Cornballers Favored For 2 Golds Tonight

6:15 PM PST - BobsleighCanada (Tim Lavoie/Fightin' Ovechkins) has the top team after two rounds in the two-woman bobsleigh, with the remaining heats at 5 and 6:15 p.m. local time. Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse are in first. I have no idea if this is them, but this is most certainly a Canadian bobsled team.
Team USA (Brittany B./Buck-Toothed Rabbit Bitches) has the second place sled with Erin Pac and Elana Meyers just 0.13 seconds behind. Canada could get two medals with Helen Upperton and Shelley-Ann Brown currently in fourth.

Germany (Zach Chromiak/Banker's Club), always a force in the gravity sports, is currently in third and fifth. They'll certainly be ready to move up if either of the top two teams make a mistake. The difference between #3 and #5 is 0.04 seconds, with the top two teams comfortably in front by bobsled standards.

6:26 PM PST - Short Track Speed SkatingThe final in the women's 3000 meter relay is an interesting event because there is no set distance per skater. The team of four skaters decides how many laps each skater will race, as long as the final laps are covered by the same person. There are usually seven or eight exchanges per team in the race.

My pick for gold is China's team of Linlin Sun, Wang Meng, Hui Zhang and Zhou Yang (Ellis Kunka/Cornballers). Having the top skater at the end is key, and the Chinese have exactly that in Meng. They set the Olympic record in qualifying and it would be a major upset if China lost. But remember, anythign can happen in short track. China similarly was a heavy favorite and was disqualified at Turin.

Korea's team of Ha-Ri Cho, Min-Jung Kim, Eun-Byul Lee and Seung-Hi Park (John Binz/Da Nang Dynamos) qualified with the second fastest time. They are the defending gold medal winner and finished less than a second out of gold at the 2009 World Championships. I'm picking them for second.

Team USA (Brittany B./Buck-Toothed Rabbit Bitches) is my choice for bronze. Kimberly Derrick, Alyson Dudek, Lana Gehring and Katherine Reutter skated in the qualifying rounds. Allison Baver, a Berks County native, will skate in the finals although I'm not sure who she's replacing. She appears to have at a minimum, bronze medal talent.
Team Canada (Dave Spence/Paragons) - Jessica Gregg, Kalyna Roberge, Marianne St-Gelais and Tania Vicent - has won the bronze at every World Cup event this season. St-Gelais, Gregg and Roberge all finished in the top 6 in the 500, but I think they'll get shut out in the relay.

7:30 PM PST - Freestyle SkiingOnly four countries have qualified athletes for the Women's Aerials final. Athletes can choose two of many different jumps that combine back flips and twists with differing degrees of difficulty. Athletes are judged on the quality of take off, height gained, form and body position, and how they maintain balance upon landing.

My pick to win is Nina Li of China (Ellis Kunka/Cornballers). She is a three time world champion and won the silver at Turin.

Lydia Lassila of Australia (John Binz/Da Nang Dynamos) is my choice for silver. She's already won two World Cup aerials events this year and would have medaled at Turin if not for injury.
Guo Xinxin of China is my pick for bronze. According to her Vancouver Olympic profile her hobbies are "Collecting personal accessories, shopping and spending time with her parents." It seems like she has a lot of time to practice.

Among other competitors, Jacqui Cooper of Australia returns at age 37. She crashed on both jumps at Turin but is a four time World Cup champion, and the greatest freestyle skier of all time. Team USA (Brian Schwartz/Nordique Combined) includes Ashley Caldwell (Hampton, Virginia), Lacy Schnoor (Draper, Utah) and Emily Cook (Belmont, Mass.). I think all but Cook are too inexperienced to medal this time around. Latvia (undrafted) is the only other country with skiers in the final.