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Photos: Highlights from the Beijing Olympics closing ceremony
Breaking down the U.S. medal haul for the Beijing Games
BEIJING — With a final silver medal from cross country skier Jessie Diggins in Sunday’s 30-kilometer mass start, the United States finished the Beijing Olympics with 25 medals, ranking fifth overall by total. Norway continued its dominance of the Winter Games with 37 total medals.
The United States’ eight gold medals were tied for fourth-most in 2022, but it’s the fewest for the country in a single Winter Olympics since five in 1998.
Three of the U.S. gold medals came in snowboarding, where Chloe Kim defended her halfpipe title and Lindsey Jacobellis won two gold medals in snowboard cross, first in the individual women’s race and then in the mixed team event with Nick Baumgartner.
With Kim and Jacobellis leading the way, U.S. women claimed more than half of the country’s medals for the second consecutive Winter Olympics. Excluding the four medals from mixed team events, U.S. female athletes won 13 medals in Beijing compared to eight for American men. The 52% of medals won by women continues a recent trend of female Olympic success for the United States after women won just 32.4% of the U.S. medals in 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
“Girls run the world, right?” freeskier Maggie Voisin said with a smile. “Everyone is just pushing the limits and I really feel like on the female side more than anything, it’s really, really, taken to the next level.”
Kim, Jacobellis, bobsledder Kaillie Humphries and speedskater Erin Jackson took gold medals in individual women’s events while figure skater Nathan Chen and freestyle skier Alex Hall were the only U.S. men to win individual gold medals.
Freestyle skiing, which includes aerials, moguls, halfpipe, slopestyle and big air, was the most successful sport for the United States.
Freestyle skiers combined for eight medals, including golds in the mixed team aerials event and men’s slopestyle. Hall and Nick Goepper won gold and silver, respectively, in men’s slopestyle, where the United States has won six of the nine medals awarded since the event made its Olympic debut in 2014.
“Action sports was born in America, in Southern California,” Nick Goepper said. “It has this individualistic, creative spirit and that’s just what Americans are all about.”
American Jessie Diggins makes history with silver finish in cross-country skiing
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Norwegian great Therese Johaug won her third gold medal of the Beijing Olympics on Sunday and Jessie Diggins took silver for the best result by an American in an individual cross-country skiing event since 1976.
Fighting fierce winds and brutal temperatures, Johaug went out front early in the 30-kilometer mass start race and held on to win in 1 hour, 24 minutes, 54 seconds. Johaug also won the skiathlon — the first gold medal of the Olympics — and the 10-kilometer classic race.
“I’m born in a small place where there’s a lot of wind and a lot of cold temperatures in the region, so this was nothing for me,” Johaug said.
Diggins, also skiing alone for much of the race, kept a steady pace behind the Norwegian as gusts whipped across the tracks and battered the skiers, many with tape on their faces to protect from the cold. She dropped to the ground after crossing the finish line, 1:43.3 behind Johaug.
“Every last drop of energy went into that race,“ Diggins said. “The last two laps, my legs were cramping. We had amazing cheering out there, and I thought, I just can’t give up, I have to put everything I had into the snow today and finish with nothing left. I did try really, really hard.”
Diggins said she was sick with food poisoning the day before, spending the Saturday in bed and force-feeding herself.
“I was feeling pretty bad 24 hours ago,” the American said. “I was talking to my parents and my mom said, ‘Don’t decide how you feel right now. Just go out there and ski because you love to race.’ And she was right.
“That might have been the best race of my entire life, I’m not going to lie,“ Diggins said. “It was also maybe the hardest race of my whole life.”
Kerttu Niskanen of Finland led a chase group to the line for bronze, 2:33.3 behind.
Medal count for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games
Here’s the final medal count for the Beijing Olympic Games:
Finland defeats Russian Olympic Committee in historic upset for men’s hockey gold
BEIJING — Finland ended the Olympic hockey tournament with a historic upset, as its men’s team won gold for the first time on the strength of a fiercely contested 2-1 victory over the Russian Olympic Committee on Sunday at National Indoor Stadium.
Hannes Bjorninen’s tip of a shot by Marko Anttila 31 seconds into the third period proved the difference as the Finns outplayed the favored Russians, who were able to build a roster around players in their domestic Kontinental Hockey League after the NHL decided not to allow its players to represent their homelands here. Finland, considered a hockey power for the last three decades, had won Olympic silver medals in 1988 and 2006 and won bronze medals in 1994, 1998, 2010 and 2014.
Mikaela Shiffrin and U.S. miss out on medal in mixed parallel team event
BEIJING — Mikaela Shiffrin’s forgettable Winter Olympics ended just short of a medal Sunday.
Competing as part of the U.S. squad in the mixed parallel slalom event, Shiffrin and three teammates lost to Norway in the bronze medal match at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre.
Shiffrin’s sixth event at the Games — only one other woman has matched the feat — ended in disappointment like the five individual events that preceded it, though the world’s top female skier pushed back against that idea.
U.S. figure skaters lose appeal to receive silver medals before Olympics end
BEIJING — The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected an application filed by the American figure skaters who had won silver medals in the team event requesting that the International Olympic Committee present their medals before the Beijing Games end on Sunday.
The IOC decided it would not hold a medal ceremony until an investigation is completed regarding Russian skater Kamila Valieva’s pre-Olympic positive test for a banned substance. Valieva led the athletes of the Russian Olympic Committee to the gold medal in the team event. The U.S. won silver and Japan won bronze. The ROC skaters who competed in the event would be disqualified if Valieva is disqualified and the teams below them in the standings would move up.
Singles skaters Karen Chen, Nathan Chen and Vincent Zhou, ice dancers Madison Hubbell, Zachary Donohue, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and pairs skaters Brandon Frazier and Alexa Knierim had asked the CAS to order the IOC to give them their medals before the closing ceremony. In a statement, the CAS said a three-person arbitration panel had dismissed the skaters’ application. An explanation of the decision is scheduled to be published in the next few days.
American Elana Meyers Taylor adds to medal haul, takes bronze in two-woman bobsled
BEIJING — After winning silver in the Olympic debut of women’s monobob, Elana Meyers Taylor gave her medal to her son Nico. The two-year-old wore the red lanyard around his neck and turned the silver medal around in his hands as he rolled onto his back in a heart-warming video Meyers Taylor shared on Twitter. With two Olympic medals in tow, Meyers Taylor will get a re-do during Sunday’s closing ceremony. Her United States teammates again elected her as the flagbearer.
Nico now has another new toy.
Meyers Taylor became the most decorated Olympic U.S. bobsledder Saturday with a bronze medal in the two-woman event, bringing her total to five. The 37-year-old pilot, who paired with brakewoman Sylvia Hoffman, is the first U.S. Winter Olympian to enter five events and win a medal in all of them after taking two-woman silver in Pyeongchang and Sochi and bronze in Vancouver.
Sui Wenjing and Han Cong win gold for China in pairs figure skating
BEIJING — Sui Wenjing and Han Cong won the pairs figure skating gold medal in their home country Saturday night, performing a smooth and elegant free skate program to “Bridge Over Troubled Water” to top three duos from the Russian Olympic Committee.
The Chinese couple, who won the silver medal four years ago at the Pyeongchang Games, beat a strong field by skating the top-ranked program in both segments of the competition. They made one small mistake but earned a world-record 155.47 points Saturday for a total of 239.88, edging out Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov (239.25) and 2021 world champions Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov (237.71).
Pleasant or difficult? Olympic Village experiences at Beijing Games vary by athlete
BEIJING — Lime-green buses, temporary buildings and volunteers braced against zero-degree wind whipping off the Xiaohaituo Mountain Area are scattered around the desolate parking lot that served as an important waystation for new arrivals at the Winter Olympics.
On one side of the sprawling lot, cordoned off by waist-high barriers and assisted by workers in white hazmat suits, athletes changed buses from Beijing Capital International Airport for the final leg of their journey into the mountains.
When the last athlete boarded the bus at the Banquan Service Area, workers methodically sprayed the entire lot with disinfectant. Even sections far from the bus were doused. Then the workers sprayed each other.
Niklas Edin leads Sweden to curling gold over Great Britain
Sweden’s Niklas Edin has claimed the only major title missing from a career in which he’s established himself as the most decorated skip in curling history.
Four years after losing in the Pyeongchang final to American upstart John Shuster, Edin led Sweden to the gold medal on Saturday, beating Britain 5-4 in the first extra-end men’s final in Olympic history.
With the medal podium already set up, and Canada standing by to collect the bronze it won Friday by ending the Americans’ repeat hopes, Edin took advantage of the last-rock advantage in the first tiebreaker end and put his penultimate stone into the center of the target area.
When British skip Bruce Mouat failed to knock it out on a ricochet, the Swedes had clinched it. They paused — it’s not polite to celebrate an opponent’s miss — and then let out a yell.
Their alternate and coaching staff hurried down to the ice to join the celebration.
China strives to flex its tech innovations to worldwide audience at Olympics
BEIJING — An automated basket tips frozen wonton into boiling water. Within minutes, the dough-wrapped bits of pork are cooked, deposited into a black plastic bowl and transported onto a conveyer belt, untouched by human hands. Pink lights flash as your lunch order arrives at the counter.
The robotic café inside the media center at the Beijing Olympics has received worldwide coverage the last few weeks. It makes for good television and eye-catching social media posts.
