Another Gold!

After weeks of wondering whether there would even be enough snow to allow competition to take place at Cypress Mountain, the Canadians are putting on an impressive display in Freestyle and Snowboard Cross.  Yesterday, Mike Robertson won silver in the Men's Snowboard Cross and today Maelle Ricker took the gold in the Women's Snowboard Cross giving Canada four medals in four days at this venue!

The Men's Hockey Team opened competition with a convincing 8-0 win over Norway, though I am sure that many were nervous after a scoreless opening period.  Meanwhile, the Women's Hockey team rolled over Switzerland 10-1 (the big surprise was that Switzerland managed to score).  Both our Men's and Women's curling teams have started off with victories as well.

The Men's Figure Skating Short Program was disappointing for Canadian Patrick Chan, who had a misstep in a footwork sequence and stepped out of his triple axel landing.  The two mistakes combined to leave him in 7th place about 9 points from the leader Evgeni Plushenko (who is hoping to become the first person to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals since Dick Button in 1948 and 1952).

Did you happen to notice Lori Nichol switching coats during the evening?  She was wearing a Canadian jacket while Patrick was skating but switched to a USA jacket when Evan Lysacek skated!

NBC ran a really nice profile piece on Patrick Chan that talked about his close relationship with his first coach Osborne Carlson, but which did not talk about the coaching controversy with Don Laws.  With his 7th place position, Patrick will not even be skating in the final group, and will have to have a magnificant Free Skate if he hopes to compete for a medal.   Fingers crossed...