Medal Count 2018 Olympics: Predicting Friday Night's Winners; Updated Tally
Friday night marks the beginning of the end for the 2018 Winter Olympics from Pyeongchang, South Korea. The Games are entering their final weekend, with gold medals in men's hockey, snowboarding, speed skating, bobsled and more all still on the line.
Friday's primetime coverage will feature plenty of action. Contestants in a new event, men's snowboarding big air, will look to see who can pull off the best boundary-breaking moves against the backdrop of an Olympic sky. The United States will look to win gold for the first time ever in men's curling against the powerhouse that is Sweden.
Here's a look at the Olympic medal tally, which will automatically update throughout the night (and the rest of the Winter Games), followed by predictions for the evening's big events. A complete schedule and live streaming can be found at NBCOlympics.com.
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Friday Night Schedule
8-11:35 p.m. ET (NBC): Bobsled, Speed Skating, Snowboarding, Alpine
11:35 p.m.-1 a.m. ET (NBC): Snowboarding parallel giant slalom
1-4:45 a.m. ET (NBCSN): Curling men's gold medal match - United States vs. Sweden
Predictions
The men's big air event promises to dazzle. Redmond Gerard, Kyle Mack and Chris Corning will carry the hopes of Americans in the event. The 17-year-old Gerard already endeared himself to fans by acting far more like a regular teenager than one's mental image of a gold medal athlete after taking first place in men's slopestyle.
He could make his mark in the debut of big air, but Canadian Max Parrot and New Zealand's Carlos Garcia Knight finished with the top scores in their respective heats. Knight had the best score overall in qualifying, but let's go with Parrot to win this one after losing out to Gerard and taking silver in slopestyle.
Also new to the Olympics is the Alpine skiing team event. According to NBCOlympics.com, the competition pits two men and two women from each country (16 countries in all) against each other in a knockout tournament. Each matchup has four heats, one for each skiier, with the winner getting a point. If the teams are tied, the best times will break the stalemate.
France won gold in this event at the 2017 Alpine World Ski Championships, but they will be without a key member of that winning team in Mathieu Faivre.
Per ESPN.com's Delfina Moyano, Faivre was sent home after remarks that were critical of his teammates. When asked about the success of his compatriots, Faivre said, "If you knew what I care about, collective results. ... I'm here for my own personal interest, to build my career."
Without Faivre in the mix, this could be Slovakia's turn to take gold after they nabbed silver in last year's world championships.
Curling will likely garner a bit more interest than usual stateside now that Team USA is in the mix for the gold medal. They defeated the dominant Canada 5-3 in the semifinal to set up a showdown with Sweden. Like any athlete truly worthy of Olympic glory, curler Matt Hamilton knew that he had time to treat himself after the upset.
"Absolutely," Hamilton said, per Time's Sean Gregory. "I think it's healthy to celebrate a little bit of a win. I'm going to go back to the village and have a McFlurry."
Can the United States pull off a miracle and take down Sweden? It's going to be tough. Sweden trounced Switzerland 9-3 in their semifinal matchup. They look to be the better squad overall and are likely to take gold in this one. Silver is sweet enough, and the USA will be no match for Sweden.
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