The Sports Report: Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue end careers on a high note

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Helene Elliott on figure skating: Before she stepped off the ice for the last time as a competitive ice dancer Madison Hubbell did a little twirl, soaking in the moment and the lively atmosphere at Capital Indoor Stadium.

She and partner Zachary Donohue had the earned the satisfaction of knowing they had saved their best for last, earning an Olympic bronze medal on Monday with a mesmerizing and technically accomplished free dance that capped their careers on a high note.

Hubbell and Donohue’s performance to “Drowning” by Anne Sila was the highlight of a partnership that included three U.S. championships and a fourth-place finish at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. Their final total of 218.02 points — which included a deduction of one point for an extended lift in their free dance on Monday — put them on the podium alongside incomparable gold medalists Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France (226.98 points) and runners-up Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of the Russian Olympic Committee (220.51 points).

Madison Chock of Redondo Beach and partner Evan Bates, who won the U.S. ice dance title last month, finished fourth with 214. 77 points, their best showing in their three Olympic appearances together. Bates also competed at the 2010 Games with a different partner.

The theme of Chock’s and Bates’ free dance was love, as discovered by an alien and an astronaut, and it reflected their off-ice romantic relationship. Although they didn’t win an ice dance medal they will leave Beijing with a silver medal for their contribution to the U.S. runner-up finish in the team event last week.

Papadakis and Cizeron skated last and earned a perfect 10 for composition among their program component scores and a 9.96 for performance. That accurately reflected the quality of their skate to “Elegie” by Gabriel Faure, which drew a standing ovation.

WINTER OLYMPICS

Note: Our Olympics coverage is done in real time, so if you don’t want to know what happened before you watch TV today, skip down to the TV schedule.

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Kaillie Humphries stood up straight in her moving bobsled, stretching her arms wide in a pose reminiscent of a favorite internet meme.

Are you not entertained?

Humphries and fellow American Elana Meyers Taylor solidified their status as the top pilots in the world by finishing first and second, respectively, in the inaugural Olympic women’s monobob competition Monday at Yanqing National Sliding Center.

After changing her citizenship from Canada to the United States after alleging abuse from Canadian coaches, Humphries lapped the field in a wire-to-wire, four-heat victory and won with a combined time of 4:19.27 to claim her third Olympic gold medal.

Meyers Taylor came back from fourth place after the first day of competition and jumped into the silver medal position with her best run of the competition in the final heat.

The 37-year-old won her fourth Olympic medal with a final run of 1:05.11, which was the fastest time of the heat to finish with a total time of 4:20.81. After she rode past the finish line, Meyers Taylor, who missed training time early in the Games because of a positive coronavirus test that forced her to isolate, raised both arms as she rode past the finish line and slapped her sled. She held her helmet in her hands, stunned, as her time helped her overcome a 0.18-second deficit coming into the fourth heat behind Canada’s Christine de Bruin, who finished third with a time of 4:21.03.

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Russian teenager Kamila Valieva has been cleared to compete in the women’s figure skating competition at the Winter Olympics despite failing a pre-Games drug test.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport released its ruling less than 12 hours after a hastily arranged hearing that lasted into early Monday morning that the 15-year-old Valieva, the favorite for the women’s individual gold, does not need to be provisionally suspended ahead of a full investigation. The court gave her a favorable decision in part because she was a minor or “protected person” and was subject to different rules from an adult athlete.

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From Nathan Fenno: The spread of the coronavirus at the Winter Olympics appears to be petering out as the Games enter their final days.

Organizers reported three new cases Monday, the sixth time in the last seven days when cases have been in the single digits.

There have been 432 cases in the Olympics bubble since Jan. 23, 183 from athletes and team officials, though the number isn’t broken down by country or sport.

The number of people inside the bubble — called the closed loop by organizers — isn’t known. But each person is required to be tested daily for the virus and more than 70,000 such tests are being recorded each day.

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From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Erin Jackson didn’t let this chance go to waste.

After teammate Brittany Bowe gave up her qualifying spot in the 500-meter speedskating race to ensure Jackson could compete at the Olympics despite a slip during the Olympic trials, the top-ranked sprinter repaid her longtime friend’s selfless gesture by winning a gold medal on Sunday at the National Speedskating Oval.

