Olympics Day 10 Wrapup

Sunday in Vancouver was highlighted by Super Sunday in men's hockey. The concentration of everyone except for NBC was on the USA-Canada game at night. For those who watched NBC instead of the hockey game, you saw the newest Olympic event, bobsled, and the Bode Miller Redemption Tour.
The medal events started off today as they usually do, up at Whistler with either a cross-country or biathlon doubleheader. Today it was biathlon, where Norway yet again failed to medal in both events. The men's 15k mass start was first and it went down to the final lap. With most of the favorites missing at least one shot at the range, Russia's Evgeny Ustyugov took advantage after shooting clean for the fourth time, he took the lead. Hot on everyone's heels was France's Martin Fourcade, who sprinted up from fifth after the last shooting round to the silver medal in an Olympics that has been good to France in biathlon. Slovenia's Pavol Hurajt had a chance to win his country's first gold in biathlon but Ustyugov and Fourcade both passed him in the final lap, leaving Hurajy with bronze.
In the women's 12.5k version of the mass start, Germany's Magdelena Neuner became Germany's best athlete at Vancouver with her second gold and third overall medal. In a race that was down to three, Neuner passed Olga Zaitseva of Russia after the last shooting round on the final lap. Germany's Simone Hauswald took the bronze behind Neuner and Zaitseva.
The men's super combined featured stop number three of the Bode Miller Redemption Tour. This stop of the tour was the most successful for the American. After finishing seventh in the downhill portion, Miller finished third in the slalom which was enough to take the top spot. Croatia's Ivica Kostelic won the silver, Kostelic's sister, Janica won six alpine skiing medals in her career, giving the family a seventh medal with Ivica's silver. Swiss skier Silvan Zurbriggen surprised some people and took the bronze. Zurbriggen is hidded behind the rest of the Swiss team and is usually not mentioned in discussions of medal contenders, but now he will.
The newest event of the Winter Olympics took place today. Men's ski cross was a huge disappointment for Americans Daron Rahlves and Casey Puckett who did not make the quarterfinal round. World Cup leader Michael Schmid of Switzerland did qualify for the quarterfinals and ended winning the final. Andreas Matt took silver and Norway's Audun Groenvold benefitted from a fall from Chris Del Bosco of Canada to take bronze.
The Canadian women were heavily favored in the 1500 meter race but like American Shani Davis yesterday in the same distance, the heavy favorite won silver instead of gold. Kristina Groves needed to beat Ireen Wust's time of 1:56:89 to take first but finished 0.25 behind Wust and gave Canada a silver instead of the gold they wanted. Wust gave the orange section of Richmond Olympic Oval something to cheer about giving the Dutch their third gold medal in speed skating. 3000 meter winner Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic took the bronze.
As expected in the two-man bobsled, Germany dominated. Bringing the Germans within six medals of the USA were their top two sleds. Driver of Germany I Andre Lange defended his gold medal from Torino, this time with brakeman Kevin Kuske. Germany II driven by Thomas Florshuetz took the silver with brakeman Richard Adjei. Russia duo of driver Alexsandr Zubkov and brakeman Alexey Voevoda took the bronze.
Today's Gold Medal Winners:
Evgeny Ustyugov (Biathlon- Russia)
Magdalena Neuner (Biathlon- Germany)
Bode Miller (Alpine Skiing- USA)
Michael Schmid (Freestyle Skiing- Switzerland)
Ireen Wust (Speed Skating- Netherlands)
Germany I, Andre Lange/Kevin Kuske (Bobsled- Germany)
Medal Count after Sunday:
USA- 24
Germany- 18
Norway- 12
Canada, Korea- 9
Austria, Russia, France- 8
Switzerland- 7
Sweden- 6
China, Netherlands- 5
Poland, Italy- 4
Slovakia, Czech Republic, Japan- 3
Australia, Belarus, Latvia, Croatia, Slovenia- 2
Great Britain, Estonia, Finland, Kazakhstan- 1