Day 14: There's no "I" in Team, but there is in WIN

 Honestly, I don't have much witty to cover today, so I'll leave you with this image:

The Canada men's team did make it to the Gold medal match tomorrow vs. Great Britain. The team events may make the final difference in winning these Fantasy Olympic Games.

Around the Games:

• Freestyle Skiing - 
  Women's Ski Cross - NONE
  Men's Aerials - Li Tamna - Bronze - Im-Pasta-Bowl Odds
  Men's Halfpipe - Alex Ferreira - GOLD - John the Baptist
  
  
• Biathlon - Men's 15km Mass Start - NONE - but bad boyfriend won his 5th medal, making him one of the biggest misses in the games that went undrafted
  
  
• Long Track Speed Skating - Women's 1500m - Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong - GOLD - John the Baptist; Ragne Wiklund - SILVER - It's Jamaican Bobsled Time!
  
  
• Short Track Speed Skating - 
  Men's 5000m Relay - Canada was the favorites - they finished 4th! NO points for Ice Ice Penne or Im-Pasta-Bowl Odds.  GOLD to NED and TASMWTAM, Bronze to Italy and Jamaican Bobsled Time.
  Women's 1500m - Bronze to Corrine Stoddard of the USA and John the Baptist
  
  
• Curling - Men's Bronze Medal game - NONE

Overall not a dramatic day for our fantasy teams, but it sets up a big final weekend.  John the Baptist had a slam dunk day, and now the bottom 4 teams are all within 8 points of each other. 

12 medal events on Saturday, 4 on Sunday. USA vs. Canada gold medal hockey game on Sunday!

SO if you're in contention, who do you root for (or against)?

 Here are our teams still in contention for medals over the next two days:

It's Jamaican Bobsled time has 60 potential points on the board - that could swing him all the way to Silver position!! Ice Ice Penne may melt a bit, sweating these results.

Day 13: Golden Girls

Today felt like a banner day for the 'ol US of A, and it was the ladies that were bringing it all day!

Of course, the rivalry was renewed in the rink, with Canada vs. USA being the premiere women's hockey matchup everyone expected for the Gold Medal. 
The Bronze medal game between Sweden and Switzerland went to overtime, continuing the trend of craaazy playoff hockey from yesterday.  Switzerland (who none of us drafted!) beat the Swedes to take the Bronze.

That set up the big game - which was a rematch from earlier in the games.  The US won that game 5-0 over Canada...but this is for the GOLD.  High stress, high intensity, gotta lay it all on the line.  Both teams certainly delivered, providing a super tight game throughout. 
Canada finally scored their goal in the most improbable way - US was on a power play, and Canada happened to get a fortunate deflection that led to a 2 v 1 breakaway and a short-handed goal. 
It took until the last two minutes of the game - US pulls their goalie to put in an extra skater and boom - the breakthrough goal - game is tied, headed to overtime.

Then, in overtime, another American hero, Megan Keller, pulls a triple deek sliding the puck through her defender and blasting it under the Canadian goalie. Cue Freebird. Cue pandemonium. TASMWTAM takes home the 20 points, Ice Ice Penne left with 10.

No Canadian curler is going to touch that puck.

Speaking of curling, the US women's team faced a win-or-go-home situation today, knowing they must beat the strong Swiss team to make it into the semi-finals and have a chance at a medal. It came down to the final stone - the US holding the hammer. 

It almost didn't come to this - the US were up by 3 points in the 10th end, with the Swiss needing a rare, but not impossible, 3-point end to tie and force extras. A miscue by the US opened the door, and the Swiss did not miss.  They cleared the stone needed and landed a 3 point end.

Tabitha Peterson was not deterred, and stepped up to deliver the last rock - one which slid a bit farther than the US hoped, but it stopped with about a half inch closer to the button than the Swiss stone, securing the one point needed to close the game out.

The US will face Switzerland AGAIN in the semis - the US women's team has never won a medal.

