Hockey Gold, Skimo and Alysa Liu

Hello and welcome to Sports Illustrated's Daily Rings, SI's Daily Olympics podcast.

I'm Mitch Golddi here as always with Dan Gartland.

GAT day 13 was a good one.

A good one and a wild one for a variety of reasons.

On the field of play, off the field of play, you know, weather concerns, it was, it was a wacky one for sure.

Yeah, I don't know how many days out of the 13 we've come on here and been like, boy, today was crazy, wasn't it?

But I, it's gotta be like 8 or 9 probably, but this one is truly, this one's at the top of the list.

I don't know if this is like number 1, I'd have to go back and look at my notes, but definitely in the top 2 or 3.

You mentioned, yeah, we gotta tee this up.

So there were like several, there were so many marquee events this afternoon that people were complaining about all of them being scheduled at the same time.

Mostly that the women's gold medal hockey game was at like at the exact same time window as the uh women's singles figure skating, free skate, um.

And then there was like women's halfpipe and men's curling all at the same time.

You mentioned the weather.

So the weather today was crazy and it resulted in, uh, skimo, which we will talk a lot about later.

Skimo and Nordic combined were basically contested in heavy snow conditions.

I don't know if it was technically a blizzard, but heavy snow.

Uh, the men's halfpipe skiing and the men's aerial skiing were both pushed back because there was too much snow.

There is a curling weather delay, which I have never heard of before for an indoor sport, but the weather was so bad that the teams had trouble getting to the arena on time, and so they had to push it back half an hour.

Just so much happening today, it was nuts.

Yeah, and it created for some great visuals, like you said, I mean, a, a shame that the schedule got kind of messed around with a little bit again, you know, I think that that men's aerials, it's like the 2nd or 3rd time it's been delayed, so those guys just sitting in the Olympic Village, you know, twiddling their thumbs waiting to finally go off those ramps.

But, uh, yeah, I mean.

You know, really like just like you said wacky, you know, wacky results, you know, some favorites who won, some favorites who didn't win, some previously thought favorites who got closer to the middle podium than they thought they would at the beginning of the day.

So, yeah, unbelievable day of action.

I don't know where you want to start.

There's so many great options there.

I think we should start with the hockey, right?

Well, listen, Alyssa Liu, we will get to you later.

I promise we will talk all about your gold medal performance.

Um, but I think let's start with the hockey just cause it was so exciting the way that it happened.

Uh, US women winning gold in a game where they were trailing 1-0 until they were almost 2 minutes left in the game, force overtime, win it in sudden death to take the gold over Canada.

Uh, I know you were glued to this one, so what else, what else do you want to say about this hockey game, cause this, this was such a great one.

Yeah, I mean, so I was a little bit surprised.

I guess I shouldn't have been, how tight it was because we had talked about how the US had really dominated this rivalry over the past couple of years and 5-0 in the preliminary round win over Canada.

So like, I mean, I, I think I even said yesterday, like, I don't know if it's gonna be that close, and I was glad I was wrong.

It was a really good game.

Um, I think it was, it was a really, it was, to an extent it was a defensive battle, but really it was a goaltending battle.

I mean, both goalies, Aaron Frankel and, and Renee DBen of of Canada, they were outstanding.

I think all three goals that were scored, really nothing any either of the goalies could have done to stop them, um, you know, that, that the first one, and we should like the, the, uh, lone Canadian goal was scored shorthanded very early in the second period.

Uh, kind of, uh, you might call it a rookie mistake by Layla Edwards, the young defenseman for the US who, um, she's a great, great player, came up huge in the overtime, but, or in the end of regulation as well.

But, um, she's only 22.

She still plays in college, the University of Wisconsin.

Uh, she was out there on a power play in her defense position, you know, got caught going in a little too deep into the offensive zone.

Canada took advantage, raced down the other end, had a great goal, you know , just an impossible move for the American goalie, Aaron Frankel to stop, um, you know, and then the two US goals.

Again, like both, you know, uh, Damian had no hope there.

It was just like it was the goalies were great.

Um, you know, they really kept their teams in it.

And then it took 3, it took 2, you know, on the US side, 2 really great shots, uh, unstoppable , but, you know, 1 deflection and one amazing dee to, to beat the Canadian goalie and take home that gold medal.

Yeah, and, and it really looked like the US is running out of time.

Um, we should also mention, so in the 3rd period, when they're still frantically down by a goal, Canada had a power play with like 6:30 or so left in the 3rd period on a boarding call.

And so that is just like so deflating when you're down by a goal and you need everything you can get, and you know that, you know, almost a third of the clock is going to be chewed up by a power play.

Uh, we should mention Hilary Knight scored the goal, which is very cool.

This was her 15th.

We talked about this coming into the Olympics, that she had a great chance to break the all-time Olympic goal scoring record.

Frankly, we thought she would have it by now, especially considering they had scored like 32, 31 goals, I think, in their 1st 6 games, um, but she scores it here in the biggest possible spot.

Um, and she's just such a legend.

I love this, uh, during the broadcast, they showed photos of her with her current teammates, like when she was already a legend and they were just kids and, and cause it's like, oh, you know, I'm an elite, uh, you know, 11 year old or 10-year-old or whatever it is going to some like skills camp or whatever put on by Team USA or this local program or whatever.

Like Hilary Knight comes in as like the, oh my God, like Hilary Knight is here, and she's, you imagine she takes selfies with like every single kid at every single one of those camps, and then half the roster had photos like that with her, and I just loved that, um, just a cool like full circle thing that those, uh, you know, those girls are now out there as women skating in the Olympics on this gold medal team.

Um, so she scores on like a deflection in front of the net.

Um, and then it was Meghan Keller who scored the game winner, and she's the, uh, assistant captain on the team.

This was a great move.

She just kind of like had the puck alone and sort of like cut back like around across the defender to just like pop it in there and, um, yeah, it was just like, and it's, you know, sudden death overtime, it's just like it ends so suddenly that, I mean, that's in the name.

Obviously, but, um, it was just like, both of them were so exciting, um, just watching them come in and just the immediate emotion, and, and we'll talk a little bit, I'm sure about the bronze medal game too.

You could just see the emotions on like both of those teams as soon as that game ended.

Um, and here it was just the same way, just the game means so much, and really every Olympic event does, but this is not one of those Olympic sports.

Where the same people are going to compete for like 4 medals in the same Olympics, or it's like, oh, if I lose the 500, I can compete in the 1000.

This is like one medal event that matters so much to all of them, and you get one chance every 4 years, and this was the rivalry game that they wanted set up and they got it and won gold, and, and I just love that that like people care about it so much, and then it just means so much to the athletes and the fans and so many people watching, just a very, very cool moment.

Yeah, that Keller goal, you mean that toe drag move to to beat her defender was like unbelievable.

I mean, I was already exclaiming when she just made the deek and then when she backhands at home, I was like, what, like, you know, just like a crazy maybe like what, like without exaggeration, one of the greatest like winning , like series winning or championship winning goals ever in the history of hockey, like just really unbelievable skill on display there.

I don't want to overlook though, the pass by, uh , let me make sure I get the name correct.

Taylor Heisey, she's like a 100 ft pass from like the American goal line up to to Keller, uh, you know, just past the red line.

She had this amazing pass to, to reach, uh, Keller, spring her free for that goal.

I mean, it was like, that's like almost as good as, as the Dee that scored the goal.

It was, it was incredible.

And also Keller, she had the secondary assist on Knight's, um, on Knight's game tying goal.

