Overtime Hockey and Shiffrin Gold

Hello and welcome to SI's Daily Rings.

I'm Dan Garland here with Mitch Golddich.

Mitch, another day where we're recording right after something really crazy happened.

We're speaking, what, 5 minutes after Quinn uses an overtime winning goal for the US over Sweden.

What a day, really just on the hockey side, but uh we have other stuff to talk about as well.

Yeah, it's, uh, it's hockey day here at SI's Daily Rings, and I was, uh, preparing all afternoon to talk about what I thought was going to be the most exciting hockey game of the day.

And then, uh, two more overtime games came after that one, including another one.

I don't know if it topped it.

I still think the Canada Czechia game was a more exciting game overall.

Maybe that's just, uh, me being, uh, a, a hockey.

Casual that the game with more goalscoring was more exciting.

But yeah, some unbelievable action.

Gotta start with the hockey.

Where else can we go?

I'm gonna, I'm gonna let you take the lead on this.

Which, which game should we talk about first?

Do we go in chronological order or do we let our American bias, uh, show the way here?

Well, I think info dump first off, just to get lay out all the facts.

So, uh, 4 games today, 4 quarterfinals games.

Slovakia beats Germany 6 to 2, Canada beats Czechia 44 to 3, Finland beats Switzerland 3 to 2, and the US beats Sweden, uh, 2 to 1.

Those last three games all in overtime, which is why we're saying what a crazy day of hockey.

But in terms of, I think, uh, going in depth.

Gotta beat the US uh partially cause it's freshest in our minds and partially because, uh, like, what a great game.

I mean, I think, um, like, OK, so, uh, for me, we've talked before about how the US has struggled in a lot of games earlier in this tournament, particularly in first periods.

Um, and I thought like this was easily the best game they've played.

Now, tough to say that about a game that goes, you know, to overtime.

You, you win and that 3 on 3 overtime is like a crapshoot, but you win in overtime, it's a really tight game, but like I think given the quality of the opponent, um, and just the way that the US looked, you know, really controlling play in the offensive zone for long stretches of time.

Um, you know, really superior to Sweden in a lot of ways.

Sweden, you know, great, great team, it made a really good effort there, it was very, very close to winning this thing.

But yeah, the US looked great, um, you know, gives you a good feeling about them going forward in the semifinal and perhaps even a, a gold medal game.

Yeah, so I've, I've been very, uh, transparent here.

You're a much, much more of a hockey watcher than I am.

So, um, what was your impression, because it felt like the US went up 1-0, I think pretty early in the second period .

Did you get the sense that they were like sitting on the lead comfortably and not being aggressive?

Cause, cause we should say, by the way, Sweden's equalizer came with an empty net with like 1 minute and 15 left in the 3rd period.

Um, and it felt like Sweden had a couple of chances right before that.

Like, I wasn't totally surprised that they got one, but did you think the US was just sort of sitting on the lead, or was that like a strategy change?

Like, what were your thoughts there on the end of the game?

I, I'm not quite sure.

I mean, it's like they were doing a good job of, as they like to say in every interview , getting pucks in deep.

Uh, they were doing that.

They were, you know, they were for checking well, they're back checking well.

They were, you know, they, they played really well in all aspects of the game.

Sweden got a lot of good opportunities.

I mean, there was a, uh, There was a shot with 2.5 minutes left to hit the post, that could have been the game tie and then a minute later we, you know, like you said, with the extra attacker ended up getting that game tying goal, but, um, yeah, the US, I think they had uh that second period you mentioned.

I mean, they were not, they were not sitting on the lead in that second period for sure cause they were 20 shots in that period compared to only 8 for Sweden.

A shot in the minute for the US is like, that's really, really impressive.

Um, you know, and, and then 3rd period, right, maybe they're a little more cautious.

I think also, um, Dylan Larkin, the, the, uh, who scored the only goal in regulation for the US, he said during an interview between the 2nd and 3rd period.

That, uh, they were noticing in this arena, we've talked about the struggles with the arena.

In this arena, uh, the ice was getting really degraded by the end of periods, and so they, so you saw, I think maybe what you were seeing later in that third period was some, um, just, you know, the, the, the place slowing down because the ice quality had diminished.

Um, which can certainly be, obviously that, that, that factors into both teams, um, you know, they're both playing on the same sheet of ice, but, uh , it, it possibly, you know, like they may have, may have appeared to be more cautious, and the announcer talking about this, Eddie Olchick on color commentary saying how you gotta be careful, uh, here and later in the period because, uh, there's chances for a funny bounce or, you know, you, uh, a skate gets stuck in a rut to, to have a, you know, the ice really cost you, so they're, you know, they're playing.

He's, he called it more straight up, uh, straight ahead hockey, he said.

Yeah, and then, uh, I think I, you were talking about the shot differentials.

I believe they said shots were 6-0 in the overtime period, which lasted something like 3 minutes.

I didn't see the exact time of the goal.

Yeah.

Um, but yeah, that that 3 on 3 overtime, sudden death for 10 minutes, uh, didn't didn't need the whole 10 minutes, but that is just, uh, some format.

And both teams in this game, it was interesting to me that they were like, someone would win the faceoff and get control for their team, and then immediately the person who won the faceoff was like coming off the ice right away.

There was just like a lot of.

Of the cat and mouse game.

I have to tell you, I was watching it and that is just like so nerve-wracking.

I think that's like a common trope.

It's like whenever on social media when like a playoff game in the NHL goes to overtime, everybody's like, oh, this is the best thing in the world, like playoff overtime hockey.

I was watching and they were going back and forth, and I was like, oh my God, like the overtime must be almost over, like, so much has happened.

And I looked at the clock and there were still 8:10 left.

And I was like, my perception of time was just so warped by what I was watching, um, and seeing them go back.

Forth.

So, uh, Quinn Hughes, I think you said the name, he was the winning goalscorer.

So I think if the US goes on and wins gold here, he's gonna be, this goal is gonna be like legendary.

So, um, maybe before we move on to the other game, what can you tell people, uh, who don't know about Quinn Hughes?

Who is he?

Yeah, so, so Quinn Hughes, um, he has, he has brothers.

His brother Jack is also on the team , and another brother Luke plays in the NHL as well.

Um, he was involved in a really major trade earlier this season going from the Vancouver Canucks to the Minnesota Wild.

Uh, the Canucks said they.

They're a mess with and they, uh, you know, fans are really upset to lose him.

Obviously, he's a great player, but, um, he's a defenseman and he's like a kind of an offensive-minded defenseman.

He had a couple of really impressive plays with the puck in that overtime period, even before he scored the winner.

He had this great, you know, he was holding on to the puck forever, just a couple of minutes before that, um, you know, swooping around, you know, kind of, kind of, you know, gliding every which way and and getting in position for a good shot, uh, which was saved by the by the goalie Jacob Markstrom of Sweden .

Um, and he was, you know, when he was, when he had the puck on, when he eventually scored the winner, I was like, wow, he's still out there, this is a long shift, and you mentioned how, you know, it's kind of this frantic pace in overtime.

I thought actually the overtime in this game was a lot more calm than in the, the previous two overtimes.

3 on 3 overtime is like, it can be just a, you know, a hair on fire kind of situation, and, um, especially in the NHL where, you know, um, it's only 5 minutes, right?

Um.

