Day-by-day guide to the Winter Olympics
Day-to-day rundown to the main events at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Local time in Vancouver is eight hours behind GMT.
SUNDAY, 14 FEBRUARY - SIX MEDALS
Another
casualty of the weather is the women's super combined, which features one downhill run followed by a slalom run. The delay gives American speed queen Lindsey Vonn chance to rest her shin injury which threatened her participation in the Games. But it clogs up the calendar of Britain's Chemmy Alcott who goes in all five alpine events in Whistler.
Over at the Whistler Sliding Centre, Italy's Armin Zoeggeler could emulate the great Georg Hackl in winning three straight Olympic luge titles as the men complete their final two runs.
For those who like a bit of shake, rattle and roll with their skiing, the men's moguls competition is one event you will not want to miss. There are points for speed, style in the bumps and two huge airs, accompanied by a thumping sound system. If you're weak of knee, though, you might want to look away. Vancouver native
Dale Begg-Smith
is the defending champion, but to add further spice to the event - he skis for Australia.
Britons
Stacey Kemp and David King
take to the ice for skating's pairs short programme. The duo, who are competing at their first Olympics, are five-time British champions and finished 11th at the recent Europeans.
Other medals: Women's 3,000m speed skating, men's 10km biathlon sprint (Lee-Steve Jackson goes for Team GB) and Nordic combined (normal ski jump hill/10km cross-country skiing).
Also look out for: USA v China and Finland v Russia women's preliminary ice hockey matches.
MONDAY, 15 FEBRUARY - FIVE MEDALS
Two days late because of poor weather, the men's downhill showcases a blur of lurid lycra.
Vancouver local Manuel Osborne-Paradis will have the Canadian fans fired up and could go close to winning
Canada's first Olympic gold on home soil.
But Swiss pair Didier Cuche and Carlo Janka are the ones to watch.
Canonball Cuche,
the 35-year-old veteran, is built like a piste-basher and leads the World Cup downhill standings after his victory in Kitzbuehel in the last race before the Games. But he will be skiing with a splint on a broken right thumb after a crash in a later World Cup super-G in Kranjska Gora. "I do worry that the injury will bother me when I push of the start," he said.
Janka is the 23-year-old wonderkid, second in the rankings, who won the Wengen downhill the week before Kitzbuehel and is known as the "ice man" for his cool temperament.
A third Swiss skier Didier Defago won the Kitzbuehel/Wengen classic double last year and can beat anyone on his day, while Austrian Michael Walchhofer, who won silver in Turin, and in-form Italian Werner Heel should feature prominently.
And don't forget American maverick Bode Miller, who is back with the US ski team after a spell competing on his own. Miller's win-or-bust style means he's something of an unknown quantity, but when it works he's hot stuff - and he found some form to win the super combined in Wengen in January.
Watch out for a surprise, though, especially if visibility is low. France's Antoine Deneriaz won in Turin. Britain's sole entry is
Ed Drake,24, from Kingston-upon-Thames - he will be competing in all five alpine disciplines.
Snowboard fans will have etched this day into their diary - the heats and final of the
men's snowboard cross.
Four riders to a heat, fastest two go through.
France's Pierre Vaultier leads the World Cup standings, but the only thing that is guaranteed in snowboard cross is that nothing's guaranteed. No British entries, though.
Kemp and King finished 11th at the European Championships last month |
The pairs skating competition also reaches its climax with the free programme at Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum. Stacey Kemp and David King will be attempting to win Britain's first figure skating medal since Torvill and Dean rejoined the amateur ranks to claim bronze in Lillehammer in 1994.
Other medals: Men's 500m speed skating, men's 15km free cross-country (Andrew Young, who will turn 18 during the Games, and 19-year-old Andrew Musgrave go for Team GB) and women's 10km free cross-country (Fiona Hughes for Team GB).
Also look out for: Women's singles luge runs one and two.
