Final Standings

What an Olympics it was! Through highs and lows and syrup and snow, the Olympics have concluded.

Petter Northug clinched the silver mountie for Jimmy, with clinching the gold medal in the 50km cross country race by a mere .3 seconds. Ryan's Canadian Hockey team (unfortunately) squeaked out the gold medal in overtime to clinch the bronze mountie.

Congratulations to our Mountie champions!

Kara - Gold Royal Canadian Mountie

Jimmy - Silver Royal Canadian Mountie

Ryan - Bronze Royal Canadian Mountie

Trent - 4th place

Kristin D - 5th place

Kristin J - 6th place

It all comes down to this...

Day 15 Standings

Sorry for the delay in the standings updates everyone, but we have set up an exciting final day at the Olympics!

Kara has run away with this competition from the start, and her lead at this point is insurmountable. Congratulations Kara on smoking the competition!

The race for silver and bronze is still wide open, however. If the competition ended right now, Jimmy would take silver and Trent would take bronze based on the tiebreaker with the US leading the medal count. But there is still one more day of competition!

Two huge events still have much influence on this competition:

1. Men's Gold Medal Hockey

Ryan, currently in fourth place, chose the Canada Men's Hockey team, and no one picked the USA. Guaranteed a medal, this gives Ryan at least 5 points and possibly 10. 5 points would generate a 3 way tie with Jimmy and Trent, but Jimmy would still take silver with the US winning the medal count. Germany would give Ryan the bronze in this scenario because they beat out Trent's Japan in the medal count. However, if Canada wins the gold, then things get really interesting.

Which brings us to what might decide everything: the Men's 50km mass start cross country skiing race.

This race of over 30 miles is long, and could decide our outcome. A lot can happen in 30 miles, and a few of us have some contestants:

Jimmy - Petter Northug, Norway - The number one seeded racer in this competition, and the expected winner. If he gets gold or silver, Jimmy would be assured the silver mountie.

Kristin J - Lukas Bauer, Czech Republic - Bauer is the number 3 seeded skiier in this race, but, like his cousin Jack, will not be defeated. While currently in last place, a gold medal here would propel her ahead of Kristin D in the battle of the Kristin all stars challenge.

Kristin D - Jens Arne Svartedal, Norway; Maxim Vylegzhanin, Russia - Kristin D, on the other hand, has two "dogs in the hunt." However, both are listed as "unseeded competitiors," meaning they are not favored to win the race. However, Norwegians and Russians are both crazy for their cross country, and you can never count them out. It's 30km, and a lot can happen in that stretch! A gold or silver would ensure her of 5th place, but unfortunately that's as high as she'll be able to rise in the standings.

Trent - Currently sitting in bronze medal position, it would be advantageous to have a cross country skiier to compete in this event. However, he drafted two women's cross country skiiers and only has 3 points for one bronze between them. Tough luck. With no one competing tomorrow, he has to sit and watch. Unfortunately, the best he can hope for is a tie with Ryan if Canada wins silver, which does not bode (not miller) well - Ryan owns the tiebreaker with Germany beating out Japan in the medal count.

Ryan - Ryan also has no cross country skiier competing tomorrow. His curse on these athletes continues, though, as Ola Vigen Hattestad, his #1 pick, pulled out of events with a "sore throat." That's some weak sauce right there. A sore throat??? Really? This is the OLYMPICS. Here's a Ricola losenge, suck it up, and ski.

Kara - She has no one skiing, but who cares? She's won enough...tomorrow is her celebration day! Just try to restrain yourself or you'll end up investigated by the IOC. No cigars, please.

So that's the look ahead to the last day and the closing ceremony. Strap on your snow boots and break out the maple syrup! It's championship Sunday!

See you guys soon!

Day 12 Standings

The race is heating up with much still to be decided! Kara is still in front, but others are catching up!

Kristin D's team seems to have been a little too patriotic, putting her at a big disadvantage. If only her patriotism had pulled her to pick Bode Miller...

Ryan's scores were hurt by the colossal stupidity of the Netherlands coach that told Sven Kramer to go into the wrong lane. Instead of 10 points for Ryan, he gets 0, and Trent pulls out a Bronze for 3 points when Bob de Jong slid into 3rd. That's a 13 point swing in the standings!

The relays and team events are playing huge parts on all of our teams - some expected to win indivdual medals that disappointed are pulling out big team performances.

The big team events are still to be decided and it will all come down to this weekend! Kara's team did take a blow today, as her Russian hockey team was eliminated by Canada, resulting in no chance for a medal.

It's the home stretch...the race for the Mountie trophies is on!

Day 10 Standings

Sorry about the lapse over the weekend - but there has been a lot of movement in the standings!

Kara's commanding lead has been whittled down to two points! Team Jimmy has had a big few days, bolstered on Monday by his strong pick to choose two Austrian ski jumpers. With the Austrians winning the team competition, they both take home gold medals!

Now, since we are a good bit into the games, it's interesting to see the athletes we should have chosen. Some of the top competitors left on the board:

Magdalena Neuner, Germany, Women's Biathlon - two golds and a silver for 25 points

Marit Bjorgen, Norway, Women's Cross Country - two golds and a bronze for 23 points

Bode Miller, USA, Alpine Skiing - gold, silver, bronze - 18 points

I wish I had drafted one of them!

This is the final week of competition - there are still a lot of medals left to win!

Speaking of winning...Kristin and I are making mountie trophies for the top 3 teams. Cheer your teams to victory, because you are going to want one of these mounties!

