Off and Running (and Skiing and Skating)

Hello and welcome to Sports Illustrated's Daily Rings, SI's daily Olympics podcast.

I'm Mitch Golddich here as always with Dan Gartland.

Gart, the first official day of the Olympics is in the books.

We saw actual medals given out in Italy.

How are you doing today?

Mitch, it's so much sports.

It's, I mean, I know it's been like a year and a half since we last did this, and I know there's fewer sports , but it feels like more sports somehow.

I'm like, we were just talking, you know, before we started recording here about how many notes we have.

Um, I eventually I was like, you know what, I don't have to have everything.

There's too many sports, we're gonna get the big ones.

Mitchell have some things that I don't have, you know, we're gonna kinda go by the seat of our pants here, I think a little bit.

Yeah, it's funny.

So I was up at 5:30 this morning, Eastern time, uh, for the men's downhill, the first official medal event, and I had the same thought where I was looking at I was like, OK, it's still 2.5 hours to go until gold zone.

And I was like, I don't know if we're gonna need Gold Zone quite as much for the winter as we do for the summer.

This is kind of manageable.

I can sort of see everything.

And then there was a stretch in, uh, I don't even, who knows what time it was when Gold Zone put like 8 different sports up at once on the screen.

I was like, OK, yep, that's why they're there.

That's going to be helpful still.

There's a lot going on, a lot to keep track of .

I also, I found myself missing things.

I was like, my job is to make sure I don't miss anything and somehow there's still enough going on that you can.

just see everything.

But yes, I feel well prepared.

I've got many notes in front of me, uh, everything on all the stuff we saw today, the finals, the preliminaries and early rounds and things that will affect medals that are going out, uh, later in these games.

We're going to look ahead to tomorrow.

I, I feel like this is our actual, this is like what the real meat of the show is.

Our, our preview week was very fun, uh, previewing everything, bringing in some expert guests to be able.

To talk about uh some of the things that are gonna happen, but this is really, today's gonna be the format of the main show where we're gonna every day, at the end of the day, recap everything we saw, preview the next day, have it in your feeds in the evening.

I can tell you the day zero episode, uh, it arrived on my phone.

I just saw the notification that the episode was available still when NBC was airing the primetime opening ceremony.

So here we go.

This is what we signed up for.

Yeah, we, we thrive in the chaos.

Yeah, so, uh, where in that chaos shall we begin?

Do you have a, a top event that you saw today that you want to get into first?

I think, I mean, might as well start with the, the men's downhill, the first event of the day.

I feel like that that was the marquee event, right?

That's the, you know, alpine skiing, one of the, the more storied events at the Olympics and the Winter Olympics, at least, and, um, a good men's downhill, an exciting men's downhill.

I want to brag a little bit because I did mention, well, OK, first of all, let's say who won the race.

OK.

It was uh Switzerland's Franjo von Almen, fantastic name.

He's the defending world champion in this event.

And he won the World World Cup race that took place last week.

So, uh, he won gold, and then the Italian duo of Giovanni Franzoni and Dominic Paris took silver and bronze.

I told you I wanted to brag, that's because I had shouted out Dominic Paris as a potential contender here after looking up and seeing that he had won, uh, a record 7 events on this course, 6 of them in the downhill.

Uh, but he's, he's a little bit older, he's 36, hadn't won there since 2021.

Uh, but he came back and won, uh, the bronze here at least, and a great moment for the Italians taking those final two podium positions.

Yeah, listen, at some point I will stop telling listeners to go back and listen to our episode from last Monday where we previewed all 16 sports, but today is not that day.

I'm telling you, if you just found out about this show and just joined us today for the first time, you're gonna want to go back to last Monday, make time for that when we previewed all 16 sports.

Um, yes, thank you for, uh, listing off the guys on the podium.

I had a few notes here.

One thing that really stood out to me was at the very start, you could just, uh, the broadcasters, and by the way, I love, uh, Dan Hicks from NBC who is also regular on their golf coverage.

It was just great to hear his voice and the whole presentation where they have the tracker map that It was like in the shape of the root.

It looked a little, I don't know if we, we didn't talk about this.

I don't know if you watched the, um, Alex Honnold live climb of the building on Netflix.

Uh, I did watch that and they had a similar, they had like a key on the screen so that you could see his progress up on the building and the, uh, the one on the skiing today reminded me a little of that.

Um, but yeah, so early in the broadcast, they were just talking about how injured and beat up everybody is.

They showed one guy and there was an early wipeout early and then they show a guy and they're like, oh yeah, his, his eye is injured, and then this other guy, they're like, yeah, he, uh, taped the pole to his hand.

It's not really a broken hand, but it's just injured enough, and so it just gives you some appreciation cause we've been talking.

All week about Lindsey Vonn and the injury that she, uh, suffered to her ACL this week, but also that being on top of like so many other injuries that she's had in her career.

And then you realize like, no, it's not just like Lindsey Vonn being injury prone or something.

It's like, it feels like this is just a sport where they're all beat up.

I mean , they're going like 80+ miles an hour down the mountain, so of course, that's gonna happen.

Um, but fun to watch that.

They had a great, uh, camera angle.

They had a drone camera.

I noticed that for a couple of sports.

Um, the snowboarders, oh sorry, was it not the, the snowboarders and the luge, they were, the NBC was making great use of the drone cameras and so we just had great angles and, uh, yeah, fun event.

You, you did, you mentioned the three, guys on the podium, but, uh, Marco Odermatt, the Swiss blade who we talked about.

Um, we talked about him being like a legend who was supposed to medal in, uh, like, you know, a ton of events and a favorite in a bunch of them.

Um, he took an early lead and then was passed by his own Swiss teammate and then the two Italians that you mentioned, but that was, uh, it was kind of intriguing to see him put up a score where you're like, oh, I don't know if that's gonna hold up and then watch him get surpassed by a few people, including two from the, uh, the host country, which had a very good day.

We'll talk more about that in a little bit.

Yeah, I mean, it was, it was really evident, you know, older Matt, Wright, the world number one, you know, like you said, he put up a kind of an iffy time that ended up getting surpassed.

It was really evident as you watch these skiers, you know, who was familiar with the course of certainly the Italians were.

Well, I was also struck by um the way that, you know, you could tell like this, the format's a little strange where, you know, the medical attenders kind of go and then there's like all these guys at the end who are like, yeah, they're gonna finish.

Like, way, way off the pace.

And so, you know, they're talking throughout the broadcast about how, you know, von Almen's gonna win.

And I'm like, don't they have, like, a bunch of other guys to go still?

be like, oh, then you realize, OK, no, these guys are really slow, and you can see the difference between the contenders and these guys at the end.

I think the last guy to go was somebody from Ireland who races on, uh, dry slopes, they're called.

They mentioned this, I think, during the opening ceremony, how in the British Isles, um, a lot of, a lot of Athletes, skiers and snowboarders, they race on just, like, grass or, or, uh, or, or, like, artificial turf, um, that they put on, you know, they, they on snowboards and skis, you know, there's no snow involved even.

Um, but that guy, you know, you can see, like, he's, his, his legs are chattering, as they say, you know, he's, he's bouncing more than you would like and taking the turns, you know, imprecisely, and you go, OK, like, I understand now the, the difference between this guy and then the three guys on the podium.

Yeah, it's interesting, uh, different sports just have different setups for like when the, uh, top ranked competitors are going to go, because then, uh, I was watching the speed skating, which we'll get to later, um, and they were very clear the whole time it's going on, they were saying, OK, this, this is a good time, this person now moves into podium position, but we want to remind you, the 6 best skaters are going to go in the last 3 heats.

The last 3 pairs will be the top 6, so don't be surprised if the medal contenders come out of that.

And then, yeah, the downhill skiing was a little bit different where they, they also, they were like, OK, yeah, the 10 best are going to be in the middle.

