A Record Breaking Medal Day in Cortina Milano

Hello and welcome to SI's Daily Rings.

I'm Dan Gartland, joined as always by Mitch Goldlich.

Mitch, we said yesterday, maybe a light and kind of underwhelming schedule today.

I don't know if you feel the same as me, but I felt it kind of exceeded expectations.

Yeah, something always comes up.

I, I knew that was the case.

And, uh, yeah, we saw some history, we saw some superstars, we saw some more controversy siming, uh, simmering, um, something that happens every day, and, uh, yeah, we've got plenty to talk about, as is always the case.

I guess, should we just jump right into that controversy on the curling rink?

Let's do it.

I'm glad we mentioned it yesterday, briefly, um, and then, and then much more news, uh, today.

Do you want to lead us in here and, and , uh, tee this all up from, from where we left people off yesterday?

Sure, yes.

So we, we touched on it briefly yesterday about how there was this tiff between Canada and Sweden, where one of the Swedish players, he's one of the Canadian players of an illegal move where he's touching the rock after he's released it.

Um, so, more information about this comes out today, you know, additional, um, kind of statements from World Curling, uh, from the Canadian teams, etc.

So, um, just to, to catch everybody up, um, so, Sweden's complaint here against Canada actually turned out to be successful because it got World Curling to act on this and, and, and, you know, and, uh, change procedures around the tournament.

So, um, it turns out, uh, there's a sensor in the stone's handle.

That will light up, and this seems to be like obviously a fairly new thing, or it's a it's a, it's a pretty advanced technology.

Uh, I believe it's the first time it's being used at the at the Olympics this time around.

So, the handle will light up if the player is still touching it after the rock has passed what's called the hog line, which is basically like, uh, kind of like the foul line in bowling, right?

You can't cross the line, uh while still holding the stone.

So, um, what Mark Kennedy of Canada has been doing, and according to, we heard John Cullen or John Cullen actually said this on, on social media, that Kennedy has kind of gained a reputation for doing this, um, on the World Cup circuit.

So, what he'll do is he'll touch the back of the granite after releasing the handle to evade that sensor, um, and touching the granite at any point during the delivery is against the rules.

So, World Curling released a statement that read in part, and this is where it gets a little bit weird, it is not possible for World Curling to have game umpires position to observe all hog lines for every stone delivery .

However, beginning with the Saturday, that's today's afternoon session, two officials will move between all four sheets and observe deliveries.

So to me it's kind of like um.

There's certain buses in New York City where uh you don't have to scan, you don't have to swipe your card when you get on the bus, you swipe 4 and you get like a receipt, and then you're just like, if they, if they come and check tickets, you know, then you show them the receipt, so you can theoretically get on without the ticket, right?

You can theoretically touch the granite and hope that there's no umpire observing you, but, uh, in this case, you know, they're having people go around to catch people, you know, boarding the bus illegally or or touching the, the granite.

Um.

So, uh, yeah, so it's a, it's an odd thing where they, they don't have enough umpires to see every, every delivery, but they've got a couple and they're gonna be kind of doing spot checks, so, you know, look over your shoulder as you're delivering the stone.

Yeah, I knew we were going to talk about the honor system.

I like that you tied it to yourself, uh, stealing rides on the bus.

I didn't know where, where you're gonna take that.

Um, this is very strange.

So of course they say it's impossible for them to have the umpires.

It's only impossible because they didn't hire them, uh, in advance and have them stationed, um, because they, it seems like they pretty easily could have done this, uh, if they were prepared for this before the Olympics.

Um, we talked about this, uh, maybe in our preview, or, you know, before we got into actual Olympic competition that it's basically, it, it's similar to golf in that, uh, you basically call fouls on yourself and, and it's a big honor system sport and you're supposed to call out.

We have seen, um, you know, it's, it's always amazing.

to me how they are able to um sweep and be like running behind the stone at the same time and not like accidentally kick the thing or stub their toe or hit one of the other stones that's in the circle at the time.

They're very good at that.

They do occasionally do it and you're supposed to call it out and there are rules for um like removing stones that you touch.

This is so bizarre because I don't even, I don't know if it helps him, and it's like such a quick minor thing that like, and, and, you know, who knows?

I don't know what his motives are, and so I don't want to say he's he's cheating and he's doing it on purpose, and I also don't want to say, oh, it's an accident, leave the guy alone.

But it seems to me like it's almost like an unconscious thing that he just kind of does, that it it's like almost like a habit that is formed, that's just like a bad habit, cause You know, if you're a precise enough thrower, it feels like you don't need to do the little like boop just to like give it a little push, like you're allowed to, you like push the thing forward as you're releasing it.

So I don't even know how much that helps.

It feels like just a thing.

Um, but yeah, that's the wild thing to me and um.

Uh, yeah, you mentioned, so, so here's uh Defen Hero Hero from, uh, he, I think, um, is covering the Olympics for the CBC and he has, he put out a couple of things on Blue Sky, um, and he says, here's the situation regarding the steps taken during the game last night.

The issue of second touches of the stone, specifically the granite during the delivery, was brought to the umpire's attention.

Officials spoke with both teams and set game umpires at the hog line to monitor deliveries for 3 ends, which is the official protocol.

Following this type of complaint.

And that is the part of me that's like, so you have a protocol, uh, for after this type of complaint, like it's the Olympics.

Why don't you have that protocol in place before the complaint?

And, and you look at every other Olympic sport , of course, the like figure skating and the halfpipe and, and all these events where there's judging, like you've got, you know, rows of judges lined up and you've got, um, sports like the snowboard, uh, cross where you've got.

Photo finishes and there's like all kinds of infrastructure in place for people to administer these events.

And so it's just wild to me that, um, you know, it's not like one of these sports where, um, you know, Olympic soccer where you're spread out in stadiums all over the place, all over the country.

Like, here, there's one curling arena, there's 4 sheets, they're in the same building .

They couldn't just hire like 4 people with like a clipboard and a and a stopwatch to just like stand there and watch the things and just like check off, like, like, looks good.

To me, that one's good and like, be there, they, and I guess the, the umpires there, I saw Matt Sussman, who is, um, I've read him for a long time on baseball and I know he's also a big curling guy.

Uh, he put on Blue Sky, um, he sent out some other thoughts about curling umpires judging hogline violations.

Umpires are volunteer officials who are not really trained to spot hogline touches.

It's boring to sit there and watch releases, and the infraction happens too fast when or if it happens.

So that's where it's like, it just seems like a no-brainer to me that they would have some sort of, uh, you know, camera system, especially with the team people are suspicious about, but just, yeah, very, very strange situation that they didn't have a protocol in place beforehand, besides, like, hey guys, if you notice you do this, just go ahead and give us on the honor system, like, let us know and we'll we'll pull a stone out if we have to.

Instead, you're relying on this system where it has happened a few times and people act outright deny it when they're being accused of doing it.

Right, so we should, we should clarify, I think we've, we kind of breezed by it, but the, the penalty here, if you're found to have done this illegal move, uh, as you remove the stone from play.

And so this is not, it turned out to be not exactly a theoretical, uh, you know, rule enforcement.

It happened today in a match involving Canada, but this time the women's team, it was the skip, Rachel Homan, who, if you don't know, was like one of the most successful curlers of this generation of out of all time.

They had a graphic on the broadcast yesterday comparing her to Nick Saban and their winning percentages, so.

Just to give you an idea of, like, the level of curler we're talking about here.

So, she was found or she was ruled to have touched the, the granite, um, after release and, uh, and had a stone pulled from play, um, and then she said, you know, she was in disbelief.

Um, she said on the ice, I've never done it in my life.

She, she had, she had, you know, she's like, I, I, why are you saying I've done that, I've never done that before.

So, this increased scrutiny on the, the delivery is causing a, a lot of ripple effects in other matches as well.

Yeah, I mean , you've got to imagine now with all this attention on it, probably everybody, not just Canada, but every team probably has that little seed of doubt in their mind, like, oh, could, is it possible I have done this or could do this or I might do it once by accident.

And we've talked about so many of these sports are just like muscle memory and you do the same thing millions of times in your life, and then all of a sudden, this with the increased scrutiny, um, you know, anything that gets in somebody's head in any sport could potentially affect focus and, uh, the.

