Winter Olympics

Mikaela Shiffrin claimed her first win in the Super G World Cup in nearly three years when she hit the slopes in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Sunday.

The American crossed the finish line in 1:13.62 to edge Italian Elena Curtoni and claim the victory. France's Romane Miradoli finished third.

The win also marked Shiffrin's 77th World Cup victory overall, and she is now just five wins shy of Lindsey's Vonn's record for most wins by a female skier.

Shiffrin finished fourth and sixth in the downhill competitions over the last two days.

"I felt very good the last days, but you never know, with super-G especially, you have to push so hard. It's always on the limit. Actually, you're pushing so hard, maybe you're not going to finish," Shiffrin said, per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN).

"I knew what my tactics should be, I was not thinking about what's going to happen in the finish until I got there. I had a very, very good run, so I'm happy with that."

The women's Alpine skiing World Cup resumes in Semmering, Austria, on Dec. 27 with two giant slaloms and a slalom.

Ilia Malinin wrote his name into the record books Wednesday.

The 17-year-old landed a quad axel in the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic, becoming the first to do so in competition.

"When I’m practicing it, it's pretty easy for me to figure out how to get the right timing and everything to have it be a good attempt," Malinin said of the difficult jump. "To do it in competition is a different story, because you have nerves and pressure that can get in the way of that. So I have to treat it like I'm at home, and it feels pretty good."

Malinin finished with an overall score of 257.28 to coast to a gold medal. France's Kevin Aymoz won silver, with American Camden Pulkinen rounding out the podium.

Malinin is among the U.S. representatives for this year's Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series, which kicks off Oct. 21 with the Skate America. There, the Virginia native will have an opportunity to test himself against the best in the world ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Former ski mountaineering champion Adèle Milloz died Friday at age 26 while climbing in the French Alps.

The French Mountain and Climbing Federation announced Milloz's death Saturday (via Gina Martinez of CBS News). The organization said it's unclear how she and another woman she was practicing with died.

According to Adam Sage of the Times, Milloz and the woman, 30, were climbing up the Aiguille summit in the Mont Blanc mountain range. Milloz was working to become a mountain guide.

Eyewitnesses saw Milloz and the woman fall and alerted emergency personnel.

Milloz was the gold medalist in ski mountaineering at the 2017 Winter Military World Games in Sochi, Russia. Per USA Today's Steve Gardner, she retired as a competitive skier in 2019 and focused instead on becoming a mountain guide.

Ski mountaineering, also known as skimo, combines climbing up a slope and then skiing down. The discipline was added to the schedule for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.

Repeating as gold medalists wasn't meant to be for the United States, which took home silver behind Canada for the fourth time in Olympic women’s ice hockey history.

The United States found itself in a 3-0 hole in the first 30 minutes of Thursday's game. Two of Canada’s three goals came from none other than Canada’s "captain clutch" Marie-Philip Poulin. The 30-year-old forward is the only Olympian to score in four Olympic gold-medal games, and she scored the game-winning goal for the Canadians each of the past three times Canada has beaten the USA in the final.

Starting Slow

It’s a tall task to come back against any team, let alone one Canada's caliber.

"We can’t get down that many goals," said Hilary Knight, referring to the 3-0 deficit the USA faced until her shorthanded goal in the second period.

A late goal by Amanda Kessel made it interesting, but the U.S. couldn’t find an equalizer. The Americans quite simply ran out of time. 

"I've seen us practice, I've seen us play, I've seen us put together 60 minutes and that just wasn't it," said Knight. "I think if you saw the best of the best, the score would be different. At the end of the day, those are sports, and you have to give them credit because they played a better 60 minutes total than we did." 

Shots on goals were even at 11 a side after the first period, but the USA was already down 2-0. It would go on to outshoot Canada 40-21, but it just couldn't find the back of the net enough. 

"We played too many games in the tournament where we weren't able to score in the first period, and that catches up to you," said USA head coach Joel Johnson. "So (it's) difficult to take when I thought, overall, we played pretty well."

Overcoming Obstacles

Despite falling short, the USA remains proud of how it competed, especially given all the adversity it faced.

"I think the way we played today showed the fight, the grit, the resiliency, and the adversity this group has faced and has overcome these last three years, six months, and two weeks," USA captain Kendall Coyne Schofield said. 

