Winter Olympics - medal tally

My Olympics updates had to go on an enforced hiatus for a few days as I grappled with the madness of the last week of the semester here in Trier. However, with that survived, normal (Winter Olympics) service will resume tomorrow. Normal (normal) service will resume after the Olympics, of course.

For now though, you just get the up-to-date medal tally and two interesting points to note:
1) Germany is at the top of the gold tally and the total tally. The German media are pleased. Oh, except the tabloid Bild Zeitung, which is running front-page SCANDAL splashes about how much the athletes earn (when it can fit that outrage in around scare-mongering that the World Cup in Germany is going to be cancelled because of bird flu).

2) This one will please, or at least relieve, Badaunt: Japan finally won a medal, and it was gold. From the Torino2006.org website:

TURIN, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Shizuka Arakawa glided into the record books when she captured Japan's first figure skating gold medal at the Winter Olympics with victory in the women's event, knocking favourite Irina Slutskaya to third.

The Japanese skater surged from third after the short programme to leapfrog early pace setters Sasha Cohen and Slutskaya with a mesmerising free programme.

She stormed past silver medallist Cohen by 7.98 points, while Slutskaya finished third.

Her victory prevented Slutskaya's attempt to become the first Russian to win the discipline.

Nice job. Arakawa qualifies for Olympics photo of the day:

[Source: torino2006.org]

And here is the medal tally at the end of day 13 in Turin:

Rank	NOC				Total
1	Germany	9	10	5	24
2	Austria	8	6	5	19
3	Russian Fed.	8	3	8	19
4	United States	7	8	5	20
5	Canada	5	8	6	19
6	Switzerland	5	4	4	13
7	Sweden	5	2	4	11
8	Korea	4	3	1	8
9	Italy	4	0	6	10
10	France	3	2	4	9
11	Estonia	3	0	0	3
12	Norway	2	8	8	18
13	China	2	3	4	9
14	Netherlands	2	2	3	7
15	Croatia	1	2	0	3
16	Australia	1	0	1	2
17	Japan	1	0	0	1
18	Finland	0	3	3	6
19	Czech Republic	0	2	0	2
20	Belarus	0	1	0	1
20	Bulgaria	0	1	0	1
20	Great Britain	0	1	0	1
20	Slovakia	0	1	0	1
24	Ukraine	0	0	2	2
25	Latvia	0	0	1	1

[Source: torino2006.org]


Tags:
sport, Winter Olympics, Turin, Germany, Germany