As we approach the final weekend of the Olympics, only 1 medal won by the United States in 7 events. That medal, which was expected to be gold, turned out to be silver, but was an excellent result in the Women's Alpine Combined, as Mikaela Shiffrin won her second medal of these Olympics. Due to weather, Shiffrin had to withdraw from the downhill and the super giant slalom, but earns a combined silver to go with her gold in the giant slalom. American Lindsay Vonn, the leader after the downhill portion of the combined, skied off-course and did not finish. Michelle Gisin and Wendy Holdener of Switzerland won gold and bronze respectively.
By far the best events of the day occurred in short track speed skating. In the women's 1000m, Suzanne Shulting of the Netherlands won gold after skated to great technical races in the semi-finals and finals. Shulting beat a stacked final that included Canadian Kim Boutin - who won silver, Italy's Arianna Fontana - who won bronze, and two favorites from South Korea, Shim Sukhee and Choi Minjeong, who crashed into each other on the last lap sealing the medals. Fontana with her bronze becomes the most decorated women's short track speedskater in history.
On the men's side, China's Wu Daijing followed up his world record run in the semifinals with another world record and a gold medal in the finals, edging South Korea's Hwang Daeheon (silver) and Lim Hyojun (bronze), who despite being cheered on by an ecstatic crowd, could not catch Wu. This was easily the best event of the day, given the closeness of the semi-final races, the results of the final and the crowd.
As much as I would love to give Wu the performance of the night for his double world records in the short track 500m, the most significant event in any single Winter Olympics is the Ladies Figure Skating, and that popularity was on display again, this time as the Russian's ran away from the competition. The only question was which Russian would win gold and which would win silver. Alina Zagitova came in first to win gold, and Evgenia Medvedeva won silver, followed by Kaetlyn Osmond from Canada with the bronze. The U.S. entries, after a horrible showing in the short program, finished 9th, 10th and 11th. Congratulations Alina Zagitova for winning the Performance of the Day.
The American Disappointment of the Day could have gone to the U.S. Figure skaters again, but seeing as they started the day in 9th, 10th and 11th place, and finished in 9th, 10th and 11th place, at least they didn't fall any further behind. The same cannot be said for Lindsay Vonn who skied off-course in the slalom portion of the combined, and thus did not finish the combined, an event in which she led after the downhill portion. Although this was also yesterday's disappointment, with the time difference, I cannot tell on what day this should have been listed - so I did both.
Events Watched: Men's Short Track; Women's Hockey (Replay); Women's Short Track; Women's Biathlon
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