WATCH: Thursday was a day of highs and lows for Canada in Sochi. Allison Vuchnich has the story
What you need to know about Sochi today
Friday is a relatively slow day, with only nine Olympic events featuring Canadians.
Canada’s men’s hockey team plays their second game, taking on an Austrian team that includes NHLers Thomas Vanek and Michael Grabner of the New York Islanders. The game is at 12 p.m. ET / 9 a.m. PT.
Medal hopefuls to watch:
Patrick Chan is Canada’s best medal shot on Friday. He sits second heading into the free skate program, where he holds the world record.
- Men’s figure skating free skate program – 10 a.m. ET / 7 a.m. PT.
- Chan will be joined in the competition by fellow Canadian Kevin Reynolds.
The final two runs of women’s skeleton take place on Friday, with Canadians sitting off the podium heading in.
- Women’s Skeleton Run 3 – 10:40 a.m. ET / 7:40 a.m. PT.
- Women’s Skeleton Run 4 – 11:50 a.m. ET / 8:50 a.m. PT.
- Sarah Reid and Mellisa Hollingsworth head into Friday sitting in 8th and 16th respectively.
Morgan Pridy is a long shot at a medal in the men’s super combined ski event, which combines the disciplines of downhill and slalom.
- Men’s Super Combined Downhill – 1 a.m. ET / 10 p.m. Thursday PT.
- Men’s Super Combined Slalom – 6:30 a.m. ET / 3:30 a.m. PT.
- Pridy is the only Canadian competitor in this event.
Alex Harvey, who has had a disappointing Olympics thus far, is Canada’s best medal hope in the men’s 15 km cross country skiing event.
- Men’s 15 km Classic – 5 a.m. ET / 2 a.m. PT.
- Harvey is one of four Canadians in the field. Devon Kershaw, Ivan Babikov and Graeme Killick are the other three.
The women’s 15 km biathlon goes on Friday.
- Women’s 15 km individual biathlon – 9 a.m. ET / 6 a.m. PT.
- Megan Imrie, Zina Kocher, Rosanna Crawford and Megan Heinicke are the four Canadians in the field. None is expected to medal.
Other Events
The men’s curling team came into the Olympic tournament as the gold medal favourite. So far, they have three wins and two losses, a much slower start than expected. They play their sixth round robin match against Norway on Friday.
- Men’s Curling vs. Norway – 12 a.m. ET / 9 p.m. Thursday PT.
- Brad Jacobs leads the team made up of Ryan Fry, E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden.
Before the medals get handed out in women’s skeleton Friday afternoon, the men get under way in the morning with their first two runs.
- Men’s Skeleton Run 1 – 7:30 a.m. ET / 4:30 a.m. PT.
- Men’s Skeleton Run 2 – 9 a.m. ET / 6 a.m. PT.
- John Fairbairn and Eric Neilson are the two Canadians flying down the track in this event.
The second men’s ski jumping event gets under way Friday, with the large hill competition.
- Men’s Large Hill Ski Jumping Qualification – 12:30 p.m. ET / 9:30 a.m. PT.
- There are four Canadian jumpers: Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes, Dusty Korek, Matthew Rowley and Trevor Morrice.
What happened Thursday in Sochi
Thursday was the first day of competition in which Canada failed to capture a medal.
Despite the lack of hardware, there were some Canadian victories worth noting.
In the most anticipated Canadian event of the day, the men’s hockey team defeated Norway 3-1. And while the Canadians were heavy favourites the first period was clearly a learning process for the star-studded team. The Norwegians came out flying and the Canadians found themselves playing in the defensive zone on multiple occasions. After the first period it was 0-0.
Canada began to dominate the game in the second, learning how to play in the dimensions of the international ice. Shea Weber opened the scoring with his signature blast from the point and Jamie Benn added a goal as Canada went into the second intermission up 2-0.
Norway notched an early third period goal to come within one. Before panic swept over the nation Drew Doughty answered right back to regain Canada’s two-goal lead at 3-1, which proved to be the final.
Norway’s speed undoubtedly caught Canada off guard at first but there was really no doubt that the Canadian team would come out on top in this one: Canada boasts a team full of NHL players while Norway has just one.