TUESDAY, 16 FEBRUARY - SIX MEDALS
Redemption Day for Lindsey Jacobellis? Memories of Turin will have haunted the American for four years after she blew a certain gold medal in the snowboard cross.
2006 women's snowboard cross final
You may remember Jacobellis was leading by miles at the penultimate jump, but went for a glory grab in the air and crashed. Switzerland's Tanja Frieden nipped past for a gift of a gold as Jacobellis scrambled to her feet and sheepishly slid home for silver.
Here's BBC man Ed Leigh's commentary: "This is a lap of honour for Lindsey Jacobellis…the American is… ohhhh, drama, Jacobellis is down, oh look at her, this incredible, FRIEDEN [in the style of Mel Gibson's "Freedom" from Braveheart], FRIEDEN, un-believable, Lindsey Jacobellis has thrown a gold medal away in the last 100m, ohh, what has happened? Tanja Frieden cannot believe her luck. What on earth was Lindsey Jacobellis thinking? This is ridiculous, I have never seen anything like it."
No Frieden this time though - she suffered a torn Achilles tendon and a dislocated shoulder during a World Cup event in January and has since retired from top-level competition. But Canada's Maelle Ricker, who also fell in the final in Turin, leads the World Cup standings from compatriot Dominique Maltais, who was third last time.
Zoe Gillings Video Diary - Part two
Britain's Zoe Gillings didn't reach the final four years ago but has had some good results this season and the 24-year-old from the Isle of Man could be a contender.
"I'm even more excited about going to these Olympics than I was about going to Turin," said Gillings. "I've beaten some good racers recently and inevitably that means people talk of me as a medal prospect, but I don't feel any pressure because there just isn't enough time to worry about that sort of thin out on the course."
Up in Whistler, the men's skiers don their race faces again for the super combined.
American Ted Ligety could be in with a shout of winning back-to-back gold medals after his combined victory in Turin, but the likes of Croatia's Ivica Kostelic, Norway's world champion Aksel Lund Svindal, Austrian Benjamin Raich, American Bode Miller and Swiss Carlo Janka will push him hard.
Ed Drake and Dave Ryding will don the Team GB vest for this one.
The men's curling competition also gets under way with Britain, skipped by David Murdoch, up against Sweden. Murdoch was fourth in Turin, but his men go into Vancouver as
world champions having won the title as Scotland in April.
Other medals: Women's 10km biathlon pursuit, men's 12.5 km biathlon pursuit (Steve Jackson for Team GB), women's singles luge, and women's 500m speed skating.
Also look out for: The men's ice hockey tournament kicks off with USA against Canada. There are three groups of four with the top four ranked teams after the preliminaries receiving a bye to the quarter-finals. The remaining eight teams contest play-offs for the last quarter-finals slots. Sweden are defending champions, but just how much do Canada want to win gold on home ice? A lot.
WEDNESDAY, 17 FEBRUARY - SEVEN MEDALS
"Vonn-tastic", "Vonn-derful"…or "it's all Vonn wrong for Lindsey" - just a quick stab at some of the headlines that could follow the women's downhill out at Whistler today.
American Lindsey Vonn is the hottest property on the ski circuit at the moment and goes into the speed events as the runaway favourite.
The 25-year-old is the world downhill and super-G champion, two-time defending overall World Cup winner and has won five of six World Cup downhills this season.
The head coach of the Swiss team, Hugues Ansermoz, said after her fifth straight win: "Lindsey can only be beaten by herself. She needs to make a mistake or she needs to doubt something."
Defending Olympic champion Michaela Dorfmeister has retired and Turin silver medallist Martina Schild of Switzerland is missing through injury, so Vonn's main competition will be from her close friend Maria Riesch of Germany and Sweden's Turin bronze medallist Anja Paerson.
Home favourite Emily Brydon is fifth in the World Cup downhill standings - what price a Canadian double in the men's and women's downhill? Britain's Chemmy Alcott will be hoping to improve on her 11th in Turin, the best finish in an Olympics by a British women since 1968.