She was the one who passed it up to the point for Layla Edwards and then threw it in front of the net and allowed Knight to tip it home.

Yeah, so huge game for her, uh, you know, she gets it, she'll have that goal forever.

It's like unbelievable, um, and, and really I feel like this was such a dominant team, just like such a team effort the entire way through the Olympics.

This is the first game that was close, um, but so cool to have a couple of standouts who are who had their moments.

Um, let me give a few, uh, stats here in the aftermath of the game.

So we mentioned this is the 8th time, um, that they have had women's.

Hockey at the Olympics.

The US and Canada have combined to win all eight of those gold medals.

This was the seventh time that they met in the gold medal game.

For the US, this is the third time their women win gold.

Nagano 98, Pyeongchang 2018, Milan 2026.

Now, I want to give you just a few stats about how dominant they were on this run, as I feel like, you know, we've talked about it every game they've had since, but now that the run is over, when you look at it in totality, it's really otherworldly.

They went 7-0 in their seven games.

They had a goal differential that was 33 to 2.

Remember they had a 352 minute shutout streak, which is almost 6 entire games.

That is an Olympic record by a wide margin.

They scored 5 goals in 6 straight games.

They beat Canada twice, and they won the gold medal, just like an all-time run from this hockey team.

We're gonna be talking about this one for a very long time .

Now Canada, uh, yeah, obviously it's a big rivalry and Canada's upset to lose this one, but you mentioned that boarding penalty, Mitch.

That, that gives Canada an extra reason to be really upset here, cause that penalty could have easily been a major penalty that would have effectively ended the game.

So this was on, like I said, a little over 6 minutes left.

Britta Curl Salemi has this brutal boarding penalty, um, you know, in the defensive end, and the referees take a little while to review and say, all right, is this gonna be a 2 minute minor or is it gonna be a 5 minute major?

Um, and a 5 minute major, crucially, like that , like, even if Canada would score on the ensuing power play, that penalty is, is not released, you know, you stay in, in the box for the full 5 minutes to like 1 minute and a half minutes left.

So like, it would have really like killed the game for the US if they're, if they're down, like you said, if they were on a power play for even 1/3 of the game time, now they're on power play for like 80% of the game time, like they would have been really in a tough spot.

Um, and so, you know, the, but the call, and I mean it was a, it was a bad penalty, um.

You know, easily could have been a major, and I think, you know, Canadians obviously are, are, you know, are going to see it one way and maybe Americans another way, but uh it really easily could have been a major.

Uh, I think, you know, the, the, the announcements was talking about how the, the refs are really letting them play, you know, like we're talking about how this, this game is more physical these days, you know, that they've adjusted the rules to allow the women to be more physical.

Um, but, you know, Carlson I mean they're in a, in a situation where she should, you know, she was not, uh, in within her rights to be that, that physical.

Um, and it really could have been a major penalty that, uh, that, you know, even, even still with that 2 minute major with that 2 minute minor, I'm sorry, um, you know, became a real, a real turning point.

Canada dictated the play during those 2 minutes and even for a couple minutes after that, they really maintained possession in the offensive zone that really sucked the air out of the US and they were lucky to rebound.

Yeah, it's uh, it's, it's sports.

The refs are gonna get involved.

We've, uh, we've seen that in a handful of sports so far, these Olympics, sometimes much more directly in some of the sports that are judged, um, some of the, you know, the big air and the figure skating, there have been some, uh, refs scoring and judging controversies.

I will say the one, the saving grace is that that happened, uh, at the end of regulation, and so thankfully there was, I don't think anything controversial happened in overtime, and it's one of those things where You know, every team, you got to be able to say like, OK, like shake that one off and, and, you know, that call didn't go our way, but at, at that point, it was, you know, 20 minutes of sudden death and, and both teams are in the same game and, uh, you know, things are even and, and the US scored again.

So, fair, listen, if I was a Canadian fan, I'm sure I would be mad about the penalty and probably complaining about it.

We've, we've all been in that position after our team loses a big game.

Um, but yeah, I, I like at least that it wasn't an over.

Overtime and, and overtime seemed, uh, you know, fair and square and, and came down to a great player making a great play to win the game.

The bronze medal game also incredible, we should say.

Uh, Switzerland again prevailing in overtime, so many overtime games in these hockey playoff rounds.

Just, I mean, unbelievable game there.

Um, it was a different overtime though.

I think if we can just take a , like, skip forward to the end of this one, it took, so this was a, a 10 minute overtime.

The rules are a little bit different in the gold medal.

Game versus the bronze in the gold medal game, they put 20 minutes on there for 3 on 3 overtime, a little ambitious if you ask me.

I don't know how many elite hockey teams are going 20 minutes 3 on 3 without scoring a goal, but, um, at least in the in the bronze medal game, it's only 10 minutes.

Um, and they took nearly all the 10 minutes, over 9 minutes to score that winning goal because they're playing these teams a little bit cautiously.

Um, but yeah, eventually Switzerland did get that winning goal over Sweden and a great victory for them.

Yeah, I didn't catch as much of this game, just other things happening at the same time, but I saw that, uh, we should say Sweden was up 1-0, and then, uh, Switzerland, uh, scored the equalizer and won the game.

So that is just, that's hard for, I mean, I guess the same, actually the same thing happened in the US-Canada game also.

Both teams that were ahead 1-0, uh, gave up the goal that tied it and then, and then lost in overtime.

Yeah, so it's gotta be what, 5 of the last 6 games.

Have gone to overtime because it was 3 out of 4 of the, uh, men's quarterfinals yesterday and then both of the women's medal games here.

So, uh, yeah, uh, a lot for the men, for the, uh, men's medal games to live up to here.

We're on a streak of overtime.

So, the hockey's been excellent.

Um, it's one of those things where, um, you know, it's such a popular sport, uh, like every year, and then you get to the Olympics, you see some of these sports like the speed.

Skating and, uh, you know, the halfpipe stuff and the snowboarding where it's stuff that people don't pay attention to as often, and sometimes it feels like that almost like sucks the air out of the room, almost in the same way that like basketball does at the Summer Olympics.

Um, but I'm not saying like it doesn't belong here, it's just like, you see it, it's like hockey, but like, no, it, it lived up, it's just, it's been a phenomenal tournament on both sides.

We've had great games, men's and women's, and uh it has definitely been worth paying attention to.

Yeah, and it's interesting how, you know, we talk about the US and Canada, like they dominate these, these sports always in every Olympics and, you know, I think what it's every US and Canada have won every women's gold medal, either one of them.

And so, uh, that bronze medal battle is always interesting to see who's going to get there.

This is a really long awaited medal win for Switzerland.

Um, Switzerland won the 2014 bronze in in Sochi, and then it won also a bronze at the 2012 World Championships.

So those are the only two major medals in international competition for the women.

So really, um, you know, a long awaited win for them and a great result, uh, you know, it was Sweden also a similar drought, and so they'll have to wait a little bit longer, but, uh, yeah, Switzerland breaking that streak and getting a long awaited medal.

Yeah, not a lot of medal chances when you go in knowing you're probably playing for third place, but, um, Sweden is that, by the way, Sweden's the one team that has a silver besides the US and Canada because they did make it to the finals that one time, um, and lost to Canada.

All right, we have so many other sports to cover.

Should we get to what I think after today is everyone's favorite sport now, it's of the Olympic debut of skimo, which you and I have been talking about for, uh, it feels like weeks at this point waiting for it to arrive.

I know you had that very helpful primer that you shared, and then I feel like today it totally lived up.

