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 of slalom. Shiffrin won the silver medal in this event at the 2018 Games and is the reigning world champion.
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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.
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