she skated her program, and represented the team well.  But the real spectacle of the Ladies heat came when Julia Lipnitskaia stepped onto the ice.  The 15 year old skater from Russia wowed the crowd with her precision and skills(kind of like how Yuzuru Hanyu did the day before).  Afterwards, the Pairs free program wrapped up the 2nd day of Team competition, with Team USA finishing 4th, and Russia taking first in that heat.

     Moving back to Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, it's time to finish up Women's Moguls.  After Thursday's Prelims, the Finals competitions started out.  The Finals were broken up into 3 rounds, with the final heat giving out Medals.  Hannah Kearney made it through into the Medal Round, as did 2 of the Dufour-Lapointe sisters(Justine and Chloe).  In the Medal Round, the 2 Canadian sisters finished with Gold(Justine) and Silver(Chloe) while Kearney finished with Bronze.  And with that, competition was over for another day.

Getting Lucky with the Police

     So, I'm sure that all of you are familiar with the song "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk.  It's a pretty rockin' number, and certainly a toe tapper.  Not just that, but it also won a bunch of Grammys, and Daft Punk actually performed the song with Pharrell and Stevie Wonder during the show.  For the benefit of all of you, here's the video for that one:

     It's tight, it's legit, and it's got STEVIE WONDER in it.  I was under the impression that that performance simply could not be topped in the amazement department.  At least I was until I got off of work today and saw some chatter online about something to do with the Russian Police singing.  As with most viral videos, I decided to check it out(that's why they're called viral), and oh my goodness, it's something to behold:

     This is the Choir of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Holy Mother Russia it's something else.  This may or may not be the greatest viral moment to ever come out of the Olympics.  Oh, and thus far into the year, it's clear that 2014 pretty much belongs to Daft Punk so far.  Remember to stay tuned folks, with moments like this on only opening night, these Olympics look to be unforgettable.

Dreamscapes: Sochi Day 2-Opening Ceremony

     Today in Sochi, the Olympics finally opened their arms and let the world in, substandard accommodations(at least for the media) and all.  The Opening Ceremony, which took place on the second day of NBC's telecast, started off with a video of an 11-year old girl reciting the Russian Alphabet, with each letter representing a famous part of Russian history.  Some of the more renowned mentions were:

• Lake Baikal
• Yuri Gagarin
• Sputnik
• Gleb Kotelnikov(more well-known as the inventor of the knapsack parachute)
• Television
• The Russian Empire
• Space Stations
• And many more

     After that, we were treated to a performance of the Russian National Anthem.  Then came the Parade of Nations, where all 88 participating bodies marched into the stadium to capture their moment in the Olympic limelight.  After all 2,800 athletes were in the stadium, the theatrics picked up again, this time going into a dream sequence depicting various events in the history of Russia, such as building St. Basil's Cathedral, the rise of Peter the Great, the twilight of the Russian Empire, and then the dawn of the Revolutionary era.

     Soon afterwards, Vladimir Putin officially declared the Sochi games open, which set off more fireworks.  After a performance of Swan Lake, the Olympic Cauldron was lit using the Torch, which has been going all throughout Russia for the past several months.  Maria Sharapova brought the torch into the stadium, at which point she handed it off to several different Russian athletes, all doing their own part in igniting the cauldron.  Once the cauldron was lit, the Opening Ceremony was finished, and the Sochi games were officially underway.  Stay tuned everybody, we're just getting started here...

Near Perfection, A New Event, and A Family Affair: Sochi Day 1

     As opposed to London 2012, where television coverage of the whole Olympiad was kicked off with the Opening Ceremony, this year NBC decided to get a jump start on things, starting off their broadcast schedule Thursday evening with preliminary competitions in team figure skating, slopestyle, and women's mogul, with coverage of the Opening Ceremony to follow tomorrow.  So, we were left today without an Opening Ceremony to watch, but still plenty to grab our attention.

