Two events left before the end.

The last day of Winter Olympics is here. This is an updated table. Amazing wins for Canada during the last days but not enough to get to the first place in our table. Easy calculation shows that Canada can take the second place in case it takes gold or even silver in ice hockey and Germans don't take any medal in cross country 50 km.
Can Canada go ahead of USA? Well, I can hardly think that it is possible. Canada in this case needs to take some medals in 50 km men's cross country in addition to winning the ice hockey final.
Interesting to see the one point gap between Poland and Czech Republic. The classic question what's the best two silver or one gold seems to solve the contest between Sweden and Switzerland.
Tonight, we will see what will be the final medal standing.

Sport by Victoria - Biathlon.

These Winter Games I watch on Eurosport HD. It has very good coverage of Olympics. One of the entertainment features this year is a series of short films 'Sport By Victoria'. This fragment is in French. So if you know a little bit of French it is even more fun.

Austrian ski jumping team takes gold.

When Eurosport commentator said that Austrian jumper Gregor Schlierenzauer wouldn't need to do something dramatic in his last jump to let his team to win I knew something interesting gonna happen. At the end it was the longest ski jump in this Olympics and I must say the jump was spectacular. It was over 146 meteres and when Gregor landed he seemed to lose control a bit and almost touched the ground with his body. Great moments of these games.

Когда австриец Грегор Шлирензауэр приготовился к последнему прыжку с 140 метрового трамплина, комментатор Евроспорта отметил, что ему достаточно просто прыгнуть без грубых ошибок и Австрия возьмет золото в командном зачете. Я точно знал, произодет что-то интересное. Это был самый длинный прыжок на этой Олимпиаде и возможно рекорд этого трамплина. Грегор потерял равновесие при приземлении и казалось уже падал, но устоял. За такие моменты мы и любим Олимпиаду.

Good day for Russian team!

Amazing races in biathlon for Russians - Ustjugov takes gold and Zaitseva silver in 15km and 12.5km pursuite. At the end of the day Russian hockey machine wins Czechs 4:2. Russia goes up in the medals table.

Adam Malysz takes silver in ski jumping.

I rarely see Ski Jumping competition but this time I could not take my eyes away from large hill ski jumping event. I really hoped that Adam Malysz from Poland will take the gold but it seems that on this Olympics nothing can't stop Swiss Simon Ammann. Maybe his special ski bindings help him to win?
By the way, with my medal counting method Poland goes up 4 places - from 17th in official eurosport table to 13th in atomic weight table.

Russia shocked by Slovaks.

As you may already know Russian ice-hockey team lost to Slovakia by shootout after 1:1 in three periods and overtime. Alexander Ovechkin says that Slovak defense played very well and didn't leave a chance for Russians.
For the first time in these Olympic Games the new system is used for 12 teams. Although teams are divided into three groups there's an overall tournament table where USA is the first, Russia is the second, Finland and Czechs are 3rd and 4th at the moment. Four first team are automatically advance to the next stage. So to safely move to the final round Russians will need to beat Czechs in their next match. But even if they lose to Czechs, Russians will still have a chance to play for the gold.

Winter Olympics: Day 6

What a day! With this North American time zone your Olympic day begins at 7am and ends around, well, when you fall asleep at night. Nothing really interesting happen when you're at work at day hours.
My strongest impression is from Ski Sprint. Never thought it can be so intense. This stretch on the finish when no time difference is calculated only photo-finish. It is just amazing. Russian skiers made it not too nervous at the end being long distance from Norwegian. What a relief - first gold and silver.
Women's downhill was full of falls and crashes. The Vonn's victory was spectacular.

Go Russia!

I have just seen Russia - Latvia in the preliminary Olympics men's ice hockey round. It was a spectacular game. Russia wins 8-2. Olympic ice hockey tournament promises to be very interesting.

One more reason to use atomic weight.

Nestled amid the Alps, ATOMIC is headquartered in Altenmarkt, Austria. Atomic’s success is based on on more than 50 years of experience with Alpine skiing. The history of the company goes back to 1955, when Alois Rohrmoser along with four staff members manufactured together the firm’s first pair of skis. In 1989, Atomic was the first outfitter to provide skis, bindings, boots and poles from one source.

Укрытая в снежных просторах Альп, штаб-квартира ATOMIC разместилась в Алтенмаркте, Австрия. Успех Atomic обусловлен более чем 50-летним опытом работы с горными лыжами. История компании простирается до 1955 года, когда Алоис Рормозер, располагая штатом из четырех сотрудников, выпустил первую фирменную пару лыж. В 1989 году Atomic стал главным производителем спортивного снаряжения, обеспечивая рынок лыжами, креплениями, ботинками и палками, созданными на одном заводе.

www.atomicsnow.com

The third day of Winter Olympics.

Didier Defago eclipsed his more fancied Swiss team-mates to snatch the showcase men's Olympic Alpine skiing downhill title yesterday.
Swiss Dario Cologna upstaged cross-country heavyweights Petter Northug of Norway and Czech Lukas Bauer by storming to victory in the men's 15km freestyle event on his Olympic Games debut.
Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue broke Russia's stranglehold on the Games figure skating pairs event on Monday with a performance worthy of 18 years' hard work together.

The first medals are won!

The flag tracker about reflects current team's position. The flags made more transparent as number of points of the team decreases.

What is fair medal counting?

So how to count an overall result based on winning the medals? I have an idea! Why not to give 197 for the gold, 108 for the silver and 64 for the bronze(copper)? What are these numbers - you will probably ask. You can see it in the picture above. It is the atomic weight for Olympic metals based on periodic table. Isn't that fair enough?
The official Olympic medal table places the teams based on the number of gold medals won. If the number of gold medals is equal, silver medals will be counted etc. I don't think it is fair enough. There are teams that get many silver or bronze medals but placed quite low in table.

Orca Whale and Raven in Olympics Symbolic

Did you know that the winter olympics 2010 medals design was influenced by orca whale and raven? Orca whale is a beautiful and strong creature. This is also a creature that lives within the community. The Olympics is the community. So it not only reflects the strength of the athletes but the strength of the Olympic movement. Raven is for ability to rise above any challenge it may face. Raven is a symbol for Paralympic Games medal.

Знаете ли вы, что дизайн медалей для Зимней Олимпиады в Ванкувере имеет в себе символику животных - косатки и ворона. Косатка - сильное и красивое создание. Косатки также живут в сообществе. Ворон выбран в качестве символа за свою способность преодолевать любые трудности и повлиял на дизайн медалей для Паралимпийских игр.

Vancouver Winter Games Medals Story

The dramatic form of Olympic medals was inspired by ocean waves, drifting snow and the mountainous landscapes found in the Games region and across Canada. The Vancouver 2010 medals are based on two large master artworks of an orca whale and raven. Each medal has a unique, hand-cropped section of the art, making it a one-of-a-kind treasure.
The medals are among the heaviest in Olympic history weighing from 500 to 576 g. The materials used to produce the medals consist of 2.05 kilograms of gold, 1,950 kilograms of silver and 903 kilograms of copper.

Vancouver Winter Olympics Medals

This is an alternative Vancouver Winter Olympics medals counter blog. The gold medal will give 4 points, the silver is 3 and the bronze will add 2 points to the relevant team. Also I plan to add a bonus for each new discipline in the team's medals collection.