The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Olympic roundup
• The United States men’s hockey team’s quarterfinal against the Czech Republic went to a shootout tied at 2 and was not completed in time for this edition. Visit NewsHerald.com for a full recap. • Alina Zagitova allowed her close friend and training partner, Evgenia Medvedeva, to enjoy her new short program world record for about 15 minutes. The 15-year-old Russian then performed a flawless “Black Swan” routine to score 82.92 points inside Gangneung Ice Arena. That topped the score of 81.61 that Medvedeva put up three skaters ahead of her. It was the third time the world record has been set during the Pyeongchang Games. Medvedeva also broke the record in helping the Olympic Athletes of Russia win the team silver medal. Medvedeva scored 81.61 points to Fredric Chopin’s “Nocturn” at Gangneung Ice Arena. The two-time world champion was perfect on her jumps, though her opening triple fliptriple toe combination was a bit awkward, and effortless on her spins and step sequence. Medvedeva and Zagitova, are the heavy favorites to win gold Medvedeva also holds the free skate and overall record, both set during the 2017 World Team Trophy in Japan. Her then-record short program helped the Olympic Athletes of Russia win team silver earlier this month. Nine days after becoming the first U.S. woman and third overall to land a triple axel in the Olympics, Mirai Nagasu has taken to competitive ice again in the short program. She came down on two feet on her opening triple axel, then fell to the surface. While the rest of her program was clean, Nagasu’s chances for an individual medal were damaged. She earned 66.93 points, a season’s best, but not likely to put her in position for the podium. Nagasu, 24 and the fourthplace finisher at the Vancouver Games, helped the United States win a bronze medal in the team event with her historic jump and a spotless free skate. • Lindsey Vonn cast a quick glance toward the sky after finishing what was likely her final Olympic downhill run, shrugged her shoulders after seeing her time and shook a friendly index finger at her good friend. No one could catch Sofia Goggia of Italy. Goggia won the women’s downhill Wednesday at Jeongseon Alpine Center and Vonn earned bronze. The American was looking at a higher finish before Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway turned in a surprise silver-medal performance as the 19th racer on the course. Then again, shocking finishes seem to be the norm on this hill. Ester Ledecka of Czech Republic made a late charge last week from back in the pack to take the super-G title. She skipped the downhill to step back into the snowboarding realm and will go through qualifying Thursday in the parallel giant slalom. Goggia finished in a time of 1 minute, 39.22 seconds to hold off Mowinckel by 0.09 seconds. Vonn was 0.47 seconds behind Goggia. “I gave it all today, skied a great race,” Vonn said. “Sofia just skied better than I did.” At 33, Vonn becomes the oldest female medalist in Alpine skiing at the Winter Games. The record was held by Austria’s Michaela Dorfmeister, who was just shy of her 33rd birthday when she won the downhill and the super-G at the 2006 Turin Olympics. Vonn captured the downhill gold at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, but didn’t get a chance to defend it four years later when she sat out the Sochi Games after tearing ligaments in her right knee. In a way, this was her “defense.” “If you think what’s happened over the last eight years and what I’ve been through to get here, I gave it all and to come away with a medal is a dream come true,” Vonn said. “You’ve got to put things into perspective. Of course, I’d have loved a gold medal but, honestly, this is amazing and I’m so proud.” • Canada’s world champion women’s curling team is out of the running for an Olympic medal after suffering a shocking loss to Great Britain at the Pyeongchang Games. Canada’s 6-5 loss to Britain on Wednesday in the women’s round robin eliminates them from medal contention. The Canadians came into the Pyeongchang Games as the favorite to win gold, and their lackluster performance has stunned the curling world. Canada’s captain, Rachel Homan, says she is disappointed in the loss but said the British team simply played better. “They played really well they put the rocks in the right spots and we really didn’t,” Homan, Canada’s “skip,” or captain, said after the stunning 6-5 defeat. “Obviously, (we’re) a little bit disappointed. We wanted to try to qualify and make the playoffs for Canada, but we gave it all we had. We never gave up and that’s the way it goes sometimes. It’s sport.”