Day 17 - Closing Ceremony

NBC's coverage started at 7pm eastern time with Beijing gold. That lasted an hour and fifteen minutes. NBC's coverage of the closing ceremony started about 8:45pm and ended about 10:10pm. Terry Gannon, Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir co-hosted. Mike Tirico's commentary and athlete interviews led up to 10:30pm when NBC signed off. 

The closing ceremony started off children dancing with snowflakes, the theme from the opening ceremony. LED lights formed "Beijing 2022 and the Olympic Rings then the IOC President and Chinese President was introduced followed by the national anthem of China. The next segment there was Children with Lanterns and reference to the 12 Chinese Zodiac signs. A symbolic "knot" was formed to signal message of togetherness.

The parade of nations was next. Elana Meyers Taylor was the USA flagbearer for the closing ceremony. The next segment involved LED Willow Twigs. The twigs turned green signaling the transition from winter to a new spring, also a theme from the opening ceremony. Next, the national anthem of Greece was played, followed by the singing of the Olympic anthem by Chinese Children. Next, the Olympic flag was seen being carried out of the stadium.

The next segment was about the next host - Milano-Cortina, Italy 2026. Videos of cities and mountains showcase the Italian co-hosts landscape and showed the balance between mankind and nature.  IOC President Thomas Bach declared the games closed followed by the extinguishing of the Olympic flame. Fireworks showed the Olympic rings and the words "One World One Family". Andrea Joyce interviewed members of Team USA Figure Skating and then Mike Tirico's commentary about the ups and downs of the games was given in the backdrop of singing on the floor of the stadium and then continued that commentary in the NBC studios as coverage ended at 10:30pm.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Day 16 - Mid Day February 19 to Mid Day February 20 - Beijing time

American Scott Patterson finished 8th in a time of 1 hour 12 minutes and 6.6 seconds in the men's Cross Country Skiing 50KM Mass Start.

Joey Mantia of the USA (7:44.37) finished 7th in the men's Speed Skating Mass Start semifinal 2 and advanced to the final, American Ian Quinn (7:58.03) finished 13th in semifinal 1 of the men's Mass Start band did not advance to the final.

American's Mia Kilburg (8:29.93) finished 4th in semifinal 1 and Giorgia Birkeland (8:34.446) finished 6th in semifinal 2 in the women's Speed Skating Mass Start. Both Americans advanced to the final.

American Joey Mantia finished 4th (7:47.20 - 10 Sprint Points) in the men's Speed Skating Mass Start final. Mantia finished.001 out of 3rd place and a bronze medal.

Mia Kilburg (8:16.15 - 10 Sprint Points) and Giorgia Birkeland (8:18.10), both of the USA, finished 4th and 12th respectively in the women's Speed Skating Mass start final.

Alexa Knierim/Brandon Frazier (138.45 Free Skate score - 212.68 total score) and Ashley Cain Gribble/Timothy Leduc (123.92 Free Skate score - 198.05 total score), both of the USA, finished 6th and 8th respectively in the Pairs Figure Skating Free Skate.

Elana Meyers Taylor/Sylvia Hoffman (3:03.92) and Kaillie Humphries/Kaysha Love (3:05.13), both of the USA, are in 3rd and 6th place respectively after heat 3 of 2 woman Bobsleigh.

Elana Meyers Taylor/Sylvia Hoffman (4:05.48) of the USA win bronze in 2 woman Bobsleigh heat 4. Laura Nolte/Deborah Levi of Germany wins gold (4:03.96) and Mariamia Jamanka/Alexandra Burghardt of Germany (4:04.73) wins silver. Kaillie Humphries/Kaysha Love (4:07.04) of the USA finished 7th. 

The USA Alpine Skiing Mixed Parallel team of Mikaela Shiffrin, River Radamus, Paula Moltzan and Tommy Ford defeated Slovakia 3-1 in the 1/8 finals to move on to the semifinals. Shiffrin, Radamus and Moltzan won their races in the quarterfinals. In the 1/4 Finals, the USA defeated Italy 3-1 Moltzan, Ford and Radamus won their races in the 1/4 finals. The USA lost to Germany 3-1 in the 1/2 Final with only River Radamus winning his race. The USA will face Norway for the bronze medal in the Small Final. Norway and the USA tied at 2-2 with the USA winners Moltzan and Radamus but lose to Norway on a ladies fastest time tiebreak. Norway wins Bronze. Austria wins gold and Germany wins silver and the USA finished 4th.

The USA men's 4 man Bobsleigh Team of Hunter Church, Joshua Williamson, Kristopher  Horn and Charlie Volker (2:57.57) are in 11th place after heat 3.. The other USA men's 4 man Bobsleigh team of Frank Delduca, Carlo Valdes, James Reed and Hakeem Abdul-Saboor (2:58.21) are in 15th place after heat 3. Both USA Bobsleigh teams move on to heat. 4.

The USA men's 4 man Bobsleigh Team of Hunter Church, Joshua Williamson, Kristopher  Horn and Charlie Volker (3:57.06) finished in 10th place after heat 4. The other USA men's 4 man Bobsleigh team of Frank Delduca, Carlo Valdes, James Reed and Hakeem Abdul-Saboor (3:57.65) finished in 13th place after heat 4.

Jessie Diggins of the USA (1:26:37.3), wins silver in the women's Cross Country Skiing 30KM Mass Start. Therese Johaug of Norway wins gold in  1 hour 24 minutes and 54 seconds and Kerttu Niskanen of Finland wins bronze in 1 hour 27 minutes and 27.3 seconds. Rosie Brennan (1:27:32.7), Sophia Laukli (1:31:21.2) and Novie McCabe (1:31:22.5), all of the USA, finished 6th, 15th and 18th respectively in the women's 30KM Mass Start.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Final Medal Count

Norway         16 gold,   8 silver, 13 bronze - 37 total

ROC               6 gold,  12 silver, 14 bronze - 32 total

Germany       12 gold, 10 silver,   6 bronze - 27 total

Canada           4 gold,    8 silver, 14 bronze - 26 total

USA               8 gold,   10 silver,  7 bronze - 25 total

Austria           7 gold,    7 silver,   4 bronze - 18 total

Japan              3 gold,    6 silver,   9 bronze - 18 total

Sweden          8 gold,    5 silver,   5 bronze - 18 total

Italy               2 gold,    7 silver,   8 bronze - 17 total

Netherlands   8 gold,    5 silver,   4 bronze - 17 total

China             9 gold,    4 silver,   2 bronze - 15 total

France           5 gold,     7 silver,  2 bronze - 14 total

Switzerland   7 gold,     2 silver,  5 bronze - 14 total

Day 15 - Mid Day February 18 to Mid Day February 19 - Beijing time

Tyler Wallasch of the USA finished 4th in men's Ski Cross 1/8 Final 2 and did not advance to the quarterfinals.

The USA men's curling team of John Shuster, Chris Plys, Matt Hamilton and John Landsteiner lost to Canada 8-5 in the bronze medal match. Canada wins bronze. Team Shuster finished 4th. Canada scored 2 in the first end to go up 2-0, then the USA scored 1 in the 2nd end to make it 2-1 Canada, scored 1 in the 3rd end to go up 3-1 Then USA scored 2 in the 4th end to tie it at 3-3 then Canada scored 1 in the 5th end go ahead 4-3. In the 6th end the USA scored 2 to lead Canada 5-4 but Canada scored 2 in the 8th end to lead 6-5 and Canada scored 2 in the 9th end to win 8-5. 

Deedra Irwin of the USA finished 23rd in the women's Biathlon 12.5KM Mass Start.

Jordan Stoltz (1:09.12) and Austin Kleba (1:10.57), both of the USA, finished 14th and 29th respectively in the men's Lon Track Speed Skating 1000M Final.

Alexa Knierim/Brandon Frazier (74.23 score) and Ashley Cain Gribble/Timothy Leduc (74.13 score), both of the USA ,are in 6th and 7th place respectively after the Figure Skating Pairs Short Program.

Elana Meyers Taylor/Sylvia Hoffman (1:01.26) and Kaillie Humphries/Kaysha Love (1:01.41), both of the USA, are in 3rd and 4th place respectively after heat 1 of the 2 woman Bobsleigh. Elana Meyers Taylor/Sylvia Hoffman (2:02.79) and Kaillie Humphries/Kaysha Love (2:03.38) are in 3rd and 5th place respectively after the conclusion of heat 2 of 2 woman Bobsleigh.

