2006 Turin Winter Olympics Blog

Men’s Team Pursuit

Gold Italy
Silver Canada
Bronze Netherlands

Women’s Team Pursuit

Gold Germany
Silver Canada
Bronze Russia

Nordic Combined Team

Gold Austria
Silver Germany
Bronze Finland

Normally I type all the team names, but there were way too many names in these team sports, and I can’t cut and paste them, so I have to type them. I would be typing for the next hour if I had to type that many Finnish and Russian names.

Gold Meng Wang China
Silver Evgenia Radanova Bulgaria
Bronze Anouk Leblanc-Boucher Canada

Chad Hedrick’s goal of five gold medals came to an end today when Team USA was eliminated from the speed skating team pursuit competition. I’m very sad that Chad won’t be able to tie Eric Heiden’s record but hopeful that he will add more medals to the gold one he already won.

I didn’t, but apparently they get some sort of bonus if they earn a medal. I don’t know if this is only for gold or if any color medal gets you a check.

Joey Cheek is donating his $25,000 bonus (that’s right— $25,000) to the refugees in Dafur. That makes him a champion human being, as well as a really fast skater— at least in my book.

Biathlon Men’s 10 km sprint

Gold Sven Fischer Germany
Silver Halvard Hanevold Norway
Bronze Frode Andresen Norway

Women’s 500m speedskating

Gold Svetlana Zhurova Russia
Silver Manli Wang China
Bronze Ren Hui China

Women’s single luge

Gold Sylke Otto Germany
Silver Silke Kraushaar Germany
Bronze Tatjana Huefner Germany

Those are the craziest things I’ve ever seen. 16 skaters on the ice at once! I couldn’t tell who was coming and who was going. And I love the “hand off” push. I’ll be sure to mention the next time one of these will be televised. It was on around midnight last night, but maybe next time will be at a more viewable hour.

You would think that this would have been finalized a long time ago. But, no, the pursuit squad had just been announced. The men’s team pursuit will be Chad Hedrick, KC Boutiette , Derek Parra , Clay Mull and Charles Leveille.

Shani Davis is skipping the pursuit to focus on his individual races. Many think that this greatly decreases U.S. chances for a medal, but I’m optimistic that they’ll do just fine.

The women’s team will be Skating on the women’s team will be Jennifer Rodriguez , Amy Sannes , Catherine Raney , Maria Lamb and Margaret Crowley .

Gold Joey Cheek United States
Silver Dmitry Dorofeyev Russia
Bronze Lee Kang Seok South Korea

Woohoo! Yea, Joey! He won an Olympic bronze in the 1000m in Salt Lake City Olympics and now gold in the 500m in Turin.

You can read a full recap of the race here.

So, I’ve been waiting until this was televised to really talk about this. What was he thinking? He didn’t need to finish first. He could have finished second and gone to the finals. And could the announcers have doomed him any more by talking about what an easy, smart race this was for Apolo? ARGH! Oh, well, he still has several more chances to medal at this Olympics, although his next best chance is the 1000m.

He looked just stunned. And his parents couldn’t have looked happier. If he makes it to the five gold medals, will he be even happier, or will it be just old hat by then?

Gold Ireen Wust Netherlands
Silver Renate Groenewold Netherlands
Bronze Cindy Klassen Canada

After a fall in a qualifying round, Apolo Ohno is out of the running for gold in the 1500 m in short track skating. Ohno won the 1500m gold in 2002 after a South Korean skater was disqualified. Apolo will still compete in the 1000m, 500m, and relay races scheduled for next week.

Medal results for 1500m

Gold Hyun-Soo Ahn South Korea
Silver Ho-Suk Lee South Korea
Bronze Li Jiajun China

I mentioned this briefly in a couple of different places yesterday, but I really thought it deserved more coverage, since he is a Texas boy. He received a ton of coverage last night on our local television stations. If you saw the coverage, you know that yesterday was the anniversary of his grandmother, whom he was very close to, passing away, so he considered it a very special time to win.

I don’t know if you caught it, but at the very end of the NBC broadcast (well, before they started broadcasting again an hour later), they mentioned two fortune cookies that Chad Hedrick had gotten recently. Apparently, he’s a bit superstitious (I guess that’s why he wrote his deceased grandmother’s name on his skate yesterday), and he keeps his fortunes. The two fortunes that he had kept were “Soon You will be sitting on top of the world” and “Your Golden Oppurtunity is coming very soon”.

Way to go Chad!

You’ve never heard of Chad Hedrick? Well, I predict that soon he will be a household name, just like Mary Lou Retton or Bruce Jenner. Chad Hedrick is the former inline skating champion who is competing in the Turin Olympics next week. He has a chance to win five gold medals. If he does, then he will tie Eric Heiden’s Olympic record. You can read a great article on Chad here.

What do Chad Hedrick, Derek Parra and Jennifer Rodriguez have in common, other than a place on the 2006 U.S. Winter Olympic Speedskating team? They are all former standouts off the ice. Before switching to speed skating, each had earned recognition as an inline skater. Because there is no inline Olympic event, many inline skaters are making the decision to leave the concrete behind and transfer their talents for inline skating to the ice.

And they’re doing quite well. Hedrick may actually tie Eric Heiden’s record of five gold medals when he skates in Turin. Rodriguez is a three-time Olympian. Parra won a gold in Salt Lake City and hopes to repeat in Turin.