Following coaching changes and injuries—amid a global pandemic, no less—the USA earned the right to defend its gold medal from 2018. After the sting of the loss wanes, getting to the gold-medal game will be something the team can forever be proud of accomplishing. That said, some of the players still have a larger fight to wage—the visibility of the sport in between Olympic competitions. 

There's More to Women's Hockey Than the Olympics

On the international stage, the United States and Canadian women's teams are the fiercest of rivals. Once they return to North America, though, they stand side-by-side in the fight for more professional opportunities for women's hockey players. 

"There's a lot of young girls watching back home," said Coyne Schofield through tears. "Women's hockey cannot be silent after these two weeks. They need to be able to see themselves in us and it can't be silent. It can't be invisible because it's not the Olympic Games." 

Nearly all the players in the gold-medal game are either still in college or playing in the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA)—only Alex Carpenter and Megan Bozek play elsewhere. The PWHPA, a loose barnstorming brand of women's hockey, differs from the Premier Hockey Federation, formally known as the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), where six teams in six different North American cities compete for the final prize of a league championship and the Isobel Cup. 

The debate as to whether the PHF or the PWHPA will be the "one league" to win the wallet of the National Hockey League wages on. Despite where one lands on the issue, Coyne Schofield's words ring true to most who love women's hockey and would watch more of it if only they could. Nationally televised games are few and far between, but to no fault of the players. 

The next PWHPA showcase takes place February 26-27 in Ottawa. The PHF returns to action this weekend at Tria Rink in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

Author’s Note: Erica L. Ayala is a women’s hockey commentator and is in her sixth season calling games for the rebranded PHF.

After going a perfect 3-0 in preliminary-round play of the 2022 Olympic ice hockey tournament, the United States men’s team suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 overtime shootout loss to Slovakia on Wednesday in Beijing. Alternate captain Peter Cehlarik scored the only goal in the shootout to ice the game for the Slovaks. 

The game was a back-and-forth thriller right down to the last minute of regulation play. The United States was in the driver's seat and up 2-1 until Slovak captain Marek Hrivik scored the equalizer with 43.7 seconds remaining to move on to Friday's semifinals.

The USA had its chances throughout to close out the game and didn’t capitalize. The team squandered nearly seven minutes of power-play action, including a five-on-three in the third period. 

“Really, that was the game-changer. I mean, when you've got a five-on-three in that scenario and you don't capitalize on it, you're giving that other team a lot of hope,” USA head coach David Quinn said after the game. 

Running into a hot goalie in Patrik Rybar was a tough break for the United States, which played well in the tournament. The U.S. was thoroughly tested by the Slovak forecheck and maintained a narrow shots lead throughout the contest, with the exception of the second period when it was outshot 13-6.

Overtime saw both teams skating three-on-three for 10 minutes and a 7-4 shot advantage for the Americans. Matty Beniers had several good looks against Rybar in overtime, but to no avail.

Beniers won his ninth and final faceoff with nine seconds remaining to give Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Matthew Knies a final look on net. Rybar dropped low to the ice and denied Knies and the USA a goal as the OT clock hit zero. 

“We had a really skilled team, and you know, we were kind of made for three-on-three hockey. I think we dominated it, and their goalie made some huge saves so, what can you do?” Beniers said after the game.

Rybar tallied 33 saves through overtime and got credit for three more during the shootout. Beniers, despite a dominant overtime period, was not selected as one of the top four shooters for Quinn and Team USA. 

“They were throwing pucks to the net from a lot of spots and trying to crash. So for me, it was just fighting to see pucks and trying to smother rebounds as best as I could,” USA goalie Strauss Mann said. 

Mann made 34 saves for the United States and another three in the shootout. The 23-year-old goalie was disappointed in the result but found no one thing to attribute the loss to. 

“I felt pretty good. We felt confident with our 2-1 lead … it’s a game of inches. I know everyone in our locker room gave it their all, and props to them.” 

The USA fell short of the magical run, one that reporters were tempted to compare to the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" team. However, an ending that Disney movies are made of wasn’t meant to be. 