Hunter Church, Joshua Williamson, Kristopher  Horn and Charlie Volker (58.91) and Frank Delduca, Carlo Valdes, James Reed and Hakeem Abdul-Saboor (59.26), both Bobsleigh teams of the USA, are in 11th and 14th place respectively after heat 1 of 4 man Bobsleigh.

American David Wise scores a best score of 90.75 to win silver in men's Freestyle Skiing Freeski Halfpipe. Alex Ferreira of the USA wins bronze with a best score of 86.75 and Nico Porteous of New Zealand wins gold with a best score of 93.00. Birk Irving (80.00 best score) and Aaron Blunck (78.25 best score), both of the USA, finished 5th and 7th respectively.

Hunter Church, Joshua Williamson, Kristopher  Horn and Charlie Volker  (1:58.61) and Frank Delduca, Carlo Valdes, James Reed and Hakeem Abdul-Saboor (1:58.82), both Bobsleigh teams of the USA, are in 13th and 14th place respectively in the 4 man Bobsleigh after heat 2.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Medal Count as of 11:30pm Eastern Time February 18

Norway        15 gold, 8 silver, 11 bronze - 34 total

ROC              5 gold, 9 silver, 13 bronze - 27 total

Canada          4 gold, 7 silver, 13 bronze - 24 total

USA              8 gold, 9 silver,   6 bronze - 23 total

Germany     10 gold, 7 silver,   5 bronze - 22 total

Day 14 - Mid Day February 17 to Mid Day February 18 - Beijing time

The USA women's hockey team wins silver by losing to Canada 3-2. Canada wins gold. Canada scored the first 3 goals to make it 3-0, Then the USA's Hilary Knight makes it 3-1 in the 2nd period. Amanda Kessel scored the USA's second goal with 12 seconds left in the third period.

Aaron Blunck (92.00 best score), Birk Irving (89.75 best score), David Wise (89.00 best score) and Alex Ferreira (84.25 best score), all of the USA, finished 1st, 3rd, 4th and 7th to advance to the men's Freestyle Skiing Freeski Halfpipe final.

Tricia Mangan of the USA(slalom time 57.05 and total time 2:32.94) finished 11th in women's Alpine Skiing Combined. Isabella Wright, Keely Cashman and Mikaela Shiffrin, all of the USA, did not finish the slalom run.

Jasper Good (80.9 round points), Taylor Fletcher (85.0 round points), Jared Shumate (108.1 round points) and Ben Loomis (113.1 round), all of the USA, are in 7th place with 387,1 total points in the men's Nordic Combined Team Gundersen Large Hill/4by 5KM Ski Jumping Competition Round. The USA finished 6th in 53 minutes and .071 seconds after the men's Cross Country results.

American Brittany Bowe (1:14.61) wins bronze in the women's Long Track Speed Skating 1000M. Miho Takagi of Japan(1:13.19 OR) wins gold and Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands (1:13.83) wins silver, Kimi Goetz (1:15.50) of the USA finished 7th.

Alysa Liu of the USA finished 7th and scored a 139.45 in women's singles Free Skate for a total score of 208.95. American Mariah Bell finished 10th with a Free Skate Score of 136.92 and a total score of 202,30 and Karen Chen of the USA finished 16th with a Free Skate Score of 115.82 and total score of 179.93.Anna Shcherbakova of the ROC wins gold with a Free Skate score of 175.75 and a total score of 255.95. Alexandra  Trusova of the ROC wins silver with a Free Skate score of 177.13 and a total score of 251,73. Kaori Sakamoto of Japan wins bronze with a Free Skate score of 153.29 and total score of 233.13 and Kamila Valieva finished 4th with a Free Skate score of 141.93 and total score of 224.09.

The USA men's curling team of John Shuster, Chris Plys, Matt Hamilton and John Landsteiner lost to Great Britain 8-4 in the semifinals and now will face Canada for the bronze medal.

Hanna Faulhaber (85.25 best score), Brita Sigourney (70.75 best score) and Carly Margulies (61.00 best score), all of the USA , finish 6th, 10th and 11th respectively in the women's Freestyle skiing Freeski Halfpipe final.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Medal Count as of 11:30pm Eastern Time February 17

Norway      14 gold, 7 silver, 8 bronze - 29 total

ROC            5 gold, 9 silver, 12 bronze - 26 total

Canada        4 gold, 6 silver, 12 bronze - 22 total

Germany    10 gold, 7 silver,  5 bronze - 22 total

USA             8 gold, 8 silver,  5 bronze - 21 total

Day 13 - Mid Day February 16 to Mid Day February 17- Beijing time

The USA men's hockey team lost to Slovakia 3-2 in the quarterfinals. The USA had 2-1 lead after the second period but gave up the game tying goal in the last minute of the third period and was no goals were scored in the overtime period. The USA lost in a Penalty Shot Shootout. USA goals were scored by Nick Abruzzese, and Sam Hentges. The USA men's hockey team is eliminated.

The USA women's Olympic Biathlon 4 by 6KM Relay team of Susan Dunklee (18:48.8), Claire Egan (19:04.1), Deedra Irwin (19:17.1) and Joanne Reid (18:45.3) finished 11th in a total time of 1 hour 15 minutes and 51.3 seconds.

The USA women's Cross Country Team Sprint Classic team of Rosie Brennan and Jessie Diggins finished 2nd in the semifinals in a time of 23:06.11 and advanced to the finals. The USA finished 5th in the finals with a time of 22:22.78. 

The USA men's Cross Country Team Sprint Classic team of Ben Ogden and James Schoonmaker finished 6th in the semifinals in a time of 20:11.42 and advanced to the Lucky Losers final. The USA finished 9th in the finals in a time of 20:28.07.

Chris Lillis (125.67 best score) and Justin Schoenefeld (123.63 best score), both of the USA, advanced to Final 2 of the men's Freestyle Skiing Aerials.  American Eric Loughran (111.95 best score) did not advance to Final 2.

Corrine Stoddard (2:33.329), Kristen Santos (2:21.027) and Julie Letai (2:36.214) all of the USA, advanced to the women's 1500M Short Track Speed Skating semifinals.

Justin Schoenefeld (106.50 score) and Chris Lillis (103.00 score), both of the USA, finished 5th and 6th respectively  in the men's Freestyle skiing Aerials Final 2.

The USA women's curling team of Tabitha Peterson, Nina Roth, Becca Hamilton and Tara Peterson lost to Japan 10-7 in the round robin. Team Peterson is now 4-5 in the Round Robin and has been eliminated from further competition.

Kristen Santos of the USA (2:31.067) finished 5th and advanced to the women's 1500M Short Track Speed Skating B Final. Corrine Stoddard (2:22.632) and Julie Letai (2:23.315) , both of the USA, finished 6th in semifinal 1 and 8th in semifinal 3 respectively and both did not advance to Final A or B. Kristen Santos (2:45.492) finished 2nd in Final B.

Brita Sigourney (84.50 best score), Hanna Faulhaber (84,25 best score) and Carly Margulies (82.25 best score), all of the USA, finished 8th, 9th and 10th and will advance to the women's Freestyle Skiing Freeski Halfpipe final. American Devin Logan (71.00 best score) finished 13th and will not advance to the final.

Mikaela Shiffrin (1:32.98), Keely Cashman (1:33.09), Isabella Wright (1:33.72) and Tricia Mangan (1:35.89), all of the USA, are in 5th, 7th, 15th and 20th place after the Downhill portion of women's Alpine skiing Combined.

The USA men's curling team of John Shuster, Chris Plys, Matt Hamilton and John Landsteiner beat Denmark 7-5. Team Shuster is now 5-4 in the round robin and will advance to the medal round.

Medal Count as of 11:45pm Eastern Time February 16

Norway         13 gold, 7 silver,  8 bronze - 28 total

ROC               4 gold, 8 silver, 12 bronze - 24 total

Germany       10 gold, 6 silver,  4 bronze - 20 total

USA                8 gold, 7 silver,  4 bronze - 19 total

Canada            3 gold, 4 silver, 11 bronze - 18 total

Austria            6 gold, 7 silver,  4 bronze - 17 total

Day 12 - Mid Day February 15 to Mid Day February 16 - Beijing time

Red Gerard (82.50 first run, 19.25 second run, 83.25 third run - best score 165.75) and Chris Corning (92.00 first run, 35.50 second run, 64.00 third run - best score 156.00), both of the USA, finished 5th and 7th respectively in the men's Snowboard Big Air Final. 

