final sochi blog24-2-2014

This is my final blog of Sochi 2014s Winter Olympics

In my opinion the team to the winter Olympics are Russia for getting the Olympics to go ahead

The nation of the Olympics is Russia after getting the most medals at the games

The team performance has to go to Norway for their 1,2,3 in the biathlon

 

The sport of the winter Olympics has to be ski cross the sport itself looks absolutely brilliant and anything can happen from mistakes on corners to really close finishes

The performance of the games has to go to the Canadian ice hockey team after being 2-0 they won the match 3-2 in over time beating USA 3-2 in the women’s final

 

Canadians Justine and Chloe Dufour Lapointe win the family award after winning gold and silver in the moguls

 

Skeleton Bob racer Lizzy Yarnald who won gold for Great Britain after having to train in half conditions in Britain and having to countries like Norway to train and the fact she comes from this part of the world

 

 

 

21-2-14 my sochi blog

This is my review of day 14

 

In the ladies ski cross it was a Canadian 1, 2 as Marielle Thomson won gold followed closely behind by Kelsey Serwa who got silver and any one of them could have won this race until the final jump. Anna Holmlund of Sweden got the bronze. Legend of the sport Ophelie David  seemed to be to aggressive as she seemed to want gold rather than accept bronze as she took a bad landing and finished fourth.

Personally I love this sport as there are so many bumps and jumps and you do not know what is going to happen next

 

Sweden got the bronze medal in a very tight curling match were every end was a 1 except for 1 for china and it all went down to an extra end which the Swedes won and a final stone where China did not get the curl that they expected and it just went past nudging the Swedish stone and went out of the house in the previous shot they did nudge it and in the final shot they also did. The Chinese must be so disappointed

Canada defeated a very poor Great Britain9-3 in the gold medal match. During the match none of their shots seemed to go correctly and a lot of Canada’s were. At the early point of the match Canada gained a 3 and Britain gained a one more and more and more Canada were gaining 2s and Britain were loosing 1s. Dave Murdoch was not having the performances that he has had in earlier matches. Do not forget that Britain still receive silver.

I think that anyone young or old can get into curling and if you want to take something from the Olympics this is a sport you can look at but may have to go to Scotland

 

In the second period Finland took the lead in this ice hockey semi final. Sweden got an equaliser soon after and scored a second before the end of the second period. The first and third periods were blank outs final sore Sweden 2 Finland 1

To find the best of ice hockey you will have to go to the USA or Canada as this is where all the good players are

In the Biathlon women’s 4 by 6km relay Ukraine won and were bouncing at the end of the race next came the Russian Federation who got silver and Norway who got the bronze medal. The Russian crowd were excited after receiving a silver medal

I think that this one of the most difficult sports to do mainly as you have to control your heart rate. Being hard when you run but slow it down to concentrate on your shooting  

20-2-14 my Sochi todays stories

 

In the ski cross it was a French gold, silver, bronze as Jean Frederic Chapuis won gold in silver was Arnaud Bovolenta and the bronze went to Jonathan Midol the only non Frenchman in the final Bradly Leman of Canada crashed out as he hit the snow hard after landing from a jump

I think that this is one of the best sports to watch as it one of the fastest and most aggressive and there are a lot of bumps and jumps where anything can happen and I do think that this type of idea could work very well on uk tv on a regular basis if look at and developed

 

 

 

 

Great Britain hit a pin perfect final stone to get bronze in the women’s curling. In the first half you never would have thought that they would have had this advantage as the Swiss seemed to dominate. In the second half however Britain got a double to level and the got a zero which meant that they would get the hammer in the final end and the Swiss did not decide to blank which meant that Britain had control. The Swiss did have the advantage going into that final shot Eve went to the centre to get the point

 

 

Canada beat Sweden by 6 points to 3 and it was all on one bad shot by the Sweds in the 9th end during the match up until this point you would not be sure who would win as Canada were never more than one point away from Sweden and when they hit that shot it put them 3 down at the final end Sweden could not do what was needed and get that big 3 point play.  

