From speed skating to luge, from downhill skiing to snowboarding, a number of exciting events will award gold medals this Sunday at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
One of the most intriguing events on the schedule for Sunday is the finals of the women’s moguls competition. American Jaelin Kauf made it through the first qualifying round with two of her teammates, Morgan Schild and Keaton McCargo.
Golden Odds for Jaelin Kauf
But while all three are considered medal contenders, Kauf stands out as the favorite to win gold. The No. 1 ranked Kauf finished fifth in qualifying, but says that she was mainly concerned with getting over the excitement of being in the Olympics.
“The nerves and realization of actually competing at the Olympics is crazy so it’s good to get that over with and move on with the competition,” Kauf said after her qualifying run. “I know there are a lot of improvements I can make moving into the next round.”
Given her status as the World Cup leader, Kauf is a popular pick to win gold in moguls. Bovada has her listed as their top choice at +275, though there are several other serious contenders right behind her. Top qualified Perrine Laffont (+300) and 2014 gold medalist Justine Dufour-Lapointe (+400) are among those who are expected to be right in the hunt throughout the three finals rounds.
Chasing Beat Feuz for Skiing Payday
If you prefer pure speed in your Olympic skiing, then you’ll want to watch the men’s downhill, which is also part of the Sunday program. All eyes will be on Beat Feuz, the defending world champion from Switzerland. Feuz won the last World Cup race before the Olympics, giving him three titles this season alone.
“I go as the downhill World Cup leader to the Olympic Games,” Feuz said after that victory in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. “It couldn’t be nicer.”
Feuz does indeed come in as the favorite, though not overwhelmingly so. At +300, he is just barely ahead of two Norwegians: Aksel Lund Svindal (+350), who sits second in the World Cup standings, and Kjetil Jansrud (+350). Canada’s Manuel Osborne-Paradis (+2500) had the fastest time in the first training session on the course, which was described by the top contenders as a fast course with few challenging aspects.
“This course is about generating as much speed as you possibly can because it’s an easy course,” Osborne-Paradis said. “It’s more about skiing it better than it is about taking risks.”
The sledding events also start awarding prizes on Sunday, with men’s luge being the first to wrap up. Defending champion Felix Loch of Germany already has three gold medals in luge, including the last two in this event. Loch is a -120 favorite to repeat the feat, but he says that the course itself will be a difficult opponent to overcome.
“One part of the track is really hard to drive,” Loch said. “But I believe I can have good runs. What medal? We’ll see.”
The most likely pick to upend Loch’s ambitions is Wolfgang Kindl (+175). The Austrian is second to Loch on the World Cup circuit, and won the singles competition at the World Championship last year.