Short track speed skating has it all: speed, skill, tactics, spills, danger, disqualifications. Most of all it is unpredictable. Just when it looked like the Koreans would finish 1-2-3 in the 1500, one made a bonehead move on the final lap, taking out a teammate and handing second and third to Apolo Ohno and countryman 19-year-old J.R. Celski. For Ohno it was a Winter Olympic record-tying sixth medal, equaling the haul of Bonnie Blair. Celski, who nearly bled out after a blade cut at the National Trials last year required 60 stitches to close, gained an unexpected bronze in his first Games.
In an exciting women's moguls competition, the defending Olympic champion, Jenn Heil, took the lead with just one competitor left, but continued Canada's home Winter Olympic drought when Hannah Kearney of Norwich, Vermont snatched the gold with a perfect last run. Sweet redemption for Kearney, who was 22nd at Turino four years ago.
With teammate Shannon Bahrke taking home bronze, the U.S. had four medals on the day, the most ever in a single day at the Winter Olympics.
A sad footnote to the tragedy that killed a Georgian luger: less than 24 hours after he died when he was hurled into the air at 90 miles an hour and hit a trackside metal pole, the pole was covered with padding. Why wasn't the padding there when he was luging the day before?????? Seems such an obvious safety measure - as plain as the pole itself.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
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