Day 6 Standings

Here are your standings after Day 6:

Kara continues to extend her lead, which at this point seems insurmountable. Hopefully, her team will be met with crashes and falls, resulting in 0 points. Forget the spirit of the games, this is the fantasy olympics, and in this fantasy world, it's cutthroat.

Ryan and Trent were in a male figure skating showdown. Ryan's Evan Lysacek came out with the gold, while Trent's Yevgeny Plushenko took home the silver. The bigger question is: why did Ryan and Trent choose male figure skaters to be on their teams? Questionable.

Kristin D took a hit when Lindsey Vonn crashed and lost a ski.

Kristin J took home a women's speedskating gold with Ms. Nesbitt (not to be confused with Mrs. Nesbitt from Toy Story).

And Jimmy celebrated Kristin D's Vonn demise, as his German Maria Riesch took gold in the super combined.

Until tomorrow, the drama continues...let's just hope it's filled with less costumes with snakes on them.

Day 5 Standings

Here are the updated standings for Day 5!

The big story:

Kara's team is dominating, Ryan's team is terrible, and everyone else is working to keep up with Kara.

In picking my team, I must have had the kiss of death on these athletes. A prime example:

Petra Madjic, my women's cross country skiier, was described by the commentators as "the strongest cross country skiier in the world." Surely that would be good right? WRONG. Petra decides to fall off the side of the cross country course (which is pretty wide, and they aren't moving at breakneck speeds). She fell into a ravine and hit a tree and a rock. They take her to the hospital and get her back checked out. She gutted out a bronze medal, but come on now...who crashes off the course into a ravine in WARM-UPS. Terrible. Also, Anja Paerson is cruising in for a silver medal in the downhill, and completely wipes out and breaks her skis within feet of the finish line. What is going on???

I'll stop ranting now.

In other news, Kristin D picked up her first gold on the bum leg of Lindsey Vonn. Jimmy also picked up his first gold with Tatjana Heufner's win in the women's luge. Kara has 5 gold medals. Sheesh.

Until next time...Citius, Altius, Fortius.

Day 3 Standings

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the update being a day late, but this one comes all the way from Washington D.C.! I wanted to get to the bottom of team USA, so I came to the source. That's dedication to your fantasy team.

Here are the standings after Day 3:

I don't have time to delve into enormous amounts of commentary, but here are some quick hitters:

Kara has left us in the dust. Clearly the laptop contained some secret research that has given her a strong lead.

Kristin D has had a strong showing, but has yet to capture the elusive Gold Medal. That's a lot of points left on the table...

Speaking of tables, Jimmy's team looks like they don't have a leg to stand on. There's still plenty of time to go, and he does have the Sweden women's hockey team. They could bruise up some other teams...just watch out for the doping!

Kristin J's team has had some positive results, but drafting the lightning rod, Shani Davis, has yet to prove valuable. Shani has now lost out in one race, and withdrawn from another. Hopefully he is saving his best for the future events.

Trent's team is posting a good showing in second place, with much still to come.

Ryan's team is not doing too well. Here's hoping that Petra Madjic will pull a golden rabbit out of her hat.

On to day 4!

Day One Standings

Day 1 wraps up with a tight race, and some disappointments for some team members.

Ryan's team was bolstered by a strong performance from Sven Kramer, the flying dutchman, who captured the gold. However, his ringer, Lee Oh-Suk, was disqualified when he wiped out his own teammate trying to go for the silver medal. What a sucky performance by Suk. Wolfgang Loitzl looked more like a wolf-pup in faltering through the ski jump. Even Olga Medvedtseva, his #4 pick, slid to a pitiful 22nd place in the biathlon. At least Sven was svelte.

Kristin D's team was carried by two silver medal performances from Apolo Anton Ohno in the short track race, and Jennifer Heil in the moguls competition. However, both were gold medal hopefuls and lost out on an additional 10 points. Also suffering in the biathlon, Helena Jonsson faltered to 12th place, though ahead of Ryan's Olga.

Kristin J's team also is tied for first, with Lee Jung-Su speeding to the win ahead of both Ryan and Kristin D's short track skaters. Also suffering in the biathlon, Svetlana Slepstova was edged by Kristin D's Helena for 13th place. Too bad there's no points for 13th place. Shani Davis skated, but this was not his top event and still looks to win some bling.

Trent's team jumped out to an early lead, with the first medals being given out to the ski jumpers. His Adam Malysz rode the Polish cheers to a silver medal. Later, his Charles Hamelin of Canada captured a finals win! However, it was the short track Finals B, which decides 8th place. Good job on 8th place. Also bit by the biathlete bug, Kati Wilhem bumbled to 30th. Bummer. Bob de Jong skated for Holland, but couldn't defeat Ryan's fellow countryman Sven.

Jimmy also jumped for joy with his ski jumping bronze medal win. Gregor Schlierenzauer jumped well for the Austrians and made it on the medal stand. His biathlete must have been weighed down by too long of a name, as Anna Carin Olofsson-Zidek fell to 20th place. Enrico Fabris tried to sew together a strong performance, but again was turned back on the speed track by Ryan's Sven.

Kara's team was looking to the future, and not getting distracted by the events that began today. I don't believe any of her athletes competed on Day 1, so she has much to look forward to with the upcoming events.

After an exciting first day, there's still plenty of Olympics to go! Good luck to all!

Here are the teams!

Let the Games Begin!

Hey everyone! We can keep track of our Fantasy Olympic teams and leaderboards here.

Bring on the bobsleds!