TEAM FIGURE SKATING
Chen's rough start
Nathan Chen reeled off four quadruple jumps in a practice before dawn Friday, so he couldn't blame the unusually early start time for the men's figure skating team event for what happened next. Chen, an American teenager expected to contend later for the men's singles crown, got off to a rough start in his Olympic debut in the short program of the team event. Skating to Benjamin Clementine's "Nemesis," Chen, 18, struggled with the jumps that usually lift him above the competition. His opening quadruple flip was shaky, he turned his second quad into a double and he fell on a triple axel on his way to a score of 80.61, leaving the team initially in fourth place. "Obviously not what I wanted to do on my first Olympic run," Chen said, adding, "All I can do is try to analyze what I did wrong and just let it go and move on." After the pairs short program, the American team moved up to second place behind Canada and ahead of Japan and a team made up of Russian athletes allowed to compete despite their country being nominally banned over a state-backed doping scheme. The team competition continues Sunday with the ice dance short program, the women's short program and the pairs free skate. Chen, whose jumping ability and Olympic medal prospects figured in NBC's push to hold figure skating in the mornings local time so it could be viewed in prime time in the United States, said he was "a little too excited" and "got ahead of himself." Chen, the reigning two-time U.S. men's champion, said he was prepared to skate well and was disappointed that he let his teammates down. "I need to just recalculate everything in my head and do a better job," he said.
WOMEN'S HOCKEY
Koreans play tonight
All the protests and ceremonies surrounding the first combined Korean team in Olympic history are about to take a pause, at least for a few hours. The Korean women's hockey team, its every move watched and dissected since North Koreans were added to the roster just a few weeks ago, will make its Olympics debut in a sold-out game against Switzerland tonight. It will be an extraordinary moment for Koreans, and it comes just 24 hours after the opening ceremony. Tuning out all the politics will be impossible. "Obviously, it's in the back of our heads that this goes bigger than just hockey and this combined team," defenseman Marissa Brandt said Friday. "But we just focus on the game and focus on what we can control." Playing hockey is all they can do. Rumors swirled Friday as the Koreans practiced that Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, might attend the game and be among the capacity crowd of 6,000 at the Kwandong Hockey Center. She arrived Friday as the first member of her family to visit South Korea since the Korean War in 1950-53. The Koreans got a glimpse last week of how the game might feel in an exhibition against Sweden. Coach Sarah Murray recalled pulling up for the game in Incheon and the crowd on the road outside split pretty evenly between people against the North Koreans joining the team and supporters waving flags showing the full Korean peninsula. The Koreans lost 3-1, but the building was packed and the atmosphere was electric. "We didn't realize the magnitude of it," Murray said. "We've just been preparing by ourselves, and we feel like one team. Not that we're making a political statement, we're just here to win."
MEN'S DOWNHILL
Wind could shift race
High winds in the weather forecast could move the Olympic men's downhill race from its scheduled Sunday slot. Race director Markus Waldner told team leaders a Monday lunchtime start is the favored backup plan if needed, sandwiched between two runs of the women's giant slalom. "This is my message: Be patient and flexible because now the next three days will be tough," Waldner said Friday after a practice run was affected by gusts of wind. The weather forced a shortened training run to begin 564 feet lower down the Jeongseon race hill. The downhill start is at 4,495 feet. Waldner said conditions Friday were "good enough for training, but not good enough for a race." Skiers risk being blown off a safe racing line in strong winds, which could also shut down the only gondola carrying teams and officials up the mountain.
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
U.S. chances good
It's been 42 years since the United States won a medal in cross-country skiing. Andy Newell said he believes that drought is about to end. The four-time Olympian sprint specialist said he is so confident in how far the Americans have come in cross-country that it would "disappointing" if they don't come home with any hardware from the Pyeongchang Games. "We're at a point where we can say that now," Newell said. "For me personally, I would love for that medal to come around my neck, but if it is around any (American's) neck we will be equally stoked." For an American to even suggest that it would be disappointing to not win an Olympic medal in a sport largely dominated by Europeans is a fairly bold claim. The Americans have been little more than participants since Bill Koch won a silver in 1976 at Innsbruck. But it's also a testament to how far they have come. Jessie Diggins, Sophie Caldwell and Sadie Bjornsen are considered strong contenders on the women's side, while Simi Hamilton and Newell could be the best medal hopes for the men. Diggins won the final World Cup race before the Olympics and ranks third in the standings. Hamilton, in his third Olympics, has had several top-10 finishes on the World Cup circuit. "We have always been an underdog team when it comes to cross-country skiing and we still have the underdog mentality even though we are one of the best teams in the world," Newell said.
Tongan returns
Pita Taufatofua has shown once again he's willing to give the shirt off his back for Tonga in Olympic conditions, whether it be sun, snow or shine. Less than two years after shooting to international fame when he walked shirtless and oiled-up into the opening ceremony of the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Taufatofua was bare chested again when he carried the Tongan flag into the opener of the Winter Games in Pyeongchang on Friday. Taufatofua competed in taekwondo in Rio, and is back competing in cross-country skiing, despite representing a tropical south Pacific island nation where it doesn't snow. Taufatofua only took up cross-country skiing last year, and left his Olympic qualifying late. "It's the hardest thing I've ever done," he said. "Taekwondo is intense, someone's trying to kick your head in. Skiing, you have pain for an hour. Do you like short pain or long pain? I love them both."
SNOWBOARDING
I-Pod won't defend title
Olympic halfpipe champion Iouri Podladtchikov won't defend his title due to injuries sustained last month at the Winter X Games. The gold medalist, known as I-Pod, practiced on the Olympic halfpipe Friday, but afterward said it would be "totally unreasonable" for him to compete. The 29-year-old, who was born in Russia and competes for Switzerland, took a nasty fall on his final jump at the X Games on Jan. 28, banging his face against the bottom of the pipe. He was motionless for more than 10 minutes while medics stabilized his neck and strapped him to a stretcher. Doctors diagnosed him with a broken nose and released him from the hospital the next day. He traveled to South Korea with the hopes of competing, starting with the qualifying round next Tuesday, but realized quickly it wouldn't be possible. He'll go home today. Podladtchikov said his most recent MRI "certainly showed some improvements. But my state of health remains far too unstable to allow me to compete at the level of Olympic competition." That cuts the list of prime contenders in one of the premier Olympic events to three: Two-time gold medalist Shaun White, 2014 silver medalist Ayumu Hirano and Australia's Scotty James.
Sports on 02/10/2018