Sochi Winter Olympic 2014

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The final free skate standings:

Russia, Tatyana Volosozhar and Maksim Trankov, 152.69
Russia, Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov, 143.47
China, Quin Pang and Jian Tong, 136.58
Germany, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy, 136.14
Canada, Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch, 131.18
Russia, Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov, 129.94
Canada, Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, 127.32
China, Cheng Peng and Hao Zhang, 125.13
U.S., Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir, 120.38
Italy, Stefania Berton and Ondrej Hotarek, 115.51
France, Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres, 114.07
U.S., Felicia Zhang and Nathan Batholomay, 110.31
Germany, Maylin and Daniel Wende, 107.00
Canada, Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers, 103.01
Israel, Andrea Davidovich and Evgeni Krasnopolski, 94.35
Italy, Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise, 86.22

 

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SOCHI, Russia -- In an atmosphere that made the Iceberg Skating Palace feel like a hockey arena, with a former Russian ballet star rousing his compatriots by pounding a bass drum and a German fan countering with an oversized cowbell, the old order was restored in Olympic pairs skating Wednesday night.

A Russian team was back atop the podium, as it had been for 12 straight Olympics from 1964 through 2006. And another Russian team was on the next step.

So the humiliation of going without a medal at the 2010 Olympics could be forgotten.

Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, who each had skated at the Vancouver Winter Games with a different partner, were runaway winners with 236.86 points. Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov were a surprise second at 218.68, with Germans Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy third at 215.78.

Both Volosozhar and Trankov were emotionally overwhelmed after they finished their 4-minute, 30-second free skate to music from “Jesus Christ, Superstar.” He put his hands over his face while doing a joyful knee slide; she did the same while standing and crying at center ice.

It was not their best performance of the season, as Volosozhar put a hand down on the landing of a throw and their combination spin was slow and asynchronous. But they would not need it because their German rivals, who are four-time world champions and 2010 Olympic bronze medalists, made two huge errors: He fell on a jump, she on a throw.

Savchenko and Szolkowy looked crushed during the medalists’ flower ceremony in the arena. (Medals are presented later on a plaza near the Olympic flame.) She hugged him several times and held her arm around his waist.

They eventually left the ice as the top two finishers skated a victory lap. They did a four-way hug wrapped in two Russian flags.

So Russian skaters have shown the idea they needed some kind of backroom deal to help assure victories in the pairs and team events was pretty absurd.

The Russians shone on their own, just like the gold medals they have now won in the first two figure skating competitions of the 2014 Winter Olympics. They are the host country’s lone gold medals so far.

A French newspaper, citing an anonymous Russian coach, reported last week that Russia and the United States were colluding on efforts that would affect the judging of three events: team, pairs and dance, where the deal would guarantee gold for U.S. ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

The way Davis and White deservedly routed Canadian rivals Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir in the dance phases of the team event, the U.S. team clearly will be able to win that gold on merit as well.

But it wouldn’t be figure skating be without a stink about judging, even if this one smelled of some overactive conspiracy theorists.

U.S. champions Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir reached their goal of a top-10 finish. Although they had significant mistakes on three elements of the free skate, they stayed on their feet and skated well enough to get ninth.

They also contributed to the U.S. bronze in the team event with two steady skates.

 

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Second-placed Chloe Dufour-Lapointe (L) of Canada and her sister, first-placed Justine Dufour-Lapointe, hold hands during the flower ceremony for the women's freestyle skiing moguls event at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games

Norway's bronze medal winner Anders Bardal jumps onto the podium after the men's normal hill ski jumping final

Members of the Russian women's ice hockey team huddle around the net before their game against Germany

A fan of Canada wearing a hat in the shape of a stone watches the men's curling event at the 2014 Sochi Olympics

 

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It's so hot in Sochi that athletes are skiing in their vests - and they're using the snow to cool down - but Olympic officials say they are 'relaxed' about record temperatures

Competitors stripped off to compete in Sochi today, with skiers competing in their vests and some athletes even using the snow to cool down as temperatures rose to 18 degrees celsius (64F) today.

Sochi was warmer on Thursday than any of the 10 cities to have hosted the Winter Games, while it was even warmer than Athens, who hosted the Summer Olympics in 2004.

Forecasters predict that temperatures will not cool down until Saturday at the earliest, prompting speculation that Sochi could be the warmest ever Winter Olympics, surpassing Vancouver 2010.

On Thursday, several competitors in the women's cross country started the race in sleeveless tops, an unusual sight.

Organisers played down concerns about snow conditions that several athletes have described as slushy and difficult, and may explain some of the crashes in disciplines ranging from freestyle skiing slopestyle to cross country.

