US women’s hockey, Shiffrin go for gold

It will be a big night for the United States women’s hockey team as they take on Canada, trying to secure their second consecutive Olympic gold medal.
(Looking for a recap of Wednesday’s events? We have you covered here.)
The Americans lost to Canada in the preliminary round in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, but will look to reach the top of the podium again to cement their place among the world powers. Team USA also lost to Canada in the preliminary rounds of the 2018 Games before avenging the loss in the gold-medal game in PyeongChang.
The U.S. women’s hockey team has been through some adversity in the past year with ex-coach Bob Corkum resigning, a loss to Canada at the World Championships and having their trip to Ireland to play Russia in a three-game series of exhibitions canceled due to the pandemic. They also had five players and a staff member test positive for COVID-19 with a week in January.
The U.S. and Canada are meeting in the gold-medal game for the sixth time in seven tournaments since women’s hockey debuted at the 1998 Olympics. But skiing is first up with freeskiers, including Eileen Gu, a two-time medal winner in Beijing, taking to the halfpipe for qualification runs. The men will qualify a few hours later as two-time gold medalist David Wise makes his 2022 Olympic debut.
Then Mikaela Shiffrin returns to slopes in Alpine skiing for one last chance to leave Beijing with a medal. Shiffrin will race the combined, which is one run of downhill and one run fitness of slalom. Shiffrin won the silver medal in this event at the 2018 Games and is the reigning world champion. TV SCHEDULE: What and how to watch Olympics Wednesday night and Thursday morning TEXT ALERTS: Sign up for behind-the-scenes access from our reporters on the ground OLYMPICS NEWSLETTER: All of our coverage straight to your inbox MEDAL COUNT: How each country is performing at the Winter Games —  Rivalry resumes as US plays Canada for women’s hockey gold BEJING — It all comes down to this for the U.S. women’s hockey team in their quest to repeat as Olympic champions. Standing in the way is rival Canada, for the fourth consecutive time in a gold-medal game. The 2018 gold marked the first for the U.S. since 1998, and if victorious on Thursday, it will be the first time the Americans repeat.
The United States outshot Canada 53-27 in a 4-2 preliminary-round loss nine days ago. Canada goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens stopped 51 shots and has been stellar all tournament. Meanwhile, Canada’s offense has been historic; the Canadians’ 54 goals scored in six games are an Olympic record. The U.S. is second in team scoring in Beijing with 28 goals here. Alex Cavallini starts in goal again for the U.S. – she’s been between the pipes for all three playoff round games. — Chris Bumbaca Mikaela Shiffrin has combined medal in sight after solid downhill BEIJING — Mikaela Shiffrin is in position for her first medal. 
A clean run in the downhill portion of the Alpine combined left Shiffrin 0.56 seconds back and in fifth place behind Austria’s Christine Scheyer. But neither Scheyer nor the other skiers in front of Shiffrin are slalom specialists, giving the American a chance to make up ground Thursday afternoon. 
Wendy Holdener, the bronze medalist in 2018, is 0.43 seconds behind Shiffrin while reigning Olympic champion Michelle Gisin is 0.44 seconds behind.
The combined is one run each of the downhill and slalom. Shiffrin was in sixth place after the downhill four years ago, but had the third-fastest run in slalom as she claimed the silver medal at the Pyeongchang Olympics. Gisin was third in the downhill and fourth in slalom 2018, while Holdener was 10th in the downhill and first in slalom.
One of the best technical skiers ever, Shiffrin can afford to give up some ground in the downhill. But she has to at least be competitive and her experience in downhill has been sparse recently. She has done only four downhill races, the last coming the first week of December, and hadn’t even been on downhill skis in two months before the first training run Saturday.
“Every day that I get on this track and I’m able to take a run and just do a solid run, top to bottom, it gives me the chance to be a little more calm in my mind,” Shiffrin said after finishing 18th in the downhill Tuesday. “I tend to think way too much and that makes it hard to ski freely. But I can’t (ski freely). I have to think because I haven’t really practiced downhill in two years.” Shiffrin was expected to contend for multiple medals in Beijing, but her best finish so far is ninth place in the super-G. She did not finish either the giant slalom or slalom, her best events, skiing off the course after the fifth gate in the first run of both races.
