2014 Winter Olympics, Day 17: Tough day for the USA

That makes a total of one medal — a silver, at that — for an American hockey program that boasted two strong gold medal contenders going into the medal rounds. At the very least, a 1-3 combined record from the semifinals on was disappointing. What even happened to America, you guys? America. Damn.

Continuing the American woes, ski slalom hero Ted Ligety did not finish the second run and was eliminated from competition. Ligety was sixth after the first run, and on a blistering pace until he wiped out, dooming his hopes.

The United States did not medal in any of Saturday’s events, and barring a couple of unforeseen upsets, the Americans will leave Sochi in second place in the medal count.

Russia currently has 29 medals, including 11 gold, 10 silver and eight bronze. The United States (nine gold, seven silver, 11 bronze) has 27 medals with just two events to go. After winning all three medals in women’s cross-country, Norway sits in third place in the medal count with 26. It is possible they leapfrog the U.S. on Sunday with a strong finish in bobsledding and men’s cross-country.

In a span of under 24 hours, gold quickly rusted into no medal at all.

A day after losing to Canada in the semifinals, team USA dropped the bronze medal game to Finland 5-0. And like the loss to the Canadians, it only took one sequence and a matter of seconds to spell the end for USA.

Say goodnight to speed skating in the 2014 Sochi games, a sport so thoroughly dominated by the Dutch—winners of 21 of 30 individual medals—that today’s team pursuit races seemed well past inevitable.

Fortunately, the Dutch teams—Jan Blokhuijsen, Sven Kramer and Koen Verweij in the men’s, Marrit Leenstra, Jorien ter Mors, Lotte van Beek and Ireen Wust in the women’s—put on an absolute show.

The final day of snowboarding of the 2014 Sochi Olympics is in the books, and nobody stands taller than Russian hero Vic Wild. Wild won his second gold medal of the games, beating Slovenian Zan Kosir by 0.11 seconds in the men’s parallel slalom final. Taking the bronze in the small final was Benjamin Karl of Austria.

If you’re thinking “hey, ‘Vic Wild’ doesn’t sound very Russian at all,” very astute; Wild’s birth name is Victor Ivan, but for as Russian as that sounds, Wild is a born-and-raised American from White Salmon, Washington. Wild was riding for the USA as late as 2011, but was frustrated with a lack of support from the US Snowboarding Association. He moved to Moscow in 2011, married his longtime Russian girlfriend Alena Zavarzina (herself a bronze medalist in the parallel giant slalom this year) in July of that year, and affiliated himself with Russia. And that was that.

Update: Recap of Finland-USA game for bronze medal

It’s not the game they wanted to play, but hey, they’re still in Sochi, so Team USA might as well take the ice and try to win a medal on Saturday against Finland. The two semifinal losers will hit the ice at 10 a.m. ET on Saturday morning in a battle for the bronze medal in men’s hockey.

Update: Recap of Finland-USA game for bronze medal

Saturday is a bittersweet day for hockey fans. Yes, there’s a medal game. Yes, America is involved. But it’s not the gold, and we all know it, and ugh.

This is it for speed skating, and we have wonderful news for the rest of the world: the Netherlands can only take two more medals. Saturday features the finals in the last two events: the women’s and men’s team pursuits. There’s also semifinals for the women preceding it all, but as always, it’s all about the medals.

The Netherlands has a ludicrous 21 of the 30 medals won in speed skating thus far. Think about that. If the Netherlands took two of three medals in every single individual race, they wouldn’t have gotten to 21. Now, while that means the Dutch are basically a mortal lock for gold in the team events, it also means they’re a lock for only the gold, since everyone gets just one team. So take that, country that’s only going to have 23 of 36 speed skating medals!

The 2014 Winter Olympics are starting to wind down, with Saturday being one of the last days of competition. On the other hand, that just means the events have more importance than ever. We have the men’s slalom to wrap up alpine skiing, the final speed skating race, and the United States men’s hockey team playing for bronze after a disappointing semifinal loss to Canada. Team USA will look to take out its frustrations on Finland.

Here are the top events to watch on Day 17 of the Sochi games.