The Olympics
Winter Olympics 2018
Olympics End on a Note of Hope
The 2018 Olympics ended Sunday on a note of hope. In a nod to the ancient Greek games, the Korea's reached a detente that may be a prelude to a more lasting easing of tensions on the peninsula. They competed as a United Korea team comprised of athletes from both countries, marching in under a unity flag at the start of the games. At the end, there was even more cause for optimism.
"As humanity's finest athletes [marched] exuberantly across the world stage, three nations with decades of war and suspicion among them shared a VIP box — and a potential path away from conflict. Senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. presidential adviser and first daughter Ivanka Trump sat in two rows of seats behind the Olympic rings, meant to represent a competition of peace and international unity. In close proximity... they watched a spirited, elaborate show that concluded the Pyeongchang Games. Even as dancers performed cultural stories to music before a huge crowd, South Korea's presidential office released a brief statement saying that Pyongyang had expressed willingness to hold talks with Washington. The North has "ample intentions of holding talks with the United States," according to the office. The North's delegation also agreed that "South-North relations and U.S.-North Korean relations should be improved together," Moon's office, known as the Blue House, said. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, just before declaring the games closed, addressed the two Koreas' cooperation at the closing ceremony, saying, "The Olympic games are an homage to the past and an act of faith for the future." (Associated Press, Feb 25)
The games themselves provided moments of drama, victorious celebrations, and world records. Norway, with its population of just 5 million, continued its dominance of the Winter Olympics. It led all nations in total medals with a record 39. Norway and Germany were tied for the most gold medals at 14, while the United States finished a respectable fourth place behind Norway, Germany, and Canada.
The men's and women's hockey finals were games for the ages. Both games went to overtime, and the women's went to a shootout.
US women won their first ever cross-country gold - edging out Sweden at the finish line with an announcer call on the last portion of the race on a par with Russ Hodges' call of Bobby Thomson's home run in the 1951 National League playoffs.
Lindsey Vonn ended her Olympic career with a bronze medal, breaking down after her final Olympic downhill.
A gold-medal tie in the two-man bobsled provided one of the best sporting moments and a unique celebration.
Shaun White proved himself once again to be the greatest snowboarder in the world.
America's youngest stars - Mikaela Shiffrin, Chloe Kim, and Redmond Gerard - each brought home a gold.
The NBC broadcast of the closing ceremony (taped) will air tonight, Sunday Feb 25, at 8PM ET. The final medal standings can be found here.
-RJC 2/25/18
Photos:
Top - Drones outline the 2018 Winter Olympics Mascot MARTIN BERNETTI /AFP/Getty Images
Mid - Flag ceremony / CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP/Getty Images
Bottom - Fireworks /FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARIT/AFP/Getty Images
"Kirill Kaprizov scored in overtime to lead the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) past a feisty Germany 4-3 on Sunday to win the men's ice hockey gold before joining his team mates to defy a ban by singing the Russian national anthem during the medal ceremony. The Russians, competing as neutral athletes at Pyeongchang as punishment for a years-long Russian doping scandal, came back from one-goal down on a goal by Nikita Gusev with less than a minute left in regulation time to force overtime in one of the most pulsating finals in the history of Olympic hockey." (Reuters, Feb 25)
"Though they're both on snow, skiing and snowboarding are simply not supposed to mix. Though [Ester Ledecka] could have been expected to win at one, nobody was supposed to do what she did. The Czech speed racer did what was considered impossible a mere week ago. She nabbed the second half of an unheard-of Olympic double by winning gold in snowboarding's parallel giant slalom Saturday, only seven days after doing the same in skiing's Alpine super-G." (Associated Press, Feb 24)
"The American men have won the Olympic gold medal in curling in a decisive upset of Sweden. John Shuster skipped the United States to a 10-7 victory on Saturday for only the second curling medal in U.S. history. Shuster was part of the other one, too, as the lead thrower on Pete Fenson's bronze-medal team at the 2006 Turin Games." (Associated Press, Feb 24)
U.S. women win first-ever cross-country gold medal
The NBC announcers went absolutely nuts! Listen to the call as the skiers race to the finish line. This is fun. Make sure you turn the volume up!