This was the day we thought like the, you know, the internet would be buzzing about skimo, and it felt like in the morning, this was all anyone in my social feeds was talking about.

Yeah, I really enjoyed it.

I mean, I, I, I don't think it was perfect.

I mean we can get into some, some of my gripes a little bit after, a little bit after I, uh, you know, praise it some more, but I see you have gripes.

I feel like they're probably gonna be the same .

But yeah, go ahead.

No, I mean, I, I really enjoyed it.

I, I did like the, the fast paced nature of it.

Um, I did like how, um, you know, it was, you were really, you know, glued to, to each race because they were so short, you know, it was like this was happening as I was writing my newsletter.

And usually as I've been watching these Olympics and I'm writing the newsletter at the same time, I'll go, all right, let me, you know, I'll keep one eye on it and I'll, you know, I'll look up periodically.

This I was like, I was like, no, these only last 3 minutes.

I gotta watch, you know, every last second, and then I can write in between, you know, while they're resetting for the next race.

So, that was, I think, the, the, the real saving grace here was just, you know, you're, you're glued to these things, they're back to back to back, um, you know, really, like, just incredible athleticism, you know, you see, I think the camera angle did a really great job of emphasizing.

Um, you know, just how, how steep the grade here was, um, you know, you really come away with it, and there was the, the announcers, I think I have some gripes about them too, but also just very helpful providing context on a lot of the equipment, you know, explaining how, um, these are different kinds of skis.

They, they, they use very light skis and very light boots to make it easier to scale the, the uphill, which then has like a detriment on the downhill side.

So, um, you know, I learned a lot, I was entertained a lot, some really great results, some really tight races.

I thought I had a great time.

Yes, they described the skis at one point, uh, like a, like an uncooked lasagna, which I, I wrote down.

Uh, it's funny you said that the camera angles helped see how steep it was because that was actually one of the things I wrote down that the announcer said that was helpful was they made the point of like, you can't really see how steep this is, like we are like, trust us when we're telling you.

They were like, it's, it's 3 football fields and it's.

1.5 times the height of Niagara Falls that they're going up, which is just like incredible to me.

Um, and again, they're doing it in heavy snow, like wet snow accumulating on their boots.

I saw they had to repaint the lines around the skiing portion, um, before the semifinals started.

Um, yeah, they spent a lot of time talking about like how the skis connect and go in and, and how it works and all that.

Um.

There were a lot of like interesting characters that I enjoyed meeting, um, cause this was another one, almost like the, um, remember the, the parallel giant slalom, which we loved very early in the Olympics.

I remember thinking the announcers did not do a good job, like telling us about the people.

I felt like I was just watching like heat after heat of the same thing.

Here, I felt like I was getting to know the people as they went along, um, and there were, uh, there were some good, some characters feels almost like rude to call them characters.

But, but, uh, you know, new people in my life that I got to know this morning, um, an, an American, Anna Gibson on the women's side, who, uh, qualified for the semifinals, even though she had never like competed in the sport until I think like 6 months ago.

She, uh, she ran track and, and made it to the semi-finals of the US Olympic trials in the 1500 and then picked up this sport after that, um, and, and qualified for the semifinals, um.

There was, uh, well, let's, let's, let me name the, the medalists here.

In the, uh, on the women's side, it was uh Marianne Fatone of Switzerland won gold, becoming, uh, the first person to win, uh, the, the Skimo gold here in the Olympics, and then it was silver went to Emily, uh, Harro of France, and the bronze went to Anna Alonzo Rodriguez of Spain.

Now, she is one person I wanted to talk about as a new character.

She had like a horrific car accident very recently.

She was, um, hit by a car while.

She was biking in October, I believe, and suffered a torn ACL and MCL and just like a ton of injuries.

It was so much attention on Lindsey Vonn.

Like, here's another athlete who just tore her ACL a few months ago, broken ankle and a separated shoulder as well.

Yeah, that's like the whole like from, from, remember last year they had that like head, shoulders, knees and toes commercial during the Summer Olympics that we saw a million times.

That's like all over her body.

And then, um, on the men's side, gold went to uh Ariel Cardona Call of Spain.

Uh, silver to Nikita Flippo, uh, a Russian athlete, uh, competing independently, and then , uh, bronze went to, uh, Thibo Anselmey.

Usually I let Gart handle the French pronunciations, and he is French.

Um, I mentioned, Tebow, uh, Hibo, like Hibo, not Tebow, yeah, um, I mentioned Spain won gold.

That was the first gold medal for Spain at the Winter Olympics in 54 years.

Which ended a really long drought, obviously, uh, cool to see for them.

And then I loved that, uh, Phillip Bellingham of Australia, this was his third Olympics.

He was a cross country skier in 2014 and 2018.

So it's fun when we get these new sports and they bring in people who've competed in other sports and pull them in.

Um, yeah, it was just like a fun event and, and I, I it was only a few minutes, like you said, and I feel like I enjoyed every minute of it.

Yeah, I, I, look, I was gonna bring this up a little later cause I feel like we talk about it every time, but since you mentioned cross country, it's another sport I was watching where I go, they gotta get Clabo in here, you know, we've seen how he excels in the uphill climb in the cross country.

What if the entire sport was uphill and then, you know, that was basically the entire sport is the uphill portion, at least in the sprint, because my impression, my one of my main complaints, I felt like the downhill didn't matter at all.

There was no, like, so the, the color commentator was like, I think his name is Max Valverde.

Um, it felt like he was like an action figure where you, you press a button on his back and he repeats one of a couple of lines.

And one of those was, yes, 3.5 football fields long and up the height of the Statue of Liberty, or, uh, 1.5 times the height of Niagara Falls, he was switched back, which we do that.

I think you said that line, like every race.

But for the rest of your life, you'll know how the height of the Statue of Liberty compares to Niagara Falls.

Now you'll know, right?

Uh, but he, but he also kept saying that they were gonna, we were gonna see ski, uh, ski racing down on the downhill portion, elbow to elbow like ski cross, and Max, we did not.

It was, I felt like, you know, it seemed like there, there were a couple of instances in the , in the preliminary rounds where the people in 1st and 2nd place, they were pretty close, but they, because the top two advance, they didn't have to really race each other very hard.

They were like, the guy in 2nd go, all right, I'm, I'm good.

I, I don't, I don't need to win this .

I can just look over my shoulder, see I've got a cushion over the guy in 3rd, and just get to the bottom without worrying about having to overtake this guy for 1st.

So we didn't really see very much, you know.

Uh, very much drama in that downhill portion.

It really was on the uphill, um, and it, it really relied so much on the transitions.

Fatton of Switzerland, who won the women's gold, like she won because of her really fast transitions.

Um, uh, Cole of, of Spain who won on the men, so he was also the same.

There was, um, I have his name here that , uh, well, no, it was it was a woman, it was Marana, uh, Yagorkova of Slovakia.

She was in the semifinals.

She was in first place, she's cruising toward, it looks like a, a spot in the medal race, has a horrible transition, drops all the way back to last, and that it was just the end of her day.

Um, it's, you know, another line that Valverde kept saying was.

Uh , when it comes to the transitions, 6 seconds is world class, 8 seconds we never heard of you.

And so, you know, that there were a couple of times where people took 8, 1012, 14 seconds to get their skis on or off, and, uh, it really changed, you know, because the race is so short, those little margins and, and, you know, in, in taking the skis off, which was difficult in the snow.

There was snow accumulating at the boot clip area, uh, it really made the difference.