The USA team of Sean Doherty (20:47.2), Jake Brown (21:11.5), Paul Schommer (21:21.2) and Leif Nordgren (22:13.1) finished 13th with a total time of 1:25:33.0 in the men's Biathlon 4 by 7.5 KM Relay.

The USA men's Speed Skating team of Ethan Cepuran, Casey Dawson and Emery Lehman advanced to the B Final of Team Pursuit with a time of 3:37.05. The ROC beat the USA in the semifinals with a time of 3;36.62 an Olympic Record to advance to the A Final The USA will face the Netherlands in the B Final of men's Speed Skating Team Pursuit.

Ben Loomis (103.4 total points), Jared Shumate (101,3 total points) Taylor Fletcher (81.2 total points) and Jasper Good (79.8 total points), all of the USA, finished 17th, 19th, 35th and 36th respectively in the men's Cross Country skiing Nordic Combined Gundersen Large Hill /10KM SJP Comp. round.

The USA men's Speed Skating team of Casey Dawson, Emery Lehman and Joey Mantia wins bronze in a time of 3:38.81 by beating the Netherlands (3:41.62) , who finished 4th in men's Team Pursuit. Final B Norway wins gold (3:38.08) by beating the ROC (3:40.46) in Final A.  The ROC wins silver.

Eric Loughran (121,24 score) and Chris Lillis (119.91 score), both of the USA, advanced to Final 1 of men's Freestyle skiing Aerials. Justin Schoenefield (118.59 score) of the USA advanced to qualification 2. Justin Schoenefield (118.59 best score) advanced to Final 1.

Jared Shumate (28:58.5), Ben Loomis (29:17.2), Taylor Fletcher (29:36.7) and Jasper Goof (31:32.9), all of the USA, finished 17th, 19th, 23rd and 34th respectively in the men's Cross Country skiing Nordic Combined Individual Large Hill/10KM final.

Alysa Liu (69.50 score), Mariah Bell (65.38 score) and Karen Chen (64.11 score), all of the USA, are in 8th, 11th and 13th place at the conclusion of the women's Figure Skating Short Program. Kamila Valieva of the ROC leads with a score of 82.16, Anna Shcherbakova of the ROC is in 2nd place with a score of 80.20 and Kaori Sakamoto of Japan is in 3rd place with a score of 79.84.

The USA men's curling team of John Shuster, Chris Plys, Matt Hamilton and John Landsteiner lost to Italy 10-4 in the round robin. Team Shuster is now 4-4 in the round robin.

Frank Delduca (2:59.95) of the USA is in 12th place after heat 3 of men's 2 man Bobsleigh. Frank Delduca advances to heat 4. Hunter Church (3:02.31) of the USA did not advance to heat 4 by placing 27th in heat 3. Top 20 sleds advance to heat 4. Frank Delduca of the USA finished 13th in the 4th heat of men's Bobsleigh in 4:00.10. 

The USA women's curling team of Tabitha Peterson, Nina Roth, Becca Hamilton and Tara Peterson lost to Canada 7-6 in the round robin. Team Peterson is now 4-4 in the Round Robin.

Alex Hall (90.01 best score) and Nick Goepper (86.48 best score), both of the USA, win gold and silver respectively in the men's Freeski Slopestyle Final, Jesper Tjader (85.35 best score) of Sweden wins bronze. Colby Stevenson of the USA finished 7th with a best score of 77.41.

American Luke Winters did not finish run 1 of  the Alpine Skiing men's Slalom.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Medal Count as of 11:55pm Eastern Time February 15

Norway       12 gold, 7 silver, 7 bronze - 26 total

ROC             4 gold,  7 silver, 9 bronze - 20 total

USA             8 gold,  7 silver, 4 bronze - 19 total

Germany      9 gold,  6 silver, 3 bronze - 18 total

Canada         2 gold,  4 silver, 11 bronze - 17 total

Day 11 - Mid Day February 14 and Mid Day February 15 - Beijing time

Red Gerard (75.50 first run, 80.00 second run , 78.75  third run- total score 158.75 - 3rd place), Chris Corning, (64.25 first run, 17.50 second run, 81.75 third run - total score 146.00 - 10th place), both of the USA, advanced to the men's Snowboard Big Air Final. Americans Sean Fitzsimons (53.25 first run, 68.75 second run, 16.35 third run - total score 122.00 - 17th place) and Dusty Hendrickson (23.00 first run, 72.75 second run, 20.75 third run - total score 93.50 - 21st place) did not advance to the finals.

American Ashley Caldwell (101.31 score - 2nd place) advanced to the Final 1 of women's Freestyle Skiing Aerials. Megan Nick (89.18 score - 7th place) , Kaila Kuhn (84.24 score - 8th place) and Winter Vinecki, all of the USA,  (78.96 score - 13th place) advanced to qualification 2. Megan Nick (89.18 score - 2nd place) and Kaila Kuhn (86.62 score - 3rd place), both of the USA, advanced to Final 1. American Winter Vinecki (78.96 score- 9th place) did not advance to Final 1.

Casey Larson (58.2 total points- 22nd place, Decker Dean (46.8 total points - 30th place), Kevin Bickner ( 44.3 total points - 31st place and Patrick Gasienica (20.2 total points- 36th place, all of the USA, advance to the men's Ski Jumping Team Round 1. The USA finished 10th with 261 total points and did not qualify for the Final Round. Dean Decker finished with 69.3 total points, Patrick Gasienica finished with 59.7 total points, Kevin Bickner finished with 63.5 total points and Casey Larson finished with 68.5 total points.

Ashley Caldwell (105.60 score- 1st place) and Megan Nick (95.17 score- 5th place), both of the USA advanced to the women's Freestyle Aerials Final 2.  American Kaila Kuhn (85.68 score- 8th place) did not advance to Final 2. 

Americans Frank Delduca/Hakeem Abdul-Saboor (59.87) is in 13th place and Hunter Church/Charlie Volker (1:00.38) is in 25th place after the first run of men's 2 man Bobsleigh. After the second run, American Frank Delduca/Hakeem Abdul-Saboor (2:00.09) is in 15th place and Hunter Church/Charlie Volker (2:01.78) of the USA is in 28th place.

Megan Nick of the USA wins bronze with a total score of 93.76 in the women's Freestyle Skiing Aerial Final 2. Mengtao Xu of China wins gold with a total score of 108.61 and Hanna Huskova of Belarus wins silver with a score of 107.95. Ashley Caldwell of the USA finished 4th with a score of 83.71.

The USA women's hockey team advanced to the finals vs Canada by beating Sweden 4-1 in the semifinals. USA goals were scored by Cayla Barnes, Hilary Knight, Abby Roque and Hayley Scamurra.

Hailey Langland of the USA finished 12th with a best score of 53.25 in the women's Snowboard Big Air Final.

Maggie Voisin of the USA finished 5th with a best score of 74.28 on run 2 in the women's Freeski Slopestyle Finals. Marin Hamill of the USA did not start the final.

The USA men's curling team of John Shuster, Chris Plys Matt Hamilton and John Landsteiner beat Switzerland 7-4 in the round robin. Team Shuster is now 4-3 in the round robin.

Keely Cashman (1:34.13) and Mikaela Shiffrin (1:34.36) and Jacqueline Wiles (1:34.60) ,all of the USA, finished 17th, 18th and 21st respectively in the women's Alpine Skiing Downhill. American Alix Wilkinson did not finish.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Medal Count as of 11:45pm Eastern Time February 14

Norway      9 gold, 5 silver, 7 bronze - 21 total

ROC           4 gold, 6 silver, 8 bronze - 18 total

USA           7 gold, 6 silver, 3 bronze - 16 total

Austria       6 gold, 6 silver, 4 bronze - 16 total

Germany    8 gold, 5 silver, 2 bronze - 15 total

Canada       1 gold, 4 silver, 10 bronze - 15 total

Day 10 Mid Day February 13 and Mid Day February 14 Beijing time

The USA women's Curling team of Tabitha Peterson, Nina Roth, Becca Hamilton and Tara Peterson lost to Sweden 10-4 in the round robin.

