US women end drought, beat Canada for gold in a shootout

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — The Americans’ gold medal drought is finally over. They needed the first shootout in an Olympic women’s final to do it, too.

Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson scored a dazzling, triple-deke goal in the sixth round of a shootout thriller and Maddie Rooney stuffed the last two Canadians to wrap up a 3-2 victory over archrival Canada on Thursday.

The Americans piled over the boards, throwing gloves in the air before huddling and hugging on the ice — 20 years after the women’s last gold medal in women’s hockey and 38 years to the day after he men’s famous “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Russians in group play at Lake Placid.

“I can’t put it into words,” defenseman Kacey Bellamy said. “This whole year is for everyone that came before us. This is for Julie Chu (former USA team captain) and for all our families at home, the schools that we went to, everyone supporting us.”

Lamoureux-Davidson’s shootout goal was the talk of the game. She feinted a wrist shot, then drew Szabados out of the net by faking a backhand and came back to slide the puck past Szabados’ outstretched leg into the open net for the clinching score.

Her twin, Monique Lamoureux-Moranda, said coach Peter Elander, now at Ohio State, had taught the sisters the shootout move when the three were at the University of North Dakota.

“Not everyone can take the pressure like that and she took it like a champ,” she said.

Gigi Marvin and Amanda Kessel also scored in the shootout, another nail-biter ending four years after Canada won its fourth-straight gold medal in Sochi after rallying to stun the Americans in overtime.

Monique Lamoureux-Morando tied it up with a breakaway with 6:21 left in regulation . Hilary Knight also had a goal and Rooney was spectacular, making 29 saves for the win. The 20-year-old goalie stopped the last two Canadian shooters in the shootout in Brianne Jenner and then Meghan Agosta on her second attempt.

It was sweet redemption for the 10 Americans who watched the Canadians snatch gold away in Sochi. Not only did the Americans end the Canadians’ stranglehold on Olympic gold, they ended a skid of five straight against their rival coming into this game, including a 2-1 loss in the tournament a week ago.

“It is everything for our country,” U.S. coach Robb Stauber said. “I am just so thankful for the outcome. It was a thrilling final. It was unreal.”

Marie-Philip Poulin and Haley Irwin each scored goals for Canada. Agosta and Melodie Daoust scored in the shootout.

The Canadians, who had pushed the Americans around for much of the game and taken penalties for it, wept on the ice as they accepted their silver medals. Jocelyne Larocque took hers off immediately and held it in her hands as the Americans stood nearby awaiting their gold.

“It’s just hard,” Larocque said. “You work so hard. We wanted gold but didn’t get it.”

Added Canada coach Laura Schuler: “There’s not a lot of words that can describe how you feel. It was a great game of hockey. It’s what we expected: back and forth hockey.”

The Americans had dominated the women’s game in non-Olympic years, winning the last four and eight of the last 10 world championships, including a 3-2 overtime victory over Canada last spring.

It only made the lack of gold at the Olympics all the more noticeable, and Canada has been in their way since losing the inaugural gold in Nagano in 1998. Canada had won 24 straight Olympic games to go along with those four consecutive gold medals — a streak of success in a women’s team sport second only to the U.S. basketball team’s current streak of six straight gold.

This was the eighth time these North American rivals had met in the Olympics and the fifth with gold on the line. None of the previous seven was decided by more than two goals.

U.S. coach Robb Stauber went with Rooney in net for the biggest game of her career — the goalie for each of the three wins against Canada last fall during a pre-Olympic exhibition tour.

Canada had Shannon Szabados in goal for her third Olympic gold medal game, and her teammates made her job very easy by keeping the puck in front of Rooney for most of the first period by dictating play. The Americans couldn’t use their speed or get organized even with two power plays until Sarah Nurse went in the box for interference late in the period.

Knight gave the U.S. a 1-0 lead with 25.4 seconds left in the first, redirecting a shot from Sidney Morin through Szabados’ pads to give the Americans a jolt of energy.

That lasted only 2 minutes into the second when Irwin tipped a midair pass from Blayre Turnbull over Rooney’s left leg for Canada. And when Morin lost the puck, Melodie Daoust grabbed it and passed to Meghan Agosta who hit Poulin for the wrister into the left side of the net at 6:55 for a 2-1 lead.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Gold drought about to end: Russians 1-2 after short program

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Friends, rivals, and soon, medalists.