OK, we had the exact same complaints.

My two issues were that the downhill skiing just felt like you knew the winner at the top of the hill, and then they just have like uh the glory ride down to the bottom to be coordinated as winning or in whatever place they were in, and also that the, it felt like the transitions had just like too big of an impact on the race, and I don't know if, if maybe just this is a sprint distance, as we've talked about, and they made the event short, and I think they did that on purpose for like, you know, Olympic uh TV attention spans and things like that.

And I do wonder if just making it a longer race would have had it, uh, come down more to the athletics than the, uh, than just the transitions, but those, those are my two things.

Now, you did not mention, uh, my favorite line that our, our color commentator repeated, uh, like dozens of times .

He kept telling us that they were gonna black out and not even remember the race.

Like, he must have said it 12 times.

He's just like, oh, they're blacked out.

They're not even gonna remember the downhill.

Nobody remembers this.

And it's like, listen.

Lots of sports.

I, I totally believe it, that there are a lot of, that this is a, a difficult sport with a lot of energy exertion, and it was interesting to me that, um, it felt like the rounds were so close together.

Like they were talking the semifinals, um, there were two semis, obviously, and then the finals, and so one of the semis.

If you were lucky to be in the first one, you had like 55 minutes of rest before the final, and if you're in the second one, you had 45 minutes of rest, and the 10 minutes actually feels like it makes a big difference when it's that close, and they were talking about like the lactic acid and they're riding bikes in between to stay warm, but he just kept telling us like, oh, they're blacked out.

They don't even remember where they are right now.

I was like, I don't know, like the, you know, the cross country skiers are exerting themselves too, and like the 5000 m speed skaters and plenty of other sports where they're leaving it all out there, but, um, yeah, he just kept telling us that and it was so funny.

Well, bitch, I think the reason they're not gonna remember the downhill is because it was so uninteresting, because, you know, if there was some drama there, it it it imprints on your mind, but really, I mean, the , like, the skiing, it seemed like a bunny slope, really, like, they were just like, they were really, and, like, I understand, they get to the top of the hill.

And then they're like, you know, the, the Valverina kept saying they were redlining, uh, you know, like their heart rate is like totally maxed out, they're breathing as hard as they can, and then, you know, then it comes time to ski downhill, and, you know, they're really like, they, they seemed like to be going down pretty gingerly, and I think part of that is probably the equipment, right?

The skis are not made for really super fast skiing.

Um, but, you know, they're, they're not really, like, I noticed, and I know they're different, uh, different poles for like uphill versus downhill, but they're not using their poles to ski cause they're not really turning all that, uh, you know, all that tightly, um, you know, so it's not really, I, I don't think they're gonna remember it because they're not, you know, cause like, they're exhausted and they're also doing something really, honestly pretty boring .

Um, I think, you know, it really would have benefited from.

Uh, making those turns a little tighter, and also, you know, I, I think this was a great introduction to the sport.

Now, we should say there's gonna be a, um, a mixed relay event, which is about 10 times longer.

It's about a 30 minute race.

Um, that'll take place, I believe it's on Saturday .

Um, so that's gonna be a much different event, and, um, the US think expected to perform better there.

Their male representative Cam Smith, he's more of a distance specialist.

Um, so, you know, I think that's gonna be interesting to see, but I would like to see in the future, you know, a longer individual race.

Um, I, you know.

That's more laps around the same circuit or, you know, climbing more distance up and skiing more distance down.

Um, on the World Cup circuit, there are different types of races that they do.

There's one that's just up, it's just, I think they call it either the vertical or the climb.

Like there's no descent.

It's just like, can you, how fast can you climb up the mountain to the finish line?

Um, you know, there's all different ways you can do this.

There's like super, you know, like 3 hour marathon type races.

There's kind of intermediate, you know, 90 minute ones.

Um, they could do something that's a little bit more involved in that, you know, maybe this year, you know, people have gotten used to the concept of skimo, and they'll be ready to do something different, you know, a little bit more time intensive, uh, in the future, but yeah, I think there's opportunity to improve here, but definitely good for showing.

Yeah, again, if they have 90 minute races, I find it hard to believe they all blacked out during the 3 minute sprint.

Um, yeah, I think, uh, to your point about them not necessarily like exerting themselves fully on the skiing, I think part of it is that it was so short that it felt like the order was determined, and it felt like they knew.

Like, OK, I'm gonna win gold here as long as I don't literally fall.

Like they didn't, there, there was no incentive to go for speed because it was like, I, I, no one's going to pass me in this short period of time.

So I just have to get down on my 2 ft on my wet lasagna noodles, and then, uh, and then whatever place I'm in now, I'll keep, um.

I agree 100%.

This is a great showing, and I think it's very, very positive, uh, for the sport that people were so excited on social media.

And even like I saw people on, on TV like, you know, that was translating there too, where like the people on Gold Zone were talking about how much they loved it, and I'm sure it's gonna get love on the primetime broadcast too.

And so I I think that is good.

If you and I are nitpicky, I think it's just because we loved it and we just want to see improvements.

But yeah, I'm, I'm definitely excited for the, uh, the longer distance race.

And, uh, if, if people missed it, go find the replay because it was just, it was cool to watch it.

And, uh, yeah, if you could tune in on Saturday, I would definitely recommend doing so.

I think I promise we will talk about Alyssa Liu, but I want to just bring up while we're talking about uh really frantic skiing in heavy snow, just very briefly, the Nordic combined team event.

This, so I, I flipped to this after the ski mo had ended.

Um, you know, I, I was checking the schedule.

I was like, oh wow, they're, they're just, they like, this is overlapping a little bit with the, with the skimo, uh, final medal race, but let me catch the end of this in order to combined, and I'm really glad I turned it on because the visuals there were nuts.

I mean, we talked about the weather, uh, in Italy this, this, this morning , and especially in the early part of the day.

Um, it was really just out of control where they were, it was, I believe it's, um, I forget the name, Tessaro, I think is the name of the town and where they're doing the cross country, and, you know, it was snowing fairly heavily at the skimo and like really dumping uh at the, uh, I think the announcers kept, or maybe this was in the schemo where they said it was nuking.

I would not have heard that before, but the uh the cross country, like the weather here was just unbelievable and it really had a big impact on the, on the field of play because, you know, guys are really struggling to trudge through a lot of fresh powder.

Yeah, and, uh, uh, sort of historic result also, uh, Jean Loiss Oftebre of Norway, we've now talked about him a few times, he won his 3rd gold medal of these games.

So, uh, Norway we know is dominant in cross country skiing, and clearly it translates to the world of Nordic combined.

Um, Finland took silver, Austria took bronze.

Did you see, I'm, I'm guessing you were not awake at 4 o'clock in the morning watching the ski jumping portion of this event, but did you see what happened to American Ben Loomis on the ski jumping?

I did hear about this, yes.

He, uh, there were, so because of the snow, they had, I guess they were like leaf blowers that were like helping to blow, um, snow off of, and, and remember Nordic combined for those in.

In case this is your first time listening to, uh, SI's daily Rings, hello, we do eventually talk about figure skating.

We're sorry to Alyssa Liu, we'll get there, but, uh, welcome if you're new to the show.

The Nordic combined, it combined ski jumping followed by cross country.

So they had these like big, I, I thought they were like the, sometimes you see it like a football game, the guys with like heaters go out and try to like blow snow off of the, uh, like yard lines and hash marks and whatever.

Um, but I saw, I read a story that described it as a leaf blower.

