WAUWATOSA, Wisc. (TMJ4) — The Wauwatosa Curling Club is growing the game by making it accessible to anyone willing to try.

"My mom and dad have been curling for 48 years. I started in late 2015, earlier 2016 when I first got hurt," said Jeffery Haagensen, a veteran and adaptive curler."Do it. I mean you can think about it but if you just come out and do it you'll have an absolute blast."

As a Veteran and suicide survivor, Haagensen knows what it's like to start all over.

"Finding programs like this was that balance between people is always pushing you to try new things, but you kind of wants to do it at your own pace," Haagensen said.

An avid curler, Allen Miller has seen what time on the ice can do for people.

"There are other clubs that do wheelchair curling, but this goes well beyond that. I guess I get emotional when I think about it because I've seen the results," he said.

For the Wauwatosa Curling Club, their adaptive program started with the veterans back in 2007.

"We forged a relationship with the spinal cord injury unit and they began bringing veterans from the VA to curl," Allen said.

Still to this day, proudly hosting veterans, Haagensen will admit a sport he ignored most of his life has its moments.

"It looks easy, it is not. That was the first thing I learned. It's not about the competitiveness though, when you talk to people about the relationship they have with their teammates," Haagensen said.

Allen and other club members seized a chance to reach a part of the community that is too often limited by society.

"In 2015, we started an adaptive program opened to members of the general community with all levels of physical ability and ages," says Allen. "It [the program] exposes people who normally do not get an opportunity to be out in the community. Not just to be out in the community, but to be out and experience something [curling] that the rest of us kind of take for granted."

This story was originally reported by Delaney Brey on tmj4.com

It's been 34 years since Jamaica made its Winter Olympic debut in bobsled at the 1988 Games in Calgary, an unlikely appearance which was later immortalized in the Disney feature film, "Cool Runnings."

Though the four man team crashed and received a "Did Not Finish" result, the exploits of Dudley 'Tal' Stokes, Michael White, Devon Harris and Chris Stokes were immortalized in the 1993 hit, which remains one of the highest grossing sports comedies.

Now, perhaps more importantly, the team have inadvertently inspired generations of Jamaican winter sports stars.

"People watch 'Cool Runnings' and they're very influenced in a lot of ways," Tal Stokes told CNN Sport.

Decades later, for the first time in Olympic history, the island nation qualified in three bobsled events — the two-man bobsled, the women's monobob and the four-man bobsled — as well as entering its first ever alpine skier.

Unlikely beginnings

Stokes told CNN that the 1988 team "started from zero."

The movie "Cool Runnings" came five years after Jamaica competed in the Calgary Games — but according to Stokes, the film was conceptualized by Americans William Maloney and George Fitch before he and his teammates even started competing together.

"I was told the two gentlemen had the idea. William [Maloney] wanted to march in the Opening Ceremonies of an Olympic Games. He has his bucket list and has been ticking off things all his life. And George Fitch always had in mind to do a movie," he said.

The men were both living in Jamaica at the time: Fitch was working for the U.S. government and businessman Maloney was married to a Jamaican.

"The two of them were drinking in a bar in Kingston and saw the pushcart derby on television and struck up on bobsled."

The pair couldn't get any athletes to take up bobsled for their endeavor, so they went to the army to find potential candidates, according to Stokes.

"At the time, I was a sports fan, playing football in the army, as well as being an officer," he said.

On holiday at the time, Stokes said he got a phone call from his unit, instructing him to try out for box cart trials to test his capability for the sport.

The orders "came down the chain of command to me as an order, and I really didn't have a choice. And so I went," he said.

'A brutal existence'

Getting to grips with bobsled didn't come easily: "I knew nothing about the sport I was getting into," said Stokes.

Training for bobsled was a "brutal existence, from your eyes open to your eyes closed," according to Stokes, with the team having to work hard in order to reach a competitive standard with no prior experience in the sport.

"[The team] was coming into cold weather. Strict, strict timing regimes in days that were structured from start to finish on time, and just hammering away," said Stokes.

"We had to change the culture or rather look at the culture that was successful in the sport, and which is typically a German culture," added Stokes. "We had to go into German mode to get things done."

A complicated legacy

"Cool Runnings" became hugely popular, grossing over $154 million at the box office. But the film's commercial success had a profound impact on Stokes' life, and the happy go lucky plot starring hapless athletes didn't fully reflect how much the real team achieved.

"'Cool Runnings' has cast a massive shadow over my life," Stokes told CNN.

"There's a very uncomfortable position of actually being alive to watch your legacy unfold," he said. "Most people die before their legacy is revealed, but I've had to live it.

"It started with what, you know, was really a comedy," he explained. "A lot of what we did at first was comedic. But then over the years, we really became competitors and operated at the very highest level. And that was a journey in itself."

His sporting career spanned four Olympic Games, during which time, he shaved significant time off his running speed.

"My Olympic career was 10 years ... I went to four Games 1988 to 1998: Calgary, Albertville, Lillehammer, Nagano in Japan. So it is very, very uncommon, that doesn't happen."

Inspiring the next generation

Jamaica has not yet won an Olympic medal in bobsled, but this year's four-man team, nicknamed "Fire on Ice," wants to change that — 24 years since the nation's four-man bobsled team last qualified for the Winter Olympics.

This year, Benjamin Alexander made history as Jamaica's first alpine skier, after Cool Runnings jibes on the ski slopes caused him to consider seriously pursuing the sport.

"As I got good enough to kind of ski with them socially, being the only Black representative in the group, even though I am only half Black, and being of Jamaican heritage, people kept throwing jokes, sideways jokes at me about 'Cool Runnings,' the Jamaican bobsled team and, 'you should go to the Olympics,'" Alexander told CNN Sport.

Alexander went to the PyeongChang Games in 2018 as a spectator and started to wonder if he could compete at that level.

"One of the things I noticed, other than thoroughly enjoying the spirit of the Olympics, was that there were only three Jamaican athletes in attendance.

"It took me aback knowing how strong Jamaica is in the Summer Games, knowing how popular that movie 'Cool Runnings' is.

"I kind of had this idea in the back of my head: let's see if this is possible. I thought the most likely outcome was death or at least a serious injury."

In the years since his Olympic debut, Stokes has become more comfortable with his position in sporting and pop-culture history.

"I've come to appreciate that Olympic participation is a worthy goal. Participation that's aimed not at getting a gold medal does have its place," he said.

"Most people, most athletes at an Olympic Games ... one: no medal, and two: don't get into the finals. That's a reality.