And of course, the princess of skating was crowned today, in a free skate round full of incredible performances putting very high scores on the board.  In the end, it was the funky Alysa Liu of the USA shocking many and coming away with the Gold medal - the first for the US since 2002.

The Cleopatra hair and fish hook lip ring are not what anyone pictured in an ice princess, but those stripes fit right in with the 'ol Stars and Stripes draped around her. John the Baptist ends up getting the only double gold of figure skating, with Sakamoto of Japan giving the silver to Schrimscetti Skis. 

Here's to all the American heroes who conquered the Olympic gauntlet today!

Around the Games:

• Ski Mountaineering debuted as an Olympic Sport.  It's a bizarre mashup - athletes start on short skis, climbing a mountain, then have to navigate a kind of ski maze on the hill. Next, they reach a staircase for some reason? They have to whip the skis off, throw in a backpack, and run up the stairs, to then throw the skis back on and complete a downhill slalom course back to the start. Oriol Cardona Coll secured the first gold medal for Spain in forever in dominating fashion, John the Baptist brings home the Gold. Ansemelt takes the Bronze for Im-Pasta-Bowl Odds.  The women's race also occurred, with Marianne Fatton getting the GOLD for Jamaican Bobsled, and Harrop the Silver for Blades of Glory-ish. 
  
  
• Nordic Combined - Team Sprint - Norway takes the Gold for Blades of Glory-ish and John the Baptist, Finland silver for Ice Ice Penne, Bronze to Austria of Schrimscetti Skis and TASMWTAM.
  
  
• Long Track Speed Skating - 1500m men's final - Jordan Stolz of USA and My Verona fell just short of his potential Gold sweep, ending in Silver behind an amazing performance from Zhongyan Ning of China. The top four finishers all posted times faster than the previous Olympic Record.  Joep Wennemars of the Netherlands set the Olympic record, which was then blown away by Ning and Kjeld Nuis in the next race. Jordan Stolz gave a valiant effort, but without the push from another competitior he finished about a second back from Ning.  Because of the order, only Wennemars and Ning will go into the record books with ORs, but what an amazing athletic display.  Wennemars doesn't get to go home with a medal, though, finishing 4th.

Here's the scoreboard after Day 13:

TASMWTAM jumped back into Bronze position with the US Hockey win, but it's close...
Don't forget that Bobsled is a "team" medal too - My Verona is only 25 points from 3rd place right now.  

Day 12: Rings of Power

 This Czech Wolfhound was staying with his owners in a vacation rental while they went to some of the winter events.  They said he loves being around people, and every day when they left he was getting very sad to be left back.  Well, today he managed to find a way out, made his way to the cross-country skiing venue, and had the best time meeting all the people he could while the crowd roared approval.

It's a good thing he's friendly and had a collar, because if I were skiing and this was chasing me, I would have thought a dire wolf was on my tail.

As he crossed the finish line, the photo finish camera even picked up his stride across the finish line.

The dog is named Nazgul, named after the ring wraiths from Lord of the Rings.  How fitting that today he also felt compelled to pursue a different set of rings - five interlocking ones.

Olympic Champion

 Around the Games:

• Ice Hockey - No medals today, but I have to give a shout out to the incredible games that happened in the men's quarterfinals. They say that watching playoff hockey is as thrilling as driving a motorcycle off a plane with a parachute while wrestling a tiger and that felt pretty much like this day.  3 of 4 went to overtime, Canada scored late to force overtime and stay alive, and won against Czechia in OT. Finland was down 2-0 to Switzerland with 3 min left, tied the game, and won in OT. USA gave up the tying goal with 1.5 min left to Sweden, but ultimately won in OT on an electric goal.  Quinn Hughes waved off the line change and stayed in - then blasted it in.  
  
  
  Hughes is an American Hero.
  
