The last full day of competition, and boy was it exciting. The Netherlands won 2 medals in the mass start speed skating, with Koen Verweij winning the bronze in the men's race and Irene Schouten winning the bronze in the women's race. It would be tough to determine what was the most dominant team in PyeongChang between the Dutch speed skaters and the Norwegian cross-country skiers (more on them later).
In the four-man bobsled event, Germany dominated winning gold behind driver Francesco Friedrich and silver behind driver Nico Walther. A third German sled finished .73 seconds out of the bronze, which was won by South Korea, the second South Korean sledding medal in these games, with Yun Sung-bin winning gold in the men's skeleton.
In what was supposed to be a route, an excellent men's hockey game broke out, with Germany - having previously defeating Canada - scoring 3 goals down the stretch to force overtime against the OAR, who in the end proved they were too much on the power play (which is 4-on-3 in overtime in the Olympics) to win gold. This game was an excellent sequel to the USA-Canada women's hockey final. The only issue for the IOC is that the OAR's team sung the Russian national anthem on the medal stand, despite being banned from further representing Russia this year at the closing ceremonies with their flag due to 2 separate doping positive tests - one in curling!!!
In the men's 50Km mass start in cross-country skiing, Finland's Iivo Niskanen took off with Yevgeniy Velichkov of Kazakhstan at the 17km mark. With roughly 15km to go, OAR athlete Alexander Bolshunov joined Niskanen and Velichkov, and with about 10Km left, Velichkov had fallen to third, but seemingly a lock for a bronze. Then the chase group, which included Andrey Larkov of the OAR, Canada's Alex Harvey and Martin Sundby and Hans Christer Holund from Norway caught Velichkov as he ran out of gas, eventually fading to 39th. This chase group is important because to date, Norway has medaled in every single cross-country event in PyeongChang. At that same 40km mark, Niskanen voluntarily gave up the lead (and about 20 seconds) to change his skis, which Bolshunov did not do. During the penultimate lap - each lap is 5km - it was clear that Niskanen made the right move as his skis were way faster than Bolshunov's. (Akin to changing tires in auto racing). With about 2Km left on the last lap, Niskanen skated past Bolshunov and never looked back. Bolshunov held on the second and the bronze went to his compatriot Andrey Larkov, who held off Harvey and the Norwegians for bronze. The silver was Bolshunov's fourth of these games, having previously earned 2 other silvers and a bronze.
Despite the fact the Niskanen started his push for the gold with over 20 miles left in the race, his performance is nowhere near the Performance of the Day. That belongs to the United States Men's Curling team, who defeated Sweden for the gold medal just one round after beating Canada in the semi-finals. The U.S. men's team - John Shuster (skip), Tyler George (3rd), Matt Hamilton (2nd), John Landsteiner (lead) and Joe Polo (alternate) - started the round robin portion of the tournament 2-4 and needing to win their last 3 matches - including over Canada - just to make the medal round. Not only did they defeat Canada, the beat Canada again in the semi-finals, winning their last 5 matches to capture gold. Shuster did a hit and stay with the score tied 5-5 in the 8th end that put up 5 additional points, effectively defeating Sweden with 2 ends left. Shuster, who won bronze as the U.S. lead in Turin in 2006, was effectively dis-invited by the national team after his 2014 performance in Sochi (next-to-last) which followed up a last place finish in Vancouver. Shuster put together this team who began working together and winning national tournaments to earn a spot of the Olympic team - and now Gold!! This has been dubbed "The Miracurl on Ice". More importantly, this is the Performance of the Day!!!
Disappointment of the Day: The United States had such high hopes in bobsledding, thinking that a medal was possible in both the two-man and four-man bobsled. After winning a medal in the women's bobsled, and after some shaky, but intriguing runs in the men's 2-man bobsled, the US felt poised to finish way higher than the 9th place they ultimately earned in the 4-man bobsled. For this, the US Bobsled team and pilot Nick Cunningham particularly earn the Disappointment of the Day.
Event's Watched: Men's Curling; Men's Bobsled; Men's Cross-Country Skiing; The Honda Classic
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