orangeman

Great skill by all 4 racers. Wonderful final!!

Wooooo! Exactly what I wanted!!!

All four have looked very good all day. Should be a great final!

I'm sorry about my cynicism earlier. Still stinging from seeing Canada lose twice live last night.

Fanny!

I was at the Olympics yesterday (will share more later), and on Korean TVs everywhere they kept showing the women's relay on repeat. This is not new, as Korean TV just shows Korean gold medal races on repeat non-stop. I'm not kidding, in 2006 they showed a short track race, I counted, 23 times in a row. Then I got bored and changed the channel. Anyway, yesterday they were showing it again and again trying to justify the Korean win. At one point they paused it to show two Canadians on the track. Of course it was .5 seconds after an exchange, but why let facts get in the way? Then they spliced together BBC and NBC commentary to 'prove' that even foreign media agreed Korea was in the right. Needless to say, it was heavily edited. It was just so desperate and transparent. I'm sorry to say it, and I wasn't rooting against anyone, but Korea got some karma in the other races yesterday. Other than that, it was a great day and well organized. Volunteers were exceptionally nice and helpful, so props to the locals!

Three racers, two move on, yet a powerhouse like Canada cannot. It's curling on snow for us right now.

I thought by going to women's hockey and men's curling I'd have a decent shot at seeing Canada win something. Nope. Worse, I was with an American!

Your link goes to the short track relay final.

I think Sweden often has goaltender issues.

In a one game playoff, anything is possible. Germany did just beat Sweden after all. But Canada will be a bit tougher, and Canada will not be taking Germany so lightly. Or at least they shouldn't. Korea is not as good as Germany and while Canada dominated them, they had trouble scoring and gave up some good chances. I'm certainly not taking anything for granted. It's the Olympics. Crazy stuff happens all the time.

It's still a strong team, it's just that it would be stronger with NHL players. I think Canada, the USA, Russia and Sweden suffer from the lack of NHL most, but Russia (and Sweden to an extent) have some excellent talent in their home leagues they can use here. Basically, I'd say Canada is still a very good team, 2nd only to Russia (OAR) here. With NHL players, Canada is favourite but it's not a given that they would win (USA, Russia, Sweden or Finland could win gold). Without the NHL players Canada was favourite to get a medal with Sweden, USA and Finland, with OAR as much favourites as Canada would be in the former scenario.

GERMANY! Flashes of 2002 when Belarus beat Sweden going on to play Canada in the semis.

Ok, now that I can breath... GO GERMANY!

Great! Will be at the semi finals tomorrow with an American friend. Right after womens hockey game. Worked out well!

Embarrassment for Canada.

I'm not sure. Women's curling and bobsled were supposed to be gimmes, and they look doubtful. Women's short track relay was denied a medal for the first time, and given the reffing I'm not sure what's going to happen in the men's relay either. Need a couple surprise/outside shots to get on the podium to beat 26, i.e. the women's pursuit team tonight.

Here are the two Koreans on the track, at least half a lap before the hand off. The Korean closer to the inside has not been tagged, yet is clearly interfering with the Chinese, and getting int he way of Canada. Two seconds later, two Koreans still on the track. Now the non-tagged Korean is clearly blocking the Italian skater. I really, really want to make it clear that I am complaining about this not because Canada lost out on a medal (though there is that, too). It's because I really like this sport and corruption like this does not help its image. It already seems dodgy, and decisions like this with no accountability (the judges didn't even have to give reasons for their decisions), really discredits the sport.

Well, Humphries was 0.23 down last Olympics after the first day only to come back and win gold. The bad news is she was in 2nd, and now she has many more to jump over. Not to mention she's further behind.

Over scoring for the home team and a call here or there is expected. But tonight was blatant cheating and corruption, and it's not just the Koreans but the officials. The only reason Canada and China were DQ'ed was so Korea can say that their extra skater on the ice wasn't a problem since those other teams were already not 'official' anyway. Imagine in the 4x100 relay at the SOG a runner going into someone else's lane completely and intentionally pushing them over while their teammate started out of the blocks before they had the baton and then ran ahead of everyone to win. That is basically what happened tonight. That would never be accepted in the SOG, yet Korea gets its gold here.

First time Canada did not medal in the women's relay at the Olympics. Instead the gold goes to the corrupt judges. Sincere congratulations to Italy and the Netherlands. Man, I can take losing, but I can't take cheating and corruption.

Oh, I lived there for 10 years. That's how I know exactly what just happened.

So you can have two skaters on the track for a lap and trip another team and they get DQ'ed???? I've never seen anything like this. Korean bullshit reffing.

THIS IS EFFING BULLSHIT!!!

There were two Koreans on the track right before the fall before they tagged!