Winter Olympics 2014 results: Maddie Bowman captures gold in ski halfpipe

The remarkable games for Team USA continued with another two medals thanks to the Ski Halfpipe and Ice Hockey.

Several nations have dominated single events, but the USA has diversified its medal count across numerous disciplines at Sochi. Things have moved in ebbs and flows, but there is a good chance the country can now claim the overall medal win thanks to a strong day on Thursday.

Team USA captured another gold medal in the Women’s Ski Halfpipe thanks to an astounding final run by Maddie Bowman. Her teammates didn’t do quite so well, but it didn’t matter. They raced to embrace Bowman after her medal, which ensured the country’s domination of extreme events at Sochi.

The slopes of the Rosa Khutor Extreme Center hosted the Men’s Skicross earlier in the day, and it was a medal sweep for France, which brought its medal tally up to 14 thanks to some excellent skiing in tough conditions. Team USA didn’t have any chance at the podium after failing to make the small final, while France had one Canadian opponent in the big final.

Norway continued its domination of all things Cross-Country with another medal-winning performance in the Nordic Combined. The Gundersen team entered the ski portion in a deficit following a disappointing result in the jump, but showed its prowess in the woods to move past Austria and Germany to claim gold.

The Women’s draw came to a close Thursday with the bronze- and gold-medal games. A close game for bronze saw Great Britain win on the back of a two-stone end in the eighth to take the victory. In the main game, it was closely contested until Canada blew it open in the eighth end to claim gold.

Gracie Gold didn’t live up to her name with a fourth-place finish in Women’s Figure Skating. Entering the day, she needed a flawless performance to threaten the podium, and it was simply a case off too many talented skaters having an excellent Olympics. Gold went to Russia thanks to a stellar routine by Adelina Sotnikova, with countrywoman Yulia Lipnitskaya taking fifth place.

It would take a North American grudge match to decide gold in Women’s Ice Hockey, with USA and Canada squaring off in an emotionally changed game. It was neck-and-neck in the first period, but Team USA opened a lead in the second and quickly extended it to open the third. Canada mounted a dramatic comeback to force overtime and went on to win, 3-2.

The bronze-medal game was an astounding back-and-forth contest that saw Sweden squander a two-goal lead in the third period, which allowed Switzerland to come away with the shocking win.