"Life is a struggle, anything worth doing in life is a struggle. And anytime you enter into a struggle, you are going to suffer. And the one thing I would like to communicate to people that people think that suffering is something to be avoided: no. That's the reality.

"What we need to develop is: how are we going to survive in the struggle and the suffering, and eventually triumph?"

The International Skating Union (ISU) will hold a vote at its Congress in June on a proposal to raise the minimum age for competitors to 17, the governing body told CNN on Friday.

The sport has been at the center of attention after 15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva was allowed to continue competing at this year's Winter Games despite failing a drugs test in December 2021.

But Beijing 2022 isn't the first time that figure skating has been at the center of controversy.

1902: Madge Syers skates into a man's world

Florence Madelin "Madge" Syers shocked the world when she became the first woman to compete in the 1902 World championships.

Judges wanted to ban her from competing, but no rule specified the gender of participants. They were forced to let her skate and Syers earned second place behind Ulrich Salchow.

Soon after, officials banned female athletes, claiming their skirts were too long and the judges couldn't see their footwork. Syers quickly found a solution: a skirt that ended mid-calf.

She went on to win the British Nationals in 1903 and 1904 and the women's World Championships in 1906 and 1907. Figure skating made its debut in the 1908 London Olympics and Syers won gold in the women's singles and bronze in the mixed pairs, where she skated alongside her husband, making her the first woman to take home two medals in just one Olympic Games.

1988: Modesty and "The Katarina Rule"

At the 1988 Winter Olympics hosted in Calgary, German figure skater Katerina Witt wore a costume that a male Canadian coach, Peter Dunfield, claimed was "bizarre and indecent ... The real provocative side is the back. But in the front, you've even got cleavage."

According to the New York Times, Dunfield also suggested that Witt might be trying to win over the judges with a revealing costume.

Witt defended her choice, saying the costume was appropriate for her music, which was from the Broadway show "Jerry's Girls."

The controversy caused the ISU to adopt a new dress code: all women were required to wear skirts that covered their hips and bottom, as well as cover their midriff.

This strict rule was relaxed in 2003, but the ISU still requires all clothing to be "modest, dignified and appropriate for athletic competition."

1994: Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding

Nancy Kerrigan was the victim of a plot to kneecap her -- literally -- prior to the 1994 Olympics. Kerrigan's rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly was involved in the plot.

Gillooly was sentenced to two years in prison for his role in the attack and Harding received three years of probation and was fined $100,000 for conspiring to hinder prosecution.

Kerrigan was still selected for the Olympic team despite her injury and went on to earn a silver medal at the 1994 Olympic in Lillehammer.

Harding maintained her innocence throughout the games, but on March 16, just a few weeks after closing ceremonies, she pleaded guilty to hindering the prosecution.

A few months later the U.S. Figure Skating Association revoked her gold medal at the 1994 national championships and banned her from the ice for life.

Subsequently, the scandal was immortalized in the 2017 drama, "I, Tonya" starring Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan and Allison Janney.

Asked by The Boston Globe if she was bothered by Hollywood's portrayal of Harding, Kerrigan said "It's not really part of my life."

"As you say, I was the victim," she said. "Like, that's my role in this whole thing. That's it."

1998: Surya Bonaly backflips and judges flip out

The day before Surya Bonaly was set to perform her free skate at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, she pulled a muscle in her right leg, though knowing that these Winter Games were her last, the French star was committed to competing.

In a 2016 interview with Radiolab, Bonaly recounted her performance, saying by the end of the program the pain in her leg was unbearable and she couldn't perform the two triples she had left in her routine.

But Bonaly "had a special thing in her back pocket" to wow the crowd, performing an illegal backflip landing on just her left blade.

It didn't go down well with judges, who handed Bonaly a score that dropped her from sixth to 11th place.

In recent years, fans have questioned if race might have played a part in her career, though both Bonaly and former judges deny any bias.

"We are all humans, we all have different styles. And we can create a different personality of character on ice," Bonaly told CNN's Amy Woodyatt on Friday.

"You have to find your own style, and you have to save it to give it ... When you watch 20 skaters doing the same thing over and over, I mean, what's about it?

"Skating is called free skating, so supposed to be free, but it's not really free, entirely free because there's rules to follow and if you don't, you're in big trouble.

Bonaly told CNN that her routines were sometimes penalized by judges.

"I remember back in the days I used to like jumps and combos, and if I will do one extra one jump after a combo because I felt like "oh, triple, triple and a double. You actually got in trouble because you did too much of that," she said.

"I think that judges should be more open minded, to be able to receive and see things coming from different places -- a different way of what has been brought on the ice."

1998: Judging scandal exposed

At the 1998 Olympics, Jean Senft -- a Canadian skating judge -- surreptitiously recorded a conversation with a fellow Ukrainian judge, Yuri Balkov, where they openly discussed how they would place ice dancers before they had even competed.

Senft had previously approached officials with her concerns about corruption among her colleagues but was told she needed proof.

After playing the tape at an ISU hearing, Balkov was banned for one year. Soon after, Senft also suffered a six-month suspension for allegedly favoring a Canadian pair, though she claims the suspension was retaliation against her.

"The athletes are not competing on a fair playing field. This isn't sport. Somebody had to get proof," Senft told CBC News in 2000.

After the scandal, small reforms were made to judging requirements and deductions.

2002: "Skategate"

After Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier produced a flawless free skate at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, the gold medal was awarded to the Russian duo: Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, who had enough technical errors in their performance to call the result into question.

When the judges met to defend the results, French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne claimed that the French Skating Federation president, Didier Gailhauguet, had directed her to rank the Russian pair first.

Soon evidence emerged of a quid pro quo between Russian and French votes in the pairs figure skating and ice dancing events.

Le Gougne and Gailhauguet were suspended for three years and there was an overhaul of the judging system in figure skating, with strict protocols eliminating the room for subjective judgment.

"Meddling," a four-part series was released last month on Peacock chronicling the scandal.

2010: Russian duo's performance sparks cultural backlash

Reigning world champions in ice dancing, the Russian duo Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin performed a dance inspired by Aboriginal culture at both the Russian and European Championships.

The pair skated to music that was largely chants and didgeridoos while wearing red loincloths, bodysuits with white markings and make up that appeared to be brown face.

Their performance sparked outrage amongst Aboriginal activists in Australia who claimed the routine was culturally exploitative and inauthentic.
"Accurate or not, you have to be sensitive to the people you are representing," Jef Billings, a renowned designer of skating costumes, told The New York Times in 2010.

"At the turn of the last century, minstrel shows were acceptable. Times have changed."