But basically, like between jumps, they were blowing snow off the course, and when this American was going down, one of the guys just still had his blower out there, and I don't know how much it affected him, but I read a story on NBC's website that said he, uh, reportedly he was obstructed by it, but he reportedly decided against a second jump.

So.

I don't know if that just means he was happy with his first jump or if he just felt he didn't want to do it again, um, but it was like a crazy visual of just like the leaf blower still on the guy while he's going down and then him saying, I'm good, jump, let the jump stand, let me, let's get onto the cross country skiing.

Well, the funny thing is, so, so this is not the first time they've had to bust out the leaf blowers, the ski jumping.

So, yeah, like they have like the, the, the, like, designated tracks, the the predetermined tracks they go down, right?

And so, the way that they do is when there is like active snow, there's like a whole army of people with these big leaf blower things, and they, you know, and they get up in the tracks and they blow the snow away, and then when it's time to be done, then they pull them away, and there's, I mean, Mitch, there's like, there's gotta be like 30 of them, like, at least 15 on each side, and so I don't.

I understand how the one guy left it out there while all his colleagues have already, you know, gone back to their, you know, safe position away from the competition.

This guy must have been really zoned out and just didn't see that he was the only one out there still with the leaf blower hanging over the track.

Yeah, that's, that's the law of averages.

If you've got 30 of them, it's more likely that one of them is going to make a mistake and accidentally blow the ski jumper off course in the middle of the race.

Again, we, we should say I don't, we don't know how much it affected him.

I think it's that is important to point.

Yeah, I didn't like smack him right in the face or anything, but that was not the only, uh, you know, collision, uh, during this, this event.

Did you see the, the crash between Germany and Japan on the cross country portion?

I did, yeah, there are, there are multiple wipeouts, which I guess happens when you're competing in a blizzard, but yeah, that was a big one.

This one was especially, especially relevant because I, I believe they were fighting for metal.

They might have even been in the lead at the time, but they were fighting for metal position at least.

And um it was the, the German guy crashing the Japanese guy.

You could see the Japanese guy get up and then he gave that classic arm motion, like, what the hell are you doing?

And then the German gets back up and then he fell again, like, 15 seconds later, like, he was, he was having a rough day.

Uh, it was a really, really chaotic day out there.

And then the end of that race was also fantastic.

This exciting sprint between, uh, Norway and Finland to see who would get to the gold medal, uh, line first, and it was, like I said, it was Finland.

It was a really, you know, like so much closer than we've seen a lot of these races be.

Yes, and it is nice that the, uh, the what the hell are you doing arm motion is universal across countries and languages.

Every, everybody gets it.

That's, that's what we, what we love to see at the Olympics.

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All right, Alyssa Liu time, it's been, it's been, it's been long enough.

All right, I was ready to do curling, but we can do Alyssa.

No, no, no, no, no.

Um, a historic day of figure skating.

We broke down the, um, short program a couple of days ago and, uh, talked about how the US had 3 medal contenders going in.

Alyssa Liu, uh, had the best run in the short program, putting herself in 3rd place.

She had the, uh, best free skate program, took home the gold.

It is the Uh, first medal for Team USA in the, uh , women's singles since Sascha Cohen in 2006, and the first gold for the US since Sarah Hughes in 2002, which they did point out was before, uh, Alyssa Liu was born.

So, um, it had been a while, and, uh, yeah, remember the US won the, uh, team competition also, so she goes home as a two-time gold medalist from these games.

Um, we've told her story a couple of times.

She Had retired from the sport and came back to the sport, uh, after time away and now is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, which is unbelievable.

She was amazing.

Um, we should, we can say if we were doing the day sort of in chronological order, um, I know there was a lot of attention on Amber Glenn, uh, and her unfortunate, uh, uh, mishap we could call it in the, uh, short program where she had a, uh, a jump where she was supposed to do 3 revolutions.

And only went around twice, ended up losing 7 points on that jump, uh, which dropped what would have been a really, really good routine down to, uh, 13th place.

Uh, she had an exceptional day today.

She was actually sitting in the leader's chair for a while as a bunch of the skaters who were, uh, ahead of her from the short program were, uh, still not topping her combined scores.

Um, she did eventually fall off the podium and, uh, finished in 5th, but that's a really good showing, uh, an improvement on where she was.

Um.

And then, uh, yeah, we get to Amber Glenn, who was skating 3rd to last, and she just had like a flawless routine, and her reaction, right?

Alyssa Liu, sorry, yes, and, and Alyssa Liu's reaction afterward was just awesome.

Like she was just so excited about it and like, uh, her like the little hot mic moments, uh, when, when she's like greeting her coaches afterwards and like hugging everybody.

She was just so pumped and, uh, yeah, it was, it was an awesome performance and, and knew there was a good chance that her score was gonna hold.

Um, and it did, and, and, yeah, a historic gold, and, and, uh, you know, it was, uh, it's interesting that, the standards that Team USA is judged on are like so impossibly high that it's so hard to meet them, and I think people are gonna look back at these games and look at, um, you know, Amber Glenn, uh, unfortunately, and Ilya Mainin, of course, is gonna get a lot of attention, but to come out of this program with the team gold and the women's individual gold, um, is really quite an achievement.

And, uh, I, I think you'd have to look at it as a success for USA skating and, uh, and obviously for Alyssa Liu personally, just an unbelievable Olympics.

I, I was so impressed with Lou.

She was so, she was so much different than the other skaters.

I thought like she looked like she was having fun.

She looked like almost like she was improvising out there.

I know like these routines are like practiced like to within an inch of their life, but like, she seemed like she was just like out there having fun.

She was so theatrical, so much personality.

Um, you know, the crowd, I mean, she got the loudest reaction from the crowd by far, just a real, you know, a showman.

She like, she was just outstanding, and I think the, the context of her comeback makes that attitude even more impressive because, you know, she was, she was, I think, kind of, I, I don't know if disillusioned is the right word, but like she had she had announced her retirement after shortly after the 2022 Olympics where she competed, she was 16 years old, finished 6th, uh, she basically said, hey, I made the Olympics, you know, that's good enough for me, I'm gonna walk away.

Had that itch to come back, did, and then here she is again.

And, you know, I think for a lot of people, there might be pressure to, you know, you, you make this, this comeback.

You mentioned, um, Sarah Hughes , the, the, uh, previous gold medalist.

So Hughes did not, uh, did not seek a position on the next US Olympic team in 2006.

Uh, she was 17 at the time that she won gold, um, did not seek another position.

Um, if Lou had had stayed retired, she would have been the only skater since used to have done that, done that same thing and, and not sought a second spot on the Olympic team.

Um, but she comes back, she doesn't, you know, she's seems like she's just enjoying every moment of it.

Um, she was so relaxed in, in a way that like, and then after saying how like she basically doesn't get anxious, doesn't get nervous before competition, she just goes up there and does her thing, has a lot of fun, and uh it really shone through in her in performance.

Yeah, I agree.

And listen, and I wanna, I, I wanna bring up Amber Glenn again cause I feel like we talked about her a lot, uh, two days ago, um, talking about a bounce back.

Like I just thought that was great to see her performance and how much it meant to her.

It would be so easy in that position to like kind of crumble and be down on yourself and not even want to come out for the free skate free skate, and I think her position was just like, I'm gonna, she said something to the effect of like, I'm gonna go out and put on a great show.

