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PYEONGCHANG 2018

Feb. 17, 2018: Canada’s Kim Boutin, of Sherbrooke, Que., celebrates after winning bronze in the women’s 1500-metre short-track speedskating at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

Globe Staff

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  • Canada’s speed skaters clinched two medals on Saturday: A gold for Samuel Girard in the men’s 1,000-metre final, and a bronze for Kim Boutin in the 1,500m, her second bronze of the Games.
  • Canada’s Patrick Chan finished ninth in his final Olympic appearance. Skating to Jeff Buckley’s haunting Hallelujah, the three-time world champion from Toronto scored 173.42 points in what might have been his final competitive program, and 263.43 overall. It was a 1-2 finish for Japan, with two-time world champion Yuzuru Hanyu taking the gold medal, Shoma Uno the silver and Spain’s Javier Fernandez the bronze.
  • Canada’s men’s curling team suffered its first defeat of the round robin, losing 5-2 to Sweden. Canada’s Kevin Koe said his team “had one bad end and it cost us.”
  • Defending Olympic gold medalist Dara Howell didn’t make the podium this time around in slopestyle, failing to land either run in qualifying and finishing 21st. In the end, Switzerland’s Sarah Hoefflin claimed the gold medal, compatriot Mathilde Gremaud the silver and Britain’s Isabel Atkin the bronze.
  • In preliminary-round men’s hockey, Team Canada lost a thrilling shootout 3-2 to the Czech Republic. “I thought we played a real good game,” coach Willie Desjardins said. Cathal Kelly begs to differ.
  • The second coming of Cool Runnings was supposed to be one of the feel-good stories of the Olympics. Instead, Nathan VanderKlippe reports, the arrival of a Jamaican women’s bobsleigh team has devolved into one of the most bizarre.
  • Cathal Kelly also takes a closer look at B2ten, the Montreal-based outfit pumping millions of dollars into an elite few of our most talented amateur athletes.

What you missed

We're halfway there

Saturday marked the halfway point of the Pyeongchang Games, which end on Feb. 25. Here's how Canada's medal tally looked.

Short track speed skating (Women's 1,500m finals, Men's 1,000m finals)

Short-track speedskater Kim Boutin won her second bronze medal of the Games on Saturday when she toed the line in the women's 1,500-metre event. Marianne St-Gelais also raced in the 1,500 but didn't qualify for the final. Boutin, a racer from Sherbrooke, Que., was promoted to third in the 500 metres on Tuesday after a South Korean skater was disqualified. The result didn't sit well with some and Boutin was the target of nasty and threatening messages on social media. She set her accounts to private and the RCMP, which handles security for Canada's Olympians, is looking into the matter.

Interactive: Mass start speed skating bends the rules at Winter Olympics

New to the Olympics this year is the long-track mass-start speed-skating event. It is a hybrid of short-track action, long-track strategy and roller derby-like roughness.

Ice hockey (Men's: Canada vs. Czech Republic; Women's: Quarterfinals)

Goalie Pavel Francouz was the shootout star as the Czech Republic beat Canada 3-2.

Wojtek Wolski scored for Canada in the shootout while Maxim Lapierre, Derek Roy, Rene Bourque and Maxim Noreau missed. The game was more intense and physical than Canada's 5-1 opening win over Switzerland. The Czechs, with an effective forecheck, proved to be a stubborn opponent who twice came back from deficits.

Canada coach Willie Desjardins had asked for more consistency from his team and didn't get it. While the Canadians mounted some effective attacks, they were at sea in their own end at other times.

Anna Shokhina had two goals and two assists as the team of Olympic athletes from Russia advanced to the women's hockey semifinals against defending gold medallist Canada with an upset 6-2 win over Switzerland. The Swiss, the 2014 bronze medallist , came into the quarterfinals undefeated in winning Group B and had given up only two goals in three games.

Figure skating (Men's free skate final)

In finishing ninth in his final Olympic appearance, Patrick Chan opened with a beautiful quadruple toe loop, but tripled his second quad in a shaky skate. Chan was sixth after Friday's short program after he fell on his triple Axel. Elsewhere in the standings, 18-year-old Nathan Chen of the United States climbed up from 17th place to finish fifth, landing an Olympic-record six quads in his long program.

Feb. 17, 2018: Patrick Chan of Canada competes during the men’s single free program on Day 8 of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

Freestyle skiing (Women's freeski slopestyle final)

Four years ago in Sochi, Canada's Dara Howell shocked the world as a 19-year-old to win the inaugural Olympic freestyle skiing slopestyle event. But this time around it was a very different result, as she failed to successfully land either run during qualifying and finish 21st. With the top 12 going through to the final, Howell failed to give herself the chance to defend her Olympic title. "I wouldn't change my result today, because it defines me, makes me who I am and makes me humble," she said.

Curling (men's round robin)

Canada suffered its first loss in the curling round robin on Saturday, with Sweden beating them 5-2 to lead the men's standings with a 5-0 record. Korean fans also celebrated their team's first win of the round robin, after an 11-5 victory over Britain.

Alpine skiing (Women's super-G final)

Ester Ledecka shocked the Alpine skiing world by winning the women's super-G by one hundredth of a second to upset the race favourites and deliver the Czech Republic its first gold medal in the sport. American Lindsey Vonn, who went out first but made a mistake before the final jump and finished sixth, was stunned along with the rest of her rivals.

Skeleton (Women's skeleton runs 3-4)

Saturday's women's skeleton event was a test for a Canadian team that has completely turned over since the 2014 Sochi Games following the retirement of veterans Sarah Reid and Mellisa Hollingsworth. The medals went to Lizzy Yarnold and Laura Deas of Britain (gold and bronze) and Germany's Jacqueline Loelling (silver).

Interactive: How mental preparation is key to Olympic sledding sports

Nothing can compare to an actual run down the course, but luge, bobsleigh and skeleton athletes lean on mental visualizations as a means of practice ahead of race day.

What's coming up

All times Eastern

  • 8 p.m. Feb. 17: Freestyle skiing (Men’s freeski slopestyle)
  • 11:45 p.m. Feb. 17: Alpine skiing (Men’s giant slalom)
  • 1:15 a.m. Feb. 18: Cross-country skiing (Men’s 4x10km relay)
  • 6 a.m. Feb. 18: Speed skating (Women’s 500m, Men’s team pursuit qualifications)
  • 6:05 a.m. Feb. 18: Bobsleigh (Two-man boblseigh runs 1-2)
  • 7:10 a.m. Feb. 18: Men’s ice hockey (Canada vs. South Korea)


In case you missed it

More from The Globe

  • What does it feel like to skate the final laps of an endurace race? “Like cooking a lobster,” one speed skater told The Globe’s Grant Robertson.
  • The Globe’s Nathan VanderKlippe has the story of South Korean Yun Sung-bin, whose gold medal win elevated him from “Iron Man” to “Emperor.”
  • Two countries, four years, 10,000 metres: How Ted-Jan Bloemen went from Dutch also-ran to Canadian gold, Grant Robertson writes.
  • In Pyeongchang, the North Korean delegation’s every move is being watched, Nathan VanderKlippe writes.

Follow The Globe in Pyeongchang

With files from The Canadian Press and Reuters