The Russian duo's coach, Natalia Linichuk, was shocked at the outrage, denying any wrongdoing or ill-intent and claiming that the dance was not based on anyone Aboriginal culture.

Bev Manton, chairwoman of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council, expressed her anger in the Sydney Morning Herald: "From an Aboriginal perspective, this performance is offensive. It was clearly not meant to mock Aboriginal culture, but that does not make it acceptable to Aboriginal people."

2014: US Skating Federation team selection questioned

Mirai Nagasu took home the bronze medal at the 2014 U.S. national championships but was passed over for the Sochi Olympic team in favor of fourth-place finisher, Ashley Wagner.

The U.S. Skating Federation had only ignored the national championship results four times until then, in all cases because of injuries that prevented the selected athletes from competing.

The federation defended its choice, citing Wagner's higher global rankings and Nagasu's inconsistent record over the past year.

However, Jeff Yang of the Wall Street Journal found it hard to ignore the aesthetics of the choice, calling Wagner a "golden girl" with her blonde hair and blue eyes.

His claims had a ring of truth for some fans, especially when looking at previous treatment of Asian American skaters; including one media headline claiming, "American beats out Kwan." Kwan being Michelle Kwan of the U.S. team, who was born in Torrance, California.

Four years later Nagasu won a bronze medal at the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Nagasu also landed a triple axel -- one of the most challenging jumps in figure skating. In doing so she accomplished a feat that made her the first female American figure skater to nail the triple axel at the Olympics.

At the end of her routine, Nagasu triumphantly threw her hands in the air and a bright, exuberant smile spread across her face.

2022: Kamila Valieva's positive drugs test

In a sample taken in December, prior to the Olympics, 15-year-old Valieva tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine, a drug commonly used to treat angina and which experts say can enhance endurance by increasing blood flow to the heart.

However, the result was only analyzed and reported to Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) in February. Valieva was then suspended the day after she led the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to gold in the figure skating team event on Feb. 7 when she became the first woman to land a quadruple jump in a Winter Olympic Games.

RUSADA lifted her suspension the next day following a hearing. Subsequently, the World Anti-Doping Agency, the International Olympic Committee and the ISU filed an appeal against the lifting of the ban.

However, the Court of Arbitration for Sport cleared Valieva for competition, saying she would suffer "irreparable harm" if not allowed to compete, citing the "exceptional circumstances" of her being a minor.

Valieva finished in fourth place in the women's individual figure skating event on Thursday, leaving the ice in tears after falling and faltering during jumps in her routine, despite having previously been the favorite to take gold.

Before being cleared to take part in the women's individual figure skating competition, Valieva was suspended by the RUSADA on Feb. 8, although the body lifted her suspension the next day following a hearing.

BEIJING —

Day 16 of the 2022 Beijing Winter Games will consist of the third and final runs of the two-woman and the third and final runs of the four-man events in Bobsled and the pairs free skate in Figure Skating.

Bobsled

The two-woman final runs in Bobsled will happen on Day 16.

Francesco Friedrich and Germany have finished off an unforgettable show in sliding at the Beijing Olympics.

Friedrich won his second Olympic gold medal in Beijing and fourth of his career by driving to the win Sunday in the four-man event, the final sliding race of these games.

There were 10 sliding events in Beijing. Germany won gold in nine of them and took 16 medals overall. The rest of the world combined had 14 medals in sliding.

Johannes Lochner won silver for Germany on Sunday and Justin Kripps of Canada got the bronze. Hunter Church was 10th for the U.S. and Frank DelDuca tied for 13th.

Hockey

Hannes Bjorninen scored the go-ahead goal 31 seconds into the third period and Finland claimed its first Olympic men’s hockey gold medal with a 2-1 win over the Russian Olympic Committee on the final day of the Beijing Games.

Ville Pokka also scored and Harri Sateri stopped 16 shots as Finland rallied from a 1-0 first-period deficit. The Finns’ best finishes in 17 previous Olympic appearances were silver medals at the 1988 Calgary Games and 2006 Torino Games.

Mikhail Grigorenko scored for the favored Russian team, the defending champions, in the second consecutive tournament without NHL players. The Russians won 4-3 over Germany in overtime in the gold-medal final at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

Ivan Fedotov stopped 29 shots for the Russian Olympic Committee.

Finland completed the tournament with a 7-0 record.

Figure Skating

Top Olympic figure skaters showcase their skills in a creative, unscored event at the Capital Indoor Stadium.

Russia defended Olympic figure skater Kamila Valieva's coach following a free skate that was filled with mistakes.

The 15-year-old, who was allowed to compete after testing positive for a banned substance, was the gold-medal favorite going into the free skate.

However, she made numerous uncharacteristic mistakes, losing her balance on multiple occasions.

As she skated off the ice, obviously disappointed in her performance, she was met with immediate criticism from her coach.

Eteri Tutberidze reportedly told Valieva, "Why did you stop fighting?"

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said the interaction was filled with "tremendous coldness."

In response to those comments, Russia defended Valieva's coaching.

"He does not like the toughness of our coaches, but everyone knows that in elite sports, the coach's toughness is key to the students' victories," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to ESPN.

Valieva finished the competition in fourth place. Russian skaters Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova won the gold and silver. Japan's Kaori Sakamoto earned the bronze.

Related video above: Russian skater Kamila Valieva finishes fourth

The U.S. figure skaters whose Olympic silver medals are being withheld have filed an appeal to have them awarded before the end of the Beijing Games, with a decision expected as soon as Saturday night.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed to The Associated Press that it was hearing the case Saturday evening in Beijing and expected a rapid ruling.

In a letter sent to IOC president Thomas Bach, a copy of which was obtained by AP, attorneys for the skaters said they sought a ruling before Sunday's closing ceremony.

Kamila Valieva led the Russian team to a victory in last week’s team event, and the U.S. finished second. Soon after, a positive doping test for the 15-year-old skater was disclosed. CAS allowed her to continue skating at the women's event, but the International Olympic Committee said it would not award medals in any events in which she finished among the top three.

She finished fourth in the women's event — crying as she left the ice, then criticized by her coach after a mistake-filled long program.

This case involves the team event held the previous week. The Russians won the event by a large margin. Japan was third and Canada finished fourth.

The letter sent on behalf of the American runners-up says the IOC's “own rules mandate that a victory ceremony ‘to present medals to the athletes shall follow the conclusion of each sports event.’"

In a meeting earlier this week with the skaters, Bach offered them Olympic torches as something of a holdover memento while the doping case, which could take months, or even years, plays out.

