Novie McCabe may be the new kid on the team, but she skied like a wily veteran for Team USA in Saturday’s 4x5k women’s Team Relay at the Kuyangshu Nordic Center, in Zhangjiakou, China.

“It was so cool to be part of a team with three legends,” the 20-year-old McCabe said of her teammates Jessie Diggins, Rosie Brennan, and Hailey Swirbul. “I had a lot of fun doing it, even though I was extremely nervous beforehand.”

McCabe skied the third leg for Team USA and posted the sixth-fasted freestyle time, which was 10 seconds faster than Diggins’ fourth lap time, as Team USA finished sixth. The Russian Olympic Committee took the gold, with Germany winning a surprise silver, and Sweden taking the bronze.

“I’m really, really proud of this team,” Diggins said. “Every one of these girls went out and skied so hard...and we gave it everything we had. Some days that ends up with the result of your life, and some days it doesn’t. But either way, the only thing we can control is going out there and skiing as hard, and as smart as we can, and this team did that!”

Following the race, the team was surprised with an Athlete Moment, an opportunity to connect with friends and family back home in the U.S. on a big screen in the finish area.

“Some of my friends from high school, and also some of our former teammates - Holly Brooks and Sadie Bjornsen - they had a watch party with my boyfriend (Tyler Kornfield) in Alaska, so we got to wave and say hi to them,” Brennan said. 

As is customary on relay day, the team wears special relay socks. And, ironically, Bjornson had on a pair of relay socks at the watch party - she competed on the U.S. relay team at the World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany, last season. 

“Honestly, I wouldn’t expect anything less from her,” Brennan said of Bjornsen. 

“We have been missing a pair,” Diggins added. “That explains a lot!”

Fun and games aside, the women have a few days of rest and recovery before Wednesday’s classic team sprint. Team USA will be announced on Tuesday for Wednesday’s event. Up next, the men compete in the 4x10k relay Sunday. Luke Jager and Scott Patterson will ski the classic first and second legs, with Gus Schumacher and Kevin Bolger skiing the freestyle third and fourth legs.

RESULTS
Women’s 4x5k Relay

Mikaela Shiffrin came back in Friday's super-G reset and ready to race, finishing ninth overall, 0.79 off of gold medalist Lara Gut-Behrami's pace. Austria's Mirjam Puchner grabbed the silver medal, while Switzerland's Michelle Gisin rounded out the podium with the bronze. 

The nerves built up from the past couple of days had not disappeared, but the feeling of getting back out on skis reminded her that not every day at the Beijing 2022 Olympics is going to feel like a bad day. As she wrote in her Instagram post after the event, "the girl who failed...could also fly."

"I feel more positive, and a little bit of relief after skiing the super G, to know that it’s not so difficult," she said. "Good skiing is good skiing. I feel a lot more optimistic right now."

Since her second DNF at the Winter Olympic Games, Shiffrin has received an outpouring of support from fans across the globe. And Shiffrin, ever-humble, does not feel like she deserves it. The sheer number of positive messages she's received has been "insane" she said, and there's not enough time in the day for her to fully express to each and every person how much their efforts to cheer her up means to her. 

"I would never have expected in this moment, severely underperforming in an Olympics, that humans can be so kind," she gushed. "It’s the most surprising thing of my Olympic experience. How kind people have been in the face of my failure. It is a failure, and I’m okay saying that. I’m sorry for it, but I was also trying, and I’m proud of that."

In her first competition back since she fractured her tallus bone in the second of two FIS Ski World Cup super-G races in St. Moritz, Switzerland, Bella Wright pulled out a 21st place finish in her Olympic debut.

"Honestly I didn't know what to expect (of my Olympic experience), but the snow is absolutely amazing, the hill is one of the coolest hills I've ever skied, and I'm loving it," Wright said after she cleared through the finish.

Keely Cashman finished 27th in her Olympic debut. Alix Wilkinson did not finish, but showed some promising skiing in the first two intervals and is OK.

The women kick off downhill training on Saturday, Feb. 12. Over the next couple of days, the athletes have the opportunity to train on the course before the competition gets underway on Tuesday, Feb. 15. The race will air on NBC Primetime at 10 p.m. EST on Monday, Feb. 14. 