And I was thinking about that because we talked about, um, Esther Ledetchka in the preview episode and how she was the one that, um, I think it was 8 years ago, she won a medal in both skiing and snowboarding, which was a big surprise.

And I did rewatch some of that.

I'm pretty sure that was like toward the end.

She was one of those that was like, not in the middle.

Um, and that was, so that was part of like, she saw, I just remember her reaction.

She saw her time and saw that she was gonna win a medal, um, just being amazed.

And so, yeah, I, I think that's, uh, so you can tell if there's gonna be a big underdog or an upset, it's gonna come out of that.

And so it's, it's interesting, we're all sort of becoming experts in a lot of these sports in real time and you and I are definitely doing that right along with a lot of our listeners.

Um, and so some of it is just like, yeah, the condition of the mountain, whether it's fresh snow or, uh, you know, on the ice where they had a Zamboni break in the middle, and so there are Reasons why they put the leaders where they do in various sports.

Uh, they were talking about the weather just being a big part of it, like, you know, the, the fog rolls in, uh, uh, you know, gust of wind can make a huge difference.

A cloud can just show up and can cover part of the mountain and impact visibility.

So it's just, you know, they're, they're really high up there in the mountains.

And so it's just interesting to see all the different factors that can affect the race.

The cloud was something that I found really interesting that they mentioned on commentary because, um, you know, they're mentioning oh, a cloud has rolled in numbers.

Looking at the screen and I go, ah , it looks pretty light out to me still, but you, they really rely on, on the sunshine to illuminate, you know, different features of the snow, you know, where there's a, a, a soft spot or an icy spot or or what have you.

And, um, yeah, you need that, that shining of the sun to, to let you know where those spots are.

And, uh, yeah, like I said, a cloud rolls in and then some, all of a sudden you can't rely on that and you're skiing, you know, somewhat blind, so to speak, but that was something I hadn't considered.

And, uh, that's why we love having these experts.

On commentary for the novices like us.

Yes, definitely.

Um, so if you have nothing else left on the downhill, uh, I can move on to cross country skiing, which was another sport where I benefited greatly from the commentary.

Well, should we mention just briefly the, the women's downhill because, um, that was, you know, we've been talking all week about Lindsey Vonn and she finished 3rd in today's, uh, practice run, the training run.

So incredible performance there.

But I mainly want to bring it up, obviously.

Because of Vaughn, but also, the weather in Cortina has apparently just been terrible and, like, half the field didn't get to have their training run today, and, you know, supposed to have the medal race tomorrow.

Like, Vaughn's fortunate, she was able to be one of the ones who was down the mountain, and I don't know, you know, what's that, how that's gonna impact the race tomorrow.

People who have not been down the course or, you know, not as many times as they've liked, and, um, and whether, you know, whether or not they're gonna be able to get this race in tomorrow with the weather, I don't know what the weather's gonna be like.

Yeah, I figured we'd get to that at the end of tomorrow's schedule, but now for anyone who does not make it through, however, however long we been talking about all these sports, yeah, so tomorrow, uh, also 5:30 a.m. Eastern will be, uh, the big race.

Lindsey Vonn and, and, uh Breezy Johnson, we should mention also is, uh, an American with a medal chance, a very good medal chance we should say, but, um, yeah, that is contingent on the race actually going off.

And so anyone who's listening to this after 5:30 in the morning Eastern time on Sunday may already know what happened, but, uh, we'll have this out for anyone doing, uh, some evening listening.

Um, OK, so yes, so cross country skiing, um, and we talked all about this, uh, in the preview.

I mean, I'm gonna stop saying that.

I, I hear myself saying that too much, but, uh, so next time you can, I don't know if, if, uh, Dan Pat, our producer, has like a big like X buzzer sound he wants to make if I'm saying that too much.

Uh, next time I do it, you can hit me with the buzz.

The ski athlon is a fun race, so there's the two different types of skiing.

There's the freestyle and the classical, and this is a race where they do 10 kilometers of each.

And so Jessie Diggins is someone we've talked about.

She's got 3 Olympic medals.

Um, she's, you know, probably the best ever in uh US cross.

Country skiing and definitely in this race came into it thinking that she was going to be a medal contender.

Um, very early in the race, there was sort of a fall in front of her, like right in front of her, to the point that a commentator thought she had gone down and then the other one had to step in and be like, no, it was actually somebody else, but, uh, she was definitely slowed up.

Um, and so it was interesting to see, and I don't know how much that really, um, affected her entire race.

She did fall behind and then was never able to make up the time.

Um, but yeah, they were talking about how there's the, the classical is sort of the like running on skis when you're in the grooves, and then the freestyle is more of like the skating motion, and that is her specialty.

So they were not expecting her to be out in front of the pack, they thought, OK, stay behind, and they were talking about how this is similar to other sports where it's OK not being in the lead and you actually, it's helpful to draft off of the people in front of you, and so sometimes you'll conserve energy.

Um, and it was like, OK, if she could just stay in striking range, uh, then she can maybe pick up ground on the, uh, second half of the race, um, but then she just fell further and further behind.

I will say the, the race, it definitely kept my attention for, it was like a full hour race, and, uh, I think some people might hear that and be like, oh, I don't know, that might be.

Kind of boring, like watching an hour of cross country skiing, but I, I really enjoyed it and it was interesting hearing the commentary.

Um, they were also talking about how, uh, she skis a lot and, um, I, I, I should have gotten the name of the commentators, but they were talking about how it's possible that that could be to her detriment, um.

They also, uh, remember they made the distances the same for men and women in cross country skiing this year, which has not always been the same at the Olympics.

And so, uh, this is one of the events that was made longer for, uh, the women this time around, and so that in combination with her skiing a lot.

Um, it's possible that we'll see some fatigue, but also, like, you know, I don't want to say that, like I, I, her, she and her team certainly know a lot more than I do about what her schedule should be and what kind of physical demands she can handle, and how many, I'm sure how many events, uh, you know, she's done in her life where she's had multiple, uh, you know, multiple events in the same week and stuff.

So, uh, you know, you can't really get all the way to the Olympics and then make an excuse like that.

I don't think they were making an excuse for her, they were just sort of talking about that being a possibility.

Um, but yeah, so that was one where the, the US did not win any medals today , uh, and that was one where we thought there was a chance that they could.

Um, but yeah, disappointing day for her, but still, it was a fun race and, and the ending was great, um, because I love a race like this where the leader is so far out in front that they can like go over to the stands and grab one of their flags of their country before they even cross the finish line, and, uh, this.

I don't, sorry, I don't know if I have the name in front of me, but she was from Sweden.

Uh, maybe you, you, you have the name.

OK, well, Frida Carlsson.

That's right, yep, yep, Frida Carlsson, and yeah, so then you get the image of seeing her crossing the finish line with the Swedish flag.

Uh, I thought that was very cool .

Yeah, so, you know, a couple of things here.

The, um, I also was, was more riveted by this race than I expected.

I think partially because, you know, there was this, this narrative with, OK, Diggins, you know, I think it was, I have it in my notes here, after the 1st 2 laps, only 36 seconds back, right?

A decent gap, but, you know, within striking distance, and, you know, to be clear, she, she crashed on that first lap.

So after the second lap, there's a bit of a gap, but then I don't think, you talked about whether or not the crash affected her.

I don't think it was the crash at all because then, It was really just Carlson and uh her countrywoman, Eva Anderson, who took silver.

They pulled away at the at the end of this race, like, it was really spectacular um to watch them just like, really separate from the pack and build up, I think, I think uh Carlson won by like 5 minutes or something, like it was a, it was a not 5 minutes, um, over the over bronze.

It was like, you know, it was a big gap, a couple of minutes, um.

And so, like, a really, really big gap and, um, you know, she was like, all, she was, like, really zooming up the up the hill.

Um, they, they had a, um, they really made a point to mention the equipment, the, the wax on the skis.