River Radamus (2:10.95) and Tommy Ford (2:12.41), both of the USA, finished 4th and 12th respectively in the second run of the men's Alpine Skiing Giant Slalom.

The USA men's 4 by 10KM Cross Country skiing relay team of Luke Jager(32:53.7), Scott Patterson (31:16.2), Gus Schumacher (29:03.4) and Kevin Bolger (29:43.0) finished 9th in a total time of  2 hours 2 minutes and 56.3 seconds. 

Joanne Reid, Claire Egan, Susan Dunklee and Deedra Irwin, all of the USA, finished 29th, 38th, 40th and 47th respectively in the women's Biathlon 10KM Pursuit.

Jake Brown and Sean Doherty, both of the USA, finished 40th and 43rd respectively in the men's Biathlon 12.5KM Pursuit.

American Ryan Pivirotto (41.641) finished 3rd in the quarterfinals of men's Short Track Speed Skating 500M and did not advance to the semifinals.

The USA women's short track 3000M relay team of Kristen Santos, Corrine Stoddard, Maame Biney and Julie Letai  did not finish Final B due to penalty. 

The USA men's curling team of John Shuster, Chris Plys Matt Hamilton and John Landsteiner beat China 8-6 in the round robin. Team Shuster is now 3-3 in the round robin.

The American men's Speed Skating Team Pursuit team of Ethan Cepuran, Casey Dawson and Emory Lehman finished 2nd in (3:37.51) to advance to the semifinals.

The USA men's hockey team beat Germany 3-2 in the preliminary round- Group A, USA goals were scored by Steven Kampfer, Matt Knies and Nathan Smith.

American Erin Jackson wins gold (37.04) in women's Long Track Speed Skating 500M. Miho Takagi of Japan wins silver in 37.12 seconds and Angelina Golikova of ROC wins bronze in 37.21 seconds. Brittany Bowe (38.04) and Kimi Goetz (38.25), both of the USA finished 16th and 18th respectively.

The USA women's Curling team of Tabitha Peterson, Nina Roth, Becca Hamilton and Tara Peterson beat Korea 8-6 in the round robin.

After the 3rd heat in women's Bobsleigh Monobob, Kaillie Humphries (3:13.97) and  Elana Meyers Taylor (3:15.70), both of the USA, are in 1st and 3rd place.

Hailey Langland (127.50 total score- 62.00 first run, 65.50 second run and 21.25 third run) of the USA advanced to the women's Snowboard Big Air finals. Jamie Anderson of the USA (119.75 total score - 30.00 first run, 29.50 second run and 89.75 third run) did not advance to the finals. Courtney Rummel of the USA (101.00 total score- 44.75 first run, 56.25 second run and 38.75 third run also did not advance to the finals. Julia Marino of the USA did not start.

Maggie Voisin (72.78 score - 4th place) Marin Hamel (69.43 score - 7th place) advanced to the women's Freestyle Skiing Freeski Slopestyle finals. Darian Stevens (50.01) of the USA finished 18th and did not advance to the finals. Caroline Claire of the USA did not start.

Americans Zach Donohue/Madison Hubbell wins bronze in women's Ice Dance - Free Dance with a Free Dance score of 130.89 and total score of 218.02. Gabriella Papadakis/ Guillaume Cizeron of France wins gold with a Free Dance score of 136.15 and total score of 226.98 and Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov of the ROC wins silver with a Free Dance score of 131.66 and total score of 220.51. Madison Chock/Evan Bates of the USA finished 4th with a Free Dance score of 130.63 and a total score of 214.77. Americans Kaitlin Hawayek/Jean Luc Baker finished 11th with a Free Dance score of 115.16 and total score of 189.74.

Americans Kaillie Humphries wins gold in 4:19.27 and Elena Meyers Taylor wins silver in 4:20.81 after the 4th heat in women's Bobsleigh Monobob. Christine deBruin of Canada wins bronze in 4:21.03.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Medal Count as of 11:55 pm Eastern Time February 13

Norway     9 gold, 5 silver, 7   bronze - 21 total

ROC          4 gold, 6 silver, 8   bronze - 18 total

USA          7 gold, 6 silver, 2   bronze - 15 total

Canada      1 gold, 4 silver, 10 bronze - 15 total

Germany   8 gold, 5 silver,  1  bronze - 14 total

Austria      4 gold, 6 silver,  4  bronze - 14 total

Games thoughts after 10 days

The Opening Ceremony was high tech and despite the lack of spectators (the athletes filled the stadium) it had the feel of an attended opening ceremony. NBC did a decent job broadcasting the opening ceremony and did not have too many commercials. I DVR'ed the Opening Ceremony at 6:30 am on February 4 and watched most of it, I then watched the prime time version because the live version ran over the time slot. I had missed the torch relay and handoff. Now I want to look at the first 10 days of the games so far..

The USA has won 15 medals through the first 10 days of the games with 7 gold, 6 silver and 2 bronze. The USA might get to 26 total medals with a few more good days like February 13 with 3 medals. The USA should equal or pass 8 gold medals that I had predicted. Norway leads the medal count with 21 total medals, 9 gold, 5 silver and 7 bronze. I predicted 39 medals for Norway so they are on that path.

The Russian Olympic Committee has 18 total medals and are on their way to the 27 total medals I predicted. Canada has 15 total medals so fat but just 1 gold, and may not get to 28 total medals I had predicted.

The highlights of the games so far has been Americans Kaillie Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor winning gold and silver in women's Monobob and Chloe Kim winning gold on women's Snowboard Halfpipe. Chloe Kim put away the field after her first run that was incredible. Also the USA winning a Figure Skating team silver medal and Nathan Chen winning gold in men's singles. Chen's short program in the team competition set the table for his performance in men's singles with nearly flawless short and free skate programs. Vincent Zhou was very good, except for a few mistakes in the team competition but got Covid and had to withdraw from the men's singles competition and the games itself. Karen Chen was steady for the USA in women's team competition but the USA scored 10's in Ice Dance and men's singles. Other great moments so far - Ryan Cochran Siegle in men's Alpine skiing Super G and Madison Hubbell/Zach Donohue winning bronze in Ice Dance and Lindsey Jacobellis waiting 16 years to win her first gold medal in women's Snowboard Cross and then Jacobellis wins gold with Nick Baumgartner in Mixed Team Snowboard Cross. Also Erin Jackson of the USA winning the first long track speed skating medal in an individual event for the USA women since 2002 by winning gold in long track women's 500M. Other great highlights the USA's Julia Marino winning silver in women's Snowboard Slopestyle and Jaelin Kauf winning silver in women's Freestyle skiing moguls.

There were several disappointments so far these games. As great as Mikaela Shiffrin is as an Alpine skier, I was surprised to see Shiffrin ski out of the women's Alpine skiing Super G and Downhill. It was sad to see Mikaela Shiffrin sitting in the snow with her head down. Mikaela Shiffrin will bounce back. the GOAT of Snowboarding Shaun White gave it his all but came up short in men's Snowboard Halfpipe White scored an 85 and I thought that score would medal but Ayumu Hirano of Japan dazzled with his high flying tricks to win gold with a 96. Also several Americans I thought would medal did not so far, Jamie Anderson, Red Gerard and Madison Chock/Evan Bates in Ice Dance. Also except for Erin Jackson speed skating has been a disappointment. 

Looking forward to the last week of the games!

Day 9 - Mid Day February 12 to Mid Day February 13 Beijing Time

The USA men's hockey team beat Canada 4-2 in the preliminary round group A. USA goals were scored by Kenny Agostino, Andy Miele, Ben Meyers and Brendan Brisson. 

The USA women's Cross Country skiing 4 by 5KM relay team of Hailey Swirbul, Rosie Brennan, Novie McCabe and Jessie Diggins finished 6th with a total time of 55 minutes.9.2 seconds.

The USA men's curling team of John Shuster, Chris Plys Matt Hamilton and John Landsteiner lost to Norway 7-6 in the round robin. Team Shuster is 2-2 in round robin matches,

Jordan Stolz (34.85) and Austin Kleba (35.40), both of the USA, finished 13th and 27th respectively in men's Long Track Speedskating 500M.

