After falling to Canada in the semifinals, the U.S. men’s hockey team tried to shift focus to this morning’s bronze medal game against Finland.
But the Americans were never able to get going as the Finns, led by a two-goal effort from Teemu Selanne and a shutout performance from Tuukka Rask, earned their fourth men’s hockey medal in the last five Winter Olympics with a 5-0 victory.
U.S. goalie Jonathan Quick allowed all five Finnish goals, but didn’t receive any offensive help either as the team failed to score for the second game in a row.
After the game, he took the team to task for their effort overall while also acknowledging his own shortcomings, saying: “My job is to stop the puck, and I didn’t do that very well. Team effort. We weren’t good.”…
Meanwhile, giant slalom winner Ted Ligety of the U.S. attempted to earn a medal in an event that’s not his best – the slalom. He was a solid sixth after the first run, but was one of multiple big names that failed to finish their second run. The gold went to 34-year-old Mario Matt of Austria, who becomes the oldest Alpine skiing champion in Olympic history…
American-born Russian snowboarder Vic Wild triumphed once again, this time claiming the parallel slalom for his second gold in these Games. He charged from 1.12 seconds down to win his semifinal and then took the final by a mere .11 of a second. Austria’s Julia Dujmovits won the women’s gold…
On the final day of speedskating, the Dutch put an exclamation point on their medal spree at Adler Arena with wins and Olympic records in both the men’s and ladies‘ team pursuit. With that, they finish out with eight golds and 23 medals in speedskating alone…
Ole Einar Bjoerndalen’s stellar third leg (10-for-10 in shooting) for Norway in the biathlon men’s relay was not enough for him to earn a record ninth Winter Olympic gold. Norway’s anchor, Emil Hegle Svendsen, missed multiple shots in the final shooting range and took a penalty lap that helped knock the Norwegians to fourth at the finish. At the front, Anton Shipulin pulled away on the final straight to win for Russia…
And in cross-country skiing, Norway’s Marit Bjorgen won her third Sochi gold and sixth of her Olympic career in the women’s mass start. The event was swept by the Norwegians with Therese Johaug and Kristin Stoermer Steira taking silver and bronze respectively…
Four-man bobsled got underway and after the first day, it’s tight at the top. The defending Olympic champions from the U.S., led by driver Steven Holcomb, currently run fourth at just .17 of a second behind the leaders from Russia – who themselves only hold a lead of four one-hundredths of a second over Latvia. Germany is third at just one one-hundredth of a second ahead of the Americans…
Today’s bobsled action did not go without incident, as Canada’s third sled flipped over and eventually slid past the start/finish line on its side. Thankfully, driver Justin Kripps and his teammates were able to walk away from the track. At last report, the racers were being looked over by doctors as part of standard procedure…
Outside of competition, the head of Canada’s freestyle skiing team confirmed that the ashes of the late Sarah Burke were spread upon the halfpipe course at Rosa Khutor. The freestyle pioneer battled hard to have ski halfpipe included in the Sochi Olympics prior to her death in January of 2012…
South Korea’s Olympic committee and skating union officially filed a protest against Adelina Sotnikova’s surprising gold medal win over Yuna Kim. Whether it’ll be effective, however, may be another story…
Dutch speedskater and 10,000m Jorrit Bergsma boycotted today’s team pursuit event – not that it had any impact (see above)…
The science behind the runs that got Mikaela Shiffrin her gold medal in women’s slalom was explained…
The Sochi Polar Bear once again made his presence known during today’s USA-Finland hockey match-up…
Canadian and Slovenian officials accused France of using illegally modified suits in their men’s ski cross sweep…
Adult-sized onesies have now become the hottest fashion statement among the Sochi competitors…
And IOC president Thomas Bach had lots of praise for Ukraine’s Olympians and the country’s gold in the biathlon women’s relay.