In their letter to Bach, the attorneys said they hoped the IOC would reconsider but that because of the urgency, they were filing the appeal.

U.S. Figure Skating executive director Ramsey Baker sent the AP a statement standing in support of the skaters.

“Having a medal ceremony at an Olympic Games is not something that can be replicated anywhere else, and they should be celebrated in front of the world before leaving Beijing,” Baker said.

The letter to Bach, sent by attorney Paul Greene, who represents athletes in doping and other cases against Olympic authorities, said the IOC president had asked the athletes for their input.

“A dignified medal ceremony from our clients’ vantage point is one in the Medals Plaza as originally planned and afforded to all other medalists,” he wrote.

After Valieva's test became public, Russia's anti-doping agency at first put her on provisional suspension, then lifted the suspension. That triggered the IOC and World Anti-Doping Agency to lead an appeal to CAS, which acted swiftly and said Valieva could still compete.

That did not resolve the larger question about the result from the team competition.

Nine Americans stand to get some sort of medal out of that — either the second-place prize they're aiming to receive this weekend, or a gold that could become theirs if the Russian's are disqualified because of Valieva's doping case.

Because she is 15, Valieva is considered a “protected person” under anti-doping rules, and is not expected to receive a harsh penalty. Her coaches and doctors are being investigated by Russian and world anti-doping authorities.

___

AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar contributed to this report.

Here's what to watch for on Day 15 of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games:

Alpine skiing

The last Alpine skiing race of the Beijing Olympics was moved from Saturday to Sunday because of too-strong wind, making Mikaela Shiffrin wait to get one last chance to bring home a medal from China.

Gusts at up to about 40 mph led to the announcement of two one-hour delays for the mixed team parallel event, before the International Ski Federation eventually said it would not be possible to hold the competition at all on Saturday.

About 75 minutes later, after what the ski federation called a meeting “to discuss the potential rescheduling of the event,” the race was shifted to Sunday at 9 a.m.

Freestyle halfpipe

Figure skating

Pairs free skate is set for early Saturday morning and will feature Americans Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc along with Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier.

LeDuc became Team USA's first openly nonbinary Winter Olympian when they took the ice the night before. Their score of 74.13 points was a season best and put them squarely in the top 10 entering Saturday’s free skate.

Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China set a world record with their short program, and they lead Russians Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov heading into the pairs' free skate.

Bobsled

Kaillie Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor finished 1-2 for the U.S. in the monobob — the first time Americans had done that at the Olympics since 1932.

They'll each have a teammate now in the two-woman event. Humphries will be pushed by Kaysha Love and Meyers Taylor by Sylvia Hoffman.

Humphries won the world title in this event last year, competing with Lolo Jones.

Here's what to expect on Day 14 of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games:

Halfpipe

Even when Eileen Gu's simply taking a celebratory stroll through the halfpipe, she's still so stylish and makes it look so effortless.

The 18-year-old American-born freestyle skier who represents China captured Olympic gold in the women's halfpipe on a breezy and cold Friday morning to become the first action-sports athlete to pick up three medals at the same Winter Games.

With hands on her hips, Gu visualized her first two runs at the top of the Secret Garden halfpipe course. Then, she flawlessly executed her plan. She warmed up with a 93.25 on her first pass before going even higher and bigger to post a 95.25 on her second.

But this was the sort of run Gu visualized all along — a nice relaxed jaunt as the last competitor and with the contest sealed. She had fun with her victory run, too, going big off the walls one last time and bending back her skis — a high-flying, picture-perfect moment to culminate another successful day at her office.

"I feel at peace. I feel grateful. I feel proud," Gu said.

Figure skating

The fallout from Kamila Valieva's nightmarish free skate will likely reverberate through the figure skating world for a while, but there's one more competition left at the Beijing Games — the pairs short program Americans Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc along with Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier are competing.

Curling

The U.S. men had their Olympic title defense end with a semifinal loss to Britain. They still have a chance to win the bronze medal when they face Canada.

Speedskating

The men's 1,000-meter speedskating event kicks off early Friday morning.

Here's what to expect on Day 13 of the Beijing Olympic Games:

Hockey

American assistant captain Hilary Knight calls it “a beautiful rivalry.” Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin sums it up as “very fun.”

Don’t be fooled by the pleasantries.

One of international sports’ fiercest and longest-running grudge matches will play out for the second time at the Beijing Olympics, with the next meeting between the United States and Canada determining who goes home with gold.

"These are the the games that we live for," U.S. captain Kendall Coyne Schofield said following a 4-1 semifinal win over Finland. "Everyone’s been so resilient through the pandemic with the ups and downs, the cancellations, postponements and finding ways to train, and it’s for this moment. We’re going to empty the tanks, and this is what we came here to do.”

The U.S. is the defending Olympic champion after rallying to beat Canada 3-2 in a shootout at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

The Canadians are considered the favorites this time after steamrolling to a 6-0 record and outscoring opponents 54-8, including a 4-2 win over the U.S. in group play.

Canada also had the edge over its cross-border rivals since Poulin scored the gold-medal-winning goal in a 3-2 overtime win over the U.S. at the world championships in August to end the Americans’ streak of five tournament titles. Canada is 5-1-1 in the past seven meetings against the U.S. since.

Overall at the Olympics, which added women’s hockey in 1998, Canada is 6-3 against the U.S., with four gold medals to the Americans’ two.

Figure skating

The women's figure skating event ends early Thursday — the competition portion, at least.

It remains to be seen how much longer it will be adjudicated.

Kamila Valieva is in first place after the short program. That part isn't a surprise — but the 15-year-old Russian's path to this point has been anything but smooth. And there's no indication that will change anytime soon.

Valieva's positive drug test from an event in December put her participation in doubt, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that she could compete while officials conduct a full investigation.

If Valieva finishes in the top three, the International Olympic Committee has said there will be no medals ceremony. The Russians have a chance to sweep the top three spots, with Anna Shcherbakova second and Alexandra Trusova fourth after the short program.

Valieva's free skate is to Maurice Ravel's “Bolero” — a popular skating tune that ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean famously performed to at the Sarajevo Games in 1984.

Alpine skiing

Mikaela Shiffrin geared up for the Olympic Alpine combined by setting the fastest time in a downhill training session on Wednesday.

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.

Next up is the combined race, which adds the times from one downhill run and one slalom run.

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 Wendy Holdener of Switzerland.

Curling

American John Shuster and the defending Olympic curling champions won a last-chance match to qualify for the playoffs at the Beijing Olympics. They beat Denmark 7-5 to keep their hopes of a repeat gold medal alive.

