The first half of the Sochi Olympics has come and gone, and with it some notable moments. This week, however, will determine who ultimately comes out on top in the medal count. As of Monday morning, the Netherlands leads with 17 total wins, with Russia and the U.S. close behind with 16 wins each.

Pulp’s Olympic Update has you covered on all the icy competition that you missed, and what you have left to watch of 2014 Winter Olympics.

SLOPES

The slopes are the scene for most of the Winter Olympics’ main events: alpine, cross-country and freestyle skiing; ski jumping; biathlon and snowboarding racing and half-pipe. The slopes in Sochi have already had many inspiring events, and are expected to be the site of many more in the upcoming week.

What you’ve missed: Women’s skiathlon in cross-country; somen’s moguls in freestyle skiing; the men’s normal hill individual for ski jumping, and women’s slopestyle for snowboarding, among others.

What’s coming up: Men’s aerials freestyle skiing, men’s team ski jumping, men’s snowboard cross, women’s giant slalom in alpine skiing, and men’s ski half-pipe in freestyle skiing

Notable Athletes: Team USA dominated the men’s slopestyle for freestyle skiing, making the scoreboard entirely red, white and blue. Joss Christensen nabbed the gold, Gus Kenworthy scored silver and Nick Goepper won bronze.

Medal Count: Four gold, three silver, five bronze

Best Moment: Two athletes, Tina Maze of Slovenia and Dominique Gisin of Switzerland, tied for first in the women’s downhill race in Alpine skiing. The two came in at the same time down to the milliseconds, at 1 minute, 41.57 seconds, which is a first in Olympic history.

Worst Moment: Team USA’s Shaun White’s upset comes in as the worst moment on the slopes at this year’s Winter Olympics. White’s expected gold medal in the half-pipe became a fourth place finish after he suffered multiple falls during the trick-laden competition.

STICKS

Ice Hockey and Curling have been heating up the ice in Russia. After USA’s hard battle with Russia went down to the wire, don’t miss out on the rest of the exciting competition playing out in the Sochi arenas.

What you’ve missed: Both curling and ice hockey have had qualifying sessions, though the medal matchups aren’t scheduled until the end of the week.

What’s coming up: Curling will start their semi-finals this Wednesday, and ice hockey will slide into their quarterfinals this Wednesday. Thursday will see the final in women’s ice hockey and curling alike; Friday will see the men’s final in curling and the semi-final in men’s ice hockey; ice hockey men’s final will take place over Saturday and Sunday.

Notable Athletes: The USA curling team has a twin power duo: Sarah and Taylor Anderson, from Pennsylvania.

Timothy Leif “T.J.” Oshie, a player on the USA hockey team, led the team to victory against Russia after scoring four shootout goals.

Medal Count: No one has medaled in either ice hockey or curling, as they have not yet reached the finals.
Best Moment: Team USA won an ice hockey shootout against Russia on Saturday. The game evoked references to the “Miracle on Ice,” the US hockey team’s defeat over the Soviet Union during the Cold War-era 1980 Winter Olympics.
Worst Moment: After coming in as a favorite for the gold, the U.S. women’s hockey team lost to Canada in an early preliminary game last week. Though both moved on, some view this as a bad sign for the American team, since Canada has won the past 17 Olympic gold medals in women’s hockey.

SKATES

This category includes artsy favorites figure skating and ice dancing. It also encompasses the “track-and-field of the Winter Olympics:” speed skating, in both the normal and short track.

What you’ve missed: Men’s, pairs and team figure skating; Some men’s and women’s speed skating and short track

What’s coming up: Some men’s and women’s speed skating and short track; Ice dancing; Women’s figure skating

Notable athletes: Aptly-named U.S. figure skater Gracie Gold is expected to be one of the only competitors capable of taking on 15-year-old Russian phenom Yulia Lipnitskaya during this week’s women’s figure skating competition.

Medal Count: One bronze, team figure skating

Best Moment: Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov won gold for Russia in the Pairs figure skating category and the Team figure skating category. This is Russia’s 13th gold medal in the pairs figure skating category, which the country dominated for 12 consecutive Olympics since 1964 until 2010, when the team lost to China.

Worst Moment: Jeremy Abbott, the U.S. figure skating champion, fell face-first onto the ice after attempting a quadruple toe loop, and then crashed into a wall. After lying on the ice for several moments, he got up and continued the routine, coming in at 15th place, out of 29 other skaters.

SLEDS

Sliding down a snowy hill is a favorite winter pastime, but these athletes are taking the sport to the next level. With sleds that can sometimes exceed 75 miles per hour — faster than the speed limit on I-81 — bobsledding, skeleton and luge are some of the most exciting and dangerous sports in the Olympics.

What you’ve missed: Bobsleigh two-man heat; men’s and women’s skeleton; men’s and women’s singles, doubles and team relay in luge

What’s coming up: Women’s and four-man heats in bobsleigh.

Notable athletes: Noelle Pikus Pace, who retired in 2010 to spend more time with her two children, came back for this year’s Olympics to win a silver medal in the women’s skeleton run.

Medal counts: 2 bronze, 1 silver

Best moment: The Jamaican bobsleigh team returns to the Winter Olympics after a 12-year absence. Although the team qualified to enter, it still had to raise up to $80,000 to cover travel costs, which it raised through online crowd-sourcing websites like Crowdtilt and Indiegogo. The team ended up receiving more than $120,000 on its Crowdtilt page alone, and are competing in the two-man sled race.

Worst moment: The Jamaican Bobsled team comes in dead-last after returning from its hiatus. Despite qualifying for the winter games for the race, the team is ranked 30th among all the countries competing after finishing at 58.42 seconds.

 

Published on February 17, 2014 at 3:29 am