The Olympics continued in earnest on Monday, with a lot of action in newer sports, and as the women's hockey and curling round robins near their end. Let's recap the action.
Lots of athletes flying through the air today, so we will start with the Women's Snowboard Big Air. Japan's Kokomo Murase won gold over New Zealand's Synott Sadowski (silver) and Yu Sevengeun of Korea (bronze). This gold for Murase will sit nicely on her mantle next to the bronze in the same event from Beijing!
The women's slopestyle medal rounds were completed as well, and Mathilde Gremaud of won gold, defeating Eileen Gu of China and Megan Oldham from Canada. Gremaud defended her gold from Beijing to go along with her silver from Pyeongchang.
Despite these high-flyers winning medals, nobody, and I mean nobody flies higher than the ski jumpers, and the men's normal hill concluded with Germany's Phillipp Raimund winning gold, Kacpar Tomasiak of Poland finishing second, and a tie for the bronze between Ren Kikaido (Japan) and Gregor Deschwaden (Switzerland).
In women's hockey, Italy defeated Japan 3-2, Germany beat France 2-1 in overtime, and Canada in its final prep before playing its Heated Rivals the US, beat Czechia 5-1.
The United States, in its final tune-up before the round-robin matchup against Canada defeated Switzerland 5-1, behind goals from 5 different players. And, since the goal scorers usually get all of the love, I want to point out the play of Defensewoman Caroline Harvey, who topped the US in shots with 5, and with a +/- of 4.
The rhythm dance portion of the ice dancing event in figure skating was held, with a fantastic performance from the French team of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizerone, who finished .5 points ahead of American favorites Madison Chock and Evan Bates, setting the scene for an amazing long skate performance.
The men returned to the Alpine slopes as the men's combined was contested with Downhill gold medalist Franjo von Allman of Switzerland taking home his second gold medal of these games with his teammate Tanguay Nef. Their teammate Marco Odermatt wins his first medal of Milano-Cortina by finishing third with his teammate Luc Maillard, behind the silver medalists Vincent Kreichmyar and Manuel Fettner.
And although the speeds on the slopes were technically faster, nothing on earth could possibly faster than a camera focusing on Jake Paul during the 1000-meter women's Speedskating race. For once, Jake Paul was not the spectacle, as Jutta Leerdam from the Netherlands flew around the track in Olympic record time to win the gold medal, followed by her teammate Femke Kok (silver) and Miho Tagaki of Japan (bronze). This track seems incredibly fast, and I expect to see lots of Olympic and possibly even World records.
Athlete(s) of the Day - Jutta Leerdam, Netherlands, Speed Skating/Mathilde Gremaud, Switzerland/Freestyle Skiing
A dominating performance from Leerdam, and a second-straight gold - and third straight medal - for Gremaud in Slopestyle.
U.S. Athlete of the Day - Caroline Harvey, Hockey
Dominating blue line performance on defense AND offense.
Upset of the Day - Marco Odermatt, Switzerland, Alpine Skiiing
Yes, he won the bronze medal in team combined, and yes Franjo von Allmon is having a tremendous Olympics winning both the downhill and skiing the downhill in the team combined, but just one bronze for Odermatt in two downhill races seems like an upset in itself.
Team of the Day - Laurence Fournier-Beaudry/Guillaume Cizerone, France, Figure Skating
Just a beautiful Rhythm dance performance.
U.S. Team of the Day - Women's Hockey
Another shutout on the even of the Canada game - which will determine the overall number 1 seed in the tournament; not that anybody doesn't expect either squad to face-off again in the finals.
Olympic Term of the Day: Telemark Landing - Ski jumping - In ski jumping, the Telemark landing is a landing technique in which the skier pushes one ski a little further forward and the other ski a little further back to aid in the landing process. This was first performed by Torju Torjussen in 1883, and is still almost exclusively used today.
Olympic Events Watched: Alpine Skiing, Curling, Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Speedskating
USA Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer Possibilities (listed alphabetically): Evan Bates, Madison Chock, Korey Dobkin, Breezy Johnson, Hilary Knight, Ilia Malinin, Cory Thiesse
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