There are cyber-boilers and fryers and even a one-armed bartender. Unmanned servers glide across overhead tracks, lowering meals by cable, like Tom Cruise dangling from the ceiling in “Mission Impossible.”
Beneath all this mechanical flash, there might be some important political context.
Netherlands’ Irene Schouten wins gold on final day of Olympic speedskating
BEIJING — Irene Schouten of the Netherlands captured her third gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, chasing down Canada’s Ivanie Blondin to win the women’s mass start on Saturday.
In the final speedskating event of the Winter Games, Schouten established herself as the biggest star at the Ice Ribbon with a furious push to line to overtake Blondin.
Blondin grabbed the lead on the backstraight, but Schouten roared back with an all-out sprint to the finish line to win by 0.06 seconds.
Schouten let out a scream as she crossed the stripe, celebrating another gold after her victories in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters. In a nifty bookend, she won the first and last speedskating events in Beijing, two weeks apart.
Bart Swings of Belgium won the men’s mass start on a frustrating final day at the oval for the American team.
Joey Mantia was edged out by the tip of a blade for the bronze medal in the men’s race. The 36-year-old Floridian complained that he was grabbed by another skater, costing him his second medal of the Beijing Games.
Mia Manganello Kilburg matched Mantia with a fourth-place showing in the women’s race, though she was a bit farther back.
Blondin settled for the silver, adding to the gold she won as part of team pursuit. The bronze went to Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida, her second medal of the Olympics after claiming a silver in the 3,000.
Swings improved on the silver he won at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games in the frenetic event — the only individual speedskating race with head-to-head competition instead of racing against the clock.
South Korea grabbed the other men’s medals. Chung Jae Won took the silver and defending Olympic champion Lee Seung Hoon settled for bronze this time.
Mantia, a three-time world champion, initially posted the same time as Lee. But the replay showed the tip of the South Korean’s skate crossed the line just ahead of Mantia’s blade, giving him the bronze by 0.001 seconds.
The Netherlands again topped the speedskating medal table, finishing with six golds and 12 medals overall. The United States finished with three medals, its best showing since 2010.
The mass start races marked the Olympic farewells for two speedskating greats.
Sven Kramer of the Netherlands ranked last in the men’s final, pushing the pace early on but dropping back when the contenders turned on the speed at the end of the 16-lap race.
The 35-year-old Dutch star finished his Olympic career with a total of nine medals, including four golds.
Claudia Pechstein of Germany made the women’s final just three days before her 50th birthday. She took points in one of the interval sprints and finished ninth.
Pechstein was competing in her eighth Olympics, the most ever by a female Winter Olympic athlete. She won five golds and nine medals in a career that also included a doping ban she continues to dispute.
U.S. skaters file appeal to get Olympic medals
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Attorneys for the U.S. figure skaters whose Olympic silver medals are being withheld have notified the IOC that they have filed an appeal to have them awarded before the end of the Beijing Games, the Associated Press has learned.
In a letter sent to IOC president Thomas Bach on Saturday in China, a copy of which was obtained by the AP, attorneys said they would ask the Court of Arbitration for Sport for a ruling before Sunday’s closing ceremony.
Kamila Valieva led the Russian team to a victory in last week’s team event, and the U.S. finished second. Soon after, a positive doping test for the 15-year-old skater was disclosed. CAS allowed her to continue skating at the women’s event, but the International Olympic Committee said it would not award medals in any events in which she finished among the top three.
She finished fourth in the women’s event — crying as she left the ice, then criticized by her coach after a mistake-filled long program.
This case involves the team event held the previous week. The Russians won the event by a large margin. Japan was third and Canada finished fourth.
The letter sent on behalf of the American runners-up says the IOC’s “own rules mandate that a victory ceremony ‘to present medals to the athletes shall follow the conclusion of each sports event.’”
In a meeting earlier this week with the skaters, Bach offered them Olympic torches as something of a holdover memento while the doping case, which could take months, or even years, plays out.
The attorneys said they hoped the IOC would reconsider but that because of the urgency, they were filing the appeal.
U.S. Figure Skating executive director Ramsey Baker sent the AP a statement standing in support of the skaters.
“Having a medal ceremony at an Olympic Games is not something that can be replicated anywhere else, and they should be celebrated in front of the world before leaving Beijing,” Baker said.
The letter to Bach, sent by attorney Paul Greene, who represents athletes in doping and other cases against Olympic authorities, said the IOC president had asked the athletes for their input.
“A dignified medal ceremony from our clients’ vantage point is one in the Medals Plaza as originally planned and afforded to all other medalists,” he wrote.
After Valieva’s test became public, Russia’s anti-doping agency at first put her on provisional suspension, then lifted the suspension. That triggered the IOC and World Anti-Doping Agency to lead an appeal to CAS, which acted swiftly and said Valieva could still compete.
That did not resolve the larger question about the result from the team competition.
Nine Americans stand to get some sort of medal out of that — either the second-place prize they’re aiming to receive this weekend, or a gold that could become theirs if the Russian’s are disqualified because of Valieva’s doping case.
Because she is 15, Valieva is considered a “protected person” under anti-doping rules, and is not expected to receive a harsh penalty. Her coaches and doctors are being investigated by Russian and world anti-doping authorities.
South Korea’s Lee Seung Hoon, American Joey Mantia qualify for men’s mass start speedskating final
Defending champion Lee Seung Hoon of South Korea has qualified for the final of men’s mass start speedskating.
Lee won the event that made its debut four years ago in his home country.
Also moving on to the final are 2018 silver medalist Bart Swings of Belgium, three-time world champion Joey Mantia of the United States, and 2020 world champion Jorrit Bergsma of the Netherlands.
Sven Kramer of the Netherlands qualified for the last Olympic final of his career. The 35-year-old skater who is a nine-time medalist finished seventh in the semifinals.
Final Alpine skiing race pushed back a day due to strong winds
The last Alpine skiing race of the Beijing Olympics has been pushed back a day because of strong winds.
The mixed team parallel event was rescheduled from Saturday to Sunday, the last day of the Winter Games. It will start at 9 a.m. Beijing time.
It was supposed to start Saturday morning and was delayed twice because of gusts of up to about 40 mph (65 kph) before it was scrapped for the day.
Chinese organizers say 97,000 spectators have attended Olympic medal events
Chinese organizers say a total of 97,000 spectators have attended medal events at the Beijing Olympics.
That’s less than two-thirds of the 150,000 predicted on the eve of the Olympics more than two weeks ago. The games close Sunday.
The number was revealed at a meeting of IOC members by the executive vice president of the local organizing committee, Zhang Jiandong.
Venues in Beijing and Zhangjiakou could have invited spectators attend but fans were not allowed at Alpine skiing and sliding sports in Yanqing.
Plans to sell tickets to international visitors were scrapped last year because of the coronavirus pandemic and the block was extended to residents of China in January.
Spectators were to be invited from international communities living in mainland China, members of diplomatic missions and marketing partners.
Beneath its placid façade, curling is a sport about precision and prognostication
BEIJING — The smooth, glistening ice on which curlers play — it is called a “sheet” — looks pristine, perfectly flat, to casual observers. Chris Plys sees something different as he crouches, squinting.
The U.S. Olympic team member knows slight deviations alter the surface. Devilish spots where his next shot might speed up or slow down. Places where the stone might curve left or fade right a little too much.
“It’s kind of like a golfer reading a green,” Plys says. “Every sheet is going to have its own little intricacies.”
Navigating those variations is actually tougher than reading a green because in curling they are invisible, discovered by trial and error during practice, committed to notebooks and memory.
As U.S. coach Sean Beighton puts it: “Curling is a little weird, right?”
Perhaps more than a little.
Every four years, when the Winter Games come around, this sport becomes a cult favorite among American television viewers. Maybe it appeals to fans because they can imagine sliding a polished rock across the ice in a way they could never picture themselves flying down a mountainside or executing a triple axel. Maybe curling is popular because it is easily understandable.
Two-time Olympic champion David Wise of U.S. wins silver in freeski halfpipe
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — In a Pyeongchang podium shuffle, New Zealand’s Nico Porteous dethroned two-time gold medalist David Wise on Saturday in the Olympic ski halfpipe final to upgrade a 2018 bronze medal for his first gold. Wise medaled for his third consecutive Games with silver, and Pyeongchang silver medalist Alex Ferreira took bronze to give the United States two medals for the second time since freeski halfpipe made its Olympic debut.
Since 2014, the United States has won five of the nine men’s freeski halfpipe medals.
“Americans are good at the rebel sports,” Wise said. “I would call halfpipe a rebel sport. It’s a sport where we don’t really like to listen to the rules, we don’t really like to do things the way you tell us we should do that. We like to go out there and put our own signature on it, our own style, do it exactly the way we think it should be done, and that gets judged well in this sport because it’s cool to look unique.”
Treatment of Kamila Valieva shows why age limit for figure skaters should be raised
BEIJING — On the morning after figure skating’s night of infamy, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach awoke to the deplorable way the adults who are supposed to look after 15-year-old Russian Kamila Valieva have instead emotionally abused her.
It was startling to hear Bach say Friday that he was “very, very disturbed” to see Valieva’s meltdown in her free skate program Thursday and that he was disheartened by the “tremendous coldness” shown by her coach and support team, given that the IOC generally regards female athletes as little more than interchangeable performers whose purpose is to promote the Olympic brand. Valieva’s anguish was so raw, her entourage so callous that not even Bach could ignore it, and he tends to see rainbows and unicorns flitting around the Olympic rings while ignoring the cracks in the foundation.
