Day 15: February 22, 2014

We have reached the final day.  Here are the standings with only 3 events left with medals to be awarded!

First the breakdown from today - time is running out to make a move toward the podium.

My team (Cuban Medal Crisis) entered the day with big hopes in the Biathlon relay, with Svendsen and Bjorndalen anchoring a strong Norwegian crew.  Well, Bjorndalen did his job, but "Super" Svendsen tanks again.  I watched the race today and the commentator said "Svendsen has really built up during the games to deliver a stellar performance today." and "Svendsen has hit 97% of his targets in Sochi," right before he misses so many that he uses up all his extras and has to take a penalty lap.  Major choke job that left Norway off the medal stand.  When Bjorndalen finished he had a MINUTE lead.  Ugh.  Double gold or double anything would have helped.  Now I have to hang onto hope.

Putin on the Ritz picked the best cross-country skiier by far with Marit Bjoergen taking her third gold.

Ireen Wust earned another gold for the team pursuit in Long Track, and that pushed her total to 19, making her the MVP to date.  Of course, Team Mark has her pushing his team to the top.

Cold Runnings received a silver in Alpine, but really missed out on the Long-Track Team Pursuit.  She had two Dutch speed skaters on her team, but neither was on the team to earn a gold medal.  Jorrit Bergsma actually was an alternate and could have skated in a prelim to earn a medal even if he didn't compete in the finals, but he "protested" the team as he felt upset he did not get picked for the A team.  By doing this, he did not skate in any qualifying race and thus does not earn the medal.

Silver Sputniks had a good day - Therese Johaug taking the Cross Country silver, and Tae Mum Bo earning a team Long Track silver.

Live Weyer earned the Long Track team gold from the Netherlands with Lotte van Beek, but missed out on the Hockey Bronze when the US fell embarrassingly.  The 3 Bronze points would have pushed Live Weyer into silver medal position.  The US team was clearly too distraught over the consequences of their loss to Canada:

Insert Team Name Here also scored points from the Long Track Team with a gold from the Netherlands.  (ASIDE NOTE:  WHY DID I PICK SHANI DAVIS, SHEESH PICK SOMEONE WITH A DUTCH PASSPORT NEXT TIME.)
She is sitting within striking distance of the podium.


So now comes the last day - what's left to earn?
There are three medal events to occur:

Men's Ice Hockey - Canada (Sochia Pet) vs. Sweden (Putin on the Ritz)
Each are guaranteed at least 5 points, but who will get the bonus 5 from the gold?  Sochia Pet could jump into 4th place from this gold alone.

4-Man Bobsleigh
Putin on the Ritz - 4-Man Russia
Silver Sputniks - 4-Man USA
Live Weyer - 4-Man Germany

Don't forget that Bobsleigh is a TEAM event so 10, 5, and 3 points are on the line here.

Cross-Country Skiing - Men's 50km Mass Start Free
If you have a Men's Cross-Country Skiier - good luck!

Putin on the Ritz - Peter Northug, Norway
Silver Sputniks - Federico Pellegrino, Italy
Live Weyer - Nikita Kriukov, Russia
Gold Rush'n - Johan Olsson, Sweden
Insert Team Name Here - Alexy Poltoranin, Kazakhstan
Cuban Medal Crisis - Alexander Legkov, Russia
Sochia Pet - Alex Harvey, Canada

Day 14: February 21, 2014

We are really getting down to the end.  Team Mark might have an insurmountable lead, but there is plenty of competition available for the silver or bronze.

Insert Team Name here had one of the best days of her campaign with Viktor Ahn winning double gold in short track, propelling her team to 4th place and in reach of the podium.

The men's curling competition closed out with Sochia Pet (Canada) taking Gold, Cuban Medal Crisis (Great Britain) taking silver, and Insert Team Name Here (Sweden) taking bronze.

