With the downhill on hold, the only action at the moment is in the men’s snowboard slopestyle qualifying.
Let’s look at what’s happened so far:
Snowboarding, women’s slopestyle: New Zealand, USA and Australia break through
In the 2011 Women’s World Cup (soccer/football), New Zealand’s women got their first point with two late goals against Mexico. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott is just as clutch. Her gargantuan last two jumps put her over the top and lifted her past the USA’s Julia Marino for gold. Australia’s Tess Coady held off Canada’s Laurie Blouin for bronze. Two-time defending champion Jamie Anderson just never put it together.
ROC puts stamp on figure skating team event
For the USA to have any shot at gold in the team event, they had to outscore the ROC in the men’s free skate. It didn’t happen. You might as well hand the gold to Not Russia at this point. But the USA has virtually clinched a medal and will duel Japan for silver tomorrow.
Team GB up, Australia out in curling
The hard-luck story of the Games so far is Australia’s mixed doubles curling team, which really should’ve come up with at least one win by this point but instead has gone winless. They’ll stay that way, departing the Olympics after a positive Covid test.
Team GB got its expected win over China, though it went down to the last two shots. The USA did not get its expected win over the Czech Republic and will need some help to make the playoffs.
Up next
Men’s slopestyle qualifying will go on for a while, though defending gold medalist Red Gerard can surely start sketching out his plans for the final, comfortably outscoring the field so far.
We’re still hoping to see the men’s downhill today. We’ll definitely see the men’s cross-county skiathlon and more curling over the next few hours.
With that, I’ll pass the baton to Jonathan Horn, reporting from the country with mixed fortunes today, Australia. See you in a couple of days.