Beijing Olympics loop life: Tight security, bus trips galore and aggressive swabbing
BEIJING — Not all the questions from back home have been about gold-medal performances. Not everyone wants to know why a certain skier fell in the slalom or those curlers went for broke with the hammer throw.
When family and friends — and readers — have queried a handful of Times staff at these Winter Olympics, they have often asked about life in the bubble.
These are the second Games under the pall of the pandemic, but Tokyo was far looser last summer. The Chinese have instituted a “closed-loop system” every bit as thorough and restrictive as it sounds.
Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China finish with record score in pairs short program
BEIJING — Pair skaters Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China set a record for a short program score, earning 84.41 points for their performance to “Mission Impossible 2” on Friday but holding only a narrow lead after the first segment of the Olympic pairs competition.
Sui and Han, who were silver medalists four years ago at Pyeongchang, performed a riveting program. But Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov of the Russian Olympic Committee weren’t far behind, with 84.25 points to their performance to “Galatea and Pygmalion.” Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov of the Russian Olympic Committee, who won the 2021 world title, are third with 82.76 points.
Americans Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, who train at Great Park Ice in Irvine, performed a solid program to “House of the Rising Sun,” which earned them 74.23 points. They stand sixth entering Saturday’s free skate finale.
“Really proud of it,” Knierim said of the duo’s performance. “We stayed committed to the plan. We’ve trained so hard to endure whatever was brought to us.”
Frazier paid tribute to Knierim’s work ethic and strength. “To be here with a partner that’s so strong and giving the same amount of effort you give yourself, it’s something you can’t beat,” he said. “And I’m enjoying every second of this experience and I can’t be more grateful.”
Knierim competed in the 2018 Games with her husband, Chris, and they finished 15th. When he retired she teamed up with Frazier. “It’s an absolute dream come true,” Frazier said of his first Olympic appearance.
The other American entry, Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc, stood seventh, with 74.13 points.
“Officially we’re Olympians now, and it’s pretty amazing to say,” said Cain-Gribble, who said she had sustained an injury in practice two days ago but didn’t specify the nature of the injury. “To get a season-best score and to just feel like you enjoyed every moment, it makes all those days of hard work and ups and downs, it’s so worth it. I can’t say it enough: Keep fighting for your dreams because look where we are.”
LeDuc became the first openly nonbinary athlete to compete in the Olympics.
Elana Meyers Taylor to carry American flag at closing ceremony
Elana Meyers Taylor has been picked to be a flagbearer again. And this time, she’ll be able to take the job.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced Friday night that the four-time Olympian bobsledder will carry the American flag into Sunday night’s closing ceremony of the Beijing Games.
The announcement was synched to Meyers Taylor’s first run in the two-woman bobsled event. As soon as she crossed the line in the first heat, the USOPC revealed that she was the flagbearer pick.
Meyers Taylor was chosen to be one of the flagbearers for the U.S. at the opening ceremony Feb. 4 but could not participate because she was in isolation following a positive coronavirus test. That spot went to speedskater Brittany Bowe instead, who led the U.S. delegation into the opening alongside curler John Shuster.
Meyers Taylor earned a silver medal Monday in the first ever Olympic monobob event.
Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe wins men’s biathlon mass start
Johannes Thingnes Boe looked like his old self again, dominating from the start and holding his composure through the four shooting stages to win the Olympic gold medal Friday in the biathlon mass start race.
The Norwegian great threw his arms in the air as he crossed the line in 38 minutes, 14.4 seconds.
Martin Ponsiluoma of Sweden missed only one target in the last shooting and left the range chasing Boe. He earned silver, 40.3 seconds behind Boe. Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen of Norway shot clean in the last shooting and took bronze, finishing 1:12.5 behind.
Thomas Krol wins men’s 1,000-meter speedskating
BEIJING — Thomas Krol won gold in the 1,000 meters on Friday, giving the Netherlands its third straight Olympic speedskating title in the event.
Krol was timed in 1 minute, 7.92 seconds.
Laurent Dubreuil of Canada took silver. Haavard Lorentzen of Norway, the 2018 silver medalist, earned bronze.
The Netherlands claimed its fifth gold medal in 12 events in Beijing with one day of competition remaining.
Krol extended the Dutch dominance in the 1,000. In 2014, Stefan Groothuis won and Kjeld Nuis followed with a victory in 2018. Krol led the World Cup standings this season.
It was Krol’s second medal in Beijing. He earned silver in the 1,500 behind Nuis.
Dubreuil finished in 1:08.32. Lorentzen clocked 1:08.48.
Skating in the last pair with Dubreuil, current world champion Kai Verbij of the Netherlands pulled up coming off the next-to-last turn in the race.
Jordan Stolz, a 17-year-old making his Olympic debut, was the highest finishing American in 14th.
Canada defeats U.S. for bronze in men’s curling
BEIJING — Sixteen years after he won the Olympic curling gold medal, Brad Gushue is going back to Canada with bronze.
The Canadians capitalized on a missed final shot by American — and reigning Olympic champion — John Shuster in the second-to-last end that turned a one-point edge into an insurmountable 8-5 lead.
Gushue won gold in Turin in 2006. Back then, he shared a podium with Shuster, who won bronze.
This time, the Canadian skip knocked his American counterpart off it.
Shuster has been back at every Winter Games since, winning it all in Pyeongchang and earning the honor as a U.S. flag bearer for the Beijing opening ceremony.
Gushue wasn’t able to get through the ultra-competitive Canadian Olympic trials again until this year.
The Americans took a 5-4 lead with two points in the sixth, then Canada scored two in the eighth to take the lead. With the United States holding the last-rock advantage in the ninth, Shuster tried to knock loose two Canadian rocks in the scoring area but missed.
That gave Gushue two points, with one end to go. Canada’s third-to last shot cleared all of the American rocks out of the target area, leaving no chance for the U.S. to tie the match, and Shuster immediately conceded.
Justine Braisaz-Bouchet wins women’s biathlon mass start
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Justine Braisaz-Bouchet moved to the front with strong, patient shooting and stayed there with her cross-country skiing to win the women’s biathlon mass start race Friday at the Olympics.
A bitter wind affected the field as they lined up each time to shoot, but Braisaz-Bouchet only missed once in the last standing shooting and skied out of the range in first place. She held on and crossed the line carrying a French flag in 40 minutes, 18 seconds.
Norwegian teammates Tiril Eckhoff and Marte Olsbu Roeiseland missed two targets each in that last bout and left the range together, 48 seconds behind the Frenchwoman. Eckhoff chased hard and crossed the line for the silver, trailing Braisaz-Bouchet by 15.3 seconds.
Roeiseland took bronze — her fifth medal at the Beijing Games.
Roeiseland is the second biathlete, male or female, to win a medal in all four individual events at an Olympics, matching Norwegian great Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. She also won gold in the mixed relay.
The women’s competition was moved up from Saturday to Friday, just before the men’s race, because of cold temperatures and high winds in the forecast. It was minus 13 degrees C (8.6 degrees F) at the range with strong wind.
The brutal wind and cold has taken a toll on the athletes.
Switzerland gets gold and silver in skicross final
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Ryan Regez led a 1-2 finish by Switzerland in the Olympic skicross final on Friday at Genting Snow Park.
Regez grabbed the lead early and never relinquished it along a course filled with bumps, jumps and rolling terrain. He raised his arms in triumph shortly after crossing the finish line.
His teammate, 36-year-old Alex Fiva, finished with the silver medal and Russian athlete Sergey Ridzik grabbed the bronze.
As a kid, Regez always thought his future was in Alpine skiing, more specifically the downhill. When that didn’t pan out, he started an apprenticeship as a structural draftsman before discovering skicross.
It paid off in gold.
In the small final, Italian skicross racer Simone Deromedis won the heat with a little bit of flair. He was coming off the last jump and did the splits before crossing the finish line.
China’s Eileen Gu wins gold in women’s freestyle halfpipe
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — When some competitors barely cleared the top of the halfpipe on late-run tricks, Chinese star Eileen Gu continued to soar. Camera operators bent backward to track the teenager’s motion through the air as she climbed higher and higher just as she has for the last two weeks.
Gu reached a new level Friday, becoming the first freestyle skier to win three medals in the same Olympics. After gold and silver in slopestyle and big air, respectively, she dominated the women’s halfpipe final at Genting Snow Park. Gu recorded the two highest scores of the competition, including a gold-medal-winning 95.25 on her second attempt, before taking a teary-eyed victory lap.
Canadians Cassie Sharp and Rachael Karker took silver and bronze, respectively. American Hanna Faulhaber finished sixth in her first Olympics while Brita Sigourney and Carly Margulies finished 10th and 11th.
Fans who had been limited to just one section of the stands at Genting Snow Park braved blistering winds Friday and spilled over to fill more than two-thirds of the viewing area. Olympic volunteers arrived en masse to catch a glimpse of freeskiing’s golden girl. A group of fans held signs that read in Chinese, “Go Gu Ailing.”
IOC president Thomas Bach comments on Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva situation
BEIJING — International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach decried the “coldness” with which embattled Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was greeted by her entourage after she performed a mistake-filled free skate program that dropped her from first to fourth in the women’s singles competition on Thursday and said he was “very, very disturbed” while watching her performance and the immediate aftermath on TV.
