Archives for February 2014

SOCHI, Russia (AP) — Not once in the five Olympics since women’s hockey was added to the Winter Games has Canada failed to reach the final.

They’ve got three gold medals and one silver so far. All that’s left in these Winter Games is yet another game against the U.S. to determine which medal they’ll bring home from Sochi.

The unbeaten Canadians clinched a spot in the Olympic championship game on Monday for the fifth straight time, beating Switzerland 3-1 in the semifinals. Natalie Spooner scored twice and Shannon Szabados stopped 21 shots to help the three-time defending gold medalists claim their Olympic birthright.

“We feel like we’ve prepared all year for this game,” Spooner said.

The U.S. beat Sweden 6-1 earlier in the day to reach the gold medal game, which it has not won since the sport’s Olympic debut in Nagano in 1998. Canada and the United States have won every gold medal and all but one silver in the sport’s Olympic history, and they’ve met in the final of every world championship since the inaugural event in 1990.

Canada beat the U.S. in the round-robin of the Sochi Games on Wednesday — the Americans’ only loss of the tournament. Canada and the United States also played seven times in the run-up to the Olympics, with the Americans holding a 4-3 edge.

“We’ve played a lot of great games against them,” Spooner said. “It’s going to be another one of those in the final.”

Melodie Daoust also scored for Canada, and five-time Winter Olympian Hayley Wickenheiser had a pair of assists to extend her Olympic career points record.

Florence Schelling, who went to Northeastern University in Boston, made 45 saves for Switzerland in what was the closest game against Canada in Swiss Olympic history. The Swiss will play Sweden on Thursday for the bronze medal.

“I think for us, it was a great game,” said Swiss coach Rene Kammerer, who described himself as “happy to be disappointed.”

“Months ago, if we lose to Canada just 3-1, it would be a great game for us,” he said. “I’m disappointed to lose. But, hey, it’s Canada, one of the best teams in the world, and we know it.”

Spooner scored 7:29 into the game after circling behind the net, putting a high wrist shot just beyond the reach of Schelling’s glove. She made it 2-0 on a power play less than four minutes later, and Daoust needed just 23 seconds after that to give Canada a 3-0 lead.

Jessica Lutz scored for Switzerland 5:14 into the second period to make it a two-goal game, and Szabados needed several good saves to keep if from getting any closer.

via AP

The Olympic veterans moved directly to the finals after the qualification rounds. Leading the way was American Snow Idol, Kelly Clark with a 95.00 score. Nipping at her heels was Australia’s sweetheart Torah Bright and fellow American Hannah Teter. Clark topped the scores but all that goes out the window with the finals. Twelve riders will have two runs in hopes of capturing Olympic Gold. The best score of the two will determine the next Olympic medalists. Clark, Bright and Teter have all been on the Olympic podium before.

Team USA’s Kaitlyn Farrington narrowly missed the direct to finals qualification but nailed her first run in the semi-finals which puts her back in the mix once again. Unfortunately teammate, Arielle Gold had to opt out of the Games due to a reported dislocated shoulder injury. Arielle’s brother Taylor, also an olympic snowboarder, confirmed via twitter that she suffered the injury in a practice run just before the qualification run.

The finals will take place LIVE on NBCOlympics.com and broadcast later this evening on tv. This will be an incredibly competitive field with the odds-on favorite being Kelly Clark. The halfpipe conditions have been challenging for the riders so anything is possible when it comes time for the finals.

HEAT ONE RESULTS
1. Kelly Clark (USA), 95.00
2. Queralt Castellet (ESP), 93.25
3. Sophie Rodriguez (FRA), 78.50

HEAT TWO RESULTS
1. Torah Bright (AUS), 93.00
2. Hannah Teter (USA), 92.00
3. Xuetong Cai (CHN), 88.00

SEMI-FINAL RESULTS
1. Kaitlyn Farrington (USA), 87.50
2. Jiayu Liu (CHN), 81.25
3. Shuang Li (CHN), 80.00
4. Ursina Haller (SUI), 44.50
5. Mirabelle Thovex (FRA), 70.75
6. Rana Okada (JAP), 70.00

Follow live coverage on twitter @hardbodynews.

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia (AP) — The lasting image of freestyle skiing pioneer Sarah Burke is her ever-present smile, the one that helped inspire kids across Canada to slap on their skis and open their minds.

In an event that Burke’s extraordinary vision helped bring to the Olympics, Dara Howell channeled her idol’s style.

Mouth agape after a spectacular run on slush more suited for a snowcone, Howell continued Canada’s dominance at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park by soaring to gold as women’s slopestyle skiing made a sometimes inauspicious Olympic debut.

