Ryan Cochran-Siegle SILVER – Alpine Skiing, Men’s Super-G

Even though he comes from a skiing dynasty family and his mom won gold in 1972 he wasn’t actually expected to win a medal. The announcers kept talking about how off they thought he was for the games, he had a serious crash and surgery a year ago but he shocked everyone with a silver medal. Unlike some other events, the best racers aren’t saved for last so he had to wait around a while with a camera in his face before getting to officially claim the medal. And there were some EMOTIONAL moments. He called his mom and got choked up trying to say “he did it”. He did an interview and got choked up about continuing his family legacy. It was just very touching to see. Congrats Ryan.

Jessie Diggins BRONZE – Cross Country Skiing, Women’s Individual Sprint

You might remember Jessie Diggins from 2018 when she and Kikkan Randall won gold in the team event, the first-ever gold medal for US cross country skiing! Now she’s done it again with a bronze medal in the Individual Sprint (~1 mile), winning the first-ever US medal in that event! Since her historic victory in 2018, she has inspired a new generation of American cross country skiers and opened up about her own struggles with an eating order to create awareness and encourage other athletes to get help. She also gets emotional after becoming the first American to do something, no big deal. Lots of almost tears in the last 12 hours. Congrats Jessie.

This is American Emery Lehman. He’s got a little bit of party in the back and hip/fashion on the side.

He’s from Chicago. He picked up hockey at an early age but that’s not what he’s at the Olympics for. He just finished 11th in his event.

A big hint: You should probably think of those lines in his hair as RACING stripes.

DRUMROLL….SPEED SKATING. Bonus points if you were thinking traditional and not short track. He just finished the 1,500 and will be back for the team pursuit on February 15.

Thanks for playing. I think he might have grown out the sides and cut the back for the games, probably the reason he wasn’t top ten.

American Olympic news coverage LOVES to pick a handful of athletes and focus most of their attention on them. It’s usually well-known and media-friendly favorites for medals combined with a few folks who have some extraordinary backstory about overcoming odds.

But we sent 224 athletes to the games, most of any country. The majority won’t be on the podium at the end of the day, won’t be on any primetime coverage and I’d like to give some of them a little attention. So here is the first post of the “3 CHEERS” series for 2022.

3 CHEERS for Scott Patterson – Skiathlon

What? You don’t know what skiathlon is?

Scott knows because he got 11th. He improved on his 18th place finish in 2018 to get the best finish by an American man ever. GO SCOTT! Scott is from Anchorage, Alaska, and also is a very accomplished mountain runner according to his blog.

Jokes aside, it’s time to learn. Skiathlon is a 30km race where they complete the first 15k (9.3 miles) in the classic technique of cross country skiing. Stop. Change their skis. Complete the second 15k in the free technique.

Classic style is what you do on a NordicTrack. They use the parallel grooves in the snow when going uphill and on flat terrain. It’s easier but also slower, kind of similar to the backstroke in the pool. Free, just like freestyle in the pool, is faster. It involves movements that are more similar to ice skating. It is a little harder though because you have the potential of tangling your skis. Scott did the free portion of the race about 3 minutes faster than the classic for a total time of 1 hour, 20 minutes to give you a little more context. He was actually the fourth fastest on the free portion of the race, probably that mountain running helping him keep a lot in the gas tank.

So now you know Skiathlon and now you know Scott Patterson. 3 CHEERS.

Breaking Things Out Of Excitement

I can not figure out which athlete this is but I love how he tried to fix it.

Mikaela Shiffron Being Just Like Us

During an interview with Lester Holt, she said that “On Top of Spaghetti” gets stuck in her head right before she starts skiing during competitions. Let’s all get the song stuck in our head whenever she competes in solidarity! Her first event, the Giant Slalom got rescheduled to 8:30 tonight. Tune in!

Dinosaurs

I’m sure I’ll hate this commercial by the end of the Olympics but JURASSIC PARK AND THE OLYMPICS COMBINED INTO ONE THING!!!

Women’s Hockey Crushing It

The story for the women’s hockey tournament is USA and Canada working towards a rematch for the gold medal and everyone else is just along for the ride. So far the US has been DOMINATING in their games. Canada has as well but it’s been going well so far. I’ll circle back around when the medal rounds start!

She just won silver in Freestyle Skiing: Moguls. Moguls scores are 60% based on mogul turn technique, 20% on speed and 20% on the quality of the jumps. Jaelin was F*ING FLYING down the hill to maximize the speed portion of her score. All french fries, no pizza slice, that’s for sure.

