Day 2 saw Canada grab its first few medals.
SNOWBOARDING – MEN’S SLOPESTYLE
The other night, we saw all four Canadian men, McMorris, Nicholson, Toutant, and Parrot, qualify for the final on the most interesting slopestyle course I’ve seen in a while (from a couch, not first hand experience, of course). The format for the final includes three runs, your best score counts. You only need one good one!
Mark McMorris, the comeback kid, was looking to improve upon his Bronze from Sochi (and to celebrate surviving his life threatening crash less than a year ago). Many riders were trying for huge tricks (it’s the Olympics after all!), but no one landed a solid clean run until McMorris’ second run which put him in first place (which still left room for improvement).
The third round still left many boarders wanting redos, until USA’s 17 year old Redmond “Red” Gerard put on a Gold Medal clinic, smoothly transitioning to every surface encountered and stomping every landing like his board was magnetic to the ground.
McMorris was unable to land his final jump, meaning his second run was only good enough for a silver medal. That is, until Canadian rival, Max Parrot’s final run relegated McMorris to the bronze position and claim Silver for himself.
SPEED SKATING:
Men’s long track 5000m.
Canada’s TJ Bloemen won silver in another photo finish. After a cat and mouse match up, he edged out Norway’s Pedersen by 0.002s! This type of photo finish is more often witnessed in Short Track! Netherlands continued their Long Track domination taking the Gold Medal.
LADIES FREESTYLE MOGULS
Canada had four skiers qualify for the final day of competition. Skiers had to finish top 12 to make the final, then top 6 to make the Super Final. Justine Dufour-Lapointe and Andi Naude made it through the gauntlet to the Super Final. Justine had a huge run and held the lead with a few riders left – Gold looked promising. However, France’s Parrine Laffont put a quick end to that podium hold, squeaking by with a 0.09 point margin to wait on top of the podium. Naude, who entered the Olympics as the top ranked Canadian and led the pack heading into the Super Final, had a chance to pick up her first Olympic medal. As the final skier, she attacked the course, fearlessly; but a slight error on her first jump put her off course just enough that she was unable to keep her form and eventually she popped off her line and outside the gates, resulting in a DNF.
Everyone was shocked, but Laffont managed to graciously celebrate her Gold, Justine D-L her Silver and Yulia Galysheva won bronze, Kazakhstan’s first olympic medal in moguls.
You have to admire these athletes – they are barely adults, but manage to compose themselves for their fans and the cameras despite such obvious heartbreak. You can guarantee two things:
- Naude probably shed many tears as soon as she hit her dorm.
- Naude will we back.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
In the early morning for the Eastern time zone, Finland scared the USA by scoring first, but USA battled back 2-1 then added an empty netter for a 3-1 win. The USA continues their undefeated-opening-match-of-the-Olympics streak.
CANADA vs OAR:
The game started fast, with Canada’s rookie line opening the set. The women in red and black dominated play but were unable to find their scoring streak until the 2nd period.
Then the flood gates opened. Five solid, unanswered goals showed Canada has most of their systems in order. A few kinks to work out, though, like Lacquette needs to stop taking slap shots for the sake of smashing rubber from the blueline as hard as she can. Patience. Hold on a split second. Look for a pass.
Some favourite goals:
- Poulin feeding Agosta while being tripped up backwards, Agosta patiently looking for Daoust in front of the net who had a beautiful one timer. (Aside: my autocorrect for Agosta: “Shostakovich” – makes lots of sense).
- Johnston roofing it from the doorstep on a two-man advantage. She is one that has gotten better with age and experience – very enjoyable to watch.
Russia had to rebuild its team this year due to the Russian doping scandal. Despite some veterans being cleared based on ‘the rules,’ the coaching staff actively chose to keep the players in question off the roster and band them for life. The Russians are left with 17 rookies and it shows. When losing by a number of goals, it’s easy for inexperienced players to get frustrated and resort to cross checking and other undisciplined penalties.
TEAM FIGURE SKATING
Can we just say that Scott and Tessa are beautiful to watch at Ice Dancing? Half the marks are for presentation and these two really make you feel their dance with every movement and expression – hard to believe that with so much presentation, they still didn’t win Gold in Sochi. They are back, polished and hungry for another gold. Their short program, along with Kaetlyn Osmond’s third place performance in the women’s short program have helped Canada pull ahead in the overall Team Standing. Team Figure skating continues with the free programs tonight (only the top five countries will compete for medals today). Canada could win their first Gold tonight.
Shoutouts to Luge Canadian Sam Edney who finished with a personal best time, good enough for 6th place. He finished just behind Germany’s Felix Loch, who was the Gold medal favourite. A slight error at over 100 km/h opened the door for Austria’s Gleirscher to take the Gold, USA took Silver and Germany’s Ludwig took Bronze.
Stay tuned tonight/tomorrow morning for the end of Team Figure Skating, Men’s Moguls, Women’s 1500m short track, Women’s slopestyle and men’s and women’s biathlon.