Just wanted to add that the first run uphill has a bit of a maze. Also, is it bad that I laughed a little when some of them slipped when trying to run up the stairs? I’m terrified to walk on flat icy ground. I’m not running upstairs in ski boots.
The individual event is over but the team relay is Saturday. There is probably a way to watch the finals online. Also if you did miss kayak cross in 2024, you can find videos online
US women win gold in hockey. After scoring at least 5 goals in all their games and only giving up one goal, they needed a goal with two minutes left with an extra skater to force overtime, where they won 2-1.
It does, however, put lie to the idea that the winter Olympics is all forms of sliding, since at one point they took their skis off and ran up the stairs.
Stairs, of course, being a regular feature one encounters while mountaineering.
You might like Saturday better. That’s the mixed relay, where the course is twice as long with two ascents and two descents. Each member of the two-person team completes the course twice. It should take around 30 minutes for the race.
OMG! Tenley Albright is watching the skating! For those who don’t know, she is a female figure skater who won silver in 1952 and the US’s first woman’s gold in 1956. She then went to Harvard Medical School and became an orthopedic surgeon. I love her. It’s 70 years since her gold medal and she looks fantastic.
Also, I want some of whatever Alysa Liu is on because she skates like she really doesn’t GAF and is just having fun. She competes like she is just performing in the gala. I’ve never seen any competitor so unaffected by stress.
Also, I still defend skimo as the most bizarre winter sport. I have almost never had the need to run up a flight of icy stairs at top speed. (Except maybe in college if I was late for class and the weather was bad). These are the sprints but looking forward to the relay.
I was thinking the other day how remarkable it was that I’ve never seen a serious blade injury in short track speed skating given how often there are big crashes with feet flying all over the place.
Lo and behold, a Polish skater caught a blade to the face today.