The United States leads in the medal count with 25 medals, followed by Russia with 23 and the Netherlands with 22. The U.S. is tied with Germany with 8 gold medals, but that is 2 behind Norway.
Maddie Bowman of the United States won the first-ever gold in women’s Olympic halfpipe skiing. The 20-year old Bowman scored 89.00 in the finals on Thursday night to edge Marie Martinod of France. Ayana Onozuka of Japan earned the bronze. Bowman strung together a series of spins and tricks to give the U.S. a sixth gold medal at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. With her braid spinning in the chilly night air, Bowman’s performance was just good enough.
In women’s hockey, Marie-Philip Poulin scored twice for the second straight Olympic gold medal game and Canada beat the United States 3 to 2 in overtime on Thursday for its fourth consecutive title. Canada trailed 2 to nothing before Brianne Jenner and Poulin scored in the final 3:26 of regulation, and Poulin had the game-winner with a power play goal at 8:10 of overtime. Shannon Szabados made 27 saves for Canada, which has won 20 straight in the Winter Games since the Nagano final in 1998. That was the only gold medal for the United States, which has lost in the Olympic final to Canada three times since then. Jesse Vetter made 28 saves for the Americans. Meghan Duggan and Alex Carpenter scored for the U.S. Switzerland beat Sweden for the bronze medal.
A two-goal lead blown in the final four minutes. A long shot that clanged off the post of an empty net. Two perplexing penalties in overtime, setting up a golden goal for Canada. The U.S. women’s hockey team has lost late in the last three Olympics, but never in such preposterously heartbreaking fashion as this 3 to 2 defeat on Thursday night. Kelli Stack, who nearly became an improbable hero with a long clearing attempt that hit the right post of an empty net, says “to let them come back in the gold-medal game at the Olympics is the worst feeling in the world.”
In men’s hockey, Team USA will try to extract a measure of revenge in Team Canada when the North American neighbors meet in the gold medal hockey game today. Canada’s men beat the U.S. four years ago to win the gold and yesterday the Canadian women staged a miracle comeback, rallying from two goals down in the final four minutes of regulation, to beat the U.S. women 3-2 in overtime to win the gold.