And it feels like a lot of times when you have a performance, and it's like one small mistake costs you, people are gonna ask you about that for the rest of your life, and to be able to come back and be like, hey, you know, I had this thing happen, and then 2 days later, I went out and had an awesome skate, and it went really well, and uh I finished in 5th place, and she had her head up and, uh, was like really happy for Alyssa Liu afterward and celebrating with her.

Um, we should say, uh, Isabel Lovito was the 3rd US skater.

Um, she was in.

I think, uh, I forget what place she was in, but, um, she had a, she had a fall, so she didn't have the best day today and actually ended up finishing in 12th, um, which was 3rd place out of the 3 Americans, but she also, I think it seems like the whole team was very happy.

They actually, they did show Ilya Mallin in like in the crowd, uh, cheering and rooting the team on, and, uh, I know that's a thing we've talked about, um, with this team in particular, that they're all tight and friends , which is not always the case with figure skating.

Sometimes they feel more like rivals than teammates, um.

But like I'll remember that that team aspect and camaraderie from all three of them, uh, when we think about this competition, you know, years later.

Yeah, Levita was 8th coming in, 13th in the free skate, yeah, she finished 12th, um, but Glenn, yeah, the resilience there to, to come back like you were saying.

Uh, and she, I mean, her score was fantastic, like, effectively, I'm, I'm sorting here now by, by free skates where obviously Lissa Liu was 1st 150.

2, but then her, Glenn's uh free skate score effectively tied for second behind behind Lou.

I mean, it was just a really impressive performance.

She, she was up in that leader's chair for so long, and I'm watching, as I'm watching, I'm going, I know it's a real long shot to end up on the podium.

But all she needs is like one or two of these Japanese skaters to fall and then she's right in there with like a surprise bronze.

So, but to just get anywhere close to the podium is just unbelievable.

Yeah, I thought the same thing.

And oh, and oh, I was gonna say it does tell you like, if she hadn't just made one small issue, one small issue in her short program, she would have been on the podium and it could have been gold and silver for the US, um, but, uh, but you know, that's, that's what happens sometimes.

Unfortunately, that, and that happened to one of the Japanese skaters too, where it was just like a massive point deduction for something that seems small to novices like you and I.

Um, but sometimes those little things can just cost a ton of points.

Yeah, and just in the interest of being thorough, those the silver and bronze medal went to two Japanese skaters, like we said, uh, Kari Sakamoto got silver and then Ami Nakai got bronze, 17 year old.

So you know, in bronze, she was a really, really great future in front of her.

Yeah, and a shout out to Kari Sakamoto, the one who did skate the other day to the, uh , the song that Will Ferrell sings at the Catalina Wine Mixer in Step Brothers.

I, I know everyone enjoyed that one too.

Yes.

All right, should we, um, my goodness, this is gonna be our longest episode ever.

Should we, should we quickly get to the curling, I guess.

Yeah, that was a couple of interesting results there for sure.

Yeah, well, this, uh, this was huge.

So, uh, first off, uh, started early in the morning.

I had said yesterday that the US men were out of it.

Uh, it turns out they did have a chance through if like the tiebreakers had gone their way.

I think they needed Switzerland and Canada to win, but Canada lost to Norway.

8-6 since they were officially eliminated from medal contention.

But then we knew coming into the day that the US women, um, had basically a win and in game.

They also had a chance to win, um, based on tiebreakers if other results broke their way, but the mission was simple, win and you're in.

And then as it so happens, Great Britain won their game, so the tiebreakers were not gonna help them anyway.

Um, so in their first game, they are, in their , their only game today.

They're up 3-1, they're up 5-2, they're up 6-3, and then they kind of blow it in the 10th, giving up a 3 spot.

Um, it was really, uh, you know, they, they, they knew all you have to do is not give up 3 points.

I mean, far be it from me to say like, well, why didn't you just.

You know, do a double runner, takeout and get it out of the thing, like, you know, easy for me to say, but, um, yeah, they sort of left, uh, left an open shot and, uh, sorry, who is their, why do I not have that in front of me?

Who was their opponent?

Now I can't even remember cause so much happened after this.

Where they were, um, Switzerland, Sweden, who, I, I don't, I can't believe I don't even, I'm totally drawing a blank.

There's so much that happened today.

Drawing a blank, good, uh, curling reference sort of, um, but anyway, so they give up, uh, the other team has the hammer and, uh, and picks up 3 points by on like the last shot, uh, so they go to the extra end, but then the US has the hammer in extras, and they come down to this like very last shot where, uh, the other team has like a couple.

that are in the house, and the US just has to like curl it around and keep it in the house a little bit closer, and it's a little too close for comfort.

They slide it past the button to like the back end of the house, and it looks like they might actually slide it through, and it just hangs in the back of that inner circle.

And I think they won by like 2 inches, is what I heard someone on TV say.

So they ended up getting that 1 point and, uh, they're gonna move on to the semifinals, um.

The US is one of the few teams that has actually played at the Olympics all 8 times since, uh, curling has been introduced here.

And this is only the 2nd time the women's team has made the semis, which has not happened since 2002 when they lost the semi and lost the bronze medal match and came in 4th place.

So.

Still, uh, searching for their first medal ever in women's curling, and they just have to win one out of the next two matches to do it.

And, uh, also worth reminding people, Corey TC is on the team, and she, uh, won a silver medal already these games in the, uh, mixed doubles, so she has a chance to pick up her second medal individually.

Um, she's already the first US woman who's ever won a medal in curling.

She did it in mixed doubles, and she could now pick up a second one here.

Um, so the US in, uh, in good position, having advanced.

And then I will say, by the way, the men's, the men's semifinals were taking place during all of the figure skating and hockey crazy.

And so I did not see many of those, but a couple of results, uh, in the semis.

Canada beat Norway and Great Britain beat Switzerland.

So, uh, it'll be Canada and Great Britain, two very good teams, uh, that we've seen plenty of, uh, facing each other for gold in a couple of days, and then Norway and Switzerland go for bronze.

I did see just a little bit of the, of the, there's the very end of that Great Britain and Switzerland match.

I should also say just for, for, uh, going to be complete, the US women were playing Switzerland this morning.

And the, uh, male Switzerland team, yeah, lost to Great Britain.

This is a huge upset because Switzerland was 9-0 in the round robin.

Great Britain only 5-4, just snuck in barely, uh, to that, to that semi-final round.

And it was a, it was a really, you know, an excite, I mean, they needed some really heroic play, uh, in that, in that end, in that, in that match to, to pull up the upset there.

There was a shot, I mean, I, I'll, uh, I'll repost the, the blue sky video, assuming the IOC doesn't take it down, but there was a great shot.

Of, um, the, the great video of Bruce Matt, who played on the mixed doubles team for Britain as well.

His shot in the 7th and, uh, I believe he had the hammer to, uh, come up with a 3 spot there for Great Britain and really take a commanding lead against Switzerland and pave the way for an upset victory there.

It feels like the uh the IOC doesn't know Blue Sky exists yet.

I think they're true.

Yes, they are, they are militant about taking down videos on, uh, Twitter.

But over on Blue Sky, people are just, I, I saw you had one that I saw a lot of people were sharing, uh, you want to see, see Dan Garland, uh, influencer on Blue Sky.

Yeah, that's, uh, that's the place for curling clips that aren't officially you want highlights, that's the place to go.

All right, well, uh, like we said at the top, so many things going on.

I feel like some of these, uh, final sports are getting the short shrift here, but we should talk about Jordan Stowes.

In another world, he would have been one of the top things we talked about here in the show and said he gets, uh, relegated to whatever the C block or D block, whatever this is.

