Advertisement

Here are the five Winter Olympics events you must not miss

Mikaela Shiffrin
(Fabrice Coffrini / AFP/Getty Images)
Share

So many events, so little time, and most of them at inconvenient times. With this much going on in the Games, it seemed appropriate to give you a hint at five events not to miss. Don’t get confused by the 17-hour time difference.

Women’s slalom: (Feb. 14, 10:15 a.m. in South Korea; Feb. 13, 5:15 p.m. in L.A.) Mikaela Shiffrin of the U.S. hopes to become the first person in history to repeat as the slalom gold-medal winner. She had won five straight World Cup slalom competitions before skiing off the course in January. Has she lost her edge? Petra Vlhova of Slovakia and Wendy Holdener of Switzerland could stand in her way.

Men’s biathlon, 20 kilometers: (Feb. 15, 8 p.m.; Feb. 15, 3 a.m.) Don’t know what this sport is? Well, it’s a 20-kilometer cross-country ski race where the competitors stop every once in a while and shoot at targets. If they miss, time is added to their score. The U.S. is counting on Lowell Bailey to give it the first-ever medal in this sport. Last year he was the first American to ever win a World Cup event.

Advertisement

Men’s figure skating final: (Feb. 17, 10 p.m.; Feb. 16, 5 p.m.) Nathan Chen of the U.S. is hoping to find himself on the medal stand after competition ends in an event that is wide open. He is the only person to complete five quads in a program during competition. Patrick Chan of Canada, Javier Fernandez of Spain and Yuzuru Hanyo of Japan will be major roadblocks to Chen’s Olympic dream.

Women’s hockey gold medal game: (Feb. 22, 1:10 p.m.; Feb. 21, 8:10 p.m.) It’s a pretty good guess that the final will be between Canada and the U.S. Those teams have met in the final in four of the last five Olympics. The U.S. has won 11 of its 14 games against Canada in international competition. If you can’t wait until the final, they meet in the preliminary round.

Mass start speedskating: (Feb. 24, 8 p.m.; Feb. 24, 3 a.m.) This new event promises to be a case of NASCAR meets roller derby, without the ability to call off the jam. Actually, there is no contact allowed, but things happen. Up to 24 skaters will go 16 laps around the 400-meter oval. One of the main strategies that is used in NASCAR — drafting — applies here. You don’t want to be on the lead for too long.

Advertisement