Nick Goepper's Slippery Slope
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DPYMONDAYEO,FEBRUARY 19,2018NGCHLATIMANES.COM/OLYMPICS G Harry How Getty Images MONIQUE LAMOUREUX-MORANDO and the United States leave Minnamari Tuominen and Finland in their wake in beating the world’s third-ranked team for a YOsecond time in these Games.URIf Canada beats the Olympic AthletesMOfrom Russia, it will play theVEU.S. for the gold for the fourth,time EH?in the past five Olympics. ticipated rematch of the previous U.S. advances to two Olympic finals will take place Thursday at Gangneung Hockey gold-medal game, Centre. Count on it happening. The Ca- a seemingly sure nadians already crushed the Rus- sians 5-0 in the opening round of this tournament. Canada rematch “We worked the last four years to put ourselves in position to win a gold medal,” captain Meghan Dug- UNITED STATES 5 gan said. FINLAND 0 These are the sixth Olympics to include women’s hockey, but the By Dylan Hernandez sport as a whole remains painfully backward, as the national pro- PYEONGCHANG, South Ko- grams outside of the Americans’ rea — None of the last10 days really and Canadians’ are in the athletic mattered and that included Mon- Stone Age. day, when the United States Finland was the perfect exam- cruised to a 5-0 victory over Fin- ple of that. The Fins are the world’s land in the semifinals of the third-ranked team but they had as Olympic women’s hockey tourna- much a chance of upsetting the ment. U.S. as they did of brokering world The 17 games played up to this peace. point have served as something of The Americans defeated the aprolonged and gratuitous qualifi- Fins in their Olympic opener 3-1. cation phase for the seemingly in- This would be worse. Significantly evitable gold-medal contest be- worse. tween the U.S. and Canada. All-world goaltender Noora So long as Canada, the four- Raty couldn’t save the Fins, who time defending champion, defeats Harry How Getty Images were overwhelmed in virtually ev- the Olympic Athletes from Russia NOORA RATY,Finland’s standout goalie, is overmatched in the semifinal against the U.S. Here ery aspect of the game. The U.S. —in other words, Russia — the an- she watches Dani Cameranesi score one of her two goals. [See Hockey, D11] Sibling’s memory NICK GOEPPER’S inspires Jon Lillis His brother died at 17 in October, but the U.S. aerial skier has been SLIPPERY SLOPE “trying to find ways to keep him close.” D12 After dark period, skier returns to medal podium Canadians lead in ice dancing DYLAN HERNANDEZ Over the last four years, The 23-year-old believes freestyle skier Nick Goepper he is ready this time to deal PYEONG- lived through the worst- with what comes next. Despite an embarrassing CHANG, case scenario. The post- Goepper won’t be alone. wardrobe malfunction, South Korea Olympics blues he experi- The cycle is the same for French pair of Papadakis —Concerns enced following the Sochi most of the athletes here. raised about Games were severe enough They devote years to reach and Cizeron finds itself the Olympics to where he contemplated these Games, their reward a in second place. D12 often center suicide. two-week stay at the center on the places Goepper did something of the world. But the that stage the Sunday he didn’t think Olympics end, and there’s Quick change Games, spe- possible when he was at his only one way to go from the cifically what will happen to lowest point, returning to top of a mountain: down. for Chelios these debt-ridden munici- the Olympic medal podium The Shaun Whites and palities when the festival by claiming silver in the the Lindsey Vonns emerge Ex-NHL star and four- leaves town. Less talked slopestyle competition. as household names and time Olympian traded about is what happens to “I’m super proud just to land major endorsement Wu Zhuang Xinhua/TNS the athletes when they leave be where I am today,” he deals. The others return to NICK GOEPPER of the United States is jubilant the easy life for chance the Olympics. said. [See Hernandez, D12] after his run in the slopestyle competition on Sunday. to help coach U.S. D11 Bubba Watson snaps his winless drought by capturing the Genesis Open title. SPORTS INSIDE >>> D2 MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19 ,2018 LATIMES.COM/SPORTS PYEONGCHANG 2018 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MEDAL COUNT THE LEADERS --------------------------------------------- NORWAY G 9 S9 26 B8 --------------------------------------------- GERMANY G9 S5 18 B4 --------------------------------------------- CANADA G5 S5 16 B6 --------------------------------------------- NETHERLANDS