TV BEST BETS

By John Cherwa

Feb. 21, 2014 12 AM PT

WOMEN’S SLALOM

Mikaela Shiffrin of the U.S. is the favorite to give the U.S. its first gold in women’s slalom since Barbara Ann Cochran in 1972. Shiffrin is the defending world champion and World Cup event champion. Among those most likely to challenge her are Frida Hansdotter of Sweden and Marlies Schild of Austria.

MEN’S HOCKEY

It’s a battle of friendly neighbors as the tournament reaches the semifinal stage. The U.S. and Canada play in one of the games. The winner will come out as the favorite in Sunday’s gold-medal final. It’s also a rematch of the gold-medal game in Vancouver. Sweden and Finland play in the other game.

SHORT-TRACK

SPEEDSKATING

The disaster that is the U.S. speedskating team might finally get its first medal. The U.S. 5,000-meter relay team is ranked No. 1 in the world. The fact that South Korea and China did not advance to the finals will help. J.R. Celski of the U.S. will be going for a medal in the men’s 500 meters.

--John Cherwa

Olympics

John Cherwa

John Cherwa is a special contributor to the Los Angeles Times. He started at The Times in 1980 and left in 1995 to be sports editor of the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Co. sports coordinator in 2002. He rejoined The Times in 2009 and left his post as deputy sports editor late in 2017. Currently, his major coverage area is horse racing, where he can be found at big races at Santa Anita, the Triple Crown series and Breeders’ Cup. He also can be found at the Olympics, having just finished the Tokyo and Beijing double, marking his 11th Olympics. Cherwa also contributes general interest stories from Florida.

TV BEST BETS

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