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W2W4 Wednesday's top events: Lindsey Vonn seeks second downhill gold, Mirai Nagasu kicks off figure skating singles campaign

U.S. alpine skier Lindsey Vonn Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Fans have long awaited the Lindsey Vonn/Mikaela Shiffrin showdown in Pyeongchang. They will have to wait another day, after Shiffrin pulled out of Wednesday's downhill (Tuesday evening in the U.S.) to focus on the combined event on Thursday (Wednesday evening in the U.S.). Vonn finished sixth in the Super-G event earlier in the Games, but hopes to come back strong for downhill -- her marquee event -- and win her second Olympic gold medal eight years after her first. An injury kept her out of the 2014 Olympics.

The figure skating women's singles short program will kick off Wednesday (Tuesday evening in the U.S.) with Russia's Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva set to battle it out for the gold medal.

Those aren't the only events happening in Pyeongchang on Wednesday. Here's everything you need to know:

Figure skating

Women's singles, short program (Tuesday, 8 p.m. ET/Wednesday, 10 a.m. local time): A fierce gold-medal battle is expected to unfold between two Russian contenders, Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva in the women's program. The two figure skaters' perfect skates helped the Russians take home silver in the team event. Zagitova set a personal-best score, while Medvedeva set a short-program world record.

Gabrielle Daleman, who was part of the Canadian team that won gold in the team event, is coming off a good season (she won silver in four continents and bronze in world championships last season) and will look to win her first Olympic medal.

Keep an eye out for the United States' Mirai Nagasu -- who created history in the team event by becoming the first American woman to land a triple axel at an Olympics -- and Bradie Tennell.

Alpine skiing

Women's downhill (Tuesday, 9 p.m. ET/Wednesday 11 a.m. local time): At the downhill event, the attention will be on Vonn. Over her career, Vonn has not had a lot of success at the Olympics. She finished eighth in Torino in 2006, she missed the 2014 Olympics after injuring her knee six weeks before the event, she raced the Vancouver 2010 downhill event -- and won -- with a bruised shin, and in the Super-G event in Pyeongchang, she finished sixth after nearly falling in one of the last turns. This will likely be the 33-year-old's last Olympic downhill event, and she will want to reclaim the gold eight years after she first won it in Vancouver.

But don't underestimate Liechtenstein's Tina Weirather. She'll be fighting for another medal in the downhill after winning bronze in the Pyeongchang Super-G.

Freestyle skiing

Men's ski cross final (Wednesday, 12:35 a.m. ET/2:35 p.m. local time): France's Jean-Frédéric Chapuis will be back to defend his title in the ski cross finals, but he will face a set of younger and tougher skiers from Switzerland -- Marc Bischofberger and Alex Fiva. Bischofberger, 27, is currently ranked No. 1 in the world and is a heavy favorite to win the event. Fiva, who was born in California, will look to cement his place in freestyle skiing with his first Olympic medal.

Ice hockey

Women's ice hockey, bronze-medal match, Finland vs. OAR (Wednesday, 2:40 a.m. ET/4:40 p.m. local time): Team USA and Canada could not have had more similar semifinal results. The U.S. beat Finland 5-0, and Canada beat the Russians 5-0. This means Finland will now play the Russians for the bronze medal on Wednesday. When the two teams played against each other in the preliminary rounds of the tournament, Finland thrashed the Russians 5-1. Can Finland repeat that performance and win its third Olympic bronze (1998 and 2010)?

Cross country

Women's team sprint freestyle final (Wednesday, 5 a.m. ET/7 p.m. local time): The Norway-Sweden rivalry in cross-country skiing dates back to when the events were introduced in the Winter Olympics in 1924. In Pyeongchang, Norway (led by Marit Bjorgen) came out as the better team, beating Sweden in the 4x5km relay event. It will want to continue its strong run in the team sprint freestyle final on Wednesday, and defend its Olympic gold medal. Sweden, led by Charlotte Kalla (she won gold in Pyeongchang in 15km skiathlon and silver in 10km freestyle), will hope to flip the script and take home the gold medal.

Men's team sprint freestyle final (Wednesday, 5:30 a.m. ET/7:30 p.m. local time): Norway's Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo has had a perfect Olympic debut so far -- he became the youngest male cross-country skier to win a gold medal. He won the individual sprint event and led Team Norway to gold in the 4x10km relay event. On Wednesday, he will be back to try to win his third Olympic gold in the team sprint freestyle event.Expected to challenge Norway for the first-place finish is Italy, led by Federico Pellegrino. He won silver in the individual sprint event in Pyeongchang, but is looking to win his first Olympic gold.

Bobsled

Women's two-man competition (Wednesday, 7:50 a.m. ET/9:50 p.m. local time): Canada has dominated the two-man event for the past eight years, taking gold both in Vancouver and Sochi. Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse won the event for Canada in Vancouver and Sochi. Though they will be competing with different crewmates in Pyeongchang (they have gone their own separate ways, citing disagreements), if either one wins on Wednesday, she will become the first bobsledder (male or female) to win three gold medals in the same event. There is a good chance they will finish first and second.

Team USA also has a strong medal contender in the event. Sochi Olympics silver medalist Elana Meyers Taylor (she won along with crewmate Lauryn Williams) returns for another shot at the gold medal. The 33-year-old bobsledder is coming off a great season -- she won the 2017 world championships in the same discipline.

Speedskating

Women's team pursuit final (Wednesday, 7:58 a.m. ET/9:58 p.m. local time): Team Netherlands is giving its all as it goes for its second consecutive gold in the team pursuit event. Netherlands finished first in the quarterfinals with a new Olympic record of 2 minutes, 55.61 seconds. They are closely followed by Japan, Canada and the United States. Don't be quick to rule out Japan. They have had the most successful season this year, breaking the world record three times and winning three World Cup races.

Men's team pursuit final (Wednesday, 8:17 a.m. ET/10:17 p.m. local time): In the men's event, defending champions Netherlands did not have the perfect start to the team event, finishing second after South Korea. The host nation finished at 3 minutes and 39.29 seconds, 0.74 seconds faster than the Dutch in the qualifiers. New Zealand and Norway also made the cut for the semifinals on Wednesday. The top two teams in the semis will race for gold, while the two slowest teams will race for bronze.