RESULTS
Women's super-G

HOW TO WATCH
*All times EST

Friday, Feb. 11, 2022
8:00 p.m. Primetime – Alpine Skiing Women’s Downhill (Live) & Snowboarding Mixed Team Snowboardcross (Live), NBC Broadcast

10:00 p.m. Alpine Skiing – Women’s Downhill Training, National Alpine Skiing Center, Yanqing District, Beijing, CHN, Streaming Peacock, NBCOlympics.com

Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022
4:05 a.m. Mixed Team Snowboardcross Finals & Women’s Alpine Downhill Training (re-air), NBC Broadcast

9:15 p.m. Alpine Skiing - Men's Giant Slalom, First Run, National Alpine Skiing Center, Yanqing District, Beijing, CHN, NBC Broadcast, Streaming Peacock, NBCOlympics.com

11:00 p.m. Alpine Skiing - Women's Downhill Training, National Alpine Skiing Center, Yanqing District, Beijing, CHN, USA Network

11:30 p.m. Alpine Skiing - Men's Giant Slalom - First Run, Freeski - Women’s Slopestyle Qualifying, Ski Jumping - Men’s Large Hill Final, NBC Broadcast

Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022
12:45 a.m. Alpine Skiing - Men's Giant Slalom, Run 2, National Alpine Skiing Center, Yanqing District, Beijing, CHN, Streaming Peacock, NBCOlympics.com

5:30 a.m. Primetime - Men's Giant Slalom, Yanqing District, Beijing, CHN, NBC Broadcast

10:00 p.m. Alpine Skiing - Women's Downhill Training, National Alpine Skiing Center, Yanqing District, Beijing, CHN, Streaming Peacock, NBCOlympics.com

After his fifth Olympic appearance, Shaun White has decided to call it quits. The 35-year-old has led a storied career and will go down in snowboarding history as a pioneer of the sport. White is a three-time Olympic gold medalist and a five-time Olympian. He's a 20-time X Games medalist and the only athlete to ever score a perfect 100 in the superpipe. He also has five Summer X Games medals in skateboarding, becoming the first athlete to compete and medal in both the Summer and Winter X Games. He's spent the entirety of his career pushing the boundaries of the sport. Now it's time for him to pass the torch. 

“Everyone was asking me what my legacy in this sport has been and I’m like, you’re watching it," exclaimed White. "These younger riders, I mean they’ve been on my heels every step of the way and to see them finally surpass me is, I think deep down what I always wanted you know. To be beaten, to finally walk away without feeling like I could have done this or.”

White finished fourth in his final Olympic run, a symbolic moment of legend morphing into legacy. Of course, he wanted one last medal and he wanted it to be gold. He wanted that "Kelly Slater pull into the barrel moment", in his own words.

"The best of us - Tom Brady, Mikaela (Shiffrin) - know it's hard to step into the spotlight and own it time and time again," he said. "To be at the top of the sport for so long, that's a true highlight of my career and that's the thing I'm going to hang my hat on."

White has been at the top for so long, but he knows it's time for the next adventure. He wants to have a family of his own, build his brand Whitespace, and support up-and-coming snowboarders in pursuing their own Olympic dreams. 

"Shaun White has made an indelible mark on snowboarding, helping to put the sport on the map globally and advancing its popularity," said U.S. Ski & Snowboard CEO, Sophie Goldschmidt. "Winning three gold medals across five Olympics, Shaun is the ultimate competitor and set the standard for which snowboard athletes are measured. As he finishes his Olympic career, we celebrate Shaun as the most influential athlete in competitive snowboard history and an American sports icon. His legacy as a titan of snowboarding will forever inspire athletes and fans of the sport. We are proud of all his accomplishments and wish him the best of luck as he enters the next stage of his career."

His teammates, Taylor Gold and Chase Josey finished fifth and seventh. Gold medalist Ayumu Hirano topped out at 96 points, followed by Scotty James with silver.  The next-gen of snowboarders are ready to step into the spotlight.

RESULTS
Men's halfpipe final

Thursday, Feb. 10, Chloe Kim repeated Olympic gold in women’s snowboard halfpipe ahead of Spain’s Queralt Castellet and Japan’s Sena Tomita.

Kim quickly reminded the rest of the women's field why she's the one to beat, throwing down a high-scoring 94 right out of the gate in the first run. All 12 women in the finals gave their best, showing their progression and throwing down 1080s that haven’t been seen in previous women’s Olympic halfpipe finals, but still, no one could touch Kim’s initial statement. So in her final two runs, Kim decided to up her degree of difficulty, and go for a cab 1260. She’s landed them in practice before but had yet to attempt the trick in competition or in a 22-foot pipe. She took a couple of spills in her final two runs, but it didn’t take away from the glory of the moment.