"I don't just want to break into the top 10," said Alcott. "I do believe I've got the talent to challenge for a medal, and a gold one would be fantastic."
Britain's 19-year-old women's curling skip Eve Muirhead
leads her side onto the ice for the first time today at the Vancouver Olympic Centre with matches against China and Sweden. Can the British women emulate Rhona Martin's gold-winning team from Salt Lake City? David Murdoch's British men's team play France.
White had his own halfpipe built near his home in Colorado |
Turning it up to 11, if snowboarding rocks your alpine world and you know your
double corks from your McTwists,
you'll be glued and then sellotaped - just in case - to the men's halfpipe. American Shaun White, dubbed the "Flying Tomato" is the defending champion and has become an icon of the sport. After time off the world tour, White is back and ready to show he is still the man to beat with a bagful of new tricks.
Scotland's Ben Kilner, 21, carries British hopes and heads to the Games with some form after claiming his first ever World Cup podium place with third in a recent event in Calgary,
though a host of the top stars, including White, were competing at the exclusive Winter X-Games.
"Snowboarding is obviously massive in Canada, so it should be a great competition to be involved in, and it will feel particularly special to be out there with a Union Flag on my back," said Kilner.
In Vancouver, Britons Sarah Lindsay and Elise Christie will be hoping to get among the medals in the women's 500m short-track speed skating. Scotland's Christie was second in the recentEuropean Championships.
There are also the heats and semis of the men's short-track 5,000m relay, featuring a British team who clinched bronze at the European Championships. And Jon Eley plus one other, still to be decided, Briton go in the men's 1,000m short-track heats.
Other medals: Men's 1,000m speed skating, featuring US defending champion and world record holder Shani Davis, doubles luge and men's and women's individual cross-country sprint classic (Andrew Musgrave, Andrew Young and Fiona Hughes for GB).
THURSDAY, 18 FEBRUARY - FIVE MEDALS
Plenty of British interest today, beginning with the men's curlers taking on Switzerland at 0900 local time (1700 GMT). They also face Denmark in the evening, while Eve Muirhead's women play Russia.
Still on the ice but at a slightly faster pace are the opening two heats of the men's and women's skeleton out at the Whistler Sliding Centre.
Turin silver medallist Shelley Rudman and her partner Kristan Bromley - known as Dr Ice - head Team GB's challenge along with Amy Williams and Adam Pengilly.
Rudman, who took time off to have a baby after Turin, recently finished second overall behind Canada's Melissa Hollingsworth in the season-long World Cup, while Bromley, who finished fifth in Turin, won the world and European championships and ended the season as World Cup winner in 2008.
Williams won a silver medal at the world championships last year, and also has form in Whistler - a second on the Olympic track last year.
Pengilly also claimed silver at the 2009 world championships.
"I have very special memories of the Winter Games and the silver medal I won in Turin four years ago was the greatest moment I've had in sport," said Rudman.
"But my appetite to succeed remains as strong as ever. My form this season has been good and I've been a regular visitor to the podium. The challenge now is to maintain that momentum and focus it at exactly the right time."
At Cypress Mountainon the outskirts of Vancouver, Scottish snowboarder Lesley McKenna will hope to spin, flip and fly her way into the final of the women's halfpipe.
Other medals: Yevgeny Plushenko defends his title in the men's figure skating (after the free programme), women's 15km biathlon, men's 20km biathlon (Steve Jackson for Team GB) and women's 1,000m speed skating.
FRIDAY, 19 FEBRUARY - FOUR MEDALS
Big day up in Whistler with the men's super-G and the final two runs in the men's and women's skeleton.
In the super-G, Austria's Michael Walchhofer leads the World Cup standings from Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, while Swiss veteran Didier Cuche is the world champion and in form after winning in Kitzbuehel in January. But the 35-year-old Cuche will be racing with a broken thumb supported in a special splint after a crash at the end of last month.
