Olympics Highlights: The U.S. Had a Huge Day Thanks to Our Female Athletes
Great days at this year’s Winter Olympics have been hard to come by for the U.S. But yesterday was our best day by FAR. And the WOMEN did most of the heavy lifting. Here are some highlights . . .
1. The U.S. women’s hockey team played Canada in the Gold medal game last night and WON it in a SHOOTOUT. The last time we won was in 1998. Canada took the Gold in 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014.
2. Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins became the first American women to EVER medal in cross-country skiing at the Olympics . . . and it was a GOLD medal. They won the team sprint event by TWO-TENTHS of a second.
(Here’s the dramatic finish.)
Jessie is 26. Kikkan is 35 and the only MOM on the U.S. Olympic team this year. She has a 22-month-old son, and this is her FIFTH Olympics, but she’d never medaled before. The only other time a U.S. skier medaled in cross-country was in 1976.
3. Freestyle skier David Wise also took GOLD yesterday in men’s halfpipe, and fellow American Alex Ferreira won the Silver.
4. Lauren Gibbs and Elana Meyers Taylor also won a Silver medal in women’s bobsled . . . snowboarder Jamie Anderson tookSilver in women’s big air . . . and the U.S. women’s speed skating team won a Bronze in the team pursuit event.
(The women’s Alpine combined with Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin finished late last night. You can check the resultshere, and the updated medal standings here.)
6 Olympic Quick Hits, Including Figure Skating to AC/DC and a Terrible Curling Shot
1. This is the first Winter Olympics where music with lyrics is allowed for figure skating, and there have been some fun choices so far. Ivett Toth of Hungary hit the ice yesterday in a black leather outfit, including fingerless gloves and a studded belt, and performed to AC/DC’s “Back in Black” and “Thunderstruck”. She even had an Angus Young back patch on her costume.
(You can see her performance at NBCOlympics.com.)
Ice dancing has allowed music with lyrics since 1997 . . . but figure skating didn’t allow it until after the Sochi Olympics in 2014.
2. American free-skier Nick Goepper won a Silver medal in the men’s slopestyle event, even though he didn’t get much sleep the night before because the fire alarm went off, and he had to evacuate the building. There wasn’t actually a fire, so he was able to return and get a “little bit of shut-eye.”
3. A North Korean short-track speed skater was disqualified from the men’s 500 meters. He fell once, and it appeared that he tried to TRIP a Japanese skater while he was going down.
But officials just re-started the race. He was DQ’ed when he knocked into the same guy and fell again. (Time)
4. A lot of American viewers are just now learning about curling, or are getting reacquainted with it. And so it might be helpful to know that it’s best NOT to clear out your own stones. (Deadspin.com has a look at this unfortunate shot.)
5. Ivanka Trump will lead the U.S. delegation at the Closing Ceremonies on Sunday. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will join her on the trip.
6. Miley Cyrus hung out with snowboarder Shaun White, and she even got to wear his Gold medal.
