The Milan Cortina Olympics had a bit of everything Wednesday: redemption for a U.S. skiing great, inspiration from a relentless American snowboarder, more cross-country skiing history, a men’s hockey quarterfinals to remember, another Olympic proposal, and a dog making a tension-breaking cameo.
Here are five of the top stories from Day 12 of the Winter Games:
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Mikaela Shiffrin ends Olympic medal drought, dominates for gold in slalom
Mikaela Shiffrin exorcised her recent Olympic demons on Wednesday in Cortina with a redemptive gold medal in the women’s slalom.
Shiffrin came into this year’s Games with more World Cup wins than any other skier, male or female, period. But she still arrived in Italy with something to prove because, after scattering two golds and a silver across her first two Olympics — Sochi in 2014 and PyeongChang in 2018 — she didn’t medal in Beijing four years ago. In fact, she didn’t even finish three of her events during the 2022 Games. Then, this year, she struggled in the women’s team combined event, failing to reach the podium even after teammate Breezy Johnson established a lead in the downhill portion of the competition. Just three days ago, Shiffrin finished 11th in the giant slalom.
Flash forward to Wednesday, and Shiffrin zoomed to the bottom of the mountain and back to the top of the skiing world when she crushed the field with a pair of the legacy-defining runs. Shiffrin recorded the fastest time in her first run. After watching skiers ahead of her spin out or DQ, she maintained an even keel and stayed aggressive amid her second run, transforming her already significant 0.82-second lead into a 1.5-second domination. That margin of victory, according to NBC’s Nick Zaccardi, is the largest in any Olympic Alpine skiing event since 1998. The monkey is off Shiffrin’s back, and the gold is once again around her neck. She’s the first American woman skier to win three Olympic gold medals, and she now holds titles as both the youngest and oldest American woman to win Alpine gold. She was 18 in 2014. She’s 30 in these Games.
U.S. and Canada men’s hockey both need OT to advance to semifinals
Quinn Hughes of the Minnesota Wild lit the lamp three-plus minutes into 3-on-3 overtime to push Team USA past Sweden 2-1 and into the men’s hockey semifinals. The Americans needed overtime because Sweden’s Mika Zibanejad slapped a shot by U.S. netminder Connor Hellebuyck for the game-tying goal with 91 seconds left in regulation. The Swedes provided a stiff, NHL-themed test. The Americans passed, albeit in OT. They’ll now play Slovakia in the semis.
Earlier in the day, Canada booked its spot in the semifinals, but only after it outlasted Czechia in overtime. The Canadians were down 2-1 after the first period, marking the first time Team Canada had trailed in the Olympics with NHL players since 2010, according to The Athletic’s Michael Russo. Then, with less than eight minutes to go in the third period, Ondřej Palát scored to put Czechia up 3-2. Fortunately for Canada, Montreal Canadiens center Nick Suzuki saved the nation from the embarrassment of an early exit with a deflected goal. Mitch Marner completed the comeback, scoring less than two minutes into OT with a backhand winner.
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Team Canada didn’t make it out unscathed. It lost captain Sidney Crosby to a lower-body injury. The Canadians will play Finland next.
Team USA earns silver in cross-country team sprint, but Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo joins rare air with tenth gold
This sounds like a broken record, but Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo just broke another Winter Games record. In the men’s cross-country skiing team sprint on Wednesday, the 29-year-old Klaebo and his Norwegian teammate, Einar Hedegart, took gold. Klaebo now has five gold medals at this year’s Games, and a record-breaking 10 overall at the Winter Games. He joins Michael Phelps as the only athletes to collect at least 10 Olympic golds. Phelps, the most-decorated Olympic swimmer, has 23 golds, eight of which he won during the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.
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The American men gave Klaebo and Hedegart a run for their money. In fact, Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher finished only 1.4 seconds behind them for the silver. Schumacher made a push, however, Klaebo preserved Norway’s lead on the final hill.
