My Olympics in Korea have ended, as I sit in Seoul Incheon airport for my flight back to Atlanta. Some of you may have heard I had a problem in PyeongChang. Friday AM, while doing a CNN interview, I could not speak for part of the interview, and after going to hospital, was diagnosed with a small stroke. I have been at Gangneung Asan Medical Center until this morning.

I’m doing well, but I have only one problem remaining which is maddening for someone dealing with databases and spreadsheets. My fine motor skills with my right hand are still slow, making typing this difficult.

I’ve been asked if I can still help with stats during the Games. I want to, but please understand I want to spend a few days with my wife and dogs and trying to recover further. I will do what I can, when I can, but I may have to say no, occasionally. I have never done that and always tried to help you guys. Please understand.

My care in Korea, speaking from my day job as an orthopaedic surgeon, was superb. And God bless the USOC for organizing my care and getting me back home. I’ll be back.

I guess most of you reading this have memories of the 20th century but as we slip further into the current century we will eventually be replaced by those born after the millennium. On day 2 of the Pyeongchang Winter Games Redmond “Red” Gerard of the USA hastened this process by winning gold in the snowboard slopestyle for men and thus becoming the first Winter Olympic champion to have been born post 1999. Please note the careful choice of words there lest we get into the age-old argument of whether the current century began on January 1st, 2000 or January 1st, 2001. What is certain is that Gerard broke a host of age related records when he became Olympic champion.

Red Gerard

He became;

The youngest Olympic champion in snowboarding.

The youngest US Olympic Winter Games champion since 1928.

The first male Olympic champion to have been born in the 21st century.

The 3rd youngest Olympic Winter Games champion of all time (behind Billy Fiske (USA-1928-Bobsleigh) and Toni Nieminen (FIN-1988-Ski Jumping))

The list of Olympic champions born in the 2000s is as follows

[table]
Name,Sex,NOC,Sport,Year,DOB
Laurie Hernandez,F,USA,GYM,2016, 9 June 2000
Penny Olesniak,F,CAN,GYM,2016, 13 June 2000
Red Gerard,M, USA,SNB,2018, 29 June 2000
Ren Qian,F, CHN,DIV,2016, 20 February 2001
[/table]

For the record the first Winter Olympians born post 1999 were male ski jumpers in Pyeongchang.
In start order of the normal hill event they were;

[table]
Start order,Name,NOC,DOB
7th,Kevin Maltsev,EST,4 July 2000
18th,Jonathan Learoyd,FRA,3 November 2000
36th,Timi Zajc,SLO,26 April 2000
[/table]

Kevin Maltsev

And finally the youngest Olympic snowboard champions are as follows;
[table]
Name,Sex,NOC,Event,Year,Age
Red Gerard,M,USA,Slopestyle,2018, 17y 227d
Kelly Clark,F,USA,Halfpipe,2002, 18y 199d
Hannah Teter,F,USA,Halfpipe,2006, 19y 17d
Shaun White,M,USA,Halfpipe,2006, 19y 162d
Karine Ruby,M,FRA,Giant Slalom,1998, 20y 36d
[/table]

A comprehensive list of Olympic champions born in the 21st century will be available on this blog in around 150 years providing the technology of keeping brains alive in jars proves successful.

21^st and 9^th may not seem like much. But when Noriaki Kasai (JPN) and Claudia Pechstein (GER) finished in those places in the normal hill ski jumping and the 3K speed skating Saturday night, respectively, they made Olympic history.

For Kasai it was his 8^th Olympic Winter Games, the first person to ever compete in 8. For Pechstein it was her 7^th Winter Olympics, the first woman to reach that figure. For the record here are the current records for most appearances at a Winter Olympics.

[table]

###,Name,Gdr,NOC,Sport,Era,Consec

8,Noriaki Kasai,M,JPN,SKJ,1992-2018,Yes

7,Albert Demchenko,M,EUN/RUS,LUG,1992-2014,Yes

7,Andrus Veerpalu,M,EST,CCS,1992-2018,No

7,Claudia Pechstein,F,GER,SSK,1992-2018,No

7,Sergey Dolidovich,M,BLR,CCS,1994-2018,No

7,Janne Ahonen,M,FIN,SKJ,1994-2018,Yes

6,Carl-Erik Eriksson,M,SWE,BOB,1964-1984,Yes

6,Colin Coates,M,AUS,SSK,1968-1988,Yes

6,Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemi-Hämäläinen,F,FIN,CCS,1976-1994,Yes

