Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Olympic roundup

Cross Country Six medals were awarded to six different nations in cross-country, which got underway on Tuesday, Feb. 15 with the Ladies' 10 km Free and the Men's 15 km Free events.
61360_l

Cross Country

Six medals were awarded to six different nations in cross-country, which got underway on Tuesday, Feb. 15 with the Ladies' 10 km Free and the Men's 15 km Free events.

Charlotte Kalla of Sweden was first in the women's event by a long margin. Kristina Smigun-Vaehi of Estonia was more than six seconds back to claim the silver medal and Mari Bjoergen of Norway was a further nine seconds back to take the bronze.

Madeleine Williams was the lone Canadian in the field, placing 51st, 2:45.2 back of the leader.

Things went better in the men's 15 km Free with Ivan Babikov in eighth place, 15 seconds off the podium. Alex Harvey was 21st and George Grey 29th out of 95 starters.

"My legs were tired on the first lap and I didn't know I had it in me today, but the second lap was way better and I fought my way into a top 10 so I have to be happy," said Babikov.

As for Harvey, he was just happy to be there.

"That was my first start at the Olympics so now I am now officially an Olympian," said the 21-year-old Harvey, the son of cross-country legend Pierre Harvey. "I am happy with this result and it was a good prep for me for the 30 km. I now can go into that race and not feel like an Olympic rookie."

The gold medal went to Swiss skier Dario Cologna by more than 24 seconds. He was followed by Pietro Piller Cottrer of Italy and Lukas Bauer of Czech Republic.

The men's and women's sprint competitions took place on Wednesday. They will be followed by the Ladies' 15 km Pursuit (7.5 km classic and 7.5 km free) on Feb. 19 and the men's 30 km Pursuit (15 km classic and 15 km free) on Feb. 20.

The team sprint is on Feb. 22, the men's 4x10 km relay on Feb. 24, the ladies 4x5 km relay on Feb. 25, the ladies 30 km mass start classic on Feb. 27 and the men's 50 km mass start classic on Feb. 28.

 

Biathlon

Canadians haven't been a factor in biathlon before or since the days of Miriam Bedard, but things are changing for both the men's and women's teams with consistent performances in the top 15.

The men's 10 km Sprint on Sunday was good for Canada, with Jean-Philippe LeGuellec leading the way for the Canadian team. He finished an incredible sixth place out of 88 starters, missing just one shot in two trips to the range and skiing for a single penalty lap. He finished the event in 24 minutes, 57.6 seconds, just 50 seconds back of the leader.

Jay Vincent of France took the win, followed by Meil Hegle Svendsen of Norway and Jakov Fak of Croatia.

A day earlier Anastazia Kuzmina of Slovakia took the gold, followed by Magdalena Neuner of Germany and Marie Dorin of France. The top Canadian was Megan Tandy in 46th place.

The Women's 10 km Pursuit and Men's 12.5 km pursuit events took place on Tuesday, followed by the Women's 15 km Individual and Men's 20 km Individual on Feb. 18, the Men's 15 km Mass Start and Women's 12.5 km Mass Start on Feb. 21, the Women's 4x6 km Relay on Feb. 23 and the men's 4x7.5 km Relay on Feb. 26.

 

Nordic Combined

This is one of Canada's weakest events, although some steps have been taking to recruit athletes and build a team.

Jason Myslicki placed 45th, and last, in Sunday's Normal Hill/10 km competition.

Jason Chappuis Lamy of France took the gold medal, followed closely by Johnny Spillane of the U.S. and Alessandro Pittin of Italy. The U.S. team, which was built after the 2002 Winter Games, had three athletes in the top 10 with Todd Lodwick fourth and Bill Demong sixth.

The team competition takes place on Feb. 23, followed by the Long Hill/10 km classic race on Feb. 25.

Sliding

The men's luge competition took place Saturday and Sunday in the shadow of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili's death following a training run crash Friday.

The International Luge Federation decided to proceed with the event, lowering the men's start to the women's and the women's start to the juniors, which in turn met with criticism from athletes who felt the entire track should have been used.

After four runs over the weekend Germany's Felix Loch, just 20 years old, took the gold medal. He was followed by teammate David Moeller and Italy's Armin Zoeggler.

It was a big day for the Canadian men. Although they were not favoured to win any medals Sam Edney made history by placing seventh. Jeff Christie was a respectable 14th and Ian Cockerline 20th.

The women's luge wrapped up on Tuesday and the doubles luge on Wednesday.

Skeleton gets underway on Feb. 18 with the first two heats for both men and women, followed by the finals on Feb. 19.

The first two runs of two-man bobsleigh are on Feb. 20, with the final two runs on Feb. 21.
Women's bobsleigh is on Feb. 23-24, and four-man bobsleigh is on Feb. 26-27.

While luge used a lower start for a mix of safety and psychological reasons, the FIBT - the international federation for skeleton and bobsleigh - have opted for the top start.