BEIJING — SLOWED TO A CRAWL
With gold and silver out of the equation and a bronze medal up for grabs, it all came down to who could crawl the fastest. After Italy's Caterina Carpano knocked down Canada's Meryeta O'Dine in the big final of the mixed snowboard cross, both athletes needed to crawl up the first jump — with their feet still strapped in their boards — just to get their races going again. O'Dine was the first one up and beat Carpano to the finish to claim bronze with partner Eliot Grondin. "Honestly, it felt ridiculous for a little bit, but you can't really feel ridiculous when you're trying to get to the finish line for a medal," said O'Dine. It was Canada's fifth snowboarding medal and 13th overall. Lindsey Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner won gold for the United States.
DUBREUIL DOESN'T DELIVER
It was going to be difficult for Canada's Laurent Dubreuil to follow his world championship with another gold after China's Gao Tingyu set an Olympic record. But a medal in the men's 500 metres was certainly on the table by the time Dubreuil's turn was up — the final pairing of the event. The Canadian came close, finishing fourth and missing the podium by three hundredths of a second. The 29-year-old from Levis, Que., tried looking for positives after the event despite being upset. “It’s disappointing for sure," said Dubreuil. "But at the same time, fourth in the world at anything is still good. It's just not good enough to get on the podium today, unfortunately.”
RIVALRY RENEWED
The last time Canada played the United States in men's hockey at the Olympics was in Sochi 2014. Canada's star-studded NHL roster ground out a 1-0 victory in the semifinal on the way to winning gold. Eight years later, the rosters looked very different — and so did the result. The Americans took advantage of some shaky goaltending to defeat Canada 4-2 in the preliminary round. An unsteady Edward Pasquale made 23 saves in defeat. The 31-year-old reigning KHL goalie of the year blamed himself for the loss, but his coach and teammates came to his defence. "We have to look at this loss collectively and not necessarily point the finger," coach Claude Julien said. "For 20 minutes, I thought they really dominated us. "That's not on Eddie. That's on the rest of us."
CAN'T SOLVE SWEDEN
Canada was in a position to beat Sweden with its final stone in two separate curling matches. But both the Canadian men and women's teams failed to convert their chances, losing for the second time in a row. Brad Gushue threw just 57 per cent overall — by far the lowest numbers of the eight players on the ice — in a 7-4 loss to Sweden's Niklas Edin. His final shot of the match was off the mark. Earlier at the Ice Cube, Jennifer Jones dropped a 7-6 decision to Anna Hasselborg. Jones had a chance to score three in the 10th end but settled for one. A third defeat would essentially shift things into must-win mode for either team.
DANCING INTO SIXTH
Skating to Elton John and dressed in neon orange bodysuits, Canadian ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier looked like they were having a ball while skating to a sixth-place showing in rhythm dance on Saturday. The Canadian pair, who are the reigning world bronze medallists, scored 83.52 points. Mistakes on their "twizzles" cost the pair precious points and put them well back of French frontrunners Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, the four-time world champions, who scored 90.83 to move into first place. The Canadians are still within striking distance of a medal but will need a big performance in Monday's free skate to reach the podium. "I think we are just really proud of ourselves. This program is something we really love to do and love to perform, so I think being able to do it out on the ice on an Olympic stage is an honour," said Gilles.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 12, 2022.
The Canadian Press
