Olympics Edition — Day 4: A real heated rivalry
From The GIST (hi@thegistsports.com)
Hello!
Only a few days in and these Olympics are truly taking “heart-racing action” to the next level — just ask the competitors’ loved ones. It’s enough to make you jump for joy…with caution.
Country | 🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 | Total |
| 🇳🇴 Norway | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 🇯🇵 Japan | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| 🇺🇲 USA (5th) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
🥌 Team USA will compete for their first-ever mixed doubles curling gold today at 12:05 p.m. ET after Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse upset defending champs Italy 9–8 in yesterday’s semi. The red, white, and blue’s opponent? Sweden, whom they defeated 8–7 in round robin play. Ready to rock.
🥇⛷️ Switzerland’s duo of Frano von Alman and Tanguy Nef won the inaugural gold in the men’s alpine skiing combined team event yesterday. The debut discipline saw one skier compete in a downhill race followed by their teammate racing in the slalom shortly after, and their combined time determined the winner. It takes two, after all.
⛷️ Speaking of, American icon and four-time Olympian Mikaela Shiffrin will make her Milano Cortina debut in the women’s team combined today at 8 a.m. ET. Thanks to her teammate, downhill gold medalist Breezy Johnson, the pair sits in first place heading into Shiffrin’s slalom race.
💨⛸️ Dutch speed skater Jutta Leerdam broke the Olympic record in the 1,000m yesterday, winning gold (an upgrade on her Beijing 2022 silver). American Brittany Bowe finished just off the podium in fourth while Team USA Opening Ceremony flag bearer Erin Jackson placed sixth.
🥇⛷️ Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud edged out China’s Eileen Gu for the second straight Olympics, winning the gold in women’s freestyle slopestyle skiing while Canadian Megan Oldham made a strong comeback for bronze after a second-round crash.
🥇🏂 Japan’s Kokomo Murase was the big winner in yesterday’s women’s big air snowboarding competition, taking home gold with her final run. Gnarly.
👀🏒 The Canadian and Swedish men’s hockey teams both closed practice to the media yesterday in an effort to maintain secrecy around their game plans before the tourney begins, marking the first closed men’s Olympic hockey practices since the 1998 Games. Consider us intrigued.
❤️🩹⛷️ Injured American skier Lindsey Vonn yesterday released her first statement since crashing in Sunday’s downhill race, confirming she sustained a complex tibia fracture that will require multiple surgeries.
- In the post, Vonn also noted that her previously torn ACL was not the cause of her terrifying crash. Instead, a spatial misjudgment caused her to hook onto the race gate at top speed, throwing her off balance. Wishing her a smooth recovery.
⛸️ Married American ice dance pair and three-time world champions Madison Bates and Evan Chock sit in second after yesterday’s rhythm dance, a slight setback in their long quest for individual Olympic gold. Their podium placement will all come down to Wednesday’s free skate.
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📺 It’s time to plan a watch party
😃 The world rallying around the same feel-good sports moments only happens every few years — it’s the perfect reason to lean into the hoopla and throw a shindig this weekend. Luckily, all the items you need to get the party going are on Prime, like…
- 🎉 Noise makers to celebrate every big moment
- 🥣 Snack bowls for sustenance
- 🛋️ And extra pillows for the floor — the couch can only hold so many.
Gather your crew for the sports moments that matter most with help from Prime.
Women’s hockey
🏒 The iciest, spiciest rivalry
The GIST: Keep your friends close, but your Olympic frenemies closer — we’re breaking down both sides of today’s 2:10 p.m. ET women’s hockey group stage game between tourney favorites and archrivals Team Canada and Team USA.
- Before the puck drops on perhaps the spiciest rivalry in sports, a quick reminder that all five teams in the top-tier Group A, including Canada and the U.S., advance to the quarter-finals, with the top three squads in Group B rounding out the eight-team playoff field.
🇨🇦 Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin’s injury looms large: Fans held their breath after an illegal hit sent the reigning PWHL MVP to the locker room in the first period of yesterday’s 5–1 win over Czechia. And they kept holding it when she briefly returned to the ice in the second period, unable to bear weight on her right leg.
- It’s certainly not ideal to have “Captain Clutch” sidelined, and Canada might choose not to risk the five-time Olympian’s health in their final two preliminary games, including today’s tilt vs. the U.S.
- Still, there’s plenty of firepower on this veteran-laden roster, including forward Sarah Nurse, who in 2022 set the Olympic record for most points scored in a single tourney. Notably, Nurse was injured for this year’s Rivalry Series, a four-game set that the Americans swept.
🇺🇸 Are the red, white, and blue the favorites?: In short, yes — even before Poulin’s untimely injury. Not only did the U.S. use the lethal combination of elite veterans and young talent to outscore Canada 24–7 in the Rivalry Series, but they also boast the top four scoring forwards in the PWHL, highlighted by the Minnesota Frost duo of Kendall Coyne Schofield and Taylor Heise.
- Add in the NCAA’s top lamp-lighter in Abbey Murphy and Team USA’s all-time Olympic women’s hockey leading scorer, captain Hilary Knight, and U.S. goals have come early and often, setting up another star-studded showdown. Let’s do that hockey.
Event | ⏰ | 👀 |
| ⛷️ Women’s freestyle skiing moguls qualification | Today at 8:15 a.m. | 🇺🇸 Jaelin Kauf, Tess Johnson, Olivia Giaccio, Elizabeth Lemley |
| 🥇🥌 Mixed doubles curling final | Today at 12:05 p.m. | 🇸🇪 Sweden vs. 🇺🇸 U.S. |
| ⛸️ Men’s figure skating individual short program | Today at 12:30 p.m. | 🇺🇸 Ilia Malinin, Maxim Naumov, Andrew Torgashev |
⛸️ Going for 40 golds
Figure skating is a focal point of the Winter Games — and this year, Canadian costume designer Mathieu Caron is going for a gold medal of his own. He and his team have dressed some true Olympic icons over the years, and they’ve created close to 40 outfits for the Milano Cortina Games.
- The top looks so far? Caron dressed Japanese breakout star Yuma Kagiyama for the men’s singles short program in the team event (where Kagiyama famously bested the Quad God), plus Team USA pair Daniel O’Shea and Ellie Kam, who helped the Americans to gold. Stunning.
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