Valieva tested positive for a banned substance on Dec. 25 but was allowed to compete because the results of that test were not delivered until a day after she helped lead the Russian Olympic Committee to a gold medal in the team event. She was suspended for one day by the Russian Anti-Doping Federation. The IOC and other organizations were rebuffed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport when they requested that her suspension be reinstated.
Valieva, 15, was the favorite to win the gold medal and led after the short program but she stumbled several times on Thursday. After she left the ice cameras and recording equipment picked up her coach, Eteri Tutberizde, asking her, “Why did you let go?” in implying Valieva had lost focus after she was unable to land her second jump, a triple axel. “Explain it to me, why. Why did you stop fighting? You let go after that axel. Why?”
Tutberidze is known as a hard-driving coach who turns young teenagers into champions, though at the cost of short careers.
In the meantime, Tutberidze ignored another of her students, Anna Shcherbakova, who won the gold medal. Bronze medalist Alexandra Trusova, who also is coached by Tutberidze, apparently was upset that she didn’t win despite performing five quads in her program and said, “I don’t want to do anything in figure skating ever in my life. Everyone has a gold medal, I don’t.”
Bach, a former fencer, said his competitive history helped him recognize that Valieva was under considerable pressure. “But this pressure is beyond my imagination and in particular for a girl of 15 years old, and to see her there struggling on the ice, seeing how she tries to compose herself again, how then she tries to finish her program, you could in every moment and the body language you could feel that this is an immense, immense stress and maybe she would have preferred just to live the ice and leave this story behind her,” he said.
“But that was not all. When I afterward saw how she was received by her closest entourage with such what appeared to be a tremendous coldness, it was chilling to see this. Rather than giving her comfort, rather than to try to help her, you could feel this chilling atmosphere, this distance. And if you were interpreting the body language of them, it got even worse because there was even some kind of dismissive gestures.”
He also said he was concerned with the treatment Trusova received. “All of this does not give me much confidence in the closest entourage of Kamila neither with regard to what happened in the past nor as far as it concerns with the future,” he said. “I can only wish for her that she has the support of her family, support of her friends, the support of the people who help her over this extremely difficult situation and that then we can only hope for her to see that this is being addressed in the right way and there is not a traumatic experience for such a young woman.”
Bach also said he wanted to correct published reports that he had offered Olympic torches as a consolation prize to members of the silver medal-winning U.S. skaters in the team event while they await the outcome of an investigation into Valieva’s positive test. The IOC decided not to award medals during the Games. The offer of the torches, he said, was made to express appreciation for the American skaters’ participation in a meeting to discuss why the medals were not awarded here.
U.S. falls to Britain in curling semifinals, will play Canada for bronze
BEIJING — The British have clinched their first medal of the Beijing Games, thanks to Bruce Mouat and the men’s curling team.
Four Scottish lads beat the defending Olympic champion U.S. 8-4 in the semifinals Thursday night to clinch no worse than a silver medal and earn the right to play Sweden for the gold.
Although Scotland is curling’s birthplace and the sport remains a national passion, the British have not won the men’s gold — and have just two medals of any color — since the sport returned to the Winter Games in 1998.
“It’ll be some party back home if we do,” British lead Hammy McMillan said. ”It would mean the absolute world to everyone if we do.“
The Swedes topped Canada 5-3 in the other semifinal at the Ice Cube curling venue. Skip Niklas Edin will have a chance to complete his set of Olympic medals, having won bronze in Sochi and a silver in Pyeongchang.
John Shuster, who won bronze in 2006 and gold four years ago — the only Olympic curling medals in U.S. history — will skip the Americans in the third-place game against Canada.
“What we have to just realize is we have the opportunity to come back here and be on an Olympic podium, winning an Olympic medal for the United States of America,” Shuster said. “And I think we’re going to — I know we’re going to be ready to come out tomorrow and play and do that.”
Trailing 5-4 at the five-end break, the Americans intentionally blanked three straight ends to retain control of the last-rock advantage, known as the hammer. They would have happily done it again in the ninth end, but Britain boxed them in, and Shuster intentionally threw away his last stone — conceding one point to retain the hammer in the 10th, trailing 6-4.
In the final end, Mouat left Shuster no good options for his final stone, and in desperation he wound up knocking away all of the red rocks in the scoring area to leave two British yellow ones.
“We lost to a team that played better. That’s the long and the short of it,” U.S. second Matt Hamilton said. “There’s nothing you can really say or to sugarcoat it.
Once again, Mikaela Shiffrin doesn’t finish, calls herself a ‘joke’
BEIJING —The final obstacle between Mikaela Shiffrin and a medal was the plunging slalom course called the Ice River.
After two weeks of hype and heartbreak at the Winter Olympics, all the world’s most dominant female skier needed was a clean run through the 63 gates to earn a spot on the podium in the combined.
But as the sun fought to break through snow flurries that dusted the Yanqing National Alpine Centre on Thursday, Shiffrin’s inexplicable Olympics took another inexplicable turn in her fifth and final individual event.
One of her skis clipped a gate seconds into the race and sent her crashing into the snow as disbelieving gasps filled the finish area from people watching the giant video board.
The race — and her last chance to win an individual medal — ended in a staggering instant as she didn’t finish a race for the third time at these Games.
“Come on, how many times have I [not finished] in my whole career?” Shiffrin asked rhetorically. “Of course, she’s at least going to make it to the finish. This could just be the medal that salvages everything after all. Right now I just feel like a joke.”
ROC figure skater Kamila Valieva tumbles out of medal contention
BEIJING — Maybe the pressure was too much for a teenager — even a precociously talented teen such as Kamila Valieva.
The 15-year-old Russian figure skater, embroiled in doping accusations all week at these Beijing Olympics, faltered in the women’s free skate final on Thursday night, tumbling from the lead and finishing in fourth place.
Fellow Russian Anna Shcherbakova took advantage of Valieva’s stumbles, rising from second place to capture gold at Capital Indoor Stadium on Thursday night.
Alexandra Trusova, also of the Russian Olympic Committee, won silver and Kaori Skamoto of Japan took bronze.
Miho Takagi wins women’s speedskating 1,000 meters; Brittany Bowe gets bronze
BEIJING — Miho Takagi of Japan won her fourth speedskating medal of the Beijing Games and the first individual gold of her career with an Olympic-record victory in the women’s 1,000 meters Thursday.
The silver went to Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands, while Brittany Bowe of the United States claimed the first individual medal of her career with a bronze.
Takagi added to silver medals in the 500, 1,500 and team pursuit at the Beijing Games — especially sweet after losing a gold in the pursuit when her older sister, Nana, fell in the final turn with Japan leading.
Miho Takagi eclipsed her performance from the Pyeongchang Games four years ago, where she took gold in the team pursuit, silver in the 1,500 and bronze in the 1,000.
Takagi won with a time of 1 minute, 13.19 seconds, easily breaking the previous Olympic record of 1:13.56 set in 2018 by Jorien ter Mors.
Ter Mors did not get a chance to defend her title after failing to make the powerful Dutch team, but the Netherlands still came away with a medal.
Leerdam posted a time of 1:13.83 despite dragging her left hand on the ice to stay upright in a turn.
Bowe grabbed the bronze in 1:14.61, only 0.1 ahead Russian skater Angelina Golikova and a huge relief for the longtime star of the U.S. program.
Bowe’s only medal over three Olympics had been a bronze in the team pursuit at the Pyeongchang Games.
The 2018 Games were especially excruciating for the 33-year-old former inline champion from Ocala, Fla. Bowe had one fourth-place showing and two fifths in her three individual events, missing out on three potential medals by a total of 0.85 seconds.
This time, the clock worked in her favor.
Bowe’s medal was the third at the Beijing Games for a much-improved American team — with all three ex-inline skaters from Ocala contributing to the haul. Erin Jackson won the 500 meters, and Joey Mantia led a bronze-medal effort in the men’s team pursuit.
The U.S. team won only one medal — total — at the last two Winter Olympics.
Bowe was widely lauded before the Games for giving up her spot in the 500, an event she won at the U.S. trials, to ensure that Jackson would be able to skate in Beijing.
The gold medal favorite slipped at the trials and finished third, putting her spot on the team in jeopardy. Bowe’s generosity allowed Jackson to begin preparing for the Olympics without the weight of wondering if she’d get a chance to race in her best event.
The Americans wound up with a third spot after the final allocations were made, so Bowe and Jackson both competed in the 500.
Jackson skated to a groundbreaking gold, becoming the first Black woman to win an Olympic speedskating medal, and she was effusive in her praise for Bowe’s gesture.
Bowe finished 16th in the 500 and only managed a 10th-place showing in the 1,500. She was down to perhaps her last chance in 1,000 since it seems unlikely she’ll return for a fourth Olympics in 2026.
After a lap, it was clear that Bowe wasn’t going to catch the blistering times of the top two skaters, but she hung on at the end to claim a bronze that almost surely felt like a gold.
A few hours before the race, Jackson — who has already traveled back to the U.S. after her only Olympic event — tweeted words of encouragement to Bowe.
“You are a mentor. A friend. A teammate. A sister,” Jackson wrote. “Thank you for playing a huge part in my journey to gold.”
Michelle Gisin wins women’s combined; Mikaela Shiffrin does not finish
BEIJING — Michelle Gisin’s second straight Olympic title in the Alpine combined lifted Switzerland’s ski team to new heights.
Gisin won Thursday’s two-leg race on the Ice River course, completing her slalom run shortly after Mikaela Shiffrin again skied off course. That gave the Swiss team a record fifth Alpine gold medal at the Beijing Games.