What might have also helped were the two special necklaces she was wearing, gifts from her mother who was also a pro skier. The first she received four years ago for the 2018 Olympics where she had a disappointing games. The second was sent to Jaelin when she was already in China and included a pearl and a diamond from her grandmother. “She wrote this whole note, but basically, a pearl is made from grit and turned into something remarkable,” Kauf said. Love it.

And just like our first medal, it came from the women’s team in an X-Games type event and the gold medalist, Jakara Anthony got her country their first-ever winter gold medal. This time it was New Zealand’s neighbor Australia!

I just watched the entire coverage of the men’s 5K Long Track Speed Skating and they seem to be doing a “Venue Ceremony” right after the race is finished that doesn’t include medals but PANDA STUFFED ANIMALS. Well, to be specific, the Olympic mascot, Bing Dwen Dwen.

The announcers said there will be a medal ceremony later on but there is something hilarious about Scandinavian men, descended from Vikings, battling it out for a stuffed animal.

Are these going to be the new Beanie Babies and traded amongst the athletes like pins and souvenir condoms?

Nils Van Der Poel of Sweden, in the last skate of the event, had an inspirational last lap to take the gold. Silver medalist Patrick Roest of the Netherlands, who was sitting with the gold and the Olympic Record for over an hour, was very upset and moped around for a little while before seemingly coming around to be excited for the Silver, and the panda.

But Van Der Poel dropped the panda at one point to hold up the Swedish flag….he’s going for another gold in the 10,000 later this week and I’m a little worried for his chances now that he’s disrespected the panda stuffed animal. They also made them walk around the venue with the pandas and wave a lot, again, hilarious.

Will Bing Dwen Dwen get the last laugh? Tune in on Friday, February 11 at 3:00am for the live answer…you know I will be because time doesn’t exist for me during the Olympics.

And the first medalist of the United States in 2022 is…..JULIA MARINO with a silver medal in snowboarding slopestyle. You can watch the full replay here.

The crazy part is that of the 3 American women in this competition Julia was the least talked about. Jamie Anderson was the twice reigning champ and an obvious medal frontrunner. The third American, Hailey Langland, was attempting a redemption story after a disappointing 2018 Olympics and is dating men’s slopestyle’s reigning gold medalist Red Gerard.

But Julia had an amazing second run of three and is bringing home the hardware and has the exciting honor of being the first medalist for the United States in the 2022 Olympics!

This is incredibly fitting because the US ladies brought home more medals than the US men in 2018 for the first time in 20 years (which has long been the trend in the summer Olympics).

Also, the gold medalist, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott from New Zealand, won her country’s first Winter Olympic gold medal EVER. An exciting and rewarding contest all around.

Round Robin Play: USA V. CZECH

While this is still round-robin play, this is a pretty important match because the USA is currently in fifth and there are only three more matches before the top four teams move on to the semifinals. Czech is currently seventh so getting a win here would help keep us in contention for the medal rounds.

The USA Team: Vicky Persinger & Chris Plys

Instead of giving you any useful background information about either of them I’m going to share an Instagram post of them with an animal.

Here We Go

• I didn’t know the Czech team was a married couple. I wonder if that actually makes much of a positive difference in a sport like curling where you take turns and can talk in between “plays”. I guess one could more easily call out the other if they are claiming they can make a shot that they actually always miss. “Are you going to make that shot just like you make the bed every morning? Didn’t think so.”
• As a very novice curler myself, it is ridiculous to see some of the shots they are able to make with ease. When I throw a rock I still have to use a plastic handle thing for balance, the equivalent of training wheels for curling. They are 73% accuracy, I am probably 25%.

• Not loving they left the door open for Czech to score 5….I guess the fact it’s only 3-1 after 2 ends isn’t that bad overall but we aren’t looking too sharp right now. The announcer definitely called out Chris pretty hard by saying he had the lowest accuracy of all guys in the tournament. Not a great stat to have.
• Ok, I feel a lot better now they followed that last end with 3 themselves to return to the lead. I’m also loving their teamwork and how supportive they are of each other…should they also be a married, curling couple/team?
• Remember the Russian married mixed doubles team that got a medal in 2018 and then got caught doping…still cracks me up.

• TIED GAME…this is getting very exciting. I was worried with some of the high scoring ends it was going to get out of hand. But I’m also watching this on the Peacock app so I’ve seen the commercial for JLo and Owen Wilson’s “Marry Me” ten times and the more I watch the preview the more I think there is no way they would ever fall in love…unlike curlers.
• “GHASTLY ERROR”….I’ve thrown rocks past the house SO. MANY. TIMES. That makes me feel a lot better. Like when you see someone playing golf on TV shank it.
• Unfortunately, it does seem like the Power Play is what doomed them this match and possibly the tournament as a whole. There’s still a chance if they win their final two matches and some other pieces fall into place. We’ll see what happens!