Bob Sledding 2026
We watch the Olympics all day so you don’t have to.
Lots to catch up with today. Including a Jessie Diggins update.
The Super G is a somewhat-recent addition to skiing competition, and it was an excellent one. It’s sort of a combination between the Downhill and Slalom. There are gates to ski around, but they’re spread much farther apart than in Slalom, so the skier builds up more speed than in a Slalom race. And the course itself is much longer, like the Downhill, and has a vertical drop two-to-three times that of a Slalom run. Skiers also don’t get a training run. It was won by a Swiss skier, Franjo von Allmen (whose name sounds like he could be a devious aristocrat in Willy Wonka). But the American Ryan Cochran-Siegle had a great run, as well, held the lead for a while, and finished second. It was also his second Silver Medal of the Games. Great, too, is that his mother Barbara Cochran, won a Gold Medal in the Slalom at the 1972 Winter Olympics. As they say, like mother, like son.
The women’s Super-G was tougher, because there was a hanging fog over the mountain, and so vision was much more limited. It did make for being beautiful to watch, though. And again, I love the new use of drones. It’s tremendous. The four Americans didn’t do all that well – two of them fell (including Downhill Gold Medalist Breezy Johnson), though Jacqueline Wiles (who got the Bronze Medal in the pairs Combined Downhill-Slalom) and Keely Cashman did finish, but off the podium. But in a wonderful moment, the race was won by host country Italy’s Federica Brignone, her first Gold medal in her fifth (and possibly final) Olympics, coming back from a serious injury last April – multiple fractures and a torn ACL – who carried Italy’s flag in the Opening Ceremony…and whose mother (who was, of course, in attendance) was a two-time Olympian. Also nice: after Breezy Johnson's run, she got engaged.
As I think is clear by now, I’ve been a huge admirer of Jessie Diggins, ever since I watched live when she made her now-famous “HERE COMES DIGGINS!!! HERE COMES DIGGINS!!” final kick that pushed her by inches to become, with pairs teammate Kikkan Randall, the first woman to win a Gold Medal in cross-country skiing. She’s gone on to be a world champion, three-medal Olympian, and the most successful cross country skier in U.S. history. At age 34, these are her final Olympics, and she’s retiring in a month. I mentioned the other day that she injured her ribs crashing in an opening event and then later failed to qualify in the 1,500m sprint. Today they held her specialty, but it’s far from a sprint -- it’s the 10,000m race, over six miles. Before the race, she was asked by an NBC reporter how she was feeling, and said, “It hurt to breathe. It hurt to ski. It hurt to double-pole.” One can only imagine the pain racing for 10,000 meters in the cold. And as her six-mile race today neared its end…Yes, once again, “HERE COMES DIGGINS!!! HERE COMES DIGGINS!!” She got on the podium, coming in third and taking the Bronze!! It was her fourth Olympic medal. After the race, she told the reporter, “When I crossed the finish line, I thought I was going to maybe pass out or die. It would have been nicer if I could have passed out.” It had been a painful couple of days. “Two days ago, I was like, I don’t know how I’m going to do this,” she said. “I told myself I’m going to be proud, literally no matter what, if I just go as hard as I can. And leave every ounce of energy. And so, when I crossed that finish line, I had no idea what the result was.” Adding, “That was a – really -- hard fight.”
But don’t take even her word for it. She was being polite. A video is worth 10,000 words. Here’s the finish of the race. Watch it – and to the very end.
(I recorded this off the TV, so the sound is tinny, but fine. It also might take a few seconds to loud. It's worth the wait...)
And there's more. If that didn't look agonizing enough, here she is over a minute later, still on the ground. Those are her parents below.
One other note: Jessie Diggins still has two more team events in the Games.
The Moguls is one of the extreme sports races for which I have mixed feelings. This is the race with a course made up of bumpy hills and two areas where the skier – in the middle of the race is launched into the air to twist and flip. It’s much too gimmicky with silly rules for my taste (scores aren’t determined by your speed alone, but you also get judged on style points for your leaps), though admittedly it’s fun to watch. I certainly understand its popularity, but my preference in a race is where the winner is the fastest. I’m okay with there being mogul hills and flips – in some ways, this is like the Steeplechase in the Summer Games. But for that, the runners don’t get judged on their style jumping over obstacles and splashing through a pool. What I’d personally like for the Moguls (and nobody has yet asked) is to keep it exactly the same – blasting downhill bumping over the hills and having to flip in the air -- but determine scores solely by the competitors’ times, not style points. That’s a race. All this aside, it was a very good competition – and two U.S. team members finished at the top. Elizabeth Lemley won the Gold and Jaelin Kauf got the Silver.
On the other hand, the Snowboard Cross is a rare extreme sport I like a lot. Four competitors racing down a deeply curving course with hills and a jump near the end. Nick Baumgartner, the oldest American racer (by a lot) at age 44 just missed out on getting into the finals in a photofinish by inches to eventual winner – who at 17 was younger than Baumgartner’s own son. His interview after was so enthusiastic about how much he just loves the sport and competing, however he finishes, as long as he does his best. Adding, that since he lost to the Gold Medal-winner by inches, it means “by dad math,” that if he’d won his photofinish heat, he’d have got the Gold. And yes, he was laughing when he said that.
The luge relay is one of the more weird events. Not each leg, but the overall concept. One would think that luge would be among the last disciplines to have a relay, but there it is. The way it works is there are four groups on a team: women’s single, then men’s pair (pair luge is bizarre on its own – two people lying flat on the sled. Why?? Not just why are they doing that, but why did someone decide this should be an Olympic sport in addition to normal one-person luge?? The second person doesn’t do anything, but lay there), followed by men’s single and women’s pair. And after each run, one of the people on the luge have to thwack a hanging “pad” before then next sled can go. It was won by the German team, who are the regular champions in the event.
Men’s hockey started today. I like the intense level of competition, though with so many international players in the National Hockey League, it’s often similar to watching NHL games, so I don’t find it as compelling as I might find it otherwise. The final round, though, gets pretty exciting. Today, Team USA opened against Latvia. They started slow, 1-1 after the first period, but ended up winning 5-1.
More to come…
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