Carlo Janka, Bode Miller and Manny Osborne-Paradis could also feature, though Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt and the great Hermann Maier, first and second in Turin respectively, are now retired. Ed Drake, Dave Ryding and Andy Noble will ski for Team GB.
Amy Williams' video profile
Four years' work will come down to 100ths of seconds as Rudman, Bromley, Williams and Pengilly go for gold in the skeleton from 1930 local time (0330 GMT).
"The Canadians are favourites and will feel pressure," said British skeleton performance director Andi Schmid.
"Some think it is a great disadvantage that we don't have a home track, but in fact it has created a mentality where the British racers are able to adapt very quickly to each new track they race on."
Williams added: "I know I've got the potential to beat anybody on the day."
John & Sinead Kerr's video profile
In Vancouver, John and Sinead Kerr take to the ice for the compulsory dance section (first of three) of the ice dancing event. The pair were fifth in January's European Championships after securing a bronze in 2009. Nick Buckland and Penny Coomes also represent Britain.
Great Britain's women curlers also take on both Germany and Japan in more preliminary matches.
Other medals: Women's 15km cross-country pursuit.
Also look out for: Qualifying in the large hill ski jumping competition.
SATURDAY, 20 FEBRUARY - SIX MEDALS
Vonn is red-hot favourite to win the women's super-G in Whistler |
Time to crown a new Miss Vonn-couver? American hotshot Lindsey Vonn steps into her bindings for the women's super-G. She's already wrapped up back-to-back titles in the season-long super-G World Cup series. And she's the super-G world champion. And she leads the World Cup overall, heading for three straight titles. Anything else you need to know?
Swiss Fabienne Suter, Austrians Elisabeth Goergl and Andrea Fischbacher, and Sweden's Anja Paerson are unlikely to be far away.
Britain's Chemmy Alcott is ranked 18th in the World Cup super-G standings this season with a best finish of 15th in Lake Louise.
Whistler Olympic Park will be hopping again for the large hill ski jumping competition as Austria's 20-year-old reigning World Cup champion Gregor Schlierenzauer takes on two-time Olympic champion Simon Ammann of Switzerland.
Britons Jonathan Eley and Elise Christie (plus two others) go in the men's and women's 1,000m and 1,500m short-track speed skating heats respectively, hoping to reach the evening finals.
In the curling, Britain's men take on China and Canada, while the women face the USA.
Also look out for: Heats one and two of the two-man bobsleigh take place in Whistler. John Jackson, a 32-year-old corporal in the Royal Marines, is pilot of GB1.
Other medals: men's 30km cross-country pursuit (Andrew Musgrave and Andrew Young for Team GB), men's 1,500m speed skating.
SUNDAY, 21 FEBRUARY - SIX MEDALS
Skis on again, it's men's giant slalom day up at Whistler. Austria's Benjamin Raich is the defending champion and you can expect to see him go close again, while American Ted Ligety leads the World Cup standings.
Italy's Massimiliano Blardone, Austrian Marcel Hirscher and Swiss Carlo Janka also have form this season, but there's always scope for an upset - unheralded Frenchman Joel Chenal was second in Turin. Andrew Noble's video profile
Ed Drake, Andy Noble and Dave Ryding go for Great Britain.
The two-man bobbers also go for gold - John Jackson is pilot of GB1.
Making it's Olympic debut today is the men's ski cross, which enters the Games in the wake of the success of snowboard cross in Turin. Expect plenty of elbow-action and debris-scattered tracks in the demolition derby of winter sports.
Look out for former US alpine racer Daron Rahlves, who is back competing at his fourth Winter Games after retiring from the more traditional disciplines in 2006.
"Who wouldn't like skiing fast over what is basically like a roller coaster?" said the 36-year-old Rahlves, the 2001 super-G world champion. Rahlves's medal prospects took a dent, though, when he dislocated a hip at the Winter X Games at the end of January, though he still hopes to compete in Vancouver.
