Hot. Cold. Sochi: Week 2

American alpine skier Bode Miller at the bib draw for the Super-G in Hinterstoder (Austria) on 5 February 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In its second week, the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia have been relatively uneventful.  That is, unless you count members of Pussy Riot getting beaten up by police for an unauthorized performance, or the Ukrainian skier who quit the Games to protest the violence currently going on in his country.

As of February 20, the United States leads the medal count with 25 (eight golds, six silver, eleven bronze), which is two more than the Russians.  The Netherlands, Norway and Canada round out the top five.  It's not like the Cold War era, when people actually cared about this stuff.  But still . . .

• The U.S. women's hockey team choked its way out of a gold medal, giving up a two-goal lead to its biggest (and only) rival Canada in the final minutes of the championship game, who then scored the winner in overtime for a 3-2 victory.  Credit the Canadians, who have now become the most dominant team in women's hockey, for a great comeback, eh?
• The Russian men's hockey team, whom everybody thought would dominate their way to gold on home ice, were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Finland.  Granted, this team was nowhere near the powerhouse Soviet squads of the late 20th century, with some of the players we have come to know in the NHL.  But when you turn someone like T.J. Oshie into an overnight folk hero in an overtime shootout loss to the United States, something is seriously wrong in Putin Land.
• The U.S. speedskating team, which used to be dominant in the days of Dan Jansen and Bonnie Blair, is leaving Sochi with no medals.  First they tried to blame it on a design flaw their outfitter put into the new suits they wore in competition, then ditched them for the old uniforms.  Nice try.  Didn't work.  Maybe it wasn't the suits?
• In alpine skiing, Ted Ligety won gold for the Americans in the men's giant slalom and Andrew Weibrecht earned silver in the Super G.  But all anybody wanted to talk about was Bode Miller, who won the bronze in Super G.  Not so much that he is the oldest (36) to win an Olympic medal in that sport, but because he participated in an NBC postrace interview that would have made Barbara Walters proud.  It's one thing for the network to mic Miller's wife to get her reactions during the race.  It's quite another for reporter Christin Cooper to constantly badger Miller with questions about his dead brother and how that has affected his skiing, to the point where he was "showing his emotions" (also known as blubbering like a baby) on camera.  Was that really necessary?  Isn't it enough to just let Miller enjoy the moment?
• The Americans also won medals in skeleton and bobsled.  But most of the attention went to Lolo Jones, the 2012 Summer Olympics track participant whose inclusion on one of the women's bobsled teams raised hackles because some folks thought NBC had a hand in getting her picked over a more deserving competitor.  As it was, Jones joined the list of those who competed at both the Winter and Summer Games without a medal to show for it.  
• The big news at NBC, besides promoting the heck out of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" (as Ed McMahon would have said it during the Johnny Carson era), was the return of Bob Costas.  After six nights of Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera, Costas' red eyes had apparently cleared up enough to allow him to return as prime time host.  As for Fallon, he's like a puppy just out of the shelter, eager to please his new owners.  Everyone seems to adore him, just like a puppy.  Too bad Fallon isn't as funny as a cute puppy.

So it goes in Sochi, with just a few days left before the Olympic flame is snuffed out.  What, pray tell, is going to happen next?