PAIR SKATING
Mishina/Galliamov

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PAIR SKATING
THE FAVORITE: Mishina/Galliamov

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PAIR SKATING
THE OTHER RUSSIANS

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Pair skating

Mishina / Galliamov

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PAIR SKATING
Mishina/Galliamov

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PAIR SKATING
Mishina/Galliamov

PAIR SKATING
THE OTHER RUSSIANS

PAIR SKATING
The field

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PAIR SKATING
THE OTHER RUSSIANS

Day fourteen of the Fat Headed Panda Olympics!

As we exit today's games with just two days to go, I fear that on Monday, Putin will invade the Ukraine. He says he has pulled back troops from the front lines, or to put it another way, "I am lying and have added more troops to the front lines." My local news responded in the usual way. They found a local Ukrainian to talk to. Nothing thrills a news station more then to find a person to talk to. Meanwhile they have already told us that gas will go up over this. Like next week. What? Sigh! That makes no sense!

It's like the Chaos effect. A butterfly flaps its wings in Central Park, and gas prices go up.

So NBC started off by re showing the Women's Freestyle Half Pipe from last night.

Guuuuuuuu!

by the way, welcome!

Julie Marino gave an interview. She got the silver in snowboarding slope style big air. Those medals look huge on her neck! Has an interesting way of speaking, but without the video to prove it, I will just move on to say that what the IOC did to her is F'ed up! Night before her event, they call and say "Oh, we are no longer allowing you to advertise your sponsor." You know, like the one that is laser painted on the bottom of her board and can not be removed!

They had to use a sharpie on it, and then try to coat that and that might have cost her the gold as she said it then mentally drained her from worrying if she could compete now and the board felt weird. The IOC is like the international NCAA. Just the worst!

Also, although she is from Connecticut, and her family also has a place in Canada, so there you go!

So we get the Mens and Womens Mass Start in Biathlon today. The king sport of Biathlon if you ask me. I love to watch this event! There is so much chaos in the shooting!

So they both do the same thing. 12.5K long. 5 laps of 2.5k 4 shooting stations, down, down, up, up. Five shots at each. No reloads. Penalty lap of 150m for any missed. 12 degrees out. Got it? Good!

So 30 women in like three or four rows take the snowy field. The best in the front which of course sucks if your already not good. Whatever man!

Shooting station one and we got about ten coming in. The usual suspects. Norway, Norway, Norway! Sweden and France are in there too. Most shoot clean and their off!

Shooting two and it's like a group of six and then two more close behind. Norway, Norway, France out first. And they ski on!

Shooting station three, and the wheat is separating from the chaff now. Norway's Eckhoff and Roiseland come in. Bad wind. Bouchet and Simon of France is catching up. So is Davidova of the Czech Republic and Reztsova of ROC, and Preub of Germany. Norwegian Roiseland shoots clean and is off followed by Sweden's Oberg and Czech Davidova. Eckhoff takes a long time to shoot, but goes clean and is off. Most miss at least one and take a loop or more. It's still tight though and anyone's game. It will come down to shooting station four and skiing.

Station four. Four come in bunched up. Frances Bouchet, then Norways Eckhoff and Roiseland and then France again with Simon. Just a bit of time between them. They shoot, France goes clean, a few misses by the others, they go off and it's Bouchet out front by a good lead. She is 48 seconds ahead. No women has ever won by more then 20 seconds. Following her now though is the two Norwegians, Simon of France and the Czech. Finally they start to separate, by end they start to spread, Eckhoff tries to close the gap for the Gold, but she is running out of real estate fast and it's too little too late.

Frances Bouchet wins by just 15.3, Norway's Eckhoff with the Silver, and Norway's Roiseland with the bronze and the Czech Davidova is in forth 20 seconds behind her. Lone American Deedra Irwin was 23rd and 3.24 out of first.

Also learned if you wipe out on your rear, you could snap your rifle in two!

Now to the Mens Mass Start. This is a huge deal! Lot's of superstars in this event as well as Frances own QFM! Twenty nine year old Quentin Fillon Maillet. QFM. Get it? He has five medals so far. Two gold and three silver, and going for a record six in one games! They said more press was at this then maybe any other event. Norway is also looking to win it's fifteenth in just one game in this sport in just one Olympics.

