Men's Moguls & Figure Skating Previews

2:30 PM PST - Freestyle SkiingQualification for the Men's Moguls begins at 2:30 PM PST with the final at 5:30 PM PST.

It's not quite "Xavier Nady returning to PNC Park" but there's a homecoming storyline with Australian Dale Begg-Smith (John Binz/Da Nang Dynamos). Apparently he skied for Canada in juniors but quit the program and moved to Australia because the Canadian coaches objected to him pursuing outside interests other than skiing. He refused to talk to Canadian reporters before the event, but I think he'll do his talking with a gold medal.
Other contenders are Canada's Alexandre Bilodeau (Adam Claus/Ice Lugers) and Jesper Bjornland of Sweden (Zach Chromiak/Banker's Club). I think Bilodeau, a former World Cup champion, will take the silver and Bjornland gets the bronze.

Guilbaut Colas of France (undrafted), with seven World Cup gold medals - including one less than a month ago in this event - is another strong contender.

4:30 PM PST - Figure SkatingFigure skating junkies and Fantasy Olympians are no doubt looking forward to tonight's Pairs Short Program which is the first appearance of the sport at Vancouver.

The scores will be combined with the free skate to determine a 25 point gold medal, huge in the Fantasy Winter Olympics. Some of the top teams have the extra motivation of proving commentators wrong, such as the asshole at fantasywinterolympics.blogspot.com who criticized some early figure skating draft picks.

During the Pairs Short Program, couples must execute eight required elements in two minutes and 50 seconds.
1. Lift
2. Double or triple twist lift
3. Double or triple throw jump
4. Solo (side-by-side) double or triple jump
5. Solo (side-by-side) spin combination with one change of foot
6. Pair spin combination with one change of foot
7. Death spiral on a specified edge
8. Spiral or step sequence

The program is set up like a Journey concert. Open with a favorite and then close with five songs everbody knows.

Two-time Olympic bronze medalists Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo of China (John Binz/Da Nang Dynamos) will skate first in the short program. Then there's a huge break before any of the other favorites.
European champions Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov of Russia (Dave Spence/Paragons) skate 16th. Skating 17th are Canadian champions Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison.

Two more Chinese couples - Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, silver medalists in Turin, and Pang Qing and Tong Jian, the 2006 world champions - are strong contenders and will skate 18th and 19th. Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany (Brittany B./Buck-Toothed Rabbit Bitches, winners of the last two world titles, will skate last.

Don't stop believing, but I'm picking the Germans to take the gold with the Chinese taking silver and bronze.