“I said the other day that I really hope a Canadian brings home a gold medal and it will be for Sarah,” Howell said. “This medal is definitely for Sarah. She pushed the sport.”

Burke died in 2012 at age 29 following an accident while training on the halfpipe.

A charismatic and accomplished performer and one of the key players in expanding freestyle skiing’s role in the Olympics, she served as a role model to a large swath of the Canadian freestyle team, including the 19-year-old who found herself atop a podium on Tuesday.

“She always wanted to see the progression,” Howell said. “To see the girls throwing what the guys were throwing … today I feel like that’s what I did.”

Howell unleashed a switch-900 — an off-axis spin that includes 2 ½ rotations — during a run that finished with a score of 94.20, trouncing the rest of the field on a warm and sometimes frightening day.

Devin Logan of the United States took silver. Kim Lamarre earned bronze to give Canada seven medals in four days of snowboarding and freestyle skiing, including three events in which they took two of the three spots on the podium.

“We’re over the moon right now,” said Peter Judge, CEO of the Canadian Freestyle Skiing Association. “Our target was to get six total — and we still have a few events left.”

Howell’s triumph was tempered by a series of frightening crashes, including one by teammate Yuki Tsubota. That ended with Tsubota being carried off the mountain on a stretcher with a possible fractured jaw. Russian Anna Mirtova wiped out during both of her final runs and said she’s heading for knee surgery.

“It was tough conditions,” Lamarre said. “It’s not easy for speed on slushy snow. You can’t always be perfect and land everything.”

Maybe, but Logan conceded that the Canadians are more perfect than most at the moment. While the U.S. grabbed gold in both men’s and women’s slopestyle snowboarding over the weekend, Canada has dominated everything else. Slopestyle snowboarder Mark McMorris earned bronze and Canada went 1-2 in both men’s and women’s moguls.

“They’re really good as you can see,” Logan said. “They’re definitely giving us a run for the money. It helps us progress our sport. It’s nice having a little bit of a rivalry trying to beat them or one up them.”

Only Logan’s acrobatic run to an 85.40 in the slopestyle skiing finals prevented the top of the podium from being covered with the Maple Leaf flag. Logan’s medal-winning sprint included a frontside 720-degree spin in which she gamely held on while landing.

Logan, who is from West Dover, Ver. but now lives in Oceanside, Calif., turns 21 next Monday.

After a soul-testing stretch that included two comebacks from a torn ACL in her right knee, her celebration includes a trip to Las Vegas and adding a tattoo.

“Not of the Olympic rings,” she added with a laugh.

Howell’s plans are more demure, including a trip back to Canada to ski with her 99-year-old grandfather, who still finds a way to get out on the mountain near her hometown of Huntsville, Ontario, every day. The two chatted briefly after her victory, a conversation that included a lot of screaming if not a lot of detail about what Howell had just done.

“He tries his best to understand it,” she said. “I don’t think he’s got it yet.”

The same could be said for a sport that looked more than a little unpolished in its Olympic debut.

Nearly half of the 44 qualifying runs over the series of rails, jumps — and one oversized Russian nesting doll — ended with a skier face down in the snow or pulling out of self-preservation.

“On days like this, normally we wouldn’t be trying to do our gnarliest tricks because we’re getting stuck,” said American Keri Herman, who came in as a medal contender but finished 10th. “But right now, we’re at (the Olympics), so here we go, let’s do it.”

Finals
1. Dara Howell (CAN) – 94.20
2. Devin Logan (USA) – 85.40
3. Kim Lamarre (CAN) – 85.00
4. Anna Segal (AUS) – 77.00
5. Emma Dahlstrom (SWE) – 75.40
6. Yuki Tsubota (CAN) – 71.60
7. Katie Summerhayes (GBR) – 70.60
8. Silvia Bertagna (ITA) – 69.60
9. Eveline Bhend (SUI) – 63.20
10. Keri Herman (USA) – 50.00
11. Julia Krass (USA) – 42.40
12. Camillia Berra (SUI) – 30.40

See more at: http://www.nbcolympics.com

Story via AP.

(AP Photo/Andy Wong)

American snowboarding Jamie Anderson took home the first-ever Olympic gold medal in Women’s Snowboarding Slopestyle. Despite being only 23-years old she has become one of the most successful women in the snowboarding. It doesn’t matter if she’s on the podium or hanging with fellow riders, she’s always wearing a smile.

Get to know more about Jamie Anderson on NBC OLYMPICS.

