Vonn leaves a part of grandfather near downhill site
Lindsey Vonn came to South Korea with the goal of taking home an Olympic medal and leaving behind something even more special. She did both. The American skier said Thursday she recently scattered some of the ashes of her grandfather, who served during the Korean War, on a rock near the mountain where the downhill races were run.
“I know that it would mean a lot to him to be back here, a part of him is in South Korea always,” said Vonn, who shared her story with The Associated Press and the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.
Vonn said she sprayed parts of Don Kildow’s ashes “just a few days ago” on a rock that she was told was special when she visited South Korea last year to be named a Pyeongchang Olympic ambassador. She described the location as “right by the men’s downhill start.”
Vonn burst into tears when shewas asked about her grandfather during a news conference in Pyeongchang this month before the Olympics. He lived in Milton, Wisconsin, and died in November.
Vonn won a bronze medal in the downhill, but skied out of Thursday’s slalom leg of the Alpine combined in what was likely her last Olympic race. Later in the day, a group of elderly South Korean men gave her family some gifts and a letter of thanks to mark her grandfather’s service during the 1950-53 Korean War.
Shuster savors U.S. making gold-medal match in curling
John Shuster and his U.S. teamwill play for a gold medal against Sweden after a 5-3 semifinal upset over Canada, a country that has struggled at the Pyeongchang Olympics despite dominating the world of curling for years.
The U.S. victory Thursday was a remarkable comeback story for a team that had never beaten Canada at the Olympics and hadn’t made the podium since the 2006 Turin Games, when it won a bronze medal.
Just as remarkable was the loss for Canada, which haswon the gold in men’s curling at the last three Winter Olympics. The Canadian women’s team, meanwhile, didn’t even make the semifinals, despite being the defending world champions.
It was the second time in the day that the Americans beat the Canadians in one of their national sports. The U.S. women’s hockey team won the gold medal game, 3-2, in a shootout, snapping Canada’s streak of four consecutive gold medals in that event.
Shuster’s victory follows a particularly rocky Olympic path. After winning the bronze in Turin, he was benched at the 2010 Vancouver Games in the middle of the tournament because his performance was so poor. In Sochi, Shuster’s team finished in ninth place.
“It’s a pretty good story. This is just another step,” Shuster said.
“I just decided that, 50 years from now, maybe I’m long gone, when my kids are showing my grandkids video from the Olympics, I don’t want all my videos to be me failing.”
The turning point in the semifinal game came in the eighth end, of period.
The teams were tied 2-2, and Canada had a distinct advantage known as the hammer, the right to throw the final rock of the end. But Kevin Koe, the team’s “skip,” or captain, threw the stone too light and it came up short of the target known as the house.
The U.S. had two rocks in the target, giving thema two-point steal and putting them ahead 4-2.
In the final end, Shuster threw the last rock, which knocked the lone Canadian stone out of the center of the house, adding one point to their score and sealing the Americans’ victory.