"The long Olympic drought is over for the United States in cross-country skiing. Jessica Diggins and Kikkan Randall became the first Americans to win an Olympic gold medal in the sport on Wednesday by shocking powerhouses Norway and the Sweden in the women's team sprint at the Pyeongchang Games. Diggins passed Norway's Marit Bjoergen, the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time, on the final lap and out-sprinted Sweden's Stina Nilsson to the finish. Diggins screamed as she crossed the finish line, setting off a huge celebration for the red, white and blue." (Chicago Tribune, Feb 21)
Photo: USA's Jessica Diggins crosses finish line 0.19 seconds ahead of Sweden's Stina Nilsson - Getty Images
It took 80 minutes of hockey and then a shootout to decide the women's gold medal. Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson took the shot and Maddie Rooney stopped the shot that won it for the American team.
"[Jocelyne] faked a right-handed wrist shot, pulled the puck to her left, then pulled it back to the right—three moves in one, really, and the extraordinary Canadian goaltender Shannon Szabados seemed to fall for all three. After Lamoureux-Davidson easily tucked the puck into the open bottom-right corner of the net, she pumped her fist, and the Americans celebrated because they led the shootout 3–2….
"And still it was not over. [Maddie] Rooney, just 5-foot-4 and 20 years old, stood in front of the U.S. goal. She had one more shot to stop...Minutes earlier, as the shootout was beginning, Rooney had actually smiled. U.S. captain Meghan Duggan noticed. She says she thought, “Maddie’s smiling. We’re good.”
"As her teammates took turns in the shootout, Rooney looked down, listened to the crowd, and only looked up at the last second. But Rooney was calm when it was the Canadians’ turn to shoot at her. Her teammates marveled at her poise...On the Canadians’ final try, Rooney suspected that Canada’s Meghan Agosta would try to poke the puck through her legs. She stopped the shot. The U.S. bench erupted." (Sports Illustrated, Feb 22)
"Lindsey Vonn lost gold, but won bronze, on Tuesday night in the women's downhill, the race she's owned for the last 17 years. It's both a tremendous disappointment and a triumph of will for an athlete who overcame injuries to become the oldest woman to ever win an alpine skiing medal...[Tearing up answering interviewers question, Vonn said,] "It's been really hard for me not to get emotional for so many reasons, especially because of my grandfather. I wanted to win so much because of him. But I still think I made him proud. " (USA Today/Olympics Wire, Feb 21)
Vonn's friend and fellow competitor, Italian Sofia Goggia, took home the gold in the event.
Photo: Lindsey Vonn's last Olympic downhill © Alexis Boichard/Agence Zoom/Getty Images
"Women's bobsledding has a new star, and a surprise Olympic champion.
Germany's Mariama Jamanka -- a winner of exactly zero major international races in her life until now -- drove to gold in the women's bobsled event at the Pyeongchang Games on Wednesday night, adding to her country's dominant showing at the sliding track in these Olympics.
Jamanka and brakeman Lisa Buckwitz finished their four runs in 3 minutes, 22.45 seconds. Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs of the U.S. were second in 3:22.52, the 0.07-second margin being the closest between first and second in any Olympic women's bobsled race." (AP, 2/21/18)
Photo © Clive Mason/Getty Images Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs of the United States celebrate in the finish area during the Women's Bobsleigh heats on day twelve of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games
(Chris Chase, USA Today/Olympics Wire, Feb 19)
"The greatest moment of the 2018 Winter Olympics came on an icy track early Monday morning as most of America slept.
"Most will never hear about it. Fewer will see the replays. That's too bad, because the two-man bobsled event is as good as the Olympics get, combining the triumphs of high achievement with that nebulous...Olympic spirit we always talk about...After three runs and more than 4,000 meters, the top five [were] separated by 0.13 seconds."
