Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Olympic roundup
U.S., Canada again
The Americans played their way back into the only women’s hockey game that matters: a showdown with Canada for the Olympic gold medal. The Americans are back in the title game for a third consecutive Olympics after shutting out Finland 5-0 on Monday in the semifinals. They will face their archrival on Thursday, and the Americans will try to win their first gold since 1998 when women’s hockey made its debut in the Olympics. “Definitely the rivalry has been there since I think I was born, so everyone’s looking forward to that,” said 22-year-old Dani Cameranesi. This will be the third opportunity at gold for six Americans: captain Meghan Duggan, Hilary Knight, Gigi Marvin, Kacey Bellamy and twin sisters Monique Lamoureux-Morando and Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson. Canada is the four-time Olympic champion and has won the past five games against the U.S. The Canadians know a battle is likely. “You never know what you’re going to get,” said Jennifer Wakefield, who scored twice in Canada’s 5-0 semifinal victory over the Russian team. “It’s going to be heated. You’re going to see a lot of good skill working. It’s best on best and that’s what the Olympics are for.”
ICE DANCING Clothing problem
The first notes of Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” had just played when Gabriella Papadakis suddenly became aware that people were about to see a whole lot more of her shape than she had planned. The French ice dancer’s glittering emerald costume at the Olympics had come unhooked at the neckline, and later in the routine her left breast was exposed live on television. When the clasp became unhooked, the 22-year-old Papadakis was more worried about holding up her outfit than making sure her twizzles and rhumba were in sync. Her swinging short program with partner Guillaume Cizeron at the Pyeongchang Olympics was threatening to go down in history alongside Janet Jackson’s infamous wardrobe malfunction during her halftime performance at the Super Bowl. “I felt it right away and I prayed,” Papadakis said. “That’s about what I could do.” Somehow, the French couple kept things together through most of their Latin program, producing a score of 81.93 points Monday that left them second behind Canadian stars Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. It was during the final element, when Papadakis leaned back in Cizeron’s arms, that her costume rode upward to reveal her breast.
SKIING
One showdown left
Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin are the two shining stars of the U.S. ski team, but in a quirk of the sport they have rarely competed against each other. That was about to change on the biggest ski-racing stage possible, the Pyeongchang Olympics, where Vonn and Shiffrin were expected to race head to head twice, in the downhill and the Alpine combined. But late Monday, because of a weather-related scheduling change, Shiffrin pulled out of Wednesday’s downhill, leaving just a single event for this classic matchup that may not have too many more chances for the spotlight. “As much as I wanted to compete in the Olympic downhill, with the schedule change it’s important for me to focus my energy on preparing for the combined,” Shiffrin said in a statement. On Monday evening, organizers announced they were moving the Alpine combined up one day, to Thursday from Friday. The switch was made because of projected weather, including high winds, but it means the downhill and the Alpine combined now will take place on consecutive days. Vonn and Shiffrin will now face each other only on Thursday, in the last individual ski-racing event of the 2018 Winter Games.
MEN’S CURLING Rebound for U.S.
Curling is often called a game of inches. In John Shuster’s case, all he needed Monday was a millimeter or two. The U.S. men needed to beat Canada to have any realistic hope of moving on to the Olympic medal round. Shuster delivered a dramatic 9-7 victory, scoring the winning points with a whisker-thin margin in an extra end at Gangneung Curling Centre. A day after shooting woes doomed the Americans in two losses, their accuracy tightened up markedly — and never more so than on Shuster’s last rock. The Minnesota skip needed that final shot to knock out a Canadian stone and come to rest nearest the button. First, it had to get past a guard, which is a rock that Canada placed to block the path. Shuster’s shot barely sneaked past the guard, then bumped out Canada’s scoring stone and stopped on cue to seal the Americans’ first victory over Canada in Olympic men’s curling. Team Shuster still has a fight on its hands to get to the playoffs. At 3-4, it is in seventh place in the 10-team field with two games left in the round robin. It will likely have to win both games and then a tiebreaker to advance.
MEN’S BOBSLED Double gold rush
Justin Kripps and Alexander Kopacz were confused when they crossed the finish line. They knew they had just won an Olympic gold medal for Canada, and they were puzzled why the rival Germans were running their way to celebrate. Eventually, it made sense. The closest Olympic sliding race in history had two sets of winners Monday. Canada and Germany will share gold from the two-man bobsled event after Kripps and Kopacz finished their four runs in the exact same time as the German duo of Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis. The winning time: 3 minutes, 16.86 seconds. “I managed to see the clock that said No. 1 on it,” Kripps said, as the German team sat to his right after the race. “At first I thought that we won outright, and then these guys jumped over and they were super-excited. And I was like, ‘These guys are really happy for us.’ ” It was Canada’s second gold medal in two-man bobsledding — both coming in a tie. The Canadians shared gold with Italy in 1998, with Pierre Lueders driving that sled for Canada.
WOMEN’S HALFPIPE Canadian soars
Cassie Sharpe put on a show in the women’s freestyle halfpipe final early today, soaring to a 95.80 during her second run to give Canada its first Olympic medal in the event pioneered by the late Canadian star Sarah Burke. Sharpe topped qualifying Monday with a pair of big runs and went even higher in the finals. Her winning run included a 1080-degree spin and the kind of air the rest of the 12-woman field couldn’t match. France’s Marie Martinod added a second silver to go with the one she captured in Sochi four years ago when the sport made its Olympic debut. Martinod scored 92.60 on her second run but fell during her third to assure Sharpe of the gold. American Brita Sigourney edged teammate Annalisa Drew for bronze. Drew scored 90.80 on her final run to slip past Sigourney only to have Sigourney, the next skier down, put up a 91.80. Defending Olympic champion Maddie Bowman of the United States fell on the final hit during each of her three runs in the finals.