In this case, I think I thought the US and Sweden, obviously Sweden playing fairly cautiously if they did not get a shot on net in the overtime, but, um, yeah, you know, Hughes, he's a, he's a great player, a really gifted offensive defenseman, a guy you want to have on your team, especially in a 3 on 3 overtime situation where typically you'll have 2 forwards and one defenseman, and you would like that defenseman to be uh an offensive caliber, you know, a high, high caliber offensive player, and obviously uses just that and it and it came up big for the US there.

Yeah, all right, so let's, uh, let's move to the first game of the day, the first, or sorry, the first of 3 overtime games, which for a while felt like it was going to be the game of the day, uh, Canada, Czechia, and of course going into the tournament and going into today's 4 quarterfinals, we're all thinking like, oh, the idea of this US-Canada gold medal game is just like so enticing, and I think that sort of colors everybody's.

Perception watching this game, especially our, our audience is mostly US.

So hello to our, uh , Australian listeners and Canadian listeners and other people who have reached out to us during these games.

But I think for a lot of people who are US fans, they're thinking about like, oh, whether or not Canada advances is gonna be a huge story here.

Uh, Canada's down 2-1 to Czechia after the first period.

Worth a reminder that Canada beat this team 5.

Nothing earlier these Olympics in group play.

So they're down 2-1 after the first, and, um, I believe they said on the broadcast, Canada had not been trailing in a game with NHL players eligible since losing to the US in 2010.

So again, we know the past two Olympics, there have not been NHL players, but it's been that long since Canada was trailing, let alone like actually lost a game.

Then continuing the drama, they're down 2-1.

Sidney Crosby gets hurt in the second period.

Um, and then they end up tying the game, tying it up 2-2.

Then in the third period, Czechia scores a late goal to go up 3-2.

Canada then equalizes it 3-3, and then scores in overtime, uh, to win the game 4-3.

Unbelievable drama.

What were your top line thoughts on this game?

Yeah, so one big factor here, uh, is that Czechia, and it's the same in the Sweden US game, that Czechia is one of these teams that had to go through the playoff round, played yesterday, is now playing in a back to back, but it didn't seem to have any ill effects, right?

Um, came out and they're also like, I think, um, they're.

The underdog, they can come out, they're, they're, you know, the stakes are lower, they can be a little freer and say, hey, let's go out there and, you know, see what we can do if we can beat up the big bad Canadians.

Um, you know, Canada, you know, like, I think there's so much pressure on Canadian players at the Olympics in hockey.

It's like, cause this is their sport, you know, like in, in, in the way that, uh, you know, the US with basketball and , and, you know, and other, other countries in their dominant sports.

Um, you know, there's so much pressure on Canada, and then especially you have, um, you have Crosby go down.

Now Crosby, look, he's 38 years old, he's not like a star player in the way that he, he once was.

He's a really good player still, but he's 38 years old, he's not, you know, probably one of their top 6 forwards, um, but, you know, I was reading quotes from his teammates after the game, like, you know, he's the heart and soul of this team, you know, we, we, we really felt .

Uh, you know, felt bad for him when he went down with that injury.

He was hit by, uh, Ratko Guis at the red line, um, you know, it was, it seemed the injury, we'll see what they say about it, but it seems, you know, not, not too good, and, and especially, you can't imagine that in the, in the, uh, Olympics, at his, his, his NHL team, the Penguins would like him playing through an injury.

Um, but he apparently gave a speech in the locker room that really rallied the guys, um, you know, really, really inspired them.

And so that was a big factor, uh, but check it, yeah, like they, they just seem to play with no fear.

Um, I think another big factor is the Canadian goalie Jordan Bennington.

I saw a lot of people on social media giving him a hard time cause he's like, I think the US, you know, just to go back quickly to that game, Connor Hellebuck is like, he's the best in the world.

He's a major reason why they won that game.

He came up huge in a lot of situations, especially late in the , um, in the 3rd period, not even on, on saves, just like, you know, we had a couple of great poke checks to deny scoring opportunities.

Bennington is not that kind of player.

Um, he's, you know, he's, he's won a Stanley Cup, but he's not, he's a, he's a very good goalie, but he's not on that same elite level as a guy like Hellebuck, you know, if you put Connor Hellebuck on the Canadian team, like, they're easily a gold medalist and they, they probably win this game against Czechia 3-0.

But, um, you know, Bennington's a little bit less of a reliable goaltender and, uh, something to watch going forward.

Um, just a few more, uh, follow-ups here.

So again, over time, uh, Mitch Marner of, uh, the Toronto Maple Leafs scored the game winner in overtime.

Shout out to Mitch.

I'm always very happy when, uh, when Mitch has a great athletic achievement.

Um, Chechia had a breakaway with, with 1 minute 10 left.

You were talking about Bennington and the job that he did.

That was like, that was the moment because, because, you know, over time, I don't want to call it a crapshoot.

Like I think a lot of times, you know, talent wins out, but, um, but this was just like could have been their last great chance before having to rely on overtime and that was just like a huge stop there.

Um, the question that I wanted to ask you, uh, who, who did you find yourself rooting for during this game?

Because I have thoughts on this, and I actually, my, my mindset changed halfway through.

I, I asked you the question, so I will let you answer before I, I almost just started to like answer my own question, but I, I want your answer and then I'll share mine.

Yeah, it's a great question because I think part of you wants to see that US-Canada matchup.

Part of you wants to just like, uh, you know, it's like you're rooting for uh University of Maryland, Baltimore County in the in the NCAA tournament against Virginia , you know, like, um, you want to see just chaos, you want to see the upset, you wanna, you wanna see Chey a team that is, like, their roster is not.

Not fully NHL players.

They've got guys from the Czech league, guys in the Swiss league, etc.

Um, you know, this underdog team, you want to see that, you know, it'd be a great story if, uh, if Canada went out, you know, just because, uh, you'd never, nobody expected to happen.

Um, yes, I don't know.

I mean, I, I think like, I think I was rooting for Czechia, um, just because I, you know, I think everybody wants.

The underdog, even if it does rob you of a of a potential USCanada gold medal game, but as you saw today, like, the US is not guaranteed to make a gold medal game either.

So, you know, I would have been fine with the Czechia, Slovakia, you know, Czechoslovakia rematch, you know, reunion game and the gold medal, but, uh, yeah, instead of Brazil on board for potentially US and Canada.

Yeah, so I will say, I, uh, I flipped early in the game.

I was rooting for Canada, like when I, and I tuned in when they were down by a goal, I was like, oh, this, this game just piqued my interest a little bit more.

I think it was also during like a lull in the day when there wasn't a lot else going on, so I probably would have been watching it anyway.

Um, but at first, I like, I get the viewpoint as a US fan cause you think, oh, Canada's out, easier path to a gold medal, uh, and also there's a, there's always that like, oh, it's fun when your rival loses and gets upset.

Um, but I was , I was on board.

I really want to see the US-Canada game.

So I was pulling for them, and then I found myself as it went on, like in that I mentioned that breakaway with a minute left, and then in overtime, I was totally rooting for Czechia, and the March Madness comp is a good one because it did feel a little bit like.

Uh, when you're watching a game like the opening day of the tournament, and it's like a 3 seed against the 14, and you've got the 3 seed and like the Sweet 16 or the Elite Eight in your bracket, and then the 14 seed is so good and fun that eventually you're just like, ah, screw my bracket, like I just want to see the, this is a cool story, and that was how I eventually was like, yeah, like forget about the rivalry game, like let's see Czechia do this, and, you know, when they're showing like the fans in the stands with the flags and everything, it's, it's hard not to get wrapped up in that and, and say like, yeah, let's see the underdog.