  
• Cross-Country Skiing -
  Nazgul - GOLD
  Women's Team Sprint - Sweden GOLD for Blades of Glory-ish
  Men's Team Sprint - GOLD for Norway and of course Klaebo of Schrimscetti Skis and also Hedegart of Blades of Glory-ish; USA got an amazing, unexpected Silver, John the Baptist got a Bronze with Pellegrino of Italy
  
  
• Snowboarding - Two Slopestyle events, no medals for us
  
  
• Alpine Skiing - Mikaela Shiffrin finally shakes off the demons of the missed opportunities for the last 8 years, and secured GOLD in the Slalom.  She won by 1.5 seconds, which in these skiing sports is a massive margin.  For context - I read today that the combined margins of the winners of the last 7 Olympics (to 1998!) is 1.51 seconds. Shiffrin left no doubt. Blades of Glory-ish is ecstatic (and having an absolutely amazing day).
  
  
• Freestyle Skiing - Xu Mengtao wins GOLD in the Women's Aerials for My Verona
  
  
• Biathlon - Women's 4x6km relay - France won GOLD for Im-Pasta-Bowl Odds and Schrimscetti Skis; SILVER to Sweden, also for Schrimscetti Skis who doubled-up on Biathlon with a wild card pick; BRONZE to Norway and It's Jamaican Bobsled Time!
  
  
• Short Track Speed Skating - 
  Women's 3000m relay - SILVER to Italy and John the Baptist, BRONZE to Canada and Blades of Glory-ish and My Verona. Netherlands was majorly upset in this one and ended 4th.
  Men's 500m - GOLD to Dubois of Canada and Im-Pasta-Bowl Odds, Bronze to Jens van 'T Wout of TASMWTAM.  van 'T Wout's brother took silver.

What an incredible day!  You may want to catch your breath before you look at the scoreboard update...

John the Baptist may have lost his head, Jamaican Bobsled Time has returned to island time, but Blades of Glory-ish is BLAZING up the charts and currently stands in Bronze position!

There's still big double point bonus coming in Bobsled, Curling, and Hockey - don't get comfortable!

Day 11: Flying to the Finish

 In Freestyle Skiing, one of the best events of the day was in the Big Air final, which saw a mega showdown among competitors throwing tricks that had never before been performed in competition. The final three competitiors set three straight olympic records to finish out the final round! In my opinion, Mac Forehand (what a name) was ROBBED, as Norway, and Tormod Frostad (another great name, especially for a Norwegian) threw some "butter" trick in there and grabbed the gold.  It was one of the most extreme events I have seen!

Falling, with style

Unfortunately, no one drafted these guys.

Around the Games:

• Nordic Combined - Monopolies reign, as Oftebro secures his second gold for Blades of Glory-ish, and Lamparter gets the silver again for Schrimscetti Skis. Herola gets the Bronze for Ice Ice Penne
  
  
• Biathlon - the men's relay finished with France getting the gold for Ice Ice Penne, and Silver to My Verona and Norway (which included bad boyfriend getting his 4th medal!)
  
  
• Long Track Speed Skating -
  Men's team pursuit - GOLD - Ghiotto, Italy, Blades of Glory-ish
  Women's team pursuit - GOLD - Blondin, Canada, TASMWTAM; Silver - Groenewoud and Rijpma-de Jong, Netherlands, Ice Ice Penne and John the Baptist; Bronze - Takagi, Japan, Schrimscetti Skis
  
  
• Bobsleigh - a German SWEEP in the 2-man - Lochner takes Gold for Blades of Glory-ish, and Friedrich takes Silver for My Verona

Some events were delayed today because of weather, so overall medals were a bit lower.  Here's the score update! Back to a tie for first! 
Blades of Glory-ish had a glorious day, skating into 4th place and in range of the podium! Lots of points out there, still, but looking like a 2 way race at the moment for the Gold.

As a reminder - total medal count will determine tiebreakers:

Italy is currently outperforming expectations as the home team - 24 total medals so far!  Germany did get a boost with Bobsleigh today, but trails with 20. We'll see where the standings finish!

Day 10: Gotta Get Away

 Atle Lie McGrath of Norway was leading the men's slalom race, and the last to go on the second run down the mountain. All he had to do was put in a solid run and his lead would have likely secured a medal, if not cruise in for Gold. 