Skating in the second-to-last heat, Jackson blazed to a 37.04-second finish to become the first U.S. woman to medal in the 500 meters since 1994 and win the United States’ first individual speedskating medal at any distance since Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick took gold and bronze, respectively, in the 1,000 meters in 2010. Jackson, who four years ago became the first Black woman to represent the United States in speedskating at the Olympics, is now the first Black woman to win a speedskating gold medal for the United States.

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From Nathan Fenno: Tommy Ford emerged from the swirl of snowflakes and low-slung clouds that transformed the treacherous giant slalom course known as the Ice River into a maze.

He shot through the finish, skidded to a stop in a spray of white and, for a moment, absorbed the scene at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre on Sunday as whining leaf blowers cleared snow from the grandstands and course workers scrambled to repair the run before the next skier started.

He had finally returned.

Four hundred days had passed since Ford’s last race ended in a devastating crash he still can’t remember. On a day when snow piled up at the Winter Olympics and simply making it down the mountain without incident was an accomplishment, the 32-year-old took a significant step in a recovery that has tested his body and spirit.

“It’s like riding a bike,” Ford said after his first run. “It was pretty familiar. I felt comfortable and ready to charge.”

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From David Wharton: he players agreed to take different names. Names they couldn’t necessarily pronounce at first. Jeremy Smith became Jieruimi Shimisi and Jake Chelios chose Jieke Kailiaosi, and maybe it seemed weird.

“A little bit,” said Spencer Foo, who became Fu Jiang. “Yeah, I picked it up pretty quick.”

Few of them spoke Chinese or had spent time in China, but they knew the difference between a forecheck and a cross check. That sufficed to draw these hockey players together, transport them halfway around the globe and plunk them down in a new country.

Which made perfect sense to them.

“There’s a bigger picture,” said Ye Jinguang, who grew up in British Columbia as Brandon Yip. “We’re here to grow the game.”

The Chinese men’s hockey team made its Winter Olympic debut in Beijing last week, part of a grand experiment by the government to build a national hockey program from scratch, in a hurry.

The roster featured minor-league talent gleaned from throughout North America — players with some Chinese ancestry or who were willing to live in country for several years. Team officials also asked them to take those transliterated names.

Not everyone was thrilled about this prefab roster.

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Monday’s TV schedule

USA Network

12 a.m. – 5 a.m.

Women’s freestyle skiing – Aerials final (Live)

Two-man bobsled – First run (Live)

Women’s curling – United States vs. South Korea

5:10 a.m. – 7:30 a.m.

Women’s ice hockey – United States vs. Finland, semifinal (Live)

7:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Women’s ice hockey – United States vs. Finland, semifinal

Men’s freestyle skiing – Slopestyle qualifying

Men’s curling – Russian Olympic Committee vs. Sweden

Two-man bobsled – Second run

Men’s ski jumping – Team large hill

5:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Men’s freestyle skiing – Slopestyle final (Live)

Men’s snowboarding – Big air qualifying

8 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.

Men’s ice hockey – Playoff-round, TBD (Live)

10:30 p.m. – 12:55 a.m. Tuesday

Men’s speedskating team pursuit finals (Live)

Women’s speedskating team pursuit finals (Live)

NBC

11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Men’s snowboarding – Big air qualifying

Women’s freestyle skiing – Slopestyle final

Women’s monobob – Final runs

Men’s ski jumping – Team large hill

5 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Women’s Alpine skiing – Downhill run (Live)

Women’s snowboarding – Big air final (Live)

Women’s freestyle skiing – Aerials final

Two-man bobsled – First and second runs

9:05 p.m. – 11 p.m.

Men’s snowboarding – Big air final (Live)

Men’s freestyle skiing – Slopestyle final

CNBC

2 p.m. – 4 p.m.

Women’s curling – Switzerland vs. Sweden

5 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Men’s curling – United States vs. Switzerland (Live)

8 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.

Men’s ice hockey – Playoff-round game, TBD (Live)

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Beijing Olympics live: Latest news and results from the 24th Winter Games

UCLA BASKETBALL

The UCLA women’s basketball team (11-8, 6-6) defeated Washington (5-13, 0-10) 69-61 for its second conference road win. Charisma Osborne and IImar’I Thomas keyed a second-half comeback for the Bruins who trailed 37-32 at half.