Results we see, but you've got, I think, especially Canada, now, both men's and women's have to feel like they have a big target on their back that they've got to be perfect on all of these releases, which again, seems like it shouldn't be that hard because this is such a basic part of the sport.

It's just released the thing before the hog line.

But, uh, yeah, having issues on, on both sides.

I don't know what's going on up in Canada.

Exactly.

Well, on this side of the border, at least, US playing clean games, the men and women both won today.

The men beating Germany, the women over Japan.

So, uh, getting on the right side of.

The win column there and playing by the rules, it seems like Canada, that was a joke.

All you, anyone commenting on YouTube, relax, we're just having a good time here.

Uh, I, uh, if we want to get into the results, I don't have a ton of notes on the games today, um, but the, uh, but two big wins.

Um, the US men had a win over Germany.

They actually put up a 4th spot in the first end, and then, uh, just sort of coasted to, uh, it was 8-6, and then Germany conceded in the 10th.

Uh, and that was big because they had fallen to 1 and 2, so now they've evened up.

The record at 2 and 2.

remember, it's a round robin with 10 teams in the top 4 move on.

And then the, uh, US women also won.

They were up 7-4, um, and, uh, against Japan, and then there was a concession there.

So the US women are now 3-1, and we had talked that they've, uh, had a difficult schedule and, uh, of course, had the big win against Canada yesterday.

So, um, US women are in really good shape, trying to move on and, uh, both teams have a little momentum and yeah, no hogline violations that we're aware of.

Yeah, I enjoy watching the both of them.

Like you said, some, some big shots at the end of both matches that uh really helped swing it.

All right, well, shall we move on to uh, a different sport here?

I think if we're gonna go somewhere else, I think the speed skating might be next on my list cause that was very exciting today once that's a great idea.

All right, so Jordan Stowles, we've talked about him.

Um, he is, uh, a superstar, but I forget the name of the measure, but you had given us, uh, some advanced stat before the Olympics started that said, uh, he, he, by that measure, he was the greatest speed skater of all time.

Um, at a calender, the Adicalender, of course, which I'm sure we're both pronouncing correctly also.

Um, so Stolles came in, uh, hoping to win 4 gold medals.

He did win his first already in the 1000.

Today he was in the 500, which is the, uh, shortest of the individual races.

And so this is the one where if you win, they give you the title of like fastest skater on earth in the same way that like Usain Bolt uh or Noah.

Miles when they win the 100 m on the track, uh, you get to be the fastest skater here, um, and he did win.

So he picked up his second gold medal.

It was of these Olympics.

It was, uh, an Olympic record, not quite a world record, but it was very exciting.

So we talked about him and, uh, Deboe, the, uh, Dutch skater, who he had competed against also in the 1000.

They went against each other, um, but before they went, it was, uh, Laurent.

Dubre from Canada, who set the Olympic record at 34.

26, and then like 5 minutes later, uh, Stolles and Duboe come in and they both set the Olympic record.

So we've got three of them all on the podium, all with the record.

Um, there was another guy, uh, hang on, I'm looking for it in my notes.

There was a, there was a 4th guy who previously had the Olympic record.

Um, I can't find it.

Sorry, maybe you.

Oh, I didn't see that.

Oh, here it is.

It was, uh, Ting Yu Gao of China had the Olympic record from last time around, and then it was broken by Dubre, uh, and then, um, and then the two other guys.

So anyway, my favorite thing from the day though is that Dubre, he won a bronze medal, but he also had an Olympic record, like briefly for 5 minutes.

But he can say for the rest of his life that he broke an Olympic record.

And he had it, and there was a period on this earth where he was the Olympic record holder.

Um, it just so happens that it held up for 5 minutes and then two guys passed him, and, uh, and he ended up winning a bronze medal.

But yeah, it's just an exciting day on the track.

I also have uh a quote here from, um, Cooper McLeod, who is another, um, uh, US speed skater, uh, teammate of Jordan Stows.

We, you and I were talking yesterday about whether they could set a world record, um.

McLeod was talking about how the rink in Salt Lake City is known as the fastest ice on Earth.

Um, I was reading this from an NBC story, but that's basically because of the thin air in Utah there, right, um, that they refer to that as the fastest, uh, rink on Earth.

So anyway, McLeod's quote, he said, it's for sure a world record there, talking about if this race had been in Utah, uh, almost no question.

He said the ice is pretty good here.

It's pretty fast for a sea.

Level track, but we just watched some special historic skating.

The Olympic record was lowered by almost a half second today.

That doesn't happen.

So, uh, he, Cooper McLeod knows a lot more about speed skating than I do.

So I thought that was very helpful context, um, knowing just what an impressive skate it was to watch the record go down and then two guys break it.

And, uh, yeah, so Stoles is going for 4 gold medals and, uh, picked up number 2 here with 2 races to go.

So, so you mentioned it being a, a fast race, right, between Stowes and Deboe and the margin they had over everybody else, but at the same time, Stowes was even that, but he was so much faster even than Debose.

So he won by 0.11 seconds, which seems like nothing, but that's actually the largest margin of victory in this event in 20 years.

So, it really puts in perspective, you know, how dominant he was, um.

Another way of looking at it, so, um, Stowles and Duboe, like they were, they were far and away the best.

You mentioned they both shattered the previous Olympic record.

Um, so, uh, Dubre, right, the, the Canadian, uh, he was 0.49 seconds behind Stowles and 0.38 behind Duboe, OK.

That there was the same margin between 2nd and 3rd, between Duboe and Debre.

As there was between 3rd and 10th.

So it just goes through like how, how far ahead those two at the top were compared to everybody else in the field.

I found that really, really fascinating.

Yeah, and I just, uh, I, I've enjoyed the speed skating so much, and I love the format here where they go in pairs, and typically the final pairs are the fastest, although that doesn't always work out perfectly, and, uh, yeah, as we saw Stolz was not the last one today.

He had to like wait and sweat it out and make sure that nobody after him beat him.

Um, but yeah, so Stoles and Deboe raced against each other.

They also raced against each other in the 1000 m and finished 1-2 in that event, so they are gold and silver in both of these here.

And, um, the other thing we had talked about Stoles being a heavy favorite and, and a great chance to set the Olympic record here.

Um, but Deboe had actually beaten Stoles in this race twice in 9 times this World Cup season.

So, um, you know.

Definitely not a foregone conclusion and, and we've seen both of these guys are Olympic medalists and, and great, and, and, you know, it's, it's not an everytime thing like Stowles has lost, he's not, he's not totally unbeatable and, uh, you know, a lot of people don't follow the speed skating World Cup circuit year-round and, and every year, but to know they've already faced each other that many times, um, you know, I, I'm sure on both sides, there's confidence knowing.

Hey, I've beaten this guy most of the time, and then the other guy is thinking, well, I've beaten this guy some of the time, and then they go heads up and, and this time there's just so much pressure on it cause it's the Olympic and, and, you know, the Olympic stage, and this is the one that most people are going to know about and remember and a chance to really cement yourself as an Olympic champ.

So now the uh Jordan Saul is the 500 m champ, 1000 m champ, and 2 more events to go, he's going to be in the 1500 and the mass start.

One of the most, uh, fascinating things, most memorable things that I saw today, if you want to move on to cross country in the women's cross country relay, which I'm sure you saw this disaster from Sweden.

This is unbelievable.

So we were talking yesterday about how I said I'd be shocked if Sweden didn't win this relay, you know, something shocking would have to happen and it did in a major way.

So, uh, the second leg of this relay, Sweden's Ebba Anderson, she's won a couple of medals already in the individual events in these, in these Olympics, uh, she tried to, like, come to a, uh, she tried to slow down, she did that old, uh, pizza or, uh, the triangle move to, to, to slow your skis down, and she ended up going head over heels, flipped, you know, really violently, uh, she, she flipped so hard, the binding ripped clear off of the ski, and so her ski is, is irreparably damaged.

She tries to put it back on, realizes, oh no, the, the binding is still attached to my foot, and, you know, I, so she's got shuffle along on one ski until she can get to a team, a team support member.

The support guy, he falls, we're trying to run, bringing the ski to her, and she, you know, I mean, that guy, yeah, obviously he's, he's rushing to get to her to like save the race.

