Team Rainbow Review and Weekend What To Watch, Feb 20 — Feb 22: Love Wins
As the Olympics near their end, the team and tournament results have begun to stream in and provided a massive boost to Team Rainbow. Ethan recaps the week and what to watch this weekend.
This is another story in our continued coverage of the upcoming Olympics. You can read the introduction to this series here; the first part of the preview is here, and the second part is here. The first “What to Watch” is here. The first part of the preview and the intro are provided without charge, but the rest of the pieces, including this one, will be behind the Wide Left paywall, with proceeds going to Minnesota Direct Relief.
As this iteration of the Winter Olympics winds down, the past few updates have been a bit quiet on the medal front for Team Rainbow. However, Thursday provided a deluge of positive results, boosting the current medal count to 8 (table below) while also guaranteeing that an additional gold or silver will be earned. This means that, at worst, Team Rainbow will equal its medal count from the 2022 Beijing Games.
Week in Review
Women’s hockey is the headliner, as it has been for so much of the games. After host nation Italy bowed out in the quarterfinals, Team Rainbow was guaranteed a sweep given its representation on all four finalists. However, the way Team USA won gold proved to be icing on the cake for both our squad and the champions’ captain, Hilary Knight.
Knight came into the Olympics two goals and five points away from becoming the most decorated athlete in American Olympic history. While she got off to a strong start in the preliminary games, tying her contemporaries in both categories, she had a multiple-game pointless streak going into the quarterfinals and semifinals. Prior to her final matchup against arch-nemesis Canada, she would need something miraculous to break those records.
And then, something magical happened. She got engaged to speed skater Brittany Bowe.
Bowe and Knight had their first date in Beijing four years ago, and this moment in Milan served as a culmination of their careers and maturation as athletes and people. I also like to think it gave Knight the spark of magic she needed in the third period of her gold medal match against Canada. She posted up in front of the net, Leila Edwards shot from the point, and she tipped the puck in to set records — and, of course, extend the game for the Americans.
Megan Keller iced the game with a gnarly backhand shortly after, earning Knight, Alex Carpenter, and Cayla Barnes gold medals. Barnes also notched a clutch goal in the semis, and Carpenter was solid the entirety of the games. The Canadian silver medalists had at least 7 confirmed athletes on Team Rainbow, and Laura Zimmerman was the Swiss representative who earned a bronze medal.
Along with this group, Bruce Mouat had the largest breakthrough of the week, earning a guaranteed gold or silver medal at Men’s Curling with an incredible shot to ice the game against Switzerland.
Mouat was undefeated in the Mixed Doubles round and came up just short — he will not be denied in this competition. We should know whether he earned gold or silver later today.
I also have so much love and appreciation for Amber Glenn, who bounced back from an emotionally draining short program to orchestrate a stunning free skate, which bumped her from 13th place to 5th overall.
Glenn was also an incredible cheerleader for teammate Alysa Liu, who won gold and embraced her as the results sunk in.
At eight medals, with one more guaranteed, the only potential additions all may be decided by the time this post is live. At press time, I do not know the results of the February 20 activities, since this is pre-written and I am currently on a plane; any activities will be reported in the final edition of this blog on 2/24! But if Gus Kenworthy, Nick Novak, Sandra Naeslund, or any of the bevy of speedskaters medaled, I’ll be sure to note it in the final wrap-up.
For now, I’m going to think about the magic of Knight’s goal and Glenn’s skate, and smile.
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