Olympics Highlights: Women’s Ice Skating, Plus the U.S. Men’s Curling Team Goes for Gold
A few events happened early this morning at the Winter Olympics. And we don’t want to spoil them for anyone who plans to watch in primetime. But here are a few quick highlights we CAN talk about . . .
1. We didn’t medal in women’s ice skating last night, but weren’t expected to. Alina Zagitova (Zuh-GEE-toe-vuh) of Russia tookGold. Teammate Yevgenia Medvedeva (Med-VED-eh-vuh) won Silver. And Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada took the Bronze.
Mirai Nagasu of the U.S. didn’t do her triple axel that she landed in the team event last week. She finished 10th . . . Bradie Tennellof the U.S. finished 9th . . . and Karen Chen finished 11th out of 24 skaters.
2. The men’s curling team had a big upset against Canada yesterday morning to make the Gold medal match against Sweden tonight. It’s our first shot at Gold since curling was added to the Olympics in 1998, and the first time Canada HASN’T made the final. (Canada played Switzerland in the Bronze medal match late last night. Check out the results here.)
A few more things to look for tonight are the team Alpine event . . . the big air final in men’s snowboarding . . . and the men’s andwomen’s snowboarding finals in giant slalom. Then seven events tomorrow before the closing ceremony on Sunday morning.
As of midnight last night, Norway was still leading with 35 medals . . . then Canada with 27 . . . Germany with 25 . . . and the U.S. was in fourth place with 21 medals, including 8 Gold.
(You can check out the updated medal standings here.)
5 Olympic Quick Hits, Including Lindsey Vonn Scattering Ashes, and a German Figure Skater Performing to “Schindler’s List”
1. Skier LINDSEY VONN scattered the ashes of her grandfather near the course where she won her bronze medal.
He passed away in November, and coincidentally, he was stationed near PyeongChang during the Korean War as part of the Army Corps of Engineers.
She said, quote, “I know that it would mean a lot to him to be back here, a part of him is in South Korea always.” (Here’s video.)
2. A lot has been made about the music in figure skating this year, but here’s something no one saw coming. A German figure skater named Nicole Schott skated to music from the movie “Schindler’s List”.
People weren’t cool with that. One person Tweeted, “German figure skater performing to music from ‘Schindler’s List’. That’s . . . not the choice I’d go with.” (And here’s Leslie Jones’ UNCENSORED commentary.)
Others took a different approach . . . saying, quote, “‘Oh good, “Schindler’s List”, what a treat we are now in for,’ [said] no skating fan ever.” And, quote, “I’m trying to imagine the discussion when someone says ‘Hey how about skating to music from ‘Schindler’s List’? That’ll really get the crowd pumped up.”
3. It’s been more than a decade since figure skater TARA LIPINSKI has seen her Olympic gold medal. But she didn’t lose it . . . it’s out ON TOUR.
She said, quote, “It goes to museums or exhibits . . . and then, if I ever wanted it back I can, and it has security to make sure nothing happens to it.” She said she hopes it can inspire a young athlete . . . like she was when she saw Kristi Yamaguchi’s Gold medal when she was young. Tara won her Gold in 1998.
4. As if curling wasn’t great enough, now it’s been remixed with a K-Pop beat!
5. North Korea’s 22 Olympians have completed all their events, and not only did they not medal, they ended without a finish higher than 13th. The only part of their group to turn any heads was their 229-woman cheerleading squad.