He's just wearing shoes in the snow, you know, it's a, it's a tough position for him to be in .

Um, but yeah, then, so, uh, she fit her time in that, uh, in that leg was 2 minutes slower than what her teammate had in the opening leg, and they ended up losing by about 50 seconds.

So you, you figure, you know, if not for that mistake, which cost her obviously a ton of time.

Uh, they would have won, and it, it's, and it's amazing actually how fast she was able to ski on the one ski, because there were numerous athletes who had slower times than her in that, in those, uh, those classical legs who both had two skis the whole time.

Yeah, I, if you're looking for just the highlights, uh, I saw NBC Olympics, their account put out just like a nice little one minute package that was like her falling and the ski coming off, and then her sort of like trudging along with one ski and one boot, and then the poor guy whose name I don't know, like coming out to to help her and also wiping out on the ice.

Um, it is worth mentioning, it was raining today, and so I think the conditions were really treacherous .

It sounded like there were a lot of people falling.

Uh, we talked yesterday.

It was like beautiful and sunny and guys were, uh, sleeveless going around.

Today was a very different day weather wise.

Um, it's so interesting, just the luck of the draw, how that happens with weather, that sometimes you go and, uh, like some host city, it's, it's warmer.

That time of year than some other and sometimes it's cold and sometimes it's just like it changes day to day.

We saw that in the mountain with the downhill skiing where some days it was foggy and others it wasn't.

But yeah, the, uh, even just within the cross country in Cortina, we had some days where it was like beautiful and sunny and somewhere where it's just raining and disgusting.

Um, yeah, it's, uh, the, so Norway took gold.

I don't know, I'm sorry if you mentioned that.

It was Norway, then Sweden, then Finland did bronze, so a, uh, Scandinavia sweep.

Um, we had talked about how good, uh, Sweden has been.

Frida Carlsson actually made up a ton of time.

She went 3rd after, after Ebba Anderson, and she was awesome, um, cause really like that you're worried that they're gonna fall out of it.

Um, but she, uh, she did a great job keeping them in there, and then they were able to, they were actually, they were behind Finland and then passed them, uh, to get the silver.

Um, Germany finished 4th, Team USA.

They finished 5th.

We had talked about how Jesse Diggins was going to be the anchor and wondered if there was a chance there for a medal.

Um, the US was in 7th after the first leg, and then moved up slowly, then they were in 6th, then they were in 6th, and then they finished in 5th.

Um, but yeah, so the, uh, the Americans were 152 away from the, uh, gold medal finishers and they were 30 38 seconds off of the podium.

Um, I think there it was a much closer, uh, battle between 2nd and 3rd and, uh, that nice gap Norway had between them and Sweden.

But yeah, I mean, the, the notable thing that happened there was that, that wipeout, um, I think it was sort of representative of the day for a lot of teams.

But then I thought they had a great reaction.

Um, I, I think all three countries like getting to the finish line, um, you know, like the, we , we're so.

Used to seeing now in these individual cross country races where they get to the end and they just collapse in a heap by themselves.

Um, but what's nice about the relay is that when the 4th person finishes, the other 3 can like run up and, and, uh, you know , congratulate them or commiserate with them or whatever it has.

And I think it seems like all the countries, they were, um, pretty pleased coming across the line and, and happy to have a medal in, in a, in pretty grueling conditions.

Yeah, the weather today was a big factor in a lot of these events.

So it was, it was warmer today.

Actually, I mean, you mentioned the guy going sleeveless yesterday.

Uh, the temperatures were warmer today.

It just happened to, like it was sunnier yesterday.

I think it was in like the mid to upper 30s yesterday, but, but shining sun, at least at the cross country, uh, venue.

Uh, and then today Fahrenheit, I assume Fahrenheit, yeah, it's not 100 °F, you know, 35 °C, or whatever it is.

But, um, no, and then today, uh, it was more in the, in the low to mid-40s, and you mentioned some rain.

I think, um.

You know, it was kind of on and off, at least at the cross country.

Um, and yes, so the, the, the announcers were saying how, uh, Anderson seems to have gotten caught in some slush, and you would just wonder, you know, how that's gonna affect conditions tomorrow.

I was looking, I spent a lot of time today looking at Northern Italy weather.

It seems like, uh, maybe at the cross.

The Country venue is gonna get now below freezing again tonight, so all that slush is gonna freeze and then what's that gonna mean for our guy Clabo tomorrow in the men's relay, you know, we'll see what happens.

But, um, there was also the, the rain was, uh, I mean, the weather was a big factor at the men's giant slalom.

Did, did you catch much of this?

I did not in the moment at uh whatever very early hour was 4, well, so yeah, so I got the second runs, yes, I was, I was up for the second runs, yes, yeah, yeah.

So the first run was at 4 in the morning and uh I went back and watched the replay because when I tuned in like you for the second run, and I saw that it was fascinating, it was snowing at the top.

Of the course and raining at the bottom, which has gotta be so tough to ski through.

You don't know what the hell you're, you're running into as, as you descend the mountain.

So I was like, wait, was it, has it been like this all day?

Like, why are they still racing?

I went back and I looked like, no, it seemed like earlier in the day for the, for the initial runs, it was cloudy, uh, but at least dry.

Um, but yeah , there was, it was a weird, a weird day of weather over there, and it, and it affected the conditions a lot.

And so I, uh, I, I assume you're gonna get into the results of the historic winner in that race, but I have a stat to that effect.

So, uh, in run one, the fastest time was 1 minute 13 and change, which was, uh, actually from Lucas Penneiro Bratton, uh, of Brazil, who was the winner.

Uh, so that was the fastest, uh, the fastest time in run one, and then 30 people beat that time in run two.

Which gives you a sense of how the, the weather conditions changed, uh, as the day went on.

But I guess I, so I'll, I'll, uh, I'll just take us into this since I just said his name.

Yeah, sure.

But, but yeah, he is, uh, not just gold here, he, uh, represents Brazil, and this was actually the first medal for any country of any, any medal of any kind for anyone in South America in Winter Olympics history, which just kind of blew my mind.

Like, not just first gold in South America, but like first anywhere, um.

So this guy was a big story.

Um, we talked about the Swiss ahead of time and they were in really good shape for, uh, for a while.

So, so Broughton, um, Lucas Panera Broughton, he was in 1st after the first run, and so then he got to go last on the 2nd runs, and when he went last, uh, Switzerland had the entire podium was all Swiss, and then he came in and overtook them, so they ended up finishing 23, and 4.

it was Marco Odermott, who we have talked about, uh, a handful of times who took the, uh, silver in that one, But yeah, so, uh, so this guy Broughton, he is, um, he was born in Norway, and his dad is Norwegian, and his mom is Brazilian, and, um, he split his childhood a little bit, spent a good amount of his childhood in Brazil, but, but, uh, more of it in Norway, skied for Norway at the start of his career, and then retired at age 23, very briefly.

Um, and it seems like, I, I read an article that said that he, like, hinted at sort of Issues or disagreements with the Norwegian team and that was sort of part of the retirement.

Anyway, he came out of retirement and then, um, switched to now ski for Brazil, um, which enabled him to then, uh, you know, set this mark.

But, uh, very cool day.

I thought he was very animated, like he jumped in the air on the podium, um, and I, I know a ton of people were just like really excited.

We've, um, you know, we've, we've talked about this a ton that just like some of these countries that, um, Are either being represented for the very first time or having success winning a medal for the very first time.

Like I'm sure this is just going to be major, major news all over South America, and it'll get people to, um, you know, take a new interest in probably skiing and also like all of the Winter Olympics and some of these sports, like I just think it's gonna be really cool to see, um, you know, the, uh, the effects of this and how excited people get.

Yeah, it's an interesting situation.

Like you said, he, he initially represented Norway, and so like, the guy, I mean, for everything that I read, he definitely has very strong cultural ties to Brazil.

Like I said, spent a lot of time there as a child.

Obviously his mother's from there, he was doing like samba dances between runs I saw, um, but there's a The difference between, to me, at least, and I think to a lot of people between, you know, this would have been such a bigger story if he had been a guy born and raised in Brazil who like somehow manages to become an elite alpine skier, right?

And then, but instead, you know, he's really, he's really a product of the Norwegian system.

