For the second straight Olympic Winter Games, John Shuster of Chishiolm, Minnesota will be playing for an Olympic medal. Four years ago at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, he played Sweden in the Olympic gold medal game and delivered the upset with the 10-7 win. The game was highlighted by an amazing five-ender in the eighth end. At the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, Shuster is back in the bronze medal game where he is facing Canada (Friday, 1 a.m. ET).
In the round robin portion of the Beijing Olympic tournament, the Canadian team skipped by 2006 Olympic gold medalist Brad Gushue of St. John’s, Newfoundland, defeated Shuster 10-5 on Sunday. The Canadians got off to a great start, as they led the Americans 5-0 after two ends, and never looked back.
It will be interesting to see how the Canadian team is mentally. Their definite goal was to win Olympic gold, and now they have to settle for bronze. Furthermore they lost a tight 5-3 game to Sweden’s Niklas Edin, which came down to the final shot. Sweden will play Great Britain for gold, who beat the United States 8-4. In women’s curling, Great Britain will play Sweden, and Switzerland will play Japan in the semifinals (Friday, 7 a.m. ET).
In two-woman bobsled, the United States are back looking for more hardware. In the women’s monobob, Kaillie Humphries won gold and Elana Meyers Taylor won silver. Both will be driving sleds in the two-woman event, and both will be in medal contention. Kaillie Humphries has teamed up with brakewoman Kaysha Love, while Meyers Taylor has teamed up with brakewoman Sylvia Hoffman. The first run goes at 7 a.m. on Friday.
In women’s halfpipe skiing, three Americans have qualified for the final. They are Carly Margulies of Mammoth Lakes, California, Hanna Faulhaber of Basalt, Colorado and Brita Sigourney of Monterrey, California. The focus and attention will be on Eileen Gu of China, who is going for her third Olympic medal in Beijing after winning gold in the big air and silver in the slopestyle. She is our pick for gold (-225), while we are also picking Faulhaber to win bronze (Thursday evening, 8:30 p.m.).
Olympic medals will also be awarded in biathlon, freestyle skiing and speed skating. The gold medalists we are predicting are Kristina Reztsova of the Russian Olympic Committee (women’s 12.5 kilometer mass start biathlon, 2 a.m. ET), Tarjei Boe of Norway (men’s 15 kilometer mass start biathlon, 4 a.m. ET), David Mobaerg of Sweden (men’s ski cross, 1 a.m. ET), and Thomas Krol of the Netherlands (men’s 1000 metre speed skating, 3:30 a.m. ET). Finally, in Olympic men’s hockey, the Russian Olympic Committee will play Sweden (Friday, 8 a.m. ET), and Slovakia will play Finland (Thursday, 11 p.m. ET) in the semifinals.
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