Women’s ice hockey
SOCHI, Russia // The chemistry shared between American twin sisters Monique and Jocelyne Lamoureux may well prove to be the key ingredient to landing the duo matching gold medals at the Sochi Olympics.
The 24-year-old sisters have competed in a variety of sports together from a young age, but now they are doing it on the world stage for a US women’s ice hockey team chasing their first Olympic gold since 1998.
Jocelyne, who is two minutes younger than Monique, set up both of her sister’s goals in a 9-0 US win over Switzerland yesterday that handed the team a bye to the semi-finals.
“We communicate really well and she just has the knack for hanging out in the quiet areas and I kind of know where she’s going to be without having to really focus on making a conscious effort of finding her,” Jocelyne said. “So it’s a tribute to playing together pretty much in every sport we’ve grown up doing.”
The Lamoureux sisters’ careers have followed very similar paths, from playing together on boys’ and girls’ youth teams in school, through college, and finally for the national team.
Monique began her sporting career by doing gymnastics and dancing with Jocelyne, then moved on to playing high school all-state football in eighth grade. It was their brothers who guided the sisters to the ice.
In what looks like a display of twin telepathy, the sisters have a way of rattling opposing defences and goalies with no-look passes.
In yesterday’s game, Jocelyn was digging the puck out of the corners while Monique was calmly hanging around the front of the net, seemingly knowing her sister would send the puck her way.
“It’s awesome. Honestly, both goals were a product of Jocelyn and [linemate Meghan Duggan] working the puck down low really well and me just finding the open spot in front,” Monique said. “My success is totally reflected on them and how well they were doing in the corners. Obviously, growing up together, we played on all the same teams, had all the same coaches and we know how to read off each other better than everybody else we’ve ever played with.”
MEN’S SHORT TRACK 1,500M
Canada’s Charles Hamelin grabbed gold in the men’s short track 1,500 metres at the Sochi Games yesterday, while home favourite Viktor Ahn seized Russia’s first Olympic medal in the sport, winning bronze.
Chinese teenager Han Tianyu took silver. An ecstatic Hamelin, who won gold in the 500m on home ice at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, lunged over the barriers to wrap his girlfriend and teammate Marianne St-Gelais in a celebratory hug.
The Russian crowd reserved its biggest cheers for Ahn, who won four Olympic medals for South Korea at the 2006 Torino Games before switching allegiance to Russia.
MEN’S SNOWBOARD CROSS
It has been described as a “roller derby on snow” and if snowboard cross has become a little bit more dangerous with a rules change for the Sochi Olympics, that suits American Nick Baumgartner just fine.
In the event’s third Olympics, two more riders have been added to each race in the final four knock-out rounds, to make a total of six, and even more chaos than usual is expected.
A former American footballer who races stock trucks in his spare time, Baumgartner said he would be happy if they expanded the field even further.
“I think it is more dangerous, it changes it, anything can happen when you’re going down the course,” he said.
“But for me, I like to have that. If it’s dangerous and scary and I can overcome that and do well, I’m looking for that rush, that adrenalin. It’s the reason I do it, it’s what brought me to the sport. Add more people, make it even scarier. That’s what I’m here for. I want to have some fun with it and enjoy it.”
ORGANISERS KEEN TO SEE EMPTY SEATS FILLED
Winter Olympics organisers are asking volunteers to fill some of the empty seats at certain venues during competition.
Some 70 per cent of tickets were sold before the games, but some venues have had many empty seats, especially at events where Russian fans arrive to see one of their athletes, but leave after they have competed.
sports@thenational.ae