Um, and he's fortunate, and, and not, not just, it's not like I wanna say he's like just purely lucky, but like, the fact that he has this ability to then switch allegiances to Brazil after he has this falling out with the Norwegian team, continue his career, but at the same time, You know, one of the things they were talking about throughout these Olympics in the alpine skiing is the resources the teams have.

Um, I watched the clip, it was the, there was a woman, uh, I forget her name, but she, she, uh, finished last in the super G.

Uh, she's 46 years old.

She initially skied for the US, now skis for Mexico.

Uh, just wanted to continue her career and so switched her allegiance to Mexico.

But she had to do all of her like ski prep on her own because Mexico doesn't have like a ski tech, you know, group to send over to Italy.

So, you know, it, it makes his, his, I don't know exactly his situation, but you can imagine the Brazilian ski team being, you know, less robustly funded than Norway's, and so, uh, his path to this medal being quite difficult, even though, you know, his ability to switch to Brazil gives him kind of a, a, a second chance .

Yeah, I also, I feel like that.

I, well, I, I shouldn't say, I don't know how, if, if that's more common than it used to be, but it certainly feels like we hear about it all the time.

People switching allegiances and, and people, I mean, we've talked about, um, not necessarily switching, but like I know Eileen Gu's choice to, um, represent China instead of the US was very controversial at the time.

I think people talk about it less, um, now that she's in her 2nd, maybe 3rd Olympics, um, but, uh, you know, I think that happens.

A lot where somebody, I, I know that like, I remember the first time, the first year of the World Baseball Classic, there were like so many people laughing about like people representing certain countries and, and sort of using strained connections, uh, to get there like this guy, like his mom's resilient, he spent time in his childhood.

He's, he's like fluent in Portuguese.

Like I, you know, I don't think he owes anybody like an explanation or an apology or anything like that.

I think, um, you know, I think plenty of, uh, people are making decisions and, and we talk, I the there was one.

The, the bobsledder who does monobob switch from Canada to the US.

So this definitely happens.

And, um, I think when Roger Sherman was on our show, he called it the transfer portal, maybe like, I think, I think it's, uh, you know, people are used to seeing this.

Um, and, uh, you know, and listen, the guy seems very, very excited to be up there representing Brazil and, and, you know, waving the flag and everything.

So I think it is, it's a just a really cool, um, opportunity for that country to, to, you know, experience success here in the winter.

Yeah, oh, and surely, you know, people are proud to have the representation of a Brazilian, you know, regardless of where they are, where they were trained, people in Brazil, I'm sure are gonna be thrilled to have a Brazilian, uh, you know, representing them.

I will also say just briefly, the reason for people who are who are unfamiliar, the reason why you see this, uh, so often in the Olympics , the switching of allegiances, because the, the IOC makes it easier than other sporting bodies do.

Like FIFA has really, really strict, um, like eligibility protocols.

You know, you have to have, you know, lived in a country for a certain number of years or have, you know, been born there, have parents.

there, there's like, you know, issues with like, maybe you have like multiple grandparents.

There's like, they have very, very strict rules on, on the FIFA side, at least.

The IOC, you just need a passport.

You need a passport from that country.

And so sometimes these countries, sometimes, you know, like, uh, Penneiro Bratton, he has obviously the ability to get a Brazilian passport through his mother.

Sometimes you just have these countries who are motivated to.

Recruit elite athletes to join their Olympic team.

And so they just give them a passport despite having no previous ties to the country.

So that's why you're seeing it more often in the Olympics.

You see it.

There's many, many instances as if you're paying attention during the Olympics when they introduce the athletes and there's, I mean, there was a short track speed skater I saw just earlier, who has switched, I think from France to China.

So like, it happens all the time.

And, um, and yeah, that's the reason why.

Yeah, I'm a, I'm a big Sixers fan and I remember during the summer people were talking about Joel Embiid playing for Team USA and, you know, coming from Cameroon and like this is a story we've seen in plenty, plenty of Olympics, and, and yeah, it'll be, it feels like it's only going to be more of a story moving forward as, like, as we've talked about like more of these countries that are not traditional, like winter sports countries are like sensing opportunities to get themselves out there and, and doing some active recruiting.

So I, I think this is probably something that trends up in, in that direction.

I think that's a, that's a really good point.

Um, I don't know.

I guess, like I said, I have like a whole bunch of notes on a lot of things, but nothing really too in depth.

Um, I don't know, maybe I, I want to mention briefly the ski jumping.

I know we've kind of pooh poohed the ski jumping a lot, but, um, the result there today was fairly interesting.

Just want to shout out Domen Previc of, uh, of Slovenia.

So he won the gold in this was the, uh, the large hill, I believe, um.

He won the gold.

He had also won gold in the mixed team event with his sister Nika as part of that 4-person team.

So now 3 of the 4 Previc siblings have won individual medals, Olympic medals in ski jumping.

The oldest brother, Peter, he won team gold in 2022 on the mixed team, also has two individual medals.

He also won silver in 2022 on the men's team with his brother Chenne, and then Nikka won silver in the women's normal hill this year.

So, these 44 siblings, and you might wonder how do they all get to ski jumping.

Their father is an international ski jumping judge.

So, uh, they've kind of built this, like, you know, mini, like Slovenian ski jumping dynasty , uh, in their hometown, and their 4 siblings, or 3 of the 4, sorry, to Chenna who didn't he managed to get the individual but he's got the team one at least, but, uh, but yeah, how about that?

Yeah, oh, how did they win all these, uh, medals and matches?

Oh, their dad is a judge that no, I was, no, no, I'm, uh, no, I, yeah, I saw a photo on, uh, on TV at one point today of them as kids, and it's just like so cool to see them as like little kids and, and then they've all become Olympic medalists and Um, yeah, and that's, uh, that's a cool sport to do it and like we've seen like the Kachchuck siblings are playing hockey and, and there, there are lots of other sports where siblings do it, but like 4 is a lot.

It's like hard to make a team, like a big team sport like hockey and do that.

You've gotta like come one after another and, and yeah, so that is, that is very cool, um, and.

And glad you mentioned that since, since I think everybody knows you are paying closer attention to the ski jumping than I am, so I'm glad you had that one on your list.

Hey, I didn't watch a second.

I just saw the results.

OK, we watched the same number of seconds.

No, I think I had it.

It was on the screen, but I may have, uh, had something else on volume.

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All right, well, I'll talk about the skeleton then, uh, if you'll, uh, if you'll save that one for me.

Um, this is exciting.

So, so Germany was, uh, and I don't have to go too far in depth here, but I wanna give a, uh, shout out to Janine Flock of Austria, who has another great story, and she won gold here.

Um, she was in 1st place going into the 4th run, uh, so she got to go last and, uh, knew the time she had to hit.

Although skeleton feels like one of those sports where, um, I, I feel like they just go down as hard as they can, like, I don't think they're easing up.

The way it's measured in just like 100 of a second, you're not going to be like, oh, I could ease up a little bit cause I only, uh, you know, I'm, I'm ahead by 200 of a second.

Like I think you're just gonna go as, as fast as you can each time down the track.

Uh, tough sport because, uh, with 4 heats, uh, you really need to be good on all 4 of them.

Like I remember I was tuning in for the first heat and they were like, yeah, you can't win a gold medal here on the first heat, but you can definitely lose it, because if you have one, that's just like not good enough, uh , it's gonna, you know, throw you off for the entire competition.

Um, so Germany is on the podium in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd before Janine Flock goes off, uh, and then she has an awesome run and wins the gold, and she is 36 years old, and this was her 4th Olympics competing, and in those, in the previous 3, she had finished 9th, 4th, and 10th, and then won a gold medal here.

So 4 years.

Uh, uh, 4 Olympics of competing, including being just off the podium, and again, 4th in luge.

I don't have the time in front of me, but I'm sure that was like by, you know, less than a quarter of a second probably, um, and then comes back 8 years after that, finally wins it.

Um, this was the first, uh, women's skeleton medal for Austria.

I think they had won the first gold medal for Austria at all.

They had won.

Silver medal, which was in men's.

