Women’s Skiathlon
What in tarnation is the skiathlon you ask? Well, it is like the biathlon for skiers. They do 7.5km in the classic style (think Norditrack movements) and switch skis and do it again freestyle where anything goes and it looks like they are about to tangle their skis constantly. Charlotte Kalla of Sweden won, no surprise there. But American Jessie Diggins got 5th which was the best U.S. finish in an XC ski event ever and this isn’t even her best event! Get some Jessie.
For this edition of medal winners we’ll take a look at pictures the official Olympic instagram used for each of the winners:
Of course she won, she doesn’t even look tired. I’ve looked worst walking to the bus on a warm day.
Women’s Biathlon 7.5 Sprint
Biathlon is sneaky one of my favorite sports to watch. It’s one of those old military exercises that turned into a sport and is still going strong. This is the sprint so they just do 3 laps total and shoot lying down once and shoot standing up once. And if you miss one of the shots you do a penalty lap. The winner Laura Dahlmeier missed 0 shots. She took that second grade advice very seriously about taking your time and came out on top. Our top competitor had a cold she couldn’t shake….its flu season y’all, get that hand sanitizer out.
Really? This was the best picture? Couldn’t have waited 5 seconds for her to catch her breath?
Men’s Short Track Speed Skating 1500
So this one got a little crazy because there were 9 dudes competing because of so many penalties in the semifinals. That’s a lot of dudes skating around an ice rink at a fast pace. Lots of jockeying for position, quick skating the whole race and only one fall near the end. Lim Hyo-Jun came out on top. And just a small note (literally), the winner was 5’6 and the silver and bronze dudes are 5’8. So any guys out there that know they aren’t going to be a basketball player, check out short track speed skating.
Pure Olympic joy for winning on the home turf. I do feel kinda bad that the Russians/OAR superfans don’t even get a flag next to their name (look in the comments). At least throw them the Olympic flag.
Women’s Long Track Speed Skating 3,000
If the king and queen of the Netherlands come to watch you better perform (even though I have no idea if they are like the Queen of England and more of a symbolic figurehead or their wooden shoes are the end all, be all). But either way, Carlijin Achtereekte, Ireen Wuest & Antoinete De Jong came through and swept the podium to continue their country’s dominance in the sport.
Is that a yawn or a battle cry? Kinda works either way because she’s bored with the competition or her battle cry worked and she scared them all off.
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