2006 Turin Winter Olympics Blog

Well, it’s a good thing Bode didn’t care about medals because today’s elimination meant the end of his Olympic experience— at least for this year. Will Bode be back in 2010? I just can’t even begin to guess what Bode will do. The fun of watching Bode ski, though, in my opinion is that you just never know what will happen. Will he win gold? Will he make it to bottom of the hill? Will he ski into a tree? Will he come hurtling down the hill in a giant snowball, arms and legs all akimbo, ala the cartoons? One just never knows.

Bode wasn’t the only one who had a rough day skiing today in the men’s slalom. 9 out of 29 of today’s contestants were eliminated for straddling a gate or skiing off course. In the end, it was the Austrians’ day to shine— again.

Gold Benjamin Raich Austria
Silver Reinfried Herbst Austria
Bronze Rainer Schoenfelder Austria

Woohoo! Finally, a gold medal for the U.S. women’s Olympic downhill team. Julia Mancuso won the giant slalom today. Julia had an interesting childhood, with a father who was in and out of prison on drug charges. The Italians love her because of her Italian heritage and often wave Italian flags while she is skiing.

Gold Julia Mancuso USA
Silver Tanja Poutiainen Finland
Bronze Anna Ottosson Sweden

Short Track, Women’s 3000m relay

Gold South Korea
Silver Canada
Bronze Italy

I have to say I’ve been really impressed by Italy in short track and speed skating. Who knew they would be such a force?

Freestyle skiing, women’s aerials

Gold Evelyne Leu Switzerland
Silver Nina Li China
Bronze Alisa Camplin Australia

Congratulations to Alisa! Not bad for someone they didn’t even think would be able to compete.

Downhill skiing, women’s slalom

Gold Anja Paerson Sweden
Silver Nicole Hosp Austria
Bronze Marlie Schild Austria

What a surprise! Austria won medals in downhill skiing.

Speed skating, women’s 1500m

Gold Cindy Klassen Canada
Silver Kristina Groves Canada
Bronze Ireen Wust Netherlands

By the way, this win made Cindy Klassen the most decorated Canadian woman at a single Olympics.

In other news, U.S. men’s curling and hockey lost today. The men’s curling team will now play Great Britain for the bronze.

Bode Miller hurt his ankle playing basketball with teammates on Tuesday. Despite this injury, which is described as mnor, he will still be racing in Saturday’s slalom race.

The men and women took 4 out of 6 available medals in today’s alpine events: women’s super G and men’s giant slalom.

Michaela Dorfmeister and Alexandra Meissnitzer took gold and bronze in the super G.

Benjamin Raich and Hermann Maier took gold and bronze in the giant slalom.

It’s so interesting to me when there’s a sport that is so dominated by one country. Austria has 9 out of the 21 alpine medals that have been awarded. Croatia is the country behind them in the alpine medal count, and they’ve won 3. That’s dominance.

Men’s downhill Giant Slalom

Gold Benjamin Raich Austria
Silver Joel Chenal France
Bronze Hermann Maier Austria

One begins to wonder if Ted Ligety will be the only U.S. medal.

Ironically, Turin didn’t have any snow when the Olympic Games started. Man-made snow saved the day. Now, they have too much snow. Heavy snowfall stopped the women’s super G competition today, after delaying the men’s super G yesterday. Snowfall is expected to continue tomorrow. So, that brings to mind a question. What would happen if there were a sudden winter storm that lasted for, say, a week? Would they call off certain events? Delay them until after the Closing Ceremonies? Delay the Closing Ceremonies? Is there any precedent for this?

But that’s not really what I want to talk about. Well, it’s kind of what I want to talk about, but not exactly. Did you see him get disqualified? The fact that he didn’t cartwheel into the trees is proof that he really is a great skier. Sure, he may goof around, drink too much before races and take too many chances. But when he lost control on that turn and had one leg off the ground without plowing that ski into the ground and breaking his ski or his leg— wow! That was impressive.

Officials delayed today’s downhill portion of the combined race due to high winds. They tried one skier, but the wind literally blew her over during a jump. The downhill portion will be skied Saturday afternoon. The slalom portion will still be skied today.

Because he doesn’t care whether he wins any medals. On the one hand, I totally agree with him. Ideally, many things in life should be about being true to yourself, not about pleasing others. On the other hand, when you go to the Olympics, you have agreed to represent your country and, therefore, you have taken on (in my opinion) some responsibility to others for your performance. Perhaps Bode is better cut out for World Cup competition where he can win or lose and please or displease only himself. Maybe the Olympics just aren’t the venue for his “Live free, or die” way of living.

Well, it just goes to show— with the Olympics, you should probably not try to predict who’s going to win. After Bode Miller was eliminated, it was commonly thought that Austria’s Benjamin Raich would win gold. I mentioned earlier today that Ted Ligety was expected to bring home bronze. Well, surprise, surpise! Ted Ligety is coming home with a medal, but it will be gold, not bronze. Congratulations, Ted!

What happened to Benjamin Raich? During one of his runs, he skied off the course and, like Bode Miller, was disqualified. With the Olympics, you just never can tell.

Gold Ted Ligety United States
Silver Ivica Kostelic Croatia
Bronze Rainer Schoenfelder Austria

What is going on with Bode Miller? Is it distraction from too many television interviews? Was he just not really into these Olympics?

In a somewhat controversial decision, Miller was disqualified from today’s downhill combined when he straddled a gate. It took over 30 minutes of reviews to determine that he should be disqualified. Really, if it takes that long to figure it out, should it count? The disqualification placed Austria’s Benjamin Raich in first.

Miller seemed completely unruffled by the disqualification, which is fairly typical. The disqualification did leave American Ted Ligety in third place, with a good shot at a medal.

Lindsey Kildow will be competing on Wednesday. However, Carole Montillet-Carles, the defending Olympic champion, will not be competing. Her injuries should not cause her permanent problems, but they are too serious for her to continue her Olympic bid.

Lindsey Kildow has a badly bruised hip from that spill earlier today. She will stay overnight in the hospital but has not ruled out competing.

Canadian Allison Forsyth was not so fortunate. An MRI taken after her fall revealed that she had a torn knee ligament. She will be unable to compete in the Olympic games.

All x-rays are clear. She has some back pain, but the doctor says that is to be expected. They are not yet sure when she will be released from the hospital.

Carole Montillet-Carles, of France, who also crashed earlier in the day appeared to be doing well with no major injuries.

There was another crash during training, as well. Allison Forsyth, a Canadian skier who won a world championship bronze medal in 2003, was taken to the same hospital as Kildow for abdominal ultrasound tests and scans of her knee after crashing into the safety netting.

Alpine ski organizers redesigned the Fraiteve course to make it more difficult after racers complained last year at a World Cup event that it was not challenging enough. I bet they’re rethinking that complaint now.