Canada scored another snowboarding medal on Day 9 of the Beijing Olympics, while the men’s hockey team’s first matchup with the United States ended in disappointment.
Here’s what you may have missed overnight from Friday night to Saturday morning.
Canada’s Eliot Grondin and Meryeta O’Dine won the bronze medal in the Olympic debut of mixed snowboard cross.
Grondin and O’Dine had already claimed the silver and bronze, respectively, in individual competition earlier in the week.
The duo sailed through the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds as Grondin set big leads in his opening runs, giving O’Dine the advantage in the staggered starts for the women.
But Grondin was finally overtaken in the final and finished third, while O’Dine — who did her best to get into second position — fell halfway through her last run. She still managed to finish third after a delay.
The United States won the gold while one of Italy’s two teams in the final claimed silver.
Fellow Canadians Liam Moffatt and Tess Critchlow were knocked out in the quarterfinals after finishing third in their heat.
Canada’s Meryeta O’Dine and Eliot Grondin celebrate their bronze medal in mixed team snowboard cross at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in Zhangjiakou, China on Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick.
skp/JFJ
Team Canada’s first matchup with chief rivals the United States ended in disappointment with a 4-2 loss in men’s preliminary play.
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Canada’s Mat Robinson got the first goal of the game less than two minutes into the first period but the U.S. quickly tied it up and later made it 2-1 heading into the second.
The U.S. scored once again before Corban Knight made a shorthanded goal that raised Canada’s hopes again — only to be dashed when the U.S. scored in the third and kept Canada from gaining any more ground.
Canada will next face China on Sunday.
Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin and Valerie Maltais finished second in the women’s team pursuit quarterfinals, with a time just half a second behind the Japanese team — who set a new Olympic record.
Both trios will join the Netherlands and the Russian Olympic Committee in the semifinals and hopefully the medal final on Tuesday.
Weidemann will be looking for her third Beijing medal after winning silver and bronze in individual events.
In the men’s 500-metre final, Laurent Dubreuil finished milliseconds short of making the medal podium with a final time of 34.522 — a disappointing result for the ranking champion heading into the Games.
Fellow Canadians Gilmore Junio and Antoine Gelinas-Beaulieu finished 21st and 29th, respectively.
Canada’s women’s team suffered another loss on the rink, falling to Sweden 7-6.
The squad now holds a 1-2 record in the round robin ahead of their next match against Switzerland on Sunday.
The men’s team also fell to Sweden 7-4 later in the day, giving them a 2-2 record as they look towards Sunday’s matchup against the United States.
The Canadian team of Katherine Stewart-Jones, Dahria Beatty, Cendrine Browne and Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt finished in ninth place in the women’s 4×5-kilometre relay final.
The team finished 3:40 minutes behind the Russian Olympic Committee, who took gold while Germany and Sweden nabbed silver and bronze.
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