Olympic Recap: February 17

The United States won two medals on Thursday. In women’s hockey, the Americans settled for silver after a 3-2 loss to Canada in the gold medal game. Also in speed skating, Brittany Bowe of Ocala, Florida won the bronze medal in the women’s 1000 metre speed skating for her first individual Olympic medal.

In women’s hockey, Canada jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second period, before the Americans scored twice to make things interesting. A major reason for the Canadian win came down to goaltending. Canadian goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens was completely solid in between the pipes, while American goaltender Alex Cavallini was shaky to say the least.

After the Canadian win, it was reported by Chris Bumbaca of USA Today that Cavallini was playing with a torn medial collateral ligament throughout the tournament. This leads us to wonder why she was put in net to begin with? In the most important position in hockey, it was Team Canada which had the definite and undisputed advantage and the first two goals scored by Team Canada should have been stopped by Cavallini.

In women’s speed skating, Bowe, the American female flag bearer in the opening ceremonies, reached the podium by one-tenth of a second. She posted a third place time of 1:14.61 to beat Angelina Golikova of the Russian Olympic Committee, who had a fourth place time of 1:14.71. Miho Takagi of Japan set an Olympic record in winning gold with a time of 1:13.91.

In curling, Sweden will play Great Britain for men’s gold, while Canada plays the United States for men’s bronze. The American team skipped by John Shuster lost 8-4 to Great Britain in the semifinals. In the women’s semifinals, Great Britain will play Sweden and Switzerland will play Japan.

We also saw heartbreak on Thursday. In the women’s alpine combined, Mikela Shiffrin of the United States continued her devastating Olympics with another DNF. Switzerland had a 1-2 finish as Michelle Gisin won gold and Wendy Holdener won silver. In the women’s ski cross Big Final, Fanny Smith of Switzerland was disqualified for contacting Germany’s Daniela Maier near the finish line and had her bronze medal taken away. Sandra Naeslund of Sweden won gold. Also in women’s figure skating, 15-year-old Kamila Valieva fell on numerous occasions in the free skate, and in the process dropped from first to fourth. The gold medalist was world champion Anna Shcherbakova of the Russian Olympic Committee. Norway meanwhile won the team nordic combined competition.