Jake Brown (26:04.7), Sean Doherty (26:35.2) and Paul Schommer (27:13.3), all of the USA, finished 36th, 47th and 74th respectively in men's Biathlon 10KM Sprint.

Americans Casey Larson, Kevin Bickner and Dean Decker advanced to the first round of the men's Ski Jumping Men's Large Hill. No Americans qualified for the final round. Kevin Bickner (110.0 total points) finished 39th, Casey Larson (107.5 total points) finished 43rd and Dean Decker (100.9 total points) finished 45th in the first round.

The USA women's Curling team of Tabitha Peterson, Nina Roth, Becca Hamilton and Tara Peterson lost to Great Britain 10-5 in the round robin.

American Katie Uhlaender (3:07.02) advanced to the 4th heat of the women's Skeleton by finishing 7th in heat 3. Kelly Curtis of the USA finished 21st (3:09.23) and did not advance to the 4th heat. Katie Uhlaender  finished 6th in heat 4 (medal heat) in 4:09.23).

Americans Madison Hubbell/Zach Donohue are in 3rd place with a score of 87.13 at the end of the women's Ice Dance - Rhythm Dance. Madison Chock/Evan Bates of the USA are in 4th place with a score of 84.14 and Americans Kaitlin Hawayek/Jean Luc Baker are in 11th place with a score of 74.58. Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron of France is in first place with a score of 90.83 and Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov of ROC is in 2nd place with a score of 88.85.

Kaillie Humphries ((1:04.44) and Elana Meyers Taylor (1:05.12), both of the USA, are in 1st and 3rd place after heat 1 of the women's Bobsleigh Monobob. After the second heat Kaillie Humphries (2:09.10) is in first place and Elana Meyers Taylor (2:10.42) is in 4th place.

The USA men's curling team of John Shuster, Chris Plys Matt Hamilton and John Landsteiner lost to Canada 10-5 in the round robin.

River Radamus (1:03.79) and Tommy Ford (1:05.07), both of the USA are in 9th and 19th place in the men’s Alpine Skiing Giant Slalom first run. Americans Ryan Cochran- Siegle and Luke Winters did not finish. 

Medal Count at 11:45pm Eastern Time February 12

Norway         8 gold, 3 silver, 6 bronze - 17 total

Germany       8 gold, 5 silver, 1 bronze - 14 total

Austria          4 gold, 6 silver, 4 bronze - 14 total

ROC              3 gold, 4 silver, 6 bronze - 13 total

Canada          1 gold, 4 silver, 8 bronze - 13 total

USA               5 gold, 5 silver, 1 bronze - 11 total

Netherlands   5 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze - 11 total

Italy               2 gold, 5 silver, 2 bronze - 11 total

Day 8 Mid Day February 11 to Mid Day February 12 - Beijing time

The USA women's hockey team beat the Czech Republic 4-1 to advance to the semifinals.  The Czech republic took a 1-0 lead before Hillary Knight tied it at 1-1. Goals were scored by Lee Stecklein, Kendall Coyne Schofield and Savannah Harmon, as well as, Hilary Knight.

The USA women's Curling team of Tabitha Peterson, Nina Roth, Becca Hamilton and Tara Peterson beat China 8-4 in the round robin.

Scott Patterson (41:23.1), Ben Ogden (41:29.8), Gus Schumacher (41:53.4), and James Schoonmaker (43.31.6), all of the USA finished 38th, 42nd, 48th and 66th respectively in men's Cross Country skiing 15KM Classic.

Susan Dunklee, Joanne Reid, Deedra Irwin and Claire Egan, all of the USA, finished 27th, 34th, 37th and 46th respectively in the women's Biathlon 75.KM Sprint.

Corrine Stoddard (1:27.912), Maame Biney (1:29.225) and Kristen Santos (1:28.393), all of the USA, advanced to the semifinals of the women's Short Track Speed Skating 1000M.

Decker Dean (94.9), Casey Larson (89.2), Kevin Bickner (84.3), all of the USA, qualified for the first round of men's Ski Jumping- Large Hill Individual.

American Ryan Pivirotto (41.018) advanced to the quarterfinals of the men's Short Track Speed Skating 500M.

Kristen Santos (1:26.783) of the USA advanced to the women's Short Track Speed Skating 1000M "A" Final. Kristen Santos (1:42.745) finished 4th in the "A" Final.

Americans Maame Biney (1:28.806) and Corinne Stoddard (1:27.626), both of the USA, qualified for the women's Short Track Speed Skating 1000M "B" finals. Corrine Stoddard (1:29.845) finished 3rd and Maame Biney (1:30.736) finished 5th in the "B" Finals

The USA Mixed Snowboard Cross team of Jake Vedder and Faye Gulini did not advance to the semifinals.

The USA Mixed Snowboard Cross team of Nick Baumgartner and Lindsey Jacobellis wins gold. Italy wins silver and Canada wins bronze. 

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Medal Count as of 11:45pm Eastern Time February 11

Norway      6 gold, 3 silver, 5 bronze - 14 total

Austria       4 gold, 6 silver, 4 bronze - 14 total

Canada       1 gold, 4 silver, 8 bronze - 13 total

ROC           2 gold, 4 silver, 6 bronze - 12 total

Germany    7 gold, 4 silver, 0 bronze - 11 total

USA           5 gold, 5 silver, 1 bronze - 11 total

Day 7 - Mid Day February 10 to Mid Day February 11 - Beijing time

Mick Dierdorff, Nick Baumgartner and Jake Vedder, all of the USA, qualified for the quarterfinals of the men's Snowboard Cross, Jake Vedder was the only American to advance to the semifinals.  Jake Vedder advanced to the small final (for places 5-8). Jake Vedder placed 6th in men's Snowboard Cross.

The USA Freestyle skiing Mixed Aerials team of Ashley Caldwell (88.86), Chris Lillis (135.00) and Justin Schoenefeld ( 114.48) win gold with a score of 338.34. China wins silver with a score of 324.22 points and Canada wins bronze with a score of  290.98.

The USA men's curling team of John Shuster, Chris Plys Matt Hamilton and John Landsteiner lost to Sweden 7-4 in the round robin.

The USA women's Curling team of Tabitha Peterson, Nina Roth, Becca Hamilton and Tara Peterson beat Denmark 7-5 in the round robin.

The USA Luge Team relay team of Ashley Farquharson (1:00.332), Chris Mazdzer (1:02.077 and Zach Di Gregorio/Sean Hollander (1:03.332) finished 7th in a time of 3:05.741.

The USA men's Ice hockey team beat China 8-0. Team USA was led by Sean Farrell with 3 goals and one goal each was scored by Brian O'Neill, Matty Beniers, Noah Cates, Ben Meyers and Brendan Brisson.

Shaun White (85.00), Taylor Gold (81.75), and Chase Josey (79.50), all of the USA, finished 4th, 5th and 7th in the men's Snowboard Halfpipe Finals. This was Shaun White's last Olympics as he has retired. 

The USA men's curling team of John Shuster, Chris Plys, Matt Hamilton and John Landsteiner beat  Great Britain 9-7 in the round robin.

After the first heat of women's Skeleton, Katie Uhlaender (1:02.41) and Kelly Curtis (1:02.94), both of the USA, are in 9th and 19th place respectively. After the second heat, Katie Uhlaender (2:04.87) and Kelly Curtis (2:05.99) is in 8th and 18th place respectively.

Mikaela Shiffrin (1:14.30), Isabella Wright (1:15.37), and Keely Cashman (1:15.99) ,all of the USA, finished 9th, 21st and 27th respectively in women's Alpine skiing Super G. Alix Wilkinson of the USA did not finish.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Medal Count as of 11:45pm Eastern Time February 10

Austria           4 gold, 6 silver, 4 bronze - 14 total

Norway          5 gold, 3 silver, 4 bronze - 12 total

Canada           1 gold, 4 silver, 7 bronze - 12 total

ROC               2 gold, 3 silver, 6 bronze - 11 total

USA               4 gold, 5 silver, 1 bronze - 10 total

Day 6 - Mid Day February 9 to Mid Day February 10 - Beijing time

Shaun White (86,25), Taylor Gold (83.50) and Chase Josey (69.50), all of the USA, advanced to the men's Snowboard Halfpipe finals.

