The United States have a lot of star power at the Olympic Winter Games in Milan. They include Mikaela Shiffrin, Jordan Stolz, Lindsey Vonn, Chloe Kim, and Ilya Malinin. However, on Tuesday, it was the American supporting cast that came away with Olympic hardware, and in the process made names for themselves that will bring them temporary fame.
Jacqueline Wiles and Paula Moltzan
Heading into the slalom portion of the women’s team alpine combined, Breezy Johnson and Mikaela Shiffrin were the heavy favourites, as they were the defending world champions and even had the lead as Johnson was the fastest women’s downhill skier of the event. However, it was Shiffrin who had a poor slalom run, and the Johnson/Shiffrin tandem shockingly finished in fourth place. The Americans still got on to the podium in the event as Jacqueline Wiles of Portland, Oregon and Paula Moltzan of Lakeville, Minnesota posted a third place time of 2:21.91 to beat Shiffrin and Johnson by six one-hundredths of a second.
Ben Ogden
What we saw on Tuesday was a gigantic upset from American cross country skier Ben Ogden of Lebanon, New Hampshire. The odds of Ogden coming through with a medal was +6500 according to 3wiresports.com. However, it was Ogden that had the second fastest time in the men’s sprint, and was only behind the heavy favourite, Johannes Hesflot Klaebo of Norway. For Klaebo, it was his second Olympic gold in Milan, as he also was first in Saturday’s skiathlon.
Cory Thiesse and Corey Dropkin
The mixed doubles curling event came to completion on Tuesday, with the United States winning silver behind only Sweden. It ws a notable week for American curler Cory Thiesse of Duluth, Minnesota. Thiesse became the very first American female curler to win an Olympic medal. The only other American medal in Olympic curling came in 2018, when John Shuster of Duluth shocked the curling world with a win over Sweden in the gold medal final in the men’s event.
Alex Hall
The native of Fairbanks, Alaska is now a two-time Olympic medalist in slopestyle. After winning gold four years ago in Beijing, Alex Hall won silver on Tuesday at the Livigno Snow Park. Hall had a score of 85.75 points, and was beaten by the slimmest of margins–0.53 points. The gold medalist was Norway’s Birk Ruud, the Olympic gold medalist from men’a big air skiing in Beijing.
Ashley Farquharson
It has been a tough time for the Sacramento Kings over the last month, as the Kings are losers of 13 straight games. However, Olympic bronze medalist Ashley Farquharson calls Sacramento home and was marvelous on Tuesday as she claimed an unexpected bronze in the women’s luge event. Faquharson had a four run time of 3:31.582.
