Pic of the Day
Talking points
Serious injury: Russian freestyle skier Maria Komissarova, who fractured her spine Saturday in training for the Olympic ski cross, is in a stable but grave condition following a six-and-a-half hour operation, her federation said.
Komissarova, 23, was immediately taken from the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park to hospital in the nearby resort of Krasnaya Polyana after the accident, the most serious yet to hit the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.
The operation was described as a success and she had a metal implant inserted into her spine. But the federation declined to give any prognosis for her future condition.
Miracle on Ice Part II: T.J. Oshie scored the shootout winner as the United States defeated Russia 3-2 in a nail-biting Sochi Olympic hockey clash on Saturday in the latest chapter of the two giants’ historic rivalry.
Oshie took six of eight shots for the Americans in the shootout, firing it between the legs of Russian netminder Sergei Bobrovski on the final one to clinch the victory in the preliminary round game in dramatic fashion.
Oshie’s winner came moments after Russian forward Ilya Kovalchuk had failed to score on what turned out to be his last shootout attempt.
Super Anna F: Austrian Anna Fenninger claimed Olympic gold in a drama-packed women’s super-G that saw a number of racers struggle to finish the demanding course.
After only three of the starting 10 racers had made it down the 2.2km-long Rosa Khutor course, Fenninger, starting with bib number 18, clocked 1min 25.52sec for victory.
Defending champion: China’s Zhou Yang defended her Olympic Games short track title on when she triumphed in the 1,500m.
Zhou, third in the World Cup rankings this season, came good when it mattered most.
The 22-year-old clocked 2min 19.140sec to edge 17-year-old South Korean Shim Suk-Hee, who was second at the world championships, with Italy’s Arianna Fontana claiming bronze.
Fine margins: Poland’s Zbigniew Brodka won a dramatic 1,500m Olympic speed skating race by just three-thousandths of a second from devastated Dutchman Koen Verweij.
Brodka crossed the line in 1min 45.006sec, just 0.003sec ahead of Verweij.
Russian pride: Alexander Tretiakov of Russia earned his country’s fourth gold medal of the Sochi Olympics with victory in the men’s skeleton.
The 2013 world champion produced two more consistent rides to clock a combined time of 3min 44.29sec to finish 0.81sec ahead of second-placed two-time world champion Martins Dukurs of Latvia.
Ireland’s Sean Greenwood finished 27th.
You gotta see this
This is the difference between a US win and a probable Russian victory in today’s ice hockey after Fedor Tyutin’s rocket shot was ruled out because the US net was millimetres off it’s moorings.
Hero of the day
It has to be TJ Oshie after his shootout performance against the Russians.
Oshie took advantage of the international ice hockey rules that allow a player take multiple shots in a shootout and he even has his own t-shirt.
Irish Eye
Canada-born Sean Greenwood made his Olympic debut in the skeleton yesterday but never really recovered from his crash in the second run. His third run saw him finish 27th and last after the third heat, 13 seconds off top spot.
They said what?
“It’s pretty close to impossible and yesterday was a proof of that.”
- Canadian figure skater Patrick Chan tries to explain why he didn’t win the gold when it was presented to him on a plate by Yuzuru Hanyu’s mistakes.
Medal table
Tomorrow’s highlights
The men’s Super-G kicks off an hour early because of conditions while there are medals to be won in a number of cross-country skiing events, including the men’s relay.
The ladies’ snowboard cross champion will also be decided tomorrow with all four rounds of the event taking place.
If you don’t know what snowboard cross is, it’s a lot of fun:
Additional reporting from Steven O’Rourke.