- Charles Hamelin of Canada, Wenhao Liang of China, compete in the Short Track Men’s 1000 m Heat on day 6 of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at at Iceberg Skating Palace on February 13, 2014 in Sochi, Russia.
Other Canadian highlights
Canadian athletes had a very strong showing in the men’s 1000-metre short track speed skating heats.
Charles Hamelin, Olivier Jean and Charle Cournoyer all took part in the event. All three Canadians finished first in their respective heats, qualifying for the quarterfinals on Saturday. The semi-finals and final also go Saturday.
The Canadian with the most pressure on him heading into Thursday, Patrick Chan, had a strong showing in the men’s figure skating short program.
Chan finished with a score of 97.52, which was good for second place heading into the free skate on Friday. Chan was only beaten by Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu, who set a world record short program score of 101.45. There were two other Canadians in the competition, Kevin Reynolds and Liam Firus. Reynolds finished 17th after a fall ruined his hopes for medal contentions. He still qualified for the free skate program. Firus finished 28th and did not qualify.
Luge continued to be the most frustrating and heartbreaking sport for Canadians in Sochi.
The team relay event took place Thursday, with Canada’s team made up of Alex Gough, Samuel Edney and the pair of Tristan Walker and Justin Snith. The team finished 0.1 seconds off of the podium, with yet another fourth-place finish for Canada in luge – their third of the Olympics.
Gough finished fourth in the women’s singles and Walker and Smith finished fourth in the doubles. It bodes well for the future of the Canadian luge team and they can now set their sights on the podium in 2018. The team relay marked the end of luge competition in Sochi.
Both Canada’s curling teams were successful on Thursday, with the women winning twice and the men winning their only game.
Jennifer Jones looked calm, confident and untouchable in her two matches against teams from Denmark and Switzerland, winning both games 8-5. The two victories improved Canada’s record to 5-0.
Brad Jacobs‘ men’s team won another close one, 7-6 over Denmark. The win was the men’s second straight after two losses in a row. The team now has three wins and two losses with four games left in the round robin portion of the tournament.
Disappointments
Thursday’s biggest letdown came in the men’s short track speed skating 5000-metre team relay, where Canadian reigning Olympic champions finished last in their heat, failing to qualify for the final and crushing their hopes of reaching the podium again this year. The team was made up of Charles Hamelin, Francois Hamelin, Olivier Jean and Michael Gilday.
Staying with short track speed skating, Marianne St. Gelais was the only Canadian to finish in the top two of her heat and qualify for the semi-finals in the women’s 500-metre race, as Jessica Hewitt and Valérie Maltais failed to do. In her semi-final, St. Gelais finished in third out of four, which wasn’t good enough to qualify her for the final. The final rankings saw St. Gelais in 7th, Maltais in 9th and Hewitt in 16th.
Christine Nesbitt came in as the reigning Olympic gold medallist in the women’s long track 1000-metre speed skating race and was considered Canada’s best medal shot. She finished 9th. Other Canadians competing were Kaylin Irvine (18th), Kali Christ (21st) and Brittany Schussler (30th).
The first two women’s skeleton runs took place Thursday, with Canadians Sarah Reid and Mellisa Hollingsworth not considered medal favourites, but potential contenders. Reid had a fairly good showing, having the seventh-fastest time in the first run and eighth-fastest in the second to end up 8th overall heading into Friday’s third and fourth runs. Hollingsworth had a disappointing couple runs, ending up in 16th overall.
Alex Beaulieu-Marchand, Canada’s lone competitor in the men’s ski slopestyle event, had an up-and-down day. In the qualification round he had a great run, finishing sixth and putting himself into the final where he could have potentially reached the podium. But he fell in the final and his score was nowhere near the three Americans who swept the podium.
Cross country skiing and biathlon proved yet again to be two of Canada’s weakest sports at the Winter Olympics.
In the women’s 10km classic cross country ski race, the four Canadian competitors were nowhere near the top: Brittany Webster finished 42nd, Daria Gaiazova was 44th, Amanda Ammar was 55th and Heidi Widmer was 57th.
In the men’s individual 20 km individual biathlon, Brendan Green and Nathan Smith were pleasant surprises, finishing 21st and 25th, respectively. Jean-Philippe Le Guellec, considered Canada’s top competitor, was a disappointing 35th. Scott Perras rounded out the field of Canadians with his 58th place finish.
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