Eight degrees at 35538. Sunday barn chores. About to begin. I see three huddled masses in the front field. Check. I’ll lug and chug to the barn in a bit to check on the other two. We moved Eli, the goat, and Duchess, the cat, to the tack room last night. Yes, it’s that cold.
Taking a moment to write, checking it off the list and putting off the polar bear plunge, the Expedition excursion. It’s been a long, cold winter already.
Just watched Lindsey Vonn crash in her comeback in the Winter Olympics, her double comeback. A return to skiing and a return to the slope after rupturing her ACL in a practice run a week ago. Elite athletes and the edge. Vonn went over that edge 13.4 seconds into today’s downhill race. She was airlifted off the mountain. Brutal.
All the while, American Breezy Johnson won the gold.
Sport.
And now the skiathlon. Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo seeks to break the record for most career Winter Olympic gold medals. ‘King Klaebo’ owns five Olympic gold medals, 15 world titles and over 100 World Cup wins. The field has narrowed to five, slicing and dicing, separating from the peloton. There’s Klaebo, the patron, the pinnacle. White hat, red suit, yellow skis and bib #1, rounding into the final lap. One last lung-bursting loop. Sit, wait and sprint. That’s it.
Klaebo makes the move…turning the screws…opens the gap…up the final climb…
Milan Cortina’s Secretariat.