No country has ever won so many Alpine events at one Winter Games.
Gisin beat Switzerland teammate Wendy Holdener by more than a second. Federica Brignone of Italy was third.
All three had already won medals in China. Gisin took bronze in the super-G, Holdener earned bronze in the slalom and Brignone won a silver in the giant slalom.
Switzerland’s other gold medalists were Corinne Suter in the women’s downhill, Lara Gut-Behrami in the women’s super-G, Marco Odermatt in the men’s giant slalom and Beat Feuz in the men’s downhill.
Shiffrin was fifth-fastest in the downhill portion of the race but the two-time Olympic champion went out without making it to the bottom in the slalom leg. The American won a silver medal in the combined four years ago.
Shiffrin has had a rough time on the slalom slope. She skied out in the giant slalom and the slalom — the two events she has previously won at the Olympics. She then finished ninth in the super-G and 18th in Tuesday’s downhill.
Ester Ledecka ended up in fourth place in her bid to win a back-to-back double.
The 2018 super-G champion became the first competitor to win gold in two different sports at the same Winter Games four years ago. She successfully defended her gold in snowboarding’s parallel giant slalom last week but missed out in both the super-G and the combined.
American men go four-for-four, send full team to freeski halfpipe finals
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — The United States has one-third of the field in the men’s freeski halfpipe final after all four American riders qualified during Thursday’s preliminary rounds. After winning gold and silver in Pyeongchang, the U.S. can sweep the podium at Saturday’s 9:30 a.m. final after having three of the top four qualifiers and four of the top seven.
The dominant qualifier performance didn’t come as a surprise to two-time Olympic champion David Wise, who admitted that after the United States went four-for-four in the 2018 Olympic finals, he was expecting similar representation at Genting Snow Park.
“We weren’t going to jinx it but we kind of knew we had it,” said Wise, who qualified in fourth. “In this event above all else, we had a really good chance of getting all four guys into the final.”
Two-time Olympian Aaron Blunck provided some drama after falling on his first run but landed his second to qualify first with 92 points on his second attempt. He was the only American to fall on his first attempt, but when asked about potentially worrying that his teammate wouldn’t make it, Alex Ferreira didn’t seem fazed.
“Unconcerned,” said the 2018 silver medalist who qualified in seventh position.
Since freeski halfpipe made its Olympic debut in 2014, Americans have won three of the six medals, including both golds that went to Wise.
Birk Irving, the only male U.S. halfpipe skier who does not have prior Olympic experience, qualified third behind New Zealand’s Nico Porteous, who took the bronze medal in Pyeongchang.
Gus Kentworthy, who won silver in slopestyle in 2014, returned for his third Olympic Games after switching citizenship to represent Great Britain. The 30-year-old was born in his mother’s home country of England and grew up in Colorado before representing the United States until 2019. But searching for an opportunity to make a final Olympic appearance, Kentworthy opted to use his dual citizenship to honor his mother and find a relatively easier path to Beijing compared to battling it out with the deep pool of American riders.
Kentworthy qualified in 12th, taking the final spot.
Canada wins women’s hockey gold
BEIJING — Lifting an already remarkable rivalry to an even higher level of skill and emotion, Canada’s women’s hockey team used its powerful offense to earn a gold medal victory over its U.S. counterpart.
Marie-Philip Poulin cemented her reputation as a clutch player by scoring twice as Canada defeated the U.S. 3-2 on Thursday at Wukesong Arena, ending the Americans’ reign as Olympic champions.
The U.S. and Canada have met in six of the seven Olympic gold medal games played since women’s hockey was added in 1998. Canada has won four of those meetings and also prevailed over Sweden in the 2006 gold medal game. The U.S. won gold in 1998 and 2018.
Eileen Gu qualifies first for freeski halfpipe finals
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Already a gold and silver medalist in big air and slopestyle, respectively, China’s Eileen Gu crushed the competition in her best event by qualifying first in women’s halfpipe at Genting Snow Park on Thursday. The 18-year-old earned more than 90 points on both of her runs, including a high score of 95.50 on her second attempt. The next closest qualifier was Canada’s Rachael Karker, who finished second with 89.50 points.
Gu will try to complete the rare medal trifecta during Friday’s final, which starts at 9:30 a.m., where she can become the first freestyle skier to win medals in three different disciplines at the same Olympics. The San Francisco-born teenager was undefeated in halfpipe World Cup competition this season and won the superpipe competition at X Games in 2021, where she made the podium in all three of her events, a first for an X Games rookie.
Americans Brita Sigourney, Hanna Faulhaber and Carly Margulies qualified in eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively as 2014 slopestyle silver medalist Devin Logan missed the cut by one position.
The 13th-place finish was an unwelcome birthday present for Logan, who said she will still celebrate her 29th birthday Thursday by cheering on her U.S. teammates in the men’s halfpipe qualifying in the afternoon. The early exit is the end of Logan’s Olympic career, she said.
“My body hurts,” Logan said. “I’m all on Aleve and shoulders taped up, but it’s one of those things where it’s kind of what Shaun White is like: You see the next generation pushing and it’s like, ‘OK, I think I left my mark and I think it’s going to be OK.’”
Faulhaber is one of those young skiers pushing the sport forward. The 17-year-old Olympic rookie put down two solid runs despite saying she felt “Olympic jitters.”
Her consistent approach has impressed veterans like Sigourney, a three-time Olympian and 2018 bronze medalist who said she’s only feeling more pressure during these Games after getting on the podium four years ago.
“She’s honestly kind of inspiring me because she’s so relaxed it seems and just having so much fun,” Sigourney said of Faulhaber. “I’m like, ‘Oh, I need to channel that energy because I’m kind of a mess today.’ ... That reminds me definitely of my first Olympics where I was just kind of naïve and there to just soak it all in and had so much fun so I’m really happy for her.”
Aerial skiing demands big air, big pressure in one-and-done final
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — On one side of Genting Snow Park, snowboarders won medals after falling more than landing. Freestyle skiers who missed their first runs took solace knowing they had two more tries.
On the aerials course, Chris Lillis didn’t have that cushion.
In a sport that flies arguably higher than any other at the adrenaline-fueled Winter Olympics, aerial skiers also have the smallest margin for error. With no do-overs in the one-jump six-man freestyle skiing aerials super final, Lillis and teammate Justin Schoenefeld finished sixth and fifth, respectively, on Wednesday.
China’s Qi Guangpu won his first Olympic gold by stomping a quintuple-twisting, triple-flipping trick that elicited cheers from the crowd of volunteers and Chinese reporters pulling for the hometown jumper in his fourth Olympics. Qi’s score of 129.00 smashed the competition as defending gold medalist Oleksandr Abramenko of Ukraine took silver with 116.50 points followed by the Russian Olympic Committee’s Ilia Burov, who scored 114.93 points.
Lillis, who took silver at the world championships in 2021, was in podium position after the first 12-man final. After landing a quadruple-twisting, triple-flipping trick during the first final to advance in third place, Lillis upgraded to five twists in the last round, but over-rotated and fell backwards. The 23-year-old called it “devastating” to not finish on the podium, especially when he knew he had the capability, but embraced the sport’s high-stakes format that “sets us apart from other freestyle sports.”
“There’s a lot of pressure and that’s something we just train to execute,” Lillis said. “Every jump, every day. I think the format is great. We like it.”
Eileen Gu’s Olympic run launches her into stardom and the political fray
BEIJING — In one Winter Olympics sweep, Eileen Gu has solidified her place as one of the biggest sports stars in the world, not to mention one of the most politically divisive.
The California native has won two medals competing for China and is going for a third in the women’s freestyle skiing halfpipe on Friday, known to be her best event. But Gu’s success comes in tandem with a highly controversial Winter Games and an increasingly strained relationship between China and the U.S., directly challenging her insistence that sports, and her skiing career, are apolitical.
Gu, 18, has posted win after win in international competition ahead of the Olympics. She’s currently one of the most visible athletes in China and beyond, having appeared in fashion magazines and represented Chinese and American brands including Red Bull, Louis Vuitton and JD.com.
In her Olympic debut, Gu vaulted ahead of her competitors in the final run of the women’s freestyle skiing big air with a double 1620, cinching gold with a trick she had never performed in competition or practice. She made another last-minute comeback in her second event, snagging silver in slopestyle and finishing less than a point short of first place.
As her profile has risen, Gu has confronted questions that put her on the spot in the growing U.S.-China divide.
Elliott: U.S. men’s hockey team a victim of its own unrealized expectations
BEIJING —They’d only just begun to explore their potential when their Olympics ended abruptly, leaving members of the top-seeded U.S. men’s hockey team achingly short of what they were sure they could accomplish.
Their stunning 3-2 shootout loss to Slovakia in the tournament quarterfinals didn’t seem real to them as they glided off the ice at National Indoor Stadium on Wednesday. A play made more precisely here, a battle won there, and the youngest U.S. men’s team since 1994 might have been planning for the tournament semifinals.
Slovakia made those plays, won those battles, tied the game late in regulation after pulling their goaltender in favor of an extra skater and got the lone goal in the shootout. After Peter Cehlarik scored in the fourth round and Slovakia goaltender Patrik Rybar stopped an attempt by U.S. captain Andy Miele, the winners poured off the bench to celebrate their minor miracle.
“We had the dream that we are going to go far but we knew it’s going to be tough,” forward Juraj Slafkovsky said. “But now we are in the semifinals and it’s like, dream come true. It’s unbelievable.”
