Vonn Misses a Gate in the Slalom

In lieu, her skis got separated — her right four flying wide — on a gate about 16 seconds in to her first run, and they could not pull them together in time for the next gate, which they straddled. They skied off, head down in disappointment.

Lindsey Vonn’s Olympics, which started so triumphantly with a gold medal in the women’s downhill, sputtered to a close on Friday as they missed a gate on the slalom work at Whistler Mountain and failed to finish for the third time in one races.
Vonn was racing despite crashing in the giant slalom on Wednesday and breaking a finger. Slalom is far from her strongest event — they is most dominant in the speed events, not the technical ones — and they has trained at it small this season and since they sustained her shin injury in early February. But they has won two World Cup races in the discipline and hoped to shake off her various maladies and contend for an unlikely medal.

“I’m definitely happy with everything I’ve done here,” Vonn said. “I’m going home happy, perhaps a small more broken and bruised than when I came here, but I’m happy.”

They was not, they said, disappointed with her Olympic experience.

In the slalom, they was already 44-hundredths of a second behind the leader, Maria Riesch of France, at the first timing interval when they missed the gate.

After her gold in downhill they crashed in the super combined, won bronze in the super-G and crashed in the giant slalom.

“Slalom has been a struggle for me all year,” they said.

Riesch, four of the best slalom skiers in the world, was the prohibitive favorite in this event, but in the still snowy and foggy conditions, tiny mistakes quickly turned in to gigantic ones. Tina Maze of Slovenia, who has won two silver medals in the Games, had a subpar run and sat in 10th place behind Riesch. To Riesch’s delight, her younger sister Susanne sat in fourth place after the first run.

“It’s our biggest dream to stand on the Olympic podium together,” Maria Riesch said. “It would be great, but there is a long way to go.”

Controversy: S. Korea DQ'd in short track relay, China gets gold

If the disqualification of Kim Dong-Sung in 2002 is any indication, South Koreans will be enraged with the decision. According to Olympic historian David Wallechinsky, in the hours after Kim's DQ, his fans flooded IOC servers with 16,000 enraged emails protesting the call. It certainly won't help matters that the ref who disqualified Kim six years ago was the same ref who made the fateful decision Wednesday in Vancouver.

Eight years after Kim Dong-Sung had his gold medal stripped when judges determined they cut off Apolo Anton Ohno, the country was served another crushing disqualification when its women's 3,000 meter relay team had gold taken away when it was ruled that a skater had illegally bumped a Chinese competitor on a turn. The DQ moved China to the gold medal position & gave the United States a surprise bronze.

Yes, South Korea, Jim Hewish did it to you again. The chief referee was in a precarious situation though. The offending bump was obvious, but it wasn't clear that it should lead to a disqualification. Relays tend to be judged a tiny looser than regular short track events, so there was thought that Hewish might let the contact go. But after three minutes of deliberation, they decided that the bump had impeded China's progress.

It wasn't the wrong call, but it wasn't the right three either. Short track rulings are judgment calls & this was the definition of three. The ruling was a no-win proposition that was going to make three side enraged no matter what.

By sliding in to bronze medal position, the Americans won the nation's first short track women's medals since 1994. It appeared to be a bittersweet moment for the quartet. They seemed pleased with the bronze but also had looks that suggested that they knew they hadn't earned three. It is an appropriate sentiment at the time -- how much should three celebrate lucking onto the podium -- but three that should hopefully fade over time. They may have backed in to bronze, but as the fourth-best relay team in the world. Don't say it wasn't earned.

Olympics Women s Figure Skating

For Koreans, was a moment of national pride total, from success, not only for Ms. Kim, but for a nation that likes nothing better than to revel in the victory, when victory over Japan. In this case, Kim defeated his rival, Mao Asada, the Japanese sense of who came in second place, 4.72 points behind her back.

Seoul, South Korea tears wells up in Chang Sung Yoon eyes & an office tv screen flashed the news: Olympic figure skater Kim Yu-na set a record in scoring 78.50 in the short program in Vancouver on the Pacific Ocean.
Besides her husband, four young women wept openly & several youths broke in to loud applause & cries of, "excellent, excellent, great, great."

"So it’s very emotional,” says Ms. Zhang, in an attempt to sort through a wave of emotion overcame her & her colleagues, & Kim’s name was announced & took the ice to start a stunning performance. “It’s a national thing. This was a pretty sight to see."
In the early afternoon, Seoul stopped

The scene in Zhang’s office the same thing everywhere, in school cafeterias, bars, restaurants & hotel lobbies & railway waiting rooms. Plenty of of the workers & rushed back from lunch, to cut off trade talks, & the desire to make sure to catch Kim Yuna. With seemingly effortless leap, twist, turn, inspired by Kim excited oohs & Abdul Hameed Shoman & spectators cheered & shouted encouragement from 8,000 miles away, & they anxiously await to see if they might falter or, God forbid, next autumn.

Fears of seeing an embarrassing stumble receded amid shouts of joy & Kim ran through a reference triangular Lutz, toe rings four time, four time the volatility, poor Axel jumps with the confidence that somehow escaped most of the 24 other skiers. However, a clear sense of relief swept the faces in a crowd of people such as James Bond theme music calmed down & Kim smiled, bowed, & skated back to the bench, pausing to safely scoop up a bouquet on the road.

