Nordic combined, biathlon at the Olympics

4:45 pm -- Nordic combined, cross-country skiing
Two American in top four, three in top ten -- here comes our shot to end the medal drought. Todd Lodwick starts 34 seconds behind the Finnish leader who's not a great skier, Spillane 44 seconds. It's straight pursuit; first person at the end wins. Bill Demong about 1 minute 20 seconds behind.

They talk about the importance of having the right wax on your skis. Todd's gained 10 seconds already; then Spillane and everyone else, as the coaches bark out instructions. Group is catching up to Lodwick, with Spillane leading that group. Oh, Finn leader falls down on the turn, 20 seconds at least announcer says. Lodwick going very careful, group is right behind him.

15 skiers within 26 seconds of the leader, Lodwick's been caught by the pack which is now the leader; Demong making a charge, now just 17 seconds back after being more than a minute back, announcers very impressed with him.

Easy race to follow, bib numbers are the order in which they started. Halfway through, U.S. is 1-2, Italy, then the Frenchie who's really an American. And now Demong comes in by himself at the top of a group of three, three Americans in the top eight. Announcers points out the Frenchie is really an American.

Less than three miles to determine the winners. Back from commercial, this is live so it's just a mile left. Lodwick still leads, Spillane close, Demong just 8.5 seconds off. About 18 minutes in; Demong about to join the lead pack. This bodes really well for the team race; "phenomenal" what Demong has done -- his bib of 24 is ridiculous, everyoe else up front is in single digits. They're coming up on the final lap. This is totally exciting. Demong is like 10 yards off the lead, 8 skiers in all to decide the medals, nobody else anywhere close.

"Pins and needles moment now." Chappuis from France in third, ugh. Announcer thinks Lodwick is either cruising, or not having a great day. Waiting for someone to make a move. Kobayashi makig his move, out front, and he's really opening up a bit of distance, Americans are second and third, Spillane moves up, Lodwick may be tired; now it's Spillane and Kobayashi out front, Spillane caches him, passes, in the lead!

And he opens his own gap! Pulling away, keeps looking back. Spillane! Spillane! Final climb, then the final turn, he's really going all out. He's exhausted, but is just cruising. 20 yards up, a bit to go; Chappius is closing, Lodwick is coming in too; man, this is amazing; Spillane is being caught by the Frenchie; he's passed.

Chappius first, ranked tops in the world, mom is American, moved to France. Spillane silver, Italian third, Lodwick just barely fourth by 7/10ths of a second, Demong sixth. An amazing race. Good day for France, two golds.

But "a breakthrough day for the United States," Al signs off with. Five U.S. medals already.

Al comes back, talks to J.R. Celski, he's a really nice guy, soft-spoken, calls Al "sir." Later Spillane talks, total down-to-earth guy, "amazing" how the U.S. finished, "we've worked really, really hard for many years."

They're wasting time at luge, showing the guys ranked way down.

4:00 pm -- Men's single luge, 3rd heat

German machine stars with our leader, 20-year-old Felix Loch, whose father coaches the team, another start record. He's just so perfect, good run, his dad's happy. Teammate David Moeller next, finishes second.

Armin Zoeggeler next, not a great start, a bit rocky up top and he's off-line, not a good run at all, 1 second behind. Legend falling.... "Terrible Olympic run" one of the announcers says. Russian Albert Demtschenko, bad start but an aggressive slider; he's way back too, stays in 4th. Cool camera technology shows him superimposed on Loch, they should use that more. Andi Langenhan, another German, next. A little wild, stays in fifth.

Daniel Pfister from Austria is next, not as far back as some of the others at the top, losing time near the bottom, but the announcers are talking about the track, not him at all. One of my pet peeves; don't ignore the Olympian in front of you.

Tony Benshoof of the U.S. up next. Same story every Olympics for the Americans -- good enough to stick around, but barring a perfect run, always out of medal contention. Way back up top; finishes with 7th-best time, stays exactly where he is.

Manuel Pfister of Austria, whose brother already wet; way back at the start, like everyone else, okay run. Canadian Sam Edney, currently in 10th. Nobody's start has been within like a second of Loch. Good run, moves up to 8th. Marins Rubenis of Latvia, as we get to the people with no chance of medaling; won a bronze in Torino, but nothing since then. Analyst says this team does more with less than anyone. Not great run, his wife or someone is shaking her head. Viktor Kneib of Russia next, mediocre run.

Chris Mazdzer, fans have his letters painted on their stomachs. Looks very slow up top, 1.33 back already; 12th best time, ranks 13. Announcers are impressed with his driving, think his sled setup may have hurt him. Huge smile on his face afterwards, as his fans keep screaming and blowing horns. Jeff Christie from Canada next; bad start, too over to one side. "Attention to detail is where the Germans have the edge," one of the announcers says.

Ben Walden of the U.S., not a great run, in 14th place.

Men's Biathlon sprint

Norwegians top, then Russians, Germans and Americans the strongest teams Al Trautwig and his partner Chad Salmela tells us, they leave at 10 second intervals. Some of the skiers say the course is too easy, Chad says maybe, but there's no place to rest. Emil Hegle Svendson first from Norway, huge roar from the crowd, the "prince" of biathlon, ski a few weeks ago. The king, of course, is Ole Einar Bjørndalen; who Al tells us can become the most-decorated winter Olympian ever.

They ski for 3.5 kilometers before stopping to shoot. 25-seconds or so penalty loop if you miss, Chad says you can't miss with this fast course. Two of the favorites have already missed, and are out as Chad says. Canadian Leguellec makes all of his, crowd roars, and he's in first -- with a bunch of favorites surprisingly missing.

