One of the greatest rivalries at the Olympic Winter Games takes place on Wednesday evening at 11 p.m. ET (Thursday afternoon in Beijing) as the United States faces Canada in the gold medal game in women’s hockey. Since women’s hockey has been at the Olympic Winter Games since the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano. the United States and Canada have been in the final five times with Canada winning in 2002, 2010 and 2014, and the United States winning in 1998 and 2018.
Even though Canada has outscored their opponents 54-8 in five games so far, the fact that this Canadian team has glven up eight goals is newsworthy. Their were several defensive miscues in their 10-3 semifinal win over Switzerland, and one must realize they gave up 51 shots on goal in their 4-2 win over the Americans in their Group A game.
Team Canada has nine of the top 10 scorers in the tournament, but the lone American player has plenty of international success. Hilary Knight of Palo Alto, California has 126 goals and 93 assists for 219 points in 190 games for Team USA.
In alpine skiing, Mikaela Shiffrin of Vail, Colorado will be able to salvage a disappointing 2022 Olympic Winter Games with a strong performance in the alpine combined, Despite winning three Olympic medals in her career (gold in slalom at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, gold in giant slalom at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, and silver in the combined at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang), and 11 medals at the World Chmpionships, she has yet to put down a noteworthy performance this month in Beijing. Shiffrin did not finish the slalom or giant slalom, was ninth in the Super G, and 18th in the downhill. Despite the struggles, our pick for Olympic gold in the women’s combined is still Shiffrin, who will ski ninth in the downhill, which starts at 9:30 p.m. ET.
Other gold medalists we are predicting on Thursday in Beijing are Kamila Valieva of the Russian Olympic Committee (-900) in women’s figure skating (5 a.m. ET), Fanny Smith of Switzerland (+300) in women’s ski cross (1 a.m. ET), Germany in team nordic combined (3 a.m. ET), and Brittany Bowe of the United States (+250) in women’s 1000 metre speed skating (3:30 a.m. ET). In figure skating, 15-year-old Valieva had a short program score of 82.16 points, and leads her nearest competitor, Anna Shcherbakova of the Russian Olympic Committee by 1.96 points.
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