Good morning! Ottawa speed skater Ivanie Blondin won silver in the mass start event, aka “Nascar on ice,” while Calgary’s Noah Bowman finished fourth in men’s freeski halfpipe. Plus, the last alpine skiing race of the Beijing Olympics was postponed because of strong winds and is rescheduled for this evening.
Ivanie Blondin of Team Canada celebrates winning the silver medal during the women's mass start final at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on Feb. 19, 2022.Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
Here’s what happened overnight and this morning:
- Ottawa’s Ivanie Blondin scored silver in Saturday morning’s mass start final. She made a brilliant push in front of the 17-woman field in the 16-lap race – an event often described as “Nascar on ice” where skaters jockey and push for position.
- Slovakia’s teenage sensation Juraj Slafkovsky scored twice to lead their men’s ice hockey team to a historic first Olympic medal as they beat Sweden 4-0 to take bronze on Saturday.
- Calgary’s Noah Bowman finished fourth in men’s freeski halfpipe, finishing two points off the podium. Meanwhile, Brendan Mackay of Calgary finished ninth and Simon d’Artois of Whistler, B.C. finished in 10th place. The gold went to New Zealand’s Nico Porteous and silver to United States’ David Wise.
- The last alpine skiing race of the Beijing Olympics was postponed because of too-strong wind. The mixed team parallel event has been rescheduled tonight at 8 p.m. ET.
- In women’s bobsled, Canada’s Christine de Bruin and brakewoman Kristen Bujnowski finished fifth, while fellow Canadians Cynthia Appiah and Dawn Richardson Wilson finished eighth, despite flipping their sled on the final corner of their third run and crossing the finish on their side.
- Canada’s Justin Kripps was in third place midway through the four-man bobsled competition. “It was pretty good execution. The boys pushed well, loaded clean and drove pretty well, so I was pretty happy,” Kripps said.
Justin Kripps, Ryan Sommer, Cam Stones and Benjamin Coakwell start the 4-man heat 2 at the 2022 Winter Olympics, on Feb. 19, 2022.Dmitri Lovetsky/The Associated Press
- Four years after losing in the final at the Pyeongchang Games to American upstart John Shuster, Niklas Edin led Sweden to the gold medal in men’s curling on Saturday, beating Britain 5-4 in the first extra-end men’s final in Olympic history.
- U.S. pairs skater Timothy LeDuc became the United States’ first openly nonbinary Winter Olympian when they took the ice on Friday. The 31-year-old LeDuc and pairs partner Ashley Gain-Gribble placed seventh in their Olympic debut.
- U.S. figure skaters were denied a last-ditch request to have their silver medals in the team event awarded before the end of the Olympics. Kamila Valieva led the Russian team to a victory in last week’s team event, and the U.S. finished second. But after Valieva’s positive doping test was disclosed, the International Olympic Committee said it would not award medals in any events in which she finished among the top three.
Globe on the ground
The Globe’s Cathal Kelly writes that his miserable cross-country odyssey sadly summed up this dreadful Olympics. “How would you describe it otherwise? Weird. Or, since this was kind of Tokyo 2.0, especially weird. Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris captured it nicely: “Sports prison. You don’t do anything. You’re just chillin.’”
Thanks to a bizarre niche sport, Norway is a gold medal factory, writes Kelly.
Saturday’s silver medal was huge redemption for Ivanie Blondin, who had crashed in the semifinals of the mass start at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, The Globe’s Rachel Brady reports. Blondin left Korea empty-handed, and since then suffered quite publicly with depression, including feelings of intense failure.
Kevin Light is back in Beijing for the first time since he won gold as a rower at the 2008 Summer Olympics. This time though, the Canadian is on the other side of the camera, Brady reports.
Where Canada stands
What’s on today
Saturday Feb. 19
8 p.m. ET Alpine skiing, mixed team 1/8 final
8:05 p.m. ET Curling, women, gold medal game, Japan vs. Britain 🥇
8:30 p.m. ET Bobsleigh, 4-man, run 3
8:40 p.m. ET Alpine skiing, mixed team quarterfinal
9:09 p.m. ET Alpine skiing, mixed team, finals 🥇
10 p.m. ET Cross-country skiing, women’s 30 km freestyle 🥇
10:20 p.m. ET Bobsleigh, 4-man, run 4 🥇
11:10 p.m. ET Ice hockey, men, gold medal game, Finland vs. ROC 🥇
Sunday Feb. 20
7 a.m. ET Closing ceremony
COVID-19 and the Games
- After two Games clouded by COVID-19 restrictions, Paris 2024 is looking to launch a new momentum for the sporting extravaganza, promising a “light at the end of the tunnel,” says Olympics organizing committee president Tony Estanguet.
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As seen at the Games:
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