Off day for Americans in skiing, skating
PYEONGCHANG, Korea, Republic Of
It was a rough day in Pyeongchang for Mikaela Shiffrin and Nathan Chen.
The 22-year-old Shiffrin finished fourth in the women’s Olympic slalom on Friday, failing to win her second medal in as many days. She won gold in the giant slalom on Thursday.
The fourth-place showing was a surprise considering the American standout won the Olympic slalom title four years ago in Sochi when she was only 18.
Shiffrin struggled to describe what happened and why she wasn’t attacking the course more.
“I’ve been skiing aggressively in slalom all season long. I’ve been confident, comfortable,” Shiffrin said. “Coming here and skiing the way I did, really conservative, was a huge disappointment . ... That’s how life goes.”
Frida Hansdotter of Sweden won gold with a combined time of 1 minute, 38.63 seconds.
In figure skating, Chen was anything but spot-on in the men’s short program. The two-time U.S. champion missed on all his jumps, plummeting to 17th place with a tentative and passionless showing.
“I’ve never been in this spot before,” Chen said. “I mean, I thought I did everything right in terms of my general approach going into this. Things just didn’t click together.”
Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan set an Olympic record with 111.68 points and is more than four points ahead of Spain’s Javier Fernandez, who is in second. American skater Adam Rippon is in seventh.
The men’s free skating competition is on Saturday.
MEN’S HOCKEY
A pair of college players was instrumental in helping the United States secure an important 2-1 win over Slovakia in the preliminary round.
Ryan Donato scored two power-play goals and Troy Terry dominated with his speed. They are two of four NCAA players on the noNHL Olympic roster.
The U.S. faces Russia in each team’s final preliminary-round game Saturday night. Russia beat Slovenia 8-2 on Friday.
MEN’S ALPINE SKIING
Matthias Mayer broke Norway’s 16-year grip on the men’s Olympic super-G title with his victory on another near-perfect clear and cold day for Alpine racing.
The Austrian skier won the speed race by 0.13 seconds over Beat Feuz of Switzerland, who added the silver medal to his bronze from downhill a day earlier.
Defending champion Kjetil Jansrud of Norway was third — 0.18 seconds behind Mayer — to earn his fifth career Olympic medal.
SKELETON
Yun Sungbin of South Korea earned a dominant win in men’s skeleton with a fourrun time of 3 minutes, 20.55 seconds — a staggering 1.63 seconds ahead of silver medallist Nikita Tregubov of Russia. It’s the largest margin of victory in Olympic skeleton history, and the largest margin in any Olympic sliding event since 1972.
SNOWBOARDCROSS
Michela Moioli of Italy won the gold medal in women’s snowboardcross, overtaking American rival Lindsey Jacobellis about halfway down the course.
Julia Pereira de Sousa Mablieau of France won silver. Defending champion Eva Samkova of the Czech Republic took bronze.