Banks' Winter Olympics Blog: Friday February 21st
There we are. Padded our lead a bit with a gold and silver on Thursday. This medal lead is ours to keep. Time to focus our attention on catching Norway’s 10 golds. USA can go a long way to making that a reality today.
The USA’s gold was won by Maddie Bowman in the first ever women’s ski halfpipe. After David Wise won the men’s on Wednesday, it’s safe to say we dominate ski halfpipe.
What can I say about yesterday’s silver medal that hasn’t been said already? The one time women’s hockey gets the spotlight, the officials steal it away. Whatever, I’m over it. Bigger fish to fry. Chin up ladies, the world knows who the better hockey team was.
Ski cross was just as thrilling as snowboardcross. I can’t stress it enough. Slaloms and super G’s and all these alpine skiing events are for the birds. Racers going one at a time and using a clock to determine the winner doesn’t put asses in seats. Give me a group of riders at the top of the hill and first to the bottom wins. I’m watching that 100 times out of a 100. So much gamesmanship. Here’s a great finish in a qualifying round.
Top two finishers advanced to the next round, which made this photo finish so dramatic.
Thursday’s MVP.
Absolutely diabolical stache on this Slovakian
Maybe I’m not as over it as I thought. Fuck off Rob.
Today we’re all watching the battle for North America. I’ll get to that in a sec. What you might not know is that we’re in for a 1st intermission treat at 12:47 ET….
500m SHORT-TRACK SPEEDSKATING. This here is an event I’ve been waiting weeks for. It’s pure pandemonium. Of all the wipeouts and crashes that the Winter Olympics has given us, short-track speedskating wipeouts take the cake in my eyes. Those doomed looks on the skaters’ faces as they glide helplessly into the wall kill me. Anything can happen. Check out Australian Steven Bradbury stealing gold at the Games in ’02.
Alright, USA- Canada time. Been looking forward to noon today since the minute the bracket came out. As if we weren’t out for vengeance from Vancouver, this women’s hockey bullshit has fueled our fire further. If those slimy canucks can’t handle a bunch of mediocre Latvians, how can they expect to stop the Stars and Stripes? They won’t. 3-1 USA. Book it. LET’S GO.
Here’s a little treat for ya. John Carlson sinking Canada in the 2010 World Juniors with a Golden goal.
Today’s Smokes: A medley of our USA Women’s hockey team. Plenty to be proud of on and off the ice.