While established powers collect most of the medals, smaller Olympic contingents and hometown heroes spanning the globe deliver compelling underdog stories.
Porteous dethroned two-time Olympic champion David Wise on the penultimate day of the Beijing Games.
Skip Satsuki Fujisawa and her teammates handled the pressure of a high-stakes match and played more consistently in a bounce-back win over the Swiss.
The 2018 Olympic bronze medalist advanced to the final four on a tiebreaker after Britain, Japan and Canada finished with identical records.
Takagi powered across the finish line in 1 minute, 13.18 seconds to help soothe the pain of Japan’s late collapse in the women’s team pursuit final...
“You have to play against the best teams to get better,” said Canadian mentor J.D. Lind, who has served as the national team head coach since...
Slovakia tied it late in regulation, survived a 10-minute 3-on-3 overtime, then won it in a shootout to advance to the semifinals.
Sochi gold medalist Joergen Graabak and fellow Norwegian Jens Luraas Oftebro took the lead from Watabe and held on for the top two spots.
Japan, which won Olympic gold in the team pursuit in 2018, held the lead before Takagi slid off the track in dramatic fashion against Canada.
Gold medalist Austria saves its best for last in the final round, with Slovenia and Germany placing second and third, respectively.
Nao Kodaira, the 2018 Olympic champion, trailed by a wide margin for large stretches of her race and finished 17th.
“I really risked everything in the second run because I wanted not just the medal, I wanted the gold medal,” the Swiss champion said.