Yeah, that's a great point.

I think like one thing that I felt throughout this day of hockey, which is like the way, as you're saying, you know, your emotions, you can't dictate your emotions in any situation and and that goes to sports as well.

I am not a particularly, like, boisterous sports fan, you know, I like, I'll I'll sit on the couch and I'll go like, oh, you know, but I'm not like, I'm not the screaming, you know.

Hey, what are you doing kind of guy.

Um, but when Quinn Hughes hit that, made that game winning goal, I jumped out of the couch, and jumped off the couch and said, oh, yeah, and I was like, wait, I never do that.

But I, you know, and hockey is like my, like, 3rd or 4th favorite sport, you know, but I was just like, I was so wrapped up in that game.

It was so exciting and, and yeah, you know, the emotions, they take you wherever they take you .

All right, love that we got that Olympic spirit.

Um, so at the, at the end we're gonna do the, the preview and the schedule moving forward, but did we say the two, what the two matchups are in the semifinals?

We want to make sure we have that down.

Yes, so they reseed after every round, so, um, that's one reason why you're guaranteed if they do both advance the US and Canada.

Um, but anyway, so it's gonna be, uh, Canada against Finland and the US against Slovakia.

OK, and they will get a day off, uh, at least, so we will, uh, we will have time to let everyone know when that is.

All right.

There were so many things that happened.

Today started so early, and there, I, I think there were like 6 medal events in between like 5:45 and 7:30.

It was just like bang, like firing off.

Um, I think we should probably go to the alpine skiing next.

Does that, does that make sense?

I mean, Mikaela Shiffrin won a gold medal, which on like almost any other day of the Olympics would be a headline.

Um, so let's go there.

We've talked so much about, uh, Shiffrin that we don't, I feel like we don't necessarily have to go over the whole backstory, but, uh, you know, the most decorated skier of all time, over 100 World Cup wins, uh, she had 3 Olympic gold medals going into 2022, and then those Olympics were kind of a disaster for her, uh, six events, 3 of them she didn't finish, and then she didn't do very well in the downhill team.

Combined, this was her best event, uh, saved it for last on the calendar, cruises to a gold medal, which was very cool to see.

Um, this is another one of those sports, uh, or one of those skiing events where they have two runs and then combine your time cumulatively.

She was in first by, uh, 0.82 after run one, which may not sound like a lot, but that is actually like a dominant lead, uh, in, in any of the skiing events, being up by more than 8/10 is a lot.

Um, and then she has the long wait, uh, before her second run, and, uh, ended up winning by 1.5, uh, seconds, which is a huge margin to take a gold medal.

Um, I saw Roger Sherman, uh, who was our guest on the show way back.

Yeah, do you, OK, yeah, do you want to give the, uh, the stat because I forget how many, how many years back it was that he combined and so yeah.

So yeah, so Sherman posted, um, if you add up the winning margins of the winners at the 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022 women's slaloms, you get 1.51 seconds.

So that's what, that's a seven Olympics, eight Olympics.

So, yeah, just an unbelievable margin there, uh, really incredible.

Yeah, so, uh, 4 Olympic medals now for Shiffrin in her career, 3 of them are gold, and the sentiment, listen, she didn't need another gold medal for her legacy, and people, people love to do that and talk legacy, like hers was absolutely secure, but the, um, one of the commentators on the skiing said that this was like the most important race of her entire career.

Just like the, you know, what it adds to her legacy and, and turning it into a comeback story.

It's always interesting when somebody who is like such a dominant figure has like almost, it's not quite an underdog story.

I don't know if it's like a redemption story.

I don't know if either of those are really accurate, but it, it is like a comeback of sorts and it's like a triumph again.

Um, you know, maybe in the same way that Simone Biles, as decorated as she was , then she had the, uh, the Tokyo Olympics with the twisties, and then she came back and was amazing again in Paris.

Um, this felt a little bit similar to that.

Um, and so yeah, just an unbelievable race.

There were some other like crazy things that happened even, even outside of Shiffrin.

So, um, part of the reason her time, uh, her margin of victory was so big is that the two skiers who were in 2nd and 3rd, uh, after the first run had did not finish in the 2nd run.

This was, this was crazy.

The, uh, 3rd to last skier, her pole broke in the middle, and so then she's like going down and she's like halfway down and trying to make the turns , and they're like, this is really hard.

And the announcer was, I, I think the announcer said something about like, uh, oh, I can't remember the last time I saw this, like this almost never happens.

And then the next skier after her missed the very first gate, and then they were like, oh, that never happens here.

And it was like two extremely rare things that almost never happened.

And, and Shiffrin's like up there at the starting house, like about to go, and that has to be tough.

Like she's had her issues with races that she didn't finish, and those are the two skiers right before you that you have to watch, and then you just have to keep yourself mentally focused.

But she got down pretty easily and watching, you know, as those checkpoints come in and the green numbers just get bigger and bigger, um, but like, that feels like it would add even more pressure to me, just like that's exactly what I wrote in my notes, because, because Lena Durr of Germany, right, she's the one, she, she, like her ski collided with the, the plastic stick they use for the gate, literally the first one, and it was, it happened so soon, the camera wasn't even on her at that point.

They're like, they're waiting for her like two gates down to, to, to really start her run.

And then the announcers like, Hank, like, wait a second, what happened here?

Like, we didn't even see what happened.

And then they go back and they show a replay, like, you know, like her, like, literally her ski went like totally on top of that plastic stick, and that was just, that was it.

And then, as you said, uh, Oland of Sweden, um.

She had, she, you know, her, her, her pole just like snapped like in half, and then they're saying how, like, you know, you need that to, to lean on, you you use it for leverage or steering for, you know, it helps with your timing as well, and you could see, like, as she was trying to navigate, you know, using just the one pole, it was, it, it, she looked like so uncomfortable.

Um, and, you know, we talked about Shiffrin's struggles in Beijing.

And how they, you know, they were admittedly mostly mental, right?

They were talking about how she had hired a sports psychologist after this to kind of work through these, these mental blocks that she has in competition.

And then, as you were saying, her two competitors in front of her have this, like, unbelievable misfortune, you know, basically unprecedented in the sport to happen back to back, and just, and, you know, I mean, it, it, you, you think about, like, her standing up there and going, God, like, what if that.

You know, an, an earlier version of him, or earlier version of her might have said, God, that could be me next, but this time she was like, no, forget that.

I'm gonna, I'm, I'm the old Mikaela Shiffrin, you know, I, I feel sorry for those ladies, but here I go, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go set, you know, some record , uh, margin.

Yeah, um.

It was awesome.

I have one more Mikaela Shiffrin stat here.

Um, she is, uh, she was already the youngest American woman to win an alpine skiing gold medal.

She is now the oldest American woman to win an alpine skiing gold medal, which gives you an idea of just the, the length of her career, the, uh, you know, the length of her peak of dominance.

That's like LeBron James stuff.

You see stats about him where it's like he did this thing at age 18 and then he did it again at age 40.

One, and he's like the oldest and the youngest.

That's just like unbelievable having that much longevity and, and all the success that she had.

So just a very cool, uh, camper that this was the last race of the alpine skiing program.

And it was so much fun.

It feels like every race had big stories and interesting characters and things that I'll remember.

Um, I think at the very end of these Olympics, you and I are going to do sort of a full-on recap and, and go through like some of our favorite moments and things that we remember, and the skiing was just full of them .