Paula Moltzan (1:46.18), Katie Hensien (1:49.31) and AJ Hurt (1:52.19), all of the USA, finished 8th, 26th and 34th respectively in the women's Alpine skiing Slalom.

Lindsey Jacobellis and Stacy Gaskill, both of the USA, advanced to the semifinals of the women's Snowboard Cross. Lindsey Jacobellis advanced to the big finals. Stacy Gaskill advanced to the small final.

American Lindsey Jacobellis wins gold in women's Snowboard Cross. Chloe Trespeuch of France wins silver and Meryeta Odine of Canada wins bronze. Stacy Gaskill of the USA finished 3rd in the small final.

Ben Loomis (26:57.8), Jared Shumate (27:10), Fletcher Taylor (27:50.9) and Stephen Schumann (27:52.4), all of the USA, finished 15th, 19th, 24th and 25th respectively in the men's Nordic Combined Individual Gundersen Normal Hill/10KM, Cross Country

Andrew Heo and Ryan Pivirotto, both of the USA, did not advance to the men's Short Track Speed Skating 1500M semifinals.

The USA men's curling team of John Shuster, Chris Plys, Matt Hamilton and John Landsteiner beat the ROC 6-5 in the round robin.

The USA women's 3000M Short Track Speed Skating relay team of Kristen Santos, Corin Stoddard, Maame Biney and Julie Letai finished 4th in the semifinals and qualified for the B finals. 

Zach DiGregorio/Sean Hollander (1:58.515) of the USA finished 11th in men's Luge Doubles.

Andrew Blaser (1:01.80) of the USA finished 20th in men's Skeleton Heat 1 and finished 21st (2:03.88) after heat 2.

Chloe Kim (94.00) of the USA wins gold in women's Snowboard Halfpipe. Queralt Castellet (90.25) of Spain wins silver and Sena Tomita ( 88.25) of Japan wins bronze.

The USA women's curling team of Tabitha Peterson, Nina Roth, Becca Hamilton, and Tara Peterson beat the ROC 9-3 in the round robin.

Hagen Kearney ( 1:17.81), Nick Baumgartner (1:18.01), Jake Vedder (1:17.88) and Mick Dierdorff, (1:18.64), all of the USA, are seeded 7th, 10th, 18th and 20th after the first run of the men's Snowboard Cross seeding. In run 2, Jake Vedder is seeded 2nd and Mick Diedorff is seeded 4th for places 17-32 in the first run.

Nathan Chen of the USA wins gold in the men's Figure Skating- Free Skate with a Free Skate Score of 218.63 and Total score of 332.60. Yuma Kagiyama of Japan wins silver with a Free Skate score of 201.93 and total score of 310.05 and Shoma Uno of Japan wins bronze with a Free Skate score of 187.10 and total score of 293.00. Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan finished 4th with a Free skate score of 188.06 and toal score of 283.21. Junhwan Cha of Korea finished 5th with a Free Skate score of 182.87 and total score of 282.38 and Jason Brown of the USA finished 6th with a Free Skate score of 184.00 and total score of 281.24.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Medal Count as of 1:00 am Eastern Time February 10

ROC           2 gold, 3 silver, 6 bronze - 11 total

Norway      4 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze - 10 total

Austria       2 gold, 4 silver, 4 bronze - 10 total

USA           3 gold, 5 silver, 1 bronze -  9 total

Germany    5 gold, 3 silver, 0 bronze -  8 total

Canada       1 gold, 2 silver, 5 bronze -  8 total

Day 5 - Mid Day February 8 to Mid Day February 9 - Beijing Time

Nathan Chen of the USA leads the Figure Skating men's short program with a score of 113.97. The score is the highest ever score for a short program. American Jason Brown is in 6th place in the short program with a score of 97.24. 

Figure Skating- men's short program results:

Nathan Chen, USA - 113.97

Yuma Kagiyama, Japan - 108.12

Shoma Uno, Japan - 105.90

Junhwan Cha, Korea - 99.81

Morisi Kvitelashvilim Georgia - 97.98

Jason Brown, USA - 97.24

Evgeni Semenenko, ROC - 95.76

Yuzuru Hanyu, Japan - 95.15

Keegan Messsing, Canada - 93.24

The USA women's hockey team lost to Canada 4-2 in the preliminary round group A. USA Goals were scored by Alex Carpenter and Dani Cameranesi. 

Joey Mantia (1:45.26), Emery Lehman (1:45.78) and Casey Dawson (1:49.45), all of the USA, finished 6th, 11th and 28th respectively in the men's Long Track Speed Skating 1500M.

Jessie Diggins and Rosie Brennan, both of the USA, qualified for the women's Cross Country skiing Sprint Free semifinal, both Americans advanced to the finals.

Jake Brown, Paul Schommer and Sean Doherty, all of the USA, finished 28th, 35th and 42nd respectively in the men's Biathlon 20KM.

Ben Ogden of the USA advanced to the men's Cross Country skiing Sprint Free semifinals but did not advance to the finals.

Ashley Farquharson (2:57.764), Summer Britcher (2:59.294) and Emily Sweeney (3:00.292), all of the USA, are in 17th, 23rd and 26th after 3 runs in women's singles luge. Only Ashley Farquharson is the only American to qualify for a 4th luge run. Ashley Farquharson finished in 12th place in a time of 3:56.407. 

Jessie Diggins (3:12.84) of the USA wins bronze in women's Cross Country skiing Sprint Free. Jonna Sundling (3:09.68) of  Sweden wins gold and Maja Dalhqvist ( 3:12.56) wins silver. American Rosie Brennan (3:14.17) finished 4th.

American Mikaela Shiffrin skied out on run 1 of the women's Alpine skiing Slalom and did not finish.

Paula Moltzan of the USA is in 6th place (52.79) after the first run of the women's Alpine skiing Slalom. Katie Hensien (55.43) and AJ Hurt (56.68), both of the USA, are in 31st and 40th place respectively after the first run.

Chloe Kim (87.75) of the USA advanced to the finals of the women's Snowboard Halfpipe. Tessa Maud (53.50) and Maddie Maestro (65.75) and Zoe Kalapos (51.75) all of the USA ,did not advance to the finals.

Colby Stevenson of the USA wins silver with runs of 91.75 and 91.25 for a total score of 183 in the men's freestyle skiing Freeski Big Air final. Birk Ruud of Norway wins gold with a score of 187.75 and Henrik Harlaut of Sweden wins bronze with a total score of 181. Alexander Hall (160.75) and Mac Foreland (80.25), both of the USA, finish 8th and 11th respectively.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Medal Count as of 11:30pm Eastern Time February 8

ROC              2 gold, 3 silver, 5 bronze - 10 total

Norway         4 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze -  9 total

Sweden         4 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze -  7 total

Netherlands  3 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze -  7 total

Italy              2 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze -  7 total

Austria          2 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze -  7 total

Canada          1 gold, 1 silver 4 bronze -  6 total

USA              0 gold, 5 silver, 1 bronze -  6 total

Day 4 - Mid Day February 7 to Mid Day February 8 - Beijing time

Red Gerard (83.25 score), Chris Corning (65.11 score) and Sean Fitzsimons (29.61 score), all of the USA, finish 4th, 6th and 12th respectively in the men's snowboard slopestyle finals. Gerard was in bronze medal position in the 3rd run when Canada's Mark McMorris scored an 88.53 to move Gerard to 4th.

American Paula Moltzan tied for 12th place in a time of 1 minute 58.07 seconds(59.57 first run) (58.50 second run) in the women's Alpine skiing Giant Slalom. Americans Mikaela Shiffrin and AJ Hurt did not finish their first runs by crashing out and American Nina O 'Brien did not finish her second run crashing out just before the finish.

Alex Hall (180.25 total score), Colby Stevenson (174,25 total score) and Mac Forehand (171.00 total score), all of the USA, advanced to the men's Freestyle skiing Freeski Big Air finals. Nick Goepper (127.75 total score) did not advance to the finals.

American figure skater Vincent Zhou has tested positive for Covid19 and has had to withdraw from the men's short program and men's free skate.  

