BUKPYEONG, South Korea — In so many ways, the final day of Mikaela Shiffrin’s Olympics came to embody all the days and all the emotions that preceded it. Frustration sharing a stage with joy. Beauty marred by tiny blemishes. Results that didn’t necessarily match the goals but are certainly nothing to be ashamed of.

Shiffrin showed no outward signs of disappointment Thursday afternoon. She had come to PyeongChang with the hopes of winning multiple medals, and she did. A gold in the giant slalom and now a silver in the combined event means Shiffrin has three Olympic medals in her career.

And she’s just 22.

A gold and a silver – paired with a fourth-place finish in her best event – were not exactly what she’d spent the past four years dreaming about. She had discussed openly the possibility of winning three or four – or who knows, maybe five? – medals and as she grew faster and faster in every single discipline, no one was eager to rule her out.

“For sure, the expectations were high. But when I came here, I was thinking more about my own expectations,” she said when it was all finished.

Michelle Gisin of Switzerland won the gold and Wendy Holdener of Switzerland earned the bronze.

Advertisement

MEN’S SLALOM: Andre Myhrer, a 35-year-old Swede, was the unlikely champion after Marcel Hirscher and Henrik Kristoffersen – the best slalom skiers on the World Cup circuit – couldn’t complete two runs.

Ramon Zenhausern of Switzerland took silver and Austria’s Michael Matt won the bronze.

MEN’S HALFPIPE: David Wise delivered another gold for the U.S., winning the men’s halfpipe in freestyle skiing.

It was the second straight Olympic gold for Wise, who put down the most difficult, technically precise run ever seen in the sport.

He edged out his Olympic roommate, Alex Ferreira.

Nico Porteous of New Zealand took the bronze.

Advertisement

MEN’S CURLING: John Shuster and his U.S. team will play for a gold medal against Sweden after a 5-3 semifinal upset over Canada.

The U.S. victory was a remarkable comeback story for team which had never beaten Canada at the Olympics and hadn’t made the podium since the 2006 Turin Games, when they won a bronze medal.

NORDIC COMBINED TEAM: Carrying his country’s flag in one hand as he crossed the finish line, Johannes Rydzek capped a dominating performance to give Germany more Olympic gold.

Rydzek finished with an overwhelming 52.7-second advantage as the Germans won.

Defending champion Norway was second, followed by Austria.

SHORT-TRACK SPEED-SKATING: Dajing Wu of China won the men’s 500 meters, Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands took the women’s 1,000, and Hungary was the winner of the men’s 5,000-meter relay.

BIATHLON: Belarus won the gold in the women’s 4×6-kilometer relay, finishing in 1 hour, 12 minutes, 3.4 seconds.

Sweden was second and France third.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.