The games of the 2018 Winter Olympics march on. Whether you're a fan of ice hockey, figure skating, snowboarding or just enjoy watching in general, there is no doubt you've found at least one event exciting, suspenseful, or noteworthy.
Over the past few days, thanks to a blowout loss by the men's team to the Olympic Athletes of Russia (OAR) team, the talk has largely focused on what a difference NHL players participating would have meant to the game.
But first, I'd like to talk about the outstanding USA Women's Hockey team.
Since the 1998 games, the USA Women's Hockey team has enjoyed bountiful success in the Winter Olympics. They won gold that year and have followed up by earning a medal in every Olympics since. Though they haven't secured gold, they've accumulated three silvers and a bronze.
Team USA is well on their way to getting back to another final. First, a semifinal matchup with Finland awaits them on Sunday (2/18) night. The American women beat Finland 3-1 to open these Olympic games. Team USA also owns a win over OAR, a 5-0 victory in which Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson became the fastest American player to open a match with two goals.
Their only loss is a 2-1 setback to Canada.
The men, on the other hand, will be fighting to stay alive in the tournament this upcoming Monday night (2/19, 10:10 pm EST) when they face off with Slovakia in a qualification game. The winner will advance to the quarterfinal round.
Team USA has already faced Slovakia in group play, picking up their only win of the Olympics, a 2-1 victory. They lost one game in overtime in addition to their blowout loss to OAR.
The men's team is just one of a few disappointments in these winter games.
Disappointment despite strong showings
Skiing is normally a good chance for Americans to pick up more than a few medals. Not so much thus far in 2018.
Mikaela Shiffrin had already one gold medal in her pocket for winning the giant slalom. Many had pegged her as having an outside shot to take home five medals in these games.
It was her strongest event, the slalom, in which Shiffrin ended just outside the podium, posting a fourth-place finish. A mix of nerves, a minor mistake, and the shuffling of events because of bad weather led to this. The shuffling of events also led to Shiffrin passing on the super G so she could focus on the downhill (2/20) and combined (2/22) events.
Shiffrin's fellow American Lindsey Vonn finished out of medal contention in her first event, the super G. Vonn will still have a chance when she races the downhill as well. This is the stronger of her events and many will be rooting for her as she looks to medal after missing the last Olympics due to injuries.
In men's figure skating, Nathan Chen was considered a favorite to take home gold. A weak showing in the short program found Chen in 17th-place. Going for broke on his free skate, Chen became the first Olympian to land six quads in a single skate. The remarkable feat made up for some of the disappointment from the night before as Chen ended up in fifth place.
Medal Tracker
Even with these few disappointments, Americans have found success in the Pyeonchang Winter Olympic Games.
They added two silver medals today. Nick Goepper picked up silver in the men's ski slopestyle. And John-Henry Krueger picked up a surprise silver in the men's 1000-meter speed-skating final. Krueger's second-place finish marked the first time in eight years the United States has picked up a medal in an individual speed-skating event.
A glimpse at the current medals:
- Norway 26 (9G, 9S, 8B)
- Germany 18 (9G, 5S, 4B)
- Canada 16 (5G, 5S, 6B)
- Netherlands 13 (6G, 5S, 2B)
- USA 10 (5G, 3S, 2B)
What to watch for
Sunday night is a quiet night as far as medals go, with no events with finals. The main action will revolve around ice dancing in figure skating, where the three teams from the United States figure to play into the final standings. The short program for teams begins at 7 pm (EST).
The USA Women's Hockey team will play their semifinal match against Finland at 11:10 pm (EST) on NBC Sports.
Monday will have the free dance for the ice dance in figure skating, completing the event and giving us the winners. Freestyle skiing in the women's halfpipe will also take place, where American Maddie Bowman will attempt to repeat her gold-medal performance from the Sochi Olympics.
I will return later this week with more (Not from South Korea, but from the confines of my apartment).
To keep up to date (for Olympic coverage, sports, pop culture and more), be sure to follow on Twitter: @jasonrh_78
Picture courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org
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