The exciting fourth and final run produced a tie for the gold. The Canadian team of Justin Kripps and Alexander Kopacz finished with a four run total time of 3:16.86, identical to that of Germany's team of Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis.
As the Canadians flashed across the finish line, "the Germans..immediately realized what happened and began one of the most unique celebrations the Olympics has ever seen. Their reaction to the tie was what turned a great sporting event into a wonderful sporting moment... Friedrich and Margis didn't just celebrate their gold, they celebrated the sharing of the gold by leaping over the barrier and beginning a makeshift ice party with their Canadian counterparts and every available member of both country's bobsled teams. It looked like a baseball team celebrating a no-hitter. .. In the rare instance of Olympic gold-medal ties, there are always great pictures of athletes sharing the podium, surprised at the situation. What was special was how Teams Canada and Germany came together to act as if a dual-gold was always the goal. It led to a rowdy celebration we wouldn't have seen otherwise."
Photo Credits: Top left - © Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse
Bottom left - © File Photo File Photo
"Marcel Hirscher has turned his domination in the giant slalom into a second gold medal at the Pyeongchang Olympics. The 28-year-old Austrian star extended his first-run lead to win by a huge margin of 1.27 seconds over hard-charging Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway. Kristoffersen rose from 10th-fastest in the morning with the quickest time in the second run. Hirsher won his first Olympic gold medal in the Alpine combined last week...He was never seriously challenged Sunday as he continues to compile his historically great season."
Alexandra Jekova(BG), Chloe Trespeuch(FR), Eva Samkova (CZ) Michela Moioli (IT), Lindsey Jacobellis (USA) and De Sousa Mabileau Julia Pereira(FR) compete in the women's snowboard cross finals © Gregory Bull/AP Photo
Nikita Tregubov of Russia slides into the finish area during the Men's Skeleton heats on Feb. 15. © Matthias Hangst/Getty Images
Phoebe Staenz (88), of Switzerland, fights for control of the puck with South Korea's Choi Yujung (6)and Han Soojin (17), of the combined Koreas team. © Frank Franklin II/AP Photo
Miu Suzaki and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan compete in the pairs figure skating short program on Feb. 14. © Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press/AP
Photo: Cameron Spencer/Getty
"Shaun White needed all 97.25 points of his third and final run in the half-pipe to win gold Wednesday at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Unlike Chloe Kim's runaway the night before in the women's final, White was pushed by Japan's Ayumu Hirano and Australia's Scotty James. Hirano even passed White after scoring a 95.25 with a strong second run. But White, whose turn came last, had a chance to top Hirano to get gold, and he did so with a near-perfect third run, throwing down back-to-back 1440s followed by back-to-back 1260s. " (Business Insider, Feb 14)
"Shaun White was 19 and raggedy when he won his first gold medal, 23 and exultant when he won his second, 27 and corporate when he suffered a letdown and arrived at a professional fork. Wednesday afternoon on PyeongChang Halfpipe, White completed his competitive revival at 31 with a reinforcement and a declaration. proving himself to be the greatest snowboarder ever." (Washington Post, Feb 14)
Matthias Mayer took home the gold medal in the Super-G with a nearly flawless run Thursday in the 2018 Winter Olympics on Friday 2/16.
"Norway had won this event in each of the last four Olympics, but the Austrian finished in first this time around with a time of 1:24.44. Beat Feuz of Switzerland finished 0.13 seconds back to take home the silver medal, while defending champion Kjetil Jansrud earned the bronze." (Bleacher Report)
Photo: Matthias Mayer Super-G (JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/Getty Images)
One day After winning the gold in the women's giant slalom on Tuesday, the U.S.A.'s Mikaela Shiffron missed winning the bronze in her best event by 0.08 seconds.
Chloe Kim stamped her name on a new era of snowboarding with a run down the halfpipe that, officially, did not mean anything, but to her, meant everything....(AP, Feb 13)
On the last run of Tuesday's sunsplashed final, Kim hit back-to-back 1080-degree spins on her second and third jumps -- repeating a combination no other woman has ever done in a competition.