NBC needs to do a better job of identifying skiers when they're on the screen, why not just put their name under them? Tim Burke of the U.S. starts, has a real shot at the medals. 62.5% of all Olympic gold medalists didn't miss, Chad says; most-ever misses to win was two.

Fourcade of France, one of the favorites, takes a while to set up with his rifle; taking his time and totally misses on the last. "A nightmare for France." Second shooting range is standing, ecstatic guy, not sure of the name.

Bjørndalen shooting now, just looks deadly, oh and he misses three times, crowd roars; Chad says, "this is unbelievable, never have I seen him miss three penalties at the Olympic games." Maybe the course is so easy that they're pushing themselves too much? Wow.

Weather is getting worse, Svnedsen of Norway nails the standing, announcer says he can move into first. Burke has to go clean, Chad says, one miss, puts him out of the running for now. Greis nails all but the last one. It's just chaos out here, favorites missing left and right.

Snow beginning to really come down, big advantage for the people who started earlier. Ustyugov of Russia misses two standig, another favorite falters. Jay of France in first, "amazing," Chad says. Svendsen coming in, won't beat Jay but into second right now, Fak of Croatia in third. Burke misses twice standing, so his day's over; and hurts his chances in the upcoming pursuit event, too.

All the big names have faltered today, Chad tells us. Bjørndalen in at 13th for now, Eder of Austria goes clean but way behind because he started so late. Top 3 all started in the top 10.

Top American is Jeremy Tella, in ninth at the finish, would be the U.S.'s best finish ever in this sport. Hmmm, France has never won a medal in this event either. Tella does finish ninth; after that, a bunch of features as we wait for the skiing part of Nordic Combined.


1:00 p.m. -- Nordic combined

Watching the 'worst' of the Nordic combined jumpers, the announcers tell us they go first. Nevertheless, the daytime weekend coverage of combined and the biathalon are some of my favorite Olympic moments, particularly looking forward to Al Trautwig announcing biathalon, he always brings out the epic nature of the event.

Schmid brothers, both born in Norway to Swiss parents -- oddly, announcer said the older one "defected" to compete for Norway; it seems to me the younger one is the one who defected, I guess the color analyst, Jeff Hastings, is going by the racist European notion of it's not who you are that matters but the blood of your parents.

U.S. jumper Brett Camerota is sitting in first, has had the longest jump for a while -- ironically, there's been very little coverage of him, three of his teammates have been getting all the pub. He must not be a great skier; not that the announcers would tell us.

The U.S. has never won a medal in this event, but pundits are touting the Americans as having a strong shot this time.

Hastings is actually a pretty good announcer, just has difficulty finishing -- for example, tells us that you can become a good jumper pretty quickly, but it takes longer to become a good cross-country skier; no explanation why, or which athletes this would apply to, aside from the Frenchie who just pushed the American back.

Each extra jumping point gives you a 4-second advantage when it comes to the skiiig part. 26 of the 48 medals given out in this sport have been won by the Norwegians; unfortunately for play-by-play announcer Matt Vasgersian, he brings that up thinking a Czech athlete is Norwegian; Hastings corrects him.

Hasting tells us the Japanese have only taken part in 8 of the 16 events this season in a different strategy, to try and rest up. Seems kindof dumb; Hastings says they seem to be a bit off the mark so far. Then Vasgersian says many of the top skiers have tried to do the same, undercutting Hastings; who agrees.

Older brother Jan Schmid up, again, Hastings calls him a Swiss skier who made the Norwegian team. Famed Hannu Manninen, out of retirement, the legend; "gentle giant" calls Hastings, a great cross-country skier. Only into 12th at this point.

Todd Lodwick the first of the strong Americans up, lays down a great jump, into secod to Janie Rynaemen, 101.5 M; 34 seconds head start. Anssi Koivurata from Finland, medaled at Torino at 17, Hastings tells us he's not a great skier. Alessandro Pittin of Italy, with the flag painted on his helmet, good-looking form; into 4th.

Hastings says there's a pack strategy now in the cross-country now, like the Tour de France. Bill Demong of the U.S., fractured his skull diving into a shallow pool in Germany, not a great jump, Hastings says he got a bit mixed up in the air, got off the jump late. Googling, not the announcers, reveals what their 'Bibgate' reference was about -- he misplaced his bib at the World Championships, which lead to his DQ; later it was found in the leg of his jumping suit, it had just fallen down after he put it inside the chest part to keep it dry (why didn't he take off his suit?)

Johnny Spillane of the U.S. next, not great jump at first but Hastings says he "found the air," his arm is moving around though. Into 4th, "in the hunt." Pavel Churavy of the Czech Republic next, after waiting for the wind; yellow light, then red, he gets pulled off the bar. At the moment three Americans are in the top ten.

Magnus Moan of Norway, one of the favorites; a really short jump, just 91.5M. They never tell us what happens with the Czechie; Hastings says Moan ca't make this deficit up. Erik Frenzel, good jump from the German. Felix Gottwald of Austria, most-decorated in this event, 6 medals in his last 6 Olympic events; not a great jump either, "no chance" says Hastings.

Jason Lamy Chappuis, born in the U.S. but competing for France, boo, dominant this year. Great technique, not his greatest ever says Hastings but given the conditions, air moving around, a good one. And that's it....

Hmmm, some random NBC analyst says Americans are in position for two medals in cross-country. Weird that it wasn't Hastings talking to Al Michaels, who by the way suddenly seems ancient and bloated.