The only question is: Which Russian teen figure skating star will end the nation’s gold medal drought?

Alina Zagitova or Evgenia Medvedeva will almost certainly take gold in one of the Winter Games marquee events after they went 1-2 in the women’s short program Wednesday with the highest scores ever. The 15-year-old Zagitova and the 18-year-old Medvedva train with the same coach, hang out together and set world records just minutes apart.



With a dominating lead over the field, their friendly competition is the main drama left when the women compete in the free skate Friday. With all of Russia waiting for the first gold medal of the Pyeongchang Olympics, you’d think their relationship could become frayed, but only on the ice.

“We can talk about anything to each other,” the 18-year-old Medvedeva said, “and when we take the ice it’s sport and we must fight. Every competition I feel like (is) a little war.”

Added Zagitova, 15: “We are friends first and rivals second, because you have to have competitiveness in sport.”

Medvedeva had not lost a competition in two years until she was beaten by Zagitova at the European Championships in Moscow. That set the stage for a showdown with a glaring spotlight — as the Russian fans are hoping for a high-profile success at this Olympics where the nation is officially banned because of a doping scandal.

The youngsters responded with world records. Yet neither thought they had done their best.

“I’m satisfied with my performance today. It was not my best, but it was OK,” said Medvedeva, who held the record for a few minutes with a score of 81.61. “All the battle is still ahead.”

A group of Russian fans swayed together in the stands and chanted her name when that number was posted.

Three skaters later came her training comrade, who put down a more difficult program, including a triple lutz-triple loop combination that outdid Medvedeva’s flip-toe loop combo.

So, another world record, 82.92.

And again the Russian fans rocked back and forth, this time chanting Zagitova’s name.

“Well done to her,” Medvedeva said. “She did everything she could.”

Not exactly, Zagitova said.

“A few imperfections,” she explained.

Oh really?

“I’m happy I was able to cope with my nerves and skate well, set a world record,” she added, “but I’ve still got something to work towards and I can’t afford to relax.”

Medvedeva had set the previous record for a short program in the team event last week, when her team won silver. Zagitova handled the free skate.

Russia had never won Olympic gold for women until Adelina Sotnikova took home the medal in Sochi. The nation could have two straight after the free skate.

Canada’s Kaetlyn Osmond and Gabrielle Daleman, second and third respectively at last year’s worlds, had varying success.

Osmond, in her best performance of the season, nailed everything with speed and precision to wind up third with 78.87 points. Daleman looked confused and made a gesture with her hands as if to say “What happened?” after going down on the second half of a combination jump. She was seventh Wednesday.

“I left nothing out on the table and I’m really glad I could do that,” said Osmond, the 2017 world silver medalist.

Italy’s Carolina Kostner, the bronze medalist at Sochi and, at 31 the veteran in this field, struggled and wound up just ahead of Daleman.

It was not a strong showing for the Americans, each of whom had a major mistake.

Nine days after becoming the first U.S. woman and third overall to land a triple axel in the Olympics, Mirai Nagasu came down on two feet on the jump, then fell to the ice. While the rest of her program was clean, Nagasu’s chances for an individual medal to go with her team bronze were damaged. Nagasu, 24 and the fourth-place finisher at the Vancouver Games, earned 66.93 points, a season’s best, but was ninth.

“Sometimes it isn’t the right day, and today was one of those days,” Nagasu said. “This isn’t a sport where mistakes are forgiven. You only get one shot.”

U.S. champion Bradie Tennell went first among the 30 skaters, hardly an advantageous position. She led for 2 hours, 40 minutes until the upper echelon began skating and Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto passed Tennell. A fall on the back end of a combination jump — Tennell had been virtually perfect with her jumps in her breakthrough season — was costly.

“It was definitely unexpected. I don’t remember the last time I made a mistake in my short program, especially on the jumps,” Tennell said. “But things happen. We’re all human. We all make mistakes. You just have to get up a keep going. I’m definitely a fighter. I do not give up.”

Tennell ended up 11th, one spot behind Karen Chen, the 2017 American champ. Chen put a hand down on her triple lutz and couldn’t finish a combination jump.

“I’ve been nailing that every day in practice and I expected myself to, and to not be able to do that was a huge disappointment,” she said. “For sure, I was a little flustered after that. But I sold my program the best I could, got the most points I could and I’m proud of that.”

