Minnesotans showing strong performance at Olympics
It’s been a busy 24 hours for Minnesota athletes at the Beijing Winter Games. KARE 11 sports anchor Dave Schwartz joined Cathy Wurzer to talk about how the games have been shaping up so far. Here’s a look at the results and standings.
Listen to the conversation with the audio player above.
Jessie Diggins finishes 8th in 10k race
After Jessie Diggins competed in the sprint freestyle race on Tuesday, she finished eighth in the 10-kilometer race Thursday. Dave Schwartz, KARE 11’s sports anchor, said that even Diggins expected that kind of result.
“She even said that this is my worst race. This is the race I’m not very good at. She still finished eighth. So that just tells you how talented she is and how realistic she is with her own expectations,” Schwartz said.
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Men’s hockey starts strong with win over China
With seven players connected to Minnesota, the U.S. started strong with an 8-0 starting game against China. Ben Meyers of Delano, Minn., had one goal and two assists, and Noah Cates of Stillwater scored a goal. Brock Faber of Maple Grove and Drew Helleson of Farmington each had an assist.
Schwartz said the makeup of this year’s team is a bit different than in 2018.
“It seems like the strategy this time was to get players who are faster, get players who will be very good professionals one day and see if we can kind of catch lightning in the bottle with some really good youth,” Schwartz said.
Women’s curling remains undefeated
The women’s curling team, with Tabitha Peterson as the skip (or team captain) had a sound victory over the ROC with a 9-3 win.
“Tabitha Peterson and company really capitalized on a couple mistakes,” said Schwartz. “They were very smooth and came up with a really good dominating win to start the round-robin tournament.”
They followed up the success with the next round, with a close game against Denmark that ended 7-5. Their next match will be against China at 12:05 a.m. Friday.
Men’s curling stand 1-1 with loss to Sweden, win over ROC
After a close opening match against the Russian Olympic Committee that went into an extra end, the men’s U.S. curling team faced a tough battle against Sweden, the same team that John Shuster and his teammates upset in 2018 to win the gold medal.
“As usual, John Shuster and his team — the pressure doesn’t really bother them,” said Dave Schwartz, KARE 11’s sports anchor. “It’s their M.O. at this point.”
Yet no rest for the men’s team. They’ll face a tough challenge against Great Britain on Friday at 7 p.m.
Women’s hockey plays Friday in quarterfinal match
The quarterfinals begin on Friday, with Team USA facing off against the Czech Republic starting at 10 p.m. It’s set to air both on KARE 11 and USA Network.
With only one loss in the preliminary round to rival team Canada, the women’s hockey team may likely face Canada again in the semifinals if both teams advance.