6,Alfred Eder,M,AUT,BIA,1976-1994,Yes

6,Harri Kirvesniemi,M,FIN,CCS,1980-1998,Yes

6,Jochen Behle,M,FRG/GER,CCS,1980-1998,Yes

6,Raimo Helminen,M,FIN,ICH,1984-2002,Yes

6,Markus Prock,M,AUT,LUG,1984-2002,Yes

6,Emese Nemeth-Hunyady,F,AUT/HUN,SSK,1984-2002,Yes

6,Mike Dixon,M,GBR,BIA/ CCS,1984-2002,Yes

6,Hubertus von Fürstenberg-von Hohenlohe,M,MEX,ASK,1984-2014,No

6,Wilfried Huber,M,ITA,LUG,1988-2006,Yes

6,Gerda Weissensteiner,F,ITA,BOB/LUG,1988-2006,Yes

6,Sergey Chepikov,M,EUN/RUS/URS,BIA/ CCS,1988-2006,Yes

6,Georg Hackl,M,FRG/GER,LUG,1988-2006,Yes

6,Anna Orlova,F,LAT,LUG,1992-2010,Yes

6,Ilmārs Bricis,M,LAT,BIA,1992-2010,Yes

6,Marco Büchel,M,LIE,ASK,1992-2010,Yes

6,Teemu Selänne,M,FIN,ICH,1992-2014,No

6,Gyu-Hyeok Lee,M,KOR,SSK,1994-2014,Yes

6,Todd Lodwick,M,USA,NCO,1994-2014,Yes

6,Mario Stecher,M,AUT,NCO,1994-2014,Yes

6,Armin Zöggeler,M,ITA,LUG,1994-2014,Yes

6,Ole Einar Bjørndalen,M,NOR,BIA/ CCS,1994-2014,Yes

6,Eva Tofalvi,F,ROU,BIA,1998-2018,Yes

6,Jasey-Jay Anderson,M,CAN,SNB,1998-2018,Yes

6,Simon Ammann,M,SUI,SKJ,1998-2018,Yes

6,Shiva Keshavan,M,IND,LUG,1998-2018,Yes

[/table]

The above includes all those entered for PyeongChang 2018 although they may not have competed yet.

By comparison the Summer Olympic record is 10 by Canadian equestrian Ian Millar. Two others have competed in 9 Olympics – Hubert Raudauschl (AUT-SAI / 1964-96) and Afanisijs Kuzmins (LAT/URS-SHO / 1976-2012). There have been 9 Summer Olympians compete in 8 Olympic Games.

Some people have been calling PyeongChang the coldest ever Olympic Winter Games. Is it the city with the coldest February temperature to host a Winter Olympics?

Maybe. It really depends on whether you look at the daily mean (average) temperature, the daily mean low temperature, or the absolute (all-time) low temperature for February.

If you look at the absolute low-temperature for February, Calgary, Alberta, Canada wins hands down with a record low of -45° C. (-49° F.). And if you look at the daily average temperature, then Lillehammer, Norway and Lake Placid, New York, USA, are the coldest Winter Olympic cities, with mean temps of -9° C. (16° F.) and -8° C. (18° F.), respectively.

However, if you look at the daily mean low, PyeongChang is basically the same as Lillehammer and Calgary. All cities daily mean low temperature is -11° C.

We’ve never sat down and analyzed the daily announced temperatures during the Winter Olympics. The data was not listed in results until about the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics. While weatherbug.com, or other weather sites, likely has the data, it’s not something we have done and not aware of anyone else ever having done it.

Attached is a spreadsheet, Winter City Stats, with statistics about the Winter Olympic host cities, with population data, weather data, and geographic data.

Events started today at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, 1 day before the Opening Ceremony. This is not uncommon, and also occurred at Sochi in 2014.

Of the 23 Winter Olympics to date, including PC, 14 of them started on the day of, or after, the Opening Ceremony, and finished before or on the day of the Closing Ceremony. This happened consecutively from 1988-2010.

The first Winter Olympics at Chamonix in 1924 had its sporting events end the day before the Closing Ceremony, the only time that has happened.

In 1932, the events finished 2 days after the Closing Ceremony, because weather had caused postponement of events.

In 1964, 1968, and 1984, the events started 2 days before the Opening Ceremony. The events have started the day before the Opening Ceremony in 1976, 1980, 2014, and 2018.

Following up on my previous post – https://olympstats.com/2018/02/08/20000-winter-olympians-and-100000-male-olympians/.