Last week, Ogden became the first U.S. men’s cross-country skier to medal since 1976, with a silver in the cross-country sprint. Now he has two Olympic medals. Schumacher has his first.
As for Klaebo, he can go 6-for-6 at these Games with a gold on Saturday in the 50-kilometer mass start. If he accomplishes that feat, he’ll accompany swimmers Phelps, Mark Spitz and Kristin Otto, plus gymnast Vitaly Scherbo, as Olympians with at least six gold medals at a single Games, per ESPN.
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U.S. snowboarder Jake Canter rides to bronze in slopestyle nine years after suffering life-threatening brain injury
The triumphant and celebratory words that burst from the mouth of a fiery Jake Canter — “Let’s go! Come on!” — were laced with relentless passion. He had just stuck the landing on his final run of the men’s snowboard slopestyle Wednesday in Italy, where he eventually won bronze after sweating out the rest of the field as he clung to a top-three finish.
The 22-year-old Colorado native took home the Aspen World Cup in January, and now he’s an Olympic medalist nine years after suffering a traumatic brain injury that put him in a coma for four days when he was just 13. That life-threatening injury took place on a trampoline at an action-sports camp, as reported by The Associated Press. He was kicked in the head. It was a freak accident. Six months later, he reportedly ended up in another four-day coma, that time because of meningitis. The surgery he needed called for him to learn how to walk and talk again.
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“I really just hope I made 13-year-old me lying in that hospital bed proud,” Canter said, per the AP. “This is for him, and everyone who supported me.”
In his Olympic debut, Canter delivered Team USA’s first men’s snowboard slopestyle medal since 2018, thanks to a gutsy, rotation-filled spin on his final jump.
U.S. curling has a rough day: Women can still make playoffs, but men need some help
Team USA has cooled off in curling of late. The American women missed a chance to put themselves in the playoffs on Wednesday when they let a game against Great Britain slip through their grasp in the 10th end. The U.S. women’s team was a point away from reaching the medal round. But an incredible throw by skip Rebecca Morrison helped Great Britain steal two and win 8-7.
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The American women are 5-3 in round-robin competition. A win over 6-2 Switzerland or a Great Britain loss to 2-6 Italy would clinch the U.S. women a spot in the four-team playoff field. There are more complicated ways for them to reach the semifinals, too, but those are the most clear-cut paths.
The U.S. men’s curling team technically can make the playoff as well. It’s going to need a lot more to go right, though. The American men followed three consecutive wins — and a 4-2 start — with three straight losses to end round-robin play, including a lopsided defeat that the U.S. men conceded to Great Britain on Wednesday. The young group needs Italy (4-4), Norway (4-4) and Germany (3-5) all to lose Thursday. That would force a tiebreaker the American men would own over Italy and Norway.
Highlight of the day
Hilary Knight, a linchpin of the gold-medal-contending U.S. women’s hockey team, proposed to American speedskater Brittany Bowe this week. The couple connected at the 2022 Games in Beijing.
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“Olympics brought us together. This one made us forever,” Knight wrote in her Instagram caption on Wednesday.
Knight, 36, has won four Olympic medals — three silvers and a gold — and Bowe, 37, has two bronzes to her name. This is their last Olympics.
Medals are being handed out in Italy, and so are rings. This isn’t the first proposal of these Games.
Perhaps most notably, after U.S. downhill skiing gold medalist Breezy Johnson crashed out of the women’s super-G last week, she got engaged to her boyfriend, Connor Watkins.
Others have tied the knot, too.
One more thing
Dogs are fun-loving creatures that just keep on giving — not only love but also iconic moments. Another was on display Wednesday during a qualifying round of the women’s cross-country team sprint.
A 2-year-old Czechoslovakian wolfdog named Nazgul was seen running alongside skiers and even racing past the finish line. He reportedly is local and had escaped from his owner before embarking on a journey that made headlines everywhere.
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Nazgul was eventually returned to his owner with tale that will have other pups wagging their tails.
