Highlights from Day 9 at the Beijing Winter Olympics

After losing earlier in the day to Canada, the U.S. men’s curling team rebounded with a much-needed 8-6 victory over China in a round-robin match at National Aquatics Centre.

The Americans led 7-3 through six ends before China scored twice in the eighth and once in the ninth to pull within 7-6. The U.S. team added some insurance in the 10th and final end to secure the win.

The victory by the defending gold medalists improved the Americans’ record to 3-3 in the round-robin tournament with three matches to play. Sweden is atop the standings with a 5-0 record, and the United States is presently in sixth place.

All 10 teams in the Olympic tournament face one another in round-robin play, and the top four advance to the semifinals.

Erin Jackson of the United States stormed to a gold medal in speedskating Sunday, winning the 500 meters at National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing.

Jackson’s time of 37.04 seconds bettered that of Japan’s Miho Takagi, who also won silver in the 1,500 meters, by 0.08 seconds. Takagi’s time of 37.12 seconds was 0.09 seconds ahead of Angelina Golikova of the Russian Olympic Committee, who took bronze.

Jackson, a 29-year-old Floridian who became the first Black woman to represent the United States in speedskating at the 2018 Games and is now the first to medal in the sport, slipped during the U.S. trials last month and finished third, one spot short of a berth in Beijing. Teammate Brittany Bowe, who finished first at the trials and also qualified for other events, gave the top-ranked Jackson her 500 meters spot so Jackson could compete.

Bowe, who ultimately also received a spot in the 500-meter race anyway, finished 16th Sunday with a time of 38.04, and fellow American Kimi Goetz was 18th in 38.25.

Jackson claimed the first individual speedskating medal for an American woman since 2002. No American woman had won the 500 meters since Bonnie Blair claimed three straight Olympic titles in 1988, 1992 and 1994.

BEIJING — U.S. forward Matthew Knies scored his first Olympic goal early in the second period, and the Americans lead Germany 2-1 after 40 minutes in men’s hockey play at Wukesong Sports Centre.

Knies, one of 15 college players on the U.S. roster, scored with just over 15 minutes remaining in the second period to break a tie. It came after Nick Abruzzese wrapped a pass around the back of the net and into the crease — and Knies flipped the feed past German goaltender Danny aus den Birken.

U.S. goaltender Drew Commesso, who at 19 years old is the youngest American goalie to play in the Olympics, has 21 saves.

The U.S. will start the third period with a two-minute power play after Germany was whistled for cross-checking at the end of the second.

BEIJING — The United States and Germany are tied 1-1 after a chippy first period in their preliminary-round matchup at Wukesong Sports Center.

Both teams traded power-play goals early in the game — Germany earned a man-advantage less than two minutes in, and Patrick Hager made it 1-0 off an assist from Mathias Plachta.

The Americans tied it 4:26 into the game with a power-play goal of their own: a slap shot from Steven Kampfer, the team’s most experienced defenseman.

The U.S. team, which boasts wins over China and Canada to open the tournament, can win Group A and earn a bye into the quarterfinals by earning a point (at least an overtime loss) on Sunday night against the Germans.

Before the movie and the legacy and the crash, it started with a conversation over drinks.

Six months before the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, George Fitch, a former U.S. diplomat, found himself in Kingston, Jamaica, for a wedding when he met with tennis buddy and Seattle businessman William Maloney. They drank. They talked. And they concocted an idea to try to send Jamaica to the Winter Games, using bobsled as the vehicle to accomplish that feat because, to Fitch, it resembled Jamaica’s popular Pushcart Derby, and the country’s track and field pedigree lent itself to a sport that required power and pace.

Six athletes actualized Fitch’s vision. Although they never reached a medal podium, they spawned a surprisingly durable legacy and inspired the 1993 film “Cool Runnings.” Nearly 30 years after the movie’s release, another four-man Jamaican bobsled team has qualified for the Winter Olympics in Beijing, inviting inevitable comparisons to the movie and the real story that inspired it.

BEIJING — Breezy Johnson should be here, trying to find a way to fall asleep on her pillow in the Olympic Village down the slope from the Xiaohaituo Mountain racecourse known as “The Rock.” She is instead in Park City, Utah, wondering if she’ll muster the gumption to turn on the TV and watch the Olympic women’s downhill.

She should be on the start list for that race. She should be a contender for a medal in that race. She might not even be able to watch that race.

“We … shall … see,” she said, a full breath between each word.

The Olympics can be as much about disappointment as they can be about euphoria. That’s true on-site. It’s particularly true from afar. At 26, Johnson spent this season cementing her status as one of the best skiers in Alpine’s fastest discipline, the downhill. The reality is, “fastest=most dangerous.” There is risk in every race, including Tuesday at the Olympics, when the women’s downhill will be staged. There is risk in every training run, including a Jan. 21 trip down a course in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. She was flying.

“I went off this jump with all that speed,” she said, “and immediately I was like, ‘F---. I am way too high. F---.’”

Shaoang Liu won Hungary’s first individual gold medal at a Winter Games, fending off Konstantin Ivliev of the Russian Olympic Committee in the men’s 500-meter short-track speedskating final Sunday at Beijing’s Capital Indoor Stadium.

Liu’s unofficial final time was 40.338 seconds, with Ivliev finishing in 40.431. Canada’s Steven Dubois took bronze in 40.669.

Liu, whose mother is Hungarian and father is Chinese, adds the gold to his bronze medals in the 1,000 meters and mixed-team relay events in Beijing. Most of his relatives live in China, but his mother lives in Budapest with his sisters. His brother, Shaolin Sandor Liu, also competes for Hungary and was also a member of the mixed relay team that won bronze.

“The physical basics come from our Hungarian blood, and the technical part of speedskating comes from the Chinese,” Liu said, according to Olympics.com. “We are where the ancient Hungarian strength and ancient Chinese technique meet.”

U.S. figure skating gold medalist Nathan Chen was in attendance to witness Liu’s win.

Setting an Olympic record, the team from the Netherlands won short-track speedskating gold in the women’s 3,000-meter relay final Sunday, edging the South Korean team.

The Dutch skaters won in 4 minutes 3.409 seconds, with South Korea winning silver in 4:03.627. China finished third in 4:03.863.