Every afternoon, Olympic enthusiast Drew Berner tracks the talking points from the the day’s competitions. Here’s our recap of day eleven at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
Women’s Short Track Relay Redemption
Canada’s short track speed skaters have literally fallen—repeatedly—on hard times at Sochi, but the women’s relay team posted a podium performance to salvage some of the talented group’s promise. For once a fall helped Canada, taking Italy out of contention, but Canada’s third-place finish became a silver medal as the first-place Chinese team were disqualified for lingering too long on the track after their relay exchanges. South Korea won the gold medal while Italy took bronze by default, being the only other team on the track not disqualified.
Riddle Solves Ski Halfpipe
The inaugural Olympic men’s ski halfpipe was a lot more fun to watch than it was to ski, with fat snowflakes falling throughout and filling the bottom of the pipe, slowing many of the competitors down. But Canadian skier Mike Riddle solved the weather conundrum, scoring a 90.60 in his final run and earning a silver medal. American gold medalist David Wise’s 92 was the best score of the contest, outranking Canadian Justin Dorey’s 91.60 in qualification. Dorey looked poised to medal in the contest, but after his exceptional opening round he wasn’t able to put anything together and finished dead last in the final.
The Trouble with Short Track
Charles Hamelin was all alone in first place in his 500m heat Tuesday, a position he knew well as defending Olympic champion. But then, for no clear reason, he caught an edge and fell. For the second time in four events, Canada’s great Olympic hope, the skater who could have been our country’s most decorated, hit the ice and slid into the blue cushions. This days after his brother Francois took a spill in the men’s relay and took the Canadian team out of contention. This hours after Charles’ other half, Marianne St-Gelais, crashed out of her signature event, the 500m short track. Why are our best short track competitors having such a hard time keeping their skates on the ice?
The silver lining is that two other Canadian women qualified in St-Gelais’ event—Valerie Maltais set an Olympic record and Maris-Eve Drolet finished second in her heat—while Olivier Jean and Charle Cornoyer qualified in Hamelin’s event. Still, a short track lineup that should have contended for every medal is probably just about ready to forget about Sochi.
Canadian Bobsledders in Striking Distance
One of Canada’s strongest medal hopes, its two-woman bobsled team of Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse, is exactly where they want to be. Humphries and Moyse sit second after their first two runs, just two-tenths of a second behind Team USA’s duo of Elana Meyers and Lauryn Williams—who set successive start-time records in each of their two runs. Canada’s Olympians have been on a silver streak lately, including two more on Tuesday, so here’s hoping for a couple of strong runs and a golden finish in Wednesday’s finale.
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