The United States’ worst top placement in a women’s Olympic event since the games resumed in 1948 after World War II is sixth. Getting that high will be a huge challenge.

source: sports.inquirer.net

American triumph and disappointment in Olympic ice dance

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Ecstasy, heartbreak and a crash.

Kind of sums up the American ice dance experience at the Winter Olympics.

The Shib Sibs — Maia and older brother Alex Shibutani — added a bronze medal in the event to their team bronze early in the Pyeongchang Games.

U.S. champions Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue made two key errors in their free dance and slid from third to fifth place.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates had an even bigger slip-up: the rare ice dance fall.

Still, a third, fifth and 12th with a major mistake should not be underplayed.

“It’s great for us and it’s great for Team USA,” Maia Shibutani said after they moved up from fourth place and held off a Russian couple to give the United States a podium spot for the fourth straight games: a gold, two silvers and a bronze.

“It feels like gold,” Alex Shibutani added. “It’s unbelievable.

“It’s such an honor to represent your country in the Olympics, and our sport is such a strong event, as you saw from the marks,” he said, noting that the top two duos — gold medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada, silver winners Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France — set world records Tuesday. “It’s amazing to have that Olympic moment we dreamed of.”

The Shibutanis also believe their performance could lead to more siblings and more Asian-Americans in ice dance. Alex noted how rare each combination is.

“We had no path to follow,” he said. “There was no blueprint for us. (Coach) Marina Zueva had no experience with siblings or Asian-American ice dancers and we had to discover by ourselves our own path.”

That path led them from ninth place at the Sochi Games to two U.S. championships. They also have three world championships medals. And now, an Olympic jewel.

“It’s really been a leap of faith we had to take,” Maia Shibutani said. “We really have discovered we need to be ourselves.”

Added Alex: “We found we needed to not play characters but to be Maia and Alex.”

He is 26, she is 23, and they didn’t want to look ahead to another Olympic go-round. But Hubbell and Donohue made it clear they aren’t through; he is 27 and she soon will be.

Hubbell’s eyes were wet when she spoke about the rough go in the free dance. They had been perennial third-place finishers in America before making a huge leap this season, winning their first national title. They believed the Pyeongchang Games would be their special moment.

Then they made two errors in the free dance, one early and then a late stumble by Donohue.

“At this moment, we are disappointed and frustrated,” Hubbell said, “because this was not close to our best. At this level, you cannot afford to make mistakes against this type of competition.

“But we will build off this and not allow this to be our legacy.”

Donohue admitted he wasn’t as mentally sharp as he needed to be in such a pressure-cooker atmosphere. He looked back at last year’s worlds, when they hoped to compete for a medal and wound up ninth.

“Every experience brings a piece of information we didn’t have before,” he said, noting the couple would pay extra attention to their mental approach as they prepare for next month’s world championships in Milan.

Chock and Bates didn’t want to look beyond Tuesday. They were the only ice dancers to have a fall in the entire competition, and it came as they were preparing to do a combination spin. Their blades clicked just as he was bending down and she was beginning to spin.

Crash!

“It’s impossible to do the spin with our feet attached,” Bates said.

“We were too close together,” Chock explained.

“It’s a moment we wish we could have back,” Bates added. “It’s a mistake that has never happened in training before, ever. There’s no explanation.”

Chock and Bates also didn’t want the fall to take away from the message they were trying to convey while skating to John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

“We hope we got the message of peace across,” Chock said as she wiped her eyes. “We think the audience understood.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

Switzerland’s Hoefflin skis to gold in women’s slopestyle

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Switzerland’s Sarah Hoefflin is the Olympic champion in women’s slopestyle skiing.

The 27-year-old put together an electric final run down the demanding course at Phoenix Snow Park on Saturday, posting a 91.20 to edge teammate Mathilde Gremaud for gold. Gremaud scored 88.00 on the first of her three runs in the finals but couldn’t top Hoefflin.

Hoefflin is a latecomer to freestyle skiing. She didn’t get serious about the sport until her early 20s when she couldn’t get into medical school after earning a degree in neuroscience.

Isabel Atkin of Britain took bronze with a score of 84.60 in her final run.

Defending Olympic champion Dara Howell crashed twice during qualifying and didn’t advance. American Devin Logan, a silver medalist in Sochi, reached the finals but wasn’t a factor after either crashing or having execution problems in each of her last three runs.

