Olympic Precap: Canada’s Golden Day

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Via @TeamCanada

(Note: Due to the time difference between South Korea and the United States, all events will be listed by the day they are being aired in the United States.)

The Olympics Precap is a daily post that will serve as a recap and preview of the action in PyeongChang.

Here’s What Happened: Monday, February 19th

Norway and Germany have held the top two spots on the medal table throughout the entire Olympics and Monday’s performance just reinforced how strong both teams are in several disciplines.

Luge and Skeleton have wrapped up competition and made way for the bobsled on the sliding track and on Monday, the sport awarded its first medals of the 2018 Games.

Kicking off the bobsled events in PyeongChang was the 2-person men’s race and the racing was so tight, they had to award TWO gold medals. After four runs by all teams, the Canadian team of Justin Kripps/Alexander Kopacz and the German team of Thorsten Margis/Francesco Friedrich posted identical times of 3:16.86. Since the Olympics only count to the hundreth of a second, it was ruled a tie and both teams were awarded the gold medal.

Since there were two gold medal winners in the 2-person race, silver was removed, leaving the bronze up for grabs. Missing gold by only 0.05 seconds, the Latvian team of Oskars Melbardis/Janis Strenga took home bronze.

Now that we have entered the final week of the Games, many disciplines will be wrapping up their competitions throughout the week. One such competition concluding its PyeongChang slate was ski jumping.

Across the two men’s individual ski jumping events, only three countries made the medal stand and that theme continued in the team event on Monday and it was not particularly close. Norway was the runaway gold medal winner with a combined score of 1098.5. Germany, with a score of 1075.7, claimed the silver and Poland landed with bronze thanks to a score of 1072.4.

Austria finished fourth overall but were nearly a 100 points off Poland for third place.

In a big upset on the long-track, The Netherlands was kept off the podium in the men’s 500m race, where the Dutch were expected to dominate like they have all Olympics long.

Instead, it was Norway bringing home yet another gold medal, their first on long-track in 26 years.

Gold and silver in the men’s 500m was incredibly close, decided by only 0.01 seconds between Norway’s Havard Lorentzen and Cha Min Kyu of host South Korea. Lorentzen had just enough left to cross the line to claim the gold while Kyu had to settle for silver.

Rounding out the podium was Gao Tingyu of China, a quarter of a second behind the winner.

A week after the snowboarders took on the halfpipe it was the skiers turn to try and take home gold. Canadian Cassie Sharp continued a strong day for her home nation with the gold, posting a 95.80 on her second run to put her in first for good.

Marie Martinod of France dropped a 92.60 on her first run to finish behind Sharp with the silver medal.

Bronze went to Brita Sigourney of the United States. Before she dropped in for her last run, Sigourney had to watch her teammate Annalisa Drew knock her out of bronze medal position. On her final run, Sigourney dropped a 91.60 to regain third place and claim a podium spot.

Monday’s medal events wrapped up in figure skating, with the ice dancing free skate. The United States had two teams in medal contention after the short program and it was sibling pair Maia and Alex Shibutani who put the U.S. on the podium with a bronze.

The real showdown was going to be for gold between Canadian pair Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir and French pair Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron.

Papadakis and Cizeron took the lead with their free skate but Virtue and Moir brought the house down as the last pair to go and scored just high enough to overtake the lead and win their second gold medal of these games, and second career gold in the ice dancing program. Papadakis and Cizeron won the silver.

It wasn’t just the medal events bringing the drama and action, there was plenty of that in non-medal competition as well. Here’s what you may have missed.

  • So much curling but that’s expected at this point. The U.S. men’s team stayed in medal contention with a 9-7 overtime win over Canada. The U.S. women’s team also remained in the medal hunt with a 10-4 victory over China.
  • Canada defeated OAR in the women’s ice hockey semifinals to set up a gold medal showdown with the United States later this week.
  • On the long-track, the quarterfinals for the women’s team pursuit were held and the United States finished fourth to move onto the semifinals. The U.S. has never won a medal in this event.
  • Women’s downhill held their final practice run before the medal run this evening. Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin both posted top five times.
  • Men’s freestyle skiing halfpipe got underway with the qualifying runs. All four U.S.A. skiers qualified for the final.
  • U.S. men’s ice hockey reached the quarterfinals with a 5-1 victory over Slovakia. They advance to play the Czech Republic tomorrow.

Here’s What’s Next: Tuesday, February 20th

Tuesday brings another slate of Olympic competition so hopefully you can sneak away from your work duties for a little while and check in on all the fun in PyeongChang.

Before we break down what to watch, here is Tuesday’s schedule of events:

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Via CBS Sports

(Medal events denoted.)

Time is running out on these Olympics so don’t miss any of the action even if that means cutting out of work early.

Here’s what to keep an eye on:

  • Men’s freestyle skiing halfpipe qualification goes off.
  • Curling, Curling, Curling. Both U.S. men’ and women’s teams are in action and making a push for the medal rounds.
  • Men’s ice hockey elimination rounds continue throughout the day.
  • Nordic combined wraps up Olympic competition with the large hill event.
  • Biathlon awards medals in the mixed event where men and women compete for gold together.
  • Busy day in short-track with heats and medal races set to get underway.
  • Women’s alpine skiing holds its feature downhill event. American Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin both go for gold.
  • Figure skating begins its last individual event with the women’s short program.
  • It’s the women’s turn on the sliding track with the bobsled 2 person race.
  • Men’s snowboarding returns with their Big Air qualifications.
  • U.S. men’s ice hockey looks to book a spot in the semifinals when they take on the Czech Republic.

You can catch any of these events live or on replay by tuning into the channels listed beside the event.

If you cannot get to a TV, head on over to NBCOlympics.com to stream live online or catch up on any replays you may have missed. You can also watch wirelessly on your smartphone by downloading the NBC Sports App.

Medal Table

A quick look at the medal table after Monday’s action:

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Via NBCOlympics.com

Norway remains on top and overtakes the lead in gold medals with two on Monday. Germany and Canada comfortable round out the top three. The United States holds in the top five with two bronze medals on Monday and closes the gap on The Netherlands for fourth. Not shown here, the host nation South Korea is closing in on a top ten spot.

Keep up to date on everything Olympics right here on “The Bat Flip” where we will be posting our daily Precap to cover what all went down and what else is to come in PyeongChang.

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