Beijing 2022 Olympics Day 13 recap: Canada win women's hockey gold, Thompson earns ski cross silver
Canada are back on top of the women's hockey pyramid
If you had asked fans of Canadian Olympic sports which medal they wanted most at Beijing 2022, many would have answered the gold medal in women’s hockey. After winning four straight Olympic tournaments from 2002-2014, Canada was defeated by the rival United States in the 2018 final, losing in a shootout — the cruelest way to lose any sporting event. After four years of waiting, Canada got a chance at redemption on day 13, taking on the Americans in the gold medal game, and they took that chance.
Sarah Nurse and Marie-Philip Poulin scored in the first period for Canada, and Poulin added another in the second period, giving themselves a commanding 3-0 lead. Hilary Knight scored a powerplay goal to bring the Americans back within two heading into a tense final period. In the third, it remained 3-1 until the final seconds, when Amanda Kessel scored to make it 3-2, but it was too little, too late and Canada held on for the victory, putting themselves back on top of the podium.
Incredibly, that was the third time Poulin scored the gold medal-winning goal for Canada at the Olympics (she also scored the winner at the 2021 world championships), and she became the first hockey player ever to score in four straight Olympic finals.
Nurse led the tournament with 18 points, a new Olympic record. She, along with Poulin, Breanne Jenner and Claire Thompson were named to the tournament’s all-star team.
Canada also won another medal on day 13, silver medal in ski cross. Sochi 2014 gold medalist Marielle Thompson made it back to the final, and was on the outside looking in for most of the race. Needing to make a move in order to leave Beijing with a medal around her neck, she leapfrogged two skiers ahead of her in a swift move around a turn, propelling herself into silver medal position. She hung on for the remainder of the race, earning her second Olympic medal.
Three Canadians — Brittany Phelan, Courtney Hoffos and Hannah Schmidt — competed in the small final after losing their semifinal races, and finished 1-2-3, respectively, to finish fifth through seventh overall.
Thompson’s medal was Canada’s 20th of Beijing 2022 — four gold, five silver and eleven bronze.
Also in freestyle skiing, Canada had a huge day in ski halfpipe, as all six Canadians — three men and three women — qualified for the finals. Rachael Karker was the best Canadian on the women’s side, finishing second the qualifying, a few spots ahead of reigning Olympic champion Cassie Sharpe in sixth, and Amy Fraser in 11th, with the top 12 moving on. On the men’s side, Canada, the United States and New Zealand dominated, sending the top 9 of 12 skiers into the final between them. Brendan Mackay, Noah Bowman and Simon D’Artois will compete in the final for Canada, having finished 5th, 6th and 8th, respectively.
Chinese skier Eileen Gu, who has already won two medals at these Games — a gold in big air and a silver in slopestyle — led the way in her Olympic debut in the event, earning the only two scores of 90+, and finishing six points above second-place Karker.
Canada had a difficult day at the National Aquatics Centre, site of the men’s and women’s curling competitions. While Jennifer Jones and the women’s team beat Denmark 10-4, they finished in a tie for the final playoff spot, and missed out because of the tiebreaker. Brad Gushue’s men’s team lost their final round robin match against Great Britain, communicating poorly with each other at times and going into their semifinal later in the day with poor momentum. In that semifinal they took on Sweden, led by skip Niklas Edin, and had a chance to win with their final shot. They were down 4-3 in the 10th and final end, giving Gushue the chance to score two and advance to the gold medal game, but his shot was off by a matter of centimetres, and Edin won the game. It was a risk to not just play for one point, but Sweden would have had hammer in the extra end, and Gushue decided to go for it. Edin’s team moves on to the final and a match with Great Britain, while Canada take on the United States in the bronze medal game.
Madeline Schizas finished 19th overall in the women’s individual figure skating event, climbing a spot after being in 20th after the short program. Her free program score of 115.03 earned her a total score of 175.56. The Russian Olympic Committee and Japan dominated, with Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova finishing in first and second for the ROC and Kamila Valieva finishing fourth. Kaori Sakamoto won bronze for Japan, ahead of teammate Wakaba Higuchi in fifth.
Alexa Scott and Maddison Pearman competed for Canada in the women’s 1000m final in long track speed skating, finishing 12th and 26th overall.
Roni Remme was the lone Canadian taking part in the women’s alpine combined, but she didn’t finish her downhill run, and as a result wasn’t able to compete in the slalom portion of the event.
What’s happening on day 14?
Cassie Sharpe looks to retain her Olympic title in women’s ski halfpipe, competing alongside fellow Canadians Rachael Karker and Amy Fraser. Chinese skier Eileen Gu, who has already won gold and silver medals in Beijing, will be looking to win a third as well, and was the only skier in qualifying to put up a run of over 90 points.
Also in freestyle skiing, 2018 Olympic champion Brady Leman is among four Canadians taking part in men’s ski cross. Reece Howden, Kevin Drury and Jared Schmidt will also compete, looking to follow in Marielle Thompson’s footsteps, after she won silver for Canada in the women’s event 24 hours earlier.
In long track speed skating, Laurent Dubreuil leads the way for Canada in the men’s 1000m event. Dubreuil missed the 500m podium by 0.03 seconds a few days ago, and will be looking to get himself onto the podium this time around. He’ll be joined in the final by Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu and Connor Howe.
In men’s curling, Brad Gushue and Team Canada will take on the United States in the bronze medal game. They lost the aforementioned heartbreaking game to Sweden in their semifinal, while the United States lost to Great Britain.
Finally, Scott Gow, Christian Gow and Jules Burnotte will race for Canada in the men’s 15km mass start biathlon event.
Canadian athletes competing in non-medal events on day 14:
The first two heats of the two-woman bobsleigh event take place on day 14, and Canada have three sleds taking part. The top pair is Christine de Bruin with brakewoman Kristen Bujnowski. De Bruin won bronze in the inaugural women’s monobob event a few days ago, and will be looking to take that momentum into this event. The other two Canadian sleds are Melissa Lotholz with brakewoman Sara Villani and Cynthia Appiah with brakewoman Dawn Richardson Wilson.
The pairs competition is the final one on the Beijing 2022 calendar for figure skating, and two Canadian duos are taking part. Vanessa James and three-time Olympic medalist Eric Radford make up one team, while Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro are the other.
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