Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018: Day 7 Winners and Losers
The 2018 Pyeongchang Games are quickly becoming a disappointing affair for Team USA. Three top gold-medal contenders either missed the podium or had a rough debut on Day 7.
Mikaela Shiffrin narrowly missed her third career medal, Nathan Chen fell multiple times in his short program, and Lindsey Jacobellis' redemption story had an unsatisfying ending.
At least the men's hockey team won?
While it may not have been a banner day for the Americans, that doesn't mean there weren't great stories across the Games. For example, remember the oiled-up Tongan flag-bearer? Oh, he was in action again. For that and more on the winners and losers of Day 7, read on.
Winner: Yun Sungbin, South Korea
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South Korea is a respected speed skating threat, but the country had never won a Winter Olympic medal outside the rink.
Not only did Yun Sungbin snap that drought, he also broke records in the process.
The 23-year-old finished the skeleton with a total time of 3:20.55, setting the track record on three runs—including a 50.02 on his final effort. Yun cruised to gold with a massive 1.63-second advantage over silver medalist Nikita Tregubov, an Olympic Athlete from Russia.
Loser: Mikaela Shiffrin's Specialty
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Mikaela Shiffrin began her Olympic schedule with a gold in giant slalom, which created the opportunity for back-to-back first-place medals.
The American standout has dominated the slalom on the World Cup circuit this season, so she entered the event as the clear favorite. However, the 22-year-old made a mistake about two-thirds of the way down the course and lost precious hundredths of a second.
Shiffrin missed the podium by .08 seconds in the discipline she claimed gold in during the 2014 Sochi Games.
Her Olympics are far from over, but it's unfortunate she didn't medal in her best event.
Winner: Austria Ends Norway's Super-G Reign
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In each of the last four Winter Olympics, a Norwegian graced the podium's pinnacle for men's super-G. Austria, a strong Alpine country, had managed two silvers and a bronze.
Matthias Mayer ended the streak in thrilling fashion.
Kjetil Jansrud and Aksel Lund Svindal—the gold medalists in 2014 and 2010, respectively—sat in first and third place when Mayer headed down the course. The Austrian recorded a 1:24.44, besting Jansrud's time by .18 seconds and knocking Svindal out of a medal.
Mayer, who took out a cameraman during the combined event, also won the downhill at Sochi in 2014.
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Loser: Nathan Chen's Pursuit of Gold
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Although the team event wasn't kind to Nathan Chen, several other skaters endured mishaps during the previous competition, allowing him a fourth-place finish.
This one wasn't as forgiving.
During his short program, Chen fell on a quadruple lutz, stepped out of a triple axel and didn't include a combination. His 82.27 ranked 17th out of 30 skaters.
"That was really rough," he said after the program, per NBC's Nick McCarvel. "I honestly don't know what went wrong. Nothing went the way I wanted it to."
Winner: Adam Rippon Sticks the Landing
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It might have stood to reason that the lion's share of the men's figure skating pressure would fall not on Chen but on Adam Rippon. After all, Chen entered the Games relatively below the radar, while Rippon very publicly tangled with Vice President Mike Pence and others who might have taken issue with openly gay athletes like himself.
Nothing will take the sting out of Chen's moribund 17th-place performance, but Rippon offered a bit of a moral victory with a clean and crowd-pleasing short program that left him in seventh place. He's theoretically within striking distance of the medal podium in advance of the long skate, although it would take herculean effort, particularly if his routine doesn't include any quadruple jumps (his short program contained none).
But as a member of the bronze-winning Team USA team roster, Rippon will go home with a medal. From here on out, it's all gravy.
"Now I'm able to go out in the individual and show the world I'm a cut-through competitor," Rippon told the Associated Press (h/t PennLive). "And I'm an awesome skater."
Winner: USA Men's Hockey
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During an otherwise disheartening night for American supporters, the men's hockey team rebounded from its earlier disappointment.
In the opener, Team USA coughed up a two-goal lead and lost to Slovenia 3-2 in overtime. But Thursday, the U.S. secured a hard-fought 2-1 victory over an aggressive, physical Slovakia.
Ryan Donato tallied both goals, both of which occurred on power plays. Chris Bourque assisted on both markers, while standout Troy Terry and Mark Arcobello each had one helper.
The victory gave the Americans three crucial points in Group B entering a showdown with Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk and the Olympic Athletes from Russia on Saturday on Pyeongchang. They are the gold-medal favorites.