G 6 S5 13 B2 THE OTHERS Country GSBTot. OAR038 11 United States 53210 Austria 42410 France424 10 Japan 253 10 Sweden 4307 Switzerland 24 17 South Korea312 6 Italy 2136 Czech Republic123 6 China051 6 Britain 1034 Slovakia 1203 Australia 02 13 Finland003 3 Belarus 1102 Spain 0022 Poland100 1 Ukraine100 1 Adam Pretty Getty Images Slovenia 0101 MARTIN FOURCADE, right, of France narrowly wins the gold medal from Simon Schempp of Germany in the 15-kilometer biathlon Kazakhstan001 1 race. This victory, Fourcade’s second in Pyeongchang, was especially sweet because he lost in a photo finish at the 2014 Games. Liechtenstein 00 11 Note — Russia was suspended from the OLYMPICS BUZZ Pyeongchang Games; athletes from the country compete under the Olympic flag as Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR). OH SO CLOSE ... OR NOT MEDALISTS UPDATE BIATHLON are six countries that are in peted in cross-country ski- But that’s what happened try. Looks like it worked. Men’s 15km mass start By John Cherwa their very first Winter ing. He’s actually from Ecua- when Martin Fourcade of Brittany Bowe had a strong Games. dor, where there is virtually France won the race by a performance for the U.S., G Martin Fourcade, France This is your daily infu- There is a Nigerian wom- no snow, and finished11 2th of couple of centimeters over finishing fifth. S Simon Schempp, Germany B Emil Hegle Svendsen, sion of information and en’s bobsled team, made up the 116 athletes who finished Simon Schempp of Ger- Norway news that you might have of women from Dallas, the15-kilometer. He did beat many. Finally, for Norway missed. The really big stuff Houston and St. Paul, Minn. Pita Taufatofua of Tonga, Luckily, biathlon photo- With Wax-gate well in its CROSS-COUNTRY you’ll find in other stories. There is no sliding track in though. finish technology is way bet- rear-view mirror, Norway SKIING Everybody loves an Nigeria. The team was 20th And Kosovo has a skier, ter than that of horse-racing won its first gold in a team Men’s 4x10km relay underdog story and the Win- in qualifying heats. Albin Tahiri, who by the end tracks in the U.S., and the re- cross-country skiing event G Norway ter Olympics is full of them There is a men’s giant of the Games will have com- sult was known in seconds. since 2002, taking the men’s S Olympic Athletes from because, except for a few slalom competitor, Shannon peted in five events. He’s It was Fourcade’s second 4x10 -kilometer relay on Sun- Russia sports, the average viewer Abeda, from Eritrea, which from Slovenia. This one gold of these Games, and day. Four years ago, the head B France has absolutely no idea who is on the northeast corner of makes some sense as there fourth lifetime. Crazily, he ski waxer came under fire any of the people are any- Africa. It has a mountain but are both mountains and lost a photo finish in the 2014 when Norway did not do as FREESTYLE SKIING way. no snow. He’s from Canada snow in Kosovo. Of those Sochi Games to finish sec- well as hoped for in team Men’s Aerials What it creates are these and did OK, finishing 61st of that finished each of the ond. The U.S. did not have events. But it looks as G Oleksandr Abramenko, sports oxymorons, all in the the 75 that finished the races, he was 56th of 75 in the anyone in the race of 30 com- though they got that fixed. Ukraine hope of gaining fame by course. There were 35 skiers giant slalom, 37th of 37 in the petitors. Norway has been nearly un- S Jia Zongyang, China virtue of having none. who didn’t make it to the combined slalom, 47th of 48 stoppable these Games, B Ilia Burov, OAR The most famous, be- bottom for a timed run. in the super-G and 50th of 53 What happened, having won five of eight cause of the movie “Cool There is a short-track in the downhill. He still has golds and 11 cross-country SHORT TRACK Runnings,” was the Jamai- speedskater from Singa- the slalom to go. Netherlands? medals overall. The U.S. was SPEEDSKATING can bobsled team. There are pore, Cheyenne Goh. But the thing that makes Nao Kodaira of Japan last, in 14 th place. Women’s 500m no sliding tracks in Jamaica There’s one Olympic-size this all OK is that they get to won the gold in the women’s G Nao Kodaira, Japan and a lot of the movie is fic- skating rink in Singapore, march in the opening cere- 500-meter speedskating In progress … S Lee Sang-Hwa, South Korea tion. But there was a Jamai- and it’s in a mall. Goh spent mony (most were flag bear- event. Defending champion Probably no medal for B Karolina Erbanova, Czech can bobsled team in Calgary most of her life in Canada.