US men have shot at sweep of medals in halfpipe
Valieva stumbles, misses out on medal
BEIJING – In a story full of shocking twists, this might be the one that nobody saw coming.
With a disastrous performance in her long program Thursday, Russian teenager and heavy gold-medal favorite Kamila Valieva dropped out of first place and all the way outside of medal contention, finishing fourth.
It was a shocking finale to a weeklong international saga. Valieva, 15, had been at the center of a media hurricane after news that she tested positive for a banned substance and subsequent news that the Court of Arbitration for Sport would allow her to compete anyways.
Valieva sat stunned in the kiss-and-cry as her score was announced, and for several minutes thereafter.
Compatriots Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova ended up taking gold and silver, respectively, followed by Kaori Sakamoto of Japan, who won bronze.
American Alysa Liu was seventh and Mariah Bell was tenth.
– Tom Schad
USA men’s curling team loses, relegated to bronze-medal game
BEIJING – There will be no “Miracurl on Ice,” Part 2.
The U.S. men’s curling team is out of contention for a second consecutive gold medal after losing its semifinal to Great Britain, 8-4, on Thursday night. Instead, it will play Canada in the bronze medal game on Friday.
“It’s hugely disappointing, but at the same time I was super proud of how we played and how we battled in the game,” U.S. skipper John Shuster said. “I’m sure the disappointment will set in and it will feel worse, but I think honestly they’re a great curling team and they don’t make too many mistakes.”
Trailing 5-4 at the halfway mark, the Americans’ strategy was to string together blank ends in order to have the hammer late – and just as importantly keep it away from Great Britain’s Bruce Mouat, the top-ranked curler in the world.
A potential opportunity came in the ninth end when the board opened up for the Americans to pounce and potentially grab the lead.
Instead, vice-skipper Chris Plys hit the guards with both of his throws – an utterly disastrous outcome – which essentially eliminated the possibility of the U.S. taking the lead.
At that point, Shuster could have drawn in for the tie, handing the hammer back to Great Britain for the 10th end. Instead, he chose to concede a point in order to keep the last stone advantage to potentially tie or win.
– Dan Wolken
ZHANGJIAKOU, China – The U.S. men’s success in the halfpipe hardly came as a surprise, even if it did come with suspense.
All four American freeskiers advanced to the Beijing Olympics final in qualifying Thursday, giving the country its best chance at a podium sweep.
The veteran team, which is largely the same from Pyeongchang four years ago, entered these Games with every skier in the top eight of the International Ski Federation’s points list.
BEIJING – Mikaela Shiffrin will need help from her team if she’s to win any medals at the Beijing Olympics.
In position to win her first medal in Beijing after finishing fifth in the downhill portion of the Alpine combined, Shiffrin skied out in the slalom Thursday after losing her balance at gate 10 and falling to her hip two gates later, less than 10 seconds into her race. The combined is a run each of downhill and slalom, with results based on overall time.
Shiffrin had Did Not Finishes (DNF) in the giant slalom and slalom, as well, skiing off the course after the fifth gate in the first run of each race.
The combined was Shiffrin’s last individual event in Beijing. She’d been expected to contend for multiple medals here, after winning three in her previous two Games, but her best finish was ninth in the super-G.
Shiffrin still has one last chance at a medal. She has said she plans to do the team event Saturday, which features head-to-head races in a single-elimination bracket. will participate in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, though he wants an agreement reached further in advance than this time around.
The league, NHL Players’ Association, IIHF and IOC worked out a deal for the 2022 Games that was not announced until September. The NHL withdrew in late December after the omicron variant-fueled wave of the coronavirus pandemic caused mass postponements of games, making this the second consecutive Olympics without the world’s best hockey players.
Tardif said he would like an agreement more than a year in advance of the 2026 tournament. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press by email that league officials do not anticipate an issue reaching an agreement “on a relatively expedited basis.”
The NHL has not participated in the Olympics since 2014, ending a run of five appearances in a row dating to 1998.
OLYMPICS MEDALS TABLE
Through Thursday’s events
Nation
GS
Norway ROC Germany United States Canada Austria Japan
Italy Sweden Netherlands China France Switzerland South Korea Slovenia Finland Australia Hungary New Zealand Czech Republic Belarus Slovakia Spain Ukraine Belgium Estonia Latvia Poland 14 5 10 8 4 6 3 2 7 6 7 4 6 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 9 7 8 5 7 5 7 4 5 4 7 1 4 3 2 2 0 1 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 0