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On Day 12 of the Winter Olympics, the United States entered a trio of medal contenders into the men's freeski slopestyle final, the U.S. men's hockey team opened the knockout rounds with a quarterfinal matchup against Slovakia, and Jessie Diggins and Rosie Brennan tried to defend Team USA's gold medal in the cross-country women's team sprint. Here were the updates from throughout the night...
Hall, Goepper finish top two in men's ski slopestyle
The Americans didn't sweep the podium like they did eight years ago in Sochi, but they came pretty close, as Alex Hall and Nick Goepper took the top two spots in the men's freeski slopestyle final.
Hall put down an insanely creative line through the course, especially on the last two jumps. On the first of those two, Hall spun a switch 720 onto the knuckle of the jump and then popped himself back in the air for another 540-degree rotation. His final jump involved pulling back a double cork 1080 at the last moment — a mid-air "pretzel" — and turning it into a 900.
With a first run that scored a 90.01, Hall moved to the top of the leaderboard, but none of the other skiers in the stacked field were able to top him.
Goepper came the closest, landing an extremely smooth run through the course on his second attempt to score an 86.48 and snag the silver medal. Sweden's Jesper Tjader secured bronze.
The third American in the final, big air silver medalist Colby Stevenson, finished seventh but did manage to land a switch double cork 1800 in his opening run.
Results: Men's Freeski Slopestyle
🥇 Alex Hall (USA)
🥈 Nick Goepper (USA)
🥉 Jesper Tjader (SWE)
— Shawn Smith
SEE MORE: Nick Goepper puts down 86.48-point slopestyle run for silver
Slovakia knocks Team USA out of men's hockey tournament
Despite earning the top seed during preliminary play, the U.S. men's hockey team was taken down in the quarterfinals by an underdog Slovakia team led by 17-year-old star Juraj Slafkovsky.
Slafkovsky, one of the most intriguing prospects in the upcoming 2022 NHL Draft, netted a first-period goal to open the scoring. Nick Abruzzese and Sam Hentges responded with goals of their own to give Team USA a 2-1 lead, but the game was ultimately sent to overtime after a last-minute goal from Slovakia's Marek Hrivik with the goalie pulled.
After a scoreless 10-minute overtime period, which featured plenty of chances from both teams, the game continued on to a shootout. The two goalies combined to stop seven consecutive shots before Peter Cehlarik finally put one past Strauss Mann to ultimately give the Slovaks the win and bounce the Americans from the tournament.
— Shawn Smith
SEE MORE: Slovakia stuns U.S. men in quarterfinal hockey matchup
Canada claims gold in men’s 5000m relay
Pascal Dion crossed the finish line with a time of 6:41.257, clinching gold for the Canadian squad. Charles Hamelin started the race for Canada. He won his sixth Olympic medal (four gold, one silver, one bronze). He became the first athlete to win four Olympic medals in this event. He also became the oldest athlete (man or woman) to win an Olympic short track medal at 37. He also became the winningest Canadian man in Olympic Winter Games history, tying speed skater Cindy Klassen for the most Winter Games medals won by a Canadian athlete.
South Korea finished just 0.422 seconds behind Canada to secure the silver medal. It’s their first medal in the event for the first time since 2010. Italy earned a medal in the event for the first time since 2002 by clinching the bronze.
Results: Men’s 5000m Relay
🥇 Canada
🥈 South Korea
🥉 Italy
-- Stephanie De Lancey
Qi Guangpu captures elusive gold in men’s aerials
China’s Qi Guangpu won the men’s aerials by 12.5 points with a score of 129.00. He is competing in his fourth Olympics, but this is his first individual medal, having won silver in mixed team aerials earlier during these Games.
Ukraine’s Oleksander Abramenko secured the silver medal after winning the aerials in 2018. This was the second medal of his career and made him the oldest man to win an Olympic medal in men’s aerials at 33. His medal is Ukraine’s first medal of these Games.
For the second consecutive Olympics, Russian skier Ilya Burov took home the bronze.
Americans Justin Schoenefeld and Christopher Lillis finished fifth and sixth, respectively. Eric Loughran finished 12th and did not advance to the final.
Results: Men’s Aerials
🥇 Qi Guangpu (CHN)
🥈 Oleksander Abramenko (UKR)
🥉 Ilya Burov (ROC)
-- Stephanie De Lancey
Norway defends men’s team sprint gold medal
Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo proved why he’s the king of sprint. He crossed the finish line at 19:22.99, 2.46 seconds ahead of Finland’s Joni Maki. It was the third gold medal for Norway in this event (2010 and 2018). Klaebo was part of the 2018 team and became the first athlete ever to win multiple gold medals in the men’s team sprint. It was also Klaebo’s fourth medal at these Olympics and seventh overall.
Alexander Bolshunov, part of Team ROC, came in third. He is the youngest athlete, man or woman, in any sport to win eight total medals at the Winter Games. He’s also won a medal in every Olympic race that he has started.
With four medals each these Games, Bolshunov and Klaebo have the chance to become the first male cross-country skiers to win five medals in a single Games. Klaebo is also the only person to win both the individual sprint and the team sprint at the same Games multiple times.
Americans Ben Ogden and JC Schoonmaker finished in 9th. It’s the first Olympics for both athletes.
