OLYMPIC ROUNDUP: Vonn finishes with bronze in women's downhill; U.S. men's hockey team eliminated in shootout

Pyeongchang Olympics American Lindsey Vonn competes in the women’s downhill earlier today at the Winter Olympics in Jeongseon, South Korea. Vonn took the bronze medal in the event. Italy’s Soÿa Goggia won the gold and Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel took silver.
Pyeongchang Olympics American Lindsey Vonn competes in the women’s downhill earlier today at the Winter Olympics in Jeongseon, South Korea. Vonn took the bronze medal in the event. Italy’s Soÿa Goggia won the gold and Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel took silver.

WOMEN’S DOWNHILL

Vonn finishes with bronze

Lindsey Vonn cast a quick glance toward the sky after finishing what was likely her final Olympic downhill run, shrugged her shoulders at seeing her time and shook a friendly index finger at her good friend. No one could catch Sofia Goggia of Italy. Goggia won the women’s downhill Wednesday at Jeongseon Alpine Center as Vonn earned bronze. The American was looking at a higher finish, before Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway turned in a surprise silver-medal performance as the 19th racer on the course. Ester Ledecka of Czech Republic made a late charge last week from back in the pack to take the super-G title. She skipped the downhill to step back into the snowboarding realm and will go through qualifying Thursday in the parallel giant slalom. Goggia finished in a time of 1 minute, 39.22 seconds to hold off Mowinckel by 0.09 seconds. Vonn was 0.47 seconds behind Goggia. At 33, Vonn became the oldest female medalist in Alpine skiing at the Winter Games. The record was held by Austria’s Michaela Dorfmeister, who was just shy of her 33rd birthday when she won the downhill and the super-G at the 2006 Turin Olympics.

MEN’S HOCKEY

U.S. eliminated in shootout

Pavel Francouz stopped all five shooters and Petr Kouka scored the shootout winner as the Czech Republic eliminated the United States with a 3-2 victory in the quarterfinals early Wednesday. Jan Kovar and Tomas Kundratek scored in regulation for the Czech Republic, which was fresher after winning its group and getting a bye into the quarterfinals. The U.S. looked fatigued after facing Slovakia in the qualification round and was outshot 29-20. Ryan Donato and Jim Slater scored for the U.S, which again was led by its youngest players, including speedster Troy Terry. U.S. goaltender Ryan Zapolski allowed three goals on 29 shots and one in the shotoout, while Francouz stopped 18 in regulation and overtime. Koukal was the only player to score in the shootout. Chris Bourque, Donato, Terry, Marc Arcobello and Bobby Butler couldn’t beat Francouz.

WOMEN’S CURLING

Britian stuns Canada

Despite entering the Pyeongchang Olympics as world champions and the favorites to win gold, Canada’s women’s curling team was eliminated early today from medal contention after a shocking 6-5 loss to Britain. It’s an unwanted first for Rachel Homan and her teammates. No Canadian team has ever left the Olympics without a medal in men’s or women’s curling since the sport was reintroduced to the Winter Games in 1998. Canada entered the final end, or period, of the match up 5-4, but the British team had an advantage known as the hammer, which means they were allowed to throw the final rock. The Brits quickly crowded the center of the target, known as the house, with stones. Homan tried to remove the rocks by throwing a fast-moving stone. But she didn’t quite nail the shot, leaving two Canadian stones close to the center of the house. Homan then faced a difficult final shot, which had to make its way around a cluster of rocks to the bullseye. It came up short of the target. And it was games over for Homan’s team.

SHORT-TRACK SPEEDSKATING

Crash mars relay

Kim Alang rested her helmeted head on the pads alongside the rink and cried. Then she raised her head and joy replaced tears. Alang and her South Korea team defended their Olympic short-track 3,000-meter relay title Tuesday, overtaking China with two laps to go in the penalty-filled final. The Chinese cried, too. For the second consecutive Olympics, they crossed the finish line second but got disqualified for impeding. The same thing happened in 2006, too. It took several minutes for the referees to sort out the confusion. China’s disqualification allowed Italy, which finished third, to move up to silver. Canada was disqualified, too, moving the Netherlands onto the podium for bronze, and the Dutch weren’t even on the ice at the time. They had won the B final in a world-record time of 4 minutes, 3.471 seconds, bettering South Korea’s mark of 4:04.222 set in November 2016 at Salt Lake City. The South Korean team of Shim Suk-hee, Choi Min-jeong, Kim Ye-jin and Alang rallied from third spot late in the 27-lap race to win. Choi earned her second gold in Pyeongchang, having earlier won the 1,500 final. The Koreans entered the final ranked first in the world and China was ranked No. 2. The Canadians, with their arms on each other’s shoulders, watched the overhead video board intently after the race. Their jaws dropped and they initially celebrated before realizing they weren’t the ones to benefit from China’s penalty. Arianna Fontana of Italy added the relay silver to her earlier gold in the 500. She skated the relay with Lucia Peretti, Cecilia Maffei and Martina Valcepina. The Dutch team of Suzanna Schulting, Yara van Kerkhof, Lara van Ruijven and Jorien ter Mors watched the chaos unfold from the sidelines, not expecting they would soon be celebrating a medal.

