Tuesday Olympic Daily Digest: Could the U.S. Men's Hockey Team Medal?
After a slow start to the Olympics in PyeongChang, the United States may have a shot at a men's hockey medals for the first time since their silver medal at the 2010 Vancouver Games. The United States has not won a gold medal in hockey since the "Miracle On Ice" at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid when they defeated the Soviet Union.
On Monday, the U.S. advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Slovakia 5–1. The U.S. scored more against Slovakia than it did in its first three preliminary round games. Ryan Donato scored two goals and James Wisniewski, Mark Arcobello and Garrett Roe added one each, respectively for the young American squad.
The United States will face the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals as the United States looks to make the semifinal stage for the third consecutive time. This match-up should sound familiar as the two teams met at this stage in Sochi. The U.S. won 5–2 before moving on to face the eventual-gold medalists Canada. The Czech Republic is riding a three-game winning streak from Group A and has a team that featured eight players with NHL experience. They have not medaled at the Olympics since a bronze at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin.
Here's a rundown of biggest stories from the past 24 hours:
— U.S. siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani earned a bronze medal in the Olympic ice dancing competition. The Canadian pair of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won gold. One of the viral stories from the week was the unfortunate wardrobe malfunction for the French couple Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron but they rebounded by posting the highest free dance score ever on Monday night.
— 2014 gold medalist Maddie Bowman fell multiple times in the women's halfpipe final, but the United States still ended up on the podium with freeskier Brita Sigourney finishing with bronze.
— You don't see this very often! Canada and Germany shared a gold medal by tying in the men's bobsled with an exact finishing time of 3:16.86. While it's strange to the casual bobsled viewer, there have been two other times in Olympic history in which this has happened. Canada and Italy shared gold in 1998. There was a tie in 1968 between Italy and West Germany but it was broken up by taking into consideration the fastest time in the heats.
— Norway won gold in the men's team large hill ski jumping to stay atop the medal stand.
Must Watch Events
Women's Alpine Skiing (Starts at 8 p.m.)
Lindsey Vonn, 33, looks to become the oldest woman to medal in alpine skiing history at the Olympics when she competes in the women's downhill. Vonn, who finished sixth in the Super-G, was the gold medalist in the downwhill at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.
Women's Ice Hockey (Starts at 2:40 a.m.)
The bronze medal will be awarded as the Olympic Athletes from Russia face off against Finland. They played in the preliminary round and Finland won 5–1.
Women's singles ice skating (Starts at 8 p.m.)
Russia's Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva are expected to duel for the gold medal after putting together perfect skates to earn silver in the team event.
Daily Reading and Videos
— Michael Rosenberg penned this week's cover story for the latest issue of Sports Illustrated on Chloe Kim and Nathan Chen as the young Olympic stars primed to shine for longer than ever before.
— Alice Park on the Olympic records that were broken all over the rink at the ice dance free skate.
— Rosenberg on the "Shib Sibs" and how others saw a ceiling, they saw a foundation.
Athlete To Root For
While it may seem that Russia has the gold and silver medal in reach because of the success of Zagitova and Medvedeva, the United States' rooting interest in the short program will be Mirai Nagasu, who became the first U.S. woman to land a triple axel at the Olympics when she competed in the team event.
