Wage-Slaves Toil Away During Medal Events

In what is undoubtedly one of history's great tragedies, regular business is still being conducted in the United States despite the four medals being contested today.

10:20 AM PST - BiathlonWomen's biathlon continues with the 15k. I could be making this pick with love goggles, but there's no way I'm not picking Germany's Magdalena Neuner (Adam Claus/Ice Lugers). She has a gold and silver already and quite a bit of talent which is obvious even to the casual biathlon fan.
My pick for silver is Helena Jonsson of Sweden (Dave Spence/Paragons). Despite missing out on an obvious chance to have two dots over the O in her last name, she's the reigning World Cup winner. Another Swede, Anna Carin Olofsson, is also a contender for a medal, but I'm picking Russian Svetlana Sleptsova (Joy Sadaly/Olympic Ring Worm Wood Stock Market District Attorney).

12:30 PM PST - Alpine SkiingThe Women's Super Combined will finally be contest today. The event consists of one downhill run followed by one slalom run using a shorter course, with the fastest total time determining the winner.

While we all know that American Lindsey Vonn (Ellis Kunka/Cornballers) is best in the downhill, I'm picking a couple of superior slalom skiers to upset her for the gold. With the slalom times typically more spread apart than downhill, I think that part of the competition will be the most important. I'm picking Vonn for bronze, a result that would no doubt upset her volatile manager Kunka.

Maria Riesch of Germany (undrafted, inexplicably), the 2009 world champion in slalom and the 2008 combined World Cup winner, is my choice for gold. Anja Parson of Sweden (Adam Claus/Ice Lugers), the Turin bronze medalist in this event, is my pick for silver. She is a former World Cup winnter in combined as well, and won the bronze medal in this event at Turin. Another contender is Kathrin Zettel of Austria (Brittany B./Buck-Toothed Rabbit Bitches), the defending world champion.

1 PM PST - Speed SkatingThe Women's 1000 meter should result in a win for the home team and more importantly, for Dave Spence's last place Paragons. Christine Nesbitt is a huge favorite for gold and is the world champion in this event. She's improved a lot since the Turin Games where she still took silver in the team pursuit.

The Netherlands' Annette Gerritsen (Ellis Kunka/Cornballers) finished just 23rd at Turin but is a much better skater than that. I'm picking her for silver. Another Dutch skater, Margot Boer, should make the finals.

Anne Friesinger of Germany (John Binz/Da Nang Dynamos), who won the bronze in this event at Turin, is my pick to repeat with a bronze at Vancouver. Beixing Wang of China (Joy Sadaly/Olympic Ring Worm Wood Stock Market District Attorney) is another contender, but she has never had that much success in the 1000 and I'm picking her to be off the podium.

1:20 PM PST - Biathlon
With only a silver so far in biathlon, favored Norway (John Binz/Da Nang Dynamos) hopes to get back on track in the men's 20k. I'm picking Norwegian Ole Einar Bjørndalen, the defending world champion in this event and the Salt Lake City gold medal winner in this event. He also took silver in Turin. Bjørndalen had an uncharacteristic poor shooting performance in the sprint which also doomed his chances in the pursuit, but he's a great champion and will come back strong with a gold.

I'm also picking a Norwegian for silver, the 2008 world champion Emil Hegle Svendsen. Turin gold medal winner Michael Greis of Germany (Adam Claus/Ice Lugers) is my choice for bronze. Another strong contender is Christoph Sumann of Austria (Brian Schwartz/Nordique Combined).