There is an Austrian resurgence in this Winter Games. Only a day ago, Dorfmeister nabbed the Gold for Alpine Downhill Skiing, an event that last saw an Austrian Gold Medalist back in 1980.

Linger brothers jubilant after the victory (Source: NBC)

Andreas and Wolfgang Linger clinched the Gold in an impressive 1 minute 34.497 seconds. They are followed by the German duo of Andre Florschuetz and Torsten Wustlich (1 minute 34.807 seconds).

The American pair of Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin were not so fortunate. Both wipeout in the first run of the same event and were disqualified. Thankfully, they didn’t suffer any injuries, unlike what happened to Woman Luger Samantha Retrosi two days earlier.

Grimmette and Martin wipeout at the Luge Double event (Source: NBC)

The luge event is now complete. Next up is the Women’s Single Skeleton event.

Read: Austrian brothers claim doubles gold

Read: Americans Grimmette and Martin crash out of doubles

Post from: EveryJoe

Linger Brothers (AUT) win Gold!

… We are opening the site up as a true community endeavor.
… We have invited a variety of other networks to participate as well.

So if you want to write about the games, please feel free to register at the site and we’ll get you all setup. Don’t forget to put in your country (”Extended Profile” under “Users”) and a link to your site (as it will go in every post you write).

So .. Pick a sporting event .. SIGN UP … and start blogging!!

All times are local Torino time (subtract 6 hrs for ET)

Curling
* 09:00 – Men – Canada vs Great Britain
* 09:00 – Men – Finland vs New Zealand
* 09:00 – Men – Sweden vs Norway
* 14:00 – Women – Sweden vs Great Britain
* 14:00 – Women – Italy vs Russian Federation
* 14:00 – Women – Japan vs Norway
* 14:00 – Women – Denmark vs United Sates
* 19:00 – Men – United States vs Italy
* 19:00 – Men – Great Britain vs Norway
* 19:00 – Men – Canada vs Switzerland
* 19:00 – Men – Germany vs Finland

Nordic Combined
* 10:30 List – First Round – LH Team
* 11:35 List – Final Round – LH Team
* 15:00 Team 4×5 km

Ice Hockey (Men’s Preliminary Rounds)
* 11:35 Kazakhstan vs Sweden
* 13:05 Italy vs Canada
* 15:35 Switzerland vs Finland
* 17:05 Germany vs Czech Republic
* 20:05 Russian Federation vs Slovakia
* 21:05 Latvia vs United States

Alpine Skiing
* 12:00 List – Ladies Downhill

Freestyle Skiing
*14:00 List Men’s Moguls Qualification
* 17:30 Men’s Moguls Finals

Luge
* 16:00 List – Doubles’ Run 1
* 17:20 Doubles’ Run 2

Speed Skating
* 17:00 List – Ladies Team Pursuit Preliminaries
* 17:31 List Men’s Team Pursuit Preliminaries
* 18:21 Ladies Team Pursuit QuarterFinals
* 18:52 Men’s Team Pursuit QuarterFinals

Short Track Skating
* 19:30 List Ladies 500m Quarterfinal 1
* 19:33 List Ladies 500m Quarterfinal 2
* 19:36 List Ladies 500m Quarterfinals 3
* 19:39 List Ladies 500m Quarterfinals 4
* 19:57 List Men’s 1000m Heat 1
* 20:01 List Men’s 1000m Heat 2
* 20:05 List Men’s 1000m Heat 3
* 20:09 List Men’s 1000m Heat 4
* 20:13 List Men’s 1000m Heat 5
* 20:17 List Men’s 1000m Heat 6
* 20:21 List Men’s 1000m Heat 7
* 20:44 Ladies 500m Semifinal 1
* 20:47 Ladies 500m Semifinal 2
* 21:05 List Men’s 5000m Relay Semifinal 1
* 21:14 List Men’s 5000m Relay Semifinal 2
* 21:38 Ladies 500m Final B
* 21:41 Ladies 500m Final A

Post from: EveryJoe

Busy Day Today – February 15, 2006

The German Women’s Team has been so dominant that the only time it didn’t win was back at the 1997 World Cup Luge event. Andrea Tagwerker of Austria won that event.

The Flying Frauleins (Source: NBC)

The Flying Frauleins are Sylke Otto (Gold Medalist), Silke Kraushaar (Silver Medalist), and Tatjana Huefner (Bronze Medalist).

Otto is the second woman luger to win consecutive Gold Medals for her country, the other is Steffi Martin-Walter.

American Courtney Zablocki manage a respectable fourth place finish in the company of such powerful lugers.

