Olympic Recap: February 16

The United States continued its excellence in slopestyle events on Wednesday (Tuesday evening in North America) by winning the gold and silver medals in men’s slopestyle skiing. As predicted in our daily preview, Alex Hall of Fairbanks, Alaska won the gold medal with an impressive score of 90.01 points. Nick Goepper of Fort Wayne, Indiana won the silver medal with a score of 86.46 points.

Since slopestyle skiing and slopestyle snowboarding were introduced to the Olympic Winter Games in 2014 in Sochi, the United States have won 12 medals. Goepper has now won three slopestyle skiing medals as he won bronze at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, and silver at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeonchang.

In freestyle skiing’s other event on Wednesday,  Guangpu Qi of China won gold in men’s aerials. It was not a surprise that Burov of the Russian Olympic Committee won a medal. Just everyone expected it to be Maxim Burov. However, ir was Ilia Burov who won bronze, as his brother Maxim failed to qualify for the final.

In short track speed skating, it was a memorable men’s 5000 meter relay final for Canada’s Charles Hamelin. The 37-year-old became the first male short track speed skater to win a medal at five Olympic Winter Games. Hamelin was instrumental in Canada winning their third gold medal of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.

In men’s hockey, the semifinals are set. Slovakia upset the United States 3-2 in a shooout. and will next face Finland in the semifinals. Finland trounced Switzerland 5-1. The other semifinal will be the Russian Olympic Committee versus Sweden. In the other two quarterfinals, Sweden beat Canada 2-0, and the ROC defeated Denmark 3-1.

Other gold medalists on Wednesday were Minjeong Choi of South Korea (women’s 1500 metre short track speed skating), Germany (women’s team sprint cross country skiing), Norway (men’s team sprint cross country skiing), Sweden (women’s 4×6 kilometre relay) and Clement Noel of France (men’s slalom). Norway continues to lead the medal count with 13 gold medals and 28 medals overall.