They showed somebody, I don't know what team they were from, but they, they showed somebody in some kind of, you know, support area, waxing the skis and talking about how, you know, there's an advantage to.

Be gleaned from having a good waxer who knows what the conditions are gonna be like, how to, and then they're saying this as the Swedes are pulling away and you're like, oh, maybe it's the wax.

Um, so, you know, it was, uh, it was really, I don't think out of, you know, not really diggings, the, the crash that sunker, it was just like, those two Swedes were out of this world and they, they had a great performance.

Yeah, I, I wrote that down in my notes for, uh, 2030 to interview a wax technician before the Olympics starts.

I don't know if, if anyone from any competing outlets are listening to this, I'm just giving away my story ideas here now, but, uh, yeah, definitely I want to learn more about the wax.

It was like a, you called it a support area.

It looked like a hut, like the wax hut where I was gonna say hut, yeah, yeah, and I imagine these, these people are just in there, like they must be.

Such experts because we've talked about the equipment and just how fine-tuned so many things are, um, racing suits and sleds and all kinds of things, and yeah, I'm sure just the, the smallest amount of calibration can make such a big difference on skis and snowboards.

And so, yeah, I'm sure those are just the best of the best.

You could, uh, 10 minutes with those people, I bet you could just learn, uh, it's just an unbelievable amount about how the sport works.

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Yeah, there was a lot of talk today on commentary about equipment.

I found interesting.

Maybe we could use this to transition to the curling, um, because in the curling, they were talking about, so the US is not a good day for US curling, the mixed doubles team, the two Corey.

Um, and there was talk on commentary of maybe this was a, a result of them having, uh, sanded the stones.

There was some kind of, I didn't get all the intricacies, I have to have John Cullen.

Back to tell us about the, the sanding of the stones.

But apparently there was some discussion about um how the stones were sliding and so they made the decision overnight to sand them, to rough up the bottom a little bit, and that changed the way that they were sliding and, um, could have been part, partly why the US really struggled today.

Yeah, like you said, tough day.

So, uh, the US mixed doubles team, they were undefeated 20, uh, sorry, 4-0, and then today lost two games.

So, and I'll tell you, I didn't even watch the second one.

I saw the results and then caught up a little bit.

The first one was the anticipated one, which we knew about because in the morning it was USA against Great Britain, and both teams were undefeated.

4-0 entering.

This was a great match.

Uh, they were down 3-0 after 2 and came back.

Now, I don't know if there's like, uh, some sort of advanced analytics for like what makes a close curling match.

Like, you know, some of these, like you see, um, baseball games, football games where you get like the win probability added graph and you can see like how tight it is.

I have my own advanced metric.

Trick for how close a curling match is , and it's how many times does the guy have to come out with the measuring device to see which stone is actually closest to the center and which ones are closer than their opponents .

And in this game, that guy came out 3 times in the 1st 5 ends, which just, I mean, that guy was getting a workout and he's gonna have to, you know, ice up at the end of the day.

Um, but, Yeah, that's how close it was, and it was just like a battle, and the score was back and forth.

It was tied 4-4, um, and then, uh, yeah, then the US ended up losing a tough one at the end.

So then I sort of tuned it out and I was like, OK, that's the big game of the day, and then later they played against Korea, and the Korean team was winless, 0 and 5, and, uh, the US actually lost to that one also.

Um, there was a, there was a 3 point swing in like the final end, I think, and then it went to extra ends, and they lost there.

I don't, yeah, did you, did you watch more of that?

Can you, cause I saw the result and was just like really surprised by this.

How much of that were you watching as it happened?

So I, I had an eye on it, and then like as it got to the 8th and final end.

And, you know, the, I was like, hey , let me, let me see, you know, if they're, they last, last licks here, basically, you know, bottom of the ninth in the, in the baseball parlance, and so I was like, all right, let me , I'll check that out.

And then, yeah, they had, you know, this really miraculous final end the US did, where they had 3 stones closest to the center, um, at the end of that, or at the conclusion of that final end, and so then they, they get 3 points there to tie the game, go to , you know, uh, extra innings, so to speak, and, uh, I was, so then I was like locked in on the , the extra end.

And then it didn't end well for the US.

They, uh, Korea had, had the hammer, right?

The, that's what they say when they have the, the final throw of the match, right?

Had the hammer, knocks the US stone out of the, out of the house, and then that was that, and it's a 0 and 2 day and creates a really crowded, uh, middle of the standings in that mixed doubles curling tournament.

Yes, it does.

I actually, I have that standings update if you'd like me to share.

So, lay it on me, um, so the top 4 advance and move on to the medal round.

So that's the important thing is to stay there.

US now drops to 4 and 2, which puts them in 3rd place, but still in a decent position because they've beaten Canada and Switzerland, which I think are the two teams right behind them.

Um, so they have a tiebreaker there, so they are still in position to move on.

Um, but yeah, that'll be pretty important now, um, sets up an important match for tomorrow, which we'll talk about at the end.

Um, but yeah, like you said, tough day, you're sitting there 4-0 with a chance to stay undefeated and Great Britain is, is actually the first team that has clinched, uh, that they are moving on into the medal rounds.

And so, you know, a close game in the beginning of the day, if it goes a different way, that could be the US, uh, staring at already being locked up with more games to go, um, but instead they're gonna have to fight to, uh, earn their spot there.

Yeah, that's a, that's a tough spot to be in, but like you said, the two tiebreakers are huge.

Um, that's gonna be, if, if it comes down to that, then at least you have that advantage to fall back on, but not the, not the result they wanted today, especially against Korea.

Like you said, winless coming in.

That's a, that's a tough one to lose.

Yeah, the whole, yeah, the whole table is, is it a table in curling?

Are we gonna call it the table or the standings?

The whole, the table is, is, uh, bunched up, yeah.

Should we move on to the, uh, I, I love the speed skating.

That was like maybe the event of the day, the women's 3000 m.

Um, if anybody missed this, it was just like, you know, like Mitch mentioned.

Uh, you had the, um, you know, kind of the, the lesser contenders starting off and then those last three pairings where the medal contenders are coming in and really, you know, challenging each other.

And this was a great moment with Italy's Francesca Lola Brigia, who, um, Lola Brigida, she, there's an extra syllable there I missed.

Uh, she set an Olympic record, uh, which was not expected because I, I, I actually, I didn't notice this on my first watch, but then they replayed the race on Gold zone, and I caught this.

Detail where the announcer said that Lola Brigida, quote, usually fades at the end, and that couldn't have been farther from the truth because she had this incredible late surge, um, you know, it was kind of like, near , uh, near medal contention as we were, you know, on the first few laps of the race.

And at the end, really, I think, leaned into that home crowd, uh, took it up a notch and crossed the crossed the finish line in an Olympic record, um, and took home.

It was Italy's, she won.

Silver in this event in 2022 and a bronze in the mass start, but, uh, she's the first Italian woman to win gold in speed skating.

Uh, she was already the only Italian woman to win a long track medal.

Uh, now housed three of them, and no other Italian woman has any.

Um, and it's the second Olympic gold in speed skating for Italy after Enrico Fabrice's win in the 1500 in 2006 in Turin.

Uh, Fabrice was one of the men who helped light the cauldron.

The opening ceremony.

But, um, yeah, great.

And also on top of this, um, Lila Brigitte, she was like, uh, they were showing her before she's like getting ready to race.

She's singing along with the crowd, you know, they showed some great moments with her son as, you know, she's arriving to the arena.

Um, she seemed to be really relaxed.

And I think that speaks to the advantage that the home country's athletes always have at the Olympics.

You know , she seemed to be, uh, really in her element, uh, at this, at this event, and it paid off.

Yeah, how cool is it?

Uh, the story of the home athletes for the host country is just always so fun that it's really just like there's so much luck involved that your country will happen to host at the event when you're in your athletic prime.

Like all of these athletes are just trying to peak at the right time in their careers, and so much of it is numbers and how old are you, and you're just hoping that, uh, you know, I guess some.