And so she had the first women's medal and the first gold, um, which is just like an awesome, you know, achievement for them, and especially like Austria is a sport that we see in a lot of these sliding competitions, and so to finally come up with that, with that, uh, gold medal is great, and she had a great reaction too.

I was , uh, joking that skeleton feels like the sport where you have the longest period of time.

From like when somebody finds out that they won, uh, but then they still have to like slow down and stop what they're doing that they're in the middle of, because, uh, it's not like luge, they're on their back and they like sit up and the bobsled, it's like, you know, they're in the, they're in the bobsled obviously, how about that, uh, analysis.

But she like, she was like sliding headfirst and got through the finish line and like looked up and could see that she'd won and like everybody's cheering and going nuts for her while she's still like sliding down, like easing to a stop, and so I just really I really enjoyed like the end of that race and the visual of how she found out and then got to enjoy that, enjoy it in those first like few seconds.

Yeah, I was glued to that one as well.

Those last few runs, you know, a lot of drama.

Like you said, the fine margins.

So any, any little error can, can, you know, be the difference between being in gold position or falling off the podium.

Um, but also, yeah, like great win for her.

Also a great showing for Germany.

Again, as you mentioned, they, they were, they were in those top 3 positions until Flock came down and and took the first spot.

But, Um, Germany has now won 6, I'm sorry, 4 of the 6 individual skeleton medals and 9 of the 18 sliding medals awarded thus far at these games.

So, uh, we knew ahead of, ahead of time that they'd be dominant in the sliding sports and it's playing out just that way.

And that actually might be less than people thought, like the 9 out of 18 might be an underperformance.

I thought, I think we were expecting even more than that based on what we had heard from, uh, some, some experts.

Um, but yeah, still very, very impressive.

We knew Germany would be great.

So Mitch, we were waiting as we were recording for the end, for the final score of the US men's hockey game versus Denmark.

I can tell you that it's just gone final right now.

6 to 3 US.

It was hairy there for a little bit, um, but they pulled it out.

The US had another really lousy first period, um, and before turning it on to the second, just like we saw against Latvia the other day, um, and you gotta feel a little nervous about this US men's team right now.

The women are, are flying with the men or like, I don't know, there's something about it, um, they're really not playing their best.

The main difference here, I think, and I think one thing that they can hopefully just throw out that first period as being a result of, um, going with the goalie, Jeremy Swayman.

So Swayman did not play in the first game.

In the first game, uh, the US gave the start to Connor Hellebuck of the Winnipeg Jets.

Swayman plays for the, um, for the Bruins, um, and has been like one of the best goalies in the NHL, just didn't have it today.

The first one was like a, a, you know, a.

It's a goal of, you know, he probably should have saved, it was, it was a tip in in front of the net, great pass that the Danish player made a great deflection on.

The second goal was a weird one.

It the guy shot it from like, basically the red line, um, along the boards.

Uh, we talked about the neutral zone being smaller because of this, um, this smaller rink, so took advantage of that decreased size to get a shot off before even entering the offensive zone, and it snuck past, uh, past Swayman.

Then in the start, that was like near the, uh, after commercial break, they came back.

And uh Eddie Olczyk had a great bit of analysis where he was, he was, they're showing a replay.

He says, I think maybe Swayman lost this puck against the boards because the boards in that area were painted black and the black puck, he said, might have disappeared.

I think that's a good point.

It's also like a terrible design by the IOC to put, like, black boards along the, you know, usually the, the boards are all mostly white, right?

Ads and stuff too, but they're primarily white, uh, to help with the visibility with the puck.

And so , this blackboard made it, made it really tough apparently for, for Swayman to save it, uh, you know, two goals into the first period, but then the US was able to, to pull it out at the end there.

But, um, yeah, it's a really troubling result and doesn't make you feel too good about their chances going forward.

Yeah, they just, they don't, you know, they don't have enough people there and, and they were doing the last minute construction.

It's the guys who were gonna be the curling officials.

They were just painting the, the boards black.

They left the last minute for some reason.

Um, no, so yeah, you, you mentioned possibly just throwing it out with the black, the backup goalie.

Um, the, uh, the important thing to know here is that they're, they're, they have a back to back, and they have another game tomorrow against Germany.

And so I think this was just sort of like schedule maintenance, and they said instead of You know, this is group play, and I think they just figured instead of having their, uh, starting goalie play on two consecutive days, let's just give the backup a day and, um, probably just assume that this was the game, they would be more likely to win with backup and net.

So, like you said, you know, a little troubling and, and, you know, he's not the only guy on the team, you know, other, other people, uh, contribute to allowing goals besides just the goal, even though we do know how important they are, obviously.

Um, but you'd think that when they've got their, uh, starter back in net, which they should for, uh, you know, if they do advance out of group play and move on, then they, they should be all set.

So there's a party that wants to say like, I'll just, you know, that one didn't happen, like, hey, we escaped with a win, um, and, and survive and advance and all that.

Hellebuck, I should say, he's, he's won the last two Vezna Trophies.

That's the, the award given to the best goalie in the NHL.

It's like he, he's fantastic.

There's another great goalie on the roster, Jake Ottinger of the Dallas Stars.

Um, so they do, if they, if there ever is another situation where they wanna go away from Heebuck, give him some rest, Ottinger is a great option.

Sway is a great option too.

He just had a bad day, letting some two soft goals, but, um, but yeah, I mean, it's, it's, um, like you said, there's some other things that that factored in.

Um, I want to mention also briefly the, um, the action of the, so, like I said, it's group play.

This is the 2nd day in group play for this US group, which includes, uh, obviously Denmark, Latvia, and Germany.

It was the final day in group play for Group B, which was, um, A really interesting race between Slovakia, Finland, and Sweden for who would win that group and thereby win the um one of the 31 of the 4, automatic byes to the quarterfinal round.

There's 3 groups, the top, the group winners all get a bye plus the highest ranked non-group winner.

So, um, early in the day, Sweden beat Slovakia 5 to 3, but there was a really interesting moment.

Late in that game, Slovakia scores, Slovakia is down 5-2.

If that score had ho, I believe Sweden would have won the group, um, or maybe Finland, but, uh, it, it, it was not what it would not have been Slovakia.

Slovakia then scores in the dying moments of the game, uh, to, to make it 5 to 3 , and starts celebrating as if they'd won the game, because this now wins them the tiebreaker, even though they had lost the game, wins them the tiebreaker to win the group.

Sweden, knowing that they didn't need to score another goal for it to benefit, you know, from the goal differential.

Um, ends up pulling his goalie in the final 3 30 seconds, while by 2 goals, wasn't able to get that goal.

Slovakia wins.

Um, the, the interesting thing there was that the, the goal differential in a 3-way tie situation, they're expecting then, uh, Finland to beat Italy, which ended up happening.

Um, the interesting thing there is to break a 3-way tie, it ends up being goal differential, but only in games between those three teams, so that's why that goal there was so important.

Um, Finland went on to just smack Italy.

It was 11 to 0.

It was 62 to 15 on shots.

Those are both records, uh, in an Olympic game featuring NHL players.

It was like a total bloodbath, and you might ask yourself, why are they pouring it on so much?

Well, the answer is, I mentioned that 4th spot, that 4th bit of the quarterfinal round, that goes to the highest ranked non-group winner.

Finland knows it's not gonna win the group, Slovakia is gonna win, and so, um, They want to make sure that they, they are ranked first on goal differential among all the other remaining teams, and boy are they after that game.

62 shots in in 60 minutes is amazing, yeah, um, and made 11 of them.

That's great.

Um, yeah, that's, uh, it feels goofy things happen when goal differential gets involved.

Uh, so yeah, that's, uh, if you think some of these games are gonna be boring cause they're blowouts, that's, uh, definitely one way to spice it up and, and, and make sure fans are watching, uh, the whole game every time.

That, that's, uh, yeah, that's something.

So, and make sure your people are paying attention to Slovakia going forward .

This is a really interesting story developing.

Slovakia is like, you know, I think when we had talked before the tournament, we said, you know, it really, it seems like the 4 medal contenders are those 4 teams that took part in that NHL affiliated Four Nations face-off tournament last year, the US, Canada, Sweden, and Finland.

Nobody's really expecting Slovakia to come in and, and, and, and infiltrate that group of medal contenders, but man, they're having a great tournament.

