while one of the americans you'll see skate tonight rachel flatt may or may not make the podium, her not just about the ice either. her story tonight from donna friesen. >> reporter: to excel at figure skating, good balance and consistency are essential. few know that and show that better than rachael flatt. >> time after time she lands all the jumps all the time. that's a miracle to me. >> reporter: just 17 years old, flatt has a drive for perfection. >> i want to excel. i have a competitive personality and my parents do, as well. the apple doesn't fall far from the tree sort of thing. >> hey, rach, let's go. >> reporter: at home her mom jody is always up before dawn encouraging rachael not only to do her best at skating, but school. >> she has that ability to be very focused. i don't know if that's nature versus nurture. >> reporter: her mom is a retired molecular biologist and her dad a biochemical engineer. they are her biggest fans and love to laugh. at home the kitchen counter is stacked with books. she has applied to nine colleges including harvard, yale, columbia. >> my paren

american rachael flatt while kim yu-na rocketed to the gold medal. asada took silver and joanie rochette skated beautifully, capturing the bronze. at one point blowing a kiss to her mother in the sky. the usa women's hockey team storybook run crashed this evening on the ice at canada hockey place in front of thousands of screaming mapleless-waving fans. it see. ed the canadian net was bulletproof. goalie swatting away everything america's best could offer. 28 shots on goal. the canadian women have not lost at the olympics since 1998 and their victory was seen as a bold defense of this nation's deeply-rooted hockey tradition. and speedy peterson brought his five twists and three somersaults to the aerials on cyprus mountain today. there was a wager on the usa women's hockey game today between the white house and the prime minister's office. now it looks as if the white house is going to pay up. you will see robert gibbs, according to plan, wearing a canadian jersey at his next briefing. >> thank you, phil rogers, in vancouver. let's go to bob and get

rachel flatt sitting in sixth. joannie rochette in third. women's hockey team playing for gold in a showdown with canada on msnbc. mancuso with another crack today. the medal count, united states still on top with 28. germany has 24. norway with 18. and canada picking up a little speed with 15 overall medals. and speaking of canada, every day since we arrived in vancouver we have honored on this show a great canadian. from shatner to trebec to pamela anderson. this morning we will reveal the greatest of them all according to you. can't go wrong with john candy. i wouldn't be surprised if gretzky wins. there's still time to vote before we reveal your choice at tend of the show. shoot us an e-mail right now at waytooearly at that time waytooearly@msnbc.com. >>> we'll get back to the games a little bit later on. first here's a look at today's stop stories. president obama is set to take on republicans this morning at a televised health care summit in washington. although the meeting is meant to kick start bipartisan negotiations, there is littl

s rachael flatt, but it was not enough. mao asada takes the silver. joannie rochette wins the bronze. and the americans fail to win a medal. the americans wanted to win in this one. u.s. women against canada in the gold medal game. but two goals in the first period by poulin, and it's 2-0, canada. and the u.s. keeps canada scoreless in the final period. but america can't score. once again, canada takes the gold and the americans settle for the silver. >>> after eight decades, the america drought in the nordic events is over. phil lamond races to gold in the cross-country. johnny spillane gets the silver. julia mancuso back in action in the giant slalom. she skis the third-fastest time in the second run. but it's not. mancuso finishes eighth. in men's freestyle aerials, jeret peterson picks up the silver medal. st. onge finishes fourth. >>> the women of canada's gold medal hockey team may be in trouble for their postgame antics. some of them hit the ice clad in their medals, swigging booze and smoking cigars. the ioc says celebrating in the locker room

in fact, these three ladies will be there, americans rachael flatt and mirai nagasu are in the medal canada's joannie rochette willkate again to honor her mother who died tragically so sunday. kristi yamaguchi and paul wylie will tell us what to expect tonight and tomorrow joannie rochette will be here to talk about her skating experience. >>> also ahead, one of these great stories coming out of the olympic games. we're going to introduce you to a skier from ghana, a country not exactly known for snow, who is about to become his country's very first winter olympian. jenna bush hager is going to introduce us to a guy they are calling the snow leopard. >>> and another programming note. coming up next week on "today," we've got a great series. if you're a fan of '70s television, just wait. we have "great tv families reunited," gangs from "the partidge family" "the brady bunch." >> and we'll talk to the bradfords from "eight is enough" and the fixtures from the washington stoop, the folks from "227." that is "great tv families reunited" all next week here on "today." but before we get to

when when rachael flatt took the ice, that was spark.. >> but kim yu-na. >> she was under a lot of pressure. but she was so calm. so cool. she skated like an olympic champion. and she deserves to win. >> and record-breaking fashion. she just shattered the world record. michelle, what will you take away from these olympics? what do you think we'll remember most from these games? >> there are so many great athletes here. american athletes. apolo ohno, bode miller, shaun white. and, of course, i favor -- i lean towards figure skating. when i think of figure skating, i'll think of evan lysacek. it's been incredible. all of these athletes show strength and courage and love for the sport. >> i'm sure it was exciting and emotional to be there. thank you, my friend, for being our eyes and ears up the every single day in aruba's a nice day. i mean, how do you people get anything done? you're in a meeting, and you say, "the fourth-quarter report is -- wow, what a nice day!" and everyone agrees, and the meeting's over. i mean, how do you do anythin