Slovakia zips to the top of the medals table with the first gold of the Sochi Games, in women's downhill alpine skiing for the visually impaired. In this event, a visually impaired skier follows a sighted guide, who calls out directions down the slope. The skiers' times are adjusted based on their classification in one of three degrees of visual impairment (some useful vision, minimal useful vision and no useful vision, in which the visually impaired skier's goggles are covered in tape).
The gold goes to Henrieta Farkašová and guide Nataly Šubrtová--no surprise as this team won three gold medals and a silver at Vancouver 2010. Great Britain takes silver; Russia, bronze.
The "Slovak Disabled Ski Team" website does not list precise birthdates for its national athletes. It does, however, tell us that Henrieta Farkašová was born in "1986 in the sign of the bull." Also, it says she likes Scrabble.
All these sports where you time people doing things and then compare those times, sometimes after adding them up after multiple heats ... look, it's your sports, and you do them how you want, and I'll even tune in here and there and get excited to see who wins your big championships. But if you really want to grab my interest, you set up your sports to have two or more competitors racing against each other at the same time and the winner advancing to the next round, tournament-style. The pursuit of world-record times doesn't particularly excite me; what I want to see is head-to-head racing.
The U.S. medal winners in today's alpine events were, for bronze in sitting women's downhill, Allison Jones, a 29-year-old born in Amarillo, Texas, who now lives in Colorado Springs, Colo.; for silver in standing women's downhill, Alana Nichols, a 30-year-old from Farmington, N.M., and, for bronze in standing women's downhill, Laurie Stephens, a 31-year-old from Wenham, Mass.
OK, so far, one of the things I really like about the Paralympic Winter Games is that the Team USA athletes seem to be older people from a greater diversity of states.
NBC is broadcasting the opening ceremonies again. I got to see this yesterday on NBC Sports Network, and this woman playing Tchaikovsky on the glasses filled with water is fantastic. And then she just disappears into the stage. I saw Prince do that once.
Oh, wow ... I flipped away for just a second, but I'm pretty sure that NBC cut out the entrance of Ukraine's flag. Ukraine has about 20 athletes at the Paralympics, but all but one of them skipped the opening ceremonies. One dude came in with the flag and appeared to be glaring at Vladimir Putin as he came through. It was pretty ... no ... here he comes ...
Slovakia zips to the top of the medals table with the first gold of the Sochi Games, in women's downhill alpine skiing for the visually impaired. In this event, a visually impaired skier follows a sighted guide, who calls out directions down the slope. The skiers' times are adjusted based on their classification in one of three degrees of visual impairment (some useful vision, minimal useful vision and no useful vision, in which the visually impaired skier's goggles are covered in tape).
ReplyDeleteThe gold goes to Henrieta Farkašová and guide Nataly Šubrtová--no surprise as this team won three gold medals and a silver at Vancouver 2010. Great Britain takes silver; Russia, bronze.
The "Slovak Disabled Ski Team" website does not list precise birthdates for its national athletes. It does, however, tell us that Henrieta Farkašová was born in "1986 in the sign of the bull." Also, it says she likes Scrabble.
DeletePer (fantastic) Wikipedia:
Slovak-language sets use these 100 tiles:
• 2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points)
• 1 point: A ×9, O ×9, E ×8, I ×5, N ×5, T ×4, R ×4, S ×4, V ×4
• 2 points: M ×4, K ×3, L ×3, D ×3, P ×3
• 3 points: J ×2, U ×2
• 4 points: B ×2, H ×1, Y ×1, Z ×1, Á ×1, C ×1
• 5 points: Č ×1, Ž ×1, Š ×1, Í ×1, Ý ×1
• 7 points: Ľ ×1, Ť ×1, É ×1, Ú ×1
• 8 points: Ď ×1, F ×1, G ×1, Ň ×1, Ô ×1
• 10 points: Ĺ ×1, Ŕ ×1, X ×1, Ä ×1, Ó ×1
Q and W are absent because they are only used in loanwords.
Since 2013, a new 112-tile set was introduced:
• 2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points)
• 1 point: O x 10, A x 9, E x 8, I x 6, N x 5, S x 5, V x 5, T x 4
• 2 points: R x 5, K x 4, L x 4, D x 3, M x 3, P x 3, U x 3, B x 2, J x 2, Y x 2, Z x 2, Á x 2
• 3 points: C x 1, H x 1, É x 1, Í x 1, Ú x 1, Ý x 1, Č x 1, Š x 1, Ž x 1
• 4 points: Ť x 1
• 5 points: Ľ x 1
• 6 points: F x 1, G x 1
• 7 points: Ô x 1, Ň x 1
• 8 points: Ä x 1, Ó x 1, Ď x 1
• 9 points: X x 1, Ĺ x 1, Ŕ x 1
• 10 points: Q x 1, W x 1
Women's downhill, standing: France gold, Russia silver and United States bronze.
ReplyDeleteWomen's downhill, sitting: Germany gold and United States silver and bronze.
Videotaped NBC Sports Network's live coverage from midnight-4 a.m. Central today. Watching that until the women in my house awake.