We talked just one last thing on this, we talked about, uh, after the men's slalom, the success that Switzerland had had in the alpine skiing and how it would have been, you know, a little while since it had that kind of success.

Um, and finally, as you met, I just said here in the last race, Switzerland got its first women's alpine medal that was, um, Cammie Rast , Cammie Rast of Switzerland, she got the silver and, uh, and yeah, she got the first one for Switzerland.

I was, I was a little bit surprised, you know, that that given how well they've been doing on the men's side, I didn't realize that all those medals have been on the men's side, but nice of her to get on the, on the board there.

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because I did mean to read the other medal winners and the uh bronze went to Anna Sven Larsson of Sweden.

So did not mean to, uh, to leave you out to Anna Sven Larsson, who want to give you a shout out as well.

Yeah.

Um, I think the, the other like main event of the day was the cross country, uh, the relay of the, the sprint relay event or team sprint event, um, with the, I mean, so obviously the headline here, as usual is Johannes Clabo, but who won another gold medal, of course, but.

I wanna bring it up here because I think the US should hang like a banner for, uh, that's just say, like, we almost beat Clabo because that US team of uh of Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher, they skied an incredible race.

They were so good, um, they were, you know, I think it was, it was Schumacher who was right behind Clabo, so close to the end and then obviously Clabo goes up that hill and he builds a cushion, but Schumacher did well to finish in silver, um, you know, a really great performance by the two of them and, uh, something really proud of considering obviously how dominant Clabo is.

Yeah, so the US had, uh, one men's cross country skiing medal in Olympic history, and it had been 50 years, and then Ben Ogden won an individual, we talked about that earlier in the week, and then an individual silver and takes another silver here.

So, you know, they had one ever and then got 22 more this week.

Um, yeah, this was a fun event, and we should say they did both the men's and women's races today, um, and they had like the heat.

In the morning and then the finals and so it's teammates and they're, they're taking turns.

They're both doing laps.

But yeah, it came down to that final lap and like you said, I was like, what is he doing, man?

Because, because there's like that Clavo climb, uh, and they were, uh, they were together and, and, um, the announcers were again helpful here as, as is often the case.

But, uh, basically, he was like drafting off of Clavo and it seems smart because even if he didn't think he was gonna beat him and take him over.

It was just like also putting some distance between the US and the team in 3rd place.

And it was like, let me stay up with Clabo at the front and then, uh, hopefully, you know, he'll pull away and, and of course he did, but, uh, you'd say, hopefully I'll be up, uh, ahead far enough that nobody else can touch us.

And so, yeah, an awesome silver, uh, for the US men.

Um, and then Italy was the bronze.

They were all like 2 seconds apart.

Sometimes the times are a little misleading because some of Them if they have cushion, they can, uh, like ease off the gas a little bit before they get to the finish line, but Cla was coasting, yeah, yes, as he, as he, well, he's got to save his energy.

He's got the 50K on the final day of the Olympics.

Uh, let's do some lavo stats.

OK, that is, uh, his 10th gold medal lifetime in the Winter Olympics, which extends his own record.

Uh, 12 total medals is not quite a record.

There are guys who have more, um.

I looked this up.

Only 12 athletes in Winter Olympics history have 5 gold medals in their lifetime, and Clabo has 5 this year alone, uh, with a chance to get a 6.

And, and remember he already had 5 coming in, so he, he was already on that list of the 12 people, um, and then he equaled that number, uh, this time.

I did see on that list the, uh, those German luge guys, the two Toby have 7 golds, uh, 7 golds apiece now.

So, um, yes, unbelievable day.

And then did you have anything else on that, or should we move on to the women's race ?

No, the women, the women's race was where I was gonna go.

OK, do you want, well, let's go.

I'll, I'll let you out.

I'll, I'll take it.

I, I think, I think you probably saw more of this than I did, but, um, you know, obviously we've been talking about the, the Sweden women's, uh , cross country team, and they won again, of course.

They're, they're the, the kind of, uh, collectively the labo of the women's cross country.

Uh, you know, if, if we, we put everything in labo terms, uh, Sweden's now won 9 of the 15 women's medals, a really incredible showing from them.

Um, and we should mention though, the US women, we, we were talking throughout these games about Jessie Diggins and her chance to win some of those elusive, uh, cross country medals for the US, but came up short again here.

They finished 5th.

Uh, she was partnered with Julia Kern.

Kern was really the weak link here, um.

Her legs were about 6 to 10 seconds slower than Diggins were.

Uh, Diggins, her first two legs were both 2nd fastest among, you know, her competitors, and then Kern's first two legs ranked 13th and then 10th.

So, um, you know, if the US men's side really benefited from having two really strong skiers.

Uh, who were able to keep pace with Clabo, um, you know, like I said, Ogden, already an individual medalist, and then Schumacher as well, really keeping pace, like I said, um, but yeah, Kern was, you know, just a couple of steps slower than Diggins, and that, uh, that ended up being the difference.

Yeah, so, uh, just worth clarifying, I mentioned a minute ago, the US had one, cross country medal all time on the men's side, uh, and I specify men's because Jesse Diggins, we knew, had 3 medals coming into these Olympics and then picked up a 4th.

Um, but yeah, it was, uh, they probably were hoping for, uh, for a better finish here instead of 5th.

Uh, but the star of the women's race was the dog on the course.

Uh, I imagine just about everyone has.

Seen this, uh, or if not, you can look it up.

Anyone who's like following the Olympics close enough that they would subscribe to a daily podcast and check us out has probably seen this.

But, uh, I, I wanna give a shout out to Jacob Feldman, our former colleague at Sports Illustrated, who shared a very helpful story, uh, from Sportico, where he now works, which had a lot of information.

But this, it's amazing, this dog was, uh, coming down the home stretch as two skiers were finishing, but then like saw they have that, like.

Camera that's on a track that moves and the dog just like looked perfectly into the camera, like, oh, I'm the star of these Olympics.

Like, please film me.

And then the broadcast leaned into it and they showed, they have the like, um, the weird, I don't even know camera.

Yeah, it's the, yeah, the photo, photo finish camera.

I was like, I don't even know how to describe the like psychedelic like color scheme that that pops up when you see this, um, but they put the dog in, in that.

And that was fun to see.

Um, so in Jacob's story, uh, he, uh, this is where I, maybe more people have seen this.

Um, I don't know if this was like, uh, original Sportico or if he just collected or whatever, but the dog owner is related to an event official.

The dog's name is Nazgul.

It is a 2 year old Czechoslovakian wolf dog, described as quote, stubborn but very sweet.

So, Nasghul, thanks for uh making your presence known at the Olympics.

A really scary name for a dog actually, Mitch, are you aware of the origin of that name?

I'm not, no.

OK, so those are, those are like the, the guys with no face who chased, who, uh, chased Frodo and his gang in the Lord of the Rings movies.

They're the guys who ride like the, they're basically like dragons.

I think I don't know, I watched these movies again, like, for the 3rd or 4th time, like about a month ago, but I forget exactly what they're, they're these, uh, they're like the, what do they call them?

They're like some kind of a witch, witch, you know, I don't know, uh, witch king, I think they call them.

They're, uh, they're, they're really frightening creatures and the name your dog after is a is an aggressive move.

All right, well, uh, thanks for dropping the Lord of the Rings knowledge on us.

That was, that's a little bit outside of my wheelhouse.

Uh, I saw all those movies once, uh, but don't, uh, don't remember a ton.

Uh, man, what a day.

So we've hit 3 sports.

