The final day of the Winter Olympics brings a last chance for some athletes to medal. Here are the names and events to look out for on Sunday:
⛷️ Mikaela Shiffrin (still) has one more shot: High winds forced organizers to postpone Saturday’s alpine mixed team parallel race until Sunday, the final day of the Winter Games. The decision meant some teams had to rearrange flights and accommodation, but all 15 nations entered in the competition are set to participate. The team event is the last chance for American Mikaela Shiffrin, alpine skiing’s biggest star, to win a medal. One of the rare skiers who competes in all events of alpine skiing, Shiffrin has so far ended up with a ninth place in the super-G, 18th in the downhill, and three Did Not Finish results. Switzerland is the defending Olympic champion in this event. The Norwegians enter as the reigning world champions, and were also on the podium four years ago with bronze in PyeongChang.
🏒 Ice hockey final: Finland vs. ROC: One of the highlights of the final day is set to be the men’s ice hockey final, where reigning Olympic champions Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) will try to defend the title against Finland. Russia have not retained the title since the glory days of the ‘Big Red Machine’ when a Unified Team won gold at the 1992 Albertville Winter Games, after the former Soviet Union took the honors at Calgary 1988 and Sarajevo 1984. Finland have made regular appearances on the podium, returning home with a medal from five of the previous seven Games, but are yet to reach the top step. Finland is the most successful hockey nation without an Olympic gold medal, with 10 silver or bronze medals between the men’s and women’s teams.
🥌 Curling: Can Great Britain’s women go one better than the men? Twenty years after Rhona Martin skipped Britain to victory in Salt Lake City, the women’s curlers are in the running to win gold in Beijing after Eve Muirhead led her team to the final. They hope to go one better than the men, who finished with silver after falling short against Sweden on Saturday. Team GB face Japan, who finished fourth in the standings, but upset Switzerland at the National Aquatics Centre to reach their first ever Olympic final in the sport. This happens to be a rematch of the 2018 Olympic bronze-medal game, which was won by Japan for its first curling medal. Britain had not picked up any medals at these Beijing Games until the men guaranteed themselves at least silver, ending concerns there would be no podium finish for the first time since 1992.
🛷 Germany goes for further glory in the bobsled: Germany is poised to win a ninth gold medal in 10 sliding events. A four-man bobsled driven by Francesco Friedrich leads Johannes Lochner’s four-man sled by 0.03 seconds after the first two of four runs, which is a closer battle than anticipated. Friedrich, bidding to become the first driver to win two- and four-man gold at multiple Olympics, won 14 consecutive international four-man races up until a runner-up at the last World Cup. Starting in 2017, Friedrich has won the last five Olympic or world championships four-man titles.
