Olympics Today: Girard, Boutin continue speed skating medal rush

Shi Davidi and Arash Madani go over the first eight days of the Pyeongchang Olympics including the great performances of Mikael Kingsbury and Kim Boutin under immense pressure.

During each day of the Games, Olympics Today will keep you up to date on the biggest news and happenings, on and off the field of play.

Key Links:

Medal Standings
Full Olympic Coverage
Sportsnet’s Olympic Broadcast Schedule

While you were sleeping…

Girard goes for Gold
Samuel Girard won his first career Olympic medal, securing gold in the short track speed skating’s 1000-metre event. Girard brought home Canada’s first-ever gold and first Olympic medal in the event since Salt Lake City in 2002.

Girard won silver in the 1000-metres at the 2016 world championships and also climbed the podium twice at the 1000-metre distance during the fall World Cup season. Girard controlled all nine laps and was able to get out of trouble from the other five skaters.

The Ferland-et-Boilleau, Que. native controversially qualified for the final after crossing the line last in his semifinal, but advanced in the final; because fellow Canadian Charles Hamelin, was penalized after review. One Canadian’s loss was another one’s gain in the form of yet another speed skating medal.

Another Bronze for Boutin
What an Olympic Games for Kim Boutin, who won another speed skating bronze Saturday morning. Boutin’s third-place finish with a time of 2:25.834 is the first time Canada has won a medal in the women’s 1500M short track speed skating event.

Boutin’s performance Saturday makes her the first Canadian to win two medals in individual short track events at the same Olympics. Her second bronze is a nice token, as her previous race was overcome with controversy as South Korean fans felt she impeded Choi Min-jeong, who was disqualified. South Korean fans bombarded Boutin’s social media with threats and accusations of cheating in the 500-metre race. She was shook with emotion crying on the podium and the warm-up skate Saturday morning.

Now there will only be tears of joy for the 23-year-old from Sherbrooke, Que., as she receives another medal to validate her incredible skating.

Ledecka surprises to make history
The story of the games thus far might be the snowboarder who took over Super-G skiing and shocked the world and herself by winning the gold medal.

Ester Ledecka from the Czech Republic went from 26th place, all the way to first. She won by stealing the gold from Austria’s Anna Veith, the defending Olympic gold medallist in this event, and was just as stunned as Ledecka. Veith was in position to win it all with a time of 1:21.12, but Ledecka crossed the finish line one one-hundredth of a second faster to win her first career Olympic gold. Such an unlikely occurrence NBC left their coverage of the women’s Super-G having anointed the Austrian the gold-medal winner because they didn’t think anyone outside of top 19 could win.

Since skiing is her second sport, Ledecka wasn’t expected to come close to the Super-G podium, especially since she was competing with borrowed skis. Ledecka won the Super G using Mikaela Shiffrin’s skis. She had never even won a super-G medal at the world championships, either. Ledecka already made history at the Olympics, becoming the first athlete to compete in snowboarding and skiing.

Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather finished third, joining Ledecka and Veith on the podium. American Lindsey Vonn failed to finish in the top five, finishing tied for sixth with Federica Brignone of Italy with a time of 1:21.49. Vonn, was supposed to be the feel-good story of this race as she is returning to the Olympics after knee injuries forced her out of the 2014 Sochi Games. Her final stretch of the course is what kept her from earning a medal as she bobbled, nearly crashed, and had to fight to regain her balance. Vonn can redeem herself Wednesday in the ladies’ downhill.

Golden Iron Man
South Korea’s Sungbin Yun is the first Asian to win a sliding medal, and it was gold, no less. Wearing his famous Iron Man helmet, Yun dominated the men’s skeleton in Pyeongchang with the time of 3:20.55.

Last, but first in your heart
An equally heartwarming story was about a last-place finisher. Mexican skier German Madrazo crossed the finish line in the 15km freestyle skiing event celebrating, despite being at the bottom of the pack. He was welcomed by competitors from Colombia, Tonga, Morocco and Portugal. The 43-year-old took up skiing just 13 months ago.

