Monday in Vancouver

The cross-country races were marvelous and NBC did an outstanding job of covering the event. Petter Northug was a disaster, finishing 41st while Axel Teichmann finished 44th. It could be that the Tour de Ski took a lot out of these two contenders.

21 year-old Canadian finished 21st, a bit of a disappointment for the home crowd. But it wouldn't be an Olympic Games in Canada without a Harvey. His father Pierre competed in cycling in Montreal and cross-country in Calgary. Pierre also took the athlete's oath in Calgary.

The luge was a surprise, not because of the Germans in first and third, but for the Austria Nina Reithmayer in second and American World Champion Erin Hamlin way back in 15th.

In the volatile event of snowboard cross, where just making it through four races is an amazing (and perhaps somewhat lucky) accomplishment, Seth Wescott captured his second consecutive gold medal.

The men's 500 meter speed skating was considered one of the most wide open speed skating events in history with eight or ten men in contention of rthe gold. Mo Tae-Bum of South Korea was not one of them. However, the 21 year old shocked everyone by capturing the gold medal. Canadian Jeremy Wotherspoon, the sentimental favorite, showed his lack of race sharpness and finished ninth. The competition was delayed when the two Zamboni machines both did not work. This kind of thing happens to me with the copiers at work all the time, but my students haven't been waiting four years to do a math worksheet, and the whole world is not watching. A very disappointing situation, and a black eye for the organizing committee. It reminded me of the 2000 Olympic gymnastics competition where the vault was set too low in the women's all-around. Shani Davis withdrew from the second run after finishing just 18th in the first race. Davis hasn't skated his best in either the 5000 or 500, so we'll see what happens in the 1000 on Wednesday.

Didier Defago became only the third Swiss gold medalist in the men's downhill, along with Bernhard Russi and Pirmin Zurbriggen. The competition was so close, and Bode Miller's somewhat surprising bronze medal shows that he is in great shape and ready to contend for medals the rest of the way.

Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao skated a little tentatively tonight, but their overall quality of skating, along with the lead they had from a superlative short program brought them a first gold medal in their third Olympics. Their teammates, Pang and Tong captured the evening, and made it gold and silver for China. I remember watching Yao Bin skate, and skate poorly, at the 1984 Olympics. However, the Chinese sports program will succeed when they apply the resources and coaching to Olympic competition.

Of note should be the experience that was evident among some of today's champions. Seth Wescott (33) winning his second straight gold; Xue Shen (31) and Hongbo Zhao (36) capturing gold in their fourth games; Didier Defago (33) winning gold in his third Games; with Bode Miller (33) taking bronze.