Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018: Day 12 Winners and Losers

Bleacher Report Olympics StaffFeatured ColumnistFebruary 21, 2018

Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018: Day 12 Winners and Losers

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    Lindsey Vonn
    Lindsey VonnCharlie Riedel/Associated Press

    Day 12 of the 2018 Winter Olympics was finally a good one for Team USA.

    The Americans had won a grand total of just four medals in the previous six days, but they got onto the podium four times in the last 24 hours.

    Lindsey Vonn fell short of the ultimate goal of gold, but the American legend captured a medal in what is expected to be her final Olympics.

    Elsewhere, Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall brought the United States a medal in cross-country skiing for the first time in more than four decades and its first-ever gold medal. USA also took silver in the women's bobsled and bronze in the ladies' team pursuit in speedskating.

    Read on for the rest of Day 12's biggest winners and losers.

Winner: Team USA in Snowboard Big Air

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    Al Bello/Getty Images

    The men's snowboarding big air team is capable of padding the United States' medal count, and the four-man group has put itself in position to back up the expectations.

    In Heat 1, Kyle Mack (88.75), Chris Corning (88.00) and slopestyle winner Red Gerard (85.00) all advanced to the 12-person final. Gerard sat anxiously on the bubble yet edged Norway's Staale Sandbech (84.75) for the final position.

    Although 25-year-old Ryan Stassel (76.25) missed out in Heat 2, the U.S. will be well-represented in the final.

    The Canadian team of Mark McMorris, Max Parrot and Sebastien Toutant—along with New Zealand's Carlos Garcia Knight, among others—will present major competition for the Americans.

Loser: The Field vs. Russian Stars

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    Harry How/Getty Images

    Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova arrived as heavy favorites in the ladies' singles event, and—wow—did they show it.

    Prior to the 2018 European Championships, Medvedeva hadn't lost a competition in nearly two years. She finished second to Zagitova, who excelled upon joining the senior level in 2017. That dominance continued on the Olympic stage.

    During the short program, Medvedeva set a world record with a total segment score of 81.61. Three skaters later, the 15-year-old Zagitova eclipsed the mark and posted an 82.92.

    Barring stunning falls plus a flawless day from Canada's Kaetlyn Osmond, this is a two-woman race for Olympic gold.

Winner: Lindsey Vonn

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    Alexis Boichard/Agence Zoom/Getty Images

    Lindsey Vonn's storied career won't include a gold medal in her final Olympics, but she still made history in downhill.

    The 33-year-old posted a time of 1:39.69 to secure the bronze medal, trailing Italy's Sofia Goggia (-0.47 seconds) and Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel (-0.38) in that order.

    Vonn became the oldest woman to win an Olympic medal in an Alpine discipline, per Chip Scoggins of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The bronze gave Vonn her third total medal at the Games.

    "I skied a great race today; Sophia just skied better than I did," she said after the race, according to NBC.

    "I have no regrets. I'm really happy."

Loser: USA Men's Hockey

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    Matt Slocum/Associated Press

    Ryan Donato scored his fifth goal in these Olympics. Ryan Zapolski played his best game of the tournament in net for the United States. Troy Terry notched yet another assist.

    But it wasn't enough for the underdogs to overcome the Czech Republic, falling 1-0 in a shootout for a 3-2 loss.

    The U.S. hardly could've asked for more from Zapolski, who made 22 saves in 70 minutes before stopping four of five attempts during the shootout. However, Pavel Francouz stoned all five Americans to give the Czech Republic the win.

    Yes, the absence of NHL players negatively affected the USA's chances. Still, the shutout in the shootout was a disappointing way for Team USA to exit the 2018 Games.

    The Czech Republic will face the Olympic Athletes from Russia in the semifinals.

Winner: Brady Leman, Canada

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    Lee Jin-man/Associated Press

    In a competition filled with high speeds and several terrifying crashes—including one horrible spill by Canada's Chris Del Bosco—Brady Leman earned gold in ski cross.

    The Canadian outraced current World Cup leader Marc Bischofberger to the finish and earned his first career Olympic medal. Leman had previously won gold and bronze at the Winter X Games in 2016 and 2010, respectively.

    And the final wasn't without issue. Kevin Drury (also from Canada) lost his balance and took out Sergey Ridzik, an Olympic Athlete from Russia, leaving Leman and Bischofberger to battle for gold and silver. Ridzik ultimately crossed the line in third.

    France swept the podium in 2014, but defending gold medalist Jean-Frederic Chapuis bowed out in the quarterfinals before silver winner Arnaud Bovolenta exited in the semifinals.

Loser: Great Britain Men's Curling

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    Kyle Smith
    Kyle SmithAaron Favila/Associated Press

    In the 12th and final round-robin session of the men's curling tournament, Great Britain was in a position to clinch a spot in the semifinals with a win over the United States. Meanwhile, a loss would have eliminated the Americans, while a win would've at least put them into a tiebreaker for the final spot in the semifinals.

    To put it lightly, it was an important game for both teams.

    The pressure of the moment got to Great Britain's skip (Kyle Smith) more than it bothered USA's skip (John Shuster).

    Right off the bat in the first end, Smith overthrew a draw that slid out of the back of the house. He then narrowly missed a double takeout, giving Shuster an easy shot for a 2-0 lead.

    Four ends later, Smith again overthrew a draw. This mistake gave Shuster a chance to score three with a relatively simple takeout, which he did.