Otto finished in 3 minutes 7.979 seconds, while Kraushaar and Huefner were respectively 0.136 and 0.481 seconds behind.

Post from: EveryJoe

The Flying Frauleins Dominate Women’s Luge Event

Two thirds of the way into her second run, Samantha Retrosi bumped into a wall on the straightaway, lost control, and smashed into the high side of the track. She laid on the track motionless as the medical team tended to her.

Retrosi bumped into a wall on the straightaway (Source: NBC)

Retrosi ricocheted off the left wall onto the right side of the course (Source: NBC)

Retrosi losing control (Source: NBC)

Later reports indicate that Retrosi suffered a concussion and laceration on her chin, but is otherwise O.K.

German Luger Silke Kraushaar remarked before the competition that, “the track is unbelievably fast…it’s very important that you get the curves right.”

Concerned fans (Source: NBC)

This is the second U.S. ‘CASULATY‘ in what would be remembered as the darkest day in American Winter Olympic History.

Again, to the injured athletes, our thoughts are with you and your family. Let’s all pray for their speedy recovery!

Post from: EveryJoe

Another accident…

25 Medals for Canada? Where are we going to get 25 medals?

I should say that in my general community of friends and online contacts, sure – we are proud of ALL our Canadian Athletes (maybe a little more with the 5 Winnipeggers in Torino) and we are quite happy if they just perform to the best of their abilities to what they can! But, yah ~ there’s a side of us that also want’s them to Kick Butt! ;-) …

I was looking around at the CBC olympic site to see what events Canada is predicted to bring in medals .. The medal predictions kind of stopped in the events starting with “S” .. so, I had to combine the mostly CBC predictions with a little Sports Illustrated predictions for Canada ..

Before trying to compare these predictions to how our athletes have been competing in the events, here follows a “rough” estimate of the medals predicted to be had by Canada .. Maybe at the end of the Olympics I will come back and compare these to “reality”!

Alpine Skiing – Women’s Giant Slalom – Bronze
Alpine Skiing – Men’s Super-G – Bronze

Biathlon – None

Bobsleigh – Men’s Two-Man – Gold
Bobsleigh – Women’s Two-Man – Bronze

Cross Country Skiing – Women’s 10km – Bronze
Cross Country Skiing – Women’s Pursuit – Silver
Cross Country Skiing – Women’s Team Spirit – Solver
Cross Country Skiing – Women’s Sprint – Gold

Curling – Men’s – Gold
Curling – Women’s – Gold

Figure Skating – Men’s – Bronze

Freestyle Skiing – Men’s Aerials – Gold
Freestyle Skiing – Men’s Aerials – Silver
Freestyle Skiing – Men’s Moguls – Bronze
Freeystyle Skiing – Women’s Moguls – Silver

Ice Hockey – Men’s – Gold
Ice Hockey – Women’s – Gold

Luge – nothing

Nordic Combined – nothing

Short Track – Women’s 3000m Relay – Gold
Short Track – Men’s 5000m Relay – Silver
Short Track – Men’s 500m – Silver

Skeleton – Men’s – Gold
Skeleton – Men’s – Bronze
Skeleton – Women’s – Silver

Ski Jumping – nothing

Snowboard – Men’s Parallel Giant Slalom – Silver
Snowboard – Men’s Snowboardcross – Silver
Snowboard – Women’s Snowboardcross – Bronze

Speedskating – Men’s 500m – Gold
Speedskating – Women’s 1500m – Silver
Speedskating – Women’s 3000m – Bronze
Speedskating – Women’s Team Pursuit – Silver

Okay then! According to the above, that looks like 30 medals to me … did I count correctly?
Gold – 10
Silver – 11
Bronze – 9

What do you think of these predictions?

Go Canada Go!

What are the predictions for your country?

Feel free to link them in the comments below!

Post from: EveryJoe

Canada’s Olympic Medal Quest

Zoeggeler’s victory brings home Italy’s first Gold Medal.

Zoeggeler zoommed past spectators to take home the Gold
(Source: International Olympic Committee)

Zoeggeler, a winner of many World Championships, has never won an Olympic Gold since his debut at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics.

The Americans went home empty handed again despite sending many world-class lugers to the Olympics.

Don’t know what luge is? Read all about it on the NBC Web Site. Also, don’t forget to take an exciting video tour down the $93 million Olympic luge course (4708 ft long) featuring 19 turns. The luge course is the same one used for the Bobsleding and Skeleton events.

The Luge Video Tour at the NBC Web Site (Source: NBC)

Post from: EveryJoe

Armin Zoeggeler (ITA) ZOOMS to Victory!