It was a tough day at the office for the American women’s speed skating team. Heather Bergsma and Brittany Bowe provided the two best opportunities for the States to medal, but came up just short in their efforts during the 1000m as fatigued kicked in for both of these two athletes in the final lap.
Earlier in the evening, Japan and Unified Korea closed out their group stage play. Korea, who didn’t stand much of a chance in this competition, received a chorus of cheers from their home fans as they were able to score their first goal during the Olympics in a 1-4 loss to Japan.
Continue reading below to review the rest of the action from last night.
Nordic Combined: Eric Frenzel completes comeback, wins gold again
It was expected that Frenzel would win the gold again, but just not in that fashion. Two Austrian athletes, Josef-Franz Rehrl and Lukas Kkapfer, took an unexpected lead following the ski jumping portion of the competition.
Frenzel finished fifth, and was forced to start the cross-country segment 30 seconds behind the Austrian leaders. The German, though, continued to close that gap and broke through in the final half kilometer of the 10km race to clinch gold.
Full recap: Frenzel completes comeback, wins back-to-back Olympic golds
Speed Skating: Bergsma falters in final lap, finishes eighth
American speed skater Heather Bergsma got off to a quick start in the women’s 1000m, completing the first lap in 17.89 seconds, ahead of leader Jorien Ter Mors. The American managed to stay ahead of the line for most of the race, but seemed to have run out of steam in the final lap.
Ter Mors set a new Olympic Record in her attempt of 1:13.56, to continue the Netherlands’ stranglehold in speed skating. Ireen Wust, who won two medals so far, finished ninth.
Bergsma’s teammate, Brittany Bowe, barely missed out on bronze. The American finished .37 seconds behind bronze medalist Miho Takagi of Japan
Hockey: JPN def. COR 4-1
Neither of these teams had much chance of advancing to the semifinals, but they both fought in the group stages. Japan might look back a little disappointed, not being able to close out their opening game versus Sweden. Each of these two teams will now drop to the classification phase.
Full game recap: JPN def. COR 4-1.
Curling: Japan rout USA 10-5
It wasn’t a great day for the American, who fell behind big in the first three ends of their match against Japan. Down 0-7 early, the USA team had no choice but to go big. They were able to net three points in the sixth end, but fell well short.
Great Britain, Sweden, and China all secured convincing victories.
Full recap: Women’s Curling, Day 1
