The Freedom Bulletin

U.S. speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno won the gold medal in the 500m, his first gold of the games! After two false starts, Apolo skated a clean race, leading from start to finish. His arch rival, Korean Any Hyun-Soo, finished third, having been shut out by two Canadian skaters who finished second and fourth.

Apolo barely made it to the final of the 500m. He was in the same semifinal heat as Chinese skater Li Jiajun, with whom he had collided in the 1500m. Apolo was in second place behind Jiajun when he tried to pass him, exactly what he had been trying to do when he fell in the 1500m. Jiajun put out his arm, whacking Apolo and sending them both careening out. With one lap to go, Apolo was last out of the field of four, and Jiajun was third. Jiajun quickly passed the British skater, who was in second place. Near the finish line, as the British skater seemed to be picking up speed, Jiajun cut him off. At that moment, Apolo zoomed past the British skater and stuck his foot out, trying to cross the finish line before Jiajun. In a photo finish, it was determined that Jiajun’s foot had crossed the line before Apolo’s, but then Jiajun was disqualified for impeding the British skater! Apolo and the Canadian skater, who had finished first, qualified for the final.

Later, Apolo and the U.S. short track relay team won a bronze medal, increasing Apolo’s medal count to three for this Olympics, and five for his Olympic career. Congratulations to Apolo! He certainly deserves to be considered among America’s greatest athletes.

Needless to say, the results of the ladies’ figure skating were slightly disappointing for team USA. Sasha Cohen fell under pressure again, but miraculously recovered enough to take home the silver medal. Japanese skater Shizuka Arakawa won the gold, the Russian Irina Slutskaya won bronze. I don’t think I like the new scoring system. It seems too lenient to skaters that fall, and the results with the new system just don’t seem to match how good the skaters actually were.

In other news, U.S. speed skater Chad Hedrick won a silver medal in the 10,000m, which was somewhat disappointig, since he holds the world record in that event. Even worse, skier Bode Miller is now out of the slalom after straddling a gate. This was his last chance to win a medal.

There was some good news in the Olympics, however. American skier Julia Mancuso won the gold in the women’s giant slalom, and the U.S. curling team unexpectedly won a bronze medal, America’s first curling medal in history.

Good luck to Apolo Anton Ohno in his two events today: the short track relay and the 500m. I’ll blog back with the results.

The 24 “American Idol” semifinalists have been narrowed down to 20. Two girl contestants, Becky and Stevie, were voted off, as well as two boys, Bobby and Patrick. Bobby deserved to go home, and Becky did to some extent, but Stevie and Patrick definitely deserved to stay. Mandisa, Brenna, Heather, Melissa, Kinnik, and Katharine were all worse than Stevie, and out of the boys, Sway and Gedeon were far worse than Patrick.

Out of the remaining contestants, Kellie and Ayla are my favorites among the girls. Although I was not a huge fan of Ayla early in the competition, I loved her choice of the song “Reflection” from Mulan. Kellie’s country persona reminds me of last season’s winner, Carrie Underwood. I also liked Lisa and Paris, because even though I do not particularly like the style of music they have been performing, I cannot deny that they have great voices and are great performers.

Among the boys, Bucky is probably my favorite. He seems like a country person, which is always a good thing, and his long blond hair is cool. I also thought David, Will, Chris, Kevin, and Taylor were excellent, and Ace and Elliot were also good.

Congratulations to Apolo Anton Ohno for qualifying for the quarterfinals of the 500m short track race. He skated a great race and seems to be in excellent shape for the final on Saturday. This time, he’d better beat the Koreans!

Also on the subject of speed skating, I almost forgot to congratulate Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick for their silver and gold medals, respectively, in the 1500m. After their squabble over Shani’s refusal to race in the team pursuit, they seemed to be getting along all right. However, that changed at a press conference after the race, at which Shani criticized Chad for not congratulating him after his victory in the 1000m. For full Olympic coverage, go to http://www.nbcolympics.com.

Update: At the medals ceremony for the 1500m, Davis and Hedrick shook hands. The Italian national anthem was played in honor of gold medal winner Enrico Fabris, and the crowd sang along, which was rather amusing.

Also, congratulations to the South Korean women, who won the 3000m short track relay, beating out Canada and Italy.

Congratulations to American figure skater Sasha Cohen, who is in first place after the short program last night. The favorite, Russian Irina Slutskaya, is in second place, only fractions of a point behind Sasha. American teenagers Kimmie Meissner and Emily Hughes also did well, and are in 5th and 7th place, respectively. I loved Kimmie’s triple-triple combination and thought she should have finished higher than 5th. The long program will take place Thursday night. Good luck, team USA!