While Mikaela Shiffrin and Team USA’s other alpine skiers have been temporarily sidelined by high winds, American snowboarders are providing the Pyeongchang thrills. Competing in snowboarding slopestyle, teenager Red Gerard on Sunday won America’s first gold medal in Pyeongchang. Now, Chloe Kim, another 17-year-old and Shaun White, who won his first gold medal when Gerard and Kim were just 5 years old, take the slopes.
Kim and White highlighted an action-packed day that included speed skaters Shani Davis, Joey Mantia and Maame Biney, and a women’s hockey game between Team USA and the Olympic Athletes from Russia.
1. Kim Takes Gold, White Makes Pyeongchang Debut
Carlsbad native Shaun White, one of the most decorated snowboarders ever, made his Pyeongchang debut during Tuesday's (Monday night in the U.S.) qualifying and went big, scoring a 93.25 on his first run and a 98.5 on his second.
Not one to be outdone, White put his trademark amplitude on display on his second run and dropped back-to-back 1260s of his own after Australia's Scotty James and Japan's Ayumu Hirano put together runs that bumped White down to third place.
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White, James and Hirano showed why they're considered gold medal contenders. All three riders landed runs well above what's normally seen during qualifying events, setting the stage for what could be one of the most progressive halfpipe competitions ever.
White won gold medals in the men’s halfpipe in his first two Olympics, but finished fourth in Sochi in 2014. If he makes it out of the qualifying round, he'll compete for a medal on Wednesday.
Before White strapped in, So-Cal resident Chloe Kim, a 17-year-old sensation appearing in her first Olympics, won gold Tuesday (Monday local time) in women's snowboard halfpipe.
Kim put on a show in her first Winter Games and locked up the gold before completing her third and final run. She embraced her teammates and coaches and wiped away tears at the gate when her victory was announced, then proceeded to land a pair of 1080 spins.
Apparently, victory laps aren't her style.
Her accomplishments seem all the more impressive considering she competed on an empty stomach — Kim actually tweeted during the competition that she was "hangry" after failing to finish her breakfast sandwich.
Kim, whose parents are from South Korea, has dominated the women’s halfpipe in the years since the Sochi Games, when she was too young to compete. In 2016, she became the first woman to land back-to-back 1080s in a halfpipe contest. She began snowboarding at age 4 with her father, but does not like snow.
"Actually, I hate it," Kim told Sports Illustrated in January. "I grew up in Southern California.”
Kim's compatriots Arielle Gold and Kelly Clark dueled for bronze, with Gold coming out on top.
Watch White’s qualifying event at 8 p.m. PT on digital platforms at this link.
2. Speedskater Maame Biney’s Doesn’t Make 500-Meter Semifinals
Maame Biney, the first black woman to qualify for a U.S. Olympic speedskating team, didn’t progress out of the quarterfinals in the 500-meter short track event.
After an uncharacteristically slow start, the 18-year-old came last in her heat, where only the first two of the four skaters move on to the semifinals. But she faced stiff competition — China’s Fan Kexin, who has six world medals in the 500 meter and has been seen as a contender for gold, only managed second place.
Biney was the only American in contention for the 500 meter, but it won’t be her last event in Pyeongchang. She qualified for the 1,500 meter, which begins Saturday at 2 a.m. PT.
Watch her 500-meter performance here.
3. Americans Speed Skaters Shani Davis and Joey Mantia Take Ice in 1500m Medal Event
Four-time Olympic medalist Shani Davis may be the more recognizable name in the Men’s 1500m, but it’s American Joey Mantia who is most likely to challenge for a medal.
Mantia, from Ocala, Florida, struggled in Sochi, finishing 15th in the 1000-meter race and 22nd in his best event, the 1500-meters. Calling the experience "a complete disaster,” Mantia is hoping to find his way to the medal podium in Pyeongchang.
The international field will be headlined by the Netherlands’ Kjeld Nuis, the reigning 1500m world champion, and his teammate Koen Verweij, who returned from a kidney injury that kept him from training for a year.
Watch live at 3 a.m. Tuesday PT on digital platforms at this link, or during NBC 7’s daytime Olympics coverage at noon PT Tuesday.
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4. U.S. Lugers Face the Powerhouse Germans
U.S. luge medalist Erin Hamlin, America’s flag bearer during the opening ceremony, is in the mix for the women’s singles luge competition in Pyeongchang. Hamlin, a four-time Olympian, won the bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics, the first U.S. athlete to win an Olympics singles luge medal in the sports’ 50-year Olympic history.
But the strongest U.S. woman this season has been Sochi Olympian Summer Britcher. And German women have dominated the sport, among them defending gold medalist Natalie Geisenberger and Tatjana Huefner, a three-time Olympic medalist in luge.
Watch live on NBCSN beginning at 2 a.m. PT Tuesday or on digital platforms at this link.
5. U.S. Women’s Hockey Continues Quest for Gold vs. Russians
The U.S. women’s hockey team won its opening game in Pyeongchang against Finland, 3-1, on Sunday. Now they face the Olympic Athletes from Russia, as the Russians are being referred to in Pyeongchang. The Russians are the youngest team in the tournament, with less experience and almost an entirely new roster from the team that played in four years ago in Sochi.
The Americans have failed to win a gold medal since the sport was added to the Games in 1998. Most heartbreaking was their loss to powerhouse Canada in the gold medal game at Sochi. The Canadians, their longtime rivals, have won four straight gold medals.
Watch live on NBCSN at 4:10 a.m. PT Tuesday or on digital platforms at this link.
6. Gusts Delay Ski Jump Practice Runs
Due to gusty conditions, only 34 of 55 ski jumpers participated in training for the individual Gunderson normal hill event at the Pyeongchang Olympics, part of Nordic combined. Two of three scheduled practice runs were canceled.
Defending Olympic champion Eric Frenzel led training as high winds continued to affect the Alpensia Ski Jumping Center.
The 29-year-old German had a jump of 108 meters in Monday's training session. The normal hill final is scheduled for Wednesday.
Nordic combined features ski jumping followed later the same day by a 10-kilometer cross-country race. The athlete who wins the ski jumping phase begins first, followed by the remaining athletes in their order of finish.
Those involved in winter sports are used to this sort of thing, of course.
At the 2007 Alpine world championships in Sweden, for example, strong winds wiped out first three days of competition. At the 1993 world championships in Japan, the men's super-G was never contested.
Can happen the other way, too. At the 2010 Vancouver Games, the first two Alpine races were postponed because of rain and -- get this -- too-warm temperatures in the 40s. The entire Alpine world championships slated for Spain in 1995 were rescheduled for a whole year later because of a lack of snow.
7. Quick-Change Artist
If you thought you saw the same coach sitting next to some of the athletes in Sunday's figure skating competition, you weren't wrong.
Busy figure skating coach Marina Zoueva represents several athletes who are on the ice.
And that can mean quick changes between three jackets from the three countries her dance teams are competing for in the team event: Germany, Japan and the U.S.
See what we mean here.