But he missed a gate, Olympic Dream over. 

McGrath lost his grandfather during the opening ceremony. It's been a taxing week, and this was the last straw.

First, he javelined his poles away and took off his skis.

Then, he decided to retreat to the forest.

We've all been there, in one way or another.

52 out of 96 competitors did not finish the first run of the highly technical course. Only 39 finished the second run.  None of ours won any medal!

Around the Games:

• Short Track: Xandra Velzeboer claims her second GOLD of these games in the 1000m for Schrimscetti Skis. Courtney Sarault takes Silver for Blades of Glory-ish
  
  
• Ski Jumping - Due to weather, they CANCELLED the final round of the men's Super Team, so the results after the second round stood as the final podium.  Unfortunately for TASMWTAM and John the Baptist, Slovenia didn't get one more jump to try and get on the podium, and Domen Prevc finished 5th in his quest for his third gold. Jan Hoerl of My Verona did secure the GOLD for Austria.
  
  
• Figure Skating - the Pairs program concluded with the pair from Japan of Miura/Kihara taking the GOLD for It's Jamaican Bobsled Time! The US and Canadian pairs disappointed for My Verona and TASMWTAM.
  
  
• Bobsled - the first sleds down the track were the Women's monobob, which sounds like a hairdo. Elana Meyers Taylor of the US won the Gold, but no one drafted her! TASMWTAM drafted Kaillie Humphries of the US, who took the Bronze!
  
  
• Freestyle Skiing - Eileen Gu (still a sellout and traitor), ended up in silver position in the Big Air.  It's Jamaican Bobsled Time still accepts her, and the points.

Shorter day of medals, so here's the scoreboard update!

Schrimscetti Skis re-takes the top spot, Jamaican Bobsled time is now only 10 points, or one gold medal, away from getting on the podium!  Defying all the odds? We'll see what tomorrow holds!

Day 9: Halfway Home

 We're over halfway through the 2026 Winter Olympics! Team events are moving along and there's lots of earning potential if you invested in Team USA.  The men's and women's hockey teams are rolling along, and the men's and women's curling teams are defying expectations and look like strong contenders for a medal at this point.  With Canada mentally struggling among the stone touching scandal, Team USA is finding their groove, both winning in clutch final points today. Those 20 point medals could swing the standings!

Also, these uniforms are the absolute best - so clean.

Around the Games:

• Biathlon - no medals awarded for our teams in the men's event but sad girlfriend guy medaled AGAIN getting a silver. 
  Women's 10km pursuit saw THREE medals - Vittozzi gets GOLD for John the Baptist, Kirkeeide gets SILVER for It's Jamaican Bobsled Time!, and Minkkinen gets BRONZE for TASMWTAM
  
  
• Freestyle Skiing - Mikael Kingsbury cruised to Gold in the Dual Moguls final and gets the points for Ice Ice Penne
  
  
• Cross-Country - Men's Team Sprint - GOLD to Klaebo, Hedegart, and Nyenget of Schrimscetti, Blades of Glory-ish, and TASMWTAM. Federico Pelligrino with a Bronze for John the Baptist.
  
  
• Alpine Skiing - Giant Slalom - Frederica Brignone comes out on top again with another GOLD for It's Jamaican Bobsled Time! Mikaela Shiffrin comes up short again at the Olympics, in an event she has dominated time after time.  Disappointment for Blades of Glory-ish.
  
  
• Snowboard - Snowboardcross had their team event, It's Jamaican Bobsled Time is dancing again with a Gold medal from Charlotte Banks of Great Britain! Im-Pasta-Bowl Odds and My Verona had the Australian teammates and favorites, but a crash wiped out their chance and they finished 4th off the podium
  
  
  That's not the right way.
  
  
  
• Long-Track Speed Skating - Double medals in the 500 for Netherlands again, but flipped this time from the 1000 - Femke Kok of Ice Ice Penne gets GOLD AND an Olympic Record, Jutta Leerdam of Im-Pasta-Bowl Odds the Silver, and Miho Takagi of Schrimscetti Skis gets another Bronze.
  