A medal in the combined would be Shiffrin’s fourth at the Olympics, tying her with Julia Mancuso for most by a U.S. woman. In addition to her silver from the combined, Shiffrin has golds in slalom (2014) and giant slalom (2018). — Nancy Armour Gold medalist David Wise overcame adversity to make it back to third Olympics David Wise couldn’t know it as he lay atop an Austrian mountain feeling his hip move and his foot fall limply, but the broken femur wouldn’t just shape his skiing career.
The injury, the worst he’d endured, would alter how the two-time Olympic gold medalist saw himself, would change his relationships and would prepare him for the life-altering changes the coronavirus pandemic would bring months later.
Now, nearly three years later, the 31-year-old Wise takes the perspective that the adversity has given him and uses it to prepare for his third Olympics, where he will try to win his third consecutive gold in the freeski halfpipe. Qualifying is scheduled to begin at 11:30 p.m. ET.
“In some ways I felt like maybe breaking my leg kind of prepared me for the world to go crazy because I was going through so much on a personal side that I kind of developed this thankfulness to be alive, just a thankfulness for still being able to do what I wanted to do,” Wise said.  And his skiing, well, the lead-up to these Games hasn’t looked as dominant as it did in the past two quadrennia. But few would count Wise out, and his experiences in recent years have given him a new perspective.
“I’m less and less tied, in terms of identity, to a pair of skis,” Wise said. (Read the full story here.) — Rachel Axon Lipinski, Weir kept quiet while calling Kamila Valieva’s short program Typically NBC’s Olympic skating analysts Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir never stop talking. Their enthusiasm for the sport they both excelled in is their calling card — each triple axle described as a miracle of science, grace and beauty. 
However, when Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva competed in the short program after failing a pre-Olympics drug test, they were uncharacteristically quiet. Lipinski and Weir simply noted Valieva’s jumps from time to time, and their silence made the event unusually tense, even for such a high-pressure forum.
When Valieva was done, she broke down in tears. Weir said, simply, “All I can feel like I can say is that was the short program of Kamila Valieva at the Olympics.”
If you’ve watched any skating in the last few years, you know what a shock that is.
Beforehand Lipinski said, “I don’t know how many times over the past year I’ve said that she is the best figure skater I’ve ever seen, and just saying that now not only makes me confused, but it makes me angry, and again, I’m disoriented by everything that I thought I knew.” After the end of the women’s short program, her score of 82.16 landed Valieva firmly in first place, though a well-known retired Olympic and world figure skating judge, who co-wrote the criteria for the program components on which the sport’s artistry is based and judged, told USA TODAY Sports’ Christine Brennan that she should have finished third.
Afterwards Weir posted a short video on Twitter, calling it “the hardest event I’ve ever had to cover.”
The women’s free skate is set for Thursday evening in Beijing (Thursday morning in the U.S.). — Bill Goodykoontz Mikaela Shiffrin seeks to conquer comined again Mikaela Shiffrin has one final chance to take a medal home from Beijing, and she geared up for the Olympic combined by setting the fastest time in a downhill training session on Wednesday. 
The combined, which adds the times from one downhill run and one slalom run, is scheduled to begin Thursday at 10:30 a.m. (9:30 p.m. ET) with the downhill portion. American Isabella Wright will be the first to ski first with Shiffrin scheduled to run ninth.
The two-time Olympic champion so far has failed to win a medal at the Beijing Games, skiing out in the giant slalom and the slalom – the two events she has gold medals in – and finishing ninth in the super-G and 18th in Tuesday’s downhill.
Shiffrin is the world champion in combined and also won silver in the event at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
The 26-year-old Shiffrin is far less experienced in the downhill but finished Wednesday’s training session 0.93 seconds ahead of Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener, who won bronze in the combined in Pyeongchang, behind Shiffrin and Swiss teammate Michelle Gisin. — Associated Press Can Americans keep up with Eileen Gu in freeski halfpipe? ZHANGJIAKOU, China – Eileen Gu’s last step toward a third Olympic medal during the Beijing Games starts with qualifying.