She landed them squarely, sent her already super-hyped family at the bottom into overdrive and sent out the message that everyone from grandma to those at the roots of this sport love to hear: `'I knew I wasn't going to be completely satisfied taking home the gold, but knowing that I could've done better."
"Evgenia Medvedeva set a new world record on Sunday in the women's figure skating short programme, with a brilliant skate that helped the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) into second place in the team competition behind Canada."
"He knew it as soon as he landed: that was a huge run. 17 year-old Red Gerard claimed the first Olympic gold medal for the United States at the 2018 Olympic Games."
USA Today's Olympics Wire has some excellent back-story coverage. Below are two articles from the site.
In an Olympic moment reminiscent of the original purposes of the ancient games, North and South Korean athletes entered the opening ceremonies under the same flag.
"Hosts South Korea produced a show of unity with neighbours North Korea during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Their athletes entered under the same flag during the parade, after months of tension in the Korean peninsula. 'We are stronger than all the forces that want to divide us,' declared Olympic president Thomas Bach. " (BBC, Feb 9)
Photo:Chang W. Lee/ NYTimes "A unified Korean team marched out together carrying the unification flag at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. "
Winter Olympics
Winter Olympics XXIII will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, from Friday, February 9, 2018 to Sunday, February 25, 2018.
Norway has more gold metals in the Winter Olympics than any other country - 118. The US has the second highest total with 96.
The Olympics of ancient Greece were preceded by a truce. All city-states suspended hostilities during the games so that their athletes could travel to Olympia. The truce was announced to the entire Greek world and lasted from one to three months. That seems totally appropriate for these winter Olympics. In what may be a nod to the ancient traditions, the US and South Korea have suspended their joint military operations and North Korea has suspended missile testing.
© The Associated Press - United States' Lindsey Vonn celebrates at the finish area during an alpine ski, women's world Cup downhill race, in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Marco Tacca)
"Lindsey Vonn won her second World Cup downhill of the weekend on Sunday in a perfect dress rehearsal for the Pyeongchang Olympics. It was the American's third straight triumph in the discipline after also winning in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, two weeks ago...Vonn's 81st World Cup win on Sunday left her just five short of the all-time best mark set by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark in the 1980s."
Photo top right:
Creating the atmosphere - A worker passes a snow-making machine as preparations continue for the Winter Olympics on Feb. 3 in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Copyright: Charlie Riedel/AP Photo
Photo bottom right:
Night lights - A tree is silhouetted beside the ski jumping venue of the the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on Jan. 22. Copyright: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters
The Samsung SmartSuit will be among the many innovations seen in Pyeongchang. Some others: 5G mobile connectivity, MIPs helmets, airbags, and a bullet train from Seoul.
Below are two of my favorite images from the Associated Press Slideshow "Buildup to the 2018 Winter Olympics"
Will the Tokyo Summer Olympics be safe?
POSTED JUNE 9, 2021
After a one-year COVID delay, the summer Olympics will be held in Tokyo starting Friday July 23 and running through Sunday August 8. Japan is just now coming off a surge in coronavirus cases and pandemic restrictions are still in effect. Japan's cases are now declining after a surge in mid-May that saw more than 7,000 new daily cases reported. Tokyo and nine other prefectures were placed in a state of emergency in mid-April. These measures were originally meant to last until mid-May, but Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has continued to extend these restrictions, most recently until June 20. Less than 5% of Japan's population has been vaccinated, but a mass-vaccination program has been gaining ground since late May, with the goal of inoculation for all 36 million residents aged 65 years and over by the end of July. [1]
The first Olympic team to arrive was the Australian softball team on June 4. They will now spend the seven weeks before the Games confined to their hotel. "We can't go outside and go for a walk, but that's OK," Chelsea Forkin, a member of Australia's early-arriving softball team, told The New York Times. "We understand the rules and want to be respectful." [2]
As other athletes prepare to travel to Tokyo, medical experts are urging caution:
- Tokyo Medical Association chairman Haruo Ozaki said on his Facebook page that in his position as "head of the medical workers, I have to say that holding the Games is really difficult."