The who come back from multiple Olympics, they have a long prime and, and a bunch of chances at it.

But when one of those just lines up in the sweet spot, like you and I talked so much over the summer about Leon Marchand, the French swimmer who was unbelievable and the atmosphere when he was swimming was amazing.

Teddy Riner, the, uh, French judoka who was unbelievable.

Um, it's just very cool and stuff like this lines up.

And so, yeah, uh, Italy, a good day for them.

3 medals.

They, they were, uh, leading the medal table.

Uh, I don't know if that's still held up by the end of the day, but I know that, uh, after this speed skating event, they, they were the only country that had 3 medals.

Um, Japan had a couple in the, uh, snowboarding, so we'll have to double check if they caught them in the medal table.

Um, there's only 5 events today, right?

So, so they should have the lead.

Yeah, OK, well, there you go then.

Um, yeah, and so there we go.

Um.

The, uh, yeah, and the other thing you mentioned her son, um, today was her birthday.

I don't know it was her 35th birthday, and there was, it was, uh, it was cool.

I, I mentioned this earlier that the, uh, final six skaters, uh, were sort of the top seeded ones who they were expected to medal.

She was, I think she was in the 3rd to last pairing and put up that great time.

And so then you just get this buildup of the drama.

Where they're showing her in between runs and you're waiting to see if her score is gonna hold up, and it does, and it went and it held up a couple of times past like top competitors who had a great chance to beat her.

Um, but like you said, the Olympic records, so that's, you know, blazing fast speed, um, and then it holds up and then she runs to her son and celebrates, and, uh, yeah, the whole scene was, was very cool and, and definitely a highlight of the day.

Maybe the highlight of the day, it's definitely up there.

I think so too, and, and the other two spots on the podium also really interesting, I thought.

So, uh, Norway's Ranja Viklund, she won silver.

Um, Norway ranks 2nd all time in speed skating medals with 87, but only two of them before today have been won by women.

She got the 3rd.

Uh, it's the first, uh, Norway's first female speed skating medalist since 1980.

Um, and then in bronze was Canada's Valerie Malte.

Uh, she had previously won silver in short track at the 3000 m relay in 2014.

Uh, and then when she won gold in the team pursuit in, uh, 2022, in the long track team pursuit, I should say, uh, she became the fourth athlete to ever win medals in both short track and long track speed skating.

So, a really, uh, you know, we talked about Esther Ledeka and, uh, you know, kind of a similar, you know, much different in fact that they're both uh ice skating, but, you know, similarly in, in two different disciplines, winning medals, um, that was a pretty impressive feat, I thought.

Yeah, that is cool and, and a little surprising about Norway because, uh, you'd think, I mean, that's a country we talk about a lot in biathlon and cross country skiing and a lot of those skiing type events.

And so you'd think they'd have more, uh, speed skaters on the podium over the years, but, uh, that one, that surprised me.

They do just not on the women's side.

I don't know what that.

The disparity is, yeah, they have 87 medalists in, in 85 of them before today now 88, 85 of them are men.

I just, I don't understand.

And that's also, you know, it's a progressive country where you figure like, it's not like one of these kind of, kind of, you know, repressive countries where women are not really encouraged to play sports, you know, I don't know what the, what the challenge is there, um, but for some reason, it just didn't, it just didn't happen until today.

All right, well, shall we move on to figure skating, which for some people probably was the highlight of the day, just cause I know there are a lot of hardcore figure skating fans who this is their marquee thing they get most excited about in the Olympics.

Uh, yeah, let's do that.

I, I had one, I had one, speed skating thing, but it was more of an overall thing we can say for maybe a news update, something I found interesting about Russian involvement.

We can, uh, plant that seed for listeners to come back and hear about that.

Oh no, oh no, just, just hit me with this.

No, you can't tease it like that and then tell me and then not have it.

Let's, let's go, you know, I'm sorry to try to move on prematurely.

figure skate.

Go ahead.

So, so, as I was watching the speed skating, I saw a skater and her, uh, her suit had AI AIN on it, and I said , oh yeah, I totally forgot.

In Paris, they had a small number of Russian and Belarusian athletes who are competing as neutrals.

And I told, when we had mentioned previously in our, in our previews and such, how There were no Russian athletes.

I neglected to mention how there actually are a few that's not competing under any country's flag.

They're competing as neutrals.

And so there were 2 of them.

There's, there's 20 in total at these Olympics.

There were 2 of them in this event, the 3000 m, uh, Ksenia Korzova, who is from Russia, and Mara Zuyeva, who is from Belarus, um.

So, what I, the reason I wanted to bring this up is because the BBC looked back, and I, I should say, so there was a, a process for determining which athletes will be eligible to compete as neutrals.

Um, they had to, they, there was a three-person panel with the IOC that would determine whether or not they met certain criteria, and quoting here from the BBC, athletes were deemed ineligible.

If they were found to have actively, actively supported the war, including through social media activity or participation in pro-war events.

Um, and the BBC found 4 athletes who appear to have violated those standards by supporting the war against Ukraine.

Korzova was one of them.

I don't, I should have written down where she finished.

It was not in medical contention, obviously, but, um, she actually, it was, um, According to the BBC investigation, she had like, she had liked some, uh, Instagram posts from a pro-war, uh, fellow Russian athlete who was pro-war and was, you know, uh, supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Um, so there were 4 of them.

Korzo was one of them.

Let me look, look, uh, look ahead to as we go into the rest of these games.

I think the, the other skate, there's 2 skiers, I believe, and a figure skater, a male figure skater.

Um, so, yes, the controversy here with the, uh, few Russians and Belarusians who were allowed to compete.

Yeah, interesting process.

Like I, it's, uh, it feels like there's a new process.

Every Olympics we have to update, like what did they decide for this time, and I don't know, the idea of like digging through social media feeds to decide who is and isn't feels strange to me for that to be part of the process.

I, I don't know how much we have to get into this today, but that, that is unusual, I would say that that they decided to, to make that, uh, a part of, a part of the determination.

I don't.

There's also something about how one of, one of the members of this three-person panel was seen hugging a pro-war app.

It's a whole thing.

We don't, like I said, don't have to get into it.

Too many sports to get to, but, uh, it was something that I just wanted to break up, especially to, to let people know, yes, there are a few Russians here.

So if you see some people in that AIN, uh, uniform, that's what the deal is.

Yeah, glad you brought that up to clean that up because I think one of us may have said earlier in the week that they weren't, um, and so I think, good, we wanna, we wanna be accurate.

We, we may get things wrong , but we'll fix them a couple of days later.

That's, that's sort of our motto here.

And speaking of that, now that's a great segue into our figure skating conversation cause I know, you know, the email that I'm about to reference.

Uh, I should also say thank you so much.

We've heard from a lot of people, um, especially on social media, and I've seen some of those Apple Podcasts.

Cast, uh, ratings come in and Spotify.

Um, we have very much encouraged everyone to reach out and email us.

I am Mitch.

Golddi@SI.

com.

Gart is Dan.

Gartland@SI.

com.

And we got a great email from, uh, a listener, Mary Elizabeth Whiteman, who is a listener who's been with us since Paris 2024 and, uh, one of those who is still with us and didn't know we were coming back but was happy to see us, uh, pop up in her feed.

Um, She sent me a note on figure skating and, uh, very helpfully passed along some information.

You may recall on yesterday's show, I did my best to talk about the figure skating, but I think the more I do, uh, I open myself up to potentially get things incorrect.

So she just uh came along and cleaned up some things.

Um, first off, she, uh, mentioned the ice dance and I was talking yesterday about, uh, Madison Chok.

And Evan Bates' performance and just uh wanted to shout out the Netflix show Glitter and Gold, which came out and I think a lot more people have been talking about Ice Dance since that show came on.

So I know people are also very interested in heated rivalry, which has led to more interest in hockey at these Olympics.