Already very spread out looking coming into shooting one. No groups in this event to start. Everyone is going hard! Or what they personally call hard.

QFM has one miss and is gone. Sweden looks good at this moment in time. It won't last. As well as a pair of Canadians looking for some free press by making all of their moves early. Terrible! They will finish 13th and 18th, but for one station, they are looking good! Smart move really. Get it while you can I say!

Station two and there is a few groups now. Like two, then four, then three. It's the big boys out in the lead now. QFM is looking really good still. Coming in. Not so much going out! He has a miss. Wind? maybe? He has to ski a loop and leaves in 8th!

I see by my notes that no one has told Gow of Canada to piss off though just yet. It is Norway's Boe, followed by Gow, Sweden's Samulelsson who is also trying to look good for a while, Germany's Doll, Sweden's real skier Ponsiluoma, and Norway's Christiansen looking good too.

NBC went to a commercial right after shooting two, and dumps right into a shot of Shooting station three. It's Norways Boe. Check. And Germany's Nawrath! What! This guy finished this in 23rd! SMH. Have no idea, but my pictures prove it! LOL By the time Boe pulls out, the top players enter and shoot including QFM! He is very much in this!

QFM shoots clean and is gone. Ponsiluoma of Sweden is good. Canadian Gow is still pretending he can win this. Get out of there Canada! 13th people. Just saying!

Shooting Station four. Crunch time! QFM looking good. He has only three misses coming into this event the whole games. No problem. Just shoot clean and go get your six medal! Nothing to see here!

And he misses three! SMH Terrible!

Bad wind on this station. Boe misses two as well but is so far in the lead he is good. Sweden misses one, but he is also out there as well so he skis a loop and goes. Canada's Gow is still in the top group I see by my notes. What? He placed 13th! What happened? I just don't' know. Bizarre! He was almost three minutes behind the gold. He did miss three here though so there is that.

Seriously! When I'm looking at my notes here as I type, I just don't get it. What happened!

So we get the QFM meltdown, which is a shame because I was routing for the guy. I wanted to see him get tossed by his teammates again! And it is Norway s Boe in first, Sweden Ponsiluom in second, and Norways Christiansen in third out of the shoot, and news flash, that was the order they won in. QFM would not make it up despite skiing hard. He was just to far behind at this point and would finish 1.24 back or 13 seconds behind bronze. If he had only missed two, he would have six medals.

But Boe picks up his fifth as well and now they both have five in one games and I think Martin Ponsiluoma got a call from Sweden's King? Crazy. That is some weird European stuff right there. Like a king calls you because you took a silver in Mass Biathlon.

This sport is great to watch, but sucks to play. Like of those 30, like at least 20 were out of it the moment their plane touched down. Right? I mean this sport is as dominated by a few people as any. How some can just do it better is crazy. They interviewed Boe, because he can speak English apparently, and that is how that works. If you speak English, they get excited to interview you, and when asked why he is so good, he just shrugs his shoulders and goes "I don't know."

LIAR! LIAR! You are lying to us! Tell us your secrets! We want to know!

America finished... uh... let me check my notes... oh! in Zero place! We were not even allowed in this! SMH Terrible!

We are then told that the Team Ski is pushed off until tomorrow. Maybe

So we then go to the Two Women bobsled. Apparently our two Monobobers each head a team. I guess I thought they would both compete together for some weird reason that makes no sense. Like I was surprised for a good minute on this. Even though that was dumb of me to think that they would both drive a car in the Monobob and then like team up. Boy I can be dumb!

Taylor and Humphries looks great. She missed the opening ceremony due to Covid, that thing the Chinese athletes never get, and will carry the flag in the closing, so good for her!

Heat one is not shown. It was Germany, Germany, then USA, USA, Canada, and then Germany in fifth again.

Heat two drops in. Humphries apparently has a calf strain but is just .17 back on her run from Germany. American Taylor looks great on her run too, and is .42 into the lead. Germany looks great though and this is going to be tough. I'm talking real tough. The night ends with Germany, Germany, Taylor, Canada, Humphries, and then Germany. Everyone is just a bit back from that, but they all get faster as they go and I think those six are your top three. So while I think beating Germany is going to be tough, I still think it is anyone's game and who knows, we may take two more medals from Germany!

But what the hell do I know about this sport! Who do I think I am!