Anything else on those or are we moving on because there's, I feel like there's still stuff to get to.

Yeah, we can move on.

I, I want to hit briefly on the slopestyle, which happened pretty early in the morning.

The men were, were super early and the women a little bit, a little bit later, but, um, I found the, so the, the men's event was, they seem to really be struggling.

The women's event, they put a much higher scores, um.

I think it it was interesting the, the kind of dichotomy between, like, we saw that, like, knockout uh men's big air ski final, and then the men's uh slopestyle snowboard is like, you know, they're, they were struggling a little bit more.

It makes sense cause it's like, you have, you know, the course is longer, you have more opportunities to mess up, and so a lot of them did, but um, it was a, it was an interesting event because it was so tightly packed, the scores.

Uh, ended up being, um, Su Yi Ming of China.

He won gold, he also won bronze in the big air.

He previously won gold in the big air in Beijing and silver and slopestyle.

Um, he's still the only Chinese man to ever win a medal in snowboarding.

Um, and then silver went to Taiga Hasegawa of Japan.

American Jake Kantor got bronze, but like I said, really tight competition, um, no real standout scores.

I think the, the, the gold medal winning score was 82.

41, which is like, It's like a minus, I guess nothing, nothing crazy, um, and there were 66, athletes within 4 points of the podium.

So it's a really, like, you know, like I said, really tightly contested event, uh, even though nobody stood out, you know, it's, I guess it's kind of like a, like an old school Big 10 football game where it was just punting a lot and somebody manages to win the field position battle and, and, you know, uh, inch across the line to, to get the win, and that's basically what ended up happening here.

Um, it's interesting you said that about the, uh, the men struggling because I think I watched more of the women's competition and there they were actually talking about, uh, I wrote down the snow is running slow right now was a comment that the announcers were talking about, and they were talking about how it was really tough to gain speeds to like do the kinds of, uh, you know, moves that typically score high points.

So I, I think it might have just been like a tough day there, um.

Yeah, the, uh, on that men's competition that you said, I, I noted the, uh, the two scores, the top two scores from round one ended up holding up the entire competition.

So a lot of times, um, you know, we'll see once people, once there's like a score posted that people know they have to chase, um, you know, a lot of times they'll, they'll gear up and hit it.

This is also one of those events where they only count 1 score on 3 runs, which I think we, I don't know.

If you agree with me, but, but we've talked about it a few times that to me, like, I just don't think that's as fun.

Like, I think forcing them to have two good scores that you're going to combine just makes for a better event than these when, when people are bailing out or when you know you only need one.

It just, it, it sets a different tone for it.

Uh, but yeah, the one sort of, uh, dramatic part, Jake Cantor, it was his final, uh, his final run that earned him the bronze medal and got him on the podium .

Um, I will say I did not have a ton of, uh, notes on the women's side.

I saw Japan took, uh, gold and bronze, and then the silver was, uh, Zoey Sadowski Sinnett, who was the, uh, defending gold medalist from Beijing, and then she took home another medal here, but, uh, silver this time.

Yeah, my only other note here was I was watching the very end of the men's competition, and there was a snowboarder from Norway, Marcus Cleveland, and I mentioned how, like, those guys just off the podium, you know, 6, what was it, 6 snowboarders within 4 points .

So he's one of them, and they just took forever to get his score in.

He's just waiting at the bottom.

It was so unusual.

I feel like there's like, you know, all these sports and the snowboarding, the skiing, you know, even figure skating.

Um, when there's a judging a judging element to it, the score comes in pretty quickly, and here he's, I don't, I mean , it's just, it felt like forever, and to the point where like the, the commentators were discussing it, like, what are they talking about here?

What can we possibly be deliberating for so long, and then finally the score comes in and it's, it's its final run.

I , I should have said, and then he, uh, ends up coming up short of the podium, so like this excruciating weight and then the disappointment of it, it's just just brutal to watch.

Yeah, well, it turns like it turns into a short track race where they, they end up waiting for the challenges after every single race, it seems like.

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Um, all right, should I give the daily curling update?

Yes, uh, a tough day, uh, for US curling.

I'm gonna start with the men.

Um, because that the result is a little bit cleaner.

The US men lost to Great Britain 9-2, and that drops them to 4 and 5, and means that they are out of it.

They are not going to be in the playoffs.

Um, so, uh, if you're following the men's tournament, Switzerland's 8-0, they've clinched Canada's 7-1, they've clinched the, the boop team if you're looking for a villain or something to root against, uh, although I don't think they've had any real controversy the last, uh, 24 hours at least.

Um, then it looks like Great Britain, Norway, and Italy are fighting for the last two spots.

They'll have their final session tomorrow.

Um, over on the women's side, the US women had a chance to clinch a spot in the semifinals, uh, and they ended up losing to Great Britain 8-7.

They were up 7-4 after 8, and then gave up two points in the 9th and 10th ends to lose.

So the US women are now 5-3, and they're in a three-way tie for third.

So remember, out of 10 teams, 4 of them move on, 3-way tie, and there are, I think, 4 teams still alive, fighting for those two spots.

Um.

So, uh, Sweden and Switzerland are the two teams that have clinched.

It's the US, Korea, and Canada that are all 5 and 3.

Now, the US has beaten both Korea and Canada, so they have the head to head tiebreakers on both those teams.

Korea and Canada play each other tomorrow morning, which means one of them is gonna lose and fall to 5 and 4, which means even if the US loses in the morning, they will also be 5 and 4.

However, Great Britain is the one team that can play spoiler.

Uh, because they are 4 and 4 and a win would get them to 5 and 4 and would factor into the tiebreaker.

So the important thing, if you, uh, blacked out through what I just said for the last 15 seconds, the US has a game tomorrow and it's winning it.

If they win the game, it's their final one, they will get to 6 and 3 and they are in the playoffs and you don't have to worry about any of the tiebreaker scenarios.

If they lose, they will need Great Britain to lose to Italy.

Uh, and Italy, remember, we talked about them a while ago because they were 0 and 5 when they upset the US.

And that's a game you could still be looking at that and thinking like, hey, this, you know, this is the game, uh, you know, when we blew it and this was our chance.

Italy has actually played much better.

They almost beat Canada today.

Um, and, uh, and I think that actually would have helped the US if they had.

But anyway, so Italy could play spoiler to knock out Great Britain and then the US is safe, or the US could just win tomorrow, although they are playing against, um, uh, I believe they're playing against Switzerland, which is a tough game for them, um.

So we'll see what happens, uh, but it's winning in, and the fun thing is that it's gonna be like the final day of the MLB season when, uh, like all the games are at the same time.

We're gonna have 4 games, 8 teams all playing at the same time, all the results, uh, potentially affecting each other, so that's gonna be a big one when we get to our schedule for tomorrow at the end of the show.

Yeah, that's very helpful to, to lay all that out.

It it was really clear in in that US and Britain game early in the morning.

I, I caught like a replay of that and.

That final shot that Great Britain had on on this last rock to, to, um, well, to not exactly win it, you know, but, but to put themselves in position to do so, uh, really incredible.

The pressure, you know, Britain would have been eliminated with a loss there.

As you said, US would be automatically in with a win, but definitely Britain would have been out with a loss, had this amazing shot.

Where they're, like, it was something I hadn't really seen previously in this tournament where the, the, usually the, you know, if you're trying to get it in the center, you'll curl it, you know, you'll start in the center and curl it around and then it comes back to the center.

Instead, the play here was they went out, like, to the side where there was a rock, like, near the boards.