So here there's another show people can binge.

Maybe you don't have time to get to it until after the Olympics at this point, but there's another, uh, show recommendation.

But, um, I may have called, uh, Madison Chock and Evan Bates a rhythm ice dance team by mistake yesterday.

Uh, just clarifying, rhythm dance is a segment of the ice dance event, just like short program is a segment of the singles and pairs.

So they are an ice dance team and yesterday they were just competing in the rhythm dance.

Uh, I did mention that they are the three-time world champions, but for a little background, the French team is made up of the 2022 Olympic champion with a new partner.

So that is also interesting as we're talking about favorites.

Um, and then, the third thing here is that I also talked about how they, uh, skated to a Lenny Kravitz medley yesterday, um.

I didn't realize that the ice dance has a prescribed uh rhythm or theme each year, and the theme is 90s.

So that is why they went, we talked a little bit about the sort of 90s nostalgia, but there was a 90s theme, which was the reason for going with the Lenny Kravitz medley.

Um, and then Mary Elizabeth also very helpfully, uh, and, and politely, I should add, explained the difference between jumps and throw jumps versus spins, and so I will do my best.

Uh, I was describing a fall yesterday, so I will do my best to clean that up.

I really do appreciate this.

Anyone, open invitation, send us an email if you've got, uh, fun facts you wanna add to the show that you think our audience would like, or if you wanna correct us or help us or steer us towards something interesting.

He would love that.

So anyway, let's talk about the figure skating, the actual action on the ice, and I think the day, um, started with, uh, sort of a surprise, I'd say.

Um, Ilya Malinin, who we've talked about as sort of an infallible person who is gonna just dominate every event that he was in, um, did not finish in 1st place.

He did the, uh, short program and, uh, actually finished in 2nd.

Um, there were a bunch of technical deductions .

See, now I'm being very careful with my words here, but I, but that is, that's a good thing.

We should do that throughout.

Um, but no, he, um, so we've talked about how his advantage is that he just attempts jumps that nobody else can do.

And so in the free skate, there are gonna be 7 jumps.

In the short program, there are only 3, and so I think that takes away his advantage and maybe cuts down on some of the margin for error.

Um, had a couple of technical, uh, deductions on some of those jumps, just didn't land them perfectly.

Um, Johnny Weir is a much better, uh, explainer of that than I am on him, not fully rotating on some of the, um, quad axles and some of the other jumps he attended.

Um, so he actually finished second behind, um, Kagiyama, the, uh, skater from Japan, in the short program.

Um.

There was some interesting conversation afterward.

So, uh, Ashley Wagner, um, uh, Olympic skater, uh, was on Gold zone today.

She was a nice addition to the program, um, she was not one of the hosts for the Summer Olympics, but she was talking about how this could be a good wake-up call, um, for Malinin, and, uh, thinks he, uh, skates better when he's mad, and so if he, uh, feels this urge to improve on his performance, that could be a good thing for the rest of the competition.

But I actually saw some people on TV talking about how maybe he shouldn't, uh, be the skater in the team competition, uh, tomorrow in the, the free skate, and that just like, again, really surprised me as someone who's diving into this sport more recently, it seems like, why wouldn't you want him?

But, um, I guess substitutions are pretty common in the sport and in some of these team events, and so some people were thinking like, maybe after today, um, maybe someone else should go.

I personally , I just, you know, find that hard to believe.

I feel like he's there at the Olympics, why wouldn't you want to send him out there?

Um.

It reminds me a little of the conversation that you and I had about uh how it's interesting that the team event goes before the individual , and we were wondering if maybe it would make more sense or be more interesting if that was flipped.

But, you know, I can get it that if you're uh making your Olympic debut, there could be nerves, um, you know, I don't want.

say he had, he was nervous, and that's why he, uh, you know, didn't have his best skate today.

I think he's been in plenty of competitions, but, you know, sometimes there could be nerves.

So it is interesting that they do, um, sort of shake out the rust like that.

Their first real Olympic competition comes in the team event before the individual later on.

Um, but yeah, it was, it was interesting to see that, and we will see him plenty more even if he's not in the, the free skate program in the team event tomorrow.

But, uh, interesting day for him and, and sort of some of the storylines around him after the skate.

I think it's the, the, the, the choice whether to include him in the, in the event tomorrow is interesting.

I think, you know, so it was not actually Johnny Weir mentioned, it's not actually all that surprising that Kagayama was able to defeat Mallinon in this, uh, in this short program.

He had before at some World Cup events, uh, previously this season.

And you mentioned how it's the, the advantage that Mallinon has with his, uh, difficult jumps is kind of muted in this shorter program in the free skate that accentuates, you know, his advantage.

And so I think that's a perfect reason to include him tomorrow is that he's gonna have this advantage with doing the 7 jumps, right?

Um, and also, I think, if I was Malinin, I'd wanna do it to work out those nerves before the individual events, right?

So, you know, I think that's the more, I mean, kind of maybe a selfish outlook, but, um, you know, that's the More prestigious medal to win.

Um, he also probably, I think, you know, nerve nerves or not, he's gonna be their best bet to, to place highly in that event.

Um, although you mentioned, you know, substitutions are not uncommon.

I believe that happened today in the, um, in the ice dance portion with Team Canada.

They, uh, did not choose their top team, um, but the team that was substituted had a great run as well.

So, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's a little bit of strategy that the team has to decide, but I think Mallon's got to be the guy.

Yeah, and, and you said, uh, like could be a selfish event with a selfish decision, which I don't think it is, but even if it is, like he's earned it, you know, he's like, he's the best in the world, he's like, yeah, of course, like that's, I think, and you want your best player saying give me the ball, at the most important , there's no ball in figure skating, but you know, that metaphor, give me the ball, like I think you want your best guy.

Um, the, uh, that is the last event in the, uh, in the larger team event.

So it also, that could be like the big moment, um, and by the way, the US is ahead, and so it might be that they don't even need a perfect performance, and he would know that going into his final skate, um, but yeah, it sets up for if they do go with him, that'll be like the last event and possibly he'd be the very last skater, um, with the gold medal officially on the line.

Yeah, and one reason the US is ahead is cause of, uh, chalk and Bates.

Like they had a great, uh, at the end of the, at the end of the day, the, the, the last event we were watching before we, we jumped on here, like they were fantastic.

Their Matador routine was, was brilliant and uh shows you why they're the best in the world.

Yeah, so that was, we, uh, talked about how the rhythm was yesterday, um, and then, uh, today, yeah, you, the Matador, it was very cool.

So they skated to paint it black, and they were both dressed in all black.

And listen, if you haven't seen it, you should go find the video.

Don't just rely on me describing this graceful, beautiful figure skating.

Go watch it for yourselves.

Um , but yeah, dress.

In all black for those who haven't seen it.

And, uh, the only thing that wasn't black is that she had like a flowing skirt on and the, uh, like under inside of that was red, like a matador's cape.

And so they were talking like, she was the matador and he was the bull.

And it was just a really cool routine where she was, you know, all black, but then like holding up this red cape for all these, uh, uh, you know, moves.

They were doing.

And yeah, it was just like, really interesting.

It was like, even if you are not a figure skating expert, like, which clearly I am not, uh, like, I could definitely appreciate all of the artistry that went into that and the planning and doing something visual that went along with the song.

It was just like a really cool routine.

You could just tell how good they were, even if you didn't sit and watch every single routine by every country, you could tell that they were really great.

Yeah, I was locked in on that and looking forward to seeing more of them as these games go on.

They were, they were brilliant and, uh, again, like I said, shows you why they're the best in the world.

Yeah, and so scoring update, uh, after the day, the US is in first with 44 points, Japan next with 39, uh, Italy after that with 37.

There are 3 more events in the figure skating tomorrow, and that'll, that'll uh wrap it up for the team event medals.

Should we move on to ski jumping ?

We've talked a lot about ski jumping lately.

