The United States remains tied for the most medals in the medal count at the Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The Netherlands has 20, as does the U.S., both with the same amount of gold medals, but the Netherlands has 6 silver medals, while the U.S. has only 4. Russia is 3rd with 19 medals.
David Wise won the gold medal in the Olympic debut of halfpipe skiing Tuesday, cutting through heavy snow to easily outclass the field. The 23-year old American scored a 92 on his first run through the halfpipe clogged by wet, soggy rain and snow all night. Mike Riddle of Canada took silver with a 90.6 and Kevin Rolland of France won bronze. Wise came into the Sochi Olympics with three straight Winter X Games titles to his credit. Variable conditions have played a part in many of the action-sport events. A week earlier, Shaun White had trouble on the same halfpipe and finished fourth. Not so for Wise, whose first-run score held up as the snow got heavier.
In the men’s Snowboard Cross event, Pierre Vaultier stood atop the podium, feeling no pain from a knee held together by little more than a brace and cheek-biting grit. Nikolay Olyunin, the 22-year old underdog standing to his right, was quite content after giving the host country a good glimpse of his profession. To their left, bronze medalist Alex Deibold was soaking up the attention of the U.S. team. Behind them all, the favorites were washed away by bad luck, bad decisions, or both, on a course that deteriorated into a slushy, soggy snowball. Gold-medal favorite Nate Holland of the U.S. didn’t make it out of the opening round of elimination after mistiming a jump. Taylor Jacob, the youngest and perhaps most naturally gifted rider on the U.S. team, saw his spot in the finals taken by Deibold, who edged Jacob aside at the finish after both spectacularly slid across the line on their backs. The event was pushed back from Monday to Tuesday due to heavy fog. Conditions weren’t much better 24 hours later as the drizzle slowed the 750-meter track, making passing difficult and put the ability to get out of the gates quickly at a premium.
Men’s hockey is in the playoff round and the big matchup is anticipated, should the 2 big teams make it through. The U.S. and Canada have chosen to sit the goaltenders that played in the 2010 gold-medal game at the Vancouver Olympics. The Americans plan to start Jonathan Quick, not Ryan Miller in the quarterfinals today, as they play the Czech Republic. The Canadians are going with Carey Price, not Roberto Luongo, when they’re among the final eight teams in the 12-team tournament. They will face Latvia. Quick started two games in the preliminary round, including the 3 to 2 shootout win over the host Russians. Price was also in net for two of Canada’s first three games. Luongo helped Canada beat Miller and the U.S. at the Vancouver Games in overtime.
Lauryn Williams and Lolo Jones have become the 9th and 10th Americans to compete in different sports at the Summer and Winter Olympics. Both women raced for the U.S. in the women’s bobsled event that started Tuesday. Williams won a silver medal in the 100-meter dash at Athens in 2004, was fourth in that race at Beijing in 2008 and helped the U.S. win a gold medal in the 4×100-meter relay at London in 2012. Jones competed in the 100-meter hurdles at Beijing and London.