FYI, unlike Monobob, all sleds are not equal and one of the women uses the Mens even. So sled quality can matter in this and that may make the difference at the end of the day.

Mens four man is up. I'm uh, not a huge fan. I like the two bobsled better and Monobob is my jam now! I'm just not into these larger, heavier sleds for some reason. And how do they get them back up? Truck? Conveyor belt?

I'll give you the broad strokes for today. Germany, Germany, Germany! And Canada! What! And Latvia? Hmmm So I have noticed it goes like Green! Green!! Green!!! and then Red! Red!! Red!!! when you lose. Like the worst teams do well and then go downhill fast, but only metaphorically as the fast teams seem to start off i the red and then go green, green meaning your doing well. Or so it seems to me.

But once again, what makes me think I know anything about this sport!

The Americans have back in there for this event, Hunter Church and Frank, thank your for your service, Del Duca, each heading and driving a team. There look good and there doing the best they can and Hunter is in 13th and Frank is in 15th and see you in Italy in 2026.

So where are we at? It's Germany in there of the top four spots and wait, Canada in third? Yup! Canada's Justin "don't call me bloods" Kripps is going great, and looking good, and could break up that Gold domination by Germany. So good for them. And Latvia is in fifth and who knows. Once again, maybe someone will spoil Germany's party.

And Jamaica mon? Last! Dead last! They are trying and there fun to watch, but it is what it is. I wish them the best but they are 2.86 behind before the are all even sitting down. Which is weird because isn't them being fast runners supposed to be the point? Right? Sprinters doing Bobsled? Wasn't that the hook of Cool Running's 1990? The only reason they didn't do a complete 180, is because the track is to narrow. They have the right to compete, and the truth is, America is not great either, but I can't help but at times find myself rolling my eyes at the novelty.

But they seem like super nice guys living their dream, and I wish them well.

So that is it on that. It's like .2 separating the top five, so it should be fun to see who wins. I'll let you know tomorrow!

Let's do the Mens's 1000m next.

Americans top hope is a 17 year old named Jordan Stolz, the youngest we have at the games for the United states, 3rd youngest ever for us and 5th fastest ever at the trials. He is young and inexperienced but remember that name because four years from now, who knows. They did like a whole bio on him, and then I accidentally deleted it. But he comes from a farm where they don't watch TV, except as a little kid when he was like five, his parents let him watch the Olympics, and he liked the skating, so his dad cleared a round oval on the backyard pond and off he went. His mom made him wear a life vest the first time in case the ice broke! Well here he is and when we dropped on in he was ready to go!

He skates against a Korean, does well, and into 4th and ends at 14th. Not going to medal, but see you in four years.

Now just so you know, when you skate these 2.5 laps, you have to give way on each turn, and if you are not ahead enough at a pass, you have to pull up and off. It is called ceding the advantage. Just letting you know that for no real reason.

So four pairs left. It's ROC and Belarus. Belarus goes into second by just .02! And is just is just .07 from 1st! And ROC into 4th by just .18 Because that is this sport! You train your whole life to shave off a second or less. Insane!

Dutch Krol us up now against Norway's Lorentzen. They go and it's 1st and 2nd.

Now it is Dutch Otterspeer and China's Zhongyan. They look slow for quite some time, but China goes into fourth. Now one pair left

It is Dutch Verboj and Canadian Dubreuil. The Dutch guy is expected to win this. They go, looking super fast, both of them, everything is going good, except the Canadian is going great and then the Dutch guy, not so much! At the pass Verboj is going to slow, and has to pull up! He has to cede the advantage as they say and the Canadian goes on to win the race and takes silver! The Dutch guy can not believe this just happened to him! He looks really embarrassed by the whole thing. Because this is their sport! It's like if, I don't know, America got beat by a Canadian football team. Like real football. It was weird to watch.

Dutch's Krol with the Gold, Canadian Dubreuil with the Silver, and Norway's Lorentzen with the bronze. Crazy stuff if you ask me.

Figure skating pairs Short program.

So the Americans looked good. For a while. They still look good, but I'm not sure if we can medal. I'm just going to paint a big picture here for you.

First up we have... Brandon Frazier? I love that guy! Encino man! School Ties! The Mummy franchise! Nioce!

