The GIST's Bits & Bites: USA
🥇X-Games: The always-entertaining extreme sports event took place over the weekend, and our Americans cleaned up. Chloe Kim took no time at all to get back to her winning ways, picking up a gold in Snowboard SuperPipe, while Maddie Mastro took silver, and Jamie Anderson and Dusty Henricksen snagged snowboarding golds, too.
- But the real star of the weekend was Eileen Gu, a 17-year-old freeskier from San Francisco, who competes for China and who made history by winning three medals in her X Games debut.
- She’s also crazy smart, fluent in Mandarin, an accomplished pianist and plans on studying molecular genetics at Stanford next year. Kids these days!
🏒Hockey: COVID-19 has entered the chat NWHL bubble. The Metropolitan Riveters withdrew from competition late last week after multiple players and team staff tested positive, leading to a revised schedule and a wide-open battle for the Isobel Cup. Stay tuned for The GIST’s NWHL postseason preview, landing in your inbox on Wednesday.
🏈NFL: So about that Pro Bowl...just kidding. The real NFL news? A huge quarterback (QB) trade. The Detroit Lions sent first overall 2009 Draft pick Matthew Stafford to the LA Rams in exchange for QB Jared Goff and a couple of draft picks.
- Given Stafford — one of the league’s best QBs — was on one of the league’s worst teams, we knew a trade was coming soon. Turns out Stafford wanted to leave too, and go anywhere but New England. If Bill Belichick had feelings, they’d be so hurt right now.
⛳️Golf: Tiger Woods isn’t the only cheater on the PGA Tour (sorry, we had to): golf’s favorite villain, Patrick Reed, has been accused of yet another rule violation. During this weekend’s Farmers Insurance Open, Reed picked up his “embedded” ball to give himself a better lie when he clearly shouldn’t have (this guy with a great accent can explain).
- Despite the video evidence, Reed was allowed to continue play without being penalized and went on to win the tournament...but not before possibly tweeting from a burner account to defend himself. Who knew golf was so drama?