“You can't script it up how you want it every time, and life and hockey are about learning things and taking what life gives you and trying to make lemonade out of lemons, I guess. So we'll let it kind of sink in for a bit here. I think everyone will learn something at the end of the day, especially with all the young guys on this team. This will serve them well moving forward,” Mann said. 

Coach Quinn added, despite the loss, this is a team the country should be proud of.

“It was a lot of fun watching them become a team in a short period of time. I think everybody here saw that. It was a selfless group, and I think we represented our country very well as a team.”

Quinn also noted, with a wry chuckle, “We still haven’t a lost a game, really. I mean, we lost a shootout, right? So that's the frustrating part. I think it speaks volumes to the depth of hockey in America.”

It's win-or-go-home time in the men's hockey tournament at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Tuesday featured four qualification-round games for the teams that did not advance to the quarterfinals during group play. Here is a look at the full results with just eight teams remaining in the race for gold.

Tuesday's Men's Hockey Results

• Slovakia 4, Germany 0

• Denmark 3, Latvia 2

• Switzerland 4, Czech Republic 2

• Canada 7, China 2

Jake Aferiat of Sporting News broke down the men's hockey tournament format, noting the 12 teams were divided into four groups. The group winners and the highest-ranked second-place team advanced to the quarterfinals.

The United States, Russian Olympic Committee and Finland won the groups, while Sweden was the top second-place team.

That left Tuesday's eight remaining squads in the single-elimination qualification round, and Slovakia, Denmark, Switzerland and Canada punched their tickets into the quarterfinals.

While the inability to have current NHL players on the roster weakened the available talent pool, it was still somewhat surprising to see Canada playing with its Olympic chances on the line before the quarterfinals.

After all, Canada is a hockey powerhouse that won gold in the 2010 and 2014 Games before taking home bronze in 2018.

Fortunately for this year's team, host-nation China figured to be of little resistance.

That turned out to be the case with the Canadians rolling to a 7-2 victory. They scored the first two goals in the opening period and then stretched a 2-1 advantage to 5-1 with three goals in a six-minute stretch.

It was all but over from there, and the victors went on cruise control to preserve their chances at a fourth consecutive medal.

Jordan Weal and Adam Tambellini each scored two goals with the latter adding three assists in a dominant performance. Weal tacked on an assist for three points, and defenseman Maxim Noreau contributed offensively with three assists of his own.

Canada will now face Sweden in the quarterfinals, which begin Tuesday at 11:10 p.m. ET when the United States plays Slovakia. The Russian Olympic Committee will square off with Denmark, and Finland will go against Switzerland in the other quarterfinal matchups.        

No NHL players, no problem. 

The United States men’s ice hockey team completed a clean sweep of its preliminary group and earned a bye into the quarterfinals of the 2022 Olympic tournament. The Americans will attempt to keep their Olympic medal dreams alive Wednesday when they face Slovakia.

The men's national team is one of the youngest teams the United States has ever put together, with the roster averaging 25 years old. Early in the tournament, teams have tried to use their size to disrupt the U.S., but to no avail. The Americans' speed has proved to be both a nuisance and the driving force for their success.

"I think this is another great building block for our team," goaltender Drew Commesso said after recording a 3-2 win against Germany, silver medalists from the 2018 Winter Olympics.

"Coach [David Quinn] has been preaching to us all tournament that we have to get better every single game, and this game definitely taught us a lot. [The Germans are a] very physical team, you know, they're big, they really brought it to us. We're a little bit of a younger team. We play with speed and skill, and that's how teams are gonna try and counter us. But I have faith in our coaches to get as prepared as possible."

Formerly the head coach of the New York Rangers, Quinn's squad has outscored opponents 15-4 through three games. Quinn believes that is a testament to the character of his players as much as their skillset. 

"When we put this team together, we obviously wanted really good players. And we were able to accomplish that. But we wanted good people too," Quinn said after taking down Germany on Sunday. "In a tournament like this, that's very important. Make sure not only to get good players, you get the right people. And we certainly have done that."

High character has also, perhaps, made it easier for the USA team to come together under abnormal and unprecedented circumstances. The official team roster was announced on January 14. All but three players–Brian O’Neill, Strauss Mann, and Brian Cooper–were together for two practices in Los Angeles before making their way to Beijing. The team had another four practices and an exhibition against China before opening the 2022 Olympic tournament against China on February 10. 

