Olympics Overnight: Impressive haul for Canadians with four medals in ski halfpipe, speedskating and curling

Rise and shine, Olympic fans. Here’s what you missed overnight and need to know about the 2022 Beijing Olympics this morning.

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Phew, we’re pretty much in the home stretch.

With about three-ish days left to go in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Canada now sits at a total of 24 medals after adding another impressive four overnight.

To kick things off late last night, Canadians Cassie Sharpe and Rachael Karker took the silver and bronze respectively in women’s ski halfpipe, while Chinese-American sensation Eileen Gu took gold for her third medal of these Games. Then early this morning speedskater Laurent Dubreuil took the silver in the 1,000-meter event, and Brad Gushue and the men’s curling team bounced back from a heartbreaking loss on Thursday to claim the bronze over the US

Elsewhere, Canada had two pairs in the figure skating short program, while there was disappointment in men’s ski cross after defending champion Brady Leman finished sixth.

TGIFas they say, so what better way to kick off your Friday morning than with a coffee, maybe a little something to eat and a roundup of what you missed overnight:

Double medals in halfpipe

A year ago, 29-year-old Cassie Sharp didn’t expect she’d be standing on a podium, let alone be able to perform on a set of skis.

“I didn’t know if I would make it here,” Sharp said in her post-event interview. After months of recovery and rehab following a devastating ACL injury and subsequent surgery, Sharp powered through to just make it to Beijing.

Now she’s going home with a silver.

“Being able to flip it around and get on snow just under four months ago and make it to the Games and get a podium, I’m extremely proud and pretty satisfied with my performance,” she told the Canadian Press.

And Sharpe was sharing the podium with a familiar face as Canadian teammate Rachael Karker took home the bronze in her Olympic debut. American-born Eileen Gu led the whole way for China to the top of the podium to capture her third medal and second gold of these Games.

That’s more like it

Six days ago, speedskater Laurent Dubreuil narrowly missed the podium in the men’s 500 meters, finishing three-hundredths of a second behind the bronze medalist.

Dubreuil has nothing to complain about his performance in Friday’s 1,000-meter event, taking home silver in a powerful skate just 0.40 seconds behind Dutch skater Thomas Krol.

Though to the 29-year-old skater from Lévis, Que., it doesn’t matter if he’s going home with or without a medal, telling CBC in his post-event interview that he’s looking forward seeing his family, especially his two- year-old daughter, after such a long break.

“When I show up home I’ll be totally over it and just looking forward to seeing them,” he said.

just as sweet

“At this point, winning the bronze is going to mean just as much as winning the gold,” men’s curling skipper Brad Gushue said Thursday following his team’s loss to Sweden, eliminating them from a shot at the gold.

But against the US in the bronze-medal match Friday, they finally found that “gold.”

Canada defeated John Shuster and the rather stylish American team 8-5 in a late come-from-behind win. It’s the second Olympic medal for Gushue and his teammate Mark Nichols, and the only curling medal for Canada at these Games.

Other Canadian results:

Medal report:

Canada now has 24 medals (four gold, seven silver and 13 bronze.)

The Star in Beijing:

Bruce Arthur: IOC president Thomas Bach’s tough talk on Kamila Valieva controversy was galling

Rosie DiManno: From Olympic golden child to derived drug-cheat, Kamila Valieva falls once more at free skate

Dave Feschuk: Canada’s hopes for curling gold fall ‘a whisker’ short at Beijing Olympics

PHOTO OF THE DAY

With files from the Canadian Press