Olympics Edition — Day 7: Love is in the air
From The GIST (hi@thegistsports.com)
Leveling The Playing Field
Happy Galentine’s Day!
Heart-shaped treats and Olympic action (controversy not withstanding) — what more could you ask for?
- There’ll be no newsletter on Monday as our team is off for Presidents’ Day, but we’ll see you right back here with more from Milano Cortina on Tuesday. Until then, here’s the latest, plus what to watch this long weekend. Claim dibs on the remote now.
🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 | Total | |
| 🇳🇴 Norway | 8 | 2 | 6 | 16 |
| 🇮🇹 Italy | 6 | 3 | 8 | 17 |
| 🇺🇲 USA | 4 | 7 | 3 | 14 |
🥈🏂 American snowboarding icon Chloe Kim was denied a threepeat in the women’s halfpipe after a spectacular final run from 17-year-old South Korean Choi Ga-on unseated Kim from the top spot. What can we say, Choi learned from the best.
- Fingers crossed for better weather when the men hit the halfpipe today at 1:30 p.m. ET because Australian veteran Scotty James has a date with destiny.
🏒 Brock Nelson scored two goals in Team USA men’s hockey’s opening rout of Latvia yesterday, a resounding 5–1 dub after a shaky first period. Meanwhile, their biggest rival, Canada, got off to a tremendous start, dismantling Czechia 5–0.
- The Americans return to the ice to take on Denmark tomorrow at 3:10 p.m. ET.
🥇⛷️ American cross-country skier Jessie Diggins, the most decorated Team USA athlete in the discipline, overcame bruised ribs to take bronze in her final Olympic race yesterday. A resilient ending to an incredible career.
🥌 The American women’s curling team fell 9–4 to Sweden in their second round-robin game yesterday, while the men fell 6–3 to Canada this morning, their third group-stage session.
🇺🇦 Ukrainian skeleton pilot Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified yesterday for wearing a helmet deemed “too political” by the International Olympic Committee. Heraskevych’s helmet commemorates Ukrainian athletes and coaches who died because of Russia’s invasion, many of whom were his friends. He’s since filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
🏳️⚧️ Swedish freestyle skier Elis Lundholm is the first-ever transgender Winter Olympian after competing in the women’s mogul event on Wednesday. Consider the ceiling smashed.
Men’s figure skating
⛸️ Defying gravity
The GIST: Today’s the day — 21-year-old American Ilia Malinin, who leads the men’s individual figure skating competition following Tuesday’s short program, will skate for gold. Much has been made of the self-proclaimed Quad God’s promise, so let’s explore why many folks believe the rising star could become the greatest figure skater of all time.
👀 What sets Malinin apart?: Figure skating is a sport of precision and audacity. Similar to legendary Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, Malinin’s routines often have a higher degree of difficulty compared to his competitors because he can perform skills that others simply cannot.
- Case in point? During December’s Grand Prix Final, he completed seven quad jumps (more on those later) in a single program. And then there’s his signature backflip, a move that was banned in figure skating until 2024.
- That said, Malinin’s debut Olympics haven’t been picture-perfect. He finished second in the team event short program, a shock considering he was the heavy favorite, but found redemption in his long program to clinch Team USA the gold.
😵💫 Let’s talk about the quadruple axel: The quad axel — a jump that features four and a half rotations — is the most difficult skill in figure skating. It’s so hard that only one person has ever landed it in competition, and that’s Malinin.
- The Quad God notably has yet to perform the skill in Milan. Will he pull it out of his bag of tricks today? Find out when he goes for gold, and looks to write another chapter in his growing legend, today at 1 p.m. ET.
Event | ⏰ | 👀 |
| 🏒 Women’s hockey quarter-finals | Today at 3:10 p.m. | 🇺🇸 United States vs. 🇮🇹 Italy |
| 🥇⛷️ Women’s giant slalom | Sunday at 7:30 a.m. | 🇺🇸 Mikaela Shiffrin |
| ⛸️ Pair skating short program | Sunday at 1:45 p.m. | 🇺🇸 Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea; Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe |
💍 Put a ring and a medal on it
Love is in the air at Milano Cortina, where two Team USA HABs (husbands and boyfriends, the male equivalent of the popular acronym WAG) garnered attention as they celebrated with their Olympian partners.
- Alpine skier Breezy Johnson added some hardware to her gold medal when her boyfriend, Connor, proposed at the base of the slope after one of her events. Even Taylor Swift herself was saying, “Aww.”
- Then Cleveland Browns defensive end and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett traded his pads for a very big camera to support his girlfriend, aforementioned Team USA snowboarder Chloe Kim, as she took silver in the halfpipe. Now, that’s amore.
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