2022 Winter Olympics: Team USA snags two medals on Day 2

Team USA is on the board with its first medals of the 2022 Winter Olympics!

After getting off to a hot start on Day 0, the Americans failed to snag any hardware during the first medal events on Day 1. But Team USA turned things around in a big way on Sunday, coming away with its first two medals — both silver — of these Winter Games.

Here are more of the top moments and highlights from Day 2:

Team USA, snowboarding

The first Olympic medal for the U.S. went to 24-year-old Julia Marino, who won silver in the women’s slopestyle final.

Marino took the lead with a dazzling performance on her second run, which put her in first place ahead of the third and final round. 

In the end, New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski Synnott took home gold — her country’s first gold medal in a Winter Olympics — with a final score of 92.88. Fellow American and two-time Olympic gold medalist Jamie Anderson — the reigning gold medalist in the event — finished ninth overall after qualifying fifth on Day 1.

Three members of Team USA made it through to the men’s slopestyle final, including defending Olympic gold medalist Redmond “Red” Gerard, Sean FitzSimons and Chris Corning. 

FitzSimons placed third, while Gerard checked in at fifth and Corning finished in the 11th spot to qualify for the 12-rider final on Monday at 12 p.m. Beijing time (11 p.m. ET Sunday).

But it was 17-year-old Su Yiming, the first-and-only Chinese snowboarder to ever win a World Cup big air title, who posted the best score of the qualifier with this spectacular run.

Jaelin Kauf, freestyle skiing

Americans Kauf, Olivia Giaccio, Hannah Soar and Kai Owens competed for spots on the podium in the women’s moguls finals on Monday night in Beijing (6:30 a.m. ET Sunday).

After nailing the first round of the final, all four women clinched a spot in the final 12 with their impressive runs.

Kauf and Giaccio went on to snag two spots in the top six, checking in at second and sixth place, respectively. 

But it was 25-year-old Kauf who picked up the second medal of these Winter Games for Team USA, bringing home silver in the event. It is the first moguls medal for the U.S. since 2014 and Kauf’s first.

In the men’s event, American Nick Page finished fifth among the six competitors in the men’s moguls with a score of 78.90. The 19-year-old made it through two moguls finals rounds, placing 10th out of 20 competitors in the first round and then sixth out of 12 competitors in the second round, to qualify for the medal event.

Team USA, figure skating

The U.S. fell to second place in the team figure skating event when American Karen Chen took a hard fall. The 22-year-old Cornell student skated a clean first part of her short program but slammed into the ice on a planned triple loop jump toward the end of her routine. She finished fifth with a score of 65.20.

Kamila Valiyeva of the Russian Olympic Committee proved why she is the gold-medal favorite. The 15-year-old dominated with a score of 90.18, while Japan’s Wakaba Higuchi finished second with a score of 74.73. 

Valiyeva also made history by becoming just the fourth woman to land a triple axel in Olympic history, joining Midori Ito (1992), Mao Asada (2010 and 2014) and Mirai Nagasu (2018).

Vincent Zhou took the ice to represent the U.S. in the men’s free skate, the second part of Day 2’s team event. The 21-year-old finished third with a score of 171.44 to keep the U.S in second place overall with 42 total team points behind ROC (45 points) and just ahead of Japan (39 points).

Kristen Santos, speedskating

In her first Olympic race, Team USA’s Santos won her heat in the women’s short track 500-meter race to advance to Monday’s quarterfinal. Santos finished in 43.579 seconds to edge ROC’s Elena Seregina by 0.026 seconds.

Fellow American Maame Biney also advanced to the quarterfinals after finishing third in her heat with a time of 42.919 seconds. Defending gold medalist Arianna Fontana of Italy also advanced by winning her heat.

Team USA, hockey

After a dominant performance against ROC on Day 1, Team USA followed that up by shutting out Switzerland, 8-0, in the third preliminary round on Sunday. The American women are now undefeated (3-0) in the prelims.

The U.S. didn’t waste any time, taking an early 3-0 in the first period.

Then, Amanda Kessel got in on the action to make it 5-0 heading into the second period, followed by the knockout shot from Jesse Compher to seal the deal for Team USA and continue its perfect streak.

Next up: Canada. 

Scott Patterson, cross-country skiing

The 30-year-old skater finished 11th in the men’s event at the decorated National Cross-Country Skiing Center in Zhangjiakou, earning Team USA its best finish by in an Olympic cross-country distance race since 1976. 

Team USA, luge

Americans Chris Mazdzer, Tucker West and Jonny Gustafson advanced to the men’s singles final where they finished eight, 13th and 19th, respectively, for Team USA. 

Nils van der Poel, speed skating

Team USA skaters Emery Lehman and Ethan Cepuran finished 16th and 17th, respectively, in the men’s 5000-meter race, as Sweden’s Nils van der Poel set a new Olympic record with a time of 6:08.84 to win gold.

He is the first Swedish athlete to win gold in the event since Tomas Gustafson in 1988. 

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