  
• Skeleton Mixed Team Event - The GBR pair of Steocker and Weston scored a GOLD medal for Ice Ice Penne and Schrimscetti Skis - the rich get richer! Axel Jungk of My Verona gets silver, Pfeifer and Grotheer get Bronze for Blades of Glory-ish and Im-Pasta-Bowl Odds.
  
  
• Ski Jumping - Nika Prevc from Slovenia completes the one of each medal challenge and gets a Bronze for Im-Pasta-Bowl Odds.

Here's the scoreboard after Sunday!  We have a TIE for first place! Also. after a strong day, It's Jamaican Bobsled Time is right on the edge of medal contention. 

One week to go - who will claim the podium?

Day 8: Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'

Curling only loosely has referees, they seem to be there, but not actually watch much. I think they do bring out a fancy measuring compass when it's too close to call. Mostly. it's a game self-refereed by the competitiors.  Essentially everyone is friends that hang out all the time, love each other, and drink lots of beer. That makes it even more controversial that the double-touches are happening, which is cheating, and that teams feel compelled to try and get referees involved, which never seems to happen.  Not much love on this Valentine's day. You might say they've lost that lovin' feelin'.

One day after the Canadian men's team poked the rock, a referee, now watching like a hawk, calls the women's team for a double touch, as Rachel Homan dragged her finger down the rock. She could NOT believe it when the call was made, with the whole team protesting that they would NEVER do that.

These Canucks just can't help themselves. Sometimes when we touch...the honesty's too much.

Around the Games:

• Freestyle Skiing - Women's Dual Moguls - this is called "Dual" but it's more like "Duel" where two skiiers blast off against each other in a bracket-style tournament. SILVER to Jaelin Kauf of USA and TASMWTAM. Jaelin Kauff survived in the semi finals after totally wiping out, only because her opponent inexplicably skiied out of bounds for a few gates.
  
  
• Cross-Country Skiing - Team Sweden was the heavy favorites to win the gold in the Women's 4 x 7.5km relay.  Then, this happened:

Crashing while skiiing in a straight line...on flat ground....BREAKING her right ski.


Carrying the broken ski

The coach, trying to run out a replacement ski to Ebba Andersson, also faceplanting.

Ice and snow are slippery, even for world class Olympians.

Despite the almost inexpicable crash, Sweden managed to rally through for the Silver, but knocking five points off for many of us: Ice Ice Penne, Im-Pasta-Bowl Odds, Blades of Glory-ish, and My Verona.

• Alpine Skiing - South America's first ever winter medal is a gold from Brazil - but this took it away from Marcus Odermatt of John the Baptist, who won his 3rd medal of the games, but not the color he wanted (1 silver, 2 bronze).
  
  
• Biathlon - Maren Kirkeeide took the GOLD for It's Jamaican Bobsled Time! and Lou Jeanmonnot of Im-Pasta-Bowl Odds took the Bronze.
  
  
• Skeleton - Some mild upsets on the scoreboad, so only a Bronze grabbed by Jacqueline Pfeifer of Blades of Glory-ish.
  
  
• Long Track Speed Skating - Jordan Stolz threw down the gauntlet again, blasting to his second gold in the 500m race, along with another Olympic Record! Jenning de Boo plays bridesmaid again, getting the silver for TASMWTAM.
  
  
• Ski Jumping - The Slovenian Demon, Domen Prevc, lands his second GOLD for TASMWTAM in the Normal Hill.
  
  
• Short Track saw some controversy, as Jens van 'T Wout takes the GOLD for TASMWTAM, but the rest of the favorites to medal crashed or were bumped out by opponents. In particular, Dandjinou and Dubois of Canada were big disappointments for our teams.

Here's the scoreboard update! Twizzling and Salchowing her way up the standings after a strong day on the snow and ice, the top 4 teams are not separated by much!