But the, uh, the men's 1500, uh, he did win a silver medal, which for a lot of athletes would be very, very exciting.

I'm sure he's a little disappointed, but, uh, he has already won two gold medals.

So now, a 3rd medal at these Olympics with a 4th race coming up, uh, 2 golds and a silver, but it was kind of an interesting race because he sort of , uh, just got off to a slow start.

Um, he actually had a very fast final lap.

They said he made up, uh, like almost an entire 2nd on the last lap.

Um, if you look at the, uh, checkpoints, uh, where they give you the various, uh, the time milestone markers, he was in 6th, 5th, and 4th, and then ended up.

Finishing in 2nd behind, uh, Zhang Yan Ning of China, who won the gold medal.

Um, Ning also, by the way, won the bronze in the 1000 and the team pursuit, so picked up his 3rd medal of these Olympics, including now a gold, and he set the Olympic record.

So Souls, yeah, I think we're used to seeing him out in front and, and setting records, and, uh, in this particular case, it was a different skater who, uh, came away with the gold, but, uh, a silver medal for Jordan Stows adding to his medal haul is still pretty impressive.

Yeah, a really surprising result there.

The announcers were talking about how Stowles was like just so dominant at this distance on the World Cup circuit this year.

He had won his all 5 World Cup races.

I think they said by an average of like a second and a half, which is like an enormous margin in speed skating.

He had in fact won 12 of his previous 13 World Cup races at this distance.

And so obviously, that doesn't leave any room for a guy like Ning to, to crack the, the leaderboard, but Ning had not won an international race at this distance since November 2021.

Just had, they just kept saying like the skate of his life, um, really impressive.

You could tell he was pretty shocked, um, you know, the, the announcers again talking about how the, um, we're talking about actually how the weather impacted events all across Italy today.

Here as well, they were setting up the opportunity for, for weather to be a.

Factor because one thing that the, that you wouldn't think is a is an impact here in speed skating is the barometric pressure.

So there was like, the, the pressure was low because it was rainy in Milan and snowy in the mountains.

There was low pressure in the area, which allowed the skaters to, you know, move through the air more quickly.

And so they're setting up the state, OK, there's, you know, potentially for everybody to go fast.

And so Ning did it.

We're expecting Stolles to do it two pairs later, he just didn't, wasn't able to make it happen.

Yeah, amazing, the, the barometric pressure.

It's like they need the humidor for the skates or something.

It's so funny, we talked about sea level having such an effect.

Um, yeah, these, any of these sports that you're measuring in 10th and hundreds of a second, uh, just, you know, it's amazing how in tune they are with so many little things that end up, uh, adding up and, and having an effect, and, uh, yeah.

Uh, you know, it comes down to seconds and, and, uh, listen, congrats to Nang of China.

Like you said, they said it was, you know, the race of his life.

And so good for him.

Like, what an awesome spot to have it in.

And, you know, coming in where you've already won 2 medals, these Olympics, and you've got one chance to go for the gold, he goes out and, and, uh, his time, his time, uh, sets a new record and then holds up in the final 2 pairs.

That was, that was cool for him.

I will just read a quick quote from Stowles on on his performance today, cause I think it is interesting to hear his perspective on how he thought he performed.

So, he said, quote, I did, I did not have it today, not sure why, probably just from all the events.

I'm sure there are different factors that go into that go into that, which affected my body.

Either way, it was still a good race, still happy with silver, and I still have 2 golds.

So like you said, you know, he, he would have liked the gold, but he still got the other two and uh seemed like he was thinking maybe, you know, the, the, the packed Olympic program had an impact on his ability to recover.

Yeah, that's a great attitude and, and listen, better to go in and win a silver than like not compete in the event at all, because you're saving yourself for different races and doing fewer and, and that's always, you know, a stress that's placed on different athletes, like, again, to keep coming back to Ilya Allen and like we talked about how they uh had him skate in the uh in the team program twice instead of saving him.

And, uh, you know, who knows what kind of effect that had on him and the individual and, uh, so, you know, I, I love seeing some of these sports where the, the people are going out and, and competing in like 3 or 4 different events and trying it all and, and yeah, I think that's an awesome attitude for him to have that, hey, it wasn't his best day, but he still won a silver medal and now he's got 3 total medals, like that's, he still comes out of these as, as one of the stars of the Olympics for me.

Absolutely.

I think the last thing we want to talk about probably is just very quickly because this happened.

I totally forgot it had happened because it was happening during the women's hockey game was the halfpipe qualification, just because the women's on the women's ski side halfpipe.

So just because there's some big stars here, um, I think the interesting thing that I, I mean, again, I totally forgot it was happening, just looking at the results here.

It is interesting that, uh, uh, um, yeah , Eileen Goo did qualify.

It was a little touch and go there because she fell in her first run and needed to put up a solid score in her 2nd run, 2nd of two with the top 12 advancing, and she did end up qualifying, uh, 3rd, or I'm sorry, 5th, but 3rd best in that 2nd run.

So she, uh, you know, sneaks forward into, into that final, final, uh, beat on, on, I believe it's tomorrow.

Uh, so yeah, you know, a big star here nearly missed out on making the final, but she ended up pulling it out.

Yeah, hopefully tomorrow pending whatever blizzard may be called that over in Italy.

Yeah, I think she's the biggest name and, and people are familiar with her story competing for China.

Uh, worth noting that two members of Team USA also finished in the top 12 and qualified.

That's, uh, Svea Irving, who was 8th, and Kate Gray, who was 12th.

Yes, and the, uh, and the young Australian Indra Brown, 16 years old, she qualified 4th, so she's right up there with the top contenders for a medal.

Yeah, and I believe they wipe out the scores.

So just they do, yeah, but it's an indication of where she stands in the pecking order, you know.

Yeah, yes indeed.

All right, uh, so.

Let's preview day 14.

Um, but before we do that, I actually wanted to bring up, um, we got another nice email today.

I love getting these nice emails.

Uh, I got one today from, uh, Abby Rosenweig, who first off told us how much she loves the podcast.

So thank you, Abby, and everyone else who has reached out.

Um, but she gave us, uh, an idea for the podcast that I wanted to pass along.

Um, you know, we are figuring out we're gonna have sort of a full Olympics roundup episode once we get past day 16, and we're still sort of figuring out the format for that.

I assume it'll look pretty similar to what we did after the 2024 Olympics .

Um, but Abby brought up a couple of stories that we haven't talked about, and she thought it could be a cool idea for us to, uh, actually use that episode to spotlight things we haven't mentioned here on the podcast.

And so, um, While I love doing the research here, we figured maybe we could help, uh, farm this out to our listeners, and instead of you and I, Gart, uh, researching things we've missed on all 16 sports, it would probably be more helpful and people probably have things, uh, and some of you may be listening and thinking like, oh, talk about this, talk about this.

Um, but if you have something that you noticed in a sport that you're obsessed with, or if you are from, uh, a country outside the US and have an athlete that we didn't talk about, um, I think it would be awesome to get some.

Suggestions there for us to bring up on our final wrap up episode.

So yeah, you can, uh, email us, uh, mitch.

golditch@ SI.

com, dan.

Gartland@SI.

com.

You can find us on, uh, most major social media platforms and, uh, definitely reach out because we would love to have that stuff, um, before, before, can you believe it?

There's only like 3 more days of this, and then, then we'll be saying, uh, farewell to people who'll be saying cio.

But, uh, but, uh, help us out one last time before that day comes.