Unlike the women’s snowboarding slopestyle final, where wind wreaked havoc with the field, the issues this time around seemed to simply be the treacherous course. Only nine of the 36 runs in the finals were scored higher than 70, typically a benchmark for a relatively clean trip.

Hoefflin was in position for the silver when she stepped into the gate for her last trip. Rather than try to simply hold on to second, she went for the top spot. She finished with an off-axis 720 degree flip. She raised her arms after sticking the landing before skiing into the arms of her coaches.

Logan, who will compete in the halfpipe competition next week, never really got going on her 24th birthday. She was a middling sixth during qualifying and her best trip during the finals came on her second run, when she appeared to be doing well only to scrape the ground after landing her penultimate jump.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Olympic figure skating unveils new, modern soundtrack

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — When the International Skating Union made the popular decision to allow lyrics in all performances, the Paul Simon classic “The Sound of Silence” seemed like it would be a natural choice.

The folk tune is light and airy and fits neatly within the confines of traditional figure skating.

Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres went in another direction.

Yes, the French pairs team chose the 1960s hit for their free skate last year, and will bring it back for their Olympic program Thursday. But rather than the melodic version performed by Simon and Art Garfunkel, they opted for a haunting, heavy metal cover by American rock band Disturbed .

“It was our coaches who found it,” James told The Associated Press. “They were like, ‘We really think it could be a hit.’ And Morgan listened to it and was like, ‘I don’t like it,’ because we weren’t used to it. And I was like, ‘OK, let me see if I can get into this.’ I thought it could be amazing, and I was like, ‘Morgan, let’s trust them.’ And we were so right to have trusted them.”

That’s because the stirring rendition, coupled with the pair’s dramatic program, became such a fan favorite that they replaced this season’s program with it for the Pyeongchang Games.

“When you have a powerful voice and words to express,” James said, “it changes everything.”

Now, nobody is throwing tradition out the window. Fans still will see four Olympic programs set to “Carmen” and three to “Swan Lake.” Two programs are set to the figure skating staple “Moonlight Sonata,” including one by ice dance favorites Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron.

But the decision by skating’s governing body after the 2014 Sochi Games to allow lyrics in all disciplines expanded the breadth of what is available, and skaters have taken broad liberties with it.

Ed Sheeran and Coldplay will provide popular soundtracks to the rest of the Olympic skating scene. The rock bands Imagine Dragons and Snow Patrol, English vocalist Benjamin Clementine and pop musicians Lorde, Christina Aguilera and Adele also have music in the mix.

“At the beginning, people were just choosing random music,” Cipres recalled, “but after some time I think people realized it didn’t work. You have to choose your music carefully.”

Many skaters, such as James and Cipres, wound up choosing covers over an original. They may like the lyrics or message of a song but they also want it to have a different rhythm or feel.

Two-time world champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford of Canada wanted “With or Without You” for their short program, but they decided U2’s original was a bit monotone. Their choreographers unearthed a little-known cover by singer-songwriter April Meservy that worked better for their routine.

“There are people who are like, ‘Why aren’t they skating to the original?’ But if you listen to the original, it doesn’t lend itself well to a figure skating program,” Radford explained. “April’s version just has more ebb and flow, and it just works better for us.”

Worked out well for Meservy, too. An anonymous donor provided funds for her to travel from the U.S. to South Korea and watch Duhamel and Radford perform to her rendition on Olympic ice.

“‘With or Without You’ is a popular song,” Duhamel said, “but we always try to find unique versions of things. We try to veer off the path and pick obscure versions of songs.”

That’s what German skater Paul Fentz thought he was doing when asked his choreographer to find a 1950s-style jazz tune, and wound up doing Paul Anka’s version of the Oasis hit “Wonderwall.”

Fentz performed to it during his short program for the team competition last week, and he quickly became a trending topic on social media as fans debated whether it was cool or cringe-worthy.

“That’s the risk you take,” said Fentz, whose free skate set to music from “Game of Thrones” ought to win back some skeptics. “I know the Oasis song, I really like it. But it wasn’t like I was trying to make something new or something. I just wanted something a little smoother.”

The Austrian pairs team of Miriam Ziegler and Severin Kiefer will perform to the well-known song “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” when they step on the ice Wednesday for their short program.