Let's do it.

OK, so, uh, yeah, we've, we've talked a lot about, uh, particularly on the men's side, some of the, the controversies with the suits and with the players, uh, anatomy, so to speak, um, in the way today skijo, he made his Olympic debut today or Olympic first, uh, event of these Olympics with, um, the women's normal hill and, um, Norway, we talked about this a bit a, could be a down year for Norway, but Norway had a bit of an upset here winning gold.

Uh, Anna Odin Strom, she won gold.

He entered the event ranked 4th in the world, was considered maybe, you know, obviously a fringe medal contender, maybe bronze, maybe silver, but end up winning the gold.

And, um, I mean, it could very well be Norway's only gold of these Olympics, um, at the same, I mean, in the, in the ski jumping, I should say, right, given the controversy with the men's team, two of their top athletes suspended some coaches as well.

Um, Mitch hit the buzzer.

Go back to our preview episode if you want to hear more about that.

That was you , not me.

I said I was gonna do it again.

But, um, yeah, and it's just, you know, women's ski jumping fairly new to the Olympic program.

This is just Norway's 2nd gold.

Um, Slovenia, as we have said previously, had done very well in this event, but, um, ended up getting, um, gold medal favorite Nika Previc of Slovenia.

She finished 2nd, and, um, so a bit of a disappointment there.

It was also great.

We talked about the way that medal contenders kinda come from behind.

I believe Strom was the last one to.

Down the hill.

And so she had this amazing final run that just barely edged Previk.

It was a, it was some, some real drama .

This is one that it was difficult for me to learn how to watch because I'm watching, I'm locked in.

It's like a long break and I'm like, wait a second, what are, what are we?

So if what, as you're going through these Olympics, make, you know, there's several runs and there might be a break in between, but second screen, the ski jumping, if you're interested in the results there cause you don't want to miss it.

Yeah, I'll say I, uh, didn't follow this one super closely, and the reason for that is because the, uh, men's big air snowboarding was going on at the same time.

And so I was watching the snowboarding on my iPad and had the, uh, ski jumping on my TV and it's just one of those things where in one of them they were doing flips and tricks and things and, and, uh, spinning and going upside down.

On the other one, they were just going straight down the mountain and up in the air.

As long as they could.

And I just naturally, my eyes drew the one where they were doing, like, you know, 5 rotation spins and, uh, you know, the whatever, the multiples of 180 and 360 that I will probably have memorized by the end of 2 weeks from now from hearing them talk about it so much.

Um, but yeah, the, so the snowboard Big Air, uh, and if you're wondering like, well, how big is it, the, uh, the hill they were on, it was 18 stories high, so pretty big.

Um, it was, so this was interesting.

I like the format here, and I think this is similar to what we've talked about in the summer with some, some of these sort of like, uh, the X Gamesification of the Olympics where it's a lot of those, um, like the freestyle events on, um , skateboards and BMX stuff, um, but it's basically, uh, you know, they'll take like scores of 2 runs out of 3.

And so it sets it up where you basically know, like, OK, I'm going to be off the podium unless I try something really cool here.

And so it's like they all have sort of basic simpler, uh, tricks they can attempt or they can like go for broke and say, OK, I need something big to get on the podium.

It's not like, uh, a figure skating routine where, you know, like, this is my routine that I'm gonna do, uh, you know, down to the second .

Um, and so that's fun seeing them, like, you know, have to calculate in real time, like, let's, let's freaking go for it, you know, let me see if I can land this and, and, uh, seeing them come down the tricks of the air are fun, and then also like seeing some of them stick the landing, some of them like land it kind of squat a little bit and don't quite, uh, make it perfectly straight, but they don't fall, um.

There was a, uh, skier, Olly Martin, who is an American and he is 17, uh, landed a front side 1800, which is 5 revolutions.

He was in one of those positions where it was like he had a wipeout earlier and then he had to like go big on his third one, and he had a great landing.

He was born in 2008, which makes me feel very old because I very well remember watching the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and that's.

The year that he was born.

Um, but anyway, he like launched himself into 2nd place, and then it was one of those situations where he had a long wait, uh, just to see all of the, uh, snowboarders who were after him, who were ahead of him before that 3rd and final run.

Um, he ended up finishing in 4th.

He was topped by the very last guy who had a chance to pass him.

Um , this guy who was the, uh, gold medal winner in 2022.

He's from China and he took bronze today .

Um, so I will say, I was, uh, enjoying myself watching this.

This is not a sport that I watch a lot of outside of the Olympics, and then this was kind of crazy.

The, uh, the event ends, and they show the scores and they tell us who the medal winners are, and I'm watching on Peacock, and then very clearly there's a hot mic.

I don't know who this was.

I don't, I couldn't tell if the voice was one of the actual broadcasters or if it was like sounded like it to me.

Yeah, I didn't wanna say it for sure cause I didn't wanna, I didn't wanna say that I'm gonna leave some legal doubt there, but I'm gonna say it sounded like it, we should always leave legal doubt.

I, uh, I posted this on Twitter and Blue Sky, uh, and just said a voice came on and said, but yeah, at the conclusion, a voice came on and said, quote, that was boring.

That was so boring, qualifier was way more exciting.

Uh, which, so that's a mistake.

Should, shouldn't do that.

Um, a good lesson for all of us that the mics are always hot.

I will try to keep that in mind.

Uh, I will, I will try not to say anything, uh, that I regret when you and I are technically off the air.

Um, but yeah, that was interesting, and I will say I, um, I shared this, and a lot of people responded to the clip of it on Twitter, and a lot of them were like, well, it was boring, and they were like, uh, they were saying, you know, a lot of them are doing the same tricks, and somebody said something about like, it's, uh, it's spin to win.

The idea being, I guess they're all just trying to do as many spins as they can instead of like flips or things that they could try or something a little more creative, um, but a lot of people who watch this sport a lot more than I do, uh, were saying that it was boring.

I will say, if you are the broadcaster, and again, we don't know whose voice that was with certainty, but like, if you're the broadcaster and you think it's boring, like, you should give that commentary during the event.

I don't know if they are told by NBC to.

be a little cheerful or whatever, but I think like we talk about, uh, a football equivalent, like one of the reasons people love Troy Aikman on Monday Night Football is that he's not afraid to rip the product he's watching and tell us if the league needs to get something under control, if the refs do something wrong, whatever, um, you know, maybe we need like the Troy Aikman of Big Air Snowboard here to get in, but if, if you think it's boring, I would have liked to, uh, have someone explain to me why or make a comment about it.

Um, but anyway, that was somebody, somebody thought it was boring and then a lot of people agreed, but, uh, uh, yeah, even before I, this, this clip started going around, thanks to you, I was thinking this is like, obvious, like, by far and away, my least favorite of the snowboard events.

I just, like, I so much prefer the halfpipe and the slopestyle, like, the, the, the bigness of the air is cool at first, but then you're like, all right, the, the air is very big, you know, then they're just spinning around.

The fact that There's only one trick, and like you said, the tricks are like, mainly the same, and like , I don't know as I want, like, they spin so fast.

I'm like, I don't know how many spins that was.

I don't, I, that's why I need the guy to tell me.

Um, yeah, it, it's, it's like, it can get repetitive, um, and I think, you know, the, the qualifying, like, yeah, there's a lot of drama there about, you know, who's gonna be actually able to compete for a medal, right?

There's some, some real tension there, and then there's less of that, obviously there's tension with who's gonna win the medal, but, um.

Yeah, I mean, a lot of guys, I mean, it, it's, it's terrible to say, but, like, a lot of the more thrilling moments were, like, when the guys fell, like, there was, there was, I think it was a Canadian snowboarder who landed, like , basically, um, you know, perpendicular to the ground or parallel to the ground, and, um, Fell flat on his face and like that was among the most interesting, you know, jumps that I saw during that event because like, damn, that was a really hard fall.

