Two days after running a ski down to a Russia's Anton Gafarov, Canadian head coach Justin Wadsworth joked that he'll think twice about doing the same in the future after the gesture prompted a significant amount of media attention.
American Biathlete Lowell Bailey skied and shot his way to eighth place at the Olympics on Thursday, relying on the calm and poise that he had been missing earlier this week. The result was the best-ever Olympic finish in biathlon for the U.S.
Brendan Green led the Canadians in 21st with his best Olympic result on Thursday, and if he hadn't had two penalties in the 20 k individual, he would've been even closer. His teammates, Nathan Smith and JP Le Guellec placed 25th and 35th, respectively, and Tim Burke placed 44th with four penalties.
Martin Fourcade used his blazing ski speed to win his second biathlon gold of the Games. But silver medalist Erik Lesser did something more personal: he repaid his grandfather Axel, a cross-country skier, who was in second place in the 1976 Olympics before colliding with a spectator and withdrawing from the race. Evgeniy Garanichev of Russia, meanwhile, became the first athlete to win a medal on their birthday when he took bronze.
Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk was crying at the finish line of Thursday's Olympic 10 k, though it was unclear if they were tears of joy, or of pain. The 31-year-old had won a clear victory over Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla and Norway’s Therese Johaug.
Sadie Bjornsen quickly realized that today's 10 k classic wasn't going to have any easy sections, as temperatures soared into the mid-50s and the snow softened and slowed down. She thought of the Eagle glacier and pushed through to 18th - just a few seconds from the top 15. Her teammates packed in from 32nd to 35th.
As if individual starts aren't mentally hard enough, add summer-like conditions to the Winter Olympics and it gets just plain sloppy out there. Brittany Webster was the top Canadian in 42nd in Thursday's 10 k classic race, and Dasha Gaiazova followed in 44th.
Four U.S. women made the heats, Ida Sargent had one of her best freestyle sprints of the season in her first Olympic race, and Jessie Diggins tallied the second-best American result in 13th after Sophie Caldwell — who made U.S. women’s Olympic history in sixth in Tuesday’s sprint.
“It can be so many things,” Kikkan Randall's coach, Erik Flora, said in an interview after Tuesday's Olympic sprint race. “I’ll go back and review this and see—I’m sure it’ll play over and over in our heads.”
On Saturday, Marit Bjørgen and the Norwegian women wore black armbands in the Olympic skiathlon to honor teammate Astrid Jacobsen's brother, who died unexpectedly the day before. The IOC didn't like that one bit, likening it to a political statement, which is banned at the Games.
Sophie Caldwell's goal at the beginning of the season, said her father Sverre, wasn't to win the Olympics - it was to just get there. But Caldwell found herself in position to go for a medal when she made the women's sprint final in Sochi today. Felled by a ski tangle at the top of the course, Caldwell's result still topped the historic records for U.S. women's skiing.
Maiken Caspersen Falla and Ingvild Flugstad Østberg emerged with Norway's first gold and silver in the same event of the Olympics on Tuesday, topping the podium in the women's freestyle sprint. Slovenia's Vesna Fabjan captured third, and Sophie Caldwell emerged in sixth for the U.S.
Susan Dunklee was in fifth place in the 10 k biathlon pursuit the final time she skied onto the shooting range. She missed three shots and lost her chance at a medal, but with the fourth-fastest ski time of the day, she still ended up 18th. "“The cool thing is that I know I can be there on a solid day,” she said. "There are lots of races left."
Norway's Ola Vigen Hattestad stayed out of trouble to win a gold medal in the Sochi sprint, while Sweden's Emil Joensson escaped a crash to claim what may end up being this Olympics' most improbable bronze.
After ending last season early and then leaving the national team this year, Chandra Crawford has had a long journey in her quest to repeat her 2006 Olympic gold medal in the freestyle sprint. It ended after qualification today, when Crawford placed 44th. "That is so disappointing," she said. "But I’m happy with the effort."
All four U.S. women advanced to the rounds in Tuesday's Olympic 1.3 k freestyle sprint, along with Canada's Perianne Jones and Dasha Gaiazova. Andy Newell led three North American men who qualified in the 1.8 k sprint, with Alex Harvey and Simi Hamilton, respectively.
After frustrating results for Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey, “They get 12 hours to digest it,” their coach said. “Then, we go for the next one.”
After athlete complaints at last year's World Cup, Sochi organizers removed a particularly dangerous downhill from the biathlon course. But with warm conditions and deep, rutted snow, the rest of the course became treacherous today, with at least four major crashes between the 59 racers. Freezing nights are not predicted until next week, suggesting that the cross country ski courses, too, may be in for some ugly conditions.
After turning in clean shooting and the fastest shooting times on the first two stages of today's Olympic pursuit, Jean Philippe Le Guellec was in first place, ready to bring Canada a medal. But a crash on a slushy, skied-out downhill corner left him with a broken ski and cost him 15 places, as well as affecting his next shooting. In his stead, Nathan Smith moved from 13th up to 11th to lead Canada.
Martin Fourcade described the final loop of Monday’s 12.5-kilometer pursuit as “one of the worst” in his whole life. That's ironic because he won by 14 seconds to definitively capture his first Olympic gold, but it didn't come easy and there was plenty that could've gone wrong.