Men's Hockey team points and 4-Man Bobsleigh team points are still on the board and waiting to be claimed!  The standings can change quickly!

Lots of short track medals handed out - if you had a Korean or Chinese skater you probably got points.

Get ready for an exciting last couple of days of these games!

Day 13: February 20, 2014

Hey everyone - sorry for the delay again.  Working and traveling isn't conducive to blog posting.

Here are the standings through yesterday:

Women's Hockey was the big one - Team Mark squeaking out the Gold with the Canadian Women's team over Team USA from Insert Team Name Here.

In another team medal event - Curling medals were awarded for the womens teams!
Live Weyer had the big win from the Canadian Women's curling team.  Putin on the Ritz took the silver from Sweden and Gold Rush'n took the bronze with Team GB.

That pushed Putin on the Ritz out of last place!  Unfortunately, it puts Gold Rush'n back on track to go for the three-peat of last place again.  Still three days to go!

Day 12: February 19, 2014

Sorry for the late update, I was too busy celebrating my big day and moving into 2nd Place!

The USA 1 Women's Bobsled team was leading until the final run, and I thought I had a golden ticket, but unfortunately it turned to silver as they made mistakes that Canada-1 capitalized on quickly.  Sochia Pet earned the much needed 10-point gold after a long drought of no medals.  My Cuban Medal Crisis took home the 5-point silver.

Cuban Medal Crisis also earned 3 more medals on the day - Bronze in the Giant Slalom from Alex Pinturault, and a double gold for both Emil Hegle Svendsen and Ole Einar Bjorndalen as Norway won the mixed team Biathlon.  Gold Rush'n also earned a gold with Tora Berger on the same team.  Team Mark earned the silver from the Czech Republic.

Putin on the Ritz is on the board again with a gold from Marit Bjoergen in Cross-Country Skiing.

Team Mark also received ANOTHER medal from Ireen Wust in Speed Skating - now 4 for her in these games.  Thankfully it's one gold and 3 silvers or we would be even further behind.

There is still hope in catching Team Mark, as his top potential point earners remaining have tough roads ahead - Yulia Lipnitskaia took a spill in figure skating that did not put her near the top of the leaderboard after arguably being the gold medal favorite going in.  Also, cheer hard for the USA Women's Hockey team today as we not only want them to win gold, but also to keep Mark to only earning a silver, as he has the Canadian Women's hockey team.

Insert Team Name Here has the US Women's team so that could impact your rooting interests as well.

Live Weyer was finally boosted by a gold from Ted Ligety in the Giant Slalom, after no doubt expecting more from him during the games to date.  I believe he also earned a cross-country skiing silver from Nikita Kriukov.

Day 11: February 18, 2014

Things are heating up coming down the stretch - and that includes the temperatures in Sochi making the conditions suspect and the snow slushy.  I love me a slushee, but not at the expense of my point total.

Anyway, here are the updated standings!

The Women's 3000m Short Track team served three teams well - Team Mark, Cuban Medal Crisis, and Silver Sputniks all had members of the gold medal winning South Korean Team.  Italy finished 4th, however China was disqualified for trying to sub two skaters at once, so Live Weyer gets a bonus Bronze.  Gold Rush'n is the affected team by losing the 3 points China would have earned if the disqualification hadn't occurred.

Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up it's Cold Runnings time.  Cold Runnings had one of the best days of their Olympics so far with David Wise winning the ski-halfpipe gold, and getting BOTH the gold and the bronze in same Long-track speed skating event.  Nice drafting to pick two Dutch speed skaters, as they swept the event again.  Out of 20 medals won by the Dutch, 19 are in speed skating.