Bounced it off the boards into the center of the house, ended up getting the double after the US, uh, failed to do much with the hammer, and then, uh, it's just a really exciting way to end it and, uh, we'll see how things shake out tomorrow cause I'm looking to see, looking forward to seeing more curling going forward.

All right, let me give you one more very important curling update.

Now, I said, I don't know when I said it, a few days ago, 1 week ago, 2 weeks ago, who can even remember at this point.

I made a comment that curling feels ripe for a Happy Gilmore style movie about it.

And thank you very much to podcast listener John Shoal, who pointed this to my attention.

That movie already exists and it's out.

And it's called The Roaring Game.

Uh, it, it was unclear if it came out in 2025 or early 2026, but I, it looks like it is now available on, on Prime and Apple and YouTube for like 7 or 8 bucks.

Uh, but it's a movie about a janitor, so very good with sweeping and brooms.

Uh, it turns into a curling team.

I watched the trailer, I believe you did as well, Gart.

Uh, Mickey Rourke is in it as one of the main characters.

Gronk.

in it.

Now, I was, I was watching with like volume on multiple screens, so I might have missed some of the context.

It was not quite clear to me if Gronk is playing himself or if he's just like in it for some reason.

Like there was a movie I watched, um, maybe 2 years ago that it was like a high school movie and Marshawn Lynch was one of the teachers, but he was just like playing it as a straight actor.

He was not like Marshawn Lynch as Marshawn Lynch.

Can't tell what the deal is with Gronk, um.

Then it was called to my attention.

There's a second movie called Men with Brooms that came out in 2002.

I want to thank Monkey Bonfire on Twitter for passing this one along.

Uh, Leslie Nielsen is in this movie.

Uh, the movie was rated R, which surprised me a little bit.

Uh, I did not watch the trailer.

I saw that it's, uh, it has 5.9 stars on IMDb.

So my big question is, do we have to watch these movies, Gart?

Like, between the, uh, the Summer Olympics and these Olympics, this podcast feed just sat dormant and we.

Didn't do anything with it is that I don't know, do, do people want us to like watch these movies and come on and talk about the, the curling movies?

This is probably a, a decision for March.

We don't have to decide right now.

But, uh, you know, we're thinking about it.

So I guess maybe we can let the people decide if, if they want to hear us talk about the curling movies and watch along with us.

Uh, maybe we have to do that in, in the offseason between Olympics.

I watched that trailer for the the newer one, The Roaring Game, and I just like, as I said to you in a reply on Blue Sky, uh, this seems more like something out of 2006 to 2026.

It was like, Just the conceit that like, oh, these guys are janitors, so they'll be good at curling, it just seemed like it was so asinine, it was, and like, and I think uh your question about Gronk is a fair one and I think an unanswered one because as I recall, like, his only appearance in the trailer is he just like, they like cut to me he just goes like, oh wow, what a shot or something, like, it's like he has like one line that does not illuminate what his role in the film is, so, um.

Yeah, this seems like a real, like I said, Mickey Rourke's in it, not that he's like an A-lister anymore, but it's, um, what a, what a bizarre choice to to release that and to and to produce it, but, um, I don't know if, if, if forced to watch it, I guess I will.

I'm glad to know it exists and I feel like I will watch it at some point.

Um, I wanna, moving to something totally different.

I want to just talk briefly about the ski aerials cause I watched a fair amount of this this morning.

Um, as we said, it was the women's competition taking place all in one day, qualifying super early, and then the finals later.

Um, I said yesterday and the day before that, uh, China's the team to watch here.

They're, they've tend to dominate, especially lately, and of course did win gold here.

Xu Mengtao won gold, and then uh Qi Xiao won bronze as well.

The silver medalist though , Danielle Scott of Australia.

Um, so Scott and Xu were the oldest two competitors in the field by about 2 years, they're both 35.

Scott turns 36 on March 7th.

Um, I wanted to bring up Scott though, because this is now, um, Australia's 6th medal at these Olympics.

That's their most ever at any Winter Olympics.

The previous high was 4 in 2022.

They're just having like, I mean, like, Australia, you know, not a very big country, but really punches above its weight in sports, and obviously you, you expect them in the Summer games with, uh, you know, swimming, they're so dominant and they have some other, you know, they're, they're, they just seem to be like a really sporting nation and they really succeed in a lot of the summer games.

Winter obviously is a place where, like, it's, uh, you know, fairly, fairly warm climate, um.

You know, I think there is some snow in like Tasmania, but really it's like, you know, Australia in terms of weather is known for being like 125 °F during the Australian Open, um, but yeah, they're still, they're like, they're really good at these, at some of these, um, especially the snowboard and freestyle skiing.

They've done great here and um you mentioned Zoe Saaskien it while we're talking about Australia across the uh the the what was it the Tasman Sea or the uh whatever it is that separates Australia from New Zealand.

Um, they've, they've had a, a pretty good Olympics as well.

They've now got three medals, um, that's, uh, tied with their most in 2022.

They'd only, they only won, uh, two medals in 2018 and one in 1992, so New Zealand kind of asserting itself and Australia as Winter Olympics, uh, you know, contenders here.

Yeah, when you started talking about Australia, I was gonna mention New Zealand also cause it does, it feels like those, the sort of like, uh, like X Games kind of like extreme sports with like the skis and snowboards, like both of those countries, um, seem to do pretty well.

And, and those, I, I feel like those are the types of sports that we're going to see.

Like, not newer countries, but like countries that aren't traditional winter powerhouses, like some of those sports where it feels like there is some overlap between like Summer Olympics, like skateboarders can become snowboarders and vice versa.

Like it feels like some, those are some of the sports where we might see like new countries, um, emerge as as potential powers.

Yeah, and New Zealand does have some pretty tall mountains, and, um, I know people were giving Shaun White a hard time about his commentary in the opening ceremony, but one thing that he did say, he was talking about how, um, you know, in the North American summer, a lot of athletes in snowboarding and skiing will go down to, uh, Chile and to New Zealand where it's their winter.

Um, you know, and so they have, there's, there's an advantage there that you can be training, you know, at, at certain times.

You could, you could train at home when it's, you know, the offseason for most athletes, and then during what is your summer back home, you can go abroad and, and, and train in, in other locations as well.

So, um, obviously, there's some advantage there and it's working out so well for them.

Yeah, New Zealand is awesome.

We already, uh, had our, our hit our quota of Lord of the Rings, uh, references.

I will say, I, I went to New Zealand for my honeymoon and hiked the, uh, Tongariro Alpine crossing, which goes by, uh, a mountain that is actually Mount Doom Doom from the movies.

It's very, yeah, cool place.

Uh, had to give a shout out to New Zealand.

Um, OK.

Short track speed skating.

I, I have officially come to the realization, and I, I announced it to the world today that I think, uh, part of growing up and maturing is just admitting that the big oval is better than the short track.

The, the short track, when I was a kid, I was like, oh, crashes, this is fun, and now I'm like, I wanna see just like the best athletes in the optimal conditions and not have so much of it random.

However, that being said, I do find the short track entertaining.

It's just, it's just harder to like, uh, I don't know, there's just something about it that it's like I take everything with like a grain of salt as I'm watching it.

It's, it's just like anything can happen.

There was one of the races today in the finals, they had 5 people in it, even though it's usually 4.

It just feels like they're constantly just like making stuff up.

I was talking about the race 7 and 1 earlier, yeah, but not like a, not a final, right?

They had a final, it was, oh, was it a final?