"It's kinda tough. Coach had been moving (things) around to try and find what matches work best," said Matty Beniers after the 8-0 win against China. The No. 2 pick in the 2021 NHL Draft by the Seattle Kraken, Beniers has centered the second line with Brian Cooper and Nick Abruzzese throughout the tournament. 

With a short turnaround, it's not unusual for teams to create forward lines of defensive pairings based on familiarity or experience. One glance at the top group for the Americans, and you quickly notice three of the five 30-somethings on the roster, including captain Andy Miele, are present. 

However, the line was not created with age and experience in mind. Rather, Quinn and his coaching staff found their veterans were perhaps too worried about being leaders when paired with the younger players. 

"I thought maybe they were taking on a little bit more responsibility with the younger players on the line where they maybe weren't focusing just on their game," Quinn said. 

The top line of Kenny Agostino, O’Neill and Miele up front with Steven Kampfer and Aaron Ness on the blue line has struck the right balance of leading by example while giving players freedom to focus on their game. That veteran line accounts for 12 of the 38 points tallied by the United States and has provided a steady foundation for the young stars of tomorrow.

The team's younger players have an undeniable belief in themselves. But don't confuse that with arrogance.
 
"We believe in ourselves. There's an unwavering confidence in our group. People don't know what we know about ourselves. You know, we just–there's a swagger to us right now," Quinn said.

The U.S. is the only team with a perfect record ahead of the quarterfinals. It also has the largest goal differential in the tournament. Now, all it has to do is keep winning to avoid elimination. 

The Americans have earned the tournament's No. 1 seed, passing every test during the group stage. That said, Quinn and his team know they haven't reached their ultimate goal. 

"There's a believability that's going on here over the last week, and it's put us in this position. But we haven't really accomplished anything that we want to accomplish."

Austria's Anna Gasser soared her way to a gold medal Monday.

Again.

Gasser defended her title by winning the women's snowboarding big air competition at the 2022 Beijing Olympics with a score of 185.50. New Zealand's Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (177.00) and Japan's Kokomo Murase (171.50) joined her on the podium.

The final featured the 12 competitors who advanced past the qualifying round after unleashing three runs apiece. The scores from each snowboarders two best runs, which had to feature different tricks, were then added together.

Here are the final standings:

1. Anna Gasser, AUT: 185.50
   
2. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, NZL: 177.00
   
3. Kokomo Murase, JPN: 171.50
   
4. Reira Iwabuchi, JPN: 166.00
   
5. Rong GE, CHN: 160.00
6. Melissa Peperkamp, NED: 141.75
7. Jasmine Baird, CAN: 130.00
8. Laurie Blouin, CAN: 115.00
9. Tess Coady, AUS: 114.75
10. Annika Morgan, GER: 88.00
11. Miyabi Onitsuka, JPN: 65.25
    
12. Hailey Langland, USA: 53.25

The biggest storyline entering the final was whether Japan would sweep the podium with Murase, Reira Iwabuchi and Miyabi Onitsuka or if Sadowski-Synnott or Gasser would steal the show.

Gasser won the event at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, while Sadowski-Synnott—who had already captured gold in these Games during slopestyle—made a statement as the top qualifier.

Sadowski-Synnott picked up right where she left off on her first run in the final to take the lead. She was followed closely by Gasser in what seemed to be shaping into a two-competitor race.

The veteran Gasser continued to apply pressure with a solid second run that featured a backside double 1080, but Sadowski-Synnott responded to hold on to a 0.25-point lead heading into the final jump.

With those successful runs under their belts, they had opportunities to go for a high-risk, high-reward approach with the gold medal hanging in the balance.

But before their last runs, Iwabuchi made a head-turning push for a medal by attempting a triple cork. She just missed landing it and finished off the podium.

It was then Gasser's turn, and she put down a clutch double cork 1260 to propel herself to the top of the leaderboard and once again put the pressure on Sadowski-Synnott.

The Kiwi star was unable to land her attempt and had to settle for silver.

Hailey Langland was the only American to advance past the qualifying round with three-time Olympic medalist Jamie Anderson, Julia Marino and Courtney Rummel falling short.