“My butt hurts,” Kim laughed after the awards ceremony. “But it was worth it to try, 1000%, that’s what keeps me going. I’m really excited I did it. Wish I landed it but, next time.”

Before the final, Kim had struggled in practice. She only landed her run twice, which rattled her a bit, since she’s used to consistently putting it down, at least eight times before a competition she said. It was “the worst practice ever”, she said, but Kim put faith in her experience. The 21-year-old has been competing professionally since she was 13, and knew what it would take to go out and send it on the big stage. When Kim stomped her first run, she was overcome with emotion. There were still two runs left but she felt like she had already won. 

“That kind of put me in a weird headspace because it felt so inconsistent,” Kim said.  “So I was just overflowed with emotion when I was able to land it on the first go and it opened up a whole opportunity for me to try something new.”

Kim has gone out of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics with a bang, and will head back to the United States as a freshly minted two-time Olympic gold medalist. 

RESULTS
Women's halfpipe

Ashley Caldwell, Justin Schoenfeld, and Chris Lillis made Olympic history Thursday, Feb. 10 as the first trio to ever win a Mixed Team event Olympic Gold.

The competition has already made its rounds on the World Cup circuit but made its Olympic debut in Beijing 2022, and the team knew what they had to do if they wanted to come out on top ahead of the veteran Chinese team. Each athlete needed to perform to their highest degree of difficulty. 

Lillis, 23, threw down a near-perfect quintuple twisting triple, earning him 135 points, the highest score of the night at the Secret Garden Olympic Aerials course. He ran second. With Caldwell's jump already in the bag scoring an 88.89, the pair patiently awaited on Schoenfeld to see if they could pull out the win. 

"We knew that he just needed to put down a solid jump that he does every single day in training and then we'd end up with the gold medal," said Lillis. "Ashley and I were just sitting there on pins and needles just waiting for that moment to come and honestly, I knew it was gonna happen. I was fully prepared to freak out the second that he put it down."

Schoenfeld stomped his back double full full full, securing the first Olympic medal for the United States aerials team since 2010.

"I honestly tried not to think about that that was the final jump that could potentially win for my team," said Schoenfeld. "I tried to keep my cool and do what I needed to do."

This is Caldwell's fourth Olympics, but her first Olympic medal. It is also the first Olympic medal for a female aerialist since Nikki Stone in 1998. 

"I feel incredible. It's almost dream-like," reflected Caldwell. "We were all very anxious and excited to compete tonight, and there were a lot of pre-competition jitters, but we did exactly what we needed to do, alongside my boyfriend and best friend."

RESULTS
Mixed Team aerials final

Competing in what she admits is her weakest event at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, Jessie Diggins still put down an impressive performance in the women’s 10k classic, finishing eighth Thursday at the Kuyangshu Nordic Center, Zhangjiakou, China.

For Team USA, Rosie Brennan was 14th, followed by Novie McCabe, making her Olympic debut in 24th; and Hailey Swirbul in 32nd.

“This is undoubtedly my weakest event, but I was just so focused on enjoying it,” Diggins said. “I was just like ’great, no pressure,’ it was my day to go out there and enjoy racing at the Olympics, and especially seeing Novie doing her first Olympic race.”

Norway’s Therese Johaug won her second gold medal of the 2022 Games with a time of 28:06.3, just 0.4 seconds ahead of Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen. Finland’s Krista Parmakowski took the bronze 31.5 seconds back.

Following her fourth-place finish in the freestyle sprint, Brennan walked away from Thursday’s race confident her classic skiing is coming around at a convenient time with the women’s 4x5k relay coming up Saturday.

“I was really happy with the way I skied…I was a little disappointed to see the result thereafter,” Brennan said. “But I was focusing on how I felt and the fact that my classic (skiing) is coming along, and now we’ll turn to the relay.”

RESULTS
Women’s 10k Classic

In her Olympic debut, Minnesota's Paula Moltzan has racked up back-to-back impressive results. Following her 12th-place finish in the giant slalom on Monday, Moltzan led the way on Wednesday with an impressive eighth-place result. Teammate and two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin did not finish. 

