Pyeongchang 2018

TAKING THE PODIUM BY STORM

Team USA’s collegiate athletes took the podium by storm, after picking up medals in bobsled, cross-country skiing and speedskating. Men’s ice hockey and figure skating also took to the ice on Day 12 for the red, white and blue in PyeongChang.

Cross-country skiing

Jessie Diggins and Alaska Pacific’s Kikkan Randall won the country’s first women’s cross-country skiing medal, a gold, in the team sprint at the Alpensia Cross-Country Skiing Centre. The duo crossed the finish line in 15:56.47, just 0.19 seconds ahead of second-place finisher, Sweden. Diggins came from behind on the final sprint to overtake both Sweden and Norway for the top position.

Learn more about this historic medal on TeamUSA.org.

In the men’s team sprint freestyle, Erik Bjornsen (Alaska Pacific) and Simeon Hamilton (Middlebury) placed sixth with a time of 16:16.98. The duo battled all race, but ultimately crossed the finish 20.72 seconds behind the gold-medal pace of Norway’s 15:56.26.

Cross-country skiing competition wraps up in South Korea with the men’s 50k mass start classic and the women’s 30k mass start classic on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Bobsled

George Washington’s Elana Meyers Taylor and Brown’s Lauren Gibbs took home a silver medal in the women’s bobsled race Wednesday evening. The duo posted a four-run time of 3:22.52, just 0.07 seconds behind gold-medal winning Germany. The medal marks Meyers Taylor’s third podium finish in three Olympic appearances and Gibbs’ first Olympic medal.

Team USA’s second sled of Jamie Greubel Poser (Cornell) and Aja Evans (Illinois) finished just off the podium in fifth. The pair, who medaled in Sochi, finished with a time of 3:23.02 after entering the final two heats in third.

Get the full story on TeamUSA.org.

Speedskating

Florida Atlantic’s Brittany Bowe won her first Olympic medal, a bronze, as a member of the team pursuit Wednesday evening. Bowe, alongside teammates Heather Bergsma, Mia Manganello and Carlijn Schoutens posted a time of 2:59.27 en route to their podium finish. The third-place finish marks the first Olympic medal in the sport since 2002 and the first in the event, since its debut in 2006.

Japan won gold in a time of 2:53.89, while the Netherlands earned silver in 2:55.48.

Read more about this bronze-medal performance on TeamUSA.org.

Men’s ice hockey

The U.S. men closed out their 2018 Olympic play with a 3-2 shootout loss to the Czech Republic.

Harvard’s Ryan Donato and Michigan State’s Jim Slater scored the lone goals for Team USA, while Mercyhurst’s Ryan Zapolski registered 26 saves in net.

Donato opened a 1-0 lead for Team USA six minutes into the first period off a feed from Denver’s Troy Terry. The Czech Republic then scored two straight goals, to take a 2-1 lead. Slater later tied the game late in the second period with a shorthanded goal, assisted by Yale’s Brian O’Neill.

The two teams remained tied through the third period as well as through a 10-minute sudden-death overtime to force a shootout. During the shootout, Petr Koukal registered the lone goal to give the opponents a hard-fought victory.

Read more on the game at TeamUSA.org.

Figure Skating

Mirai Nagasu (UCCS) ended the short program in ninth place after posting a 66.93 in the first of two individual performances at the Games. With her skate, she currently sits in the top-10 alongside Team USA teammates Karen Chen and Bradie Tennell who sit in 10 and 11, respectively.

Read more on the short-program performance on TeamUSA.org.