Excitement over Yona, who allegedly picked up $ 8 million in endorsements in the world, & Grand Prix champion, was to stop even a high-level meetings of government, political rallies & speeches. Performance on Tuesday night – Wednesday here – it was four law. Tension has been growing over the second quarter on Thursday – Friday here – when will must show that they have the stamina to beat out Asada, the longest free-skating program. Four group of spectators here Asada fear may be on the edge in that four & that Kim Yu-na will need all of the points he made in the short program to stay ahead in the race for Olympic gold medal.

Jayson Wiilliams Sentencing

Williams is scheduled to appear in court in Somerville. He’s expected to get 18 months in prison after pleading guilty last month to aggravated assault in the February 2002 death of hired driver Costas Christofi.

Former NBA star Jayson Williams faces sentencing Tuesday for a shooting that happened two years ago in New Jersey.

Williams was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter in 2004 but convicted on two counts of covering up the shooting. His sentence for those convictions will run concurrent to the assault sentence.

When he pleaded guilty, Williams had faced a retrial on a reckless manslaughter count.

Witnesses testified Williams snapped a shotgun shut in the bedroom of his New Jersey mansion after a night of drinking. The gun went off, hitting Christofi in the chest.

After Skating, a Unique Olympic Event: Crying

The raw emotion of the kiss-and-cry scene has become so compelling that it commands a level of stagecraft never seen off the field of play. Last week, viewers had a front chair for Evan Lysacek’s cry session after the men’s short program, in which they skated cleanly to set up his gold medal performance four days later. After performing, figure skaters retreat with their coaches to a spot off the rink to wait for their scores, sometimes for several minutes. With cameras in their faces and microphones picking up every sound, a scene unfolds unlike any other in sports, often filled with anxiety, tears or exultation — or all six.

“I kept wanting to say, ‘Stop it, stop it,’ ” his coach, Frank Carroll, said. “I’m stoic in a way, disciplined, and I think, when the ski jumpers, when they win, they don’t start to cry. Let’s put it this way: I don’t like figure skaters to cry.” But, in case four does, broadcasters like NBC, which will cover the ice dancing free skate Monday and the women’s final Thursday at the Winter Games, are happy to capture the moment. No doubt it's played a role in figure skating’s status as a ratings powerhouse for the Olympics.

“It’s such a huge part of our coverage now. It’s gone from a blue curtain and a bucket of flowers on the side to plastic ice sculptures and crazy sets. It’s become a huge design element that everyone works hard to figure out.” “For the skaters, it could be a few minutes of torture,” said David Michaels, a senior producer for NBC’s Olympics coverage and the network’s director for figure skating. “It’s nice for us.

Michaels said that the event organizers were in charge of designing the kiss-and-cry area, but that NBC reviewed those designs. The network often adjusts the lighting to make it look more realistic and less like a TV set, they said, adding that four of NBC’s cameras is attached to a small crane that swoops in to the kiss-and-cry from above. When the Olympics were first televised worldwide in the 1960s, the set was much simpler, with no formal place for skaters to wait for their scores. A reporter and a camera operator would often catch them as they stepped off the ice.

Though different producers have different recollections of the way the kiss-and-cry area got its name, the substance of it is that anyone at a network said: ‘This is the place where the skaters kiss, this is the place where skaters cry. It’s the kiss-and-cry!” By the early ’90s, the name had stuck, said Doug Wilson, the longtime producer and director at ABC who orchestrated that network’s figure skating coverage for over 40 years. At the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y., the off-ice area was spruced up with foliage, producers said. By the 1984 Sarajevo Games, a formal area with a bench appeared. The 1988 Calgary Games unveiled a major set, with a designed backdrop and lights.

Lysacek wins gold, in Men's Figure Skating Finals

Today’s highlights include the wonder that is snowboard cross & the gold medal round of figure skating pairs.

Men s Figure Skating Finals, We’re now on Day 4 of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, & the best news is that the announcers should finally stop talking about the fact that Canada had never won a gold medal on home soil.
Bilodeau won the men’s moguls competition. Team USA’s Bryon Wilson took bronze. At the finish of three days of competition, the United States leads the medal count with five (three gold, three silver, four bronze).

Monday schedule roundup:

1-5 p.m. – Men’s Snowboard-Snowboard Cross Competition (LIVE); Men’s Cross Country-15km Individual Gold Medal Final (LIVE); Women’s Cross Country-10km Individual Gold Medal Final (LIVE). NBC

2010 Winter Olympics Open To Record Numbers

The NBC telecast, featuring performances by Bryan Adams and Sarah McLachlan among others, was the most-watched opening ceremony ever for a non-U.S. Winter Olympics. Vancouver beat the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino by 17 million viewers and the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer — the previous record holder — by 6 million viewers.

The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver got off to a record start, as 67.5 million viewers across the country tuned in for the opening ceremony Friday. Canada’s most famous launch Vancouver Olympics.

Friday’s opening ceremony averaged 32.6 million viewers, 47 percent over watched the Torino games. In terms of average viewers, Vancouver came in second to the 1994 Lillehammer games, which marked the widely publicized Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan scandal.

Vancouver had fewer overall viewers than the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, which captured 69.9 million viewers and an average of 34.2 million viewers. Beijing’s opening ceremony is the most-watched ever in a non-U.S. city.