RICHMOND, B.C. – There has been bigger upsets in Olympic history, but for the U.S. long track speedskating team it sure didn’t feel like it Friday afternoon.

“It feels like the miracle from 1980,” U.S. skater Trevor Marsicano, 20, said referring to American’s hockey upset over Russia at the Lake Placid Games nine years before he was born.

The U.S. women upset the Canadian gold-medal favorites in the team pursuit, inspiring the men to pull off a similar surprise. The U.S. men beat the Netherlands in the semifinals assuring themselves of a medal.

The women race Germany in the semifinals today and the men race Canada for gold. The women’s gold and bronze medal races are also today.

The crowd cheered so loudly for the U.S.-Canada women’s race that it confused the skaters. The Americans thought they were being blown away and the Canadians thought they were winning easily.

But the fans were cheering because the race was so close. The Americans won by 0.04 seconds eliminating the Canadians.

“It was shocking,” said U.S. skater Jilleanne Rookard. “… We just looked up at the clock and we saw No. 1 and we went ‘Oh my gosh.’ If nothing else happens that was a great race.” Read more »

VANCOUVER, B.C. – Kim Yu-Na is accustomed to flirting with perfection, but even she was surprised by the marks she received Thursday night for her gold medal-winning performance.

For the second time at the Vancouver Games, the Korean skater set a world record leaving everybody else to vie for silver.

Yu-Na scored 150.06 points for Thursday’s free skate giving her a total score of 228.56 points and a nearly 23-point margin of victory over silver medalist Mao Asada of Japan. Canadian crowd favorite Joannie Rochette, whose mom died Sunday, won bronze.

“I predicted that my score might be 140,” Yu-Na …

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I missed this because my editors shipped me south to cover figure skating. But the Associated Press was there. Here’s the AP story on the first Nordic gold medal in U.S. history:

Billy Demong and Johnny Spillane have given the Americans a 1-2 finish in the Nordic combined large hill competition that was marred by bad weather.Demong, of Vermontville, N.Y. ended America’s golden goose egg in Nordic sports at the Winter Games by winning the 10-kilometer cross-country leg in 25 minutes, 32.9 seconds Thursday.

Spillane won his third silver of these games, finishing four seconds behind.

Bernhard Gruber of Austria, who had a 34-second head start after jumping the farthest off the large hill after a restart, took the bronze 10.8 seconds back.

Demong, of Vermontville, N.Y., started in sixth place and 46 seconds back, but quickly caught his teammate and Gruber for a three-man race the rest of the way.

They didn’t have to worry about some of the best World Cup athletes catching them after worsening weather hampered the top jumpers on the large hill, relegating them too far back in the field to be a factor. Read more »

VANCOUVER, B.C. – The U.S. women’s hockey team knows exactly what to expect tonight when it plays Canada tonight for an Olympic medal.

Bedlam.

They saw it first hand Sunday night when they attended the U.S.-Canada men’s game. And they saw it in September when they played Canada for the championship of the Olympic test tournament.

The famously polite Canadians suddenly turn mean. Their faces turn as red as the maple leaf on the flags they wave. And the Americans, as defenseman Karen Thatcher of Blaine said, suddenly become “everyone’s worst enemy.”

Team USA knows today’s 3:30 p.m. game will be the same, but they hope it has something else in common with those games: A U.S. victory.

But outside of the United States, there aren’t many that expect the Americans to win their first gold since 1998.

“USA is a great team, but overall Canada is stronger and if I had to put money on it, I’d go with Canada,” said Pekka Hamalainen, the coach of a Finland team that was shutout by both teams. Read more »

WHISTLER, B.C. – On a night when the world’s best women’s bobsledders said home track advantage gave Canada a huge edge, a pilot from the Puget Sound played the biggest role in preventing a sweep by the host country.

While Canadian sleds one gold and silver, Canada’s No. 3 sled couldn’t compete because Bremerton’s Bree Schaaf out drove it on the World Cup circuit this season.

That left one spot on the podium for drivers who weren’t as familiar with the course and the U.S. team of Erin Pac and Elana Meyers took advantage for the bronze medal.

Schaaf and her brakeman, Emily Azevedo, finished fifth, just 0.01 second ahead of fellow Americans Shauna Rohbock, a silver medalist in ’06, and Michelle Rzepka.

Canadians Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse won gold, making their four runs in 3 minutes, 32.28 seconds. Canadians Helen Upperton and Shelley-Ann Brown passed Pac on the final run to win silver.

The all North American podium was the first in the history of Olympic bobsledding.

“I think it’s great for Canada, I think it’s great for bobsleigh,” Humphries said of the gold-silver finish. “I can’t speak for Canadians but I know if they’re as excited as I am, it’s an amazing feeling.” Read more »

Ashleigh McIvor took home the gold medal in the women’s ski-cross competition on Cypress Mountain outside Vancouver yesterday, becoming the sport’s first female gold medalist.

McIvor stopped by the British Columbia Media Center in Vancouver B.C. today for a press conference proudly wearing her gold medal.

”It’s been amazing. I’ve barely had time to sit back and go “wow!” I just won the Olympics!” she said.

She adds that she’s not usually superstitious but a friend gave her a small Buddah she kept in her pocket while things were going well for her – and she

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Lindsey Vonn took a tumble on her first run of the giant slalom and may have cost her teammate Julia Mancuso a medal too.

Mancuso started her run and had to be flagged down by course officials because of Vonn’s accident.  Mancuso then had to ski down and get a snowmobile ride back to the starting gate.

Mancuso, the reigning gold medalist in the GS, will be allowed to ski whenever she gets back to the start, but she has lost the advantage of skiing before the course starts to deteriorate.

Follow my tweets live from Whistler here:

https://twitter.com/CHillAtTheGames

Earlier this month I wrote a blog for the News-Tribune and mentioned that I did not know what to expect while covering the Olympics, but that the unexpected was half of the fun. Well, yesterday morning something unexpected popped up – and it certainly was fun.

Scott Boir and Tessa Virtue, the Canadian ice–dance couple who won gold Monday night, did a press conference at the British Columbia Media Center(BCMC) just hours after taking home the gold. The couple are very popular in Canada and people love the stories about how close they are and how

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