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Sochi roundup: Julia Mancuso surprises with a bronze medal, Team USA women's hockey team wins in a rout

Mike Oz
Sochi roundup: Julia Mancuso surprises with a bronze medal, Team USA women's hockey team wins in a rout

• For Team USA skier Julia Mancuso, practice didn't necessarily make perfect. Despite not having raced the slalom competitively since February 2013 and only practicing it a handful of times, Mancuso surprised a lot of people and scored a bronze medal in the super combined. Mancuso nailed her downhill run to lead the field, which was to be expected. But she needed to do better than expected in the slalom — and she did. Mancuso finished with a 52.47 time, 13th in the field, but good enough to get her on the podium.

• On the ice hockey rink, the women of Team USA had no trouble, pummeling Switzerland 9-0 in a preliminary-round matchup. There was little doubt this was all Team USA. The Americans scored three goals in a 55-second span in the first period, which was an Olympic record, and never looked back. At the end, Amanda Kessel, Monique Lamoureux and Kendall Coyne each had a pair of goals. Team USA is now 2-0 heading into Wednesday's matchup with Canada, which will be a clash of superpowers.

• Canada had a good day Monday, winning a pair of gold medals. Alex Bilodeau won the men's moguls — and then announced his retirement — while speed skater Charles Hamelin led the field on the men's 1500m short course. Canada is now tied atop the medal standings with seven. Other countries with seven: Norway and Netherlands.

• Speaking of the Dutch, they swept the podium in the men's 500m speed skating competition. Winning three medals in the event certainly helped them in the medal standings. Michel Mulder won the gold, while his identical twin Ronald Mulder got the bronze. Sandwiched between them was silver medalist Jan Smeekens.

Curling has started its round-robin tournament and the biggest question of Day 1: Who has better pants, the Russians or the Norwegians? Hmmm.

"When you look at the current state of snowboarding, we don't run our sport. We're run by skiers, which is frustrating. It blows my mind. And it's one of those things I will fight very hard to change from here on out.

"Any sport where guys can make a great living – NFL, baseball, hockey, tennis – they don't give a [expletive] about the Olympics. It's because they have their own thing. It's true to what that sport is. It's not about the IOC making a bunch of money."

— Snowboarder Danny Davis, who has been outspoken about the conditions of the halfpipe at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. Read Jeff Passan's column for more about the growing outrage from the snowboarders.

• Freestyle skiing — women’s slopestyle final, 4 a.m. ET

Canada’s Kaya Turski is the favorite, but she's recovering from an ACL injury. Keep an eye on Team USA's Devin Logan too. (WATCH HERE)

• Snowboarding — men's halfpipe, 12:30 p.m. ET

Team USA star Shaun White is trying to win a third consecutive gold. (WATCH HERE)

• Luge — women's singles, 9:30 a.m. ET

Watch Team USA's Erin Hamlin, a three-time Olympian. (WATCH HERE)

It happened to Johnny Quinn again.

Sage Kotsenburg ponders gold-medal deliciousness on another fun day for him.

Team USA's Nick Cunningham is not a fan of the #SochiProblems phenomenon.

More Olympics coverage on Yahoo Sports:

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Mike Oz

is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!