Rather than the pop-fueled original by The Proclaimers , though, Ziegler and Kiefer chose a soaring version by the cast of “Sunshine on Leith” — a British musical set to the Scottish duo’s music.

Jeff Buckley’s popular version of the Leonard Cohen song “Hallelujah” will make an appearance, but so will two covers by K.D. Lang , including the one chosen by pairs favorites Han Cong and Sui Wenjing.

“We have so much more music to choose,” Fentz said. “Many skaters picked Ed Sheeran or something, and you can’t skate to Ed Sheeran without lyrics. You can’t pick that.

“With lyrics,” Fentz said, “it’s just better.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

Whoops! Wardrobe malfunction mars Olympic debut for ice dancers

GANGNEUNG, South Korea (AP) _ Five seconds into your Olympic debut, you suffer a wardrobe malfunction. What do you do? Keep your shoulders back and keep smiling.

That’s exactly what happened to South Korean ice dancers Yura Min and Alexander Gamelin during their performance in Sunday’s team event. A hook on the back of Min’s red dress slid loose, threatening to reveal rather more than it already did.

“I know that if this comes undone, then the whole thing is going to come undone. So I had that panic,” she said. “That wouldn’t be the most ideal Olympic experience, obviously. The whole time in the back of my head I was just thinking: ‘Keep your back straight because it might come down.”


Things got worse during the twizzles _ a synchronized side-by-side spin _ when Min felt the dress slipping off her shoulder and down her arm. She had to react fast to stop her Olympic debut being remembered alongside Janet Jackson’s halftime performance at the Super Bowl in 2004.

“It started to come down so I had to stop my twizzle and pull it back up,” she said. Gamelin added: “We were skating well _ you just had to keep everything, well, intact.”

Gamelin is from Boston, while Min was born in California to Korean parents. They might not have grown up in the Olympic host nation, but it didn’t stop the crowd from taking them to heart. Min’s dress issues hurt their points total as they finished ninth, but they’re optimistic for the ice dance competition starting Feb. 19.

“The second we stepped onto the ice, the fans started to scream and I think we really fed off that energy,” Min said. “Even with my costume coming undone, the fans helped us, picked us up.”

Gamelin talks with Min in Korean and is “at least proficient” _ which was handy during his citizenship interview last year.

To march as an American-born athlete alongside North Koreans in the opening ceremony was unforgettable, he said.

“That was crazy. The unified team was a really historic event,” he said. “I’m loving this whole theme of peace.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

Michael Martinez's road to Sochi was rough and expensive

A lot has been said about the Philippines' lone bet at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, but perhaps those who joined him on the ice know a little bit more.

SM Skating continues to operate three rinks: one in SM Southmall, one at the SM Mall of Asia, and a recently re-opened third in SM Megamall. Proximity to these locations isn't even half the battle in learning to skate. Aspirants who wish to be world-class figure skaters like Martinez need a lot of time and money to get there.

"A skater has to go the extreme, he has to choose between going to a regular school and training," said Noel C. Resultay, Senior Operations Manager - Ice Skating and Bowling for the Southmall branch, who divulged that Martinez had to train for 4-to-6 hours a day. "A skater has to have a determination to achieve his/her goals, he has to strictly follow training schedules and always listen to advice from his coaching team. Michael opted to have a home study program to concentrate fully on his training."

Aside from time, money is also a big factor in staking. Resultay shared that a top caliber skater may end up shelling out P50,000 to P75,000 per month for lessons and equipment.

The mall chain shared that it has also done its part in supporting Martinez.

"Aside from giving him free ice time at all SM Ice Skating Rinks, SM Prime President Mr. Hans T. Sy, thru the Philippine Skating Union, has given Michael a total amount of Php 1.5 million to defray cost of his training locally and abroad," shared Raymund Retumban, Division Manager of SM Ice Skating Rinks. "The Philippine Skating Union has also solicited Php 500,000 from individuals which was also given to him last November 2013."

Resultay added that the tropical weather condition in the country is never a source of discouragement for your figure skaters, as passion powers young performers on ice:

"Ice Skating is a unique sport in a tropical country like the Philippines. The Philippine skaters are very passionate about it, and of course their parents have been very supportive of their children when it comes to sports. Filipinos in figure skating are known to be versatile and expressive like how they easily interpret music through their gracefulness of movements seems natural."   - AMD, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com