The start list for men’s normal hill ski jumping qualifying round tonite has been announced. Assuming everyone starts, the 16th jumper will be the 11th new Olympian starting tonite, and will become the 100,000th male Olympian of all-time – summer and winter.

And that 16th jumper and the winner is @Casey16Larson – Casey Larson of @TeamUSA. Tell ’em what he’s won, Don Pardo!

There are about 2,950 athletes entered here in PyeongChang (PC). Of these 1,689 have never before competed at an Olympic Games.

This brings the total number of Olympians (since 1896) over a few landmarks. The following now assumes that all 1,689 new Olympians will compete in PC, which is probably not exactly the case.

The number of Winter Olympians will now top 20,000 for the first time, reaching about 20,705. So some new Olympian in PC will become the 20,000^th Winter Olympian – who will it be? Actually, it will be very hard to say, because to date, there have currently been 19,016 Winter Olympians through 2014. So of the 1,014 new Winter Olympians likely to compete, it will be the 984^th to enter the start gate. If you’d like to try to track that let us know.

Further the number of male Olympians, summer and winter, will top 100,000 for the first time, likely reaching about 100,997 if all 1,014 new male Olympians compete in PC. This is trackable and it will likely be possible to determine who is the 100,000^th male Olympian. To date, there have been 99,983 male Olympians, so the 17^th new male competitor to get to the starting line will be the 100,000^th male Olympian.

Who will that be? This morning there were 4 mixed doubles curling matches, with 8 men competing. Six of those 8 men are new Olympians, bringing us to 99,989 male Olympians all-time, as of noontime, PyeongChang time..

Men’s normal hill ski jump qualifying takes place tonite. There will likely be 60 competitors (62 at Sochi in this event phase), and of those, about 20 will be new Olympians – as I write this the start list as not yet been announced.

The 11^th new Olympian in the men’s normal hill ski jump qualifying tonite will become the 100,000^th male Olympian. That should be relatively easy to determine as the ski jumpers go off one at a time. Once I get that start list, I’ll update this.

Today’s CAS ruling puts all Sochi results and purported Sochi results and updates into chaos.

Here is what the original medal standings looked like at the end of the Sochi Olympics (top 5 places only).

[table]

Original,NOC,G,S,B,TM,USRnk,EuRnk

23-Feb-14,RUS,13,11,9,33,1,1

23-Feb-14,USA,9,7,12,28,2,4

23-Feb-14,NOR,11,5,10,26,3,2

23-Feb-14,CAN,10,10,5,25,4,3

23-Feb-14,NED,8,7,9,24,5,5

[/table]

After the Oswald Commission rulings, fully released by 22 December 2017, the Russians lost 13 medals from Sochi, as follows:

[table]

Class,Sport,Year,Event,Place

M,CCS,2014,50K,1

M,SKE,2014,Skeleton,1

M,BOB,2014,2-man,1

M,BOB,2014,4-man,1

M,CCS,2014,4x10relay,2

M,CCS,2014,50K,2

M,CCS,2014,Team Sprint,2

X,LUG,2014,Mixed Relay,2

M,LUG,2014,Singles,2

F,SSK,2014,500,2

F,BIA,2014,Relay,2

F,BIA,2014,7.5 km,2

F,SKE,2014,Skeleton,3

[/table]

This changed the Sochi medals table to the following:

[table]

22 Dec 2017,NOC,G,S,B,TM,USRnk,EuRnk

22-Dec-17,USA,9,7,12,28,1,3

22-Dec-17,NOR,11,5,10,26,2,1

22-Dec-17,CAN,10,10,5,25,3,2

22-Dec-17,NED,8,7,9,24,4,5

22-Dec-17,RUS,9,3,8,20,5,4

[/table]

After today’s ruling by CAS, at least 9 of the 13 Russian medals will likely be restored. The following should be restored:

[table]

Class,Sport,Year,Event,Place

M,RUS,CCS,2014,50K,1

M,RUS,SKE,2014,Skeleton,1

M,RUS,CCS,2014,4x10relay,2

M,RUS,CCS,2014,50K,2

M,RUS,CCS,2014,Team Sprint,2

X,RUS,LUG,2014,Mixed Relay,2

M,RUS,LUG,2014,Singles,2

F,RUS,SSK,2014,500,2

F,RUS,SKE,2014,Skeleton,3

[/table]

Four medals DQs have not yet changed. The 2-man bobsled gold medal will remain disqualified as both Aleksandr Zubkov and Aleksey Voyevoda’s DQs were upheld, although their lifelong Olympic bans were reversed. The women’s biathlon relay silver remains removed, as does the women’s biathlon 7.5 km silver, as Olga Zaytseva and Olga Vilukhina have not had their appeals heard yet. The 4-man bobsled gold medal is in no man’s land. Zubkov and Voyevoda were part of that gold medal sled, and were disqualified, but the other two pushers, Dmitry Trunenkov and Aleksey Negodaylo, were both exonerated.

