Olympics Overnight: Monobob bronze for Canadian Christine de Bruin as Kaillie Humphries wins gold for U.S.; IOC clears Russian figure skater to compete

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This article was published 14/02/2022 (1304 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rise and shine, Olympics fans. Here’s what you missed overnight and need to know about the 2022 Beijing Olympics this morning.

For all the Star-related Winter Games content, visit our Olympics page here.

“It’s so surreal.”

Those were some of the few words Canadian Christine de Bruin could muster following her bronze win on Monday in Beijing. At age 32, she finally has her first Olympic medal.

The Canadian bobsledder finished third in the inaugural monobob event Monday with former Canadian gold medallist Kaillie Humphries — who now competes for the U.S. — taking the top spot on the podium. Humphries’ American teammate Elana Meyers Taylor took the silver.

Elsewhere in Canadian action on Day 10, the women are moving onto another hockey gold medal match following a dominating 10-3 win over Switzerland, breaking the record for most goals scored — 54! — in the tournament while they were at it. And Jennifer Jones and the women’s curling team can breathe slightly easier now after snapping a three-game losing skid with a win over Russia.

And perhaps the biggest Olympics news overnight, however, was the IOC ruling that Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva — who failed a pre-Games drug test — can continue to compete at the Games, though she won’t receive a medals ceremony if she were to reach the podium in the individual women’s event.

So grab a coffee, pry open those tired Monday eyes and get caught up with what you missed at the Beijing Olympics overnight:

Bobsledding bronze

Christine de Bruin captured Canada’s first gold sliding medal on Monday after a third-place finish in the inaugural monobob event in a time of four minutes 21.03 seconds. But a familiar face to many Canadian Winter Olympics fans and a former teammate of de Bruin, Kaillie Humphries stood atop the podium with a gold.

Just this time she’s donning the stars and stripes instead of the red and white.

Humphries, who won three medals with Canada in 2014 and 2018, switched to the American side over allegations of abuse by the Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, the sport’s governing body. The allegations remain under investigation, but she was granted permission to leave and join the Americans in 2019.

“To me, it’s not a rivalry,” Humphries told the Canadian Press after her first-place finish of 4:19.27 about moving to the U.S. side. “I’m not picking and choosing one country over the other.”

Fellow Canadian Cynthia Appiah was eighth in the monobob event. De Bruin has a chance to add another medal in the two-women event on Saturday.

Canada crushes record

No other women’s hockey team at Olympics has scored 54 goals in a single tournament. And there’s still one more game to go.

The Canadian women went on another scoring binge Monday in their semifinal against Switzerland, adding another 10 goals to their tally with another lopsided performance. Captain Marie-Philip Poulin led the team with two goals, while Claire Thompson, Jamie Lee Rattray, Renata Fast, Erin Ambrose, Emily Clark and Emma Maltais also scored in the 10-3 win.

Canada has reached the gold medal final in every appearance since the women’s hockey tournament began in 1998. They will face defending champion U.S. after they beat Finland 4-1 in the other semifinal on Monday.

Sigh of relief (for now)

Jennifer Jones came into this tournament having never lost a match an Olympic match before. But four games into the tournament she found herself in an unusual situation when she and the Canadian women’s curling team went on a three-game losing skid. A fourth loss would be catastrophic.

And a 11-5 win over last-place Russia helped alleviate those worries — for now. They also beat Great Britain 7-3.

“One million per cent we needed to win that game,” Jones told the Canadian Press. “That was a massive win. I thought we played good from the first rock to the last rock.”

The Canadian skipper and the team are now 3-3 at the tournament, so they still need to be in must-win mode to ensure a playoff spot. On the men’s side, Canada’s Brad Gushue beat Italy 7-3 to improve to a 4-2 record.

Russian skater can compete — but medals still in question

The doping saga that has consumed the figure skating world somewhat came to a temporary resolution on Monday. The IOC decided that 15-year-old Kamila Valieva can continue to compete at the Beijing Olympics despite failing a pre-Games drug test over the use of a banned heart medication.

However, Valieva, who is currently one of the favourites to land the women’s gold in the event for the ROC, won’t be able to participate in a medals ceremony if she were to make it. She previously won gold with the ROC mixed figure skating team, but the medal ceremony for that event has been indefinitely postponed as the investigation continues.

That leaves Canada, who finished fourth in that event, in some uncertainty over whether or not they’ll get bronze if Russia were to be disqualified.

Other Canadian results:

• In freestyle skiing aerials, Marion Thenault finished seventh and failed to qualify for the final.

• Olivia Asselin earns a spot in the freestyle skiing slopestyle finals.

• Piper Gilles and Paul Poirer finish seventh in dance figure skating.

• In snowboarding, gold medallist Max Parrot qualified first for the men’s big air final. Teammate Mark McMorris was eighth with 147.25. Darcy Sharpe finished 12th and secured the last spot in the finals with a score of 142.00. Reigning Olympic gold medallist Sébastien Toutant of Canada crashed hard during men’s qualifying and won’t defend his title.

The Star in Beijing:

Bruce Arthur: Canadian turned American Kaillie Humphries stands alone, and slides alone to monobob gold

Rosie DiManno: French tandem cements place among greatest ice dance duos with Olympic gold medal

Dave Feschuk: Unlike the past, this Canadian women’s hockey team is having fun on road to Olympic gold medal final

Last rodeo for this, uh, “tiger”

French snowboarder Lucile Lefevre, in her last Olympics, injured her knee last week so couldn’t properly participate in the women’s big air qualifying. But that didn’t stop her from having fun:

Snack on the slopestyle

China’s Eileen Gu couldn’t wait to have a post-run snack Monday after she was captured chomping on a dumpling while awaiting her score in slopestyle qualifying:

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From where it began

A six-year-old video of Erin Jackson, the first Black woman to win Olympic gold in speedskating, shows her stepping on the ice for the first time ever:

PHOTO OF THE DAY

With files from the Canadian Press and Associated Press

Justin Smirlies is a Star digital producer based in Toronto. Reach him via email: jsmirlies@thestar.ca