Four Medals Contested Tonight

The Fantasy Winter Olympics competion intensifies with our first four gold medal night. Tim Lavoie's Fightin' Ovechkins are favored to get back on track with a 16.7 medal in snowboarding, but then again you could have said the same thing last night. Meanwhile Brian Schwartz's Nordique Combined should win luge to complete a clean sweep of that sport's golds.

4:00 PM PST - Speed Skating
In tonight's men's 1000 meter race, American Shani Davis is heavily favored to take the gold for Zach Chromiak's Banker's Club. Davis, who took gold in the 1000 at Turin and has won two World Championships in the event, is everyone's pick for gold including mine.
I'm picking South Koreans (Brittany B./Buck-Toothed Rabbit Bitches) for the other medals. Mo Tae-Bum, who took gold in the 500, is my choice for silver in the 1000. Lee Kyu-Hyeok is my pick for bronze. Kyu-Hyeok won both 1000 meter races at the World Sprint Championships last month, but few top skaters competed with the Olympics so close.

All time great Jeremy Wotherspoon of Canada (Dave Spence/Paragons) is another contender but has lost a step at age 33. Canadian Denny Morrison should also finish near the top.

6:30 PM PST - Luge
Brian Schwartz's Nordique Combined team will sweep the luge medals if a German pair can win tonight's doubles luge event. Unlike the singles, the doubles teams make only two runs, making this a less predictable competition. The first run starts at 5 PM PST with the second run about an hour and a half later.

There's no point in picking against the Germans now. I like the German pair Andre Florschuetz and Torsten Wustlich to take the 16.7 point gold. And I'm picking the other German pair Patrick Leitner/Alexander Resch for silver.

The bronze medal should be a battle between Austrians Andreas Linger and Wolfgang Linger (Ellis Kunka/Cornballers) and Italy's Christian Overstolz/Patrick Gruber (Zach Chromiak/Banker's Club). I'm picking the suspiciously German sounding Italian team.

7:07 PM PST - Short Track Speed Skating
In the women's 500 meter short track event, China's Wang Meng (Ellis Kunka/Cornballers) is as close as it gets to a sure thing in the Olympics. She's a four time world champion in the 500 and took gold in the event at Turin. How good is she? If you bet a dollar on her to medal, you win one cent. I won't risk my dollar but I'm picking her for gold.

Canadian Kalyna Roberge (Dave Spence/Paragons), the 2007 world champion, is my choice for silver. As this picture shows, it is a real testament to the greatness of Wang Meng that an athlete this talented would not be the gold medal favorite.

I'm also picking a Canadian for bronze: Jessica Gregg, who took the 500 meter bronze in the 2009 World Championships. A couple of 18 year olds makin their Olympic debuts, South Korean Lee Eun-Byul (John Binz/Da Nang Dynamos) and China's Zhou Yang, also could medal.

7:15 PM PST - Snowboarding
Snowboarding continues with the Men's Half Pipe, an event that Tim Lavoie's heavily favored Fightin' Ovechkins can ill afford to blow after last night's embarassment.

Shaun White of the Ovechkins' Team USA took the gold in this event at Turin and is a prohibitive favorite to repeat. Anything can happen in snowboarding, but White was first in qualifying and I think he'll take the gold.

Iouri Podladtchikov of Switzerland (Dave Spence/Paragons) won the half pipe at the 2008 World Cup and is quite excited at the prospect of killing off the free falling Ovechkins' chances with a gold. Although his name makes him sound like the kind of hardcore punk who dominates the sport, I'm picking him for silver.

American Louie Vito, a two-time U.S. Snowboarding Grand Priz champion, is my choice for bronze. Another American, Scott Lago, is a contender but is better at the non-Olympic quarter pipe. Japan's Kazuhiro Kokubo (undrafted) is his country's best hope to medal in the sport but I think he'll fall short.