【鹿鹿逛索契】第三比赛日回顾 Sochi Highlights from Day 3

Let's go first to Sochi, with a roundup of the highlights and points of interest from day 3. China earned its first medal of the games when short track speedskater Han Tianyu claimed silver in the 1500 meters. It's the first Olympics for 17-year old Han so congratulations to him. He came in 0.7 seconds behind world number 1 Charles Hamelin of Canada, who claimed his third Olympic gold and beat his speedskating brother Francois Hamelin in the process. The Chinese speedskaters didn't fare so well in the 500meter race. That final was swept clean by the Netherlands Michael Mulder, Jan Smeekkens and Michael's twin brother Ronald Mulder. The Dutch team is on fire having already swept the men’s 5000 meters and took gold in the women’s 3000. Meanwhile, curling got underway yesterday. For anyone who doesn't like curling, doesn't understand curling, or hasn't even heard of curling…I'd recommend watching the sport and trying to get a grasp on it because it's becoming something of a cult favorite. It's an odd mix of broomsticks, bowling, and bold trouser choices, but as one Russian fan explains, the sport is not that unfathomable. "In fact, I think the rules are not that complicated. People who go to watch the events should understand why the athletes are sweeping. It's not just to push a stone, but to reach a certain acceleration, to put a stone in a certain zone and reach the goal of getting a winning margin of stones in. We (Russia) were a bit unlucky today. But it is all progress for our team." The snowboarding events are also especially in vogue this year, thanks to the addition of fresh events like slope style. Still to come is the snowboard cross competition, and the American team held a press conference yesterday. Team USA is stacked with veteran and incoming talent including current X-games champion Nate Holland. "First impression of the course: it is going to be a spectacular race, the stuff is built really well. It is big, it is going to be fast and a lot of really great features so yeah." The team also includes Torino 2006 silver medalist Lindsey Jacobellis, whose brutal crash on the second-to-last jump of the final cost her the gold. Jacobellis had a huge lead in that final, but attempted an unnecessary trick on that end jump. Many said showboating cost her gold. But the American said she's not looking at these games as a way to redeem herself. All my years of racing I have been racing now for 16 years - and I have never had a situation again like that. To even try to put it in a redemption category?I am always trying to do my best and win and that doesn't happen. The field of women (in the sport) has increased and I like to think that I had something to do with that." One interesting piece of trivia about snowboarding events is that the Russian translators are apparently having difficulty finding appropriate words to express typical snowboarder lingo like "stoked" "sick" and "on the fly". One of the translators at gold medalist Sage Kotsenburg's press conference said "stoked" actually sounds like a Russian word for "drunk". But someone pointed out that Russians will be way more impressed by these American snowboarders now, who are winning golds and are "so stoked". In the most recent medal count, Canada has usurped Norway at the top of the table, with three golds, three silvers and a bronze.