Sochi, while you were sleeping: Charles Hamelin falls out

Canada started the day with an Olympic record at the speed skating oval, but it ended with several crashes eliminating Charles Hamelin and Marianne St. Gelais. On the final lap in his 500-m heat, Hamelin had a large lead but crashed on his own in the second last turn. Be it the ice conditions playing a factor or just bad luck, it was the end of Hamelin’s chance to defend his Olympic gold in the event.
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The day wasn’t much better for his girlfriend and fellow Olympian Marianne St.-Gelais, who fell in her 1000-m heat. St.-Gelais tried an early inside pass, but couldn’t maintain her line. She crashed out and finished the race a few laps behind the leader.

Despite losing two medal favourites so early on Tuesday, it wasn’t all bad news at the speed skating oval. In the women’s 3000-m speed skating finals, Canada finished in third place, but a disqualification to the Chinese team meant Team Canada—and Marianne St. Gelais—will bring home a silver medal from Sochi.
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Back in the individual competition, it may have only been the women’s 1000-m heats, but that didn’t slow down Valérie Maltais who broke the Olympic record.
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Her teammate Marie-Ève Drolet finished third in her heat, when the top two advance, but a disqualification to a competitor in her race pushed her up to second place. On the men’s side in 500-m speed skating, Charle Cournoyer won his heat, as did Olivier Jean.
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Away from the oval, news wasn’t great in men’s snowboard cross. Canada’s Kevin Hill was running in second in the semi-finals and looked poised to advance until a late crash took him out. It was the same kind of day for fellow Canadian Chris Robanske, who was looking strong in the quarter-finals until he crashed too.
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[tweet id="435685588738797568" url="https://twitter.com/pwaldieGLOBE/statuses/435685588738797568"]Dispatches from Sochi: (Be sure to follow: @ChasGillis, @JonGatehouse, @kmqyvr, @KrRutherford and @reporterchris)

Jonathon Gatehouse: True champions, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir skate their hearts out to silver

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Denny Morrison already has a silver and bronze medal, but he can make history today. No Canadian has had a podium finish in 10,000-m speed skating since Frank Stack won bronze at Lake Placid in 1932. The Koreans and Dutch may be heavy favourites, but Morrison has surprised us twice already in Sochi.