USC BASKETBALL

The USC women’s basketball team came up just short in a 57-54 loss at Washington State. USC goes to 10-13 overall and to 3-10 in Pac-12 play with the road loss, while WSU improves to 16-8, 8-5.

USC was hamstrung by over eight minutes of scoring silence in the second quarter, falling behind by 20 before getting buckets to fall at the close of the half to trail 36-22 at the break.

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1934 — The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the NHL All-Stars 7-3. The game is played as a benefit for fomer Toronto player Ace Bailey. Bailey suffers a skull fracture earlier in the season from a hit by Boston’s Eddie Shore.

1936 — Maribel Vinson wins her eighth U.S. figure skating singles championship and Robin Lee wins his second consecutive men’s title.

1951 — Sugar Ray Robinson wins the middleweight title with a technical knockout in the 13th round over Jake LaMotta in Chicago.

1953 — Bill Chambers of William & Mary grabs 51 rebounds in a 105-84 victory over Virginia.

1966 — Philadelphia’s Wilt Chamberlain scores 41 points in a 149-123 win over Detroit to become the NBA’s all-time scoring leader, passing Bob Pettit (20,880 points).

1975 — Julius Erving of the New York Nets scores 63 points in a 176-166 quadruple overtime loss to the San Diego Conquistadors. Erving sets an ABA record by shooting 25-for-46 from the field and the 342 points are an ABA record.

1986 — Wayne Gretzky gets seven assists for the third time in his career as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Quebec Nordiques 8-2. Gretzky doesn’t score a goal for a career-high ninth straight game, but ties his NHL record with the seven assists.

1988 — Bobby Allison outduels his 26-year-old son Davey to win the Daytona 500 and becomes the first 50-year-old to win NASCAR’s premier event.

1990 — Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins ends his 46-game scoring streak, the second-longest in NHL history, leaving after two scoreless periods of a 4-3 overtime victory over the New York Rangers.

1992 — Bonnie Blair becomes the first American woman in 40 years to win two gold medals in the Winter Olympics when she takes the 1,000-meter speed skating event.

2004 — Sergei Fedorov of the Ducks is the first Russian-born player to collect 1,000 points with an assist on Keith Carney’s goal in the second period of the Ducks’ 2-1 win over Vancouver.

2005 — Savannah State is 0-for-the-season, becoming the second NCAA Division I school in a half-century to go through an entire season without a win, losing to Florida A&M 49-44 to finish 0-28.

2010 — In Vancouver, British Columbia, an American breaks through the Nordic combined barrier, winning the first Olympic medal in the sport dominated by Europeans. Jason Lamy Chappuis of France overtakes American Johnny Spillane on the final straightaway for the gold medal, winning four-tenths of a second ahead of Spillane.

2010 — The Eastern Conference edges the West 141-139 in the NBA All-Star game before the largest crowd ever to watch a basketball game. A crowd of 108,713 at Cowboys Stadium watches Dwyane Wade score 28 points and take MVP honors before Dallas native Chris Bosh makes the winning free throws with 5.0 seconds left.

2010 — Sailing’s America’s Cup, once again, belongs to America after Larry Ellison’s space-age trimaran easily speeds ahead of two-time defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland to complete a two-race sweep in the 33rd America’s Cup.

2015 — Mikaela Shiffrin becomes the third woman to win back-to-back slalom titles at world championships. She finishes in a combined time of 1:38.48, edging Frida Hansdotter of Sweden by 0.34 seconds.

2016 — The first NBA All-Star Game outside the U.S. is the highest-scoring ever. Kobe Bryant says his NBA All-Star Game goodbye as the West wins 196-173 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. Russell Westbrook scores 31 points in his second straight All-Star MVP performance. Paul George finishes with 41 for the East.

2018 — Snowboarder Shaun White wins America’s 100th Winter Olympic gold medal, throwing down a spectacular final run in the men’s halfpipe at the Pyeongchang Games. The United States is the second country to win 100 winter golds, trailing Norway, which started the day with 121.

Supplied by the Associated Press

And finally

Shaun White wins America’s 100th Winter Olympic gold medal. Watch and listen here.