With the CAS rulings, 9 medals – 2 golds, 6 silvers, and 1 bronze – will be restored to the Russians from Sochi. This makes the current top of the medal standings for Sochi look like the following:

[table]

Current,NOC,G,S,B,TM,USRnk,EuRnk

1-Feb-18,RUS,11,9,9,29,1,1

1-Feb-18,USA,9,7,12,28,2,4

1-Feb-18,NOR,11,5,10,26,3,2

1-Feb-18,CAN,10,10,5,25,4,3

1-Feb-18,NED,8,7,9,24,5,5

[/table]

By either the US system (medals-gold-silver-bronze) or the International / European system (gold-silver-bronze) of medal rankings, the Russian team returns to the top of the medal standings in Sochi.

There are 15 sports to be contested at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Oh, wait a minute, actually there’s only 7 sports being contested. Did you know that swimming is not a sport at the Olympics? I know, you think I’m nuts.

But all of those statements have some element of truth to them, including the last one. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) defines several types of competitions to be held at the Olympic Games. These are, in order – sports, disciplines, events, phases, units.

Sports are “sports” that are governed by International Federations (IFs). These include what we expect – athletics (track & field), basketball, rowing, wrestling, etc. It does not include swimming, which is not a sport to the IOC, but it does include aquatics, which is.

Disciplines are subsections of sports. Many sports have subsections, such as athletics with running, throwing, hurdling, but only certain sports have defined disciplines by their IFs. Cycling has road cycling, track cycling, mountain biking, and BMX racing. Skiing has Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and snowboarding. And aquatics, defined as a sport by the Fédération Internationale de Natation Amateur (FINA), recognizes several disciplines, four of which are held at the Olympic Games – swimming, diving, artistic swimming (known until this year as synchronized swimming), and water polo. So swimming is not a sport at the Olympics, it is a discipline.

Events are competitions at the Olympic Games for which the result yields a final result standings and medals to be awarded, such as the 100 metre freestyle swimming, or the decathlon. Thus, in the sport of skiing, we have the discipline of Alpine skiing, and within that discipline, we have the events of downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom, and combined (and now a team event).

The decathlon is considered an event, but it also has 10 phases – subsections of an event, in this case, the 10 different athletics events that constitute the decathlon. In other events, things like the finals, semi-finals, first round, qualifying rounds, etc., are considered phases of the event.

Finally, we have event units, which are actually subsections of phases. In the semi-final phase, there is semi-final 1, semi-final 2, etc., both of which are considered units.

So at the Olympic Winter Games, we have 7 sports officially considered as such by the IOC and the IFs – biathlon, bobsledding and skeleton, curling, ice hockey, luge, skating, and skiing.

It might seem that there are actually 15 sports at the Winter Olympics, and the media usually considers this to be the case, and we keep separate statistics for each sport/discipline as if they were all sports. However, the breakdown is as follows, with the sports, followed by their disciplines:

 

• Biathlon
• Bobsledding and Skeleton
  • Bobsledding
  • Skeleton
• Curling
• Ice Hockey
• Luge
• Skating
  • Figure Skating
  • Short-Track Speed Skating
  • Speed Skating
• Skiing
  • Alpine Skiing
  • Cross-Country Skiing
  • Freestyle Skiing
  • Nordic Combined
  • Ski Jumping
  • Snowboarding

 

It should also be noted that these sports are not immutable. Biathlon is considered a sport because it has its own IF, but that was not always so. It used to be governed by the UIMPB – the Union Internationale Moderne Pentathlon et Biathlon, which governed both modern pentathlon and biathlon.

Snowboarding is technically governed by the FIS (Fédération Internationale de Ski), but it has had its own governing body, and when snowboarding was approved as an Olympic sport in 1998, there was great controversy whether it would come under the IOC umbrella governed by the FIS, which wanted to control it, or the World Snowboard Federation, or even variants of its predecessors, the International Snowboard Federation, or the National Association of Professional Snowboarders. Had it come onto the Olympic Program governed by its own IF, it would be called a sport, not a discipline.

So there you have it. There will be 7 sports contested at PyeongChang. Or maybe it’s 15. Or maybe it’s … We hope this has cleared things up for you.