Um, it's been, it's an interesting situation because Slovakia had a great run in the 2000s, uh, some really respectable, no medals, no Olympic medals, but some really great, like, respectable results at Olympic Games.

Uh, they won a world championship.

Some other really notable results.

Um, you, Mitch, I'm gonna shout out some old school players you might recognize that you said you don't follow the NHL so much anymore, but, uh, Yaroslav Ala, Zedino Chara, Miroslav Chatan, and Pavel Dimitra, like these guys are part of a really great generation of, of Slovakian players.

But then in 2014, this is a great story in the Athletic by, uh, Mark Lazarus, one of their hockey writers.

2014, Slovakia loses at the Olympics to Slovenia, and this is like a real low point, like rock bottom for the Slovakian men's hockey program, uh, because Slovenia had one NHL player on the roster, a really inferior team, you would think, ends up beating Slovakia, um, and Hala, who had, who had been the losing goalie, he says to Lazarus in the locker room, he's like, I don't, he's like, I think this is it for us, like, we don't have any, uh, any players really coming through the pipeline.

And so instead, but Slovakia's got this great youth generation coming up right now.

We mentioned, uh, Slavkowski, the, the winger for the Montreal Canadiens, who's playing for them, having a great Olympics.

Um, the interesting thing, and I don't wanna go on forever about Slovakia and hockey, but, um, Slovakia and Finland have about the same population, but Finland's been so much more successful, and so the Slovakian like sports federation were trying to figure out like, why is that?

They've been, they've been studying Finland.

Um, they've been trying to build like a youth infrastructure there to train hockey players in the same way that Finland does, but the interesting thing, and I'll read here from, uh, Lazarus's story.

Slavkowski and company are, of course, a source of enormous pride in Slovakia.

The dirty little secret, however, is that they're not really a product of the Slovak system.

When Slavkowski was 12 years old, a group of parents, including Slavkowski's father, created their own team outside of the Slovak system that essentially barnstormed across North America.

Of the 14 Slovaks drafted in 2022 and 2023, 8 were on that team.

So there's a really interesting thing developing here where there's this great generation of Slovakian players, like bringing glory to the country's hockey program, but they haven't really been part of that program from a young age, they've been more trained independently.

So a great moment for them, but just a really interesting backstory on how it came to be.

That is interesting, and I hadn't seen any of that.

So listen, you're not not gonna get any complaints from me.

You're, I, you have permission to go down as many rabbit holes as as you want.

If it's gonna be Slovak hockey, I am supportive.

I think that's what the people, people come to this show for, uh, for, you know, never know what you're gonna get.

And, uh, yeah, you said nobody expected the Slovak hockey.

Team, uh, to be in this mix.

Unfortunately, I do know one man who, uh, who was expecting the team to be in this mix and, and at great personal risk went to go see it in person.

We're still thinking about our buddy in the Italian jail.

I haven't gotten an update on him, so I assume he's still there.

Mitch, I'll close it with, he was not chanting is not Slovak.

Of course, we are, yes, we are deep in Slovak references now, uh, 8 days into the Olympics.

Um, all right, well, we are, uh, we're we're probably getting to the end here, but we should talk about dual moguls, which made its Olympic debut today, and you and I were very excited about it.

Uh, it happened very early in the day, but I went back and watched it.

Um, so we've now, it was, uh, it was 3 names.

We had seen in the, uh, moguls competition earlier in the Olympics, and this is, uh, sort of like that, the same knockout system as like the giant parallel slalom that we saw in snowboard where it's like two people going head to head at the same time.

Of course, it's strange in this one because it's not, uh, strictly who gets to the finish line first that wins.

It's that weird percentage system where they're getting judged on their tricks and their turns on the moguls and their time.

Um, but anyway, there were two Americans who, uh, made it into the semifinals.

And it was uh Liz Lemley who won gold, uh, in that, uh, in the first event in the Moguls, and uh Jalen Kough who won silver in that event.

So the two Americans, uh, both got themselves into position uh to again medal, and they were not facing each other in the semis, so they actually had a.

Chance to, uh, to face each other in the finals, which would have been very exciting.

But, uh, Lemley, who already had a gold medal to her name, uh, she lost to Jakara Anthony of Australia, who you and I also talked about.

Um, these were like the three top people in that, uh, in the, uh, singles moguls competition.

Um, but Liz Lumley, yeah, she had a, a DNF in the semis.

She basically, um, sort of flubbed the landing, uh, when she jumped and did a flip in the air and, and, uh, didn't come down great, so she didn't finish.

Jakar Anthony beat her, but then, uh, Jalen Kough actually did, uh, win in the gold medal, uh, and so it's like a little strange.

I, if I remember right, she actually was like beaten to the finish line, but then they were like waiting for the scores, which encompassed multiple things, which is just.

Such a strange way to experience a sporting event, um, but that was a gold medal for, uh, Team USA, and then, uh, Liz Lemley did come back.

Uh, oh no, I'm sorry, I have that old, that was Liz Lemley in the bronze match.

Um, so after she fell in the semi, she got to go compete for bronze still, uh, and that was the one where she was like a little bit slower than her opponent, um, but ended up winning 18 to 17 on points and just whatever.

Um, so it ended up being a gold for Kough, uh, a silver for Jakarri Anthony of Australia, and a bronze for, uh, Liz Lemley.

Um, and I had written down here, uh, that Kough had lost to Anthony the last 5 times they had gone head to head, um, but then she beat her this time in the Olympic final, which is very cool.

I think the last thing on my list is unfortunately a, a, a bummer of a day for American women on skis.

Uh, the big air qualification, none of the four American women, uh, qualified.

The, um, the US Grace Anderson, she, uh, Grace Henderson, I'm sorry, she had a chance on her final run.

She, I think it was the final one going in the qualification.

Had a chance to jump into the top 12 to advance and fell, uh, didn't improve her score, and then she was done.

Found it really interesting when I was looking into this after that, um, the US women have only won 3 medals in those X Games style ski trick up.

The, uh, the big air halfpipe and slopestyle compared to 12 for the American men.

I think like that's such a discrepancy.

You figure the US would be more successful in those events, um, and at least they have been on the men's side, but not on the women's side for whatever reason.

France, Canada, and Switzerland, they've been kind of the powers in the women's side.

All right, well, I can finish things up here with just a few very short notes.

For anyone who is waiting for the, uh, Julia Simone update, the French biathlete who, uh, of, of credit card theft fame and then later a gold medal, uh, she finished in 34th today, uh, but two other members of Team France, uh, took, uh, I think silver and bronze in that race.

So a huge, uh, week for the French women in biathlon.

Um, I, uh, I was doing some box score diving and saw Norway's, uh, Marin Kirkety, she won gold.

Uh, she was like not leading at all the entire way.

Um, the, the checkpoints, she was in 2nd place in the final 4 checkpoints of the race.

The race is 7.5 kilometers, and even, uh, still in 2nd place, even to the, uh, 7 kilometer checkpoint.

Uh, and so then that was like her first time taking the lead was like right at the very end of the race.

Um, and she ended up winning it by 3.8 seconds.

Um, so just kind of an interesting box score to follow and, uh, and a gold medal there for her.

So Mitch, I, I, I also written this down in my notes and I want to say cause I did spend some time practicing it.

I listened to her say it a couple of times and practiced it myself.

The gold medal winner of Norway, Marin Chikaida.

Chikaida, oh man, I was so off.

I know there's like all these R's in there that like are.

making our sounds.

And so I was, so I saw her win and I was like, I was like, how the hell do you say that?

So I, I went and I listened to her like they had that clip on the Olympics website where they like the athlete says it first in a normal cadence and then does it like slow mo.

I listen to both instances, like 12 times, like, what's going on here?

Chikaida .

Well, I've exposed myself that I didn't watch the race live and I asked everyone not to hit rewind and.

The way that I said it in the first time, just these podcasts only move in one direction and we're going forward.

Um, two more quick things on skating.

We did talk about the speed skating with, um, Jordan Stowles.

I meant to just say that I also watched some of the, uh, the team pursuit, uh, that's what it's called, right?

The team pursuit in the speed skating.

Some of those started today.

We haven't seen medals yet, but awesome, awesome race.

I remember you, you did speed skating in our preview episode and we're talking about this, watching them.