Ryan Cochran-Siegle (1:43.91), Bryce Bennett (1:44.25) and Travis Ganong (1:44,39) ,all of the USA, finished 14th, 19th and 20th respectively in men'a Alpine Skiing Downhill.

Brittany Bowe (1:55.81) and Mia Kilburg (1.59.11), both of the USA, finished 10th and 20th respectively in women's 1500 Long Track Speed Skating.

Deedra Irwin, Claire Egan, Joanne Reid and Susan Dunklee, all of the USA, finished 7th, 39th, 57th and 63rd respectively in the women's 15KM Biathlon.

Maame Biney (46.099) and Kristen Santos (Penalty), both of the USA, did not advance to the semifinals of the women's Short Track Speed Skating 500M.

Andrew Heo (1:24.603) of the USA advanced to the semifinals and then advanced to Final B of the men's Short Track Speed Skating 1000M. American Ryan Pivirotto (2:08.364) did not advance to the semifinals.

After 2 runs of the women's Luge singles, Americans Ashley Farquharson (1:58.996), Summer Britcher (2:00.142) and Emily Sweeney (2:01.410) are in 18th, 26th and 28th place respectively.

Andrew Heo of the USA finished 3rd in 1:36.140 in Final B in men's Short Track Speed Skating 1000M

Darian Stevens of the USA finished 11th (56.75 run 1, 50.75 run 2 and 18.25 run 3) in the women's Freestyle Skiing Freeski Big Air finals with a best score of 75. 

Ryan Cochran-Siegle of the USA wins silver in 1 minute 19.98 seconds in the men's Alpine Skiing Super G. Matthias Mayer of Austria wins gold in 1 minute 19.94 seconds and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway wins bronze in 1 minute 20.36 seconds. Americans River Radamus (1 minute 21.63 seconds) and Bryce Bennett (1 minute 21.80 seconds) finish in 15th and 17th place respectively.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Medal Count as of 11:45pm Eastern Time February 7

ROC              2 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze - 7 total

Canada          1 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze - 6 total

China            3 gold, 2 silver, 0 bronze - 5 total

Netherlands  2 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze - 5 total

Italy              1 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze - 5 total

Norway        2 gold, 0 silver, 3 bronze - 5 total

Austria         1 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze - 5 total

Japan            1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze - 4 total

France          0 gold, 4 silver, 0 bronze - 4 total

USA             0 gold, 4 silver, 0 bronze - 4 total

Day 3 - Mid Day February 6 to Mid Day February 7 - Beijing time

Sean Fitzsimons (78.76 score), Red Gerard (78.20 score) and Chris Corning (69.30 score), all of the USA, advanced to the men's snowboard slopestyle finals.

Americans Scott Patterson and Gus Schumacher finished 11th and 39th respectively in the men's 15KM +15KM Skiathlon.

Americans Emery Lehman (6:21.80) and Ethan Cepuran (6:25.97) finished 16th and 17th respectively in men's 5000M Long Track Speed Skating.

Kai Evans (69.92 score) of the USA  qualified for Final 1 in women's Freestyle skiing moguls.

Jaelin Kauf (79.32 score), Olivia Giaccio (78.37 score) and Kai Evans (75.26 score), all of the USA, qualified for Final 2 of the women's Freestyle skiing moguls.

The USA mixed doubles curling team of Chris Plys and Vicky Persinger lost to Switzerland 6-5 in round robin.

Jaelin Kauf  (80.12 score) and Olivia Giaccio (77.57 score), both of the USA, advanced to final 3 of the women's Freestyle skiing moguls.

The USA women's hockey team beat Switzerland 8-0 in group A preliminary round. Hilary Knight, Kelly Pannek and  Jesse Compher scored 2 goals each. Amanda Kessel and Dani Cameranesi scored 1 goal each for Team USA. Team USA will face Canada next.

American Jaelin Kauf wins silver with a score of 80.28 in the women's Freestyle skiing moguls Final 3. Jakara Anthony of Australia wins gold with a score of 83.09 and Anastasiia Smirnova of the ROC wins bronze with a score of 77.72. Olivia Giaccio of the USA finished 6th with a score of 75.61.

Chris Mazdzer (3:51.377), Tucker West (3:52.360) and Jonathan Gustafson (3:53.946), all of the USA, finish 8th, 13th and 19th respectively in men's singles luge.

The USA mixed doubles curling team of Chris Plys and Vicky Persinger lost to Great Britain 8-4 in Round Robin.

Darian Stevens (84.75 Run 1, 10,00 Run 2, and 67.25 Run 3- total score 152.00)  of the USA advanced to the finals of the women's Freestyle skiing Freeski Big Air

Americans Alexa Knierim/Brandon Frazier score a 128.97 to finish in 5th place and earn 6 points in the Figure Skating team event - Pairs Free Skate.

Results after 6 events. The USA is tied for 2nd place with Japan with 48 points. The ROC is in 1st place with 55 points, China and Canada are tied for 3th place with 37 points. 

After one run of the women's Alpine skiing Giant Slalom, Americans Mikaela Shiffrin and AJ Hurt did not finish their runs and both will not be in the second run. Nina O'Brien of the USA is in 6th place with a time of 58.81 seconds. Paula Moltzan of the USA is in 17th place  in a time of 59.57 seconds. 

Americans Madison Chock/Evan Bates score a 129.07 to finish in 1st place and earn 10 points in the Figure Skating Team Event- Ice Dance- Free Dance.

Results after 7 events. ROC is in first place with 64 points, the USA is in second place with 58 points, Japan is in 3rd place with 54 points. Canada is in 4th place with 45 points and China is in 5th place with 44 points.

American Karen Chen scores a 131.52 to finish 4th to earn 7 points in the Figure Skating Team event - Women's Free Skate. 

Final results.. ROC wins gold with 74 points, the USA wins silver with 65 points, Japan wins bronze with 63 points, Canada finished 4th with 53 points and China finished 5th with 50 points.

Red Gerard of the USA scored an 83.25 in run 1 of men's Snowboard Slopestyle. 

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Medal Count as of 11:45pm eastern time February 6

ROC        2 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze - 6 total

Norway   1 gold, 0 silver, 2 bronze - 3 total

USA        0 gold, 3 silver, 0 bronze - 3 total

Austria    0 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze - 3 total

Italy        0 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze - 3 total

Day 2 - Mid Day February 5 to Mid Day February 6 - Beijing time

Jamie Anderson (74.35 score), Julia Marino ( 71.78 score)and Hailey Langland (68.71 score), all of the USA, qualified for the women's snowboard slopestyle finals.

The USA mixed doubles curling team of Chris Plys and Vicky Persinger beat China 7-5, lost to Canada 7-2 and lost to the Czech Republic 10-8.

Americans Jessie Diggins, Rosie Brennan and Hailey Swirbul finished 6th, 14th and 40th respectively in the women's 7.5km +7.5km Cross Country Skiathlon.

Mia Kilburg of the USA finished 19th in women's 3000 speed skating.

The USA team of  Susan Dunklee, Claire Egan, Sean Doherty and Paul Schommer finished 7th in the Biathlon mixed relay 4X6km(W+M).

American Nick Page (78.90 score) finished 5th in Olympic Freestyle Skiing men's Moguls.

Americans Andrew Heo (1;24.106) and Ryan Pivirotto (1:54.437) qualified for the quarterfinals of the men's short track speed skating 1000M.

After 2 of 4 runs in men's luge singles Americans Chris Mazdzer (1;55.819), Tucker West (1:55.910) and Jonathan Gustafson (1:57.175) are in 9th, 11th and 18th place respectfully.

The USA had qualified for the semifinals of the Short Track Speed Skating Mixed Team Relay but in the semifinals did not advance to final B because of penalty.

The USA women's hockey team beat the ROC 5-0. one goal each were scored by Jesse Compher, Grace Vumwinkle, Alex Carpenter, Savannah Harmon and Hilary Knight. The USA scored 3 goals in the third period. 

Americans Kristen Santos (43.579) and Maame Biney (42.919 both qualified for the quarterfinals in women's short track speed skating 500M.

American Karen Chen scores a 65.20 in the Figure Skating team event- women's short program to finish 5th and score 6 points for team USA.

