Good morning, Olympics pals.
Olympics cheat sheet: Team USA is lacing up its skates for ice dance and hockey
Here’s what you missed over the weekend in Pyeongchang and what you should watch out for on Monday.
Photo by Matt Slocum-Pool/Getty Images
Lace up your skates, and let’s get caught up on what has been going on in Pyeongchang.
It’s been an UP and DOWN few days for Team USA
UP: The U.S. women’s ice hockey clinched a spot in the gold-medal game with a 5-0 win over Finland. The Americans will face rival Canada in the final.
Down: U.S. skier Ted Ligety couldn’t defend his gold medal in the giant slalom. The 33-year-old finished a disappointing 15th place in the event.
“Bad time for an off day,” Ligety said, via The New York Times.
UP: Nick Goepper made sure that Team USA had a spot on men’s freeski slopestyle podium this year. The 23-year-old earned a silver medal on his final run.
Down: Lindsey Vonn missed out on the podium entirely in the women’s super-G. A mistake near the end of her run landed her in a tie for sixth place.
UP: John Henry-Krueger grabbed a silver medal in men’s 1,000 meter short track speedskating.
UP/down: Nathan Chen finished his nightmare Olympics by landing six quads in his final skate. It didn’t get him on the medal podium, but it did give him a positive finish to an otherwise dispiriting games.
Down: U.S. hockey’s James Wisniewski says his father has Norovirus, according to the Associated Press. Get well soon.
UP: While the gold medal might belong to Canada’s Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue, U.S. skaters had a strong showing during the first night of ice dance competition. Zachary Donohue and Madison Hubbell scored a 77.75 to move into third place while Alex and Maia Shibutani scored a 77.73 for fourth place going into the free dance. Evan Bates and Madison Chock, the third U.S. team, finished in seventh with a score of 75.45.
Down: Thanks to the wind-wrecked alpine skiing schedule, U.S. skier Mikaela Shiffrin is skipping the women’s downhill.
Who is leading the medal count?
Norway is serious. It is running away with the overall medal total. For those counting only gold medals, however, Germany is right there with Norway. Canada is currently in the bronze-medal position in the overall tally. But the Dutch are speedskating up behind it.
Who are our new favorites?
- On this President’s Day, let’s keep appreciating Adam Rippon, my president. The U.S. figure skater is done competing, but he is still the star of the Olympics. NBC offered him a commentating gig for the remainder of the games, but he passed on it so he could remain with Team USA.
- Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic borrowed a pair of skis (HI, MIKAELA) for the women’s super-G and won a stunning gold medal. A world champion snowboarder, she is participating in two sports in Pyeongchang.
- Regardless of your rooting interest, it’s hard not to be amazed by Canada’s Moir and Virtue. In the ice dance short program, they broke their own world record with a score of 83.67.
What are we going to watch next?
- Event: Ice dance free dance
Time: 8 p.m.
Streaming: NBC Olympics (enhanced, non-enhanced) | FuboTV
- Event: Women’s skiing halfpipe final
Time: 8:30 p.m.
Streaming: NBC Olympics | FuboTV
Want something to read while ignoring your job? Got you.
- NBA All-Stars revealed their dream bobsled squads to Whitney Medworth and Hector Diaz.
- Appreciate all the ways that U.S. figure skater Adam Rippon is living his best Olympics.
- Learn from our friends at Vox.com about how many calories Olympians eat.
- Don’t worry, we still have the Johnny Weir outfit tracker you need.
- Also from our Vox.com pals, learn about the concussion rate of women’s hockey players.
- The New York Times is using augmented reality to show you four Olympians like you’ve never seen them before.
For more 2018 Winter Olympics coverage, visit HERE.
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