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On Day 12 of the Winter Olympics, the United States enters a trio of medal contenders into the men's freeski slopestyle final, the U.S. men's hockey team begins the knockout rounds with a quarterfinal matchup against Slovakia, and Jessie Diggins and Rosie Brennan try to defend Team USA's gold medal in the cross-country women's team sprint. Stay tuned for updates throughout the night...
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Clement Noel clinches men’s slalom gold
Clement Noel ended Frances’ twenty-year slalom drought when he clinched the gold medal with a time of 1:44.09. It was redemption for Noel who missed the podium in 2018 by .04 seconds. Noel is the first French skier to win an Olympic medal in slalom since 2002.
Austria’s Johannes Strolz finished second medal of the Games. Strolz made history at these Games with a gold in the combined. His father Hubert won the same event in 1988, making them the first father-son duo to win Olympic gold in alpine history.
Norway’s Sebastian Foss-Solevaag rounded out the podium. It’s his second Olympic medal in his third Olympic appearance. He won bronze in the team event in 2018.
American Luke Winters was the only one to compete in the slalom. He skied out during his first run.
Results: Men's Slalom
đŸ¥‡ Clement Noel (FRA)
đŸ¥ˆ Johannes Strolz (AUS)
đŸ¥‰ Sebastian Foss-Solevaag (NOR)
-- Stephanie De Lancey
Slovakia knocks Team USA out of men's hockey tournament
Despite earning the top seed during preliminary play, the U.S. men's hockey team was taken down in the quarterfinals by an underdog Slovakia team led by 17-year-old star Juraj Slafkovsky.
Slafkovsky, one of the hottest prospects in the upcoming NHL Draft, netted a first-period goal to open the scoring. Nick Abruzzese and Sam Hentges responded with goals of their own to give Team USA a 2-1 lead, but the game was ultimately sent to overtime thanks to a last-minute goal from Slovakia's Marek Hrivik.
After a scoreless 10-minute overtime period which featured plenty of chances from both teams, the game continued on to a shootout. The two goalies combined to stop seven consecutive shots before Peter Cehlarik finally put one past Strauss Mann to ultimately give the Slovaks the win and bounce the Americans from the tournament.
— Shawn Smith
SEE MORE: Slafkovsky opens the scoring against U.S. in quarterfinal
Strolz has slim lead in men's slalom after one run
The battle in a wide-open field in the men’s slalom is close at the top after one run.Â
Austria’s Johannes Strolz, the gold medal winner in men’s combined, leads by 0.02 seconds over Henrik Kristoffersen and 0.06 seconds over Sebastian Foss-Solevaag.Â
Each skier will take two runs, with the second run taking place at 12:45 a.m. ET.
The gap between bronze position and fourth is larger, with Switzerland’s Loic Meillard half a second behind Strolz.Â
Six different winners from five different countries have claimed victory in the six World Cup slalom races this season.
-Eric He
U.S. women's curling falls to Canada on final stone
In a significant women's curling game, Canada defeated the United States 7-6, securing the victory with the final shot of the game.
The U.S. battled back from a 6-3 deficit by scoring two points in the eighth end and stealing one point in the ninth end to tie the game. But the comeback bid fell short when Canada was able to use the hammer in the final end to score one point and take the win.
Both teams remain locked in a battle for playoff positions. With only four teams advancing to the semifinals, Canada (4-3) is currently tied for third place and the U.S. (4-4) is tied for fifth place. In its final game of round-robin play, the U.S. plays Japan (4-3) at 7 a.m. ET on Wednesday morning.Â
— Shawn Smith
Hall, Goepper finish top two in men's ski slopestyle
The Americans didn't sweep the podium like they did eight years ago in Sochi, but they came pretty close, as Alex Hall and Nick Goepper took the top two spots in the men's freeski slopestyle final.
Hall put down an insanely creative line through the course, especially on the last two jumps. On the first of those two, Hall spun a switch 720 onto the knuckle of the jump and then popped himself back in the air for another 540-degree rotation. His final jump involved pulling back a double cork 1080 at the last moment — a mid-air "pretzel" — and turning it into a 900.
With a first run that scored a 90.01, Hall moved to the top of the leaderboard, but none of the other skiers in the stacked field were able to top him.
Goepper came the closest, landing an extremely smooth run through the course on his second attempt to score an 86.48 and snag the silver medal. Sweden's Jesper Tjader secured bronze.
The third American in the final, big air silver medalist Colby Stevenson, finished seventh but did manage to land a switch double cork 1800 in his opening run.
Results: Men's Freeski Slopestyle
đŸ¥‡ Alex Hall (USA)
đŸ¥ˆ Nick Goepper (USA)
đŸ¥‰ Jesper Tjader (SWE)
— Shawn Smith
SEE MORE: Nick Goepper puts down 86.48-point slopestyle run for silver