After 4 events in the figure skating team competition the USA is in second place with 34 points, ROC leads with 36 points, Japan is 3rd with 29 points, Canada is in 4th place with 24 points and China and Georgia tied for 5th with 22 points but China moves on in the team competition after breaking the tie with Georgia.

Julia Marino of the USA wins silver in women's snowboard slopestyle with a score of 87.68. Zoi Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand wins gold with a score of 92.88 and Tess Coady of Australia wins bronze with a score of 84.15. American Jamie Anderson finished 9th with a score of 60.78 and American Hailey Langland finished 11th with a score of 48.35.

American Vincent Zhou scored a 171.44 in the team competition- men's Free Skate. Zhou finished 3rd and earned 8 points for the USA. 

After 5 events in the figure skating team competition, the ROC leads with 45 points, the USA is second with 42 points, Japan is 3rd with 39 points, Canada is 4th with 30 points and China is 5th with 29 points.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Medal Count as of 11pm Eastern Time February 5

Norway       2 gold, 0 silver, 0 bronze - 2 total

Slovenia      1 gold, 0 silver, 1 bronze - 2 total

Italy             0 gold, 2 silver, 0 bronze - 2 total

Canada        0 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze - 2 total

ROC            0 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze - 2 total

USA            0 gold, 1 silver, 0 bronze - 1 total

China, Netherlands and New Zealand have 1 total gold medal each

France and Germany have 1 total silver medal each

Austria, Australia, Hungary and Japan have 1 total bronze medal each

Day 1 - Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony aired at 6:30 am eastern time and was supposed to end at 9 am so I DVR'd it to watch later and guess what, it ran over time so now I'm watching it again on NBC on tape. NBC's taped coverage began at 8pm eastern time and runs until 11 pm eastern time,

The opening ceremony of Beijing 2022 began with a countdown from 24.. 24 is the Beijing 2022 winter games.. The 24th winter Olympiad. Also there are 24 cycles to the lunar calendar. In China, its the beginning of spring that the Chinese look forward to. 

In the next segment 400 performers holding LED sticks form spring willows, this signifies the coming of spring. Then the scene turns to a rushing river, the "River of China".

The next segment is a computer generated ice block made from 24 laser beams followed a roll call of 23 previous winter Olympic games. The Olympic rings rose from the ice block.

Next was the parade of nations. Greece was the first country to enter the stadium. The order of nations marching in the opening ceremony is determined by how many strokes in the first few letters of the Chinese alphabet. 

Japan has 124 athletes with 124.7 million population, Canada has 217 athletes with 37.9 million population, Finland has 96 athletes with a population of 5.6 million, ROC(Russian Olympic Committee) has 215 athletes with a population of 142.3 million population, Norway has 81 athletes with a population of 5.5 million, the USA has 224 athletes with a population of 335 million, the Czech Republic has 116 athletes with a population of 10.7 million, Austria has 106 athletes with a population of 8.9 million, Switzerland has 167 athletes with a population of 8.5 million, Sweden has 116 athletes with a population of 10.3 million, Germany has 149 athletes with a population of 79.9 million, Italy has 117 athletes with a population of 62.4 million and China has 173 athletes with a population of 1.4 billion.

The next segment is the snowflake of countries. This signifies the east and west coming together and or the coming together of nations. Then IOC Thomas Bach spoke opening the games followed by Chinese President Xi Jinping remarks followed by a segment called "Faster, Higher, Stronger, Together" and the raising of the Olympic flag and singing of the Olympic anthem

Next there was a Chinese snowflake segment showing young Chinese children singing and a video of Chinese children participating in winter sports.

The Olympic torch entered the stadium. 1950's born and 1980 Olympian speed skater Zhao Weichang handed the torch off to 1960's born speed skater Li Yan(1992 Olympics) who handed the torch off to 2 time Olympic medalist short track speed skater 1970's born Yang Yang who passed the torch off to 1980's born track and field Olympian Su Bingtian who then passed the torch off to 1990's born 3 time short track speed skater Zhou Yang who then passed the torch off to two 2022 Olympians, Dinigeer Yilamujan(Cross Country Skiing) and Zhao Jiawen(Nordic Combined). They both put the torch inside the snowflake to light it followed singing and then fireworks forming the Olympic rings ended NBC 's coverage.

The ceremony was very high tech, which I like, LED images of spring willows, mountains, valleys, photos and winter symbols on the floor of the stadium looked very real and lifelike. NBC's coverage was better than past Olympic opening ceremonies because the commercials were spaced out nicely and in the live version had the opening ceremony on the left side of the screen and the commercial on the right side of the screen with audio from the commercial being heard. NBC is finally getting their coverage right. NBC made several political statements tonight in their commentaries relating to China's human rights abuses, which was fine but I purposely did not include anything political on my blog coverage of the opening ceremony. Very well done Beijing 2022 Opening Ceremony and kudo's to NBC for their coverage improvement over past heavily edited Olympic opening ceremonies.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

February 2 and February 3 Olympic Results

The USA mixed doubles curling team of Chris Plys and Vicky Persinger beat Australia 6-5, lost to Italy 8-4 and lost to Norway 11-6.

Jaelin Kauf (79.15 score), Olivia Giaccio (78.11 score) and Hannah Soar,(74.53 score) all of the USA, advanced to the women's freestyle skiing moguls final 1.

Cole McDonald (76.27 score) and Dylan Walczyk,(75.86 score) both of the USA, advanced to the men's freestyle skiing moguls final 1.

The USA women's hockey team beat Finland 5-2 in the preliminary round- Group A. Two goals each were scored by Alex Carpenter and Kendall Coyne Schofield and the other goal was scored by Amanda Kessel.

Nathan Chen of the USA scored a 111.71 in the figure skating team competition men's short program and finished first and earned 10 points for team USA.

The USA leads after the first event with 10 points, Japan was second with 9 points, ROC finished third with 8 points, Georgia was 4th with 7 points and Italy finished 5th with 6 points.

Americans Madison Hubbell/Zach Donohue scored an 86.56 in the figure skating Ice Dance-Rhythm dance and came in first and earned 10 points for team USA.

In the figure skating team competition, after 2 events, the USA is in first place with 20 points, ROC second with 17 points, Italy third 14 points, Japan fourth 13 points and China has 11 points and in 5th place.

Alexa Knierim/Brandon Frazier of the USA scored a 75.00 in the team figure skating pairs short program and earned 8 points for Team USA.

The USA leads with 28 points after 3 events in the figure skating team competition. ROC is second with 26 points, China is in 3rd place with 21 points, Japan is 4th with 20 points and Italy is 5th with 18 points.

Beijing 2022 Medal Predictions

The Beijing 2022 Winter games start Thursday so I wanted to make a few medal predictions:

The USA will win 26 medals, 8 gold, 10 silver and 8 bronze..

Country Medal Predictions:

Norway        17 gold, 12 silver, 10 bronze - 39 total

Germany      13 gold, 12 silver, 9 bronze - 34 total

Canada          9 gold,   9 silver, 10 bronze - 28 total

ROC              8 gold,   7 silver, 12 bronze - 27 total

USA              8 gold,   10 silver, 8 bronze - 26 total

Netherlands  7 gold,   11 silver, 5 bronze - 23 total

Switzerland  6 gold,   7 silver,  8 bronze - 21 total

Sweden        7 gold,   5 silver,  6 bronze  - 18 total

A few USA medal predictions:

The USA will win bronze in the team figure skating competition, Russia will win gold, Japan will win silver.

Nathan Chen will win gold in men's singles figure skating,  

Madison Chock/Evan Bates will win silver in Ice Dance. 

Russia will sweep the podium in women's singles figure skating.

Shaun White will medal in men's snowboard halfpipe. 

Chloe Kim will win gold in women's snowboard halfpipe. 

Red Gerard will medal in men's slopestyle/big air

Brittany Bowe will win gold in women's long track speed skating

Joey Mantia will medal in men's long track speed skating

The USA women's hockey team will beat Canada for gold

Team Shuster will medal in men's curling

Mikaela Shiffrin will win gold in women's alpine skiing

Katie Uhlaender will medal in women's skeleton

Jessie Diggins will medal in women's cross country skiing

Chris Mazdzer will medal in men's singles luge

Kaillie Humphries will medal in women's 2 man bobsled

Lindsey Jacobellis will medal in women's snowboard cross

The opening ceremonies start Friday morning!!