From the sports desk: Two golden moments
Hello from Milan and Cortina, where the American figure skater Alysa Liu summed up today’s events quite succinctly. After her near-flawless performance in the women’s free skate, cameras caught Liu saying, “That’s what I’m talking about!”
Liu won the gold medal in women’s singles figure skating, the first for an American since 2002, before Liu was born. And the American women’s hockey team beat its Canadian rival, 2-1, in overtime to win its first gold medal since 2018.
Our correspondents have covered it all below and at NBC News. Watch it all streaming on Peacock.
Live from Milan Cortina
During his free skate today, Alysa Liu seemed to be smiling the whole time, as she moved gracefully across the ice. When she finished, she smiled again, stuck out her tongue and raised her hands. Liu left figure skating after the 2022 Beijing Games, only to return, on her own terms, and fall in love with the sport again.
Then Liu had to wait for two other skaters to leave before learning: she had won gold. Soon she was being guided down a hallway towards the medal ceremony. In this quiet moment, NBC cameras caught her reflecting on her performance.
“I just can’t understand it,” Liu said. “There’s no way. I really enjoyed my skating.”
On Tuesday, Liu finished the short program in third place. She then scored 150.20 in today’s free skate, giving her a total score of 226.79, propelling her into first place.
A fellow American Amber Glenn had started the day in 13th position, after an error cost him points during the short program. But she made a spectacular recovery today, scoring a season-best 147.52 in the free skate, which helped her finish fifth.
After finishing her routine, she appeared to say the words “So close.”
About an hour earlier, the U.S. women’s hockey team had its own chance at glory.
For about 57 minutes today, Team USA couldn’t break through. After scoring over 30 goals in the tournament, the United States was held to a draw and trailed 1-0 to Canada. Everything the United States needed, Hilaire Chevalier » said afterwards, was to “put a good shot on goal”.
With just over two minutes left to play, Laila Edwards shot towards the goal, where Knight had camped in front of the goalkeeper. Knight deflected the puck into the net, tying the game.
Then, in overtime, the American team Megan Keller made an incredible individual play, getting around a defender, then getting the puck past the goaltender.
“We knew it was a matter of time, just building on them, slowly, slowly,” Knight said in an interview with NBC. “But you can also run out of time against a great team. Luckily we have an incredible team to be able to get the job done.”
It was Team USA’s third gold medal and first since 2018. The Americans finished these Olympics 7-0 and outscored their opponents 33-2. With this goal, Knight also became U.S. women’s hockey’s all-time leading scorer at the Olympics.
“I’m just happy to have a gold medal,” she said. “Oh, my God, it’s amazing.”
Speed skating corner
After Jordan Stolz After crossing the finish line of the 1,500-meter speed skating final, he leaned down, put his hands on his legs and breathed hard. Stolz finished second behind the Chinese Zhong Yan Ningby just 0.77 seconds, and won silver.
“Ning’s time was a surprise. He had the race of his life,” Stolz told reporters after the race. “I didn’t know much about the rankings until I crossed the finish line. But I was hoping that if it wasn’t gold, I was hoping I could get a silver.”
Stolz got off to a slow start and admitted he “didn’t have one [his] best races. He still has a chance to win his third gold medal of these Games: he will participate in the mass start event in speed skating on Saturday.
Photo of the day
When to watch
In the quarterfinals of the men’s hockey tournament, three of the four games went to overtime. The semi-finals should take place by appointment. Are the United States and Canada on a collision course for the gold medal game? Or can Finland or Slovakia spring a surprise? Log in to find out.
All times are Eastern Time and an asterisk denotes a medal event:
Friday February 20
- 4:30 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, men’s aerials, qualification 1
- 4:30 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, men’s freeski halfpipe qualification 1
- 5:15 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, men’s aerials, qualification 2
- 5:27 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, men’s freeski halfpipe qualification 2
- 6 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, women’s ski cross 1/8 final
- 6:35 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, women’s ski cross quarter-finals
- 6:54 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, women’s ski cross semi-finals
- 7:10 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, women’s ski cross finals*
- 7:30 a.m.: Freestyle skiing, men’s aerials finals*
- 8:05 a.m.: Curling, women’s semi-finals
- 8:15 a.m.: Biathlon, men’s mass start 15 km*
- 10:30 a.m.: Speed skating, women’s 1,500 meters*
- 10:40 a.m.: Men’s hockey, semi-finals, Canada vs. Finland
- 12 p.m.: Bobsleigh, series 1 in duo
- 1:05 p.m.: Curling, men’s bronze medal match*
- 1:30 p.m.: Freestyle skiing, men’s freeski halfpipe final*
- 1:50 p.m.: Bobsleigh, two-man bob, series 2
- 2:15 p.m.: Short track speed skating, women’s 1,500 meter quarterfinals
- 3:02 p.m.: Short track speed skating, women’s 1,500 meter semi-finals
- 3:10 p.m.: Men’s hockey, semifinals, United States vs. Slovakia
- 3:30 p.m.: Short track speed skating, men’s 5,000 meter relay finals*
- 4:07 p.m.: Short track speed skating, women’s 1,500 meter finals*
That’s all for now! We will come back tomorrow.