One of the big showdowns of the day was in the Biathlon, as my #1 Emil Hegle "Super" Svendsen finally breaks through with a gold medal! I feel (somewhat) vindicated.  He faced off with Live Weyer's Martin Fourcade (who now has 13 points and should have been a better pick).  The two came down to a photo finish that in a race this long and involved is really pretty crazy.  Here's a good write-up about it with a photo finish picture:

http://fansided.com/2014/02/18/sochi-olympics-mens-biathlon-mass-start-results-svendsen-edges-fourcade-photo-finish/

The end result helped Cuban Medal Crisis to actually tie Live Weyer for third in the standings, so clearly Svendsen and Fourcade knew what was on the line.

Day 10: February 17, 2014

Many medals handed out today created large upheaval on the board (except at the very top):

Silver Sputniks rockets up the leaderboard three spots into Silver medal position with an outstanding effort from Meryl Davis and Charlie White in Ice Dancing, and also from Darya Domracheva in Biatholn.  The Belarussian has become the MVP of the games so far with 3 gold medals!  With still events to go she is approaching a Phelps-ian performance.

Insert Team Name Here also had a big day and TWIZZLED her way up four spots into 4th place with the now double-silver Canadian Ice Dancing team of Virtue/Moir.  The first team points were handed out today with the finals of the 2-Man Bobsled.  In one of the biggest misses by our SI medal predictions, the coveted 10 point gold medal was not awarded here, as no one drafted the Russian 2-Man team.  Sliding on home ice, the driver carrying the country's flag in the opening ceremony, and being a Russian sport legend was still not enough for SI to even put on the medal stand.  Granted, I checked the Sports Myriad prediction and they only predicted Bronze, so there must have been some home cooking magic.  Anyhow, Team Name still scored the 5 point silver medal with the 2-Man Swiss team.  Gold Rush'n was the big loser having chosen the predicted gold medal German 2-Man team, which ended up 10th.

I also discovered a correction in the scoring of Insert Team Name Here while tabulating the points.  I noticed that I recorded "Nicole Harp, Austria" as one of her wildcard selections, but forgot the sport.  I looked it up and I mistyped "Harp" instead of "Hosp."  Nicole Hosp has won a silver and a bronze so far in the Super Combined and Super G, so 4 more points added to her score!  She is now well within striking distance of the medal stand.after yesterday being in 8th place.

Don't worry everyone - I always QC the teams and points before giving out the final awards.

Team Mark received another gold (Team Ski Jumping - Germany) and silver (Biathlon) - STOP ALREADY.

Putin on the Ritz and Gold Rush'n each scored a silver in Team Ski Jumping - Austria.

Cold Runnings appropriately scored a Team Bronze (3 points) for the USA 2-Man Bobsled.  Poor Jamaica finished dead last in the competition, but first in our hearts.

Sochia Pet has been in a multiple day drought for medals and has slid to 6th place.  It just goes to show who we once tabbed one of the most consistent performers can hit a snag.  Anything can happen at the Olympics!

Day 9: February 16, 2014

Just like Bode Miller sharing the Bronze, we have another change on the podium.  However, no tears are being shed or prodded by a sideline (side slope?) reporter.

Cuban Medal Crisis finally gets another medal with a team Cross Country silver from Russia (Alexander Legkov).  The medal propels Crisis into a tie for the Bronze with Sochia Pet.

Team Mark gets another medal BLAH BLAH BLAH.  Irene Wust, Netherlands.  The best strategy was to pick LOTS of Dutch speed skaters.  Sheesh.  We are getting crushed by Team Mark.  Live Weyer also picked up a speed skating bronze with his Dutch skater, Lotte van Beek, however it's hard to catch Team Mark when even a medal is less points than Team Mark earned in a day.

God Rush'n continues the steady improvement by really having the best day again - Gold team medal for Sweden in Cross Country (Johan Olsson).

No medals for any other team were earned today.

One of the biggest misses has been Kjetil Jansrud of Norway for Alpine Skiing - Gold in the Super G, Bronze in the Downhill, and he was 1st in the downhill portion of the Super Combined and 4th overall.  Overall, the alpine skiing medalists have been some of the worst predictions by my review.