Uh, he seemed to be OK , you know, I don't want the guy to get injured, but, um, yeah, that's what I, a cup, this is a sport, this is like the sport where people can wipe out.

And they'll like stand up and be fine in the same way that sometimes like little kids will fall and then they'll just like stand and be like, oh, I'm OK.

That was nothing.

Um, but like, yeah, some of these sports like the Lindsey Vonn being a clear example and some of these, it's like they can have serious wipeouts.

And this one, it was like a lot of them they fell and they, they get right up.

Um , yeah, you're, you're not wrong on that.

I will say like I thought the, uh, the ski jumping also was an event that it was like, well, this is getting kind of repetitive.

Um, I would say some of my least favorite events in the Olympics are probably the ones that are like, um, judged and scored on the tricks.

Like I think the thinking about like the alpine skiing, the downhill and watching them race toward a time and the same on the speed skate.

I think a lot of those are the sports that I prefer.

Um, but yeah, it's hard.

I mean, a lot of people are tuning into these sports for the first time, uh, or, you know, for the first time in 4 years at least, um, you know, there are like Winter X Games and things and competitions that people pay attention to, but a lot of those are like the real hardcore fans of the sport, as we've talked about, uh, at length, like the Olympics are an opportunity to be on the world stage and Bring in a new audience.

Um, and so, yeah, like a lot of us who don't tune in all the time are seeing this and, and might not have an idea of like, what does a more exciting competition look like or, you know, what would it look like if people were doing more varied tricks.

Um, but it could, you know, if you're not exposed to it a lot, it might feel a little repetitive, but it's still like fun to watch them one at a time go down the mountain and see if they can land on their feet or not.

Right, I think, I think that's uh, that's the way I feel as well.

But before we move on, or if we move on to previewing tomorrow, I wanna touch on the hockey just very briefly, um, because the results were not terribly interesting.

I mean, the US like just stomped Finland.

It was, it was not even cool.

I, I actually, I wrote US dominates Finland in my notes, like halfway through the game and didn't even put the final score in.

Maybe, maybe you can fill the people in.

The final score was 5-0 was the final 5-0.

OK, yeah, I think I wrote that when it was 3.

yeah, and then Hilary Knight, she, she tied the record for most Olympic goals by an American woman, which was, which was nice to see.

14.

I just, I just, I've been, I was just writing down numbers the entire game.

14 is the number you're looking for of goals.

There you go.

OK.

But the reason I wanted to bring up the hockey was really.

The Canada and uh Switzerland results, so this is another blowout, it was, I think, 5-0, uh, yeah, no, 4-0, I'm sorry, and uh I bring it up because the Swiss goalie, uh, who is, uh, Saskia Maurer, she stood on, I mean, I think it's, it's, you gotta do something really special for me to shout out the goalie in a 4-0 loss, but she was just like, she was scoreless through 1.

I think Canada was out shooting like 18 to 2 after the first period.

Ended up in Canada got 55 shots on goal.

Morris saved 51 of them.

Switzerland only managed 6 shots on goal, so that gets, tells you how, how one-sided this game was, but Morris, you got, you know, obviously, 55 goals, 55.

Shots, uh, only 4 goals, and only one of those goals was an even strength.

Three of them were on the power play.

She was fantastic, just stopping, like, this game really should have been 1011, 12 to 0.

It was just like, she was really spectacular and I think really deserves some credit in a, in a big defeat.

Uh, and my only hockey note is, uh, I'll give you a, uh, Finland Norovirus update.

So remember that, uh , the Finland team that the US dominated, they were recovering from quarantine.

We don't know how many of them actually had norovirus and how many were just quarantining because of, uh, you know, contact tracing and concern about an exposure.

Um, but yeah, this was their first time back on the ice after.

After that, so it's really not surprising, uh, to see that they, I mean, I think the US, the US definitely would have been favorites anyway.

Um, but also you and I had talked about, um, that game between Finland and Canada and whether they would be able to reschedule it or if they would just call it off, knowing that all five of the teams in that bracket are going to advance to the quarterfinals.

Um, they did find time in the schedule to put that in and Uh, I did see people were making a good point.

Uh, goal differential is a tiebreaker, so that's another reason why you can't just like yank a game out of there because you definitely want to have the goal differential.

And so then that is also something to keep in mind as you're watching these games, um, cause some of these scores that get a little bit, a little bit lopsided, like every minute counts because all of the goals matter, um, you know, when you're talking about goal differential being there as a tiebreaker.

Switzerland also had a player test positive for the norovirus and spent last night, um, in isolation.

They didn't attend the opening ceremony.

So, um, something going around there at these Olympics, uh, hockey players gotta watch out, I think.

Yeah, um.

All right, did you have anything else from today?

Anything you want to say, or should we move on to, uh, previewing day two?

No, I think, and Mitch, I, I, you know, we're running a little long here, so I will scare, I will spare you the, uh, round two of peace or pasta, but, uh, as we, as we move into our preview here, uh, maybe I can send you that offline.

I know you said maybe I'll hit you with just one.

You have 400 noodles, so, you know, I, I'm not worried about getting through them.

All right, hit me with one.

Let's do 1 or done.

OK.

Okidilupo.

Oh come on.

So today I did watch a solid hour of the downhill, and, and so I did, but this is the women's course.

This is, 00, this is, oh man.

So tomorrow this time I should be much better.

OK, Delupo, I'm gonna call that.

I'm gonna call that a piece.

That's pasta.

It means wolf's eyes, and you, you, uh, you're coming up on the wrong side of all these coin flips, I hate to say.

Yeah, we're just gonna, we're gonna cut all these segments out.

No one will even know.

All right, let's move on to tomorrow.

Let's, uh, I'll let you start.

I don't know if you want to start with the women's downhill, that is, that maybe is the, the big one, and, and it's, we're coming up at 5:30 in the morning, so set your alarms again.

Well, no, bitch, I, I thought you were gonna be awake at 2 o'clock for the women's luge qualification.

I might be awake at 2 o'clock for the women's luge qualification, but I will not be, uh, awake in the morning for that.

The only chance I have of that is if I'm still awake at the end of this day, but, uh, no, I think, I think I might unfortunately miss the luge qualification.

There will be more events later.

No, yeah, the, uh, the big one of the day is the women's downhill.

Lindsey Vonn, Breezy Johnson, you know.

is by now.

Uh, we'll see if the weather holds up, uh, whether they can all, you know, go down the mountain, you know, as scheduled, but, uh, that's the big one.

really looking forward to it.

Vaughn with her like 3rd place finish in the training today.

I'm, I'm getting irrationally bullish on her, on her medal chances, and, uh, can't wait to see what she does.

Yeah, and so I, I do wanna say, um, just to try and help people out here, the event starts at 5:30, um, but they go one at a time.

And so I mentioned I watched an hour, you don't have to be awake at 5:30 to see Lindsey Vonn.

Um, I looked at the start order and Breezy Johnson is gonna go off 5th, and then Lindsey Vonn 13th, and it takes a couple of minutes.

So, you know, don't chance it.

I don't want it to be my fault.

If you, uh, miss them by 5 minutes or so, but it's not gonna be like, it's not like you have to be, uh, settled in at 5:30 on the dot.

You're gonna have a little time.

If, if really all you care about is seeing Lindsey Vonn, I would say, you know, you should check out Breezy Johnson too, but you can see the highlights if you're gonna wake up at 6 o'clock instead of 5:30.

Um, but yeah, she'll be, she'll be 13th off, and that's gonna be massive.

I'm sure whatever happens, I'm sure that'll be the first thing we talk about on our show tomorrow.

Yeah, it's gonna be huge.

Um, figure skating is the other big 11 of the other big ones.

There are more medals tomorrow, uh, a much more, an even fuller calendar than there was today.

Um, but yeah, the team event will wrap up.

Uh, there are gonna be 3 events.

