Shoe-in? Sure thing? No such thing in these Winter Olympics.
More than a few favorites have fallen short of gold in Milan.
Ilia Malinin fell twice when the free skate gold was in his control; Chloe Kim was expected to three-peat in the women’s halfpipe, she still savored gold; Chock and Bates won silver as well, even though the three-time reigning world champs felt their ice dance was a “gold medal performance.”
Breezy Johnson was in line for her second gold in these Milan Cortina Games in the women’s combined – until teammate Mikala Shiffrin’s surprisingly slow slalom dropped them off the podium.
And the women’s super-G was a super mess, with crash-outs wiping out a number of top competitors like Johnson.
Disappointment is part of sports and the Olympics can be an especially cruel spotlight for athletes.
As a former Olympian once told me — just three people in the world will wear medals in your sport every four years. And this isn’t Calgary ’88 disappointment for Team USA, far from it.
Team USA is still near the top of the medal count and has more opportunities left before the Closing Ceremony.
Speedskater Jordon Stolz is putting his gold stamp on these games. Women’s hockey is steamrolling towards a showdown with Canada; men’s hockey right there keeping pace with Canada, too.
With a week to go, opportunity still knocks.
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