'It is a constant battle for winter sports,' said Mark Adams, International Olympic Committee spokesman. 'We are always trying to battle with a dynamic field of play. We are relaxed but we watch the situation.'

Sochi 2014 spokesman Aleksandra Kosterina said they have not had to tap into the snow reserves they are storing on the mountain.

Olympics authorities in Russia have reservoirs of snow packed away near the mountain venues yet dismissed calls for it to be used, claiming it was not needed.

'We are not worried, but at the same time we are ready for taking measures if there is a need,' she said.
Sunny weather in the Russian resort has melted ski and snowboard runs, leaving huge patches of grass exposed and making the athletes' intricately-prepared runs treacherous.

U.S. Alpine ski racer Bode Miller went from being a pre-race favourite during training runs down an icy hill to an eighth-place finisher when the downhill course got slushier on Sunday.

He said: 'It would be a tough call to be like, "The weather is changing, we're just going to go completely throw a dart in the dark and hope it hits." We had to stick with what we knew.

'In hindsight, it was a mistake, because on training day, it was boilerplate ice and you needed a lot of edge. And on race day, you needed to be more subtle, more smooth'

Austrian ski jumper Wilhelm Denifl said: 'Holes and ruts form if the snow on the landing zone is not hard enough... The snow becomes unstable, and if we are landing consistently in the same area, and at a high speed, the pressure associated with landing can make it unstable. And dangerous.'

Friday's downhill ski start was pushed up to 10a.m. (0600 GMT), one hour earlier than originally scheduled, in a bid to get going before sunshine softens the snow. The slalom is scheduled for five hours hours later.

Residents and visitors at the Winter Olympics resorts have been stripping off on the beach and frolicking in the Black Sea.

Dmitry Chernyshenko, head of the local organising committee, told journalists: 'It's not a big surprise for us. We're a subtropical city'.

Four years ago in Vancouver dozens of races were delayed by warm weather in Whistler, British Columbia, while at Turin, Italy, in 2006 the women's super-G was postponed 24 hours. Skiing in Nagano, Japan, had to wait for two days in 1998 and at Sarajevo in 1984, both downhill races were postponed.

 

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Evgeny Plyushchenko of Russia withdraws from the competition after warming up due to injury during the Men's Figure Skating Short Program on day 6 of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at the at Iceberg Skating Palace on February 13, 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

 

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Jeremy Abbott of the United States hits the wall while competing during the Men's Figure Skating Short Program on day 6 of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at the at Iceberg Skating Palace on February 13, 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

 

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PINOY ICE SKATER
rich singapore none.

Michael Christian Martinez of the Philippines competes during the Men's Figure Skating Short Program on day 6 of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at the at Iceberg Skating Palace on February 13, 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

 

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Men short program

Japan, Yuzuru Hanyu, 101.45
Canada, Patrick Chan, 97.52,
Spain, Javier Fernandez, 86.98
Japan, Daisuke Takahashi, 86.40
Germany, Peter Liebers, 86.04
U.S., Jason Brown, 86.00
France, Brian Joubert, 85.84
China, Han Yan, 85.66
Kazakhstan, Denis Ten, 84.06
Sweden, Alexander Majorov, 83.81
Japan, Tatsuki Machida, 83.48
Czech Republic, Michal Brenzina, 81.95
Czech Republic, Tomas Verner, 81.09
France, Florent Amodio, 75.58
U.S., Jeremy Abbott, 72.58
Belgium, Jorik Hendrickx, 72.52
Canada, Kevin Reynolds, 68.76
Uzbekistan, Misha Ge, 68.07
Philippines, Michael Christian Martinez, 64.81
Kazakhstan, Abzal Rakimgaliev, 64.18
Ukraine, Yakov Godorozha, 62.65
Israel, Alexei Bychenko, 62.44
Estonia, Viktor Romanenkov, 61.55
Belgium, Zoltan Kelemen, 60.41
Spain, Javier Raya, 59.76
Austria, Viktor Pfeifer, 56.60
Italy, Paul Bonifacio Parkinson, 56.30
Canada, Liam Firus, 55.04
Australia, Brendan Kerry, 47.12

 

[chuckyworld]

How did the German pair end up getting bronze, both the male and female fell, the Russians did good, not the German pair even the china pair did better than the german.

 

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How did the German pair end up getting bronze, both the male and female fell, the Russians did good, not the German pair even the china pair did better than the german.

they got high score from the short program, so even after the fall in free program, the chinese cannot catch them.
in fact, if they play safe, they are sure to get silver. but they went there to get gold, and were force to go for broke by russian team 1. and thus russian team 2 silver was thanks to team 1 forcing the german to take risk.

we have to thank the canadian for the new scoring system after salt lake. it sucks.

 

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