• Cross-Country Skiing Men’s 15 km Event Factsheets

• Biathlon Women’s 15 km Event Factsheets

• Alpine Skiing Men’s Combined Event Factsheets

• USA Alpine Skiing Men’s Combined Event Factsheets
• USA Biathlon Women’s 15km Event Factsheets
• USA Cross-Country Skiing Men’s 15 km Event Factsheets
• USA Figure Skating Men’s Individual Event Factsheets
• USA Freestyle Skiing Women’s Aerials Event Factsheets
• USA Women’s Skeleton Event Factsheets

No new events are scheduled to end on Friday, 14 February

Day 5 ends with the same countries in the top 3 positions although a quieter day for Norway has allowed Canada and Russia to close the points gap. Germany overtake the USA to claim 4th in the table whilst Sweden drop out of the top 10. Latvia and, more surprisingly, Hungary join the table.

The scoring table is as follows;
1st 8 points
2nd 7
3rd 6
4th 5
5th 4
6th 3
7th 2
8th 1
If countries are level on points their single best result is the tiebreak. 8 points awarded to both Slovenia and Switzerland following the dead heat in the downhill.

[table]
Rank, Nation,Points,Tie breaker
1, NOR, 128,
2, CAN, 108,
3, RUS, 105,
4, GER, 100,
5, USA, 91,
6, NED, 85,
7, ITA, 56,
8, AUT, 55,
9, JPN, 54,
10, SUI, 53,
11, SWE, 45,
12, FRA, 37,
13, SLO, 36,
14, CHN, 35,
15, CZE, 30,
16, AUS, 20,
17, KOR, 16,
18, POL, 15, 1st
19, FIN, 15, 2nd
20, GBR, 13,
21, SVK, 11,
22, UKR, 10, 3rd
23, KAZ, 10, 5th
24, BLR, 8,
25, LAT, 6,
26, BEL, 5,
27, HUN, 2,

[/table]

The best site for statistical information on the web is at http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/. You should bookmark it and use it frequently during Sochi for information on what has gone before.

Yes, I do have something to do with it. The site is work done by me and a group of my associates who we call the OlyMADMen – there are about a dozen of us, led by Jeroen Heijmans (NED), Arild Gjerde (NOR), and Hilary Evans(GBR/Wales) (and Hilary is actually James Hilary Evans, to clear that up). Other main contributors to the site are Taavi Kalju (EST), Wolf Reinhardt (GER), Martin Kellner (AUT), Ralf Regnitter (GER), Paul Tchir (CAN), Ralph Schlüter (GER), Mørten Aarlia Torp (NOR), Magne Teigen (NOR), and David Foster (GBR). A few other Olympic stat freaks also help us out – Christian Tugnoli (ITA), Ove Karlsson (SWE), Stein Opdahl (NOR), Carl-Johan Johansson (SWE), Paweł Wudarski (POL), and others.

sports-reference.com/olympics is based on our own private website, which we use as our research site – its located at www.olympedia.org. Sorry, but for now it’s a private site, but we can allow you free access if you want it – just send us an email ([email protected]) or post your email below. You’ll love it, I promise you, if you like the Olympics. Olympedia and sports-reference are similar, but different. Information goes on Olympedia first and gets picked up by sports-reference later, after some editing.

 

Other sites you should know about:

 

www.olympic.org – the main IOC site

http://www.teamusa.org – the main US Olympic Committee site

www.sochi2014.com – the main site for the Sochi Organizing Committee – all athlete bios and results eventually will be on here

http://www.insidethegames.biz – lots of good stuff, updated daily, follow at @insidethegames

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/globetrotting – Phil Hersh, US best known Olympic-beat writer, keeps tabs on everything in international sport, follow at @olyphil

http://www.3wiresports.com/author/alan-abrahamson – Alan Abrahamson, former LA Times Olympic-beat writer, follows the Olympic Movement closely, follow at @alanabrahamson

http://olympictalk.nbcsports.com/author/nzaccardi86/ – NBC’s main web guy Nick Zaccardi adds new stuff daily, follow at @nzaccardi

http://frontierbeaver.com/sports – a blog by Ollie Williams, a bit British oriented but covers all Olympic sports and nations, follow at @OllieW

http://espn.go.com/olympics – Bonnie Ford keeps us up-to-date even if ESPN doesn’t usually know about any sports other than the NFL – but Bonnie does, follow at @Bonnie_D_Ford

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics – although Sports Illustrated suffers from the same ESPN-virus of NFL only at times, look for anything by Tim Layden, who knows his stuff, follow at @SITimLayden

http://www.aroundtherings.com – Around the Rings, led by Ed Hula, focuses on the Olympic Movement – this is a pay-site – follow at @EHula_ATR

www.gamesbids.com – information about the bidding process and host cities – can be of some interest

In the women’s downhill this morning, Slovenian Tina Maze and Dominique Gisin of Switzerland tied for the gold medal with a time of 1:41.57. Couldn’t the timing equipment have broken that tie by carrying it out to 1/1000^th of a second?