They don't have to like stay connected in constant contact.

It's like 3 on a team going around the track together.

They don't have to stay attached, but they do it to just like keep close and draft off of each other.

And, uh, and it's just like a very fun race to watch.

And I saw, uh, Canada, I think was in 1st place, and, uh, Team USA, I think they advanced in 4th, and so they're gonna go head to head, which might not go very well for the US.

I think Canada is favored to win the whole thing, but that was just like a fun event.

And then short track speed skating, it's like impossible to follow cause it's just , uh, uh, you know, there's just so many people wiping out and it's like, meet this guy, he's the favorite.

OK, he's out of the race on the first turn and like meet these other new people we didn't expect, um, but just like what a goofy, uh, uh, sport, but we saw the, uh, I was watching relays, I was watching individuals.

I think it was a tough day overall for the US, um, we had talked about them earlier in the Olympics, they were complaining about the ice quality.

Um, I saw Corinne Stoddard, um.

It was actually a decent position and then just like coming around the final turn, she made contact with someone from Poland, and then it's really , it's like Mario Kart where somebody gets like zapped with the lightning and then they're just like taken out of the race entirely, and it's like, well, this person is just done and we don't have to, we're not gonna see them anymore.

It's like kind of a shame that years and years.

Of training, and then they get so good at this and they're so fast, and then something unexpected can happen and, and how easily these people just get wiped out of the races.

But, um, yeah, the, the, the relays were fun, the individuals were fun.

I don't have a ton of uh specific notes about the, the races themselves, but if you get a chance to watch this, it, it's worth tuning in for a little bit.

I have two notes on the short track.

I think it's so funny, the guy in the white suit, the cameraman in the middle of the track, he, he tries to camera, it's, it's such a funny outfit.

Um, and then also we should say that the, the guy who won the men's 1500 m today, Jens van Tout of the Netherlands, um, so he had a great race, um, but one thing I, one thing I thought of, I, I, and I promise you I thought of this before I saw this on his face.

So I've been thinking like, there were some really gnarly crashes in the early stages of the, of the short track in the in the past couple of days, and I saw a couple of people wearing like full face shields, and I was like, why don't they all wear those when they have these crashes with the skate blades go flying.

Then after the race today, as Van Tut is waiting for the result to be finalized because obviously it's short track and so there's like a replay review to determine if somebody needs to be disqualified.

They zoom in on him, and he's got this enormous scar across his cheek, and I'm like, that's gotta be from a skate blade.

And so I look it up and yeah, sure enough, from a skate blade, some Israeli skater, uh, sliced them up in 2019, also knocked out two of his tooth, two of his teeth, uh, one of which was replaced by a gold tooth, and so I, I, and, and he doesn't wear the face shield.

I'm like, of all people, you should be the one wearing the face shield, um, you know, but I guess he's, he also rides on motorcycles, he's a bit of a daredevil, I guess.

OK.

All right, well, I think we have run through basically every, I, we must have hit every sport that competed in some form or fashion today and and, uh, yeah, I'm looking at the time, it looks like we probably should now get to our day 9 preview.

Again, we are now officially past the halfway mark as we move into the second half of these Olympics for uh Sunday for day 9.

A big day.

I feel like there are some big names going tomorrow.

Um, I'm gonna start very early in the morning here with the Women's giant slalom, because there's someone in action who I feel like you and I have not talked about in a very long time.

Mikaela Shiffrin is like such a huge name in skiing and in the Olympics, and we were talking about her in the lead up, and it feels like, um, you know, she, uh, unfortunately did not perform very well in the team combined, which is the only time that we've seen her so far.

And suddenly we're talking about Clabo and Stos.

And Malinin and some of these other big names that it feels like Mikaela Shiffrin is like, it almost feels under the radar that like, oh, she's racing tomorrow, uh, in the women's giant slalom.

Um, so I'm definitely gonna be tuning into that.

Um, Paula Molson is the other American, uh, to watch.

Remember, she won a bronze medal in the team combined as a teammate with Jackie Wiles.

So, um, yeah, it's, uh, the skiing, it's just like every day rolls on and, and another big race and, and tomorrow, let's see.

There's going to be, uh, you know, she's now at the point where if she wins a medal, it's going to be like seen as a redemption story, not just from her poor performance in the Beijing Olympics, but also from earlier this week.

Um, and if she loses again, um, or doesn't finish, I just think there's going to be a lot of attention on that also.

Um, just sort of like, hey, what's happening here?

And like, can you believe this happened again?

So I just feel like there's a very good chance that this time tomorrow, a lot of people are going to be talking about Mikaela Shiffrin.

The other big American star with a medal chance is Erin Jackson in the women's 500 m long track speed skating.

That's at 11 in the morning.

She's gonna be in the final pairing, paired with Femke Kock of the Netherlands, who was one of her big rivals in these shorter distances.

Yeah, I'm very excited about that one.

All right, well, I'm a little surprised that you went there because there's another sport I'm very excited about tomorrow that I didn't mention thinking it was gonna be the first one you brought up, but we've got our final day of snowboard cross, and this time it is the team combined, which I wanna make sure I, uh, I explain how this works because it's a very interesting setup, um, but the team combined, it's gonna be the men first and then the women.

And we've seen, uh, I assume anyone listening this far into this show caught the, uh, snowboard cross a couple days ago, or at least I was talking about it.

Um, but yeah, they're gonna go, the men are gonna go around that course 4 at a time, and then, uh, it's not like continuous action, the way that the luge.

Relay is, um, but they do have like a staggered start based on, uh, the men's times.

That's how the women start, which is so funny to me because we've been talking about how this sport comes down to like photo finishes and like we're gonna finish like 2, you know, 10 of a second or less from each other.

Um, but I went back and watched the replay of this race in Beijing, and it's so interesting.

They have like a, a little platform blocking the, um, snowboarders from going, and it looks like they just, like, the platforms, uh, like, tear themselves away to open the gate so that you can get started.

And I guess they just use.

They, they time it in where the times of the men's race affects how fast the platform opens .

So they are technically staggered starts, even though it's like can be 2/10 of a second or less, the difference between when one opens and the next.

But anyway, I'm excited to see this.

Um, it's gonna start at 7:45 a.m. Eastern with the quarterfinals, and then, uh, they'll quickly run through the quarters, the semis, and the finals are gonna be at 8:35.

Uh, the US has two teams.

It's gonna be, uh, Nick Baumgartner, who everyone enjoyed seeing the 44-year-old, he's paired with Fay Phelan, and then, uh, Nathan Pare, who remember was disqualified, uh, for making contact with someone going down.

Um, he's got another medal chance and he's going to be paired with, uh, Stacy Gaskill.

Mitch, another one of our favorites in action again tomorrow.

That's Johannes K Clabo, the Norwegian cross-country star.

He's fantastic.

We all love him.

He's got the, uh, the men's 4 by 7.5 kilometer relay, starts at 6 a.m. Norway's been like crazy dominant in all these cross-country events and so should expect a win there in the relay, but you saw Sweden earlier today, you know, anything can happen and, uh, we'll see, we'll see if they are able to evade any, uh, you know, environmental challenges to, to win this one.

Yeah, he's going for his 4th gold medal.

He's trying to get 6.

This would be number 4.

yeah, it would be a bummer if, uh, if one of his teammates, uh, is the reason for not pulling it out.

But listen, we've seen that like the year Michael Phelps went for 8.

It came down to an amazing swim by Jason Lizak, and that's just how it happens sometimes some of these legends who rack up huge medal totals , you've got to rely on your teammates.

Happens in track, happens in cross country, but yeah, very excited to see that.

Um, Team USA I think has maybe a medal chance in this.

Um, Ben Ogden, remember, got the silver individually, uh, Gus Schumacher, John Steele Hogenbach, who was one of the sleeveless guys.

Um, so I, those are three of the four guys, so we'll see, but, uh, yeah, I mean, all eyes are gonna be on Norway for sure.

Hogenbach took a wrong turn in the event yesterday, so he's got, he's gotta stay on the, on the right track here.

So, that's gonna be give them any medal chance.

My keys to the game when they is gonna be stay on the track, don't go off the track.

That's, that's, I, I missed that yesterday too.

It's amazing.