The Americans will play Britain in the semifinals later Thursday night. Reigning silver medalist Sweden will meet Canada, which finished fourth a year ago.

Four years after winning five straight elimination games to take gold -- just the second Olympic curling medal in U.S. history -- Shuster’s foursome was again in a desperate position.

This time there was a twist, though: Even with a loss, they could have made the playoffs if Italy beat Norway. (The Americans beat Norway 7-6 in the round-robin to claim the tiebreaker.)

In the end, Italy lost. The Americans needed to win, and they did.

Speedskating

Brittany Bowe already made a big contribution to the U.S. medal haul when she gave up her spot in the 500 meters so teammate Erin Jackson could compete. Jackson then won the event.

Bowe, a fine skater in her own right, finished 10th in the 1,500 and 16th in the 500. She is the world record holder in the 1,000, which she'll compete in early Thursday morning.

Also of note

Eileen Gu of China, one of the stars of these Olympics, competes in qualifying for the freestyle halfpipe. The men's aerials final is also set for Wednesday night.

Two legal substances used to improve heart function are listed on an anti-doping control form filled out for Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva before her drug case at the Olympics erupted, according to documents submitted in her case.

The World Anti-Doping Agency filed a brief in the Valieva case stating that the mention on the form of L-carnitine and Hypoxen, though both legal, undercuts the argument that a banned substance, trimetazidine, might have entered the skater's system accidentally.

Hypoxen, a drug designed to increase oxygen flow to the heart, was a substance the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency recently tried, without success, to get placed on the banned list. L-carnitine, another oxygen-boosting performance enhancer, is banned if injected above certain thresholds. The supplement was the focal point of the doping case involving track coach Alberto Salazar.

Combining those with 2.1 nanograms of trimetazidine, the drug found in Valieva's system after a Dec. 25 test, is “an indication that something more serious is going on,” USADA CEO Travis Tygart said.

“You use all of that to increase performance,” he said. “It totally undermines the credibility” of Valieva's defense.

Two people with knowledge of the case told The Associated Press that a brief seen by AP that was filed by the World Anti-Doping Agency in a hearing on Valieva's case was authentic. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the document was not publicly available. WADA did not immediately respond to an email left by AP asking for comment on the brief.

The brief describes Valieva’s mother as arguing that the skater’s grandfather was a regular user of trimetazidine, which would explain how it got into her system.

WADA said while that explanation involves “some form of exposure” to trimetazidine, it is not an argument that she had taken a “contaminated product,” which can be used as a defense.

In addition, WADA said there was no attempt to argue that the legal substances listed on the form were contaminated, either, so “the athlete necessarily cannot meet the criteria to have her” suspension lifted via the contaminated-product rule.

Valieva's positive test came to light after she had led the Russians to a gold medal in the team skating event last week. Russia's anti-doping agency at first suspended her, then lifted the suspension. That led WADA and the IOC to appeal to CAS, which determined Valieva could skate in the women's event that began Tuesday

Because she is 15, she is considered a “protected person” under anti-doping rules and could escape major sanctions. Her coaches and other members of her entourage are subject to automatic investigation and bigger penalties.

The larger case involving the positive test, and resolving whether Russia will get its gold medal, will be decided later. In the meantime, the IOC has said there will be no medals ceremony for events in which Valieva makes the podium. She's a favorite for gold, and was leading after the short program.

BEIJING —

It’s a big day for rematches at the Beijing Olympics: The United States faces Finland in women’s hockey, and Max Parrot takes on Mark McMorris in snowboarding.

The U.S. beat Finland 5-2 to start the tournament, and the teams will clash again in the semifinals.

Bobsled

Kaillie Humphries has captured a third Olympic gold medal, and her first for the U.S.

The former Canadian bobsledder was an easy winner of the inaugural women’s monobob event. It's the first sliding medal for the U.S. in seven events so far -- the others being four in luge and two in skeleton -- at the Beijing Games.

Elana Meyers Taylor of the U.S. was second. It was the fourth medal of Meyers Taylor’s career, the most won by anyone in USA Bobsled history.

Humphries has four medals now as well, the first three of those for Canada. She began sliding for the U.S. in 2019 and got her citizenship in December. That allowed her to represent the U.S. in Beijing.

Christine de Bruin of Canada won bronze.

Hockey

It was a slow start for Finland in the women’s hockey tournament. The 2018 bronze medalists had to open against the U.S. and Canada and lost those games by a combined 16-3. The Finns then lost to Switzerland.

Now, however, they enter the semifinals on the heels of a 7-1 rout of Japan.

Canada will play Switzerland and the United States will face off against Finland.

Snowboarding

After Parrot took the gold in slopestyle, McMorris said: "Obviously would have been nice to have a different shade of medal. But knowing that I kind of had the run of the day and one of the best rounds of my life and the whole industry knows what happened — pretty, pretty crazy."

McMorris later apologized to Parrot, who said it was no big deal. The two both compete for Canada.

All of the women’s slopestyle medalists return for big air.

Freestyle skiing

The freestyle skiing slopestyle event featuring Eileen Gu was pushed back because of the weather. The final is now set to be shown on Day 11.

Lindsey Jacobellis has won her second gold medal of the Olympics, teaming with 40-year-old Nick Baumgartner for the title in the new event of mixed snowboardcross.

The Italian team of Omar Visintin and Michela Moioli came in second and the Canadian duo of Eliot Grondin and Meryeta O’Dine finished third.

The 36-year-old Jacobellis took gold earlier this week in the women’s event; it came 16 years after a late showboat move as she was cruising in for an apparent win cost her the title at the Turin Games.

After a slow start, the U.S. now has five gold medals and 11 overall at the Games. Jacobellis accounts for two, while snowboarder Chloe Kim has another. Figure skater Nathan Chen also won a gold medal this week. The U.S. also won a gold medal in mixed team aerials event.

Erin Jackson has become the first Black woman to win a speedskating medal at the Winter Olympics. And a gold one, at that.

Jackson won the 500 meters Sunday with a time of 37.04 seconds, giving the American speedskating program its first medal of the Beijing Games and first individual medal since 2010.

This one carried much more than national pride. The 29-year-old Jackson joins fellow American Shani Davis as the only Black athletes to win speedskating medals at the Olympics. Davis won gold in the men's 1,000 meters and silver in the 1,500 meters at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.

The silver went to Miho Takagi of Japan, while Angelina Golikova of the Russian team took the bronze.

Jackson's gold came after the native of balmy Ocala, Florida, slipped at the U.S. trials and shockingly finished third, putting her spot on the Olympic team in jeopardy.

