Day 8 of the Beijing Olympics may be one of our quietest so far. There are six gold medals up for grab, but a lot of today’s schedule is bobsled training heats, the men’s and women’s curling round robins continuing, men’s hockey prelims, and women’s hockey quarterfinals.
One event that may be exciting is the debut of mixed teams snowboardcross making its Olympics debut. We’ve also got the USA and Canada meeting up in men’s hockey as well as medals given out in the women’s skeleton, men’s 500m speed skating, and men’s large hill ski jumping.
Let’s get to the Thursday recap and a rundown for Friday events so you can get ready to continue betting against the Olympics Odds .
Winter Olympics Betting Rundown for Friday, February 11th
What Has Already Happened
It was disappointing – although not unexpected – culmination to Shaun White’s snowboarding career as he barely missed the podium in his last Olympics, finishing 4th in the halfpipe. White’s best run of 85 was just 2.25 back from Sweden’s Jan Scherer for bronze, but this event was obviously Japan’s Ayumu Hirano’s for the taking with a best run of 96 to capture the gold.
A very forgettable Olympic games for Mikaela Shiffrin also continued in the Alpine skiing Super G where she finished with a time of 1:14:30, which was only good enough for 9th. It’s a positive step forward for Shiffrin, who didn’t even finish in her two slalom events. Switzerland took home gold and bronze in the event.
The USA women’s hockey team continued on a trek towards a rematch with Canada by beating the Czech Republic 4-1.
Belgium’s Bart Swings was the betting favorite in the men’s 10000km speed skating event, but he only finished 9th, opening the door for Sweden’s Nils van der Poel to take home gold.
Friday’s Competition Rundown
Norway looks to have gold all but assured to them in the biathlon men’s 10k sprint as they are whopping -239 favorites. France is the next closest in odds at +290, but it looks like Norway is going to capture their 7th gold medal of the games to at least temporarily tie Germany atop the podium.
Canada is a -230 favorite in their matchup with the USA in men’s hockey. Germany is expected to dominate China (-1430) while Russia is just -190 over the Czech Republic.
Belgium’s Bart Swings once again goes for gold on the speed skating track as a +260 favorite in the 500km. Swings finished 9th in the 10000km race on Thursday, and one has to wonder if fatigue sets in for the 500. That could open the door for American Joey Mantia, who is +390 and rested.
This should be a big day for Norway, who are also favored in the women’s 4X5km cross country skiing relay. Two golds in those events would put Norway ahead of Germany in the gold medal tally. The USA was shut out of gold medals on Thursday, disappointing following the big performances from Chloe Kim and Nathan Chen the night before.
The USA men’s curling team is still in the hunt, though, and both hockey teams continue to roll through their preliminary and quarterfinal rounds. Friday should set the stage for a big weekend in Beijing.