Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 - Days 13-17

We made it! The Olympics are over and there were many, many amazing milestones for different athletes and countries. Also for Rachel, she has another finish! Check it out over at her blog. I didn't come close to finishing mine, and wasn't expecting to. I did get a lot done and am enjoying it so much I almost want to stick with it a while longer. But I do also want to progress on Triumphant Ride and I've completely ignored it so far this month. 

Here's where Mini Winter Magic was when the Olympics started:

Day 13 - I finally had a chance to watch some of the cross country skiing and enjoyed the women's relay. I hadn't seen it before and was curious if they got to give each other a push like in speed skating or just a tag. I was guessing there was no baton, but could be a flag or something? It was a touch, and the other skier sets off. There was a lot of excitement in hockey today as well. Team Canada men's was ousted from all medals! The bronze medal in women's hockey was won by Finland, who repeated their win from 2018, the first time that has ever been accomplished in women's hockey. Other excitement was at short track speed skating where the Canadian men's relay team won gold! One of the skaters, Charles Hamelin, is now tied for most medals at Winter Olympics with Cindy Klassen, also a short track speed skater. 

Day 14 - The big news for me today was Canada's win over the US in women's hockey. It was a nail-biter and I ended up getting up early to watch it before I had to go into work instead of staying up late. A really great game by both teams and so exciting to watch. Women's ski cross happened today as well and I loved watching how close some of the races were. There was a little controversy at the end because the athlete that came third was penalized for getting in the way of another racer and ended up losing out on the medal. It seems a little harsh because she had moved to not hit the person in front of her and only inadvertently got in the way of the racer behind her. But I'm not a judge, and it took them so long to decide, they were really trying to get it right for everyone. 

Day 15 - More excitement today with men's ski cross and women's freeski halfpipe. That is still amazing to watch and terrifying at the same time. The tricks they can manage on skis are almost as scary to watch as the snowboard tricks. There was also an exciting long track speed skating event in the mens' 1000m. The athlete from the Netherlands that won gold had missed out on winning recently because of different issues during races and yet was still ranked #1. It was a very fast race for the top 3 and we watched the medal ceremony after as well. 

Day 16 - Both long track speed skating and cross country skiing had mass start events today. There is quite the confusion with both, especially at the start as everyone tries to jockey for position. The speed skating race has certain times skaters can sprint and they get points for winning the sprint. The highest points earned are winning the entire race though. I think the points for sprint might only come in if maybe you were 4th for the entire race, but won all the sprints, etc. I doubt that happens very often though. In both the men's and women's races it seemed like different skaters won each sprint. The women's race was particularly exciting because a Canadian athlete was leading almost the whole time and just got beat at the end when she had no legs left. You could see she was giving it all, but couldn't make it. So fun to watch and she was a great sport too. That's mostly what I've seen from all the athletes in events I've watched. 

Day 17 - It's the end! They had some fun events today, the figure skating gala is always fun to watch and the women's curling finish, go GB! Also big news in men's hockey when Finland won the gold! I haven't even had time to watch the closing ceremonies, and I think I don't make time sometimes because it's a little sad. I do love the Winter Olympics. The below video is from 2018, I had trouble finding anything that would play. 

And now, to show how far along Mini Winter Magic made it! I did get to just 60% complete, and I'm very happy with that progress. There's a definite difference and I think I managed over 4K stitches over the 17 days. That's pretty decent progress for me. 

Mini Winter Magic by HAED

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Monaco as charted

And now to try and put this one down and catch up on Triumphant Ride! I will try and post before we start the Paralympics where it's a rush to get all the dragons complete, if possible. And March Madness! Have I done a final choice of which 4 projects to start? Of course not. I'll winnow those down this week as well. 

I hope you're all staying well and enjoying your stitching. Like Cathy mentioned, it will maybe be faster stitching from me now that the Olympics are over. I do tend to watch, especially the exciting events and my stitch counts aren't great. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch