Something HUGE just happened in Oslo today.
Alex Harvey just hushed thousands of Norwegians as Canada took the Gold from Norway on their home turf. I’m so excited and proud of them! I was with a bunch of teammates yelling, screaming and bouncing up and down in front of the big screen back at the hotel. After catching a Finn who went into the last lap with a head start, Harvey passed a Norwegian in the finishing sprint and he and his teammate Devan Kershaw filled the finish pen with their excited whoops. The Canadian women also had a great day, with the team of Dasha Gaiazova and Perianne Jones finishing 6th. The US women team of Kikkan Randall and Sadie Bjornsen finished 9th and the men’s team of Andy Newell and Torin Koos came in 10th. It’s a really hard race and I am totally impressed by the North American teams!
For those of you who have never seen a team sprint, it’s really exciting. Each country fields one team of two people; they ski the sprint course loop (1.3km for women and 1.5km for men) and alternate tagging off so that each skis 3 loops by the end of the race. It can get really tactical since you need enough energy to sprint 3 times in about 20 minutes.
There are two semifinals and a final. To move on to the finals, your team needs to finish top three in your semifinal, or be one of the next four fastest times (called “lucky losers”). So even if you aren’t near the top three, you still have to hammer your guts out and hope that the other semifinal wasn’t faster. All of the US and Canadian teams advanced to the final. So cool!
It’s going to be a great medals ceremony downtown tonight!
