Vancouver Winter Olympics

Guardsmen fall short of medals

trophyfan — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:04:07 +0000

The USA-1 sled of Steven Holcomb and Curt Tomasevicz had the best finish for the Americans on Sunday at the Whistler Sliding Center, with a combined time of 3:27.94 over four heats. USA-1 entered the day in fourth place after the first two heats on Saturday, but fell to fifth after the first heat on Sunday afternoon and dropped one more spot in the final heat.

USA-1 was 1 minute 29 seconds off the pace of gold-medal winning GER-1, with Andre Lange and Kevin Kuske. Germany’s top sled finished in 3:26.65. GER-2 took the silver; Russia’s No. 1 sled won bronze.

Sgt. John Napier, a member of the Vermont National Guard, and Steven Langton were 10th in USA-2, recording a 3:29.40, while Virginia Army National Guard Sgt. Mike Kohn and Nick Cunningham’s USA-3 sled was 12th with a 3:29.78.

Guardsmen fall short of medals

trophyfan — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:59:40 +0000

Guardsmen fall short of medals in 2-man bobsled

Woolstencroft wins fifth gold medal

trophyfan — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:43:29 +0000

Lauren Woolstencroft of North Vancouver, B.C., won her fifth gold medal — the most ever by a Canadian at single Winter Paralympics — by taking the women’s standing super-combined skiing event on Saturday at the 2010 Games.

Woolstencroft — who earlier won gold in downhill, slalom, super-G and giant slalom — finished in a time of two minutes 22.67 seconds, 12.15 seconds ahead of silver medallist Solene Jambaque of France.

Karolina Wisniewska of Vancouver won bronze in 2:35.47.

With the win, Woolstencroft equaled the Canadian record held by wheelchair racer Chantal Petitclerc and swimmer Stephanie Dixon for gold medals won at a single Paralympics, winter or summer.

Olympian sets record in Kansas

trophyfan — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:39:20 +0000

One of the two women in history to ever win back-to-back gold medals in Olympic history set the Kansas Relays record in the 200-meter event Saturday.

Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica ran a 22.32 second 200, beating the old Kansas Relays record of 22.59 by .27 seconds.

“The meet record was on my mind as I warmed up because it has been here for a long time,” Campbell-Brown said. “And I felt like things were going great and I should go for it, and I’m thankful that I got it.”

The previous record was set by Aleen Bailey in 2001. Campbell-Brown broke it with a quick start out of the blocks and a relentless finish, beating the rest of her field by more than a second.

Campbell-Brown won the Olympic gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens in the 200, and then defended her title four years later in Beijing becoming only one of two women to defend their medals in the 200.

Campbell-Brown has another meet coming up in May and said that she was happy to get off to a good start at the Kansas Relays.

“It is exciting,” Campbell-Brown said. “It’s a great way to start out the season.”

Although the Kansas Relays represent the beginning of a new season, it also represents the commencement of the run to London in 2012 to defend her title for a third time.

Vonn Going for Emmy?

trophyfan — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:13:59 +0000

Lindsey Vonn is going from Olympic star to “Law & Order” bit player. Vonn, who won gold and bronze medals in the Vancouver Olympics in February, will play an administrative assistant with a vital clue in a case involving a terrorist in the program’s season finale, NBC said.

Vonn, who said at the Olympics that “Law & Order” was her favorite show, is set to film her scene next week in Brooklyn. The episode will be shown in May; the date was not announced.

also see: medals and custom medals

Olympic Medals

trophyfan — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 20:48:03 +0000

A medal ceremony is held after each Olympic event is concluded. The winner, second and third-place competitors or teams stand on top of a three-tiered rostrum to be awarded their respective medals. After the medals are given out by an IOC member, the national flags of the three medalists are raised while the national anthem of the gold medalist’s country plays. Volunteering citizens of the host country also act as hosts during the medals ceremonies, as they aid the officials who present the medals and act as flag-bearers. For every Olympic event, the respective medals ceremony is held, at most, one day after the event’s final.

Lindsey Vonn going for Emmy?

trophyfan — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:38:16 +0000

Lindsey Vonn is going from Olympic star to “Law & Order” bit player. Vonn, who won gold medals and bronze medals in the Vancouver Olympics in February, will play an administrative assistant with a vital clue in a case involving a terrorist in the program’s season finale, NBC said.

Vonn, who said at the Olympics that “Law & Order” was her favorite show, is set to film her scene next week in Brooklyn. The episode will be shown in May; the date was not announced.

From gold to emmy

trophyfan — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:54:15 +0000

Vonn, who said at the Olympics that “Law & Order” was her favorite show, is set to film her scene next week in Brooklyn. The episode will be shown in May; the date was not announced.

Paralympic sledge hockey

trophyfan — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:56:20 +0000

In the end it was as much about the game itself as it was about the gold medals.

The 2009 world champion U.S. added the 2010 Paralympic sledge hockey gold medal to their trophy chest Saturday afternoon with a 2-0 win over a tenacious Japanese squad that finally got to the podium after three straight fifth place finishes.

Norway took the bronze with a 2-1 win over Canada on Friday. Canada, the gold medalists in 2006, finished fourth.

But the stunning success of this tournament and what it did to help grow this sport was as big a talking point Saturday as the final order of finish.

The game drew 5,810, almost as many fans as UBC Thunderbird Arena can handle. The crowd loved the game. The players fed off the crowd. Games were televised live across Canada and NHK beamed the final back to Japan.

one win from medal

trophyfan — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:22:42 +0000

About a month ago, Jimmy Joseph was dreaming about winning a medal in the Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

“My goal is to walk away with a medal,” the wheelchair curler from New Hartford said at the time. “We really want a gold, but if we walk away with any medals, we’ll be happy.”

He and his teammates are one win away from at least a silver medal and two wins from gold. Team USA plays Korea at 1 p.m. (EDT) Saturday. The winner will play in the gold medal match at 6:30 p.m. In the other semifinal, Canada will play the winner of Friday night’s tiebreaker between Italy and Sweden.

“Our main objective is to focus on Korea,” Joseph said. “That is the game that is so important. We can’t get too far ahead and get out of focus. … This is the biggest game of our lives.”

Joseph said defeating Korea, however, would make things a bit easier. It would guarantee that Team USA would play in the gold medal match and would at least win a silver medal.

“I believe we would be a little more comfortable and more relaxed,” he said. “You don’t want to lose, but knowing you have a gold or silver …”

The Americans defeated Korea 9-6 in their opening match a week ago.

Augusto Perez of East Syracuse, the team’s skip, isn’t looking too far ahead either.

“The playoffs are anyone’s game. We just play each game as it comes,” Perez said in a news release. “We need to keep our composure and not look too far away.” read more…