Madrazo finished 115th, 25 minutes behind the winner. When he did finish, he celebrated more enthusiastically than the actual medallists. He didn’t win a medal but he won over the hearts of the crowd. He is one of just four athletes to represent Mexico at the Olympics. Before the games he wrote this Facebook post that encompasses the Olympic spirit.

Prominent Canadians in action on Day 9:

Here is what’s on tap events-wise for Canadian athletes (all times Eastern):

• Curling: Feb. 17, 7:05 p.m. – Feb. 18, 12:05 a.m.

Men’s Curling Round-Robin – Switzerland vs Canada (7:05 p.m.)
Canada’s Kevin Koe looked very sharp in a 7-6 win over South Korea in men’s curling. In a matchup between the two best teams in the field, Canada lost on Friday to Sweden 5-2. Their record now stands at 4-1. They look to get back to winning ways on the pebbled ice versus the Swiss.

Women’s Curling Round-Robin – Canada vs Switzerland (12:05 a.m.)
Rachel Homan’s rink have got a win under their belt improving to 1-3. The Canadians dominated in a 11-3 victory over Nina Roth of the United States. Next up for the Ottawa based team is a matchup against Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni. There is still time to turn things around as round-robin play continues through Wednesday and the medal games are set for next weekend.

• Hockey: Feb. 18, 7:10 a.m.
Men’s Hockey Group A – Canada vs South Korea (7:10 a.m.)

Just like in 1998 the Czech Republic beat Canada in the shootout dropping their record to 1-1. Canada are back-to-back gold medalists so dropping a game early is a surprise but not the end of the world. Canada’s final preliminary game will be Sunday against the Republic of Korea. The Canadians still have an outside shot at finishing at the top of the group with a win and a Czech loss to the Swiss.

Sportsnet dispatches from Korea:

• Shi Davidi is hard at work and detailed how Boutin overcomes social media threats to claim her second Olympic bronze.

• The Interview with Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will get you in the mood to watch Olympic figure skating. Kristina Rutherford will be covering the skate program throughout the Games and she’s quite hilarious so give her a follow on Twitter for updates from Korea.

• Shi Davidi also explained why Canada’s loss to Czech Republic is a tale of missed opportunities.

• This is the first Canadian Olympic team without NHL players since the 1994 group won silver in Lillehammer. For more on how the men’s hockey team came together, check out this Big Read from Daniel Nugent-Bowman: Redefining Team Canada.

• And of course, follow Davidi (@shidavidi), who will be covering the men’s tournament. He wrote this oral history on the 1994 men’s Olympic hockey tournament.

Sportsnet Tonight
Feb. 16: Meagan Duhamel on making the poidum in Pyeongchang.
February 16 2018
Download

Proud to be Canadian

It wasn’t the result Patrick Chan was looking for, but the effort was something he and all Canadians could be proud of. Chan was sixth going in to the free skate after the short program. Chan finished his competitive career with a 173.42 and a 263.43, which wasn’t enough to put him in medal contention. He finished ninth overall in his final Olympic Winter Games. His Olympics were a success, however.

Chan started off strong with a beautiful quad triple toe. After falling on the triple axel during the short program, he hung in and executed it twice in the long program.

“Today my small little goal was to land both axels and I did that,” said Chan. He also was instrumental in Canada winning gold in the team event. Chan finishes his career as a 10-time Canadian champion, a three-time World champion, a three-time Olympic medallist and one of the most decorated figure skaters in Canada’s history.

[relatedlinks]

Elsewhere on the web:

• Alice Park of Time writes “How Adam Rippon Found His Voice and Became America’s New Winter Olympics Star.”

• Read all about Keegan Messing’s unconventional road to the Pyeongchang Olympics in the Globe and Mail.

• The National Post reports on how Canadian women’s hockey maintains an Olympic edge.

• Cheang Ming of CNBC explains how the Winter Olympics have boosted the profile of long down jackets.

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.