Figure skaters add another medal, bronze in pairs
Duhamel and Radford reach podium, settle for 3rd place in Pyeongchang
PYEONGCHANG, Korea, Republic Of — Canada’s Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford won a bronze medal in pairs figure skating at the Pyeongchang Olympics on Wednesday.
The two-time world champions, who are competing in their final season, scored 153.33 points for their program to Adele’s “Hometown Glory,” and 230.15 total points.
Germany’s Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot, who started the day just 0.23 points behind the Canadians, won gold with 235.90 while reigning world champions Sui Wenging and Han Cong of China took silver with 235.47.
Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov, representing Russia, were second after Wednesday’s short program but fell to fourth place Thursday.
Duhamel and Radford were third after the short program, five-and-a-half points behind the leaders.
The other highlight from Wednesday saw the Canadian women’s hockey team defeat the rival Americans 2-1.
There was also lots of noise on social media, with Canadian short-track speedskater Kim Boutin the subject of angry, sometimes threatening tweets after her controversial bronze-medal performance in the women’s 500-metre race.
Boutin set her social media accounts to private Wednesday after hundreds of angry messages were directed at her by irate South Koreans. Boutin finished fourth in the race, but was promoted to third when South Korea’s Minjeong Choi was disqualified for interfering with the Canadian. Angry fans tweeted animated gifs or still images from the race, claiming that Boutin had pushed Choi.
“Congratulations on a dirty medal,” one message said.
“You had been teaching Kim Boutin how to cheat, Canada!!” said another on Twitter.
Boutin, from Sherbrooke, Que., closed her social media accounts and the RCMP, IOC and Speed Skating Canada began investigations.
“The health, safety and security of all our team members is our top priority and as such we are working closely with Speed Skating Canada, our security personnel and the RCMP,” said a statement from the Canadian Olympic Committee. “We will not make further comment on this issue, so that Kim can focus on her upcoming events.”
The International Olympic Committee also addressed the issue.
“We’re not in control, nor should we be, of social media and unfortunately these incidents do come up from time to time,” said IOC spokesperson Mark Adams.
“It’s regrettable,” he added. “I haven’t seen the comments, but I can imagine. We’ve had it, as I say, in previous Games. All we can do is say let’s concentrate on what was a great performance and congratulations by the way to Canada for the bronze medal.
“I was there last night and it was pretty amazing.”
Canadian athletes weren’t figured to contend in Wednesday’s other medal events with the exception of doubles luge.
Tristan Walker of Cochrane, Alta., and Justin Snith of Calgary finished fourth in the event four years ago.
The Canadians were fourth again through Wednesday’s first run, but slipped to fifth after a slower second run dashed their medal hopes.
Walker and Snith finished in a combined time of one minute 32.369 seconds.
Germany’s Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt defended their Olympic gold from 2014 with a time of 1:31.697. Austria’s Peter Penz and Georg Fischler took silver in 1:31.785, while Germans Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken finished with bronze in 1:31.987.
The men’s curling began Wednesday with Calgary’s Kevin Koe leading Canada to a pair of close wins — 5-3 win over Italy and 6-4 over Great Britain.
Koe had a razor-thin one-point lead heading into the 10th end of both matches.
Canada scored a deuce in the eighth end to break a 2-2 tie against Italy, but the Italians came right back with a double takeout to earn a single in the ninth.
Holding hammer in the 10th, Koe earned an easy point with his final stone for the game’s decisive score.
Koe’s squad opened its match against Great Britain impressively, storming out to a 4-1 lead through three ends.
Smith’s rink countered with singles in the fifth and sixth ends before the Canadians scored one in the seventh.
Koe forced Smith to take one — and relinquish last rock— in the eighth before clinching the win when Smith’s last shot in the final end rolled out of the rings, giving Canada one for the 6-4 decision.
The top four teams in the 10-country round robin advance to the semifinals.
Meanwhile, the men’s hockey tournament started with two shocking upsets as the United States fell 3-2 to Slovenia and the gold-medal favourite Russians lost by the same score to Slovakia.
Jan Mursak scored the tying goal in the final minutes of regulation and the winner in overtime as Slovenia came back to stun the U.S.
Mursak is Slovenia’s only player with NHL experience, while the American roster still features plenty of former NHLers.