If You Knew Sochi Like I Knew Sochi . . .

. . . you wouldn't know it very well, hence you would be blogging about it from the spare room in your house, like I do.

Yes - more Winter Olympics commentary!   And we go to women's sports, specifically the gold medal women's hockey game between the U.S. and Canada.  Ladies - what the hell happened?  You were ahead 2-1 with just a few minutes to go in the third period, then you let Canada tie the game, force it into overtime, then score the winning goal?  I knew Canada was favored, but gee whiz, ladies, you choked!   I don't expect American women to choke in a gold medal hockey game.

I expect American men to choke in a gold medal hockey game.

And that too may yet happen.  That is, if the men's team gets that far.  (Guess whom they play tomorrow in the semifinals? Canada!) 

Spoiler alert if you're planning to watch the women's figure skating competition later tonight: Adelina Sotnikova of Russia, considered a long shot by many, won the gold medal.  Ashley Wagner of the United States finished seventh, and Gracie Gold didn't live up to her surname, finishing fourth and thus not even getting bronze.  However, both women did earn bronze medals for the U.S. in the team figure skating competition.   

Defending Olympic champion Yuna Kim of South Korea took the silver medal and Carolina Kostner of Italy took the bronze medal, making these Games, I understand, the first time American women have not won individual medals in Olympic figure skating since the 1936 Winter Olympics in the German Alpine town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Garmisch-Partenkirchen?  Try saying that ten times fast!     

(Yes, the 1936 Winter Olympics were, like 1936 Summer Games in Berlin, held in Nazi Germany.  In fact, three of the first four winter Olympiads were held in the same country and the same year as the Summer Games later on.  Also, the 1940 Olympics, winter and summer, were both slated to be held in Japan - the Winter Games in Sapporo, the Summer Games in Tokyo - until World War II forced both to be canceled.  Not surprisingly, the International Olympic Committee made sure that the Winter and Summer Olympics were never held in the same country in the same year ever again.)

It's actually a good thing that American women don't win medals in figure skating all the time, if only because it serves as a reminder to us silly, self-important Americans that there are, in fact, other countries on this planet.  And, it should be noted that there are only seven American ladies' figure skating Olympic champions in the entire history of the Games.  It's the most exclusive women's club in America.    

Congratulations to Ted Ligety on becoming the first American to win the gold medal in the men's giant slalom and the first American male skier to win two gold medals in skiing.  (Andrea Mead Lawrence was the first American, male or female, to do so, winning the slalom and giant slalom events at the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo.)