Loser: Lindsey Jacobellis' Redemption Story
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Twelve years ago in Turin, Italy, a little bit of showboating gone wrong cost Lindsey Jacobellis the gold in snowboard cross. She then failed to reach the final in Vancouver and Sochi.
Pyeongchang could've served as her redemption story. And she did everything needed to put herself in position for the glorious final chapter.
Jacobellis qualified fourth in the seeding run, won her quarterfinal and finished a painless second in the semifinals. And for approximately half of the six-woman final, the 32-year-old held the lead. But slowly, steadily, Jacobellis began dropping spots.
Italy's Michela Moioli, France's Julia Pereira de Sousa Mabileau and the Czech Republic's Eva Samkova all passed the American, leaving her 0.46 seconds shy of gold and 0.03 of bronze.
Jacobellis owns five world titles and 10 X Games golds, so her career is one of the most impressive in USA history. It was simply gut-wrenching to see her miss Olympic glory again.
Winner: Hanna Huskova Takes a Freestyle Skiing Squeaker
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Belarus is on the board.
If you like the snowboard halfpipe and you haven't watched freestyle skiing yet, you should remedy that. It's like platform diving in exact reverse. The midair flips and twists these athletes pull of with two unconnected boards attached to their feet make for downright addictive television.
In the women's final, Belarusian Hanna Huskova posted a 96.14 on her final jump to hold off China's Zhang Xin (95.52) by less than a point. China completed a lower-podium sweep with Kong Fanyu's 70.14.
Team USA was in the picture, even if they couldn't break into the medal race. Madison Olsen finished sixth to lead the Americans.
Loser: Ted Ligety's Olympics End in Obscurity
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Ted Ligety has enjoyed a marvelous Olympic career, with two gold medals to his name. At first, he was an unlikely winner, but he has since parlayed his success into more success, in and out of competition.
At 33 years old and after years spent battling injuries, this was likely Ligety's last run. Although he's certainly a winner overall, he was a pretty clear loser in Pyeongchang.
After finishing fifth in the men's combined slalom, he failed to finish in the super-G. Hopefully he enjoyed the experience and can now look forward to advancing his life even further off the slopes.
Winner: A New Dutch Speedskating Star Is Born
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Sven Kramer is the Lindsey Jacobellis of the Netherlands, multiplied by about a thousand.
The wildly famous men's speedskater has earned eight total Olympic medals, and one of those was a silver in the 10,000 meters, thanks to his performance in Sochi. However, he has seemed otherwise star-crossed in that particular event. In the 2010 Games, he finished first in the race, only to be disqualified for failing to make a lane change. The bad luck continued Thursday when he failed to medal in the men's 10,000 meters.
Enter Esmee Visser.
Visser is sort of the anti-Kramer, not widely expected to medal in the women's 5,000 meters. But then she won the whole thing, followed by Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic and and Natalia Voronina representing the Olympic Athletes of Russia.
It was the 22-year-old's first Olympics, and her performance helps continue Dutch speed-skating dominance. The Netherlands now owns six of the Games' seven speed-skating gold medals.
Winner: Oiled-Up Tongan Flag-Bearer (Oh, He Was Actually Competing?)
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Apparently his given name is Pita Taufatofua, but to the wider Olympics community, he'll always be Shirtless Oiled-Up Tongan Flag-Bearer.
Taufatofua competed in the 2016 Rio Games in taekwondo, losing in the first round. He outdid himself early Friday when he finished 114th out of 116 finishers in the 15-kilometer cross-country ski.
Let's be honest about a couple of things. First, Taufatofua got the real job done in the Opening Ceremony, where he battled freezing temperatures to reprise his role as the Parade of Nations' biggest head-turner. Second, the real thrill of competition in this case for Taufatofua was simply making it to Pyeongchang and finishing the race.
And he had his own two steps for success Friday.
"The first step, finish before they turn the lights off; that’s number one," he jokingly said in a video shared by Agence France-Presse (h/t Huffington Post). "Don’t ski into a tree, that’s number two."
Once the Olympics are firmly in his rear-view, Taufatofua has a far more serious task in front of him: helping his native Tonga recover from a devastating cyclone that recently ravaged the small island nation. Here's guessing he'll be a pretty good resource in those recovery efforts.
(For the record, Switzerland’s Dario Cologna took gold in the event, followed by Norway’s Simen Hegstad Krueger and Denis Spitsov representing Olympic Athletes from Russia.)
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