Yeah, we try to be exhaustive, but look, there's a lot going on, so things slip through the cracks for sure.

All right, shall we now get to the, uh, day 14 schedule?

What's at the top of your list, please.

Yeah, you want to lead us off?

Uh, sure, let's, uh, I'll start with curling, uh, because, uh, I already teed that up earlier, but yeah, the women's semifinals are gonna be at 8:05.

Uh, as I mentioned, the US is gonna play Switzerland, uh, their opponent today.

They'll get a rematch, uh, and then the other one is Canada, Sweden, and I love that they've got the two semi-finals going on at once.

So then the two winners will play each other for gold and the two losers for bronze, that's on a different day.

Uh, tomorrow we are also gonna have the men's bronze medal game, uh, at 1:05 p.m. between Norway and Switzerland.

So yeah, all, all the curling matches now are huge from here on out.

We are done with this round robin group play business.

We are going for medals or semi-finals only.

All the hockey games are huge too.

You got the US men against Slovakia, 3:10 in the afternoon.

Slovakia, great Cinderella story here, you know, pretty good threat there to the US I think.

We'll see if they can, uh, you know, make it a little more comfortable than the Sweden win.

And then earlier in the day, the other semi is Canada against Finland, 10:40 a.m. All right, uh, women's ski cross, you know, we both love anything with a cross in it.

We are interested , uh, gonna be, hopefully, now I feel like everything we say is just like weather permitting, but we are open for a full day of ski cross.

It's gonna be very similar to snowboard cross, uh, from a formatting perspective, where they're gonna have like the seating runs at 4 o'clock in the morning.

But then don't worry, if you are up at 6 a.m. they'll have like the, they call them the one.

Eighth finals and then the quarterfinals and semifinals leading up to the finals at 7:10 a.m. Eastern.

Again, knock on wood.

Um, so yeah, the ski cross is like an awesome event also where they're like racing down to the end .

Uh, so we'll see the women tomorrow and then the men, uh, either the day after that or, uh, or yeah, I think, I think the men on day 14 or 15.

Yeah, it must be 15.

Yeah, tomorrow is day 14.

It's the women and then the men are day 15.

There we go.

Got it.

Well, so the, the, there's a men's biathlon, 15 kilometer mass start, that's at 8:15 in the morning.

I want to bring this up, well, well, because there's 11, medal contender here, Conan Fillon Mayer of France.

He's already won 3 gold medals at these Olympics.

Uh, he won the sprint event and then both relays, the men's in the mix.

If he wins any medal here, he can move into sole possession of 2nd place on the all-time men's medal list in biathlon.

Um, he currently has 8 medals.

He's way, way behind the number 1, number 1 medal winner there.

That's Ole Einar Bjornsen of Norway who was 14.

Uh, so a little bit, a little bit of a ways to go to catch him , but, uh, could be a historic moment there.

Only American in the field is Campbell Wright, who we've talked about a little bit.

All right, well, I have, uh, professed my love of the speed skating on the big oval.

So I want to tell everybody that the women's 1500 m is gonna be tomorrow at 10:30.

Uh, I was looking through the list of pairs, and I feel like I know all of these people from watching them, which is fun.

Uh, just a lot of familiar names in this field.

We're gonna see Brittany Bowe, we're gonna see Femke Cock, we're gonna see Francesca Lalla Brigida, um, but I believe If you remember the name, uh, Miho Tatagi of Japan, I think she's the favorite.

Um, I believe that was Brian Cazeneuve's, uh, gold medal pick, and she's also in the 15th and final pair.

Um, Bo is in the, uh, 2nd to last pair.

So, uh, I don't know, uh, some of these other, some of those names.

I don't know who exactly are the top, top contenders, but regardless, it's like people I know, uh, and we'll be excited to see.

So, uh, there we go.

Yeah, it's an interesting race because as we're saying during the men's event today, it's kind of like where the sprinters and the distance skaters meet.

So you have those sprinters like Cock and and Bowe, and then you have the distance folks like like La Brigidus.

So, uh, yeah, that's why here's, it's great to see a lot of interesting, you know, familiar faces there, you know, people you're familiar with, and so, uh, hopefully they put on a good show.

Uh, I guess that we'll talk about some, um, some short track speed skating while we're on the topic of people going fast on skates.

There's two short track medals awarded tomorrow.

It's gonna be the women's 1500 m, the longest distance, and also the men's 5000 m relay.

Uh, the quarters in the 1500 begin at 2:15, the relay medal race is gonna be at 3:30, and then the medal race in the 1500 is gonna be at 4:07 p.m. All right, well, continuing the theme of people, uh, going very fast on ice, uh, the two women bobsled begins tomorrow.

We'll have, uh, heats 1 and 2, tomorrow, and then 3 and 4 the following day.

Um, for Team USA, remember Kayle Humphries, who won bronze in the Monobo.

She is a medal contender as a teammate with, uh, Jasmine Jones.

So if you're looking for, uh, a familiar member of Team USA, I think a lot of people got to hear her story along with, uh, Elena Meyers Taylor's story and, and sort of the two of them together made it even nicer, um, and, and Kaylee Humphries is decorated Olympian also even before her bronze this week, she won gold in Mono Bob last time around.

So, uh, looking to add one more medal to her total.

I told people yesterday that they were gonna be able to see men's aerials on Thursday.

I, I, I was right at the time, but then later it got postponed again.

It's been postponed, I think 2 or 3 times now.

Allegedly, they're gonna do it tomorrow.

If, if they, if they get postponed again, not my fault, you know, this information is accurate as of right now.

The, it's gonna qualification starts at 4:30 in the morning, uh, and then the finals at 7:30 and then 8:30 a.m. Uh, I hope it goes off, but, uh , you know, like we said, you never know what the weather's like out there these days.

Yeah, and then along those lines, the, uh, the men's halfpipe, which I think we also previewed yesterday, and, and, and they are now supposed to be tomorrow.

Although I will say I don't think I mentioned the names of, there are two Americans who are really top medal contenders here, um, Alex Ferreira and Nick Gepper, I believe is the.

Pronunciation.

Um, the two of those guys, I don't think we mentioned them.

And so there we go.

The, the, uh, the event was delayed 24 hours so that we could tell you.

For those who are gonna be up at, uh, God knows what time, early in the morning to watch, uh, those were a couple of Americans.

But those are, those are heats.

I, I believe we're gonna have finals after that, again, pending any, any snowstorm that's coming in.

Yeah, like the qualification is super early, but then the final is supposed to be at 1:30 again if, if they make it there.

But yeah, to the two other Americans in the field actually supposedly they make it through the qualifying, Hunter Hess and Burke Irving, also like in the top 10 in the world in this event, so they could be definitely medal contenders there.

All right, I think that completes my list.

Do you have anything else?

Yeah, I'm, I'm covered.

All right, well, that's day 14, hopefully, again, knock on wood.

Um, thanks again, as always, everyone, for, uh, joining us.

This was a, I feel like a just a packed episode.

I feel like I did the chemo because I have blacked out and don't remember anything that just happened in the last hour.

Uh, but thanks as always for everyone who's listening and, uh, reaching out.

And, and yeah, thanks, Abby for sending us that email and, and anyone, if you've got ideas for, uh, sports or stories or things that we missed, uh, absolutely pass them along.

Or anything else if you would just want to give us a shout.

Uh, we'd love to hear from you before while we've got these, uh, these 3 days left together, uh, you know, drop us a line.

Yeah, especially if it creates no extra work for us.

All right, talk to y'all tomorrow.

See you.