It’s not often that Shiffrin falls, but when she does, it’s heartbreaking. Not because she’s failed, but because her love for competition and executing fast, precise turns is so powerful that her utter disappointment is palpable.

At 26, life and loss have humbled Shiffrin. She's experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. And she’s not afraid of the weight of external expectation anymore; it’s not the worst thing she’s ever experienced, she says. What she does feel is betrayed, betrayed by the number one thing she trusts most in the world – her skiing. 

After skiing out at the fifth gate in her second consecutive race of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Shiffrin moved to the side of the slalom course, took a moment, then quickly popped off her skis. She sat, resting her head on her knees, and stayed there for 25 minutes before skiing down to the finish. 

She walked reporters through what happened. She slipped. She was going full gas, and she didn’t have space to recover. It’s ski racing, and things happen fast. At one moment, she was charging, and the next, she was out of the course. Her emotions ran high, and Shiffrin fought to keep her composure.

When asked what she was still processing after her run, she took a deep breath and sighed. “Pretty much everything.”

“My entire career has taught me to trust in my skiing if it’s good skiing,” Shiffrin explained later on. “That’s all that I have to rely on these race days. When there is pressure, and there’s some nerves and the feeling that I want to do well, I just always go back to that fundamental idea that good skiing will be there for me.”

“It’s not the end of the world, and it’s so stupid to care this much,” she added fighting back tears. “But I feel…I feel that I have to question a lot now.”

In moments of self-doubt, Shiffrin used to turn to her father Jeff for support. Since his passing in 2020, that source of comfort is forever lost. “Right now, I would really like to call him,” she choked. “So that doesn’t make it easier. And he would probably tell me to just get over it, but he’s not here to say that.”

Shiffrin paused again and took a moment to flip through the onslaught of emotions. Residual grief from her father's loss, disappointment in herself for not skiing up to her standard, and guilt that she has put herself and her team through so much work, all for nothing. Until she found the thing she needed to help put things in perspective, the thing that’s kept her on skis these past couple of years – hope. 

“Despite everything that I’m feeling,” she continued. “If you take a look around, it’s a pretty beautiful day. I have incredible teammates here. One of them got a silver medal yesterday. My boyfriend is here, he got a bronze. He’s been working so hard to get an Olympic medal his whole career and he’s had some really bad luck. And I have three medals. I mean, those are still back home in my closet. As disappointed as I feel and as much as I’m feeling right now, there’s so much to be optimistic about.”

Shiffrin’s absence on the pitch did not take away from an American reason to celebrate. Moltzan had a fantastic first run that put her in sixth and allowed her to hang on to an eighth-place finish by the end of the second run. Katie Hensien posted a top 30 in her Olympic debut, in 26th. AJ Hurt finished 34th. And Shiffrin was there in the finish to cheer them on until the end. 

“I’m pretty grateful to have some teammates that are also strong and can put on this show because on a basic level for ski racing in the United States, it's so special to have such a strong group of women competing,” she said. “I feel like my performance is a huge letdown so far. But there’s so much to be proud of for my teammates.”

If she decides to ski, Shiffrin has another shot at an Olympic medal come Thursday, Feb. 10th, in the women's super-G.
 

RESULTS 
Women’s slalom

 

 

 

 

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In the Nordic Combined Normal Hill/10km competition on Wednesday, Feb. 9, the U.S. men came out and pushed, landing two men into the top 20 and all four men in the top 25. 

The charge was led by Park City's Ben Loomis, who finished 41st in this event back at the 2018 Games. On Wednesday he made a massive improvement, finishing 15th overall after posting a solid jump in 17th and skating hard in the cross country section. 

“I’m really happy with finishing 15th overall today," said Loomis. "I wasn’t totally satisfied with my jumping, but I was able to make up for that in the race. Overall, it was a great day. I’m definitely feeling more confident going into the next events.”

Jared Shumate, who sat in 24th after the jump, also pushed hard in the cross country portion to move up in the rankings, finishing 19th overall in his Olympic Games debut.

“My jumping wasn’t quite as good as I would have hoped for today, but I felt that I had a pretty solid race," commented Shumate. "I had a goal set to get top 20 in the Olympics at the start of this season, and I’m happy to have accomplished that. Starting off the games with a 19th overall finish is pretty satisfying.”

Team veteran, Taylor Fletcher, improved on his PyeongChang Games finish as well, finishing 24th overall. Fletcher, who is known for his speed on the track, used the 10km to jump 10 spots in the ranks after a disappointing jump. Stephen Schumann finished 25th overall.

