Torino - Golden Girls!

In a huge surpise today, Chandra Crawford won the gold in the Women's Cross-country Sprint, in a race that saw Beckie Scott place fourth. The sprint is a series of races where you have to qualify and work your up to the 4 person final. Chandra was dominant today, also winning her quarter-final, and semi-final heats before winning the gold.

In less of a surprise, Cindy Klassen won the Women's 1500m Speed Skating event, and was joined on the podium (more unexpectedly) by Kristina Groves, who won the silver.

This is Cindy's fourth medal of the games, making her the most decorated Canadian female Olympian ever. She and Anni Friesinger of Germany hold the 9 fastest times ever recorded in this event, and one or the other has held the world record for the last 7 years. Cindy set the current world record in November of last year.

Tonight, Canada took the silver in the Women's Short Track Relay. One of the members of this team is Alanna Kraus, who was also on the team for their bronze medal in the same event in Salt Lake City. I met Alanna at Canada House in Salt Lake, and remembered her to be very nice, so I was rooting hard for the team tonight.

The Men's Curling Team has also won their semi-final, so they will move on to play for the gold, but the women lost their semi-final, and will play for the bronze.

Curling, by the way, has been a big hit here in Italy, just as it was in Salt Lake. I always have fun educating the people here about the finer points of curling (especially the lingo), and I enjoy listening to the director and others in the control rooms trying to figure out what's going on, and then having them build their enthusiasm for the game as the days wear on.

Meanwhile, the Men's Hockey Team plays Russia in their quarter-final, and the US was eliminated by Finland in another quarter-final earlier today.