I feel that this is a certain sport for people who enjoy watching a tactical game like soccer and you can do a lot with it. I do wonder why they do not always play to the centre as soon as possible and try to force the mistakes

In the men’s Nordic combined skiing team large hill it was a very tight finish between Norway who took  Germany on the line to beat them for the gold medal Germany will be disappointed to receive silver and  Austria were a few seconds for the bronze medal   

I am not that pushed on this sport usually but this race was very exciting

In the women’s ice hockey Switzerland pulled off a major upset beating Sweden 4-3 but Sweden would always ask themselves the question what if we had a goalkeeper in our net 5 minutes to go and 3-2 down as that was when Switzerland scored the fourth goal which won it as there was no goal tender in the goal

sochi 19-02-2014 my day 12 review

Alena Zevazena of Russia won bronze in the parallel giant slalom in the big final Patrissia Kummer of Switzerland took the gold after beating Takeuci of Japan who got the silver medal

Zan Kosir won the bronze medal in the men’s version of the same event Vic Wild who won the big final and the crowd went a bit wild as he came from Russias  Neven Galmarini of Switzerland

This is a sport that would make me ask how you know you are good at it. In the big race though the second race it is brilliant to watch

 

In cross country skiing Norway won gold in the ladies team sprint (classic) followed by Finland in silver and Sweden in bronze medal position

 

In the men’s final Finland won gold followed by Russia in silver and Sweden in bronze

Cross country skiing is only for a certain type of person and not everybody can do it

 

Canada outplayed Britain in the early stages of this curling semi final. Britain were always within one but never seemed to be able to get level with the Canadians and Eve Murhead did hit a big shot with her semi final stone but the Canadian skip Jenny Jones hit the big shot needed to win it

In my opinion Britain were poor in this match as they knew what was needed for a log time. You can not blame luck on this as they knew they needed a big shot from the start

Ted Ligety of the USA won gold at the Giant slalom followed by Steve Missillier of France and in third place was Alixis Pinurault also from France

I really enjoyed watching this and wonder how you can teach someone to learn how to do a corner

 

In the ladies 5000 metres speed skating Martina Sablikova from Czech Republic won the gold the silver went to The Netherlands Ireen Wust and the bronze going to Carien Kleibeuker also from the Netherlands

 

In the biathlon mixed relay   Norway win the gold followed by the Czech Republic who got silver  and Italy who got bronze. Jon Dalin has won his 13th medal and 8th gold making him the most decorated winter Olympian of all time

I would wonder how in the modern area of everybody having perfection how you can get so many medals there are some people who make me ask that question. If you grew up competing in the 80s or 90s I would understand but nowadays with everybody having their diets set up so perfectly. It seems to just help your older athletes

 

day 11 18-02-14 todays story

This is my report of day 11

 

 

There was some interesting weather in the Ladies giant slalom today as there was snow mist and rain on the course today as Tina Maze of Germany got the gold after being the best in her 2 runs. In the silver position was Anna Fenniger of Austria and the bronze medal went to Viktoria Rebensberg of Germany  

Florence Bell of Ireland finished in an impressive 24^th position and will be running with a lot of confidence in the Slalom on Saturday

In my opinion there are not many people who could do that course in that weather but I am very happy that they gave it a try and the way that the weather was going you would think that the earlier you would start the more chance you would have to win

 

In the ladies 3000 metre speed skating relay  Korea mad a big mistake a and should have dropped from gold to silver as  one of there legs went too far out when passing the baton as it dropped them position a position that Canada now receive in the bronze position was Italy. China has been penalised dropping them from second to fourth  

This was a race that was meant to start on Sunday and then yesterday and in my opinion the organisers should have had an alternate idea in case the weather stayed the way that it did

 

Anyway Norway got a medal that they desperately needed and it was a gold from Emil Hegle Svendsen in silver was Martin Fourcade who lost it on the line as he was caught up with and lost it by a few milliseconds the bronze medal went to  Ondrej Moravec from Czech Republic

In the individual large hill 10km both the gold and silver medals went to Norway as Joergen Graabak won gold closely followed by Magnus H Moan. German Fabian  Rissle got the bronze medal

Me as a person am a little bit confused as these 2 disciplines of ski jumping and cross country skiing could not be so far apart  but they do run as one disapline and I would wondewr what type of person thought of putting the 2 sports together and make one event.  This is the way it is so I can not change it

 

David Murdough hit the final shot in the final end of a playoff so that Britain would win the playoff. His stone which hit another and another  and it gave them the 2 that they needed and the Brits were all excited that they had won the curling match. Now they are in the semi against Sweden

 

