Olympics Day 13 Wrapup

Today's medal events were all about the ladies but men's hockey dominated the attention in Vancouver and all around the world on Wednesday. Some luck helped the USA gain a medal over Germany and gave them a four medal lead after an unexpected crash by Germany's top women's bobsled team in the final run and the failure of the men's cross- country team to win a medal. The women's giant slalom second run was postponed until Thursday to due weather conditions.
The men's cross-country relay was won by Sweden. The hatred towards Sweden from Norway hightened after the Swedish team won gold because this is Norway's sport, they invented it and have had a very disappointing Olympics. Led by medalists Johan Olsson and Marcus Hellner on the last two legs, the Swedes broke away from Norway and the Czech Republic. Norway took silver and the Czechs took bronze.
In the women's 5000m speed skating race, the Czech Republic took their second gold in their history in speed skating from Martina Sablikova. The other gold came from Sablikova in this year's 3000 meter race. The Canadian contingent that was hoping to win a few medals was only able to take bronze, which was won by Clara Hughes. Stephanie Beckert won silver for Germany, their only medal of the day.
The short track 3000m women's relay was supposed to have China and Korea fighting for gold but that was not the case. The Korean team was disqualified and they became the odd team out in the four team final. Canada and the USA benefitted by taking silver and bronze respectively.
The bobsled event gave Canada not one but two medals. The top German sled driven by Cathleen Martini crashed in the final heat and opened the door for the other competitors after the other German sled driven by defending gold medalist Sandra Kiriasis had a slow time and finished out of reach of the podium. USA II driven by Erin Pac was able to clinch a medal, winning bronze, behind Canada I, driven by Kaillie Humphries and Helen Upperton's Canada II sled. The gold tied Canada with the USA and Germany for most gold medals with seven.
The women's aerials competition just like so many events from the day saw a surprise winner in Lydia Lassila from Australia. The Chinese team was expected to sweep the medal podium but a crash by Xu Mengtao and a stellar performance by Lassila gave the Flying Kangaroo a gold and left the other two Chinese women, Li Nina and Guo Xinxin to get silver and bronze.
In the men's hockey quarterfinals Team USA survived a scare against Switzerland thanks to two third period goals from Zach Parise. The Americans will face Finland in the semis after they beat the Czech Republic by the same score.
The marquee matchup of the day was Canada-Russia, and it was far from a duel between two superpowers. The Russians came out flat and suffered a 7-3 defeat. After the game in an interview, Alex Ovechkin was disgusted and speechless at how poorly his team played. The host nation will play Slovakia who upset defending gold medalist Sweden 4-3 in the nightcap.
Today's Gold Medalists:
Sweden (Cross-Country Relay)
China (Short Track Relay)
Martina Sablikova (Speed Skating- Czech Republic)
Canada I, Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse (Bobsled)
Lydia Lassila (Freestyle Skiing- Australia)
Medal Count after Wednesday:
USA- 28
Germany- 24
Norway- 18
Canada- 15
Russia- 13
Korea, Austria, France- 10
Switzerland, China, Sweden- 8
Netherlands- 6
Czech Republic- 5
Poland, Italy- 4
Australia, Slovakia, Japan- 3
Latvia, Belarus, Croatia, Slovenia- 2
Great Britain, Estonia, Finland, Kazakhstan- 1