It was equally improbable, in a different way, to the Americans.
U.S. women eliminated in curling; men still have a shot
The U.S. women’s curling team is out of the Olympics. The men have one more chance to advance to the playoffs at the Beijing Games.
Tabitha Peterson’s foursome lost 10-7 to Japan on Wednesday night in its round-robin finale. That dropped the Americans to 4-5 at the Winter Games.
Switzerland (7-1) had already qualified, and reigning gold medalist Sweden (6-2) joined them with an 8-5 victory over Russia. There are five teams fighting for the remaining two spots: 2018 bronze medalist Japan (5-3) and ‘18 silver medalist South Korea (4-4) along with Canada (4-4), Britain (4-4) and China (4-5).
The U.S. men will have a chance to repeat as gold medalists — as long as they beat Denmark in the final round-robin session on Thursday morning.
After eight of nine matches played, the Americans are 4-4 and in fourth place in the race for the four spots in the Beijing Olympics semifinals. Britain and Sweden are already in at 7-1, and Canada also clinched a berth with an 8-6 victory over Russia on Wednesday.
John Shuster’s foursome would reach the playoffs with a victory over last-place Denmark. They could also advance if they lose, but they would need help.
South Korea’s Choi Minjeong, Canadian men’s relay team win short track gold
Choi Minjeong of South Korea has successfully defended her Olympic title in 1,500-meter short-track speedskating.
She won in 2 minutes, 17.789 seconds.
Arianna Fontana of Italy took silver by two-thousandths of a second over Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands.
It was Fontana’s 11th career Olympic medal and third in Beijing. The most decorated short track skater in history also won the 500 and took silver in the mixed team relay.
Schulting earned her fourth medal in Beijing. She finished second in the 500, won the 1,000 and won the 3,000 relay.
Also on Wednesday, Canada won the men’s 5,000-meter relay.
The team of Charles Hamelin, Steven Dubois, Jordan Pierre-Gilles and Pascal Dion skated cleanly Wednesday night to take their nation’s eighth gold medal in the 45-lap race with a time of 6 minutes, 41.257 seconds.
At age 37, Hamelin broke his own record as the oldest male short track skater to win an Olympic medal. It was his sixth career medal, making him Canada’s most decorated male Olympian.
South Korea earned silver. Italy claimed bronze.
Dubois won his third medal in Beijing. He finished second in the 1,500 and third in the 500.
Germany wins women’s cross-country team sprint; Norway wins men’s race
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo completed a second straight cross-country sprint double Wednesday by teaming with Erik Valnes to give Norway the Olympic gold medal at the Beijing Games.
Klaebo is the first man to win both the team and individual sprint at two straight Olympics. Bjorn Lind won both sprint races at the 2006 Turin Games but failed to repeat four years later in Vancouver.
Klaebo and Valnes won Wednesday’s race in 19 minutes, 22.99 seconds.
Joni Maki of Finland stayed ahead of Russian skier Alexander Terentev to take silver, 2.46 seconds behind the Norwegians. The Russians earned bronze, 4.29 seconds behind.
Maki teamed with Iivo Niskanen, who won gold in the 15-kilometer classic race. Terentev’s teammate was Alexander Bolshunov, who won gold in the skiathlon.
The three broke away from a group of eight on the final lap. Sweden finished fourth.
In the women’s race, Victoria Carl outpaced Swedish sprint champion Jonna Sundling to the finish line to give Germany the gold medal.
Carl and teammate Katharina Henning won in 22:09.85. Sundling and Maja Dhalqvist ended up second, only .17 seconds behind.
The Russian team of Natalia Nepryaeva and Yulia Stupak took bronze, .71 seconds behind.
Finland finished fourth, just ahead of the defending champion United States.
Clement Noel of France wins men’s slalom
BEIJING — French skier Clement Noel put down a blistering second run to win the slalom at the Beijing Olympics by a large margin on Wednesday.
Noel moved up from sixth following the first leg to beat first-run leader Johannes Strolz of Austria by 0.61 seconds after posting the fastest second run.
World champion Sebastian Foss-Solevaag of Norway held his position and picked up the bronze, finishing 0.70 behind.
Noel finished fourth in the slalom at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
Strolz also won the gold medal in the combined last week.
U.S. loses to Slovakia in men’s hockey quarterfinals
BEIJING — The top-seeded U.S. men’s hockey team was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Olympic tournament Wednesday when Peter Cehlarik scored the only goal in a tiebreaking shootout and gave underdog Slovakia a 3-2 victory at National Indoor Stadium.
U.S. goaltender Strauss Mann stopped three shots in the shootout but couldn’t stop Cehlarik’s forehand shot in the fourth round. When Andy Miele couldn’t score, the Slovaks completed the upset.
Slovakia had tied the close and well-played game with 43.7 seconds left in the third period after it pulled its goaltender in favor of an extra skater. Marek Hrivik poked in the rebound of a shot by Michal Cajkovsky to send the game to a 10-minute period of sudden-death play with each team skating three-on-three. Neither could score in overtime, sending the game to a decisive shootout.
Slovakia, coached by former NHL player and coach Craig Ramsay, showed a good amount of skill and solid positional play. But the U.S. team played a smart game and capitalized on its best assets—its speed and youthful resilience.
For the third consecutive game, the U.S. men allowed the first goal of the game.
Slovakia forward Juraj Slafkovsky, 17, who is considered a potential top-10 pick in this year’s NHL draft, gave his team the lead at 11:45 of the first period with his fifth goal of the tournament. The U.S. had been chasing the puck in its own zone and had been losing puck battles when Slovakia defenseman Peter Ceresnak saw Slafkovsky standing alone between the circles. Slafkovsky took Ceresnak’s pass and skated in a few strides before unleashing a shot that got past Mann on the glove side.
The U.S. pulled even on a crisp and well-executed passing sequence with 45.7 seconds left in the first period. Nick Abruzzese of Harvard, a Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick, finished it off, taking a pass from University of Michigan star Matty Beniers and slipping the puck between Patrik Rybar’s leg pads.
The U.S. went ahead 2-1 at 8:56 of the second period, again using its legs in transition and scoring off the rush. This time, Nathan Smith of Minnesota State passed to defenseman Nick Perbix of St. Cloud State, who fed Sam Hentges in front. Hentges, a 2018 Minnesota Wild draft pick, scored from close range.
The U.S. had a five-on-three advantage early in the third period for 1 minute 23 seconds but couldn’t score an insurance goal. But its defense was solid and made the two-goal production hold up until Slovakia pulled Rybar and replaced him with an extra skater and tied the score.
Americans Alex Hall, Nick Goepper win gold, silver in slopestyle
BEIJING — The pristine white snow at Genting Snow Park is more than just Alex Hall’s office for the day. To the two-time Olympic freeskier, it’s a sun-soaked, freezing-cold, blank canvas on which to paint his next picture.
Where elite athletes would generally rely on preset routines long before arriving at an event, slopestyle riders have perfected the art of adaptation. No regulation halfpipes or jump dimensions here. Each course at each contest is new, and when it came to the course at Genting Snow Park, each athlete carved a different work of art.
Wednesday. on the Olympic course’s final day of competition, Hall’s masterpiece came with a gold filter, as he won his first Olympic gold medal with a first-run score of 90.01. Americans went first and second on the podium with Nick Goepper taking his second second consecutive Olympic silver medal.
Russian skater Kamila Valieva is in first place after short program
BEIJING — Kamila Valieva skated off the Olympic ice with the lead in the women’s short program and tears in her eyes.
They were not tears of joy.
The enormous pressure and scrutiny on the 15-year-old Russian dynamo, who is at the center of the latest Olympic doping scandal, appeared to finally get to her Tuesday night. Despite an incredible performance by the standards of just about anyone else, Valieva could hardly hold it together while she awaited her scores.
She wound up earning 82.16 points, more than eight off her own world record, but more than enough to top teammates Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova as they go for a Russian sweep of the podium.
Valieva did not speak afterward, walking through the mix zone of reporters in stoic silence. The Russian Olympic Committee also declined to bring her to the news conference, which is required only for medal rounds, and when asked about the scandal, Shcherbakova said: “I will not say anything about this situation.”
“Whether it is fair, I am not quite sure,” said Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto, who sits in third place. “I would like to refrain from answering that question. Right now I would just like to focus on my own performance.”
Shcherbakova, the reigning world champion, was second with 80.60 points after a clean program. Sakamoto’s score of 79.89 points broke up the “Quad Squad” with Trusova, who fell on her opening triple axel, in fourth with 74.60.
“I think that everything was like always, like every competition,” Shcherbakova said. “I didn’t feel anything different from other competitions, and it was really controlled [and] focused.”
The trio of Russian women, all coached by the embattled Eteri Tutberidze, are trying to deliver the second podium sweep in Olympic figure skating and the first in the women’s competition. The free skate is Thursday night.
— Dave Skretta
Weather adds an air of dangerous unpredictability to skiing
BEIJING — A small army of workers fought the snow with brooms, flat-edged shovels and leaf blowers in a cacophony of scraping and high-pitched whirring that drowned out the public-address announcer’s shouts for each skier fortunate enough to cross the finish line at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre.
The popular Winter Olympics mascot, Bing Dwen Dwen, waddled aimlessly through the empty grandstands as snow accumulated around the panda’s saucerlike eyes. Staffers built snowmen wearing KN-95 masks, others fashioned snowballs or stared at the final stretch of the steep Ice River course that seemed to vanish into an impenetrable bank of fog and snowflakes.