     The first event being talked about is team figure skating, which takes the existing figure skating events(ice dance, men's, women's, and pair) and combines them all together, so that they are each assigned a point value for a specific place in the standings.  At the end of it, the countries are ranked by how many points their teams have compiled. Today saw the men's and pair competitions, and the whole shebang was led off by the home team, with Russia's Evgeni Plushenko leading off the proceedings(if the name sounds familiar, that's because Plushenko also skated in 2010, finishing second behind Evan Lysacek[who is sitting out the Sochi games]).  After Plushenko, Jeremy Abbott stepped up to bat for Team USA.  Abbott might also be a familiar face, mainly because of his 9th Place finish in Vancouver thanks to an ill-timed fall while skating.  Alas, lightning struck twice, and Abbott once again fell while attempting a quad spin.  The next skater of note after Abbot was Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu, and boy is he a skater of note.  First off, he's only 19 years old.  Secondly, he turned in a performance that was damn near flawless, easily the best one I've ever seen.  He wound up receiving a score of 97 from the judges on the routine, and I am quite interested in seeing what his future holds.

     Moving on from figure skating, we saw a new event take center stage, the slopestyle contest.  Several Olympians made their debuts during this year's event, but the most impressive performance of the day was from Canadian Max Parrot, who turned a very dominant performance.

     After slopestyle qualifying, we moved to women's mogul(which is where the competitors ski down a hill dodging small piles of snow.)  This event was dominated by America's Heather Kearney, who won gold in this event in Vancouver.  However, one of the most interesting stories from mogul comes to us courtesy of the Canadian team.  Team Canada was represented in the prelims by Maxime Dufour-Lapointe, who was then followed by her sister Justine, who was then followed by her sister Chloe.  That's right, there's three of them, which hasn't happened since 1980.  We shall see what happens with the Dufour-Lapointe sisters.  Next up on Friday, the Opening Ceremony awaits...

Terror Threats, Rights Violations, Contaminated Water, and oh yeah, Winter Sports: Final Countdown to Sochi

     Well everybody, welcome back to The Flaming Torch.  It's been a few weeks, but I think we're ready to dive into some last-minute pre-Olympics coverage.  So far, the biggest things that have come down the wire have been Russia's harsh anti-gay policies, the lurking threat of terrorism, and various other issues(like foreign reporters having their phones tapped, a lack of potable water in the accommodations, you know, minor stuff[okay maybe not]).  But believe it or not, there are actually story lines relating to actual sport.  So far we haven't had the tragic pall cast over the start of the Games like we did in 2010, when Georgian Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed in a training accident just before the Opening Ceremonies.

     Speaking of Opening Ceremonies, we've come to expect a great deal from them over the past few years.  Who can forget Beijing's 2,008 drummers, or the theatrics of London's 2012 show(remember that giant baby?  Still creeps me out), or that giant light-up bear that showed up in Vancouver 4 years ago?  Well, the organizers are being tight-lipped with the details, but what has been gleaned from various forms of chatter is that the Ceremony will feature roughly 3,000 performers reenacting various Russian fairy tales. Anything more than that, you'll have to watch the Ceremony tomorrow night to find out.
    
     Aside from the Opening Ceremony, there's been the last minute updates on which athletes are going, and who is competing in what.  Lindsey Vonn is out, sidelined by an injury that is still bothering her.  Shaun White is still in, just not in all of his events, having just pulled out of the slopestyle contest today in order to fully focus on the halfpipe.  And then of course you've got the uniforms.  Oh, the uniforms.  First up, you've got Team Germany, who's choice of uniform color may or may not be(but probably is) a rebuttal of Russia's infamous anti-gay policies.

 

     I'm not gonna lie, those uniforms actually look pretty cool.  Speaking of uniforms, let's take a moment to talk about Hubertus Von Hohenloe, a member of Team Mexico.  As part of his skiing uniform, he is wearing a one-piece mariachi suit.  You just need to see this to believe it.

 

 

     But let's be honest.  The outfit that everybody's going to be talking about tomorrow night belongs to Team USA:

 

 

     They look like something that your grandmother would have knitted.  Nothing against Grandmothers, they're awesome, but when you're getting a product by Ralph Luaren that is being displayed on the world stage, you've gotta do better than that.  Now I know that the common defense is that these are American made, but that's like saying that you'd rather have an Edsel than a Lamborghini because it's American made.  But before I get too far onto the hate train, this isn't the first time a stunt like this has happened.  In the 1984 Winter Games, the USA delegation rolled into the stadium with a getup that looked like a short version of what Joe Namath wore to the Super Bowl with a cowboy hat on.  But beyond all of that, bad uniforms, threats, controversies, etc... The Opening Ceremonies of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games air on NBC at 6:30 PM tonight.  And then I'll be back afterwards to sum up the ceremonies and provide a look ahead to Day 1 of competition.  Let the Games begin!