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!