Olympic sports roundup: Virtue & Moir smash records
Catch up on what you may have missed this weekend
It was a jam-packed weekend of high-performance sport around the world, with many Canadian athletes in action, including two new world records set by Canadian ice dance duo Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
Here's a look at what you may have missed.
Canadians make a statement at NHK Trophy
Virtue and Moir put their competition at the upcoming Grand Prix Final on notice by notching two world-record scores en route to gold in Sapporo, Japan.
Their short dance performance of 79.18 erased the previous record set at the 2014 Olympics by former rivals Meryl Davis and Charlie White.
The Canadians set their second record of the weekend following their free dance performance:
Their combined score of 195.18 is now the new benchmark in their sport.
Virtue and Moir weren't the only Canadian duo to turn heads: Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford put the finishing touches on an NHK Trophy three-peat. The pairs skaters won a third straight gold at the NHK Trophy thanks, in part, to this free program:
Duhamel and Radford, like Virtue and Moir, head into the Grand Prix Final as the top-ranked competitors in their discipline. Click here for a full list of who qualified for the season-ending event.
Canadian snowboarders conquer Pyeongchang
Canada's big air snowboard squad looked pretty comfortable at the 2018 Olympic venue of Alpensia, taking five of the top 10 spots in the World Cup event held there.
Mark McMorris led the way with gold, while four other Canadians finished in the top 10, with Max Parrot taking second place after scoring 178 and Tyler Nicholson finishing fourth with 171.
Lugers lacking in Germany
Canadian luge coach Wolfgang Staudinger wasn't pleased with his team's performance at the first World Cup stop of the season in Winterberg, Germany.
"I believe this was a big eye opener for our team today... we simply are not sliding to our full potential," Staudinger said after only one slider posted a top-10 finish. "The world is not standing still. We are here to win medals so if we want to compete with the best we need to push ourselves."
Despite the poor showing, there was one bright spot: Kimberley McRae notched a personal-best start time.
Canada's skiers can't catch Shiffrin
While Canada's women were unable to crack the top 10, American alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin won her sixth straight World Cup slalom race in Killington, Vt.
Marie-Michelle Gagnon of Lac-Etchemin, Que., was Canada's top finisher with a 14th-place result. Erin Mielzynski came in 22nd and Valerie Grenier was 29th.
Canadian Trail
An Olympic gold medallist returned to Canada's women's hockey team, Alex Harvey came out a bit "flat" at the first cross-country skiing World Cup event of the season; and one ski jumper's loss was his brother's (golden) gain. Click on the video player below for more info.
