Pic of the day
Talking points
Doping: The first doping cases to hit the 2014 Sochi Games emerged Friday after a double gold-medal winning German female biathlete and an Italian bobsledder tested positive for banned substances.
German biathlete Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle, who has won two gold medals at previous Olympic Games, confirmed she had tested positive, describing it as the “worst nightmare you can imagine”.
Meanwhile, the Italian Olympic Committee said Italian bobsledder William Frullani had tested positive for a banned substance and had already been kicked out of the Sochi Games.
Ice hockey: Canada will face Sweden in the ice hockey final after Jamie Benn scored the games only goal. Carey Price stopped 31 shots for the defending champions.
Curling: Dominant Canada won their third successive Olympic men’s curling gold with a convincing 9-3 victory over Britain in the final. After Canada’s women’s triumph 24 hours earlier, it was the first time that one country had swept both titles at the same Games.
Short-track: Russia’s short track star Victor Ahn won the men’s 500m short track speed skating gold to add to his earlier gold in the 1,000m event. GB’s Elise Christie completed a miserable games (after two previous disqualifications) by crashing out of her 1000m short-track semi-final. South Korea’s Park Seung-Hi took the title.
Alpine skiing: American teenager Mikaela Shiffrin showed nerves of steel to add Olympic gold to her world slalom title under floodlights. Ireland’s Florence Bell, 55th after the after the first run, crashed out on the second, ending her Games.
Ski-cross: Marielle Thompson narrowly edged out Canadian compatriot Kelsey Serwa to win the women’s ski cross title.
Biathlon: Ukraine raced to a famous victory in the women’s team biathlon relay, defying the tragedy of the violence at home to take gold with an inspiring performance.
You gotta see this
The final run of the women’s slalom was held under floodlights and it looked pretty cool:
Hero of the day
Record-breaking Russian short track speed skater Victor Ahn won two more Olympic golds on Friday to take his tally to six — the highest in the sport’s history.
South Korean-born Ahn won his first medal of the night in the 500m, overcoming a slow start to skate to victory, buoyed by a partisan home crowd at the Iceberg Skating Palace.
Minutes later he was part of a four-man team that edged the United States to take gold in the 5,000m relay in an Olympic record time.
They said what?
“You have a lot of attention on a foolish sport like American football and you waste a lot of talent, athletic talent, on a sport that is meant to kill each other, to injure each other. … You’re so narrow-minded, and then you want to compete against the world [in other sports] when you waste a lot of time, good talent on a sport that sucks.”
- Dutch speedskating coach Jillert Anema explains to CNBC why the USA don’t win speed-skating medals.
Medal table
Tomorrow’s highlights
Ireland’s Conor Lyne goes in the men’s slalom tomorrow at 4.45pm with his second run at 8.15pm. Also coming up are the speed-skating pursuits, men’s and women’s parallel snowboard slalom, four man bobsliegh heats and the women’s 30km mass start cross-country race.
Additional reporting from AFP.
Hopefully the trio make it! They are an integral part of our Six Nations squad. Keep it up lads!!!
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: lowe and Dan are part of the 6 nations squad but connors is nowhere near that squad. Hodnet, timoney, pendergast are all way ahead of him. Not to mention with conan going to 8 we have doris who can play 7 as can POM. Infact I’d rather see Scott penny get time for leinster than will.
@chris mcdonnell: I completely agree. I’d ate my own underpants if Connors is named tomorrow
@Niall Boyle: hopefully those pants are in better condition than the pair I wore on Sunday
@Niall Boyle: I’ll hold you to that
@chris mcdonnell: with the best will in the world POM cannot play 7 in the 6 Nations.
Hope they don’t rush Sheehan back this Saturday. 50 mins against the Stormers on the 25th of Jan and then into the 6 nations squad. Connors now needs to stay fit for the rest of the season if he wants to ever make an Ireland squad, at nearly 29 time is running out
Lowe is too slow. Osborne a better long term bet.
@conor carroll: Osbourne isn’t a wing, he can do the job but he’s a 12 or 15. Lowe being “slow” didn’t stop him being named in the world XV this year or being one of our best performing players.
@conor carroll: not on the wing he isnt,hes not a winger and it showed on sunday,great 12 and 15,lowe though offers far more on the left wing,breaks tackles,carries,big left boot and has vastly improved his defence,also always goes hunting for the ball and gets stuck in to mauls and excellent under the high ball,pace is not everything.
@conor carroll: Interesting statement. If you actually watched rugby you’d see that Lowe is probably quicker than Osborne in a foot race. Osborne has many, many strengths. Pace isn’t one of them.
@conor carroll: Nash is the pace merchant played all the 6 nations last year
Honestly, is Lowe still a starter for Leinster? I just really can’t see how you leave out Jamie Osborne even if he was rusty on the wing at the weekend, like his skill level for that try was ridiculous. He also has just a big left boot as Lowe.
@Eoin H: lowe is the left winger for both ireland and leinster.
@Eoin H: Osborne isn’t a winger and should only be playing there in a pinch. Lowe is also the better player generally right now
@Gary D: He definitely isn’t the better all round player generally, no way
@Eoin H: Well he has been a starter for the last 7.5 years. And he was a starter right up until his injury. Osborne is far far better utilised at 12 or 15. Let’s just play lads in their correct positions.
@Eoin H: I partially agree with you. Osbourne has an ability to hold on to passes that others would knock on and is too good to leave out of the team. Lowe is a try scoring machine as well though so not sure I’d leave him out either. I’d probably play Osbourne at 12 and leave Henshaw on the bench for impact