Results: Men’s Team Sprint
🥇 Erik Valnes & Johannes Hosflot Klaebo (NOR)
🥈 Iivo Niskanen & Joni Maki (FIN)
🥉 Alexander Bolshunov & Alexander Terentev (ROC)
-- Stephanie De Lancey
U.S. women's curling falls to Canada on final stone
In a significant women's curling game, Canada defeated the United States 7-6, securing the victory with the final shot of the game.
The U.S. battled back from a 6-3 deficit by scoring two points in the eighth end and stealing one point in the ninth end to tie the game. But the comeback bid fell short when Canada was able to use the hammer in the final end to score one point and take the win.
Both teams remain locked in a battle for playoff positions. With only four teams advancing to the semifinals, Canada (4-3) is currently tied for third place and the U.S. (4-4) is tied for fifth place. In its final game of round-robin play, the U.S. plays Japan (4-3) at 7 a.m. ET on Wednesday morning.
— Shawn Smith
Germany wins women’s team sprint in exciting fashion
Victoria Carl dug deep to come from behind and finish just ahead of Sweden with a time of 22:09.85, surging ahead of Jonna Sundling to win by 0.17 seconds. Germany is the first nation to win the women’s team sprint event twice (2010, 2022). Team ROC rounded out the podium, finishing 0.71 seconds behind Germany’s time.
The U.S. team of Jessie Diggins and Rosie Brennan finished fifth.
Results: Women’s team sprint
🥇 Katharina Henning & Victoria Carl (GER)
🥈 Maja Dahlqvist & Jonna Sundling (SWE)
🥉 Yulia Stupak & Natalia Neprayaeva (ROC)
-- Stephanie De Lancey
Finland breaks through to beat Switzerland, claim women's hockey bronze
Gold has been almost-entirely out of the question in women's hockey for anyone besides the U.S. and Canada since its introduction at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.
So Finland delivered the goods with the only other honor available to the rest of the field at the Olympics, defeating Switzerland 4-0 to win the bronze medal.
This is the fourth bronze for Finland and second on the trot, as only the Americans and Canadians have won more Olympic women's hockey medals. Switzerland was bidding for a second bronze.
Elisa Holopainen set up two of Finland's goals in the win and Anni Keisala made 15 saves in the shutout.
The U.S. will play Canada in the gold medal game at 11:10pm ET on Wednesday.
-- Nicholas Mendola
Sweden wins 4x6km; Roeiseland falls short, ending bid for six medals
Marte Olsbu Roeiseland and Norway came up short, finishing 50.7 seconds behind Sweden, who won the race with a time of 11:03.9. The gold medal was Sweden’s first in the event, bettering their second-place finish in 2018.
Norway was heavily favored to win. However, Ingrid Landmark Tandrveold wasn't present for the race, as she struggled to finish one of her races earlier in the week, which would impact Norway’s time. Norway lost time when Tiril Eckhoff had to ski two penalty loops on the second relay leg.
Instead, team ROC and Germany also snuck on the podium. The fourth-place finish for Olsbu Roeiseland ends her attempt at an historic Olympics, where she could’ve become the first Olympian in any sport to win six medals in a single Games.
Americans Susan Dunklee, Clare Egan, Deedra Irwin and Joanne Reid finished 11th. This was the final Olympic race for Dunklee and Eagan, both of whom have said they will retire after this season.
Results: Women’s 4x6km Relay
🥇 Linn Persson / Mona Brorsson / Hanna Oeber / Elvira Oeberg (SWE)
🥈 Irina Kazakevich / Kristina Reztsova / Svetlana Mironova / Uliana Nigmatullina (ROC)
🥉 Vanessa Voigt / Vanessa Hinz / Franziska Preuss / Denise Herrmann (GER)
-- Stephanie De Lancey
Noel clinches men’s slalom gold
Clement Noel ended France's twenty-year slalom drought when he clinched the gold medal with a time of 1:44.09. It was redemption for Noel who missed the podium in 2018 by .04 seconds. Noel is the first French skier to win an Olympic medal in slalom since 2002.
Austria’s Johannes Strolz finished second for his second medal of the Games. Strolz made history with a gold in the combined. His father Hubert won the same event in 1988, making them the first father-son duo to win Olympic gold in Alpine history.
Norway’s Sebastian Foss-Solevaag rounded out the podium. It’s his second Olympic medal in his third Olympic appearance. He won bronze in the team event in 2018.
American Luke Winters was the only one to compete in the slalom, but skied out during his first run.
Results: Men's Slalom
🥇 Clement Noel (FRA)
🥈 Johannes Strolz (AUS)
🥉 Sebastian Foss-Solevaag (NOR)
-- Stephanie De Lancey
History everywhere at women's short track 1500M speed skating
South Korean speed skater Choi Min-Jeong successfully defended her Olympic gold medal in women's short track 1,500m, earning her third medal in Beijing after claiming silver in the 1,000m and 3,000m relay.
Italy's Arianna Fontana becomes Italy’s most decorated winter Olympian in taking silver to give her 11 medals -- 2 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze -- breaking a tie with cross-country skier Stefania Belmondo.
The Netherlands' Suzanne Schulting also makes history. Schulting ties Viktor Ahn (KOR/RUS) for the most medals won by a short track skater at a single Winter Games.
Results: Short Track Women's 1500M
🥇 Choi Min-Jeong (KOR)
🥈 Arianna Fontana (ITA)
🥉 Suzanne Schulting ((NED)
-- Nicholas Mendola
