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!!