Yeah, like earlier, like last week, they had one of the announcer was like, I've never seen this before.

I don't know why they have so many people.

It just feels like they're making stuff up as they go along.

But anyway, um, the, the women's 3000 relay, it was a gold for Korea, silver for Italy, uh, bronze for Canada.

The, the better race or the more interesting race to me was the men's 500, um, which was the one that I mentioned.

And had the, uh, the 5 people in the finals.

Now, of the finals, it was, uh, 3 from the Netherlands and 2 from Canada.

And the very cool thing is there were siblings, 2 brothers from the Netherlands in the final together, and they were talking about how that was their dream the whole time.

They ended up both on the podium, finishing silver and bronze, and they were so happy together afterwards, and um.

I, the, the broadcasters were like quick to talk about this, so I'm sure they were asked the question, but the, the question of like, hey, would you rather win a gold medal or be on the podium with your brother, and it seems like their answer, uh, this story was like relayed.

I didn't hear them say it, but it seems like their answer was like, we want to be on the podium together, and they, it looks like the, it was one of the favorites who crashed out early cause of course that's how all these races.

are decided, um, but they ended up finishing, uh, silver and bronze together.

Um, it was, uh, Meaonnet Wout , uh, who, uh, won silver, and it was actually his birthday today.

And then, uh, Jens vonet Wout, uh, who, I don't remember, sorry, if he was the older or younger sibling, but he took, uh, he took bronze, and then Stephen Dubois from Canada ended up the gold medal winner.

That that Korea win, the women's relay, that's Korea's first short track gold medal this year , which we talked about Korea dominating that that sport and here, you know, it took them a while to get that, get on the board, but at least they did.

Also their second gold overall after uh Choi Gown's halfpipe win, still wore halfpipe.

Um, I have, I think my last thing we should mention very briefly, the biathlon, uh, and I have, I have the only reason I want to bring it up.

Well, first of all, as we were discussing off mic, yet another gold medal win for Julia Simone, the credit card thief, but the to spin it in a more positive direction, uh, people should know by now Julia Simone is from France, and France won this, uh, relay after winning previously the men's and mixed relays.

This is the women's relay, they won the men's relay and the mixed relay, um.

Sweeping all three relays, incredible that this French biathlon team just like really on a roll here.

Um, in 1998, Germany won the men's and women's relays.

That's the only time it's ever happened before, and obviously this is the first time that any country has won all three.

The mixer they only introduced in 2014.

So we talked about how, you know, France has the next Winter Olympics.

A lot of countries are in, you know, when they, when they know they're hosting an Olympics, they invest in training and, and, and, you know, getting the best athletes in their programs in hopes of really peaking at the right time.

France is already starting to peak, and you wonder, you know, what can they do with a little more, uh, you know, extra effort as they head into those French Alps Olympics in 2030.

Yeah, congrats to, uh, Julia Simone and, and very interested in, uh, who's picking up the tab at the victory party.

I may have made that joke already earlier in these Olympics, but now she's got 3 gold medals, so I'm gonna recycle material.

Um , that was it that I had for the sports.

I did have one sort of on a hard pivot.

Uh, there was actually some harder news that I wanted to, uh, make sure we mentioned on the show.

Uh, yes, we have, uh, we've talked a little bit about, um, Russian and Belarusian athletes.

Um , and their sort of participation level at previous Olympics and here, um, I read, uh, sort of a long and, and detailed story from Katie Fuckingham of the BBC and so I would recommend that story, um, if you, uh, if you want to check out all the details and, and there's sort of like, there, there's a lot of like legalese and, and like how this happened and different organizations and acronyms and things like that.

But, um, the basic headline here is that, uh, it was announced.

6 Russian and 4 Belarusian athletes will compete in the Paralympics, um, across a few sports.

Um, and, uh, in September, the International Paralympic Committee, I'm now reading from the story, uh, lifted its ban on athletes from the two countries competing at the games.

However, the IPC does not govern the six sports contested at the Paralympics, and despite the individual bodies refusing to lift their own bans, Russia and Belarus won an appeal to the Court of Arbitration of Sport.

Um.

So, yeah, as a result, they are going to attend.

Then the other big piece of news here is that uh Ukrainian public officials will not attend the Paralympic Games, said the country's sports minister.

Uh, quote, We will not be present at the opening ceremony.

We will not take part in any other official Paralympic events.

We thank every official from the free world who will do the same.

We will keep fighting.

Um, so I just thought it was worth bringing that up cause we've talked about it and um, the part that's interesting to me is it feels like this is interesting timing for the news.

I guess it was timed based on the, uh, that they won the appeal, and I can understand why those kinds of things would go down to the wire, um.

But it feels like the Olympics probably doesn't want this being a story in the middle of the games, um, you know, would have rather, I'm sure it would have gotten less attention if this had happened even just a week from now in the sort of short period in between the Olympics and Paralympics.

Um, uh, I think too early to say if this is like a precursor to these athletes being fully welcomed back at the next, uh, Olympics, which would be LA 2028 or the next Winter Olympics.

Um, but anyway, I don't know, um, how much people are following the Paralympics and certainly less attention on that than the Olympics.

Every time around, but um just wanted to make sure we shared that and brought up that that was an update because I, I thought it was interesting.

It would have been interesting either way that the athletes were back in, but also, um, the news that Ukraine officials are then going to boycott, I thought was also pretty interesting.

Yeah, just a quick clarification, how those, those 10 athletes you mentioned 6 from Russia, 4 from Belarus, they're competing under their nation's flags, right?

There are a handful of athletes from those countries competing at the Olympics at the at the able bodied Olympics in in Cortina right now, Bean Cortina.

Um, but they're competing as neutrals.

And so, yeah, now that the difference here is that they're gonna be gonna be competing under those flags.

Um, so an important distinction there, like you said, weird, there's a lot of bureaucracy involved here.

I was totally confused in that BBC story by the notion that the sports are not governed by the IPC.

Like, then what does the IPC do?

Like, you know, it.

It was, it was really confusing to me exactly the, the mechanics of this.

Um, and the question then I have is like, OK, if the, does the IOC manage those sports or any sports directly enough at future able-bodied Olympic Games to keep Russians and Belarusians out as long as the war goes on, I guess it's a question we'll have answered, um, eventually.

Yeah.

All right.

With that, shall we move on to the day 1 day 13.

I, I can't believe it.

This, this, the Olympics are flying.

We have, I was gonna say we have 4 full days left, although Sunday is kind of a half day, um, so it's really like 3.5, but we're in the, the final, the final quarter of the home stretch here.

So I, I know this.

I think I know where you want to take us with this.

I know you wrote about it today.

So why don't you tell me the headline sport for tomorrow?

Yeah, I wanna, I wanna lead off with the ski mo, ski mountaineering for the uninitiated, the cool people call it skimo.

Um , so this is a brand new sport to these Olympics.

It's the, uh, it's the one, if you didn't hear our preview episode, it's the one where you ski up a mountain and then back down the mountain.

Um, it's a fast sport.

These, these are gonna be sprint races tomorrow.

They take 2.5 to 3.5 minutes each.

Um, it's really, you know, the thing that differentiates from cross country skiing is like, these climbs are really quite vertical.

Um, I would.

You know, we're running a little longer, so I'll spare all the details.

You can read my story on SA.

com, just search my name or, you know, go to my author profile.

I can post it online as well.

But yeah, go check that out if you want all the details.

But the point being, it's really cool.

They ski up , they ski down, they do it both.