But teammate Brittany Bowe, who finished first at the trials, gave up her spot on the team to ensure Jackson would get to skate in Beijing.

As it turned out, the Americans received a third slot in the 500 when the final allocations were made, so Bowe got to skate as well. She finished 16th.

Jackson skated in the next-to-last of 15 pairs with Takagi's time of 37.12 — set about a half-hour earlier in the fourth pairing — in her sights.

If she was still thinking about that slip at the U.S. trials, it sure didn't show.

Jackson bolted off the line and was under Takagi's time as she veered into the first turn. She kept up her speed through the crossing straight and into the final turn, swinging both arms furiously as she came to the finish of speedskating's shortest race.

As soon as her skates crossed the line, Jackson's head turned toward the scoreboard.

She broke into a big smile when she saw the “1” beside her name. Her coach, Ryan Shimabukuro, pumped his arms and slapped hands with her as she glided by.

There was still one pairing left, but Jackson knew she could do no worse than bronze.

A few minutes later, the gold was hers.

Jackson sat on the padding along the infield, appearing to shed a few tears with her head bowed.

She was no doubt reflecting, too, on her remarkable journey.

The inline and roller derby skater knew she would have to trade her wheels for blades if she wanted to go for Olympic glory.

Making the switch just months before the Pyeongchang Games, she was such a fast study that she earned a spot on the U.S. team. She finished 24th in the 500, but it was clear that she had barely tapped into her potential.

During the current World Cup season, Jackson suddenly emerged as one of the world's best sprinters. She won four of eight 500 races — the first Black woman to earn one of those titles, as well — and came to the Olympics as one the favorites.

She lived up to the billing in Beijing, becoming the first American woman to win an individual Olympic medal since 2002.

She grabbed an American flag and did a victory lap around the Ice Ribbon oval, the stars and stripes fluttering above her head.

The doping scandal surrounding Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) figure skater Kamila Valieva has rocked the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

The 15-year-old Valieva, a breakout star of the Games who helped the ROC take home gold in the figure skating team event, was allowed to compete despite testing positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidine, which is commonly used to treat people with angina.

The failed test only came to light during the Winter Olympics, and it remains unclear if the drug test controversy will see the medal revoked.

The scandal continues to delay the awarding of medals to all three teams -- silver for Team USA and bronze for Team Japan.

Here's a timeline of the events we know so far

Dec. 25, 2021 -- Drug sample is taken from Valieva at the 2022 Russian Figure Skating Championships in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Jan. 15, 2021 -- Valieva wins 2022 European Championships in Tallinn, Estonia.

Feb. 1, 2022 -- Valieva arrives in Beijing for the Winter Olympics.

Feb. 7, 2022 -- Valieva helps ROC win gold in the figure skating team event at Beijing 2022, landing the first ever quadruple jump by a woman in Olympic competition.

Feb. 7, 2022 -- According to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), a WADA-accredited laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden, confirms an adverse analytical finding in Valieva's sample

(Why Sweden? The Russian Anti-Doping Agency's [RUSADA] laboratory is currently suspended by WADA, hence testing is outsourced and carried out by WADA-accredited laboratories. In this instance, testing was designated to the Stockholm laboratory.)

Feb. 8, 2022 -- According to the International Testing Agency (ITA), a WADA-accredited laboratory in Stockholm confirms an adverse analytical finding in Valieva's sample.

Feb. 8, 2022 -- Valieva is notified and provisionally suspended by RUSADA.

Feb. 8, 2022 -- The medal ceremony for the figure skating team event is postponed. Later, reports emerge of a failed drugs test by a member of the ROC team.

Feb. 9, 2022 -- Valieva challenges provisional suspension; RUSADA Disciplinary Anti-Doping Committee lifts suspension.

Feb. 10, 2022 -- Valieva trains as normal at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing.

Feb. 11, 2022 -- ITA confirms Valieva failed a test for a banned substance in December; the ITA, on behalf of the IOC, WADA and ISU, say they are appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) calling for Valieva's provisional suspension to be reinstated.

Feb. 15, 2022 -- Valieva is due to compete in the women's single skating short program event at the Beijing Games.

Feb. 17, 2022 -- Valieva is due to compete in the women's single skating free skating event at the Beijing Games.

Who are the key players involved?

Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) -- Independent international body established to settle sporting disputes through arbitration.

International Testing Agency (ITA) -- Independent agency in charge of drugs testing during the Beijing Games.

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) -- Global independent agency in charge of overseeing drugs testing around the world.

Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) -- Russia's national anti-doping organization affiliated to WADA.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) -- Governing body of all National Olympic Committees worldwide responsible for organizing Summer and Winter Games.

Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) -- National Olympic Committee representing Russia.

International Skating Union (ISU) -- International governing body overseeing competitive ice skating disciplines.

An Olympian from Ukraine made sure people knew what he thought about a potential conflict with Russia.

According to The Associated Press, Vladyslav Heraskevych flashed a sign that said "No War in Ukraine" after his first run in the skeleton event.

Athletes are not allowed to make political statements at the Olympics. However, according to The Guardian, the International Olympic Committee is not taking action because they consider the sign “a general call for peace.”

“It’s my position. Like any normal people, I don’t want war,” Heraskevych said, according to The Associated Press. “I want peace in my country, and I want peace in the world. It’s my position, so I fight for that. I fight for peace.”

Tensions between Ukraine and Russia are high. Officials in the United States believe Russia could invade Ukraine before the Olympics are over.

"We continue to see signs of Russian escalation," national security adviser Jake Sullivan said during the White House briefing Friday. "We are in the window where an invasion could happen."

President Joe Biden is reportedly scheduled to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday in an attempt to prevent a war.

BEIJING —

Kaillie Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor are set to compete in the women's monobob, the rhythm dance event in figure skating and the first runs of the men's giant slalom event in Alpine Skiing is set for day 9 of the 2022 Winter Games.

Bobsled

Monobob gives women's bobsledders a second medal event at the Olympics, along with the two-woman competition. U.S. standouts Kaillie Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor were hoping four-man would be added on the women's side, but many nations lack depth among female bobsledders, so monobob is in the Olympics instead.

"Nothing’s a given here," Meyers Taylor said. “I think some good things can happen, but it’s going to take everything I have and I’m going to give it everything I have."

Figure Skating

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France lead after the rhythm dance, with world champions Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia second. The American duos of Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue and Madison Chock and Evan Bates are third and fourth.

Papadakis and Cizeron finished second at the 2018 Olympics to the now-retired Canadian team of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.