H Moan and the bronze medal went to H

17-2-14 sochi my day 10 review

Sorry I did not review the Winter Olympics during the weekend but here is my review of day 10. There has been a bit of fog today so there might not be as much info

In the ladies snowboard cross young wonder kid Eva Samkova of the Czech Republic won gold followed by Domnique Maltasis of Canada who won silver and the bronze medal went to Chloe Treseuch of Frace won the bronze medal.
 Eva Samkova looks like she will be a star of this sport

 

In the mens super-G  Kjetil Jansrud of Norway won the gold medal in silver position was Andrew Wiebrecht of the USA and the bronze went to Jan Hudec of Canada but you have to have sympathy for Bode Miller who was leading and led for a good part of the runs before the others took him over but he also got a bronze medal so I am sure he is not too disappointed  
 

In the women’s ice hockey semi finals the USA cruised into the gold medal match as they beat Sweden 6-1. Why I used the word cruised is because they won the first period by 3-0 and Sweden had very few shots on target and the second by 2-0 making the score 5-0. In the 3^rd period Sweden got back into the game and began to take control as they scored a goal but the US killed of any hope by getting a 6^th goal close to the end. Sweden is a lot better than this and I hope they fix their problems before the bronze medal match.  

In my opinion the USA look ready for anyone and can beat anyone on their first period but as the game went on I became less sure

 

In the women's 12.5 km mass start Darya Domacheva from Belarus won the gold medal followed by Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic in silver position and in bronze medal position was Tiril Eckhoff of Norway got bronze
This was definitely the most exciting biathlon that I have seen during the games especially the race for the bronze medal

barrys blog sochi 14-02-14 day 7 teview

 

Last night in the ice team relay Germany looked like they knew they had won gold after doing their run and it ended up like that. There was a very happy home crowd as Russia took silver and Latvia took the bronze there was more than a second between first and second place.

I think it takes a lot of adrenaline to do something like this especially with the speed they go at and as well having to sit up and hit a target so your team mate can start a problem is that a start or bad corner can still be the difference you wonder how painful they are

 

In the men’s cross country skiing  1500 km classic today  Dario Cologna of Switzerland won the gold medal in silver position was Johan Olsson of Sweden and the bronze went to Daniel Richardsson of Sweden also winning the bronze medal

 

Jan Rossiter of Ireland finished in a disappointing 82^nd position in the cross country skiing

30 second intervals does confuse me as I do not know for certain who is winning the race and stops any form of excitement if it is close but there legs must burn when the race is over

 

Sandro Viletta of Switzerland won the gold medal in the mens super comined followed by Ivica Kostelic of Croatia and Christof Innerhofer from Italy who received the bronze

A few of these medals were surprises as the big downhillers could not do what they had wanted as the track was turning more and more like slush. You could see this from the mistakes that some were doing as they could not complete the course and the face that Bode Miller could only finish 6 the later you went definitely the more of a disadvantage you had

Sean greenwoods chances for gold in the skeleton look very slim as he is sitting in 27 th place after 2 runs I would be betting on a miracle here.

 

In the women’s 15km individual Darya Domracheva of Belarus won the race and had 1, 1 minute penalty to her name in silver position was Selina Gaspirin from Switzerland won silver and Nadezhda Skardino both second and third had no penalties to their names   

13-2-14 sochi day 6 review

Day 6 my review

I feel that the tricks that can be done in the final of the slope style are very impressive and you can judge how and where to land as a feel after doing a 1280 degree spins. It must take a lot of practice

In the slope style this morning it was a USA 1,2,3 as Joss Christensen got the gold medal followed in silver medal position by Gus Kenworthy and in third place was Nickolas Goepper the best of the non US was Andreas Haatvit of Norway and you have to have some symphony for James Woods who had to do qualification and finals on a hip injury and came 5^th to me that is incredible

 

In the ladies cross country skiing  10km classic Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland got the gold in silver was Charlotte Kella of Sweden and the bronze Therese Johaug of Norway. This is a sport this is not my cup of tea as it is takes too long and runs too slowly and for the most part they concentrate on one athlete

In the ladies 500 metres speed slating it started with a false start from Li but Li Jinrou did get the gold medal Arinna Fontana of Italy got silver and Park Si HI got the bronze. But you have to have sympathy for Elise Christie who took on the race and took 2 people down before finishing second in the race but that was overturned and she finished fourth.