In curling, Eve Muirhead's British women play Switzerland and David Murdoch's men face the USA, while Britain's Kerr siblings John and Sinead perform their original dance, the second of the threeice dance sections.
Canada also take on the USA in the men's ice hockey tournament. A real grudge match there, but which game isn't a grudge match in ice hockey?
Other medals: Men's 15km mass start biathlon, women's 12.5 km mass start biathlon and women's 1,500m speed skating.
MONDAY, 22 FEBRUARY - FOUR MEDALS
The prestigious ice dancing competition reaches its conclusion with the free dance.
Torvill and Dean skate to gold in 1984
Torvill and Dean's iconic win, scoring 12 perfect 6.0s dancing to Ravel's Bolero in Sarajevo, was 25 years ago. How time flies. The Kerrs will be flying the flag this time but Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin of Russia are the ones to beat as world and European champions.
Despite their disappointing fifth at the European Championships, Torvill believes the Kerrs have a chance of a medal in Vancouver.
"Jayne and Chris are legends in ice dancing, probably the best there's ever been, so to hear things like that coming from them is obviously very encouraging," said John Kerr.
There's also more flying fun at the ski jumping, with the team event. Four jumpers to a team, one jump each, the top eight teams go through to the second and final round. Austria are the champions. Go big, or go home.
Also look out for: Britain v Denmark in the women's curling, GB v Germany in the men's event and the women's ice hockey semi-finals.
Other medals: Men's and women's cross-country team sprint.
TUESDAY, 23 FEBRUARY - FOUR MEDALS
Hup-hup-hup-hup-hup - it's women's bobsleigh heats with Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke, the 2009 world champions, carrying Britain's considerable hopes.
Minichiello and Cooke are coming back to form after winning the 2009 world title |
The pair have slipped in the World Cup standings after Minichiello was forced to undergo laser eye surgery
in December following a loss of vision in her left eye. But they stormed back to form with victory in St Moritz in January. Paula Walker and Kelly Thomas also go for Great Britain.
Minichiello said: "It's no exaggeration to say that, since we won the World Championship last year, everything that our team has done has been focused around the Olympic Winter Games. Our aim has always been to hit peak form when we reach Vancouver, and that's what we plan to achieve.
"Our season hasn't always gone according to plan, but those who know us also know that Gillian and I flourish in the face of adversity. Being selected to be part of Team GB is one of the greatest thrills you can imagine, but we're now focused on making then most of this opportunity on the biggest stage of all."
In curling, Britain's women play hosts Canada, while the men take on Norway.
Play-offs for the men's ice hockey quarters go ahead at Canada Hockey Place, and there is the women's short programme figure skating, with Northern Ireland's Jenna McCorkell going for Team GB.
Sharpening up her elbows for some plank-based argy-bargy, Sarah Sauvey
goes for Britain in the women's ski cross.
Other medals: Men's 10,000m speed skating, women's 4x6km biathlon relay, 4x5km team relay nordic combined.
WEDNESDAY, 24 FEBRUARY - SIX MEDALS
It's ladies night at the Whistler Sliding Centre as Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke plunge down the final two runs of the women's bobsleigh hoping to add the Olympic title to their world crown. Before that, all eyes will be on the two runs of the women's giant slalom.
Mancuso won the giant slalom in Turin four years ago |
American Julia Mancuso is the defending champion, while Germany's Kathrin Hoelzl leads the World Cup standings from Austria's Kathrin Zettel and Slovenia's Tina Maze. Britain's
Chemmy Alcott is great friends with Mancuso
- but will they be inseparable on the piste? Well, Ms Alcott is ranked 26th in giant slalom this year to Mancuso's 28th.
Crunching body checks and the slap of puck on stick will be the order of the day in Vancouver with the men's ice hockey quarter-finals.
Other medals: Men's 4x10km cross-country relay, women's 5,000m speed skating, women's 3,000m short-track speed skating relay and women's aerials (Sarah Ainsworth for Team GB).
