Olympic Recap: February 5

The first full day of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing is now in the books, and there was an Olympic record. In the women’s 3000 metre speed skating, as Irene Schouten of the Netherlands won the gold medal with a time of 3:56.93. The previous Olympic record in the women’s 3000 metres was set at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City by Claudia Pechstein of Germany, who had a time of 3:57.70.

For Schouten it was her second career Olympic medal. She previously won bronze in the women’s mass start at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang.

In mixed doubles curling, Italy continues to be the biggest story in the Ice Cube, as they are now at 6-0. and have clinched a spot in the semifinals. On Saturday, the Italian team comprised of Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner defeated Australia 7-3, and then Great Britain 7-5. Italy beat the reigning World Champions of Great Britain with three points in the seventh end to break a 4-4 deadlock.

In women’s hockey, the United States improved to 2-0 with a 5-0 win over Russia. However, the biggest story was the fact that Canada clobbered Finland 11-1 thanks to hat tricks by Sarah Nurse (cousin of Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse and Phoenix Mercury guard Kia Nurse) and Brianne Jenner. It is not a huge surprise that Canada beat Finland, but no one expected Canada to win by 10 goals. There is no doubt Finland has a goaltending problem, and the fact that Finnish goaltender Noora Raty did not make the Finnish Olympic team should be harshly criticized.

In events where medals were decided on Saturday, The Sports Daily successfully predicted gold medals by the Chinese mixed short track speed skating relay team, the Norwegian mixed biathlon relay team, and Therese Johaug of Norway in the women’s 15km cross-country skiing skiathlon. Meanwhile in women’s ski jumping, it was a memorable performance by Slovenians as projected. Slovenia’s gold medal went to Ursa Bogataj and Slovenia’s bronze medal went to Nika Kriznar. Finally, the other gold medalist was an upset as it was 21-year-old Walter Wallberg of Sweden, who surprisingly beat Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury and Ikuma Horishima of Japan.