Olympic Preview: February 12

Olympics: Snowboard-Womens Snowboard Cross

The Olympic Winter Games are at its halfway point, but there is still a lot of very exciting action over the next week from Beijing. On Saturday, Olympic medals will be presented in biathlon, cross country skiing, skeleton, ski jumping, snowboarding, and speed skating.

On day nine, we could see another Olympic gold medal for Olympic women’s snowboardcross champion Lindsay Jacobellis of Danbury, Connecticut in the mixed team snowboard cross, which is making its Olympic debut (Friday evening, 9pm ET). On Wednesday, Jacobellis won her first career Olympic gold medal in the women’s individual snowboardcross event at age 36 when she beat silver medalist Chloe Trespeuch of France to the finish line. Now she will be teaming up with another American snowboarding verteran in 40-year-old Nick Baumgartner of Iron River, Michigan. Despite winning two bronze medals at the World Snowboarding Championships over the years (2009 in Gangwon, South Korea, and in 2015 in Kreischberg, Austria), Baumgartner has never reached the Olympic podium. The Americans will also be represented by a much younger team in 23 year-old Jake Vedder of Pinckney, Michigan, and 29-year-old Faye Gulini of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Our gold medal favourites in the mixed team snowboardcross are Italy’s Omar Visintin and Michela Moioli. Visintin wom the bronze medal in the men’s snowboardcross at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing,  while Moioli won the gold medal in women’s snowboardcross at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang.

In curling, we all know about John Shuster’s fairytale ride to winning the gold medal four years ago at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, but at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, we are seeing the American women’s curling team get off to a fantastic start. The American team skipped by Tabitha Peterson of Burnsville, Minnesota, is 3-0 after wins over China, Denmark and Russia to date. On Saturday, they will face Great Britain, who is skipped by 2013 World Champion Eve Muirhead of Perth, Scotland (Saturday, 7 am ET). Shuster, who is 2-1, and will play Norway (Saturday, 1 am ET).

In men’s hockey, the United States will play Canada in Group A action (Friday, 11 p.m. ET). In their first game, the United States beat China 8-0 thanks to a hat trick by Sean Farrell of Harvard University. The Montreal Canadiens’ fourth round draft pick had three goals and two assists for five points.

In figure skating, we will see the rhythm dance portion of ice dancing (Saturday, 6 a.m. ET). The top two American teams are Madison Hubbell of Lansing, Michigan, and Zachary Donohue of Hartford, Connecticut, along with Madison Chock of Redondo Beach, California and Evan Bates of Ann Arbour, Michigan. Hubbell and Donohue won silver at the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships in Stockholm, while Chock and Bates won silver at the 2015 World Figure Skating Championships in Shanghai.

In skeleton, Jaclyn Narracott of Australia is the leader in the women’s event after two runs. She has a time of 2:04.34. Run three will be on Saturday at 7:20 a.m. ET and run four will be on Saturday at 8:55 a.m. ET.

Our gold medal favourites on day nine are Quentin Fillon Maillet of France (+500) in the men’s 10 kilometre sprint (Saturday, 4 a.m. ET), Norway (+165) in the women’s 4×5 kilometre relay (Saturday, 2:30 a.m. ET), Halvor Egner Garnerud of Norway (+750) in the men’s large hill individual ski jumping (Saturday, 6 a.m. ET), and Laurent Dubreuil of Canada (+350) in the men’s 500 metre speed skating (Sunday, 3:53 a.m. ET).

 

 

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