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After a bit of a slow start at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, the United States is right up there in the overall medal standings. Andre Ethier Authentic Jersey . Seven days into the competition, the U.S. began the day with four gold, two silver and six bronze medals. They are ranked fifth and have the second largest total amount of medals (12) behind Norway. Team USA has produced medals in alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, figure skating, luge and snowboarding. The glaring omission: long track speed skating. Coming into these Games, the U.S. was third in the all-time long track speed skating standings with 67 total medals and they lead in overall gold with 29. Its been 30 years since the U.S. didnt win at least one speed skating medal at the Olympics. In Sochi, Americans Brittany Bowe and Heather Richardson were the undisputed gold medal favourites in the womens 1,000 meters. Between the two, they won every World Cup race this season but in Russia they finished seventh and eighth. Shani Davis was expected to complete his historic three-peat in the 1000m and yet he finished eighth. No American has finished better than seventh place so far. In a sport where races are decided by hundredths of a second, the talk in Sochi has been about the new Under Armour suits U.S. skaters are wearing. Developed in secrecy in corporation with Lockheed Martin, the Mach 39 as it is known even looks uncomfortable to the untrained eye. A ventilation panel on the back is possibly to blame for taking in air, which hinders skaters from achieving the deep squatted stands required to deliver the ultimate stride. Then there is the U.S. training facility. American skaters have been preparing for Sochi in a building that hosts the fastest ice on the planet in Salt Lake City. The oval is on altitude which ensures fast conditions. However, the Adler Arena in Sochi is on sea level and its properties are completely different. The ice is considered slow where skaters need to rely less on technique and finesse and more on stamina and sheer determination. Team Canada trains on altitude in Calgary and perhaps it is not a coincidence that Denny Morrisons memorable silver moment is the only Canadian medal in Sochi so far. Time is running out for the U.S. long track team - and for Canadas - with only six medal events left at these Games. Both countries have slim medal hopes in the mens 10,000m and the womens 5,000m. The 1,500m - often considered the crown jewel of long track - is wide open but other than that, medaling at the team pursuit is needed to prevent historic lows. Jackie Robinson Jersey . Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Buddy Robinson scored 43 seconds apart in the second period to lead the Binghamton Senators to a 4-1 victory over the Bulldogs in American Hockey League action Friday night at the Bell Centre. Clayton Kershaw Dodgers Jersey ... thanks to every "buddy" that was involved.DOVER, Del. - Tony Stewart let his secret out this week on Twitter: He was back testing in a sprint car, feeling like hed never left. So when will he race again? Well, Smoke didnt need 140 characters to let reporters know if hed make public the date of his return race. "Nope." Stewart kept mum Friday about any future plans in sprint cars, more than nine months after he broke his leg in a crash that cost him the rest of the 2013 season. He did complete a recent private test at an undisclosed track. The rest is for Stewart to know, and the racing world to find out. "You wont know when its coming," he said at Dover International Speedway. "When I do go, nobody is going to know about it. Im going to slide in and do it. I want to enjoy it. I dont want it to be a cluster." The three-time NASCAR champion missed the final 15 races last year after breaking his leg in two places during a sprint car crash in Iowa. His first time back in a race car was Feb. 14, the day before he competed — and was crashed out of — the exhibition Sprint Unlimited. His sprint car had been fitted with safety improvements to the torque tube to prevent an injury like the one he suffered. Stewart said no one had tried to talk him out of returning to his weeknight passion. But if they had, well, the feisty champ known as Smoke wouldnt listen anyway: "Its my life. Im going to live my life." Stewart cleared the mental and physical hurdles of returning to racing at Daytona months ago. And while his Sprint Cup season hasnt been a huge success — hes winless in 12 starts with only two top-five finishes — he hasnt missed a beat in driving and running his Stewart-Haas Racing organization. Zack Greinke Authentic Jersey. But rehabilitation has dragged on much longer than he expected. "As far as rehab, pain, all that stuff, I thought it would all be done," he said. "I thought we would be healed 100 per cent by now. But I keep going to the doctor on our scheduled appointments and they keep updating us on how its going and what they think the outlook is for it." He also needs to fix whatever ails his No. 14 Chevrolet team. He hasnt finished higher than 13th in any of his last four races and crashed out at Talladega. Hes a woeful 22nd in the standings and in serious danger of missing out for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship and driving for his fourth title if cant win a race. That could happen any time — Stewart has 48 career wins and has at least one checkered flag in every season of his Cup career that dates to 1999. "Our track record shows that we can get it," he said. "Its just a matter of when is it going to happen. ... I think you get six or eight weeks before Richmond, then you start panicking if you dont have that win. " Stewart does have three career wins at Dover, including the spring race last season that snapped a 30-race winless skid. He was stuck in 20th in the standings then, a sure sign that all takes is that one checkered flag to snap Smoke back into the thick of contention. "I think its still too early to panic, at least for us," he said. cheap jerseys ' ' ' |