Gu, the American-born teen who competes for her mother’s native China, competes in the freeski halfpipe on Thursday. The top-ranked skier in the world in that event, Gu is looking to advance to Friday’s final and claim her third medal of these Olympics after capturing gold in big air and silver in slopestyle. No freeskier has medaled in all three events, which recently joined the Olympic program with halfpipe and slopestyle being added in 2014 and big air first contested here.
Veteran U.S. skier Brita Sigourney enters the Olympics coming off a silver medal at X Games last month. The three-time Olympian took bronze in Pyeongchang four years ago
Olympic newcomer Hanna Faulhaber comes into the competition ranked fifth in the world and with two world cup podiums this season, along with X Games bronze last month.
Three-time Olympian Devin Logan, a silver medalist in slopestyle eight years ago, is competing in her final Games. And Carly Marguilies skies in her first Olympics. — Rachel Axon Women’s figure skating comes down to free skate With the short program in the rearview mirror, attention turns to the women’s free skate and the medals that won’t be awarded in figure skating following their completion if Kamila Valieva, who failed a pre-Olympic drug test, finishes in the top three.
But on the ice, the competition should still be fierce. The women’s free skate event is expected to start at 6 p.m. Thursday in Beijing and 5 a.m. ET in the U.S. Karen Chen, who is in the second of four groups, will be the first American to skate at approximately 6:47 a.m. ET. The third group features Americans Mariah Bell at approximately 7:23 a.m ET and Alysa Liu at approximately 7:46 a.m. ET.
The medals, though, are likely to be decided amongst the skaters in the fourth and final group, which begins around 8 a.m. ET. Valieva skates last of the six skaters in this group at approximately 8:49 a.m. ET. Valieva was first in the short program, but a well-known retired Olympic and world figure skating judge, who co-wrote the criteria for the program components on which the sport’s artistry is based and judged, told USA TODAY Sports’ Christine Brennan that she should have finished third. Eileen Gu begins quest for Olympic medal trifecta ZHANGJIAKOU, China – Eileen Gu knows she skis better under pressure.
Gu, who was born and raised in the United States but competes for her mother’s native China, won gold in the Olympic debut of freeski big air last week and took silver in slopestyle on Tuesday. Thursday, she’ll begin her quest for a third Olympic medal when  qualifying begins in freeski halfpipe.
“The trifecta has always been my biggest goal. It’s definitely lofty, but I know it’s something I can do.”
But the halfpipe is sure to carry a unique pressure for Gu.
Though she was born and raised in San Francisco, she decided in 2019 to compete for China. She has become the biggest star of these Games, beloved by the few fans selected to attend, and cheered by the Chinese press. She is ubiquitous in media, appearing in seemingly most commercials airing during Olympic competition.
She’s likely to face pressure again in finishing her trifecta, though it’ll be familiar. Gu won medals in all three events at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games as well as X Games and world championships in 2021 – winning two events in each of those competitions.
So Gu knows how to navigate this. 
“My grandma’s coming out today, so she’s gonna watch me compete in halfpipe, which means the world to me,” Gu said. “She’s never watching me compete before, so hopefully I can put on a good show for her.” — Rachel Axon Latest developments in Valieva doping case An investigative website called The Dossier Center, published a document showing that Kamila Valieva took three legal substances: Hypoxen, L-carnitine and supradyn in additional to the banned heart medication trimetazidine.
Valieva’s grandfather is part of her defense and saying that she might have been exposed to trimetazidine through him.
“The grandfather did not testify at the hearing,” according to a brief synopsis in the document. “In his pre-recorded video (shot in a car), he claimed to use trimetazidine periodically when he suffered from ‘attacks’ and showed a packet of trimetazidine medication to the camera.”
– Tom Schad  Team USA medal count rising Heading into Thursday’s action in Beijing, the United States sit fourth in the overall medal haul with 19, one ahead of Canada. Norway leads the total medal count with 28, with 13 golds. The Russian Olympic Committee soared into second with 24 total medals, with Germany winning 20 medals so far, including 10 gold.