Yes, it could have, but Alpine skiing chooses not to do so. In fact, the timing is so precise it could probably measure to the 1/1,000,000^th but this belies the fact that course measurement cannot be that accurate.

At Alpine skiing downhill speeds 1/100^th of a second is about 10 inches or 25 cm, and 1/1000^th would be about 1 inch or 2.5 cm. How accurate is the finish line? If Maze finished on the left side of the finish, and Gisin on the right side, is that accurate enough to measure to 1/1000^th, especially when the start line is 3,000 metres away. So if you measure to 1/1000^th would you be penalizing one skiier for finishing on one side of the course and not the other, without them really knowing which side is shorter? You could be.

Other Olympic sports have realized this as well and lessened the precision with which they measure finishes. Swimming used to break ties by measuring to the 1/1000^th second, but in 1972 at München Gunnar Larsson of Sweden and American Tim McKee seemingly tied in the men’s 400 individual medley in swimming. They were both timed in 4:31.98 but the precision timer broke the tie and gave the gold medal to Larsson, with a time of 4:31.981 to McKee’s 4:31.983 – 2/1000^ths of a second. However, swimming officials later reconsidered this, when they were informed that if Larsson’s lane had one extra coat of paint on it, it would have made the difference by shortening the distance he swam over 8 laps and to his touch. So swimming now calls a tie to the 1/100^th a tie for that position – however, the 1972 400IM result was not changed.

This famously occurred again in the women’s 100 freestyle in 1984 at Los Angeles when Carrie Steinseifer and Nancy Hogshead tied in 55.92. The stadium scoreboard listed that time for both but had Steinseifer 1^st and Hogshead 2^nd initially, so presumably Steinseifer was slightly faster to the 1/1000^th, but that mistake was corrected and they were both correctly given gold medals.

At the 1980 Winter Olympics Swede Thomas Wassberg won the gold medal in the men’s cross-country 15 km, defeating Finland’s Juha Mieto. Wassberg was timed in 41:57.63 to Mieto’s 41:57.64. The skiing federation (FIS) realized that this was a ridiculous precision to use for a race lasting over 40 minutes. Cross-country ski time trials have since been timed only to the 1/10^th of a second, although in mass start events, photo finishes will be used to break ties.

A similar finish occurred at the 2012 London Olympics in the women’s triathlon in one of the most stirring finishes one could ever see, as Switzerland’s Nicola Spirig and Sweden’s Lisa Nordén raced side-by-side down the last kilometre of the race, neither runner able to shake the other. Spirig was given the win, and the gold medal, with both runners officialy timed in 1-59:48. To observers there, it seemed impossible to choose between them at the finish line, but Spirig was adjudged to have won by 0.009 seconds per the official timing system. That is a ludicrous margin to use in a race lasting 2 hours, and hopefully the triathlon federation will correct this in the future. Ideally they should correct it retroactively and award Spirig and Nordén co-gold medals.

Some sports do time to the 1/1000^th of a second – notably at the Winter Olympics, luge. The races are so close that this precision is necessary to separate the sliders occasionally. The track is narrow enough that there should be little difference in where the sliders finish. Speed skating also breaks ties in the 500 metres to the 1/1000^th although official times are given in 1/100^ths. At the Summer Olympics, cycling uses 1/1000^ths in some of the shorter track races.

So Maze and Gisin tied in the women’s downhill – that’s a good and just decision.

No, she didn’t win the downhill, nor did she even win a medal, but Super Jules – aka Julia Mancuso – did place 8^th in the event. And that by itself was an accomplishment. It was the 7^th time that Mancuso had placed in the top 10 at an Olympic Alpine skiing event, and that is the best ever for a US woman. In fact it equalled the USA best coming into Sochi, but Bode Miller’s 8^th place in men’s downhill was his 8^th time in the top 10. Here is the list of American Alpine skiiers with 3 or more top 10 finishes at the Winter Olympics.

[table]

Name,Gender,###

Bode Miller,M,8

Julia Mancuso,F,7

Phil Mahre,M,5

Lindsey Vonn (Kildow-),F,5

Andrea Mead-Lawrence,F,4

Picabo Street,F,4

Tommy Moe,M,4

Daron Rahlves,M,4

Christin Cooper,F,3

Eva Twardokens,F,3

Brooks Dodge Jr.,M,3

Jimmy Heuga,M,3

Billy Kidd,M,3

Ted Ligety,M,3

[/table]

Now overall, Mancuso is =5^th among Olympic women with her 7 top 10s. The leader in this regard for Olympic female Alpine skiiers is surprising – Martina Ertl-Renz, who has 3 Olympic medals, but never a gold. The overall leader is as expected, Norway’s Kjetil André Aamodt, with 13. Aamodt also has the most Olympic Alpine skiing medals all-time with 8. Bode Miller is currently =3^rd on the men’s list with his 8 top 10s. Here’s the list of all Olympic Alpine skiiers with 7 or more top 10s.