 

In the men’s 1000 metres Dutchman Stefan Grothuis won the gold silver went to Canadian Denny Morrison and the bronze to Michael Moulder

 

In the ladies 1000 metre speed skating Zhang Hong got gold Dutchwoman Irene Wust got the silver and also a Dutchwoman Margot Boer got the bronze

 

In the biathlon men's 20 km Michael Fourcade of France won the gold sliver going to Eric Lesser who in my opinion had a real chance to win but lost it on the downhill part of the track  of Germany and the bronze to Russias E garanichev  

 

12-2-14 my sochi blog

This is my report of day 5

Seamus O Connor finished in 17^th position and could not reach the final of the snowboarding yesterday. Representing Ireland I thought when he reached the semis he could get his act together and reach the finals. In the finals major favourite Shawn White did not get a medal

Taku Hirano of Japan bronze silver to Ayumu Hirano of Japan and gold to Juri Podlatchikov of Russia

A big surprise for me was when I watched the ski jumping as I had watched it before and it had not interested me as a sport especially what I had watched. But I don’t know if it was the fact it was the Olympic final or commentary helping me to understand and enjoy it a lot more than what I would have thought I would have

Also last night Carina Vogt of Germany won the gold in the ladies normal hill followed by Daanella Iraschko-Stolz of Austria got the silver and Coline Mattel of France got the bronze medal  

I was not that excited by this as It seemed to feel like as there was not too much excitement to it

 

The first medals of today came in the Nordic combined a combination of ski jump and a 10 km run where German Eric Frenzel got the gold medal silver went to Atiko Watabe of Japan and the bronze medal went to Evqeniy Klimov of Russia

You need to have understand to get this sport but close to the end it was exciting as about 6 or 7 racers were racing together and anyone could win the race the big advantage that one jumper had did not stand up in the race

 

There was no medal for Charlie Davis as he has already defended his gold medal and going for 3 in a row. Stefan Groothuais from the Netherlands  won the gold medal in men's 1000 metre speed skiing second place went to Canada's Denny Morrison and the bronze to Dutchman Michel Mulder

The Luge doubles which I think is very fast was won today be Germans Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt of Germany. Silver to Anderas Ligner and Wolfgang Ligner of Austria and bronze to Andris Sisc and Jurgis Sisc

 

 

sochi 11-2-2014

This is my review of day 4

Yuti Kerisuba had a bad injury as she was running through at a slow pace and hit the knuckle and fell down the hill and we all hope that she is ok as how she hit the knuckle (top of the hill) it looked like it hurt and the medics have to come out to see if she is ok

In the ladies ski slope style Dara Howell of Canada put in a quality first run to win gold Devan Logan of the USA also put in a quality first run to get silver and Kim Lamarre of Canada put in a quality second run to get 3^rd but you have to have sympathy for Anna Segul of Australia as for most of the runs she was sitting in 3^rd position and now she is fourth and no medal for her. According to our commentary team Kate Summerhayes of GB had a medal but she finished in 7^th position

I quite like watching the half pipe as I think that it looks very cool as a sport as accidents happen and with the heat of the half pipe it makes the game more level and anything can happen and I like it as there are so many tricks that can be done

 

Seamus O Connor managed to qualify for the half pipe semi final and gives himself a chance of winning a medal after finishing in 8^th position

I quite liked watching the cross country free style as for one thing you got a race and you did not have to figure it out. I was surprised how fast that they went and that men’s run made me very excited for was or was not to come as I thought with accidents like this anything could happen. I had never seen this before and thought that it would run like the cross countries we did at school with big hills and so on  

 

In the cross country skiing Ladies sprint final free Maiken Caspersen Falla of Norway got the gold Ingvild Fugstad Oestberg got silver also from Norway and Vesna Fabjan of Slovenia got the bronze

In the men’s you could not believe the crash that took out three of the six racers that stopped the chances of all of them winning the medals it was very unlucky but no one was hurt and because of that Emil Joenson was able to get a surprise bronze

The winner of the race was Ola Vigen Hattestad of Norway and silver went to Todor Peetrerson of Sweden   

 

In the biathlon women's pursuit 10km Dianna Domracheva of Belarus won the gold silver going to Tora Berger of Norway and the bronze to Teja Gregorin of Slovakia

 

In the women's 500metre speed skating Lee Sang of Korea got the gold followed by Olga Fatulina of Russia got the silver and Zhang Hong of china got the bronze