- An editorial in the British Medical Journal titled "Reconsider this summer's Olympic and Paralympic Games" said: "While the determination is encouraging, there has been a lack of transparency about the benefits and risk, and international mass gathering events such as Tokyo 2020 are still neither safe nor secure."
- "We believe the IOC's determination to proceed with the Olympic Games is not informed by the best scientific evidence," a group of US public health experts wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine. "For us to connect safely, we believe urgent action is needed for these Olympic Games to proceed."
The latest surveys show up to 80% of the Japanese public in favor of cancelling or postponing the games. Perhaps reflecting this sentiment, about 10,000 of the 80,000 registered volunteers supporting the events had quit as of last week, according to Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee officials. [3]
Japan and the Olympic Committee stand to lose billions of dollars if the games are cancelled, and in spite of rising opposition, the Tokyo organizing committee and the International Olympic Committee insist that the Games will go on.
- Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto told reporters that the organizing committee's executive board did not discuss a cancellation or postponement at its meeting on Tuesday June 7. "There was no talk about that whatsoever." [4]
- Senior International Olympic Committee member Richard Pound told the Evening Standard in a June 2 interview, “Barring Armageddon that we can’t see or anticipate, these things are a go.” IOC Vice President John Coates has said the games will open on July 23 — state of emergency, or no state of emergency. [5]
Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga says the authorities will do their utmost to ensure a "safe and secure" event.
Among the measures being taken:
No spectators from outside Japan will be present at the Games. A decision is pending on whether Japanese spectators will be allowed.
The Japanese Olympic Committee has set a goal to vaccinate 95 percent of all athletes and officials by the start of the Tokyo Games.
The IOC has set up vaccination hubs in Qatar and Rwanda to inoculate those who have been unable to get vaccinated in their home countries.
Visiting Olympic media will be monitored using GPS to ensure they don't visit places that they have not registered in advance. Foreign journalists will be required to refrain from using public transport in their first 14 days after their entry. They will also be strictly required to refrain from using shared accommodation. [4]
In the soon-to-issued third version of the Playbook for the Games, organizers are expected to announce daily testing for athletes. Athletes will be required to stay within a “bubble” consisting of the Olympic Village on Tokyo Bay, and venues and training areas. Japan’s Kyodo news agency, citing unnamed sources, said athletes and staff will have to be tested twice within 96 hours before leaving home. They will also be tested upon arrival in Japan. [6]
References: [1] ESPN, June 4 [2] The Week, June 4 [3] CNN, June 3 [4] Nikkei.com, June 1 [5] Associated Press, June 2 [6] WTNH, June 8
The long distance runners
POSTED AUGUST 8, 2021
The Tokyo Summer Olympics have come to a close. Delayed a year by the pandemic, the Games showcased the world's greatest athletes and provided us with examples of all that is good in sports - physical prowess and hard-earned skills, sportsmanship and camaraderie, courage, determination, and will.
Long distance runners, especially marathoners, are a breed apart. In these Olympics, not only did they display supreme endurance, they had to battle through fatigue, heat and humidity to prevail.
Sifan Hassan (Netherlands)
Sifan Hassan, the 28 year old, Ethiopian-born Dutch runner completed an amazing eight-day performance as she took home two gold medals and a bronze in the long distance women's track events. In her last race, she took the gold in the 10,000 meter with an astounding kick to the finish and then collapsed in exhaustion. Hassan thus completed a unique "triple" taking medals in three different length races.
Her quest for th4e triple began a year ago when "a friend...who doesn't understand athletics said, 'Why don't you run three distances?' At first I had to laugh, but then I thought, ‘nobody does that’. So I started training very hard."
Hassan had run three 1,500- and two 5,000-meter races by the time she lined up for Saturday’s start. She’d also tripped over another runner in one of her 1,500 qualifying rounds and had to pick herself and sprint the last lap to win and keep her quest for the triple alive. Not since the days of the great Emil Zatopek has a distance runner clinched three individual medals. Zatopek incredibly got golds in the 5,000, 10,000 and marathon at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. In more recent times, a 5,000-10,000 double was considered the limit for the greats. [sidebar]
The video of the highlights from the 10,000 m race can be seen on YouTube.
