Every afternoon, Olympic enthusiast Drew Berner tracks the talking points from the the day’s competitions. Here’s our recap of day nine at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
Sochi’s Super-G Double Bronze Includes Canada
It only took two decades, a lucky loonie buried at the finish line, and a third-place tie for a Canadian man to climb the podium in an Olympic alpine skiing event. Jan Hudec of Calgary raced to the exact same time as American Bode Miller in men’s Super-G, finally erasing the disappointments of the past 20 years. Ties happen occasionally in the Winter Olympics, but it’s the first time there’s ever been two ties for medals in the same Games—Tina Maze and Dominique Gisin tied for the gold medal in women’s downhill just a few days ago.
Dominique Maltais is Canada’s Silver Snowboarder
Maelle Ricker missed her chance at a gold medal defense in women’s snowboard cross, but Dominique Maltais gave Canada the next best thing with a no-doubt-about-it silver medal run Sunday. Czech gold medalist Eva Samkova led wire-to-wire while Maltais fought her way through the pack—Maltais never had the speed to catch Samkova, but put plenty of distance between herself and France’s bronze rider, Chloe Trespeuch. Maltais previously won bronze in the 2006 Games, but crashed out early in Vancouver—Sochi offered a chance at redemption in what she announced was her “last one.”
The Best Offence Is a Good Defense
Finland was bound to be Canada’s strongest competition in the men’s hockey round robin, but in a physical, tight-checking match it was surprising how well the Finns matched up. Once again, Canada’s offence started with its defense, as Drew Doughty scored both Canadian goals—the second in overtime to secure the win—bringing his total to four and putting him among the scoring leaders. Canada’s forwards continued to have trouble finding their rhythm together, but the team’s defense looked stifling against one of the Olympics’ better teams.
Matchups are now set for the elimination rounds, with Canada finishing third overall and looking to face the winner of Switzerland vs. Latvia, which goes Tuesday.
Surprise! Don Cherry Still Hates Russians
Xenophobic octogenarian Don Cherry was up to his old tricks Saturday in an interview with CBCs Jian Ghomeshi. During the 10-minute chat Ghomeshi did his best to push Cherry to answer for decades of slagging Russian players, while Cherry, to his credit, didn’t back down much. He admitted that his view of Russia as a Cold War-era dystopian hellscape wasn’t entirely accurate, and was gracious enough to conclude that not all Russians lack character, saying, “I have changed on the people. I don’t know about the players”—as if players aren’t people. He reminisced about having to “straighten out” Russian star Alex Ovechkin, who was too exuberant for Cherry’s tastes when he broke into the league, then dusted off the classic “foreigners are coming to our country and stealing our jobs” complaint in assessing Russian players in Canadian junior hockey. It was like listening to your culturally ignorant grandfather wax poetic about how life was better 50 years ago, when men were men and it was OK to insult people if they were different than you. Why do we keep giving this guy a microphone?
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