THURSDAY, 25 FEBRUARY - FIVE MEDALS
Nail-biting times in sweeper-world. It's curling semi-final day for both men and women.
The top four places in the women's ice hockey tournament are also decided, as are the medals in the women's figure skating with the free programme.
Other medals: Women's 4x5km cross-country relay, Nordic combined (individual large ski jumping hill/10km cross country skiing), men's aerials.
FRIDAY, 26 FEBRUARY - EIGHT MEDALS
The action just keeps on coming with the women's slalom and the final of the women's curling competition.
On the slopes, Germany's Maria Riesch, Austria's Kathrin Zettel and France's Sandrine Aubert lead the World Cup slalom standings, while Sweden's Anja Paerson cannot be ruled out as the defending champion. Chemmy Alcott again goes for Team GB.
Archive - GB's curling golden girls
On the ice it's the bronze-medal match in the women's curling competition. Eve Muirhead's GB side will be hoping this does not involve them. The final takes place at 1500 local time (2300 GMT)
The four-man bobsleighs, also starts on the Whistler track for rounds one and two.
GB 1 will be led by driver John Jackson, 32, a corporal in the Royal Marines. He will be joined by Daniel Money, Henry Nwume and sprinter Allyn Condyn, who competed in the 4x100m relay in Sydney 2000 and becomes only the second athlete to represent his country at summer and winter Games.
The men's 500m short-track speed skating final also takes place with GB's Jon Eley
- second in the recent European Championships - hoping to be in the frame and improve on his fifth in Turin. Eley could well be back on the ice for the men's 5,000m relay final if GB make it. Also, look out for Elise Christie if she has made the final of the women's 1,000m short-track.
In Vancouver, there will be plenty of ice-based biffo as the men's ice hockey competition reaches the semi-final stage.
Other medals: Men's 4x7.5km biathlon relay, women's parallel giant slalom snowboarding.
SATURDAY, 27 FEBRUARY - SEVEN MEDALS
The slopes at Whistler Creekside make their final appearance of the Games with the highly competitive men's slalom.
Austria's Reinfried Herbst, who won silver four years ago, is the man in form at the head of the World Cup standings from France's Julien Lizeroux, Croatia's Ivica Kostelic and Switzerland's Silvan Zurbriggen (no relation to the great Pirmin). Austrian Benjamin Raich is the defending champion and leads the overall World Cup standings and will be a very serious threat once again. Ed Drake and Dave Ryding are the British contenders.
Jamaican bobsleigh team crash out in 1988
The men's four-man bobbers also go for gold with their final two runs at the Whistler Sliding Centre. Look out for the Americans, Germans, Latvians and Swiss.
In Vancouver it's crunch time on the ice as men's curling competition gets down to the final four. The bronze medal match starts at 0900 local time (1700 GMT) and the final kicks off at 1500 (2300 GMT). Will the Great British sporting public conduct another overnight vigil for David Murdoch's men as they did when Rhona Martin's side won gold in Salt Lake City in 2002?
Frustrations will be taken out and scores settled as the men's ice hockey bronze medal match also takes place.
Other medals: Women's 30km mass start cross country classic, men's parallel giant slalom (Adam McLeish for Team GB), men's and women's speed skating team pursuit finals.
SUNDAY, 28 FEBRUARY - TWO MEDALS
To kick off the final day, the action comes from Whistler Olympic Park with the men's 50km mass start cross country skiing, featuring Andrew Musgrave for Team GB.
USA beat USSR in Lake Placid 1980
Then, its time to strap yourselves in/hide behind the sofa as the potentially explosive men's ice hockey final begins at 1215 local time (2015 GMT). All of Canada will be closed at this point of the home side are involved. A day of mourning will have been held if they are not.
The closing ceremony follows to wrap up 17 days of action and 87 different events.
And that's it. All over until Sochi in 2014. Boo hoo. Long live the winter.
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