What? Not him? It's spelled different? Oh, OK

So it was Americans Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier who have only been together for two years. Looked nice, no falls, tall dude, cute blonde in a red outfit. Her not him! He looks like maybe John Krasinski? Young Timothy Hutton the actor as well? You tell me. They skated to "The House of the Rising Sun" as sung by the Heavy Young Heathens who are suing them for not paying? Not sure, but NBC couldn't promote them using it, but they did skate to it, so not sure what that is all about. The went into first over Georgia and are sitting in 6th with 74.23

We saw Canadians Vanessa James and Eric Radfor skate. Apparently they crashed into Italy's team in a earlier warm up, who had their song playing, ergo they had the right away. Who knew that is how that works. They do alright and are in 10th

Japanese Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara did well and are in 8th. She is super small. Like a gymnasts. Skated to the most over played song ever. Hallelujah. I love the song, but man it is so over used! Or maybe that is just me

Spain recruited an Italian who just got his citizenship on December 29th and is there first pair ever in the Olympics I guess. He is 13 inches taller then her.

Canadas Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro went and he threw her to the ground! Sorry! They are in 13th.

Americans Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc also have a bad throw and are in 7th and right behind the other Americans by like 0.1. They have a 74.13

And now we go to WAR! It's China vs Ruuuuushia! The top people!

Peng Cheng and Jin Yang of China, almost fell, in 5th with a 76.10

Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii of the ROC. Bad throw, almost fell, skated last. Like Johnny says "You can't win on a good throw, but you can lose on a bad one." Their stock plummeted! Can they recover? Not sure. They are like four points down now and were expected to contend for the gold. 78.59

Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov for Russia. Short Coach. Look great. Sitting in third with a solid 82.76

Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov of Russia. Have same douchebag coaches who went off on Kamila Valieva right after she fell last night. Like the IOC president even talked about that! What a bunch of jerks! But they are in second with a very competitive 84.25 They can definitely win this.

And finally hometown heroes Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China. China got the pairs moved for the first time ever to last so that they can try and watch this pair take gold. They are good. Real good. Despite this one long hair on her head going all over the place while she skated. Like in her face at times? Did she mean to do that? Fashion choice? Hmmm? This couple lost the gold in 2018 by just a half a point. They are hungry and want this. They had a night high of 84.41.

So this looks to be mostly the ROC and China. I don't think the Americans can get a medal, but if we have a ton of falls, maybe? But probably not! Just keeping it real.

BTW, everyone had to do a move called the "Death Spiral!" The guy holds just the girls head in his hands as she spins around like that and her head as to be below her hips for it to count. Crazy!

And final the Mens Freestyle skiing half pipe final!

The coverage of this sucked, and here is why. Lots of wind! Crazy wind was the real story!

So it's the top 12 in, best score of three runs, four Americans in this. got that? Good. So by the time we get into this, the first round of three is over, and that sucked. Why? That is where the best runs were! Like one good run from Noah Bowman of Canada in the second, and that is it. This was a let down viewing wise.

So Canada had three in. Simon d'Artois took 10th. His best was in the third amazingly but it was just a 63.75. It was rough and there was nothing he could do about it. Right behind him in 9th was fellow Canadian Brendan Mackay. His best run was a 65.50 in the second run. To put this in perspective, you needed over 86 to medal. And finally Noah Bowman came up just short and into fourth with his best being 84.75 and just two points off of third. He had two good runs though, his first two, and like most of the field, fell on his last run. It was a crappy ride for all in the third let me tell you.

American Aaron Blunk came in 7th. 70.25, then 78.25, and then PLUNK in the third. They actually ended the night with his run and he hit the deck harder then anyone! Fellow American David Wise went running up the hill as the paramedics came down. He was down for a while in fact, but thankfully was able to get up. It was that kind of night.

Birk Irving the 17 year old came in 5th. He just couldn't' seem to stick his last landings. But I think we will see him back a few times down the road. His best was an 80 in the first round.

So it was really down to Americans Alex Ferreira and David wise and New Zealands Nico Porteous, who's brother Miguel was also in this and finished 11th. All three had a great first round! Which we didn't see! It was Nico in 1st, David in 2nd and Alex in 3rd going into the second round and all went big and all went Splat. I'm not even going to drag this out. Not one of them had a big score after that first round.