The nordic combined men have another opportunity to show their stuff in the Individual Large Hill/10km event on Tuesday, Feb. 15th. In the meantime, the team will get back to training at the Nordic Center in Zhangjiakou, China.

RESULTS
Men's nordic combined normal hill/10km

Wednesday's snowboard halfpipe qualifiers saw four United States athletes land in the top 12 in each of their respective fields to move on to the final.

The United State's men's snowboard team threw down in a qualifier that felt like a final to punch three tickets into Friday's final competition. Team veteran Shaun White, led the charge, qualifying fourth with 86.25 points, followed by Taylor Gold in seventh with 83.50. In the final minutes, Chase Josey also snuck into the top 12 as the last rider to drop, scoring a 69.50 to bump out Italy's Louie Vito. Lucas Foster decked out midway down the pipe putting in a heroic effort, and he was miraculously unharmed. He finished 17th out of 28 athletes.

On the women's side, Chloe Kim once again dominated the field, finishing first in her qualifier. She'll look to defend an Olympic gold and a four-year winning streak in the women's final on Thursday, Feb. 9.

"I feel good! I'm stoked! And I'm so hungry," Kim said after completing qualifiers Wednesday morning, jokingly referring to her Tweet that went viral just before she took home gold in the 2018 PyeongChang Games. "You think I'd learn my lesson but I guess not, cause right now I'm thinking about dumplings."

Athletes must finish in the top 12 in order to move on to the final, and unfortunately for U.S. Snowboard Team rider Maddie Mastro, she finished 13th, just half a point behind China's Leng Qiu. Tessa Maud and Zoe Kalapos also did not qualify for the final, finishing 16th and 17th respectively.

In finals, each athlete will have three opportunities to put down their best run in the pipe with the top score determining who will land on the podium.

Up first, Chloe Kim will compete in the women's halfpipe final on the morning of Thursday, Feb. 9, which will air on Wednesday night in the United States starting at 8:30 p.m. EST.

RESULTS
Women's halfpipe qualifiers
Men's halfpipe qualifiers

In Wednesday's big air final, 24-year-old Colby Stevenson earned a career-first Olympic medal in the inaugural Olympic big air competition. Stevenson donned silver behind Norway's Birk Ruud,  named the competition's "the man to beat." Sweden's Henrik Harlaut took the bronze.

Stevenson said that as he was clicking into his skis, getting read for his third hit, he was still deciding what trick he wanted to do. Go big for a switch 19, or play a bit safer and go for a switch 18 and just try to hold the grab for as long as he could. He went with the switch 18, a decision he later called smart, as it allowed him to focus on getting the trick done and not overthinking the global platform he is competing on.

Stevenson has learned a lot about the value of focus and staying present in the current moment, something that he says helps him ski his best. After surviving a skull-shattering car crash at the age of 18 that threatened his ability to function on a day-to-day, Stevenson's outlook on life shifted, which some would say has positively contributed to his skiing.

"That in itself was a miracle, surviving the car crash, so each day I focus on the little things in life and that helps me stay in the moment and be grateful," he said. "Out here today, I had the same kind of mentality, just focusing on the beauty of where we (are), being with friends, such an amazing venue, it helps you ski your best when all these outside things aren't clouding your thoughts. It's important to focus on what you do have and the things you're grateful for, and that's how you're going to do your best."

"That first trick he did, he had never done that before, he just threw it all out in the comp and laid that last jump out too which was just so epic," said his teammate Alex Hall. "Deservedly got second and skied so well I couldn't be more stoked for him."

Hall, who was also a medal favorite, threw it all out in the comp just like his teammate. On the third jump, Hall found himself in a similar position as Stevenson, play it safe or go big. So he went big. 

Hall threw a 2160, the hardest trick he has, one that earned him the X Games gold in January and put him in the history books as the first man to ever land the trick in competition. Unfortunately for Hall, he wasn't able to repeat his X Games victory in Beijing, but he remained in good spirits saying "I'm just hyped to try and give it all I got. Sometimes things just don't go your way, and it's all good."

Hall finished the comp in 8th. Mac Forehand finished 11th in his Olympic debut. 

Next the U.S. men's freeski team heads to Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou to compete in men's freeski slopestyle on Feb. 13.

RESULTS
Men's big air final