A blunder of quite Olympian magnitude left a nation wailing after a momentary lapse of concentration cost Holland's speed skating colossus Sven Kramer a gold medal in Vancouver. Worse still, it was not even his lapse of concentration.

Kramer, whose fame in Holland eclipses even that of football heroes like Robin van Persie as he had been on course for a golden hat-trick here, has been left blaming his coach for the elementary mistake which saw him blow victory in the 10,000 metres, an event in which he had not been beaten for three years.

Read the rest of this entry »

WHISTLER, British Columbia -- If you had to make a parallel to the familiar, Erin Pac is the anti-Lindsey Vonn. She doesn't talk about her injuries, about what hurts or when she hurt it, or if and how it affected her performance. She replaces those answers with a short smile that says, in effect, "Change the subject."

But when few people were around and the pain of a sore hamstring jackknifed through the back of her leg, the tough exterior crumbled and Pac began crying. It was earlier in the week, at the beginning of practice runs, before Pac and her teammate Elana Meyers won the bronze medal Wednesday night in the women's bobsled competition."It hurts a lot. It's fine," Pac said.

Read the rest of this entry »

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- It's just as we knew it would be: Team USA and Team Canada sailed through the Olympic women's hockey tournament and are set to clash, yet again, for gold. Both teams will be tested tomorrow like they haven't been tested since playing each other in an exhibition game on Jan. 1.

While it's tough to dissect stats accumulated in games in which Team USA and Team Canada hardly cracked a sweat, here are a few keys to Thursday's game.The goalies: Canada coach Melody Davidson is famous for not picking a starting goaltender until hours before game time, but whomever she chooses, one thing is certain.

Either Kim St. Pierre or Shannon Szabados will be in for a veritable onslaught of pucks compared with anything they've faced from their subpar opponents thus far. In 100 minutes, St. Pierre has seen -- and saved -- just 13 shots on goal.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today the strained relationship between Team USA skaters Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso got worse. Mancuso started the giant slalom before Lindsey Vonn had untangled herself from the netting after a crash. This caused Mancuso to be flagged off the giant slalom course.

Before this, Mancuse had taken a shot at Lindsey Vonn in the Sports Illustrated report saying that the 'popularity contest' was hurting the Team USA ski team.Mancuse said, "People are having a hard time reaching their potential because it's such a struggle for attention," Mancuso told Sports Illustrated. "You come to meetings after races and it's like it's a bad day if Lindsey didn't do well."

Read the rest of this entry »

Last night during the short program at the 2010 Winter Olympics belonged to a young Canadian skater who took to the ice with her heart in her hand.That skater's name is Joannie Rochette and her story is bitter sweet.The six-time Canadian national champion came to Vancouver from her home town near Montreal. She crossed the country with her mother, Rochette, ready for the most important performance of her life.

In what is not only sad but a cruel twist of fate, Rochette died shortly after arriving in British Columbia. Joannie's Mom suffered a massive heart attack and was gone in an instant.  Still, the 24-year-old pro skater simply couldn't give up, if not for herself then for her mother who had been with her literally every skate of the way.

Read the rest of this entry »

Team USA defeated Switzerland in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Men's Ice Hockey competition. The game was scoreless until the 3rd period when team USA player, Zach Parise, scored a power-play goal, assisted by Brian Rafalski and Paul Stastny.  Parise scored an empty-net goal late in the 3rd period, recording his and USA's second goal of the night and finalizing the night with a 2-0 victory of Switzerland.

USA has advanced to the semi-finals and will play against the winner of the Czech Republic vs. Finland. Canada is currently beating Russia 7-3 late in the 3rd period.  Pending the victory Canada will play the winner of Slovakia vs. Sweden.

Read the rest of this entry »

The 2010 Olympics have been an entertaining and fun opportunity for online sports handicappers to earn some big profits this season. Whether you have been making your 2010 Olympic.picks on ice hockey, speed skating or any other 2010 Olympic betting opportunities, there was a huge disappointment for the Netherlands and sports bettors today.

The speed skater Sven Kramer was the 2010 Olympic odds favorite to win the 10,000 meter speedskating gold medal. Today, a mistake made by his coach Gerard Kemkers led to Kramer's disqualification in the 10,000-meter speedskating event.

According to Kramer it was the seventh lap when he attempted to skate into the outside lane and was instructed by his coach to stay on the inside.Kramer then continued for the final eight laps in the wrong lane, ultimately costing him the gold.

There are still 2010 Olympic odds for several events including Women's Alpine Skiing, Men's Freestyle Skiing and many more 2010 Olympic events. Head over to Bodog.com now to take advantage of the remaining 2010 Olympic odds available.

Read the rest of this entry »

Amy Williams' stunning gold medal at the Winter Olympics, the first for an individual British woman for 58 years, cannot hide several less palatable statistics.This Great Britain team of 52 have had more athletes finish in the last five of their events than the first five. 

It has had as many finish last as first. Fewer than one in 10 have finished in the first eight. When 'Eddie the Eagle' Edwards embarrassed the British Olympic Association by finishing last in the ski jumping in 1988 they vowed never again.

Read the rest of this entry »

David Murdoch's gold medal dream lay in tatters at the Vancouver Olympic Centre after Great Britain's men's curlers were knocked out of the competition in a 7-6 extra end play-off defeat by Sweden.

The defeat ends any hope the reigning world champions had of edging into a semi-final match against favourites Canada on Thursday, which would at the very least have given them the chance of a play-off for bronze.

Read the rest of this entry »

After defeating the Germans 8-2 , the Canadians sent home the Russians with a score line reading 7-3. The win over the Russians gives the team a birth into the semi finals.
 
With the men’s hockey team doing wonders, two of the women's bobsleigh teams took the top two medals taking Canada to the top of the medals tally in the competition.
 
"You want to do well because you're proud and because you think hockey is Canada's game, Now it's pretty obvious it's the world's game but we still think it's ours and I'm a bit of a redneck so I like to think it's ours," said Canada coach Mike Babcock.

Read the rest of this entry »