"These Olympics are so different from four years ago. We are in a very different place," Cizeron said. "I think with all the experience we’ve gained we have become more mature. We know better what we are doing, so we are enjoying it better."

Alpine Skiing

The Alpine skiing men's giant slalom competition gets underway with the first of two runs.

BEIJING —

For a teenager whose chances of survival were slim when he was born, just making it to the starting line at the Olympics is a miraculous achievement in itself.

William Flaherty will ski for Puerto Rico on Sunday in the giant slalom at the Beijing Games. Although winning a medal is not really within his reach, his health and his studies are.

Flaherty was born in Cincinnati and moved to Puerto Rico when he was 6. He was diagnosed with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis when he was 3. Known as HLH, it's an often fatal disease where the immune system attacks the body's organs.

"We asked, 'On a scale of 1 to 10, and 1 is you're super healthy and 10, you're dead, where is William?'" said Ann Flaherty, William's mother. "And they gave him a 9.5. And that hit us in the gut.

"There were days we didn't know if he would live through the day," she said. "I'll never forget holding my child and not knowing if he was going to live."

The 17-year-old Flaherty has had more than 30 operations in his life, including a bone marrow transplant from his older brother Charles — himself a former Olympic skier. After the Beijing Games, Flaherty will have an operation to have part of his fibula removed and molded into a new jawbone.

"It's just about every two years something annoying comes up," said Flaherty, pointing out a scar on the right side of his face where he had a tumor removed two years ago.

Flaherty said even a cold can lay him up for two weeks, so he took extra precautions over the last two years amid the coronavirus pandemic. He spent more than a year in what he dubbed "super quarantine."

"It definitely affected me. Not so much my training, but, like, the social life I get from my training," said Flaherty, who trains in Colorado. "I was able to continue training, but I would have to wear an N95 mask the whole time and I couldn't ride the lift with anyone, I couldn't really talk to my friends in the start house.

"I would finish training, just come home and kind of hide in my bedroom, stay away from people as much as possible, which was kind of tough on me mentally … it was definitely pretty challenging mentally."

As a teenager, Flaherty has had to balance his training with medical appointments and going to school.

He has managed to maintain straight A's despite having to study on chairlifts and do final exams sometimes only days before racing. He had his English final three days before he left for Beijing.

Flaherty is one of two athletes representing Puerto Rico at the Beijing Games. Kellie Delka will compete in women's skeleton. The pair were flagbearers at the opening ceremony.

After the Olympics, Flaherty plans to take a year off from school to recover from surgery and then head to college to study aerospace engineering.

Hitting the slopes, though, gives him the respite from his health issues.

"Skiing is really helpful because it forces me to focus on one thing and once I'm on skis, I can only focus on skiing," he said. "It's a good way to take your mind off of everything else that's going on in our crazy lives.

"All my medical problems have definitely helped with my motivation. I really want to prove to all the other transplant survivors that they can do whatever they want in life. Just because you have medical complications in the past, it doesn't define who you are today, and you can move on with your life and keep going and achieve whatever you want."

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next year's winter olympics will be without some of hockey's most talented players in the NHL and its players association have agreed to not participate in the men's hockey tournament at the Beijing olympics next year. And it's because of the league being forced to recently postpone some of its games Because of a rise in COVID-19 cases among players in the league here. Now to discuss more on what this could mean for the Winter Olympics and the sport of hockey as a whole. Sports reporter for the Washington Post, Samantha Pell Samantha, thank you so much for joining us. Can you offer a little bit more detail about why the NHL and its players association decided not to participate in the Olympics next year. Yeah, absolutely. You know, bottom line, it was because of the spike of coronavirus cases. And the basically led to 50 postponed games. Now these 50 postponed games were what the league determined material materially impact of the season so much that they could not finish this season on time if their players did go to the Olympics. So basically the NHL and the players association already agreed when they did their CB a 17 months ago that if the schedule was going to be material impacted, if there was going to have, you know, a high enough number of games to be postponed and these players would not be allowed to go to the olympics and the league announced this week. That's exactly what was going to happen. And even individual players cannot go to the olympics. They cannot go rogue. They have to agree to their contracts and honor that contract and not go to the olympics this year. So you mentioned this kind of the solution to keep the season going on pace because of COVID-19 in this pandemic. How will it impact the season as far as we know? Um, and maybe potentially in future seasons, definitely at least for this season, there's gonna be no more even a three week break for the NHL, they're gonna have to use these games from february 6 to the 22nd. They were supposed to be off days. The NHL is now going to have to reschedule all of these postponed games during that time. And honestly, it's gonna be a bit of a scheduling nightmare for the NHL in the league. Just trying to figure out buildings and teams and how everyone is going to be able to play each other in a certain amount of time while still giving players a bit of a break that they do deserve. So it's gonna be really challenging, at least for this season to get through it. Who knows if the NHL is out of the woods with Covid yet as well. But as of right now, they're on a slight break. They hope to start again on monday. Yeah. And, you know, a really big challenge for the olympics. We know hockey one of the biggest sports when it comes to the winter games. How do you think this will impact the event? I mean, the NHL did not participate in the 2018 winter olympics. So we've already kind of seen the competition in the level of skill that can happen in olympics without NHL players. Clearly the NHL has some of, you know, the world's best hockey players who play at the biggest stage. So you won't have guys like Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby and some of the bright young stars like Conor, McDavid or Austin Matthews, so Obviously these names will be greatly missed, but we did see this in 2018, we still had a great showcase as well as the women's hockey tournament too. Yeah, as you're mentioning that, I think follow up, what do you think it means for lesser known players? Um having a chance maybe to play on the world's biggest stage during one of the most iconic events in a professional's career? I mean, yeah, I mean, that has to be a dream come true for a lot of these guys, right, You know, you think of the Ovechkin's and the Crosby's who have maybe kind of been there before and it's a once in a lifetime opportunity for even the NHL stars and now you're going to get guys who are in college who were playing in the Euro League, who are playing the HL the american hockey league, who we weren't going to get their shot at the olympics and now, here we go, it looks like the stage is set for them to go ahead and you know, kind of achieve those dreams that maybe they never thought they'd get a chance to have. Yeah. And you mentioned that this isn't something new for the NHL but have there been times in the past that you can kind of highlight in olympic history where amateur players or non pros really got their chance to shine and what those olympic games were like. I mean the first thing that comes to mind honestly is miracle on ice and that amazing. You know, US hockey team that came out all college players and the way that they you know, really defined history from that point moving forward and I think when you go to another sport like you know in basketball, the NBA had extreme team in 1992 that was the first time that pros were able to participate for basketball. So You know obviously there have been moments but definitely in hockey of the miracle on ice and just recently in 2018 is probably the main ones that everyone pretty much talks about. Yeah. And Samantha, before we let you go, also want to ask you, do you foresee that we could see this trend moving beyond just hockey and maybe into other sports for the winter olympics. Yeah. I think it's definitely interesting. I think for a lot of other sports it has to be just the concern about the coronavirus. I think with the NHL was so particular because you know, they're playing at this current time and you're trying to ask athletes to go away from their own professional seasons and go and play in the olympics and with these other sports, I feel like it's going to be more about the health and safety and if they want to go and kind of the logistics of everything. So I definitely think it could happen. I definitely think, you know, players could opt out as we've seen in the past. So I think that's definitely something to look forward to or I guess look at moving forward. Alright, Samantha Powell, sports reporter for the Washington Post. So good to have you on. Thank you so much for breaking that down for us.

