Olympics Overnight: Rough stretch for Canada in Beijing, including fourth-place finish for speedskating gold medal hopeful Laurent Dubreuil

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This article was published 12/02/2022 (1305 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.

Well, Canada got off to a great start on Day 8 of these Winter Games, but it was all downhill from there (no pun intended).

The good news: Canadian snowboarders Eliot Grondin and Meryeta O’Dine won a bronze medal in dramatic fashion in the Olympic debut of mixed snowboard cross.

The bad news: Canada men’s hockey team fell to Team USA in a preliminary game, both men and women lost to Sweden in curling, and gold medal contender Laurent Dubreuil finished in the dreaded fourth place spot in the 500-metre long-track speedskating event.

As usual, there was plenty of other action and drama overnight, so let’s get to it.

Grondin and O’Dine snatch a bronze

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Nelson Mandela (or maybe Confucius?)

In the final leg of the mixed snowboard cross, Canada’s Meryeta O’Dine and Italian Caterina Carpano made contact and took a big spill. That forced the two boarders to scramble over one of the jumps before racing to the finish line.

O’Dine finished in third, securing a medal for her and her teammate Eliot Grondin. It was the second medal of the Winter Games for both athletes — O’Dine won bronze in the women’s event and Grondin took silver in the men’s event.

The U.S. took gold and one of Italy’s two teams took silver.

For more on the race, check out the Star’s Dave Feschuk’s report from Beijing.

Laurent Dubreuil just misses the podium

Ack, is there anything worse than a fourth place finish?

Canadian speedskater Laurent Dubreuil, who was considered a contender for the gold, finished 0.03 seconds away from the bronze medal in the men’s 500-metre long-track speedskating event.

But the 29-year-old from Lévis, Que., who is the reigning world champion in the distance, managed to keep things in perspective:

Read more from the Star’s Bruce Arthur: Laurent Dubreuil left wondering after missing podium by three one-hundredths of a second

Canada falls to Team USA in men’s ice hockey

Team Canada’s women’s hockey team is cruising, but the men had a bit of a speed bump overnight, falling to the U.S. in the round robin by a final score of 4-2.

Canada’s goaltender Edward Pasquale had a bit of shaky game.

“I fought the puck pretty much all (game). I gave up two weak ones,” he told reporters after the game. “If I make those two saves we’re 2-2 going into overtime.”

Canada, who beat Germany in their opening game, will take on China on Sunday to close out the round robin portion of the tournament.

Click here for more on the game by the Star’s David Feschuk in Beijing.

Not a great night in the ol’ curling rink, either

Led by legendary skip Jennifer Jones, Canada’s women’s curling team fell to Sweden 7-6 in a tight matchup between two world heavyweights. It was the second straight loss for the defending champions, and it was a nailbiter:

“I don’t think we’re going to be able afford too many more losses,” Jones told The Canadian Press. “So we’re going to have to figure out ways to win some games here.”

Later in the day, Canada men’s team, led by Brad Gushue, dropped a 7-4 decision to Sweden’s Niklas Edin.

The top four teams in each draw will make the playoffs. Jones and Gushue will need to turn things around pretty quick to stay in the tourney.

Sketchy judging leads to awkward exchange

On Saturday, Canadian slopestyle gold medalist Max Parrot told The Associated Press that he failed to fully execute a grab on the first jump of the slopestyle course and said he was lucky the judges didn’t see it.

That means that Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris, who finished third, might have taken the gold if the judges had caught the miss. McMorris told CBC on Friday he deserved to beat Parrot and Chinese silver medalist Su Yiming.

“Obviously would have been nice to have a different shade of medal. But knowing that I kind of had the run of the day and one of the best rounds of my life and the whole industry knows what happened — pretty, pretty crazy,” McMorris said.

Call it a Maple beef.

But Parrot says there are no hard feelings: “He actually came to me earlier today and he apologized for his non-sportsmanship. I told him no worries.”

On Saturday, McMorris offered an apology on Twitter:

Other Canadian results:

Canada qualified for the women’s team pursuit semifinals with the second fastest time of the quarterfinals at 2:53.97. The event takes place on Tuesday.

Canada’s Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes finished 33rd in men’s large hill qualification, falling just outside the cusp of qualifying for the final.

All three Canadian ice skating teams have qualified for the free dance portion of the ice dance competition at the Beijing Olympics. Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are in sixth place.

Canada’s Mirela Rahneva finished in fifth place in the women’s skeleton.

Eileen Gu’s Instagram comment sparks controversy

Freestyle skiier and gold medallist Eileen Gu faced criticism in China after posting an Instagram comment apparently advocating for the use of a VPN — a virtual private network that allows Internet users to get around the nicknamed “Great Firewall of China,” which blocks users from accessing websites like Facebook, Instagram and many others.

As Yahoo Sports reporter Jay Busbee explains:

“This is the line that Gu must walk. Born and raised in the United States but competing for her mother’s home country of China in these Olympics, Gu is a huge celebrity here, appearing on billboards and commercials all over the country. But accusations of favouritism would be tough to shake, and many of the rights and freedoms Gu has enjoyed for 18 years as an American — free expression, an open and unfettered internet — aren’t available to Chinese citizens. Gu is already a huge star in China, but she’s liable to face enormous backlash if she flaunts the fact that she’s not living under the same rules as her fellow citizens.”

Random bits from Beijing

American snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis infamously crashed after making a showboat grab in 2006, costing her a gold medal. Sixteen years later, she redeemed herself in the mixed snowboard crossing, making the same grab before taking home her second gold of the Olympics.

Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych flashed a small sign to the cameras as he finished his skeleton run.“I want peace in my country, and I want peace in the world.”

American snowboarder Chloe Kim asked media for snacks before winning a gold medal.

History for China’s ice hockey team:

Nice helmet!

The Star in Beijing:

Bruce Arthur: How do you improve an already dominant Canadian women’s hockey team? You get creative

Dave Feschuk: Canada seeking net upgrade after men’s hockey loss to U.S. at Beijing Olympics

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Rosie DiManno: Canada has racked up the Beijing medals at the midway point — and given predictive AI the business

Medal count

Canada currently has 13 medals at the 2022 Beijing Olympics: one gold, four silver and eight bronze.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

With files from The Canadian Press and Associated Press