    Worst of all, though, was the eighth end. USA had four stones in the house to GBR's zero, but Smith had the hammer. A draw to the four-foot arc would cut USA's lead to 6-5. However, after overthrowing draws earlier in the match, Smith overcorrected and left his shot well short. USA stole four pointsan almost unprecedented featand Great Britain conceded.

    As a result of the other matches taking place at the same time, the win was enough for USA to clinch the No. 3 seed in the semifinals where it will face Canada. Great Britain, on the other hand, now has to play a tiebreaker match against Switzerland for the right to face Sweden in the semis.

Winner: Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall, USA

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    Matthias Schrader/Associated Press

    Up until Day 12 of the 2018 Games, heartbreak was the theme of Jessie Diggins' trip to Pyeongchang. She finished fifth in the 15km skiathlon, finished fifth in the 10km free and advanced to the final six of the sprint classic before falling short. She was also the anchor of the 4x5km relay team that came in fifth place.

    But in the ladies' team sprint event, she and Kikkan Randall finally got onto the podium.

    They didn't settle for silver or bronze, either. They went out and won the whole thing.

    Diggins finished the second of her three legs of the race in 2:30.62, more than a second faster than any leg by any other racer. Randall lost some ground in her final leg, leaving the Americans in third place (by less than a second) heading into Diggins' final run. She overtook the Swedish team and the Norwegian team to win the race.

    Diggins and Randall broke a long drought for the Americans. Team USA had not won an Olympic medal of any color in cross-country skiing since Bill Koch's silver medal in 1976.

Loser: Italy Men's Pursuit Speedskating Team

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    Vadim Ghirda/Associated Press

    In the grand scheme of things, the men's team pursuit speedskating match between Italy and Japan didn't matter. They finished fifth and sixth in the quarterfinals over the weekend and were only racing each other to determine who goes down in history as the fifth- and sixth-place finishers.

    While the race was taking place, things looked good for Team Italy. Andrea Giovannini, Riccardo Bugari and Nicola Tumolero finished in a time of 3:41.06, a little better than half a second ahead of Japan.

    But things quickly went downhill after the race ended.

    While drifting around the ice on a cool-down lap, one of the Italians lost his balance. He went down hard and clipped the teammate he was talking to, sending Tumolero to the ground while he went sliding into the wall. Tumolero required medical attention, which appeared to consist of wrapping his ankle.

    Adding insult to injury, Italy was later disqualified for reasons that weren't given during the broadcast. Thus, the Italians ended up in sixth place anyway.

    As far as the medals are concerned, it was Norway, South Korea and Netherlands for gold, silver and bronze, respectively. And in the women's team pursuit, Japan defeated Netherlands in the gold-medal race while USA narrowly edged out Canada for the bronze.

Winner: Elana Meyers Taylor, USA

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    Andy Wong/Associated Press

    For the third time in as many games, Elana Meyers Taylor has an Olympic medal in the two-woman bobsled race.

    Taylor and teammate Lauren Gibbs set a track record in the first heat with a time of 50.52s. They later broke the record again with a 50.46s run in the third heat. But Germany's Mariama Jamanka and Lisa Buckwitz managed to keep pace and entered the fourth and final heat with a lead of four-hundredths of a second.

    The Germans then posted the fastest time in the fourth heat to claim the gold medal, and Taylor and Gibbs won the silver.

    Taylor also won silver in 2014 and a bronze in 2010.

    Team USA has now medaled in the women's bobsled event in every year since it was added in 2002.

Loser: USA Women's Curling

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    Natacha Pisarenko/Associated Press

    Team USA's men advanced to the semifinals of the curling tournament, but the women had no such luck.

    It all came down to the bitter end, too. What the Americans needed in the 12th round-robin session was a win over Sweden and for Switzerland to defeat Japan. If those two results happened, USA and Japan would have a tiebreaker match for the fourth spot in the semifinals.

    Switzerland held up its end of the bargain, beating Japan 8-4. However, Team USA was tied at 6-6 with Sweden heading into the 10th end. And with the Swedes in possession of the hammer, things weren't looking good.

    Aileen Geving missed the mark on both of her shots, giving Sweden even more of an advantage. For the final few throws, all Sweden had to do was keep knocking out the stones the USA placed on the sheet. By the time Nina Roth got to throw her two stones as the skip, stealing a point was an impossible task.

    Sweden ended up scoring three in the final end, sending USA to its second consecutive 9-6 loss.

    Instead of finishing in a tie for fourth and having a shot at a medal, the Americans fell all the way into eighth place.

Winner: Germany Men's Hockey

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    Patrick Reimer
    Patrick ReimerJamie Squire/Getty Images

    Through three of four quarterfinals games, it looked like the men's hockey tournament was going to play to form. Czech Republic, Canada and the Olympic Athletes from Russia received byes into the quarterfinals for their success in group play and proceeded to advance to the semifinals. (Although, OAR was the only one to do so comfortably.)

    But No. 1 seed Sweden ran into a problem against Germany.

    The Swedes swept their way through group play, winning those three games by a combined score of 8-1. They defeated Germany 1-0 during that time.

    The Germans would have their revenge, though.

    Germany jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period. The score held there until the third, when Sweden stormed all the way back with three goals in the span of just over five minutes. Germany also found the net during that goal bonanza, leading to an overtime session with the teams knotted up at three.

    If necessary, they would have played 10 minutes before entering into a shootout, but Patrick Reimer made sure that didn't happen, scoring the game-winning goal for Germany 90 seconds into the extra period.

    Germany will now face Canada in the semifinals on Thursday night (Friday morning in Canada).

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