The United States took all the questions about youth and inexperience and had all the answers against Canada.Andy Miele responded to Canada's early goal by tying it 70 seconds later, Brendan Brisson scored his second of the Olympics and the Americans beat their biggest rival 4-2 Saturday to put them in the driver's seat to earn a spot in the quarterfinals of the men's hockey tournament.Sean Farrell also set up Ben Meyers to give him three assists and six points and goaltender Strauss Mann made 35 saves to help the U.S. improve to 2-0 in the preliminary round. Beating Germany on Sunday would put the U.S. first in the group and could made it the top seed in the knockout round.The boom or bust potential of the youngest team in the tournament was on full display against Canada, a bigger, stronger and more experienced opponent. With Claude Julien back behind the bench two weeks after breaking his ribs in a sledding accident, the Canadians figured to use their size and physicality to wear down the smaller Americans over the course of 60 minutes.Instead, the U.S. — with 12 college players on the ice — went hit for hit with Canada and used a combination of offensive skill and bad opposing goaltending to take control of the game.Mann had his own dose of bad goaltending on Mat Robinson's goal for Canada 1:24 in, a shot from the boards 40 feet away that beat him clean. Mann settled in and only allowed Corban Knight's short-handed goal the rest of the way and was at his best during a late penalty kill that included 31 seconds of 5-on-3.Canada had barely been able to think about playing with the lead when Miele scored on a 2-on-1 rush at the 2:34 mark. Mann settled in and kept the score tied while Canada had 11 of the game's first 14 shots.The U.S. took over midway through the first and went ahead with 1:14 left in the period when Farrell set up Meyers for his second goal of the tournament. Farrell, a Montreal Canadiens prospect who plays at Harvard, has six points on three goals and three assists.In the midst of a lengthy shot drought for Canada, Pasquale gave the U.S. a gift early in the second period by flubbing the puck behind the net, and Brisson fired the puck into a wide-open net. Knight cut the U.S. lead to 3-2 before the second intermission, but a turnover by Canada defenseman Maxim Noreau set up Kenny Agostino to score another soft goal on Pasquale with 13:47 left in the third.Pasquale allowed four goals on 27 shots.The U.S. has certainly settled in at the Olympics after opening with an 8-0 rout of host China. That even includes North Dakota defenseman Jake Sanderson, who didn't look like he missed a step in his first game after arriving late Wednesday. Sanderson had been stuck in Los Angeles after testing positive for the coronavirus.The U.S. and Canada faced off at the Olympics for the first time since the semifinals at the 2014 Sochi Games, the last time NHL players participated. Canada won that game 1-0 on the way to a second consecutive gold medal.NOTES: Nick Shore replaced longtime Detroit Red Wings center Justin Abdelkader in the U.S. lineup after being a healthy scratch in the opener against China. ... Julien reassumed coaching duties from Jeremy Colliton.

BEIJING —

The United States took all the questions about youth and inexperience and had all the answers against Canada.

Andy Miele responded to Canada's early goal by tying it 70 seconds later, Brendan Brisson scored his second of the Olympics and the Americans beat their biggest rival 4-2 Saturday to put them in the driver's seat to earn a spot in the quarterfinals of the men's hockey tournament.

Sean Farrell also set up Ben Meyers to give him three assists and six points and goaltender Strauss Mann made 35 saves to help the U.S. improve to 2-0 in the preliminary round. Beating Germany on Sunday would put the U.S. first in the group and could made it the top seed in the knockout round.

The boom or bust potential of the youngest team in the tournament was on full display against Canada, a bigger, stronger and more experienced opponent. With Claude Julien back behind the bench two weeks after breaking his ribs in a sledding accident, the Canadians figured to use their size and physicality to wear down the smaller Americans over the course of 60 minutes.

Instead, the U.S. — with 12 college players on the ice — went hit for hit with Canada and used a combination of offensive skill and bad opposing goaltending to take control of the game.

Mann had his own dose of bad goaltending on Mat Robinson's goal for Canada 1:24 in, a shot from the boards 40 feet away that beat him clean. Mann settled in and only allowed Corban Knight's short-handed goal the rest of the way and was at his best during a late penalty kill that included 31 seconds of 5-on-3.

Canada had barely been able to think about playing with the lead when Miele scored on a 2-on-1 rush at the 2:34 mark. Mann settled in and kept the score tied while Canada had 11 of the game's first 14 shots.

The U.S. took over midway through the first and went ahead with 1:14 left in the period when Farrell set up Meyers for his second goal of the tournament. Farrell, a Montreal Canadiens prospect who plays at Harvard, has six points on three goals and three assists.

In the midst of a lengthy shot drought for Canada, Pasquale gave the U.S. a gift early in the second period by flubbing the puck behind the net, and Brisson fired the puck into a wide-open net. Knight cut the U.S. lead to 3-2 before the second intermission, but a turnover by Canada defenseman Maxim Noreau set up Kenny Agostino to score another soft goal on Pasquale with 13:47 left in the third.

Pasquale allowed four goals on 27 shots.

The U.S. has certainly settled in at the Olympics after opening with an 8-0 rout of host China. That even includes North Dakota defenseman Jake Sanderson, who didn't look like he missed a step in his first game after arriving late Wednesday. Sanderson had been stuck in Los Angeles after testing positive for the coronavirus.

The U.S. and Canada faced off at the Olympics for the first time since the semifinals at the 2014 Sochi Games, the last time NHL players participated. Canada won that game 1-0 on the way to a second consecutive gold medal.

NOTES: Nick Shore replaced longtime Detroit Red Wings center Justin Abdelkader in the U.S. lineup after being a healthy scratch in the opener against China. ... Julien reassumed coaching duties from Jeremy Colliton.