[table]

Athlete ID,Gender,NOC,###

Martina Ertl-Renz,F,GER,10

Katja Seizinger,F,GER,8

Anita Wachter,F,AUT,8

Janica Kostelić,F,CRO,8

Hilde Gerg,F,GER,7

Alexandra Meissnitzer,F,AUT,7

Michaela Dorfmeister,F,AUT,7

Julia Mancuso,F,USA,7

Anja Pärson,F,SWE,7

Kjetil André Aamodt,M,NOR,13

Lasse Kjus,M,NOR,9

Paul Accola,M,SUI,8

Benjamin Raich,M,AUT,8

Bode Miller,M,USA,8

Günther Mader,M,AUT,7

Guy Périllat,M,FRA,7

Markus Wasmeier,M,GER,7

[/table]

 

Birthday gold medalists at the Winter Olympics? Was asked yesterday if this has ever occurred. It has, in fact 6 times. Overall, a birthday boy/girl has won a medal 22 times, as follows:

[table]

Name,X,NOC,Year,Sport,Event,Med,DOB

Madeleine Chamot-Berthod,F,SUI,1956,ASK,Downhill,G,1 Feb 1931

Viktor Kosichkin,M,URS,1960,SSK,5000 m,G,25 Feb 1938

Jan Egil Storholt,M,NOR,1976,SSK,1500 m,G,13 Feb 1949

Per-Johan Axelsson,M,SWE,2006,ICH,Ice Hockey,G,26 Feb 1975

Cathrine Lindahl,F,SWE,2010,CUR,Curling,G,26 Feb 1970

Tae-Beom Mo,M,KOR,2010,SSK,500 m,G,15 Feb 1989

John Garrison,M,USA,1932,ICH,Ice Hockey,S,13 Feb 1909

Eugenio Monti,M,ITA,1956,BOB,Two,S,28 Jan 1928

Manfred Schumann,M,FRG,1976,BOB,Two,S,7 Feb 1951

Tommy Moe,M,USA,1994,ASK,Super G,S,17 Feb 1970

Sergey Tarasov,M,RUS,1994,BIA,Relay,S,15 Feb 1965

Margit Pörtner,F,DEN,1998,CUR,Curling,S,15 Feb 1972

George Karrys,M,CAN,1998,CUR,Curling,S,15 Feb 1967

Kateřina Neumannová,F,CZE,2002,CCS,Pursuit,S,15 Feb 1973

Irina Lobacheva,F,RUS,2002,FSK,Ice Dancing,S,18 Feb 1973

Jens Arne Svartedal,M,NOR,2006,CCS,Sprint,S,14 Feb 1976

Marianne St-Gelais,F,CAN,2010,STK,500 m,S,17 Feb 1990

Freddie McEvoy,M,GBR,1936,BOB,Four,B,12 Feb 1907

Henry Glaß,M,GDR,1976,SKJ,Large Hill,B,15 Feb 1953

Pertti Teurajärvi,M,FIN,1980,CCS,Relay,B,20 Feb 1951

Aleksey Kovalyov,M,RUS,2002,ICH,Ice Hockey,B,24 Feb 1973

[/table]

We were also asked if this has occurred or will occur in Sochi. So far, no, but Dutchman Jan Smeekens just missed it with his silver medal in the 500 metres. He turned 27 the next day, 11 February. Hard to predict if it will happen in Sochi. There are 96 entered Winter Olympians in Sochi with a birthday occurring between today and 23 February. We didn’t see any obvious medal contenders on their birthdays, but one never knows.

Ties at the Winter Olympics – how often have they happened? Tina Maze (SLO) and Dominique Gisin (SUI) tied for first this morning in the Alpine women’s downhill.

This is the 8^th time at the Winter Olympics that 2 gold medals will have been awarded – note the phrasing as one of them was not a tie. The previous 7 times this has occurred were as follows:

 

[table]

Year,Sport,Gender,Event

1928,Speedskating,Men,500 metres

1956,Speedskating,Men,1500 metres

1960,Speedskating,Men,1500 metres

1972,Luge,Men,Doubles

1998,Bobsledding,Men,Two

2002,Cross-Country Skiing,Men,Pursuit

2002,Figure Skating,Mixed,Pairs

[/table]

 

As is well known, the 2002 pairs figure skating was not exactly a tie, but a second gold medal was awarded after the controversial original finish when Canadians Jamie Salé and David Pelletier were ranked second behind the Russian pair of Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.

There have been 25 previous ties for a medal at the Winter Olympics – 7 for gold, 11 for silver, and 7 for bronze. In 1968, three American female speed skaters had a three-way tie for the silver medal in the 500 metres.

At the Summer Olympics, a tie for first, or two or more gold medals awarded, has occurred 26 times. One of those was also controversial – the 1992 women’s solo synchronized swimming where American Kristen Babb-Sprague was initially ruled the champion, but a judging error caused officials to elevate Canadian Sylvie Fréchette to equal first with Babb-Sprague.

This morning’s Alpine skiing downhill tie is the first time this has ever happened in that sport. However, it is the 5th tie for a medal in Olympic Alpine skiing history:

 

[table]

Year,Gender,Event,Tied Place

1948,Men,Downhill,Tie for third

1964,Women,Giant Slalom,Tie for second

1992,Women,Giant Slalom,Tie for second

1998,Men,Super G,Tie for second

[/table]