Hall Claims Gold as US Take Top Two Spots in Men’s Slopestyle

BEIJING — Freestyler skier Alex Hall led a 1-2 American finish in the men’s Olympic slopestyle competition with a trick on his first run where he completely stopped his rotation mid-air and went the other direction.

Hall’s opening run earned a score of 90.01 and it stood up throughout the competition. His teammate Nick Goepper turned in a creative run on his second pass to earn silver. Jesper Tjader of Sweden took home bronze.

The Americans have now earned six of nine Olympic medals since the event made its debut in 2014. Goepper has three of them, including silver from the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and bronze from the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

US, Canada Eliminated in Men’s Hockey

The United States is out of the men’s hockey tournament at the Olympics in stunning fashion after blowing a late lead.

Slovakia beat the U.S. 3-2 in a shootout to knock the top-seeded Americans out in the quarterfinals. Canada exited hours after the U.S. with a 2-0 loss to Sweden.

It’s the first Olympic semifinals without the U.S. and Canada since 2006.

The U.S. led for almost half the game before the tying goal when Slovakia pulled its goaltender for an extra attacker to play 6-on-5. Slovakia forward Juraj Slafkovsky scored his tournament-leading fifth goal of the tournament.

The Russians and Finland also moved on to the semifinals.

Medals Standings

(olympics.com)