Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018: Day 14 Winners and Losers
There are just a few days of competition left before the Olympic flame moves out of Pyeongchang, South Korea. There's plenty of action over the weekend, but Day 14 was on the lighter side.
Only five events handed out medals, but a few countries managed to land multiple athletes on the same podium. Favorites mostly held serve in individual competition, though the same couldn't be said for Canada's entries in the team sports.
Read along for our breakdown of the winners and losers on Day 14.
Winner: Canada in Ski Cross
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Ski cross joined the Olympic program in 2010, and Canada won the event at the Vancouver and Sochi Games.
Make it three straight.
Kelsey Serwa, the silver medalist four years ago, controlled the final and crossed the line in front of teammate Brittany Phelan. Canada also had a gold-silver finish in Sochi, so the country has now secured five of nine total medals in women's ski cross.
Switzerland's Fanny Smith finally earned a podium spot after appearing in the small final twice. Sweden's Sandra Naeslund, the 2017 ski cross world champion, ended fourth because of a mid-race bobble.
Loser: Clean Free Skates for USA
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First off, it's worth noting that Karen Chen, Bradie Tennell and Mirai Nagasu represented the United States well. Perhaps with the exception of Nagasu, they were not expected to contend for the podium yet skated with the confidence and energy you'd expect.
For that, brava.
Still, we would've enjoyed seeing the Americans put together a clean free skate in their Olympic finale. Chen and Tennell both had unfortunate falls, and Nagasu popped a couple of jumps. They occupied places 9-11 in the final standings.
Chen and Tennell have bright futures, and this experience will be beneficial for them at the senior level. But on this night at the Games, Team USA wasn't able to match its competition.
Winner: Figure Skating Medal Favorites
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Regardless of whether a prediction placed Evgenia Medvedeva or Alina Zagitova atop the podium, it was apparent the Olympic Athletes from Russia had a favorable chance to win gold and silver.
And the young stars met those expectations. The 15-year-old Zagitova scored a 239.57 to win gold, and Medvedeva, 18, captured silver with a 238.26 in her Olympic debut.
Additionally, Kaetlyn Osmond arrived as a top choice for the remaining medal. Although she had a small step-out during her free skate, the 22-year-old Canadian comfortably earned bronze thanks to an 8.64-point advantage over Japan's Satoko Miyahara.
Upsets abound in the Olympics, but ladies' figure skating largely went according to plan in Pyeongchang.
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Loser: Canada Men's Curling
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Since curling was reintroduced to the Winter Olympics in 1998, Canada's men's team always found itself in the gold-medal match. It had won it all the last three Winter Games.
That run came to an end in Pyeongchang. Not only the did the Canadians miss out on a shot at another gold, but they are going home without any medal. After losing 4-3 to the United States in the semifinals on Thursday, Team Canada lost 7-5 to Switzerland in the bronze-medal match, one in which it never led.
With Canada's women's team also failing to medal—it finished sixth in round-robin play—it marked the first Olympics in which the country didn't earn a medal in either the men's or women's curling since the sport's reintroduction.
If not for the gold in mixed doubles, a new event this year, Canada would have been completely shut out in arguably its most successful team sport.
Winner: OAR Goaltender Vasili Koshechkin
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A men's ice hockey team from Russia will be playing for the gold medal for the first time since Nagano in 1998 after beating the Czech Republic 3-0. Officially, the team is representing the Olympic Athletes of Russia.
Scoreless until almost midway through the second period, goals by Nikita Gusev and Vladislav Gavrikov just 27 seconds apart broke open the semifinal. An empty-net goal was added in the final minute of the third.
With 23 goals in five games, no country has been more dominant on offense. And none has had as strong goaltending either thanks to Vasili Koshechkin, who made 31 saves for his second shutout to go with one in a 4-0 win over the United States in pool play.
The 34-year-old Koshechkin, who was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2002 but never played in the NFL, allowed four goals in Russia's first two games but in the past three has yielded only one.
The Russians will face either Canada or Germany in the gold-medal match.
Loser: Team USA Speedskating
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The United States entered the 2018 Winter Olympics as the second-most decorated country in speedskating, having won 67 medals (29 golds). But with only the men's and women's mass start events left in Pyeongchang, this is shaping up to be America's second straight woeful performance.
Team USA's only medal came in the women's team pursuit, a bronze that came by edging out Canada by 0.45 seconds on Wednesday. That's still one more medal than in Sochi in 2010.
Compare that to the Winter Olympics between 2002-10, when the U.S. took home a combined 19 medals, including seven golds. The last American gold medalist in speedskating was Shani Davis in the men's 1,000 meters in Vancouver in 2010.
Davis, now 35, took seventh in Thursday's 1,000 after getting 19th in the 1,500 last week.
Winner: Dutch Speedskater Kjeld Nuis
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Speedskating gold medals are so prevalent in the Netherlands that winning one might only warrant you a nod and a half smile.
So how about two?
That's how many Kjeld Nuis has after winning the men's 1,000-meter race by a mere 0.04 seconds over Norway's Havard Lorentzen. Nuis had previously won gold in the 1,500 meters, making him the only double winner in speedskating at the 2018 Games.
Skating in the final pair, the 28-year-old overcame two potential pitfalls. First a false start was called, causing he and pair competitor Mika Poutala of Finland to regroup before racing. Then on the final lap Poutala stood up and let Nuis pass rather than provide him with a draft to help him to the finish.
Not bad for his first Olympics.
Loser: Canada Men's Hockey
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We're not intentionally trying to dump on Canadian Olympic team sports, but it's been a bad few days. This last one might have been the worst, first with the men's curling team failing to medal for the first time and then the men's hockey team getting beat 4-3 by upstart Germany in the semifinals.
The two-time defending Olympic gold medalists must now regroup 24 hours later for the bronze-medal game against Czech Republic, a team it lost to in a shootout in pool play.
The last time Canada didn't medal in men's hockey was 2006, when it lost to Russia in the quarterfinals.
Sure, this isn't a vintage Canada team since it lacks NHL players—thanks, Gary Bettman—but even that country's second-tier talent should have fared better in a tournament where every team is playing with lesser rosters.
Winner: Germany Men's Hockey
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We're only slightly exaggerating when we say the most famous German hockey team may be the one that lost to a Flying V formation in the second Mighty Ducks movie. Not anymore.
Thanks to a 4-3 upset of two-time defending champion Canada in the semifinals, Germany will play the Olympic Athletes of Russia for the gold medal on Sunday. The Germans have never won gold, or silver, in men's hockey, having claimed bronze in 1932 and 1976.
The Germans didn't qualify for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, finished in 11th place (out of 12 countries) in 2010 and had been winless in the previous 13 Olympic matches prior to Pyeongchang.
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