Winter Olympics 2014, Day 6: Shaun White falls short; Hamlin makes USA history

The Norwegians dominated the cross-country skiing events on Tuesday, and they now find themselves on top of the medal standings at the 2014 Winter Olympics with 11 total. Ola Vigen Hattestad took gold in the men’s sprint event with a time of 3:38.39, with Sweden’s Teodor Peterson (3:39.61) and Emil Jonsson (3:58.13) bringing in silver and bronze.

Also for Norway on the women’s side, Maiken Caspersen Falla and Ingvild Flugstad Østberg grabbed gold and silver, respectively, finishing in 2:35.49 and 2:35.87 with Slovenia’s Vesna Fabjan taking bronze.

The round-robin portion of Olympic curling continued on Tuesday with four men’s matchups and eight on the women’s side. Both teams from the United States were in action today, but neither got the results they for which they had hoped.

China defeated the United States rather easily, 9-4, in morning action. The Americans will continue the round-robin against Denmark at midnight ET on Wednesday morning in live action from Sochi.

Good Guy Shaun White is the best.

Here’s more on the scene from USA TODAY Sports’ Lindsay H. Jones:

Out of 421 Olympic Medals offered to cross-country skiiers, Scandinavian athletes (from Norway, Sweden, and Finland) have won a combined 231. Despite a crash in the men’s finals, that trend did not change on Tuesday.

In Tuesday’s freestyle sprints, competitors raced 1.5 kilometers. This is a fraction of what the men (15k and 50k) and women (10k and 30k) will race later on at Sochi, and allows for the qualifiers, quarterfinals, semis, and finals to all be held on the same day.

The North Americans dominated Women’s Slopestyle on Tuesday morning, much to nobody’s surprise. Canadians Dara Howell and Kim Lamarre took home the gold and bronze medals, respectively, while Long Island native Devin Logan got the Americans the silver.

The Women’s free spring cross-country finals, however, went through Norway. Maiken Caspersen Falla won the gold at 2:35.49. Fellow Norwegian Ingvild Flustad Oestberg received the silver with her 2:35.87 (+0.38) time, which edged out Slovenian Vesna Fabjan’s 2:35.89 by just two hundreths of a second, leaving her with bronze.

Datsyuk missed the first team practice on Monday but was on the ice on Tuesday for nearly an hour, and declared himself ready to play in Russia’s opener against Slovenia on Tuesday.

“Everything’s fine,” Datsyuk said during Tuesday’s press conference. “My injury does not bother me at all. Babcock is not my concern right now.”

Figure skating picks up again on Tuesday, although there are no medals at stake here. The pairs short program takes place, as a prelude to Wednesday’s free skating medal competition.

The event kicks off at 10 a.m. ET, and China is hoping to dominate the podium. Pang Qing and Tong Jian won the silver in Vancouver, and will be competing with German team Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy, who took home the bronze that year. Gold medal winners Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo are not competing in Sochi. The top American pairs include Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir, along with Felicia Zhang and Nathan Bartholomay. Russia is hoping to add to their medal count after taking the gold in the first-ever team events. They have three pairs in this event, all looking to get on the podium for their home country.

Germany had held Russia to just one goal through two periods in the first game of the tournament before eventually allowing three goals in the final frame in a 4-1 loss. Germany was hoping to build off that promising performance with a strong start on Tuesday, yet Sweden’s Nordin Emma opened the scoring just one minute into the game and put the underdogs on the chase.

Germany would play a spirited game and tightened up defensively, creating several chances in transition and drawing two penalties in the opening frame yet were unable to get anything past Swedish netminder Kim Martin Hasson.

With the men still preparing to hit the ice for the first time at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, the women continue their preliminary pool play with Group B in action on Tuesday.

The excitement of the Group A, heavyweight USA-Canada prelim awaits on Wednesday, but for now, starting at 5 a.m. ET, Germany and Sweden face-off as the two jockey for position among the four teams in the division before the knockout medal round. Sweden got off to a strong start with a 1-0 victory over Japan in their first action of the tournament, while Germany suffered a decisive loss at the sticks and skates of hometown Russia, 4-1.

Snowboarding has dominated the Olympic schedule for much of the first week, and things reach a climax on Tuesday with the much-anticipated halfpipe event. Despite reports of the Sochi course being too steep and dangerous, this should be the most popular event among American viewers.

Shaun White is the heavy favorite to defend his Vancouver gold medal once again. A wrist injury forced him to pull out of the slopestyle events, but he should be ready for this halfpipe show, the event he excels at. If all goes according to plan, it looks to be another battle for second place on the podium.

Day 6 of the Winter Olympics in Sochi is chock-full of skiing events, ranging from the debuts of both freeskiing slopestyle and women’s ski jump, as well as the mainstays of cross-country and the always-exciting biathlon.

The women’s freeskiing slopestyle kicks things off for the wide-ranging discipline with the qualification round beginning at 1 a.m. ET, followed by the finals starting at 4 a.m. Americans should be strong in this event, with Devin Logan and Keri Herman both favorites for the podium.

The schedule for Sunday in Sochi kicks off with eight medal events, from women’s freeskiing slopestyle, men’s snowboard halfpipe and women’s ski jumping.

Curling also continues with men’s and women’s round-robin play, as does figure skating with the pairs short program. The full schedule is below. All times Eastern. Medal events are in italics and marked with an asterisk.

The 2014 Winter Olympic curling events got underway on Monday with the first round of qualification matches. On Tuesday, things pick up further with a combined 12 matches. The women get the most attention this day, with two sessions of round robin events set to take place. South Korea and Japan are the only teams yet to play, and they’ll face off against each other in their first Olympic matches. The USA takes on both Russia and China, hoping to improve after losing to Switzerland, 7-4. Canada had a dominating 9-2 win over China but will have a tough test against the Swedes, who beat Great Britain 6-4.

On the men’s side, there is only one round robin session on Tuesday’s schedule. The Norwegians, famous for their flashy pants, beat the Americans 7-4 and will take on a Russian team reeling from two straight losses. Team USA gets another shot at a win when it faces China, who beat Denmark 7-4 on Sunday. The American curling team has improved in recent years, but it still has a ways to go if it wants to join the Canadians and Europeans among the world’s best.