Tuesday, February 13
Snowboarding (1 gold, 1 bronze)
Chloe Kim dominated the women’s halfpipe final for her first career Olympic medal and Team USA’s 99th gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games. Two-time Olympian Arielle Gold, who missed a chance to compete in Sochi due to injury, also added to the American medal count, earning the bronze medal. Team USA women's halfpipe riders have earned double podium finishes in each of the last four Olympic Winter Games and now have claimed 10 of the 18 medals awarded since the event made its debut at Nagano 1998.
Kim set the bar high on her first run, posting a score of 93.75 to lead the field the entire competition. No other rider surpassed the 90-point mark in the finals. As the last rider to drop in, the Olympic rookie pulled out all stops for her victory lap, nailing a 98.25 point run, though she already had secured gold. Kim is the second 17-year-old snowboarder to win gold in PyeongChang and is the youngest woman to claim a gold medal in snowboarding, surpassing five-time Olympian and three-time Olympic medalist Kelly Clark, who captured gold in women’s halfpipe at the Salt Lake Games when she was 18.
Gold fell on her first run of the final and posted 74.75 points on her second go, jumping up to fourth place. On her third and final run, Gold landed 85.75 points to surpass Clark and take bronze. It is her first Olympic Winter Games medal, though she previously took home silver in both halfpipe and slopestyle at the Winter Youth Olympic Games Innsbruck 2012.
The Olympic veteran Clark improved her score on each of her three runs, finishing with a top score of 83.50 to briefly slide into the third-place spot. She was ultimately surpassed by Gold and finished in fourth. Clark is the most decorated female on Team USA with one gold and two bronze medals. After a strong showing in the qualification round, first-time Olympian Maddie Mastro also competed in the finals, but fell on all three of her runs. MORE
Alpine Skiing
In men’s combined, two-time Olympic gold medalist Ted Ligety finished fifth, propelled by a strong performance in the slalom portion. Ligety was ranked 26th after the downhill portion, saddled with a deficit of 2.12 seconds to make up during the slalom. A speed specialist, Ligety logged the fourth-fastest time in slalom but was unable to break into the medals in an event he won at the Games in 2006.
Bryce Bennett finished in 17th place with a time of 2:09.97 in his first Olympic appearance, while Jared Goldberg was 36th in 2:22.88. Ryan Cochran-Siegle also raced for the U.S. but crashed and did not finish the downhill portion.
Cross-Country Skiing
Two-time Olympian Jessie Diggins led the American contingent in the women’s sprint classic, finishing sixth in the finals after four rounds of competition. Diggins’ sixth-place effort of 3:15:07 was an improvement over her 13th-place finish in the event four years ago in Sochi and her second top-10 finish of the week in an Olympic final. Diggins posted strong finishes in each step of the qualification process on Tuesday night, first finishing seventh in the initial qualification round before advancing through the quarterfinals and semifinals into the medal race. MORE
Sophie Caldwell advanced through two rounds of competition, placing 12th in the qualification round and second in her quarterfinal heat. The two-time Olympian fell short in the semifinal competition, where she finished fourth in her heat. Another two-time Olympian, Sadie Bjornsen, finished ninth in the qualification round before placing third in her quarterfinal heat, a little over a second shy of qualifying for the semifinals. Ida Sargent also competed in the event but did not advance, placing 33rd in the qualifying round.
Olympic veterans Simi Hamilton and Erik Bjornsen advanced to the quarterfinals in the men’s sprint classic, held alongside the women’s event. Both Hamilton and Bjornsen finished in the middle of their quarterfinal heats to end their nights early. Andy Newell and Logan Hanneman placed 37th and 42nd, respectively, in the initial qualification round.
Ice Hockey
Powered by Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson's back-to-back goals within six seconds, Team USA used a strong second period to top the Olympic Athletes from Russia, 5-0, in the second round of women's hockey group play.
Defender Kacey Bellamy opened scoring for the Americans with the sole goal in the first period. After a slew of shots in the second period, Lamoureux-Davidson struck with a 1-2 goal with help from her twin sister Monique Lamoureux-Morando. Lamoureux-Davison pounced again on the face-off, netting a goal within six second of her previous point, setting a new Olympic record across men’s and women’s ice hockey. Gigi Marvin closed out the second period scoring at 34:38, giving Team USA a 4-0 advantage heading into the final period. Hannah Brandt notched the final goal in the third for the final 5-0 margin.
Nicole Hensley picked up the shutout in goal for Team USA as the red line dominated OAR with a 50-13 shot differential. The women are now 2-0 in group play and face undefeated rival Canada on Feb. 15 to determine the winner of Group A. MORE
Long Track Speedskating
Two-time Olympian Joey Mantia placed eighth in the men’s 1,000-meter final, recording a time of 1:45.86 for his best individual Olympic finish. Three-time Olympian Brian Hansen finished in 15th place with a time of 1:46.44, while four-time Olympic medalist and five-time Olympian Shani Davis posted a time of 1:46.74, good for 19th. MORE
Luge
Sochi 2014 bronze medalist Erin Hamlin finished sixth in the women’s luge competition, clocking a four-run time of 3:05.912 to lead the American women. Hamlin, who had announced her intention to retire after these Games, missed the podium by 0.268 seconds.
Two-time Olympian Summer Britcher earned a top-20 finish, placing 19th with a cumulative time of 3:08.334. Emily Sweeney, a first-time Olympian, began her final run of the night in 14th position, but her sled went off track around the ninth turn, and the resulting crash ended her race. MORE
Short Track Speedskating
First-time Olympian Maame Biney competed in the women’s 500-meter quarterfinals, and finished fourth in her heat, missing the next round by 1.287 seconds.
In the men’s 1,000-meter qualifiers, John-Henry Krueger finished first in his heat with a time of 1:25.913. His top finish in the qualification round earns him a spot in the quarterfinals, which will take place Feb. 17 along with the semifinals and finals. Two-time Olympian J.R. Celski also competed for the U.S. After a crash in the race led to a restart, Celski finished third, just one spot outside of qualification.
The men’s 5,000-meter relay team of Celski, Thomas Hong, Krueger and Aaron Tran finished third in the qualification round with a time of 6:36.867. The team will compete in the B Final on Feb. 22.
Snowboarding
Two-time Olympic champion Shaun White laid down a massive performance in the men’s halfpipe qualifications on Tuesday morning, earning a whopping 98.50 on his second run to lead the field heading into the medal round. With a 93.35 on his first attempt, White was the only athlete to score more than 90 points on both of his runs for the day.
The U.S. is the only nation to qualify four men for the halfpipe final, set for Feb. 14. Ben Ferguson finished fourth with 91.00 points, scored in his first run of the day. Ferguson very nearly broke 90 points in the second run, scoring 89.75. Chase Josey and Jake Pates both had tough first runs, ranking 16th and 20th going into the second run. The pair needed to break in to the top 12 to advance, and in the second run of the day climbed the rankings with 83.75 and 82.25 points to finish seventh and eighth, respectively. MORE