2022 Winter Olympics Day 9 betting picks – Sunday, February 13

Two Norwegian skiers are favored in their respective biathlon events this Sunday as Johannes Boe looks to win the Men’s 12.5k Pursuit and Marte Olsbu Roiseland eyes gold in the Women’s 10km Pursuit. These two races and a Men’s Curling match between the United States and Canada are featured in our Winter Olympics best bets for Day 9 of these Olympic Games.

Men’s Curling: Canada (-240) vs. United States (+165)

The United States and Canada are both of to 2-2 starts in round robin play in the Men’s Curling tournament at the 2022 Olympic Games. John Shuster’s American squad has alternated wins and losses this year, most recently losing to Norway 7-6 after upsetting Great Britain 9-7 in its previous draw. Brad Gushie’s Canada jumped out to a 2-0 start with wins over Denmark and Norway, but has since lost two straight to Switzerland and Sweden.

Canada deserves to be the favorite here. It’s losses to Switzerland and Sweden are forgivable as those are two of the top five teams in this year’s tournament. With that said, the Canadians shouldn’t be this big of a favorite over the defending gold medalists. The knock on John Shuster had always been that despite his elite play in non-Olympics play, he couldn’t get the job done in the Olympics. That changed when he led the United States to gold in 2018, and he’s playing exceptionally well again in 2022. This one could go either way, making the USA a great value as +165 underdogs.

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Biathlon: Men’s 12.5km Pursuit Gold Medal

Yesterday we highlighted the exciting head-to-head battles that Johannes Boe (-185 to win gold) and Quentin Fillon-Maillet (+185) so far in these Olympics. We sided with Fillon-Mallet in the 10km Sprint and were on the wrong side as Boe won his second gold medal of the Beijing Olympics with a final time of 24:00.4. Fillon-Mallet earned silver with a 24:25.9 and Boe’s older brother Tarjei Boe (+1600) finished with a 24:39.3 for bronze.

Boe defeated Fillon-Mallet by 25.5 seconds for gold in the 10km sprint and Fillon-Mallet beat Boe by 31.1 seconds for gold in the 20km individual. How will the 12.5km pursuit shake out? Interestingly enough, neither Boe nor Fillon-Mallet has won gold at this distance in the World Championships. Boe has won three silvers and a bronze in the pursuit over the last four years, but the man who has defeated him in both the 2020 World Championships and the 2021 World Championships is in this race; France’s Emilien Jacquelin, who is a +4000 underdog due to underwhelming results in other disciplines. Safe money will be on Boe here, but why not make a small wager on the two-time World Champion at 40-to-1?

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Biathlon: Women’s 10km Pursuit Gold Medal

While there is plenty of intrigue swirling around the men’s 12.5km pursuit, the women’s 10km pursuit is very clearly Marte Olsbu Roiseland’s to lose. Roiseland (-300 to win gold) already has two gold medals in the 2022 Olympic Games in the 7.5km sprint and the mixed relay and she came into these Olympics with seven gold medals in her last 13 World Championships races. The 10km pursuit isn’t her best discipline, so an upset from Sweden’s Elvira Oeberg (+350) or Italy’s Dorothea Wierer (+600) isn’t out of the question; but she seems to be a clear step ahead of the field at this point and is worth the play here despite her chalky price.

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