Little miracles

Today's Olympians of the Day are losers. Big, BIG losers. I'm talking about losses so bad, you question the idea of them being involved in the Olympics. I'm talking about a hockey team that lost its first two games by a combined score of 27-0 (let's not even talk about the shot total, other than to say that their opponents had nearly 100, and they had fewer than 10.) You might not have heard too much about just exactly what the above-pictured woman did, because, well, it wasn't an American or Canadian, and the feat didn't really change much.

Except it changed everything. That is Sabina Florian, a forward on the Italian women's hockey team. She's celebrating the biggest goal in the history of Italian women's Olympic hockey. That's because, as of this writing, it's the only goal in the history of Italian women's Olympic hockey, which stretches all the way back to the beginning of the 2006 Turin Olympics. A dedicated but wholly overmatched team of women, for a few minutes during yesterday's game, held a 1-0 lead over Russia, one of the better teams in the tournament. Mike Berardino of the San Jose Mercury-News wrote about what Florian and her teammates had to do to get their hands on the most valuable - and only - piece of their team's history: the puck Florian put past Russian goaltender Irina Gashennikova eight minutes and 20 seconds into the game.

Russia went on to win the game 5-1. The Italian women will not pull off a miracle of Lake Placid proportions. They will not win a game all tournament, more than likely. They are true amateurs, no North Americans with Italian heritage. They are, perhaps, the biggest winners of the day. The Italian Women's Hockey Team, your Olympians of the Day for Valentine's Day, February 14th.

Honorable Mention: Ted "Ligety Split" Ligety. Way to go, Ted. Turns out you have to actually SKI WELL TO EARN ANY REAL CREDIT. Hear that, Bode? Also, Chanda Gunn, who held the fort while the US Women fought back from a second-period deficit and overwhelmed Finland. I'll have plenty more on her one of these days, believe me.