I'm We're both watching so much and it's just, it's impossible to truly see everything because there's just so much happening, um, I think that's why this podcast exists for people who, uh, like have regular jobs and can't watch as much as you and I have been watching, um, all right, so I already talked about the, um, the snowboard cross.

Let's get to another relay event, a mixed relay, and that is in skeleton.

Um, that's gonna start at 120, and, uh, this is again, a little different than the luge relay where it's not gonna be the continuous.

There's like a little break before the second person gets on the track.

I think part of that is just because the luge really lends itself well to like sitting up and slapping the, uh, the pad at the end, that's the gate, which is a little bit harder skeleton when you're like going, uh, headfirst down the track, tougher to like, you know, sit up and do that.

Right.

The, uh, the pair skating, figure skating starts tomorrow at at 1:45 with a short program.

Um, unlike some of the other figure skating events, the US is not really like a gold medal favorite here, but the American pair of Danny O'Shea and Ellie Camm, they're like fringe medal contenders.

They're, uh, they're ranked, they were 5th in the short program in the team event.

Um, they're gonna go 14th out of 19, uh, when this event runs tomorrow.

Um, all right, curling, everybody loves curling.

Uh, USA men have a, uh, a Scandinavia doubleheader.

They're gonna play Sweden at 3:05 a.m. Good luck to anyone getting up for that, although, as I say, West Coast, uh, just a little bit after midnight, lots of people in California, you can get some late.

Night curling, uh, USA, Sweden, uh, and then at a more reasonable hour for me, they are gonna play Norway at 1:05 p.m. Um, so yeah, they even the record up at 500 and, uh, have two big games.

And then, uh, the USA women's team, which is 3 and 1, they're gonna play against China at 8:05 a.m. It's the final day of group play in men's hockey, there's no women's women's games tomorrow.

Uh, it's all men.

Um, and it's important to remember, like you said, there's no teams eliminated after group play.

They all have at least one more chance to, to go to the playoff round.

Um, so going backward in time, leading off with the US and Germany at 3:10, Latvia and Denmark at 1:10, Canada versus France at 10:40 in the morning, and first thing in the morning at 6:10, Czechia and Switzerland.

All right, well, not first thing in the morning because let me tell you about hockey, let me tell you about the biathlon at 5:15 a.m. We've got the men's, uh, 12.5k pursuit.

Uh, Campbell Wright is a guy we talked about before the Olympics, um, trying to win that first medal for the US in biathlon, uh.

I think it's gonna be tough.

I think the previous event he took part in was, uh, was his better one, and uh he finished 12th in that.

So I think it seems unlikely that he's gonna medal, but listen, as we've seen with biathlon, you never know what you're gonna see during the race, and especially after it.

So, uh, so if you're up at 5:15, check it out.

Well, yeah, and so the, the thing about this, this biathlon event, this is the pursuit, like you said, and actually the start times are determined by your performance in the sprint event earlier.

So, um, because Campbell Wright came in 12th, he's starting 1 minute and 10 seconds behind the leader, so pretty big deficit there.

Um, yeah, the, the, the, the gold medalist, uh, of the previous event, Conan Filo Mae, uh, he's gonna go first, and then there's Nor 1 Norwegian second, and then.

The notorious Sterla Holme LaGride, who is gonna be in 3rd, he won the bronze, so he's only 16 seconds behind the Frenchman.

Um, there's also the women's 10K pursuit, uh, later in the day, so start at 8:45 in the morning.

Julia Simone, like I said, not, not a factor if they're finishing 36th.

Um, there's only one American in the field there, Deirdre Irwin.

She's starting more than 2 minutes back, 47th out of 60 competitors.

Big full day tomorrow.

I can't.

The, the schedule just keeps rolling on, but another, another one in the very early morning hours, um, we talked a little bit about the, uh, the women's dual moguls.

If you missed it and you wanna check out this fascinating sport, the, uh, men's dual moguls are gonna start at 5:46, or actually, I think that might be just the, the finals and, and starting even earlier.

There are 4, there are 4 Americans.

In this, I don't know that they have a great chance at a medal, and actually it's unfortunate that uh two of the four Americans are going to face each other in the first round, which is kind of a bummer, um, that one will be knocked out.

Um, I think Nick Page might be the American who has the best chance, but, uh, yeah, interesting sport if you want to check that one out, uh, either in the early morning or on the replay.

Yeah, it starts at 4:30 in the morning is is the first race, so that's a, it's a little bit early, um.

You've got the, uh, so they, there's actually some, we talked about the weather impacting things.

Another weather impact, they've moved the snowboard slopestyle qualification from Monday to Sunday due to weather.

They're, they're expecting some snow there on Monday, like you saw with the halfpipe, actually snowboarding during the snow is not ideal.

So, uh, the men are gonna have their qualification at 4:15 and the women at 8:15.

Yeah, and I think that's it.

I think we've gone through, uh, pretty much everything.

Well, there's also the, the, well, there's the men, there's some, there's some qualification and training runs and things that I, that I did not write down.

But yeah, yeah, yeah, that, so if you've got those, if you want to hit them, yeah, yeah, the, the men's ski big air qualification is at 1:30.

There's 4 Americans involved there.

Including silver medal, all 4 Americans who took part in the slopestyle will be competing in that competing in that as well, including Alex Hall, who won silver, American Mac forehand among the medal favorites.

And then, um, I think the last thing I had, oh, yeah, um , it's the first, this, this is another medal event we skipped, and I know it's because it's ski jumping, but the first official competition in women's large hill ski jumping.

So the women have never before had medals in large hill ski jumping.

It's only been men until this point.

Um, so they're gonna have their finally first medal event tomorrow.

The first round starts at 11:30, 2nd round at 12:45, and the final round at 2 o'clock.

They're gonna crown their first women's large hill ski jump champion.

All right, I'm off my game.

I didn't have everything done.

I gotta, I gotta look myself in the mirror and, uh, and try and be better on day nine, busy day.

So yeah, glad, glad you're here to clean up for me.

And I think between the two of us, we, we hit on everything that happened today and everything that we're expecting to happen tomorrow.

So I, I think our, our listeners.

are hopefully, uh, in good shape.

We got, we got Slovak hockey, we got curling controversy.

We got historic gold medals, uh, on, on the track and, uh, and all over the place.

It was, uh, yeah, what it was a whirlwind day.

A lot going on that I didn't necessarily expect we'd be talking about today.

Yeah, like I said, seemed like it was gonna be a light day going into it and then, yeah, we, we end up going along here and, uh, had a good time talking about it.

And uh before we wind, wind up completely, I wanna give a little shout out to a listener.

We've, we've continued to hear from listeners.

I haven't been bringing this up every day, but I got a message I love from a guy, uh, Matt Lowell, uh, and there's, I may have pronounced that name wrong, but he reached out very nicely on Twitter to say he's been sharing the schedules with his 9 year old, uh, and was going over the schedule, and he also said that , uh, you and I, Gart, have helped a ton with the podcast, and he says it's great to have it back.

And he said his 9-year-old daughter loves the podcast and I fell asleep to the podcast last night.

So I, I don't know if I, I took that mostly as a compliment.

Hopefully, we were a little more entertaining today and, and kept her attention and she didn't fall asleep during it.

But no, I, I love that, that people are, uh, sharing.

Like I said on one of our very first shows, I was 9 the summer of the Atlanta Olympics in '96 when I got hooked on the Olympics for life.

And so I love that, that there are, uh, kids listening to us.

And, and now I'm just thinking about some of, some of the topics we've talked about here.

But, uh, but no, I love that that people are sharing it with their kids and, and it's been.

Awesome.

Thanks.

We haven't given everybody a shout out who's written in, but we've seen all your messages and it's been really cool.

So thanks.

Yeah, there's another listener.

I don't have his name in front of me, wrote to say that he was listening with his six year old son.

So I'm gonna really watch my language, knowing there's 6 year olds and nine year olds out there listening.

So I'll do my best.

Well, good.

We've got ski jumping to talk about tomorrow.

So we, we got plenty of opportunities to, to get into inappropriate.

All right, thanks so much, everybody.

We appreciate all of you.

Gart.

I appreciate you.

Let's do it again tomorrow, shall we?

All right, talk to you then.