Canada jumped to the 4th place today with 11 medals, standing side to side with Germany and Russia. The two teams got more golds. Skeleton helped Canada to move upward. After a bronze in women's yesterday, Duff Gibson a firefighter of Calgary International Airport at the age of 39 and Jeff Pain won gold and silver respectively.
Those two plus a bronze in women's snowboarding helped Canada to reach the new position in overall count. Two Canadians were in the final of that race and both crashed! The 1st girl was taken to a hospital and she's doing fine and the second one continued and got bronze. The American snowboarder who had the lead just until few meters to the finish line, slipped and that made the Swiss girl to win the gold! The US has won the most gold so far but is the 5th behind Canada, surprisingly.
I just jotted down the speeds of 8 heats (runs) of men skeleton to show how crazy this sport is. The data is not sorted and is in kilometer per hour:
- 121.7
- 123.3
- 122.3
- 123.0
- 121.9
- 120.7
- 125.1 (Jeff Pain. Silver medal)
- 124.2 (Duff Gibson. Gold medal)
The speed is the maximum they reached and that's at the end of the track before they finish. Gibson took over Pain because of the better time he had in the first heat and a better start in overall. When Pain was going down at the end of the track and made that amazing 125.1 Km/h speed, he once hit the side and the almost the roof but controlled his movement and kept going. Another Canadian, Boehm finished forth.
(Photo: Pain, left and Gibson after the race which brought them silver and gold respectively)
(Photo: Pain, left and Gibson after the race which brought them silver and gold respectively)
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