There's a cool transition between the up and the down where they jump and rip some material off the bottom of their skis.

Anyway, uh, the competition starts super early in the morning, 3:50 a.m. with the women's heats.

The men's heats are at 4:30.

But don't worry, those are just the heats.

There are some, some races at a decent hour.

The semifinals start at 7:00 a.m. The women's medal race is at 7:55 a.m. and the men's at 8:15.

Uh, it's gonna be a great time, really, really fast, like I said, uh, it's gonna be.

You know, quick action, uh, they're gonna run through, basically, if you start at 7 a.m. you're gonna see, you know, two medals awarded, a bunch of races in between in the span of about 90 minutes.

I think it's gonna be a great viewing experience.

Yeah, and a short event, so if you miss it cause you're listening to this podcast too late, um, Peacock's gonna have the full replay and it should be an easy one to get caught up on.

Um, all right, well, I will talk about hockey then, cause everyone knows, uh, how much I've been talking about hockey here.

But no, big, big game tomorrow.

It's the US-Canada women's gold medal game.

We were talking earlier in the show about the US-Canada, uh, men's gold medal game being a possibility we were excited about.

Well, this is an awesome rivalry, and this one we've got, they've already qualified all the way through.

Uh, the game is gonna be at 1:10 p.m. Uh, some important stats about these two.

They have won all 7 golds between them since women's hockey was an Olympic sport.

Now all 8 cause someone's gonna win it tomorrow.

Uh, not just that, they have met each other in the finals 7 out of 8 times and 5 in a row.

The US won gold in 1998 and 2018.

Canada won gold over the US in 2002, 2010.

In 2014 and 2022, they also had a win over Sweden, uh, in there in 2006.

So yeah, this is the game we've been waiting for.

Uh, the US did beat Canada 5-0 in group play, so they have played recently, but, uh, this is different.

This is just the pressure of an Olympic final, uh, and, you know, I think both teams are gonna be so amped for this.

It'll be fun to watch.

And then, uh, by the way, it's not the only medal game, um.

Because Switzerland and Sweden are going to play for the bronze medal, which is also a big game.

I think a lot of people came in this tournament expecting US and Canada would be at the top of the podium, and a lot of other teams may have, may not have wanted to admit it, but some of them might have felt like they were playing for 3.

So Sweden and Switzerland get their chance to play for 3rd and still go home as Olympic medalists, and that game is at 8:40 in the morning, so we'll have a little appetizer bronze medal game before they go for gold.

Yeah, big game for the two of them in the bronze medal match.

It's been a long time since either one of those teams won a major tournament, so the one team there is gonna go home really happy.

Um, I will point us toward another big event for the US is the men's long track speed skating, 1500 m.

That's Jordan Stowles.

He's seeking his third event.

This is a third gold medal in his third and final event here.

Uh, he's in that final pairing with Peter Kong of Norway.

Konjog is the defending world champion, so a big challenge for him there, but Stos hopefully able to get another gold to add to his medal case.

All right, uh, tomorrow at 1 o'clock is the final session of figure skating, uh, another marquee event of the Olympics every time.

Um, it starts at 1, so, uh, there are 24 skaters doing the free program, uh, which is longer than the, uh, the free skate, which is longer than the the.

Uh, uh, short program.

So, it feels like the, the figures, it feels like they pick the timing every day so that it ends like close to 5.

So I don't have the exact times in front of me, but it feels like in that 4 o'clock hour is going to be when a lot of the action goes down.

And then I'm sure they will show all of this, uh, in the primetime broadcast as well.

Uh, reminder, there are 3 Americans, uh, although, uh, Alyssa Liu is the one who is in the best position to medal, um, after the short program .

She's gonna go 3rd to last cause she's in 3rd place.

So she has a great podium chance, and then everyone will be watching the two Japanese skaters who are ahead of her, who will follow her.

Um, but we'll also get to see.

Uh, Amber Glenn, who, uh, unfortunately did not have a great score, uh, in the short program.

And, uh, yeah, so tune in.

I think this is going to be very exciting.

We've talked about how like the Japanese team is also very deep, and, uh, I think this is, even if the US is not as successful as a lot of people may have hoped coming in, I think there's still going to be a lot that's worth watching here.

I believe this is the last medal event of the day, Michigan, correct me if I'm wrong, but the, uh, the men's ski aerials final starts at 8:00 a.m. It's a little confusing the structure of the, of the final here because there's final one and final two, and final one has two runs.

So when I was watching the women's and they started doing the second run of final one, I thought this is for the medal, this is final two.

No, it was part two of final one.

Anyway, so as you're watching tomorrow, keep that in mind.

Final one is where they cut the field to 6, the qualifiers cut it to 12, the final one cuts it to 6, and then those 6 people are in contention for the medal in final two.

so just so you got everything straight, that's the format here.

Um, I could be wrong, but I had written down that the, uh, Nordic combined also had cross country, and it, well, I was gonna say they're at the same time.

So the good news is you can watch them both together.

It's not like we're, if I was wrong, we're not forcing people to get to the TV at an hour when they shouldn't be.

There are two medal events at once, uh, but yeah, we've got more Nordic, uh, more Nordic tomorrow, and the, uh, they'll do the jumps early in the morning and then finish up.

The team sprint at 8.

And then the last thing, and I already said this at the top, but, but not for medals, but big day for curling.

Um, the USA women have that win and in game against Switzerland at 8:05, or if they lose, they can still get help if, uh, Great Britain loses to Italy, 4 games going on at once, it's gonna be a lot to follow, should be fun.

And then the men's tournament, we're still gonna watch, even though the US is out of it.

The, uh, semifinals are tomorrow.

Um, they start at 1:05 p.m. The, uh, US won't be in them.

We're still waiting for official matchups cause the men are going to play at, uh, that 3:05 a.m. time slot, which is 9:05 a.m. over in Italy, which is why, you know, it makes sense that they've been, uh, having games there.

But, uh, yeah, we will know the official matchups, uh, at the early morning hours, and then, uh, but yeah, we'll have 4 good teams playing each other at, uh, at 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

Last thing on my list, there's, there's ski halfpipe qualifying for both the men and women, men super early, 4:30 in the morning, the women are at 1:30 in the afternoon.

Um, all four Americans on the men's side are pretty good medal contenders.

There's Alex Herrera, Nick Goepper, Hunter Hess, and Burke Irving.

On the women's side, the names to watch there Eileen Goo, obviously this is her preferred event, defending gold medalist, um, but also look out for Indra Brown.

She's 16 years old, she's from Australia.

We've talked about Australia being really good here at some of these winter sports.

Uh, she only turned 16 3 weeks ago, and she's the world number 1 in this event, uh, this season.

So a really exciting, uh, opportunity there for, for a youngster to show her stuff.

All right, well, I think I've exhausted my notes.

We talked about the cross country dog, we talked about the curling movies, we talked a little bit about the sports, the hockey and the and Mikaela Shiffrin.

So, uh, I think that's it.

By the way, I did post, if you want to see the, the curling trailers, I put them out on, on Twitter and Blue Sky, if you want to find me, the, the movies are there.

But, uh, yeah, we hit short track.

I, I think we've done it all.

I think we are officially finished with day 12, guard.

Yeah, I'm glad we made it through all that uh crazy hockey and hopefully the US women's game is a little less, uh, a little less stressful tomorrow.

All right, well, thanks everyone for tuning in, and yeah, we'll talk to you after, uh, we'll see what tomorrow brings.