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia (AP) — There was a lot of ugliness out on that supersized Olympic slopestyle course Sunday — crashes, splashes, face plants, even a cracked helmet.

As she so often does, Jamie Anderson made things look beautiful again.

The world’s most consistent rider came through big under a huge amount of pressure — “I was freaking out,” she said — riding clean on the rails and stomping down three high-flying jumps on her second, and make-or-break, trip down the mountain. She scored a 95.25 on that run to make America 2 for 2 in slopestyle’s colorful and treacherous debut on the Olympic stage.

“It’s kind of a big deal,” said the gold medalist, who earlier this winter had conceded she was heading to Russia with some reservations about what the Olympics really stand for. “This is The Event.”

Enni Rukajarvi of Finland won silver and Jenny Jones took bronze to give Britain its first Olympic medal on the snow.

A heady piece of history for Jones, the 33-year-old, one-time ski resort housekeeper from Bristol, who was unapologetic in revealing she prepared for the big day by watching “Downton Abbey” back at her place in the athletes village.

Jones calls Anderson a “hippie,” and it’s true, the 23-year-old from South Lake Tahoe, Calif., likes yoga and meditation — and granola every now and then.

“I think it’s fair to say Jamie marches to the beat of her own drummer,” American coach Mike Jankowski said. “She likes to do things her way out here.”

Much as she wanted to relax while getting ready for her final run, she said it was, indeed, a little disconcerting standing at the top of the mountain, watching rider after rider take a fall. Of the 24 runs in finals, no fewer than 17 of them included a hand drag, a fall or worse — and that wasn’t counting Austrian Anna Gasser’s failed climb back up the first embankment after she was given the ‘go’ sign a second too soon.

Isabel Derungs of Switzerland fell off a rail and face planted into the snow.

Silje Norendal, the Norwegian who handed Anderson one of her few losses two weeks ago at the Winter X Games, fell off the first rail, bobbled on the second, then washed out completely on her second jump.

Worst of all, Sarka Pancochova of the Czech Republic lost it on the first jump of her second run, the back of her head slamming against the snow. Her body skittered down the hill, flipping side to side, with her legs flopping like a rag doll. Somehow, she got up and rode down the hill under her own power. When she got there, she showed off a pencil-wide crack that ran the length of her helmet.

“Well, it seems broken, but that’s what they are for, right?” said Pancochova, who was not seriously injured, according to team officials.

Against that backdrop, and overcast skies, Anderson, who lost her balance and nearly fell on the final jump of her opening run, reached the starting gate for the second.

“I was just visualizing, like, seeing myself already landing and coming down here,” she said. “Just trying to believe.”

She made a mini-Usain Bolt pose, as if getting ready to arch an arrow, pounded on her snow pants, then took off.

On a course thought by some to be too tough for women, where even Anderson fell and hurt her back during training, she was almost flawless.

She executed her half-rotating jumps on and off the rails — the most technical part of these runs — without problem, then set up for the show: Cab 720 jump with a grab, switchback 540 with a grab, frontside 720. That’s three jumps with a total of 5½ rotations and two fancy grabs of the snowboard. The landings: All perfect. Everyone knew it, including Anderson, who spread-eagled her arms as she crossed the finish line. Safe.

“Jamie is a lot of things,” said 19-year-old Karly Shorr, who finished sixth. “Jamie is a leader. She’s an awesome person. She’s a good friend. She thinks about other people and, honestly, she’s a good competitor. She does whatever she has to do to win. She never cracks under pressure. She uses it. She lands every time.”

Jankowski said the United States came into slopestyle’s debut hoping for a pair of medals. Shaun White pulled out, which may have dimmed those chances, but Sage Kotsenburg came up with the ride of his life to win the men’s contest Saturday.

Anderson had something different riding on this outcome.

“Jamie has been the face of women’s slopestyle for quite a few years now,” Jankowski said of the four-time X Games champion who routed the competition in four of five Olympic qualifying contests this winter. “That’s all very important, but when you’re at the Olympics, you have to land your run at the right time to cement your legacy.”

Anderson will celebrate with five of her sisters, a brother, a niece and her 80-something Bavarian neighbor, Gabriela, who she calls her “spirit grandmother.”

Her mom, Lauren, was there, too, holding a red-and-yellow scarf that read “Team Every1.”

“She’s tough. She’s a go-getter. She knows how to stay calm when the tension is on, somehow,” Lauren said of a daughter who turned pro when she was 13.

Must be all that Zen-like peace she gets from yoga and meditation, right?

“No,” Mom said. “Chutzpah. She’s got that chutzpah thing.”

Via AP Lead image by Isaac Hinds at the espnW Summit