Wednesday Olympic Daily Digest: How Shaun White Enters The History Books With His Third Gold Medal
With his victory in the snowboarding halfpipe on Wednesday night in PyeongChang, Shaun White set milestones in U.S. and Olympic history.
His final score of 97.75 secured him his third Olympic gold medal and completed the comeback after a disappointing fourth place finish at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. Japan's Ayumu Hirano and Australia's Scotty James finished second and third for silver and bronze, respectively.
With some help from Olympic historian Bill Mallon, here's a look at how Shaun White made history:
• White's medal is the 100th by the United States in Olympic history. The first gold medal was won by Charley Jewtraw in the 500 meter speed skating event at the 1924 Olympics in Chamonix, France.
• He became the first snowboarder to win three Olympic gold medals. He tied fellow American Kelly Clark as the first snowboarder to win three Olympic medals in their respective careers. Clark won a gold medal in the women's half pipe at the 2002 Olympics and then a bronze medal at the 2010 and 2014 Olympics for the halfpipe.
• While there were many people tossing around the goat emoji for White on Twitter, White sits third on the U.S. all-time list for most Winter Olympic gold medals. Eric Heiden has five gold medals from his sweep of the speed skating events at the 1980 Games. Bonnie Blair has five gold medals from speed skating as well.
• White is the first American man to win gold medals at three Winter Olympics. Bonnie Blair accomplished the feat with her gold medals at the 1988, 1992 and 1994 Olympics. White and Blair are the only U.S. athletes to medal three times in the same event at the Winter Olympics. Apolo Anton Ohno also medaled at the three Olympics but they were not all gold.
• White went 12 years between his first gold medal, which came at the 2006 Olympics, and his third medal. That marks a U.S. record for most years between golds.
Mallon has more in-depth stats on his blog post, which I highly encourage you to keep tabs on if you're an Olympics junkie. Mallon unfortunately was diagnosed with a small stroke while in South Korea and headed home for the remainder of the Games. He appears to be feeling better and tweeted a quote from 1912 Olympian George S. Patton explaining why he's still blogging: "I love it. God help me, I do love it so.”
Here's a rundown of biggest stories from the past 24 hours:
• For the first time since 1998, the United States hockey team dropped its opener at the Olympics. The U.S. lost 3–2 in overtime to Slovenia. Jan Mursak scored the game-winning goal 38 seconds into overtime. The U.S. will look to rebound against Slovakia on Friday.
• Heather Richardson Bergsma, who is the reigning world champion in speedskating's 1,000 meter distance, finished eighth in the final. She also finished eighth in the 1,500 meters. Bergsma has 34 World Cup medals at 1,000 meters including 20 gold. She will also race the 500 meters on Sunday, which is the third of five events for her at this Olympics. Jorien ter Mors won the gold medal in an Olympic record and kept the Netherlands at 5-for-5 in speedskating gold medals.
• China's Wenjing Sui and Cong Han are in first place following the pairs figure skating short program.
Must Watch Events
Women's Alpine Skiing (Starts at 7:30 p.m. ET)
After yet another delay, Mikaela Shiffrin will make her PyeongChang debut three days after initially expected after the giant slalom race was postponed due to dangerous winds. Shiffrin is one of the biggest American stars of this year's Winter Games since becoming the youngest Olympic slalom champion at 18 years old in 2014. Since Sochi, she continued making history by becoming the first woman to win three slalom world titles in 78 years. She could become the first woman to win the slalom gold medal in consecutive Olympic games.
Men's Alpine Skiing (Starts at 9:30 p.m. ET)
There is no true American threat for the medals in the men's downhill but Austria's Matthias Mayer is the reigning Olympic champion looking to make history as the first man to win back-to-back golds. Keep an eye on Switzerland's Beat Feuz, who is the world champion in the event.
Figure Skating (Starts at 8:30 p.m. ET)
Alexa Scimeca Knierim and Chris Knierim are the lone U.S. pair in PyeongChang and will compete in their free skate.
Women's Hockey (Starts at 10:10 p.m. ET)
The United States women get a rematch against Canada in group play. Canada is the four-time defending Olympic champion but the United States has won the last three IIHF Women's World Championship titles. The U.S. women opened play with a 5–0 victory over the Olympic Athletes from Russia.
Tweet of the Day
Saturday Night Live's Leslie Jones was the star of the Rio Olympics and landed a gig with NBC for Pyeongchang. Mr. T is on his way to getting a job with them for Tokyo 2020.
Daily Reading and Video
• Michael Rosenberg on Shaun White rekindling that feeling of invincibility in his gold medal redemption tour.
• Tim Layden on whether the delays could hurt or help Mikaela Shiffrin's quest for gold.
• Amy Parlapiano awards medals for skating music choices
• Alice Park on the performance of the North Korean skaters and the size of their cheering section, highlighting an entertaining night of figure skating.
• Layden introduces you to Codie Bascue, who is USA's fearless bobsled driver who hails from a remote town that's never had an Olympian until now
Athletes To Root For
If you've been having fun rooting for U.S. snowboarders, Mick Dierdorff and Hagen Kearney should be next on your list. They will go for gold in the snowboard cross final and appear to be long shots for the gold medal. Pierre Vaultier of France won the world championships last year and looks to defend his Olympic gold medal. Kearney was seventh at worlds last year.