The men who staggered away from the finish after the first run of the giant slalom Sunday morning had never experienced anything like it.
“The first run was far from responsible in my opinion,” Austria’s Manuel Feller said.
Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen summed up the problem in a language that crossed international boundaries: “I didn’t see s—.”
Racing down the side of a mountain at speeds that can approach 90 mph is challenging enough, but Alpine skiers must also contend with ever-changing weather. An ill-timed gust of wind, the sun breaking through clouds — or vanishing behind them — can transform a course from one minute to the next.
Germany makes history, taking top three spots in two-man bobsled
BEIJING — Germany became the first nation to sweep the medals in an Olympic bobsled race on Tuesday, grabbing gold, silver and bronze in the two-man event at the Beijing Games.
Francesco Friedrich is now a three-time Olympic gold medalist, teaming with Thorsten Margis to prevail in 3 minutes, 56.89 seconds. Johannes Lochner and Florian Bauer were second in 3:57.38, and Christoph Hafer and Matthias Sommer held on to finish third in 3:58.58.
Germany now has seven gold medals in sliding at the Beijing Games, more golds than any nation has ever grabbed from the bobsled, skeleton and luge events at any Olympics. The Germans also have 12 medals in sliding events so far in Beijing — technically, another record for any nation participating in sledding sports. East Germany and West Germany combined for 12 medals at the 1976 Innsbruck Games.
Switzerland was fourth, the team of Michael Vogt and Sandro Michel finishing in 3:58.83. Benjamin Maier and Markus Sammer were fifth for Austria in 3:59.12. And Monaco grabbed sixth, its best finish ever in an Olympic sporting event, with Rudy Rinaldi and Boris Vain completing their four runs in 3:59.14.
But this night, totally and completely, belonged to Germany.
Just like almost everything else has so far at the Yanqing Sliding Center.
Germany won gold in all four luge events, then won gold in both skeleton events. The only time that “Das Deutschlandlied” hasn’t been the national anthem playing when the flags celebrating a new Olympic champion are raised over the track was Monday, when Kaillie Humphries won gold for the United States in the monobob competition.
There are two sliding events left in the Beijing Olympics — the women’s race that ends Saturday, and the four-man event that ends Sunday. Friedrich is the far-and-away favorite to win gold in the four-man race, defending champion Mariama Jamanka was the fastest in Day 1 of official women’s training on Tuesday, and that all means Germany’s medal haul from the Olympic track probably isn’t complete.
Olympic rookie Frank DelDuca and brakeman Hakeem Abdul-Saboor were the top U.S. sled, finishing 13th.
— Tim Reynolds
Joergen Graabak of Norway wins gold in Nordic combined large hill
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Norwegian favorite Jarl Magnus Riiber took a wrong turn early in the 10K cross-country race at the Olympics, a little more than 24 hours after coming out of isolation, and two teammates took advantage.
“Maybe it’s not my Olympics,“ Riiber said.
Joergen Graabak of Norway made the most of the opportunity, winning gold in Nordic combined Tuesday.
Graabak rallied from a deficit of 2 minutes, 7 seconds behind Riiber at the start of the cross-country race to finish first after placing 12th in ski jumping.
“It’s what dreams are made of,“ Graabak said. “It’s unreal, to be honest. I can’t quite believe it.“
Graabak became the first two-time Nordic combined Olympic champion on the large hill after winning the event in 2014.
Norwegian teammate Jens Luraas Oftebro won silver, finishing four-tenths of a second behind. Akito Watabe of Japan earned bronze.
Riiber made a relatively surprising start, and a strong one, only one day after coming out of isolation that lasted longer than 10 days because he tested positive for COVID-19. He jumped 466 feet and had 139.8 points in the first phase of the competition. The impressive jump gave him a 44-second lead in the cross-country race.
The three-time world champion built a lead of one minute before making a wrong turn a few minutes into the race, which cut his cushion to fewer than 10 seconds at the 2.5K mark.
Riiber wasn’t as familiar with the course as his competitors after being in isolation for so long. The Norwegian faded late in the race and finished eighth.
“It was more of a physical problem,“ said Riiber, who said he had bad symptoms for a couple days. “When I’m in normal shape, the mental part is normally there. I was not able to ski normal. I was feeling quite bad.
“I had been locked inside for two weeks, not breathing fresh air. My body is not working. Normally, I’m one of the better skiers and today I was just bad.“
The field had to compete in brutal conditions, with temperatures dipping to minus 2 degrees Fahrenheit with wind that made it feel even colder at a challenging elevation of 5,462 feet on a course with steep inclines.
Top-ranked Johannes Lamparter of Austria had a slim lead at the 7.5K mark, but ended up in sixth.
Mikaela Shiffrin has yet to medal at Winter Olympics but remains upbeat
BEIJING — The 1.7-mile downhill course plunges through barren brown hillsides, past haggard trees and towering gray rock faces, all transformed by a coating of snow from a storm that passed through a few days earlier.
As Mikaela Shiffrin raced through the wintry showcase at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre on Tuesday, she seemed to have been transformed too.
The world’s top female skier didn’t win the downhill or even come close.
But after an inexplicable start to the Winter Olympics left her searching for an explanation and struggling to know the path forward, the downhill run without any expectations left her smiling and relaxed after crossing the finish line.
What you need to know about the Kamila Valieva situation
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — A delayed medal ceremony was only the beginning.
When the team figure skating medal ceremony was canceled without explanation last Tuesday, it opened a door into a controversial legal case involving Russian figure skating star Kamila Valieva.
The 15-year-old made Olympic history as the first woman to land a quad jump and helped athletes from the Russian Olympic Committee win the team figure skating gold medal, but the achievement has been marred by a failed pre-Winter Olympics drug test.
Despite evidence that Valieva tested positive for a banned substance Dec. 25, the teenage sensation still will be allowed to skate in the women’s competition, which begins Tuesday with the short program at Capital Indoor Stadium.
Here’s what to know about the situation:
Norway wins men’s team pursuit speedskating; Canada wins women’s gold
BEIJING — Norway won its second straight Olympic gold medal in men’s team pursuit speedskating, and the Japanese women were headed for another gold as well Tuesday — until one of their skaters crashed on the final turn.
The stunning fall by Nana Takagi, who was at the back of a three-skater train and appeared to simply lose her balance, handed the women’s team pursuit gold to Canada.
The United States won its second speedskating medal of the Beijing Games, claiming the men’s bronze medal and denying Dutch star Sven Kramer a 10th career medal in what is likely his final Olympics.
Norway repeated its run to the gold medal from four years ago, knocking off the Netherlands in the semifinals and the Russian skaters in the final with a time of 3 minutes, 38.07 seconds.
The Russian skaters finished nearly 2½ seconds behind and settled for the silver.
The United States, using a unique strategy in which 36-year-old Joey Mantia leads the three-skater unit for the entire eight-lap race, easily defeated the Dutch in the bronze-medal race with a time of 3:38.80, almost 3 seconds ahead.
Mantia, a former inline champion, claimed the first Olympic medal of his career and gave Ocala, Fla., its second speedskating medalist of the Beijing Games. Erin Jackson won gold in the women’s 500 meters.
Also receiving medals for the Americans were Casey Dawson and Emery Lehman, who skated in the final, and Ethan Cepuran, who took part in the semifinals while Mantia rested.
The U.S. missed out on a chance to go for the gold when the Russian skaters won the second semifinal by just 0.43.
There was even more drama on the women’s side.
In the gold-medal race, Japan led Canada by 0.32 seconds with a half-lap to go, seemingly headed for another Olympic title.
But Takagi lost her balance and skidded into the padding on the outside of the track. Because the final time isn’t recorded until all three skaters cross the line, Canada coasted to a surprising victory.
Takagi finally crossed more than 11 seconds behind the Canadians, breaking down in tears as she was consoled by Japan’s other two skaters — her sister, Miho, and Ayano Sato.
The bronze went to the Netherlands, which beat the Russian skaters with a trio that included individual gold medalists Ireen Wust and Irene Schouten.
Norway wins men’s biathlon four-man relay
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Clean shooting cleared the way for the Boe brothers to win another Olympic gold medal for Norway in biathlon on Tuesday.
Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen skied the final leg of the four-man relay and hit all five targets at the last range before crossing first. Russian biathlete Eduard Latypov, who had been leading the race on the last leg, struggled at that final shooting stop. He used all three of his spare bullets and still needed to complete a penalty lap.
The Norwegians won the race won in 1 hour, 19 minutes, 50.2 seconds, giving Johannes Thingnes Boe his third gold medal and fourth overall at the Beijing Games. Tarjei Boe won his second gold to go along with a silver and a bronze.
Strula Holm Laegreid skied the first leg for Norway.
The Russian team’s collapse allowed France to win silver, 27.4 seconds behind Norway. The Russians took bronze, 45.3 seconds behind, after leading for almost all of the race.
Quentin Fillon Maillet skied the last leg for France and also missed a target in the final shooting range, but he was able to complete his set with a spare bullet.
The silver was Fillon Maillet’s fifth medal of the Beijing Olympics. He had already won two gold and two silver.
The relay race had been scheduled to start at 5 p.m. but was moved up 2½ hours because of frigid temperatures at the stadium. The cold was expected to drop to minus 20 degrees C (minus 4 degrees F) by 6 p.m., making it dangerous for the athletes to compete.