Molly Seidel (USA)
Competing in a marathon for just the third time in her career, American long-distance runner Molly Seidel earned the bronze in the Women's Marathon. Both the men's and women's marathons had been moved from Tokyo to Sapporo on Japan's northernmost island in an attempt to beat the heat and humidity. The move was unsuccessful as the athletes had to run the 26 miles with both temperatures and humidity in the 80's.
Seidel, 27, became the first American female marathoner to medal since Deena Kastor won bronze at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. Seidel, a collegiate cross-country champion, battled heat and humidity to hang with some of the world’s best female marathoners, including Kenyan runners Peres Jepchirchir, who won the race to earn gold, and the female marathon world-record holder, Brigid Kosgei, who took silver. The Kenyan medalists supported each other during the race, running together for most of it and even sharing a water bottle. "It is just teamwork. We decided to help each other because we wanted to be one and two," Jepchirchir said. [1, 2]
Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya)
Many consider Eliud Kipchoge to be the greatest marathoner of all-time. In 2019 in Vienna, he became the first person to run a marathon in under 2 hours. Going into this summer's Olympics, he had won 12 of the 14 marathons that he participated in.
He has been called a transcendent figure, "a legend, who transforms and ignites their discipline far beyond its traditional boundaries to inspire millions of people who would otherwise have little interest in that sport." Comparing Kipchoge's impact to that of legends like Muhammed Ali, Michael Jordan, Usain Bolt, and Pele, Dancan Muhindi writes [sidebar]:
At a press briefing in Nairobi before his world record performance in Vienna, Eliud powerfully explained why he was going to Vienna to make athletic history. “I am going to Vienna to inspire a whole generation. I am going to Vienna to sell the idea that no human is limited. I am going to Vienna to inspire the human family. I want to inspire that journalist, lawyer, engineer, teacher, driver that when they wake up they can do more. It’s not about setting a world record but it’s about making history and inspiring the human race.”
"No human is limited." All of us "can do more." Maybe not as much as Eliud Kipchoge but perhaps more than we thought we ever could.
Oh, right, the men's marathon. Eliud Kipchoge clocked 2 hours, 8 minutes, 38 seconds to win gold and become the third runner to win back-to-back gold medals in the Olympic men's marathon. . He pushed away from the field at the 30km mark. By the 35km stage, he had jumped out to a lead of 27 seconds and extended it to one minute and 17 seconds by 40km. [3]
Kipchoge finished the race with his signature smile on his face. Asked why he smiles during his races, Kipchoge has said that he smiles to relax and work through the pain, employing a strategy some runners have long believed to be true: that smiling while running can help you to run more efficiently. [4]
Keep smiling, Eliud. You are an inspiration to the human race.
Team USA led both in gold and total medals. The leading countries are shown below. Links to other stories from the Tokyo Summer Olympics are in the sidebar.
Sources: [1] NBC [2] NPR [3] Al Jazeera [4] Runner's World
Winter Olympics close on a "one world, one family" theme
POSTED FEBRUARY 21, 2022
The strictest COVID restrictions yet, a diplomatic boycott by the United States, a doping saga - the Beijing Winter Olympics ended with an understated closing ceremony emphasizing children, Chinese tradition and ordinary people. After the traditional parade of the athletes, Beijing passed the baton to Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy, which will host the 2026 Winter Games. Two children, one from Cortina and one from Milan, then rolled a globe across cracking ice in what appeared to represent the fragile state of the planet. [NBC, link below right]
Norway, as usual for Winter Olympics. took home the most medals including the most gold. The United States, with a population 60 times greater than that of Norway, ranks second on the all-time medal list. Germany ranks third.
NBC's Bay Area affiliate - link below right - reminds us of what the Olympic Games at their best are all about (besides winning medals, of course) with some of the best moments of sportsmanship and camaraderie from the 2022 games.