ICE DANCING

Canadians wrap up gold

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir were golden in their final Olympic performance. The Canadian couple took the ice one last time and produced a dramatic interpretation of “Moulin Rouge,” flawlessly executing their four-minute program that earned them the gold medal in ice dancing Tuesday. Virtue and Moir needed their best performance after French training partners Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron broke the world record with a terrific free skate. The Canadians responded with a personal-best 122.40 points and a record 206.07 total, pushing them just past their French rivals’ overall score of 205.28. It was a triumphant final Olympics for Virtue and Moir, who also helped Canada win gold in the team event earlier in the Pyeongchang Games. It’s their third gold overall after winning in Vancouver in 2010 and fifth total medal after earning two silvers at the 2014 Sochi Games. Papadakis and Cizeron — who overcame a wardrobe malfunction in the short dance Monday — earned the silver while American siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani won bronze after a near-flawless free skate to “Paradise” by Coldplay. They jumped just ahead of American teammates Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donahue, who finished fourth.

MEN’S HOCKEY

More doping for Jeglic

Slovenian hockey player Ziga Jeglic became the third athlete at the Pyeongchang Games to test positive for doping. The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Jeglic tested positive for fenoterol in an in-competition test. Fenoterol is a drug designed to open the airways to the lungs. It’s the second consecutive international tournament from which Jeglic has been suspended. He was banned two games at the world championships last year after swinging his skate at a Switzerland player. The other two athletes who have tested positive for doping are Japanese short-track speedskater Kei Saito and Russian curler Alexander Krushelnitsky, who won bronze in mixed doubles. The Russian delegation confirmed a second test for Krushelnitsky is positive for the banned substance meldonium.

BIATHLON

Another gold for Fourcade

Nobody in French history has won more Olympic gold medals than Martin Fourcade. Nobody has won more gold medals so far at the Pyeongchang Winter Games than the French biathlete. Yet Fourcade refused to make the night about himself despite anchoring France to a come-from-behind victory Tuesday in the biathlon mixed relay. It was his third gold medal in Pyeongchang, and the fifth in his decorated career.

Olympic TV schedule All times Central

Best bet

Forward Amanda Kessel (28) and the United States women's hockey team take on rival Canada today with a gold medal at stake. Coverage begins at 9:45 p.m. Central on NBC Sports Network.

USA

1:30-4 a.m. Women's hockey bronze medal game

4-6:10 a.m. Men's curling Sweden vs. Norway

6:10-8:30 a.m. Men's hockey quarterfinal match

NBCSN

1:40-4 a.m. Men's hockey quarterfinal match

4-6:10 a.m. Men's curling United States vs. Britain

6:10-9:45 a.m. Men's hockey quarterfinal match; Bobsled women's gold medal final runs

9:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Speedskating men's, women's team pursuit gold medal finals; Cross country men's, women's team sprint gold medal finals

12:30-4 p.m. Men's curling United States vs. Britain

6-9:45 p.m. Women's curling Canada vs. Olympic Athletes from Russia

9:45 p.m.-1 a.m. Women's hockey gold medal game

OLYMPIC CHANNEL

4-6 a.m. Medal ceremonies

NBC

2-4 p.m. Speedskating team pursuit gold medal finals; Cross country men's team sprint gold medal finals

7-10 p.m. Alpine skiing men's slalom; Freestyle skiing men's halfpipe gold medal final; Bobsled women's gold medal final runs; Cross country women's team sprint gold medal final

10:35-11:30 p.m. Alpine skiing men's slalom gold medal final run

CNBC

4-7 p.m. Women's curling United States vs. Sweden

Thursday's TV

NBCSN

1-4:20 a.m. Snowboarding men's, women's parallel giant slalom; Nordic combined men's team large hill/20km gold medal final; Curling men's, women's tiebreakers

4:20-6:45 p.m. Biathlon women's 24km relay gold medal final; Nordic combined men's team large hill/20km gold medal final

6:45-9:45 a.m. Short track speedskating men's 500 and 5,000 relay, women's 1,000 gold medal finals

9:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Curling men's, women's tiebreakers

12:45-3:45 p.m. Curling men's semifinal

6-9 p.m. Figure skating ladies' free program

9 p.m.-1 a.m. Curling men's semifinal; Short track speedskating men's 500 and 5,000 relay, women's 1,000 gold medal finals

OLYMPIC CHANNEL

4-6 a.m. Medal ceremonies

NBC

2-4 p.m. Biathlon women's 24km relay gold medal final; Nordic combined men's team large hill/20km gold medal final

7-11 p.m. Figure skating ladies' gold medal final; Alpine skiing women's combined, downhill run; Snowboardingwomen's big air gold medal final; Short track speedskating men's 500 and 5,000 relay, women's 1,000 gold medal finals

11:35 p.m.-1 a.m. Alpine skiing women's combined gold medal run; Freestyle skiing women's ski cross gold medal final

CNBC

4-7 p.m. Curling men's semifinal

photo

AP/MATT SLOCUM

Amanda Kessel (28) and the United States women’s hockey team take on Canada today with a gold medal at stake.

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