Thursday night had big shoes to fill after Team USA’s electric Wednesday night showing at the 2022 Winter Olympics — which included gold medal-performances from figure skater Nathan Chen and snowboarder Chloe Kim — but a couple of Olympic legends set out to keep the winning energy going.
First, three-time gold medalist Shaun White looked to add a finishing touch to his hardware collection as he competed in his last Olympic snowboard halfpipe competition. Then, two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin, who failed to finish in her first two races of these Games, turned things around in the super-G.
While White gave a heck of an effort and Shiffrin completed her run, neither athlete reached the podium.
But the early slate in Beijing was far from lacking in excitement as eventual gold-medalist, Japan’s Ayumu Hirano, showed out in the biggest way but received a lackluster score…