W2W4 on Thursday: Shiffrin vs. Vonn in Alpine combined, USA-Canada showdown in women's hockey final

10:19 AM ET

It's a big day for Team USA in Pyeongchang. Mikaela Shiffrin, who won gold in giant slalom, will go up against teammate Lindsey Vonn in the Alpine combined event. Vonn is coming off a bronze medal in downhill and will be competing for the second straight day.

In snowboarding big air, Jamie Anderson of the U.S. will compete for her first Olympic gold medal in the event. She won silver in Sochi.

The U.S. will look to end its 20-year gold-medal drought in women's hockey when the team takes on rival Canada.

With that, here are all the medal events you need to watch out for:

Snowboarding

Women's big air final (Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. ET/Thursday, 9:30 a.m. local time): Heavy winds created problems in the women's halfpipe final last week. In order to prevent that, authorities have pushed up the women's big air final, which was originally schedule to take place Friday in Pyeongchang. Two U.S. snowboarders -- Sochi gold medalist Jamie Anderson and Julia Marino -- qualified for the finals. The favorite heading into the final is Austria's Anna Gasser. She finished first in the qualifiers after landing a cab double cork 1080. Canada's Laurie Blouin, the Sochi silver medalist, and Anderson landed the cab double cork 900s to safely advance to the final. With close finishes by Team USA, Canada and Austria, this will be a must-watch event.

Freestyle skiing

Men's halfpipe final (Wednesday, 9:30 p.m. ET/Thursday 11:30 a.m. local time): It was an all-American affair in the halfpipe qualifiers. Aaron Blunck led the pack with a qualifying score of 94.40 followed by teammates Alex Ferreira and Torin Yater-Wallace. Sochi Olympics gold medalist David Wise finished in the eighth spot. There is a good chance the American skiers could sweep the podium in this event.

Canada's Mike Riddle and France's Kevin Rolland, who won silver and bronze respectively in Sochi, also qualified to the finals comfortably.

Ice hockey

Women's ice hockey gold medal match, USA vs Canada (Wednesday, 11:10 p.m. ET/Thursday, 1:10 p.m. local time): Ever since women's ice hockey was introduced in the Winter Olympics in 1998, the U.S. and Canada have made the final game four out of the five times. The U.S. won in 1998 and Canada's taken home the gold on every occasion ever since. The U.S. hopes to end its 20-year gold-medal drought. Their journey to the finals could not have been more similar; the U.S. beat Finland 5-0 and Canada routed the Olympic Athletes from Russia by the same score.

Alpine skiing

Men's slalom (Wednesday, 11:30 p.m. ET/Thursday, 1:30 p.m. local time): Before the Pyeongchang Olympics, Austria's Marcel Hirscher had never won an Olympic gold. He had won 55 World Cup races, six straight overall world cup crowns and a slalom silver in Sochi. That changed when he won the combined and giant slalom gold in at these Games, becoming the first man to win both events. And he is not done. He will be the heavy favorite in the slalom event.

🥇🥇#Pyeongyang2018 #GoldMedal pic.twitter.com/fwQB5xKcf6
— Marcel Hirscher (@MarcelHirscher) February 18, 2018

Right behind Hirscher is Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen. They faced off against each other in the giant slalom event last week, when Kristoffersen won silver, his first Olympic medal.

Women's alpine combined, slalom (Thursday, 1 a.m. ET/3 p.m. local time): The wait is over. Celebrated American alpine skiers, Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin will finally go head-to-head in the combined event. The event was moved up a day because of an ominous weather forecast. Shiffrin, who won gold in= giant slalom, skipped the downhill event to focus on the combined. This might put her in a better position; she's had more time to recover and prepare for the event. Meanwhile, Vonn competed a day ago in downhill, where she won the bronze medal (she won gold in Vancouver). Both Americans will be chasing after their second medal at the Pyeongchang Olympics. If either of them wins, it would be their first Olympic medal in the event. The alpine combined will bring both their Pyeongchang journeys to an end. This will likely be Vonn's last Olympic race.

Italy's Sofia Goggia won downhill gold Tuesday, beating Vonn in the process.

Nordic combined

Men's team large hill (Thursday, 5 a.m. ET/7 p.m. local time): Johannes Rydzek led Germany to a clean sweep in the individual large hill event. Teammates Fabian Riessle and Eric Frenzel ended up with silver and bronze medals, respectively. Rydzek was a part of the German team that took home silver at the 2014 Sochi Olympics -- losing by 0.3 seconds to Norway.

Biathlon

Women's 4x6km relay (Thursday, 6:15 a.m. ET/8:15 p.m. local time): Germany's Laura Dahlmeier has already won three medals at the Pyeongchang Olympics -- gold in 7.5km sprint and 10km pursuit and bronze in 15km individual. She had a disappointing finish in the 12km mass start event, finishing 16th. But she has yet another shot at making history. On Thursday, she will compete in the hopes of becoming the first German woman (after unification) to win three gold medals at a single Olympics (winter or summer) and the fourth biathlete to achieve the feat. Germany is the heavy favorites to win this event, and France, led by Justine Braisaz, is expected to win silver. (Braisaz helped her team win the world championship bronze in the event in 2017.)

Short-track speedskating

Men's 500m final (Thursday, 6:18 a.m. ET/8:18 a.m. local time): China's Wu Dajing has not had a good Olympic journey so far. He finished outside of the podium in both the 1000m and 1500m events, but will go into the 500m final as a heavy favorite. He won silver in the event in Sochi and has won every world championship since. Sjinkie Knegt from Netherlands will fight Dajing for the gold. He won silver in the 1500m event in Pyeongchang and will look to win his first Olympic gold.

Women's 1000m final (Thursday, 6:30 a.m. ET/8:30 a.m. local time): Heartbreaking. That's the only word that comes to mind when thinking about Elise Christie's Olympic journey. In three events in Sochi, she had three disqualifications. The three-time world champion from Great Britain, Christie was determined to medal this time in Pyeongchang. But history repeated itself with, you guessed it, three disqualifications in three events. The latest one was in the 1000m qualifiers, where she was a strong medal contender. Now, she will have to wait four more years.

South Korea's Choi Min-jeong's had a much better outing in Pyeongchang. After winning gold in 1500m and 3000m relay, she will be back to win her third Olympic event. Another athlete who will eye a podium position in this event is Canada's Kim Boutin. (She won bronze in 500m and 1500m in Pyeongchang.)

Men's 5000m relay final (Thursday, 7:03 a.m. ET/9:03 p.m. local time): South Korea reached the final of the 5000m relay in emphatic fashion. The host country set an Olympic record of 6:34.510 and is in good shape to win the gold medal in the event. Hungary, China and Canada are also competing.

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