ReplyDeleteSo, anyway, this medals table is based on my viewing and not up to speed with where they actually are in Sochi:
ReplyDelete1. France 1 gold, 0 silver, 0 bronze
1. Germany 1 gold, 0 silver, 0 bronze
1. Slovakia 1 gold, 0 silver, 0 bronze
4. Russia 0, 2, 1
5. United States 0, 1, 2
6. Great Britain 0, 1, 0
7. Andorra 0, 0, 0
7. Argentina 0, 0, 0
7. Armenia 0, 0, 0
7. Australia 0, 0, 0
7. Austria 0, 0, 0
7. Belarus 0, 0, 0
7. Belgium 0, 0, 0
7. Bosnia and Herzegovina 0, 0, 0
7. Brazil 0, 0, 0
7. Bulgaria 0, 0, 0
7. Canada 0, 0, 0
7. Chile 0, 0, 0
7. China 0, 0, 0
7. Croatia 0, 0, 0
7. Czech Republic 0, 0, 0
7. Denmark 0, 0, 0
7. Finland 0, 0, 0
7. Greece 0, 0, 0
7. Iceland 0, 0, 0
7. Iran 0, 0, 0
7. Italy 0, 0, 0
7. Japan 0, 0, 0
7. Kazakhstan 0, 0, 0
7. Mexico 0, 0, 0
7. Mongolia 0, 0, 0
7. Netherlands 0, 0, 0
7. New Zealand 0, 0, 0
7. Norway 0, 0, 0
7. Poland 0, 0, 0
7. Romania 0, 0, 0
7. Serbia 0, 0, 0
7. Slovenia 0, 0, 0
7. South Korea 0, 0, 0
7. Spain 0, 0, 0
7. Sweden 0, 0, 0
7. Switzerland 0, 0, 0
7. Turkey 0, 0, 0
7. Ukraine 0, 0, 0
7. Uzbekistan 0, 0, 0
All these sports where you time people doing things and then compare those times, sometimes after adding them up after multiple heats ... look, it's your sports, and you do them how you want, and I'll even tune in here and there and get excited to see who wins your big championships. But if you really want to grab my interest, you set up your sports to have two or more competitors racing against each other at the same time and the winner advancing to the next round, tournament-style. The pursuit of world-record times doesn't particularly excite me; what I want to see is head-to-head racing.
ReplyDeleteMen's downhill, visually impaired: Spain gold, Slovakia silver, Canada bronze
ReplyDeleteMen's downhill, standing: Austria gold, Russia silver, France bronze
Men's downhill, sitting: Japan gold, Canada silver, Japan bronze
The U.S. medal winners in today's alpine events were, for bronze in sitting women's downhill, Allison Jones, a 29-year-old born in Amarillo, Texas, who now lives in Colorado Springs, Colo.; for silver in standing women's downhill, Alana Nichols, a 30-year-old from Farmington, N.M., and, for bronze in standing women's downhill, Laurie Stephens, a 31-year-old from Wenham, Mass.
ReplyDeleteOK, so far, one of the things I really like about the Paralympic Winter Games is that the Team USA athletes seem to be older people from a greater diversity of states.
1. Slovakia 1 gold, 1 silver, 0 bronze
ReplyDelete2. France 1, 0, 1
2. Japan 1, 0, 1
4. Austria 1, 0, 0
4. Germany 1, 0, 0
4. Spain 1, 0, 0
7. Russia 0, 3, 1
8. United States 0, 1, 2
9. Canada 0, 1, 1
10. Great Britain 0, 1, 0
NBC is broadcasting the opening ceremonies again. I got to see this yesterday on NBC Sports Network, and this woman playing Tchaikovsky on the glasses filled with water is fantastic. And then she just disappears into the stage. I saw Prince do that once.
ReplyDeleteOh, wow ... I flipped away for just a second, but I'm pretty sure that NBC cut out the entrance of Ukraine's flag. Ukraine has about 20 athletes at the Paralympics, but all but one of them skipped the opening ceremonies. One dude came in with the flag and appeared to be glaring at Vladimir Putin as he came through. It was pretty ... no ... here he comes ...
ReplyDeleteHuge ovation for the single Ukrainian biathlete and cross-country skier who enters with the flag and a grim expression.
ReplyDeleteHere's the Sydney Morning Herald story about the opening ceremonies, and it includes video of the Ukrainian entry.
ReplyDeleteOh, great ... Team USA's wheelchair curling rink has gotten off to an 0-2 start in round-robin play.
ReplyDeleteRussia rocks the biathlon, and here's our medals table after the first day of competition:
ReplyDelete1. Russia 4 gold, 6 silver, 2 bronze
2. Germany 2, 0, 0
3. Ukraine 1, 1, 3
4. Slovakia 1, 1, 0
5. Japan 1, 0, 2
6. France 1, 0, 1
7. Austria 1, 0, 0
7. Spain 1, 0, 0
9. Canada 0, 2, 1
10. United States 0, 1, 2
11. Great Britain 0, 1, 0
12. Belarus 0, 0, 1
Kentuckian of the year, right here.
ReplyDeleteNo, wait ... this deserves HP Special Report treatment ...
ReplyDeleteThere we go.
DeleteI love sports.
ReplyDelete1. Russia 7 gold, 10 silver, 7 bronze
ReplyDelete2. Germany 3, 0, 0
3. Ukraine 2, 2, 3
4. Austria 2, 2, 0
5. Japan 2, 1, 2
6. France 2, 1, 1
7. Slovakia 2, 1, 0
8. Canada 1, 2, 3
9. Great Britain 1, 1, 1
10. Sweden 1, 0, 0
11. Spain 1, 0, 0
12. United States 0, 3, 4
13. Finland 0, 1, 0
14. Belarus 0, 0, 2