The GIST's Bits & Bites: Canada

February 1, 2021
This Week in the X Games, NWHL Bubble, and NFL
Sports NewsOlympic SportsHockeyFootball
The GIST's Bits & Bites: Canada
Source: CGTN

🥇X Games: The always-entertaining extreme sports event took place over the weekend, and a few Canadian women are coming home with hardware. Skiers Megan Oldham and Cassie Sharpe won silver medals (despite Sharpe’s scary injury on her last run of the day) and snowboarder Laurie Blouin and skier Rachael Karker won bronze.

  • But the real star of the weekend was Eileen Gu, a 17-year-old freeskier from San Francisco, who competes for China and who made history by winning three medals in her X Games debut.
  • She’s also crazy smart, fluent in Mandarin, an accomplished pianist and plans on studying molecular genetics at Stanford next year. Kids these days!

🏒Hockey: COVID-19 has entered the chat NWHL bubble. The Metropolitan Riveters withdrew from competition late last week after multiple players and team staff tested positive, leading to a revised schedule and a wide-open battle for the Isobel Cup. Stay tuned for The GIST’s NWHL postseason preview, landing in your inbox on Wednesday.

🏈Football: So about that Pro Bowl...just kidding. The real NFL news? A huge quarterback (QB) trade. The Detroit Lions sent first overall 2009 Draft pick Matthew Stafford to the LA Rams in exchange for QB Jared Goff and a couple of draft picks.

Given Stafford — one of the league’s best QBs — was on one of the league’s worst teams, we knew a trade was coming soon. Turns out Stafford wanted to leave too, and go anywhere but New England. If Bill Belichick had feelings, they’d be so hurt right now.