While you were sleeping: How Canada performed at the Beijing Olympics Friday, Saturday – National | Globalnews.ca

Team Canada won its first medal of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games on Saturday, taking the bronze in speedskating, while other athletes advanced in snowboarding and ski jumping and the women’s hockey team continued to dominate.

Here’s what you may have missed from the overnight competition.

Speedskating

Isabelle Weidemann won the bronze medal in the women’s 3,000-metre speedskating race, marking Canada’s first medal of the 2022 Games.

Weidemann trailed Norway’s Ragne Wiklund through the middle of her heat, at one point lagging a full minute behind.

But she quickly made up ground to overcome the fastest time up to that point, putting her in the top spot and guaranteeing her a place on the podium.

Irene Schouten of the Netherlands and Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida, who ran the final heat right after Weidemann, proved to be faster and took the gold and silver medals, respectively.

Valerie Maltais and Ivanie Blondin, also racing for Canada, finished in 12th and 14th, respectively.

Hockey

Team Canada destroyed Finland 11-1 in women’s hockey, giving them a 2-0 record as they start off their quest for another gold medal.

The squad will next face Russia on Monday.

Canada won four straight Olympic golds before being forced to settle for silver in the last Winter Games in Pyeongchang back in 2018.

Snowboarding

Laurie Blouin finished in seventh place after her two qualifying runs in the women’s snowboard slopestyle event, sending her to the final on Sunday.

Fellow Canadians Jasmine Baird and Brooke Voigt finished outside the top 12 in 16th and 22nd place, respectively, and will not be moving on.

Curling

The mixed doubles team of Rachel Homan and John Morris lost to Sweden 6-2 in their first of the day’s two matches.

The loss gives the duo a 3-2 record ahead of their matchup against the United States later today.

Ski Jumping

Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes and Matthew Soukup advanced to the next round of competition in the men’s normal hill individual jumping event, which will take place Sunday.

Boyd-Clowes took 17th place within the top 50, while Soukup finished 47th.

Cross-Country Skiing

Cendrine Browne was the top-ranking Canadian in the 7.5×7.5-kilometre skiathlon, finishing 20th overall.

Katherine Stewart-Jones, Dahria Beatty and Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt finished 23rd, 28th and 44th, respectively.

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Biathlon

Sarah Beaudry, Emma Lunder, Christian Gow and Scott Gow were in action in the 4×6-kilometre mixed relay race on Saturday. They finished in the 14th position.