What an Opening Ceremonies!!! And to follow it up? Our first medals of the Olympics along with a ton of other competitions across Northern Italy!
I am going to start with the story of the day, by far ... Italy's Francesca Lollobrigida taking home the gold medal, the host country's first, in the women's 3000 Meter Speed Skating event. She fell behind the time trial's of other athletes, but with 3 to 3 1/2 laps left, just started a spring that most athletes do not even have in their last lap - and she put up a time that Norway's Rajne Wiklund could not catch. Wiklund with the silver, and Lollabrigida, who contemplated retirement after Beijing in 2022, took time off to have a baby, and then decided to return as her country was hosting the Olympics - won Gold.
Hers was not the first medal won by Italy, however, as her countryman Giovanni Fanzoni and Dominik Paris took home the silver and bronze respectively in the Men's Downhill, as Swiss skier Franji van Allman won gold.
The Round Robin portion of the Mixed Doubles Curling event continued, with Great Britain winning 7-5 over Canada, and then handing Team US its first defeat 6-4. This loss stunned the US, as they then fell to Korea 6-5. Sweden won its two matches 17-7 over Switzerland and 9-4 over Italy, who managed to bounce back to defeat Norway. Tomorrow's matches will likely decide the semifinalists.
In the X-Games portion of the day, Japan swept the top two spots on the Men's Snowboard Big Air, as Kira Kimora gold and Ryoma Kimata took home the silver.
The women's normal hill competition in Ski Jumping was completed, with Norway's Anna Odine Stroem flew farther than everyone else to take home the gold. Slovakia's Nika Prevc and Japan's Nozomi Maruyama joined Stroem on the podium.
The women's 10K x 10K skiathlon was held, and the perennial younger sibling of the cross-country skiing world, Sweden, dominated their older, more decorated older sister Norway as not only did Frida Karlsson win gold, but teammate Ebba Andersson followed her to the finish line to earn silver.
Women's hockey round robin continued as well, with Sweden defeating Italy 6-1 and Germany beating Japan 5-2. The two favorites dominated, as Canada beat Switzerland 4-0 and the United States controlled its match against Finland, winning 5-0. For the US, assistant captain Hilary Knight scored her 24th Olympic goal - to tie the record. I look forward to posting about her record-breaking goal here shortly!
Besides the women's 3000 meters speed skating event, the talk of the day was the continuation of the team figure skating event with the men's short program and the ice dancing long program. One of the shocks of the tournament to date occurred in the men's short program, as Japan's Yuma Kagiyama stunned American Ilia Malinin to win 10 points for Japan, with Malinin's 9 points giving the US a 34-33 lead heading into the long programs.
And, the long programs began immediately thereafter with the ice dancing long program. The US team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates might as well have been the only performers in the competition, as it was them, and everyone else fighting for 2nd. The fact that Japan came in 5th, advanced the US lead from 1 point to 44-39 with three events remaining.
Athlete of the Day - Francesca Lollobrigida, Italy, Speed Skating
Not only did she win gold, she set an Olympic record - AND - she did it on her 35th birthday!!! Happy Birthday to you Francesca.
U.S. Athlete of the Day - Madison Chock and Evan Bates, Figure Skating
Just absolutely amazing!
Upset of the Day - Swiss alpine skier Marco Odermatt did not even medal in the Downhill, an event in which he entered the Olympics as the overwhelming gold medal favorite.
Team of the Day - Great Britan, Mixed Doubles, Curling
Just your everyday 6-0 in the round robin round, including handing the United States its first defeat.
U.S. Team of the Day - Women's Hockey
Another strong win, this time shutting out Finland 5-0!
Olympic Term of the Day: Skiathlon - A cross-country skiing competition that combines two different skiing techniques - classical technique and freestyle (skating) techniques - within the same race.
Olympic Events Watched: Alpine Skiing, Cross-Country Skiing, Curling, Figure Skating, Hockey, Snowboarding, Speed Skating
USA Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer Possibilities (listed alphabetically): Evan Best, Madison Chock, Korey Dobkin, Hilary Knight, Cory Thiesse
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