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A SYRUPY MOMENT

 
Published Feb. 11, 2014

At the end of competition Monday, three countries were at the top of the medals chart with seven each: Canada, the Netherlands and Norway. But Canada got to sit in the ultimate top spot because it had more gold and silver medals combined than the other two. Call it a technicality, but Canadians won't care: This was the first time Canada had led the medal count in an Olympics, the Toronto Star reported.

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Word of the day

SPOICE (SPOYss): Noun: An exclamation of gratitude toward life (Urban Dictionary). Adj: A particularly high compliment to be paid to someone. Language of origination: Snowboard.

"Spoice" is the latest addition to the world's vocabulary from the hang-loose-dude culture that never has failed to fulfill one of its Olympic purposes: keep the Games from drowning in self-importance.

American Sage Kotsenburg (top right), the gold medalist in men's slopestyle debut, has demonstrated many uses for it. While looking at the breathtaking view of the slopestyle course from the top of the mountain, he exclaimed, "Spoice!" On his Twitter account with a picture of him with U.S. figure skater Gracie Gold (bottom right) he wrote: "Good hangin with the queen of spoice on the oice @GraceEGold today!"

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Burning rings of fire

What's more impressive: that Canadian short-track speed skater Charles Hamelin won the 1,500-meter gold medal Monday or that he has this tattoo on his back. The tattoo took 11 hours to get and was very painful, he says.

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Drones get a not-creepy purpose

That drone you might have spotted zipping around the slopes isn't searching for terrorists or protesters hiding behind the fir trees. It's being used to transmit live video of snowboard and ski jump competitions to a screen near you. Unlike military drones, which often look like a remote-controlled airplane, the creature floating around Sochi resembles a huge flying spider. Drones are increasingly common at sporting events, and these Olympics are the highest-profile showcase yet for their use in broadcasting. Why use a drone to film Olympic events? "We can go really, really close. And we are really quiet, so nobody is distracted," said pilot and cameraman Remo Masima. And it's cheaper than a camera crew on a helicopter.

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It's just crazy pants!

The curling venue is giving figure skating analyst Johnny Weir a run for his money as the epicenter of Olympic haute couture.

Or maybe not.

The Norwegians are back with their crazy pants.

They wore them four years ago - some of the curlers skeptically - after teammate Christopher Svae suggested it as a way to bring attention to the sport in its biggest world showcase. The plaid, checked and everything else pants - from California company Loudmouth Golf (us.loudmouthgolf.com/)- made them international sensations. And getting the silver medal didn't hurt.

This year they have nine kinds of pants to unveil over the course of these Games. In their opening game against the United States on Monday, the wore a window-pane print of red, white, blue and gray. The Americans wore black slacks and navy team shirts with white sleeves.

Final score: Pants 7, USA 4.

Compiled from Times wires, Yahoo Sports, Canadian Broadcast Corp.