Winter Olympics end tonight

Gold medal ice hockey game at 3:00 between Team USA & Team Canada

The 2010 Olympic Winter Games come to an end tonight. Nordic combined gold medalist Billy Demong (Vermontville, N.Y.) will lead Team USA into the stadium for the Closing Ceremony, and the flame will be passed to Sochi, host city for the 2014 Games.

The latest updates on Team USA
USA I with Steven Holcomb (Park City, Utah), Steve Mesler (Buffalo, N.Y.), Curt Tomasevicz (Shelby, Neb.) and Justin Olsen (San Antonio, Texas) captured the gold medal in four-man bobsled - the USA’s first four-man gold since the 1948 St. Moritz Games.

The U.S. added to its record medal haul when the U.S. team of Brian Hansen (Glenview, Ill.), Chad Hedrick (Spring, Texas) and Jonathan Kuck (Champaign, Ill.) won silver in the men’s team pursuit in long track speedskating.

With the medal count for Team USA standing at 36 for the 2010 Games, the team is poised to add record medal No. 37 today as the U.S. Men’s Hockey Team faces Canada in the gold medal game.

To catch up on all the action from Vancouver click here .

What’s in store today for Team USA
Amidst the final action of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the U.S. Men’s Olympic Hockey Team will meet Canada in the gold medal game Sunday afternoon. The match-up comes on the 50th anniversary of the gold medal win by the 1960 U.S. team.

Kris Freeman (Andover, N.H.) and James Southam (Anchorage, Alaska) will wrap up competition in Whistler with the men’s cross country 50k.

Look out today for a look back at the milestones and achievements Team USA reached during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, plus a look ahead at the athletes on the 2010 U.S. Paralympic Team arriving in Vancouver in a couple weeks.

To find out about upcoming events and results click here.

Blogosphere roundup in Virginia and beyond....

My fellow SWAC bloggers have been busy. Fishersville Mike has his Sunday roundup of interesting reads in the blogosphere ... thanks for the link, Mike! Yankee Phil has some smelly statistics ... LOL. Let's hope this stays in Vegas! Bob took The Journey to Elliott's Knob for a gorgeous snowy winter view of that part of the Appalachian Mountains in western Augusta County.

Michael at The Write Side of My Brain is off on a mission trip adventure ... it's good to see Carl Kilo who came out of his winter's nap to Spark It Up with a flurry of posts ... DJ Spiker at Bearing Drift discusses how the GOP can attract youthful voters, something we have stressed in the SWAC area over the years as we mentored future Party leaders and worked with TARs and CRs.

Norm Leahy at Tertium Quids testified before the Senate Finance Committee on behalf of the HB 570 that would put the burden of proof of real estate assessments on the assessor and not the citizen, and revealed that public servants used taxpayer time to testify against the very taxpayers they are supposed to represent. Someone from Augusta County was there ... hope we can find out who it was.

Pat over at her blog, ... and so it goes in Shrevesport, got a head start yesterday rounding up the blogosphere. My thanks to her for the link.

Even rain couldn't keep Donald Douglas and his American Power camera away from the anniversary tea party in Temecula Valley in California where he ran into the Tax Zombie and the Political Pistachio.

The Other McCain starts the day off mixing some light-hearted humor and spelling bees. I know ... you're thinking, "What's humorous about spelling bees?" Trust me ... the connection was made.

El Marko has a new photo essay reflecting on the tea party movement as it passes it's first birthday and enters its second year.

Congrats to my boss Jim Riley over at Virginia Virtucon for his #1 ranking on BNN/Virginia this week.

And, finally, congratulations to Team USA who entertained us for two weeks with the Winter Olympics from Vancouver, Canada, sent daily email updates, and made America proud, making the record books with the most medals in a winter Olympics. The championship gold medal ice hockey game is today between Team USA and Team Canada ... if Team USA wins, it will be the first gold since the Miracle on Ice in 1980, a game my friends and I watched in my Richmond apartment that year. Wouldn't it be something if Team USA did it again....

USA on pace to break previous gold medal record

The winter Olympics end tomorrow and all those familiar faces will be gone from our living rooms as young people return to their homes throughout the world. As in years past, it has dominated our TV the past two weeks.

From Olympic news today:

By winning two medals Friday in short track speedskating; and by virtue of qualifying for today's gold medal final in long track speedskating team pursuit; and by earning a spot in Sunday’s gold medal hockey game, Team USA is assured of no less than tying Germany’s all-time Olympic Winter Games record of 36 medals.

Prior to the Vancouver Games, the most medals the U.S. had ever won at a non-U.S. hosted Winter Games was 25 at the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games. The U.S. has topped the medal standings at only one other Olympic Winter Games, the 1932 Lake Placid Winter Games, when U.S. athletes brought home 12 medals.

The U.S. has led the medal count at the end of every day of competition here in Vancouver. In 20 previous Olympic Winter Games, the U.S. had led the medal count outright on just seven days: Five times at the Lake Placid 1932 Olympic Winter Games; on Day 5 of the Grenoble 1968 Olympic Winter Games; and on Day 4 of the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games.

There has been only one instance where a nation has led the medal count outright for an entire Olympic Winter Games: The Soviet Union achieved the feat at the Innsbruck 1976 Olympic Winter Games.

The latest updates on Team USA....
The U.S. men’s ice hockey team punched a ticket to Sunday’s gold medal game by defeating Finland 6-1 in the semifinal round.

Katherine Reutter (Champaign, Ill.) won the silver medal in women’s 1000m short track speedskating, while the U.S. men’s 5000m relay won bronze.

USA I, with Steven Holcomb (Park City, Utah), Steve Mesler (Buffalo, N.Y.), Curt Tomasevicz (Shelby, Neb.) and Justin Olsen (San Antonio, Texas), is in first place at the halfway point of the four-man bobsled competition.

To catch up on all the action from Vancouver click here .