There's the, uh, the pair free skate, the women's single skating, and then the, uh, men's, uh, the men's single skating is the final thing.

Uh, so it's gonna be.

Throughout the day, 1:30 p.m. Eastern, uh, 2:45 p.m. and then the men go off at 3:55.

So again, there will be, uh, probably some more discussion tomorrow about Ilya Mainin and if he's gonna be the guy, but, uh, if he is, that'll be the time.

Now that, that starts at 3:55, but again, um, I would imagine the US is gonna be last, uh, or if not like among the last that'll go off, so you've got a little bit of time, but, uh, that's when the event starts if you want to see all of it.

If you love the women's skiathlon today, tune in tomorrow for the men's.

So that's at 6:30 in the morning, a little, a little earlier than the, uh, than the women's was.

This is gonna be, we talked in our preview about Norway's Johannes Klabo.

Um, he's a legend, he's a heavy gold medal favorite.

Um, and in fact, our Brian Kazan of predicting a Norway podium sweep in this one.

Yeah, he is awesome, very excited to see him.

Um, it's a fun race.

We talked about it earlier.

We didn't really get into like the transitions, um, but we, uh, we may or may not have talked about it on a previous show that I'm not allowed to bring up anymore, but how they, uh, they actually wear different sets of skis for the classical and the freestyle.

So there's like a little, um, area in the middle where, uh, they like line up, uh, like little, I don't know, little device.

Riders like in parallel lines.

So they ski up behind it and they go into their little stall that corresponds with their booth number, and then you see them and they've got to like change their skis and grab their poles , and then they go out the other side and it's like amazing seeing how fast they are.

It's very reminiscent reminiscent of the triathlon in the summer, where it's like they have their little, they have like a plastic box, I think, where they have like the correct shoes and the cap and the things and they're changing their gear out, they're getting on the bike.

Um, so yeah, it's a fun race and I'm excited to watch that, uh, and see if anyone can keep up with Norway or if they're just gonna be a pack at the front.

And that will be interesting if they are, because again, they were talking today about how they can draft off of each other and teammates can be helpful, but, uh, your teammates for most of the race until you get to the very end, and then somebody wants to win gold.

I'm sure they'd be happy for their countrymen, but they're all gonna want to win.

So it'll be fun to see teammates, uh, possibly jockeying for position against themselves.

Yeah, elsewhere in, uh, skiing, a little bit, right, it's the 8 o'clock is the biathlon mixed relay, so you get the skiing and you're shooting, um, you know, that's always people always have this kind of a, um, uh, a curiosity with the biathlon, and, uh, if you wanna see that for yourself, that's 8 o'clock in the morning.

Um, we talked about the, uh, US mixed doubles curling team, big day tomorrow, trying to get off the mat.

They have two games, uh, their record is now 4 and 2, and their first games against Estonia, which is 2-4, and then the second game is against Sweden, and Sweden's 4-3.

So that's a pretty big game, uh, two teams separated by half a game in the table, uh, as they're both trying to get into the medal round.

Um, that first game against Estonia is 8:35 a.m. and then against Sweden is at 1:05 p.m. Now, I joked about the early start with the luge.

Another early start is gonna be the parallel giant slalom snowboarding.

But you don't, don't worry about that.

That's just the early rounds.

This event's all gonna take place in one day.

So there's a qualification round where, um, each skier takes, uh, it's either 1 or 2 runs down each side of the course that determines seeding, and then there's a knockout bracket with the top 16 skiers, uh, or snowboarders, I'm sorry.

So, uh, it's a head to head format, one against another, whoever reaches the bottom first, they advance to the next round.

So that's gonna be happening throughout the day.

Um, the races you really want to tune in for are gonna be on the women's side, 8:29.

I get, really precise timing here because the races are so quick.

8:29 a.m. is the women's final, uh, 8:39 is the men's.

In the women's final, we've talked about Esther Ledeska, the, uh, the Czech, uh, athlete.

Athlete who has competed in both snowboard and ski.

Um, she's missing the ski downhill for this, obviously, that's taking place just 3 hours earlier in Cortina, which is 5 hours away.

The math doesn't work out.

Um, so, but I, and I want to issue a quick correction here.

When we talked in our preview episode about Ledeska, I said that she was gonna miss, uh, the ski.

That's actually not entirely true.

She's still gonna be able to compete in the Super G on Thursday.

OK, I think, uh, which is the event that she won a medal in last time?

It was the super G.

It was the super G, yeah, yeah.

All right, um, so that'll be fun to get to see her, um.

Let's do some more speed skating.

So if you enjoyed the women's 3000 today, how about the men's 5000 tomorrow, which is gonna be a long race.

Um, if you're looking for somebody from Team USA still waiting for a medal here, um, Casey Dawson, uh, could be a medal contender.

I don't know that he's a favorite to win a medal, but, um, could be in the mix.

Uh, and again, that's gonna be, there's gonna be a lot of speed skating cause 5000 m, that's a long race.

Yeah, um, if you're, if you, we got an initial taste of luge today with the, with the men's luge, the medal race is tomorrow.

That's gonna be at, uh, 12:30 p.m. Eastern.

Um, we talked with, with Ken Childs about how Germany is gonna dominate here, so look out for Germany in that one, Austria and Italy also in the top of the, the early rounds today, but, uh, medal race tomorrow, and again, it's gonna be probably Germany's race to lose.

Yeah, and then I think um the last thing on my calendar for tomorrow is uh at 6:30, we're gonna have the Super Bowl.

It's uh Seahawks Patriots.

I think the Seahawks have a really good defense.

It'll be interesting to see how they disguise looks for Drake May, um, and so, uh, sorry, I, that, that's not an Olympic event.

I apologize.

That's, that's just a different random sporting event that I will probably be tuning into a little later in the evening.

Yeah, I think you mentioned your role as an NFL editor here at SI.

That's gonna be a hell of a day for you tomorrow, and God speed with that, Mitch.

Yeah , we'll have to see.

It's, it's, uh, I was gonna bring this up.

Yeah, we'll talk.

So tomorrow, hopefully we'll get tomorrow's episode out a little bit earlier, uh, so that we're finished in time.

I was thinking about poor Dan who is likely.

We're Gonna be editing our podcast during the Super Bowl, but thank you so much, Dan Mementa, who's been great to work with, uh , and we really appreciate you.

Um, but yeah, I don't know when people are gonna listen.

Um, hope all the, all you non-football fans, uh, if, you know, if you're stuck at a Super Bowl party that you don't want to be at, we'll have an episode for you if you want to just pop the headphones in, uh, everyone else maybe after the game.

Might be a better halftime show than Bad Bunny for some people.

I mean, I like Bad Bunny, but, uh, you know, if you're, if you're not a fan of his music, then, uh, Papa's on instead, it'll be, it'll be, uh, more boring, but it'd be more informative about the Olympics.

Sure.

Um, anything else you want to say before we get out of here, uh, to end our, our first, this feels like it was our first real recap show.

Uh, anything else you have left on your list?

No, I, I, I ran through, let me do a quick, uh, word count here.

I ran through, oh, only 800 words and notes, but they're several, several pages cause I kept them short.

But, uh, yeah, I think I got through everything on my page there and, uh, looking forward to doing it again tomorrow.

All right, well, thanks everybody.

Like I said earlier, it's been so much fun hearing from a lot of people.

Um, if you're still with us this far into the episode, we can say thanks so much and I'll say I'm glad you're in.

Enjoying the show because I'll assume you are if you're still listening.

Um, one last plug, you can reach out to us.

Uh, everybody who's been sharing the podcast on social media, that's been awesome.

Um, I'm on Twitter and Blue Sky.

Gart is on Blue Sky.

If you have any comments you want to send or anything you want to share, we'd appreciate it .

And let's do, uh, like 16 more of these.

I, I enjoyed this.

Let's, let's, uh, come back for day two.

Yeah, I'm strapped and ready for more.

All right, talk to y'all tomorrow.