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Sochi Scoop: Jimmy Kimmel’s Epic Prank, Taylor Swift Hearts the Olympics & Russia Takes Free Skate Gold

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Cassidy Hopkins

Though the Sochi Winter Olympics are over in just two days, the Games are as exciting as ever! Thursday resulted in scandal, a prank and another Olympic sweep. Russia took gold in the free skate competition, a win that has raised a few eyebrows. Jimmy Kimmel pulled another prank, but this time he got American luger Kate Hansen involved. Meanwhile, France broke an Olympic record by sweeping the ski cross final. Keep reading for more details on what happened during the Games on Thursday!

Kate Hansen teams up with Jimmy Kimmel for epic #SochiProblems prank

Jimmy Kimmel strikes again! Remember his twerking-girl-catches-on-fire prank? Well, he pranked us once more, but this time with an Olympic twist. Kimmel had American luger Kate Hansen tweet a video of a wolf wandering outside of her room in Sochi. In the tweet Hansen hashtags “#SochiProblems” and “#SochiFail.” On his show on Thursday night, Kimmel announced that it was all a hoax. Did he have you fooled?

Controversy in figure skating free skate, Russia takes gold


The women’s free skate ended in a surprising upset on Thursday. Russia took the gold, but not because of 15-year-old superstar Julia Lipnitskaia. Russian skater Adelina Sotnikova, 17, surprised many when she walked away with a wining score of 75.54 points. She beat Olympic hopeful Yuna Kim of South Korea and American ice skaters Gracie Gold and Ashley Wagner. Wagner, 22, told reporters that she feels “gypped” and that she thinks the scores were unfair. Wagner finished in seventh place while Gold finished in fourth. Kim is thought to be one of the best skaters in the world, but her score trailed behind Sotnikova’s by an unexpected 5.50 points. Italy’s Carolina Kostner took bronze.

Canada takes women’s curling gold


Team Canada took the gold in women’s curling at the Ice Cube Curling Center on Wednesday. The win upholds their Sochi winning streak. Canada has won all 11 games at the Winter Olympics this year. The team beat Sweden 6-3. Sweden walked away with the silver while Switzerland lost to Great Britain, earning team GB the bronze.

France sweeps for the first time at the Winter Olympics


France’s epic men’s skicross win on Wednesday became the first sweep the country has ever had throughout the history of the Winter Games. Jean-Frederic Chapuis took gold, while Arnaud Bovolenta took silver and Jonathan Midol earned the bronze. The French’s sweep has become the sixth podium sweep of the Sochi Olympics. 

Norway wins team Nordic combined


Seventeen of Norway’s 20 Sochi gold medals have been won in the cross-country events. On Thursday, the country took home the gold medal in men’s Nordic combined. The Norwegian cross-country ski team had a total combined time of 47 minutes and 13.5 seconds. Silver went to Team Germany while bronze was won by Team Austria. 

Canada takes gold after women’s hockey match goes into overtime


Team Canada’s Marie-Philip Poulin scored a goal on Thursday with just 54.6 seconds to spare on the clock, which forced the game to go into overtime. The final score in the nail-biting Canada-versus-USA event was 3-2. Canada’s win is the fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal the women’s hockey team has earned. Even though they lost the gold, Team USA walked away with the silver. Switzerland beat Sweden 4-3 in the bronze final.

Taylor Swift loves the Olympics, wishes Torin Yater-Wallace good luck

Last week, Taylor Swift tweeted about her love for American ice skater Gracie Gold, whom Swift called “adorable and lovely.” This week, Swift sent a cute video message to US Olympians. The singer wished Team USA good luck at the Sochi Olympics, but she also included a shout-out to Olympic freestyle skater Torin Yater-Wallace. Yater-Wallace, 18, is a fan of the singer. He happens to warm up before races by jamming to T. Swift songs. He started to blush when US Weekly showed him the video, and he told the magazine that he wants to get barbeque ribs with Swift and then go hot-tubbing with her at the Ritz Carlton (keep dreaming!). Yater-Wallace also said that Swift is “one of the most beautiful people to walk on this planet.” Um, agreed!

Medals rewarded in inaugural women’s ski halfpipe event


Team USA’s Maddie Bowman won the gold medal in the first ever women’s ski halfpipe event. Bowman, 20, took the gold with a score of 89.00. It is the American skier’s first Olympic medal. France’s Marie Martinod earned the silver with 85.40 points and Japan’s Ayana Onozuka took the bronze with 83.20 points. America won the gold in the men’s version of the same event on Tuesday.

Medal count as of Thursday night: top five countries


  1. United States: eight gold, six silver, 11 bronze = 25 total
  2. Russia: seven gold, nine silver, seven bronze = 23 total
  3. Netherlands: six gold, seven silver, nine bronze = 22 total
  4. Norway: 10 gold, four silver, seven bronze = 21 total
  5. Canada: seven gold, nine silver, four bronze = 20 total

To see a full list of the medal count, click here.

 

Did you fall for Jimmy Kimmel’s prank? Leave a comment below and then come back on Monday for your final Sochi Scoop recap!

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Cassidy is a Digital Production intern at Her Campus. She's currently a junior studying journalism at Emerson College. Cassidy also is a freelance reporter at the Napa Valley Register and a staff writer at Her Campus Emerson. Previously she blogged for Seventeen Magazine at the London 2012 Olympics, wrote for Huffington Post as a teen blogger and was a Team Advisor at the National Student Leadership Conference on Journalism, Film, & Media Arts at University of California, Berkeley and American University in Washington, D.C.. When she's not uploading content to Her Campus or working on her next article, Cassidy can be found planning her next adventure or perfecting her next Instagram. Follow her on Twitter at @cassidyyjayne and @cassidyjhopkins.