The wind was crazy, flurries everywhere, they put up a long tall breaker along one side to help, but that sent the wind into the tunnel and that made it worse probably. They all had to either land far away and would lose speed, or try to stick it and pay. One guy landed so hard I thought he snapped his spine in two! Seriously! Slow mo showed it was just his legs, for whatever that is worth. He skied away but it looked brutal. Sometimes the would have to just abandon their run in the middle because the speed was gone. Only Ferreira put up one more solid run of the three and they gave him 67.75 for like some petty reason. On gold winner Nico's final run he even hurt his arm landing which sucks. It was just a real let down to watch and I felt bad for them.

We did get a nice bio on American silver winner David Wise and his family. They all seem nice. Two kids, Christian, lives in Reno Nevada, big outdoor fan, hunts and only eats what he kills, which has apparently for some reason cost him some sponsors. Weird? He is super into archery and wants to go to the Summer Olympics next. Good luck with that. Those guys are amazing. I saw a guy on YouTube split a pill that he tossed up with an arrow. And another guy who can curve his shots. Not sure if I will be seeing him there! LOL

And Alex Ferreira, if you haven't figured it out got the bronze. So there you go! Lot's of wind in China, hence why they pushed the Team Ski and I guess it's all my fault as I was chiding China for a lack of wind for the flags earlier, so put it on me. I can take it!

And that was it for today. Tomorrow we get more bobsled, and the figure skating finals and maybe a few other things and then Sunday it's like three more events conclude, but I don't think America is in those and then the closing ceremony. Were almost done.

Thank God!

Have a nice day and bye!

No Good Video of the Half Pipe Event Because NBC is Crap!


David Wise (silver) and Alex Ferreira (bronze) and New Zealand's Nico Porteous


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjqZ6q4F3G4
David Wise Bio from NBC

[BigGlen]

PAIR SKATING
Mishina/Galliamov

[Fatima99]

SPORTS CENTER CONTEST #1523

NASCAR DAYTONA 500

It's the Daytona 500 on Sunday - would be rude not to have a contest for it
Time for a DAYTONA 500

As in some past contests, we have grouped the drivers to make this easier.
Just pick a "group" and if any of the drivers in your group win, you win

INFORMATION
The DAYTONA 500
For this race, we head out to Daytona, Florida, USA.

GROUP ONE
Denny Hamln 10%
Ryan Blaney 7.7%
Brad Keselowski 5.9%
Alex Bowman 4.8%
TOTAL = 28.4%

GROUP TWO
Kyle Larsen 10%
Kyle Busch 6.3%
William Byron 5.9%
Kurt Busch 4.8%
TOTAL = 27%

GROUP THREE
Chase Elliott 8.3%
Joey Logano 7.7%
Kevin Harvick 4.8%
Bubba Wallace 4.8%
TOTAL = 25.6%

All the other bozos will be considered THE FIELD
So, there are only four choices

What is it?
You are being asked to simply pick the group that will feature the winning driver

How do you play?
To enter this contest, you will need to post the following:
DAYTONA 500
Pick either Group One, Group Two, Group Three or THE FIELD or BOZOS

EXAMPLE POST

DAYTONA 500
Group One

Rules:
Simply pick the group that will feature the winning driver and you win
Only 1 post/entry per person for this contest. If you make multiple entries, SHAME ON YOU
We will consider your FIRST POST/PICKS as your entry, and probably send you a PM or make a post saying how bad you are

ALL PICKS MUST BE MADE PRIOR TO THE FOLLOWING TIMES:
SUNDAY 1:30 PM Chicago (UTC -6)
SUNDAY 7:30 PM GMT (UTC +0)
SUNDAY 8:30 PM France (CET)
Any picks made after this deadline will simply be ignored.
Any edits after this deadline, and your post will be disallowed.

Reward:
If you predict the group with the winning driver, you share the 500 WRZ$ pool

So it's that easy. You have a one in four shot to win DAYTONA 500

Time is running out on today's contest
FIGURE SKATING - PAIR SKATING - SPORTS CENTER #1522 HERE
CLOSES SATURDAY 2/18 5:00 AM Chicago (UTC -6) SATURDAY 2/18 11:00 AM GMT (UTC +0) SATURDAY 2/18 MIDNIGHT France (UTC +1) SATURDAY 2/18 7:00 PM BEIJING (UTC +8)

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DAYTONA 500
Group One

DAYTONA 500
Group 2

DAYTONA 500
Group 1