SHIFFRIN ON HOLD
Women’s slalom 2nd-straight Alpine event to be postponed
Mikaela Shiffrin’s pursuit of gold at the Pyeongchang Olympics will start on a different day — and in a different event, the slalom, which is her forte — than everyone expected.
Of course, that’s assuming they ever get around to doing any racing at all in Alpine skiing, after each of the first two contests were postponed because of dangerous winds.
The latest schedule change came Monday, when the temperature was 5 degrees and the women’s giant slalom was shelved less than three hours before it was supposed to start. That followed Sunday’s postponement of the men’s downhill.
Now both of those races will be held Thursday, but on different hills.
“It’s a bummer that we’re not able to race today,” Shiffrin said. “But with the training block I’ve had, I’m prepared and feeling good. I’ll use this time to continue to train and refocus on Wednesday’s slalom race. We have a great gym and space to eat and take plenty of naps, so I’ll use this time to recharge.” USA dominates halfpipe qualifying
Led by a pair of 17-year-olds, all four U.S. women in the halfpipe snowboard made it through Monday’s qualification to reach the finals (Monday, 8 p.m. EST) — but just barely.
Chloe Kim, among the favorites, was the top qualifier with Maddie Mastro — a teen sensation like Kim — fourth. Veterans Kelly Clark and Arielle Gold grabbed the last two of the 12 qualifying spots. U.S. women overcome slow start
Kendall Coyne scored the go-ahead goal at 11:29 of the second period on a one-timer and the United States women’s hockey team rallied to beat Finland 3-1 to remain perfect when opening an Olympic tournament.
Monique Lamoureux-Morando and Dani Cameranesi also scored as the Americans improved to 6-0 all-time in Olympic openers. They also improved to 7-0 against Finland in the Olympics, though the world’s thirdranked team made the defending world champions work hard in a chippy game.
Hovi Venla scored on a wrist shot from the slot with 5.8 seconds left in the first period, giving the Finns the lead and a reason to celebrate going into intermission.
Later, Canada kicked off its bid for a fifth straight Olympic gold medal in smothering fashion. Canada broke open a scoreless game with three goals in the second period and shut out the Russians 5-0. Shocker in men’s biathlon
The 10-kilometer biathlon, expected to be a two-man race between Martin Fourcade and Johannes Thingnes Boe, sent shock waves through the biathlon world.
Arnd Peiffer of Germany connected on all 10 of his targets to win gold, ahead of Michal Krcmar of the Czech Republic and Dominik Windisch of Italy.
The top-ranked Fourcade missed three of five shots from the prone position, forcing him to do three penalty laps. The Frenchman finished eighth overall. Boe, a Norwegian ranked No. 2, missed three from the prone position and one from the standing position to finish a distant 31st. Canada in curling final
Canada will compete for the gold after sweeping to an 8-4 victory over Norway in the mixed doubles curling semifinal.
Switzerland and a team of Russian athletes were to face off later Monday in the other semifinal match. The winner of that game will play Canada in a gold medal match on Tuesday.