Shiffrin and Gerard miss the podium, Figure Skating wins silver in Team Event | What You Missed
The Beijing Games are in full swing and the medals are flowing. Unfortunately for Team USA, they’re not flowing to the Americans yet. Defending gold medalists Mikaela Shiffrin and Red Gerard both came up short of medal position in their main events, but thanks to a stellar performance from Evan Bates and Madison Chock, the US grabbed the silver in the Figure Skating Team Event.
Video Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- Good morning, America. Some of team USA'S biggest names were in action overnight in Beijing, so let's get right to it and catch you up on what you might have missed. Let's start with arguably the biggest name in world skiing, Mikaela Shiffrin. Shiffrin won gold in the giant slalom in Pyeongchang, and was the favorite to defend her crown here in Beijing.
Unfortunately for Mikaela, the mountain had other plans. Shiffrin lost her edge on an early turn on her first run of the final and crashed out, ruining the chances of a repeat gold medal. With Shiffrin out, Sweden's Sara Hector took home gold just seven years after a devastating knee injury threatened her skiing career. What an awesome comeback story.
Next we head to the men's snowboarding slopestyle final, featuring defending gold medalist American Red Gerard. Gerard came out swinging with an 83.25 on his first run. Unfortunately for Red, that was as high as his scores would get. After a few bobbles on his second and third run, he came up just short of the podium, finishing in fourth place. Canadian Max Parrot laid down an awesome 90.96 to take home Canada's first slopestyle gold.
Over to Beijing's Capital Indoor Stadium for the final leg of the figure skating team event. The Americans came into the women's free skating leg in second place behind the ROC. Karen Chen took the ice for Team USA and put down a performance that was good for fourth in the event.
But thanks mostly to Evan Bates and Madison Chock's first place performance in the free dance, Team USA walked away with the silver medal. The ROC claimed the gold as 15-year-old Kamila Valieva made history as the first woman to land a quad jump in Olympic competition.
Earning the silver was a bittersweet moment for the Americans, as Vincent Zhou, who competed in the men's free skate on Sunday, was not there to celebrate the medal with his teammates. He tested positive for COVID and was still awaiting results on subsequent tests. Here's to hoping Vincent can return to competition soon.
Team USA was also active in ski jumping, speed skating, and biathlon finals, but was left off the podium in each of those events. Speaking of the podium, let's check in on the medal count. Sweden leads the gold medal standings with three medals, all of them gold.
In second, the ROC has earned two gold, three silver, and two bronze, topping the total medal standings with seven. They are followed by the Netherlands with two golds, two silver, and a bronze, and China with two golds and two silvers. Germany rounds out the top five with two golds and a silver.
As it stands, Team USA sits in 14th place with three silver medals, but there is surely more hardware to come soon. That's all we have for you today. Be sure to check in again tomorrow for all the news from around the Beijing games.