U.S. to face Slovakia in men’s hockey
BEIJING — The U.S. men’s hockey team, which earned a bye into the quarterfinals of the Beijing Olympic tournament by winning its three preliminary-round games in regulation, will face Slovakia in its first knockout game.
Slovakia defeated Germany 4-0 in a classification game on Tuesday to set up the matchup against the U.S. on Wednesday at National Indoor Stadium. Germany won a silver medal four years ago at Pyeongchang but couldn’t replicate that success.
Slovakia lost its first two preliminary-round games, to Finland and Sweden, before beating Latvia and then shutting out Germany in the qualification playoff. Slovakia is coached by Craig Ramsay, a former NHL player who went on to coach the Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers, and Atlanta Thrashers.
Ramsay said he has been impressed by the U.S. team. “They have so much speed and quickness and I think it will be important for us to have good sticks, sticks on pucks, win the battles when we have to,” he said. “If we can continue to play with that kind of speed and aggressiveness, I think teams will have to chase us.
“You certainly do not want to get in a battle where you are chasing them around the ice because they are too quick.”
Forward Marko Dano, a first-round pick by Columbus in the 2013 NHL draft, is optimistic about Slovakia’s chances. “Hopefully [on Wednesday] we can surprise one of the top teams and advance to the next round,” he said. “They have a young team as well, so it will be a physical game.”
U.S. men shut out of invidual snowboard medals for first time in Olympic history
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — For the first time since snowboarding debuted in the Olympics in 1998, no American man will take home an individual Olympic medal.
The U.S. medal bust in Beijing was confirmed Wednesday at snowboard big air, where Red Gerard was the top American finisher at fifth place.
China’s Su Yiming continued his thrilling Olympic debut as the 17-year-old former child actor added big air gold to his silver medal in slopestyle last week. Su was already the first Chinese man to win an Olympic snowboarding medal and is now the country’s first snowboard gold medalist.
Competing in front of his home crowd, Su landed a frontside 1800 and a backside triple cork 1800. The teenager’s rapid rise to the top of the sport has stunned veterans like Canada’s Mark McMorris, who said after winning bronze in slopestyle that a young Su was a frequent attendee at McMorris’ snowboarding events in China.
When the IOC selected Beijing as the host city for the 2022 Games, Su was 10. He chose to pursue snowboarding with the hope that he could compete in the Olympics in his home country.
“I wanted to try my best for this,” he told reporters. “The most important thing though is all about love. Snowboarding is not just about competition. You see here every rider from a different country, we’re all doing the same thing — we love snowboarding.”
Norway’s Mons Roisland and slopestyle gold medalist Max Parrot of Canada rounded out the podium.
Gerard said he was pleased with his fifth-place big air finish, especially considering competitors were throwing much more difficult tricks than the 21-year-old slopestyle star whose biggest twist was a 1620.
Chris Corning was one of the riders pushing the limits. He was the only rider to land a backside quadruple cork 1800 (four flips and five full rotations) and earned a massive 92-point score on his first run. But in the competition that calculates a rider’s top two scores in three runs, Corning couldn’t muster a second strong trick. His second-best score was only 64 points on a frontside 1440.
American men had won at least one medal in a snowboarding event since halfpipe joined the Olympic program in 1998.
This year, the United States had two male snowboarders finish fourth with Gerard in slopestyle and Shaun White in halfpipe. Gerard, the 2018 slopestyle gold medalist, said he was “pretty bummed” that he missed the podium in his signature event.
Cody Winters and Roberts Burns only survived two runs in snowboard parallel giant slalom while Jake Vedder had the best individual finish from an American man in snowboard cross by advancing to the semifinals.
Nick Baumgartner is the only U.S. man leaving Beijing with a snowboarding medal after he teamed up with Lindsey Jacobellis to take gold in mixed snowboard cross.
Three Americans advance to freeski slopestyle finals
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Three U.S. men advanced to the final of freeski slopestyle on Tuesday at Genting Snow Park, led by Nick Goepper, who qualified third.
Goepper, a two-time Olympic medalist, qualified with a best score of 82.51, trailing Switzerland’s Andri Ragettli and Norway’s Birk Rudd. Alexander Hall crashed on his second run but made it through to Wednesday’s final with a score of 79.13 that put him fifth.
After winning silver in the Olympic debut of freeski big air, Colby Stevenson qualified sixth with a 78.01 in his signature slopestyle event.
Stevenson said he was looking forward to advance to the finals so he could ski in better morning conditions. The course already presents athletes with technically challenging features like long rails and angled jumps, but adding afternoon weather makes it even harder.
Goepper pointed out how the final landing area is completely covered in shade during the afternoon, making it difficult for riders to spot while they’re flying through the air. Stevenson said he tries to avoid taking off from the middle of a jump because they can get icy as the afternoon progresses.
“This is the most trouble I’ve seen the ladies and the men have in any event here,” Stevenson said after the men’s qualifications took place following the women’s final. “It’s some to do with the icy lips, some to do with how different the features are and how long the rails are. You’ll see a lot of people falling off early. It’s cool stuff because you can risk it, risk it for the biscuit, or take it a little mellower, but the judges are really rewarding people who are going for the harder rails and landing clean tricks.”
The United States has won at least one men’s freeski slopestyle medal in every Olympics since the event debuted in 2014. Americans swept the podium in 2014 with Joss Christensen and Gus Kenworthy taking gold and silver, respectively, in front of Goepper’s bronze. Goepper followed with a silver in Pyeongchang.
Anna Gasser wins big air gold
BEIJING — Anna Gasser hardly felt like the favorite in Beijing, even as the only woman to ever win an Olympic snowboarding big air contest.
The way her competition — with an average age of 21 — has been pushing the sport’s boundaries, the 30-year-old from Austria wasn’t even sure that her best would be good enough for the podium.
“This one is more emotional to me, because it’s so unexpected,” she said.
Gasser executed a massive cab 1260 on her final jump to overtake Zoi Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand and win her second straight Olympic gold medal in big air Tuesday.
Sadowski Synnott led Gasser by 0.25 points entering the third round after both landed a pair of double cork 1080s — two off-axis flips with three rotations.
Gasser was assured of at least silver when she dropped in switch for her final attempt at Big Air Shougang. She was the first woman to land a cab double cork 1260 when she did it 2019, and she did it again here, the only rider to stomp out a trick with 3½ spins.
“I didn’t care about the 0.25,” Gasser said. “I cared about the best snowboard tricks I could show.”
A former gymnast who began snowboarding only at 18, Gasser dominated the international circuit ahead of the Pyeongchang Games four years ago and expected nothing less than gold when big air debuted there.
The sport seemed to grow past her after that. She has only one World Cup victory since the start of 2019, while a cadre of high-flying girls and young women have pushed snowboarding to new heights.
Like Sadowski Synnott, a 20-year-old Kiwi dynamo who last week became her country’s first Winter Olympics champion when she won gold in slopestyle.
Or 20-year-old Reira Iwabuchi of Japan, who came oh-so-close Tuesday to landing the first triple cork — three off-axis flips — ever in a women’s competition.
Or, of course, 17-year-old bronze medalist Kokomo Murase of Japan, who four years ago became the youngest girl ever to compete at Winter X Games — and won.
The oldest rider in the finals by five years, Gasser remains the only one with an Olympic big air title.
“They have so many more years to come, you know?” she said with a laugh. “I love riding with the young girls. I love the energy, and those girls pushed me over the last year. They made me a better snowboarder, and without them, without their inspiration, getting inspired by Zoi so much over the last two years, I don’t know if I would do those tricks now.”
Sadowski Synnott followed Gasser in the final round and tried her own 1260, but she couldn’t hit the landing. She adds a silver to her slopestyle gold and a big air bronze from 2018, making her the seventh snowboarder with three Olympic medals, on a list that includes Shaun White and Jamie Anderson.
“I can’t really believe that,” Sadowski Synnott said.
Moments before Gasser took the lead, Iwabuchi nearly upended the sport with her try at a triple cork. She briefly appeared to have it landed before spinning out halfway down the landing. Her competitors still erupted in excitement, swarming her at the bottom of the jump as she waited for the judges’ scores. She got only 37 points and ended up in fourth.
Gasser watched Iwabuchi’s triple cork from atop Big Air Shougang, where she said everyone “freaked out.”
“She went for progression and not for the medal today,” Gasser said. “She could have played it safe and maybe been on the podium, but she went all out.
“I hope she gets the same attention from this ride that she would have got for a medal.”
Chinese freeskiing star Eileen Gu wins second medal of Winter Games in freeski slopestyle
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — She did it again.
Needing another clutch run to move into medal position, Chinese freeskiing star Eileen Gu won her second medal of these Olympics after landing her third and final run in freeski slopestyle on Tuesday at Genting Snow Park.
“It came down to the real third run and I did it and so for that I am so, so proud of myself,” Gu said afterward.
Gu’s 86.23 on her third run finished second to Swiss star Mathilde Gremaud, who also won her second medal of the Beijing Games after taking bronze in big air. Estonia’s 19-year-old phenom Kelly Sildaru finished third.
Gremaud won her first Olympic gold with a score of 86.56 on her second run. The time stretched on as she waited to see if anyone could beat her, though in the end no one could.
“It was a roller-coaster,” Gremaud said. “I was just stoked that I could stay in first, but I was rooting for everybody.”
The victory moved Gremaud another step up the podium in slopestyle this year, having taken silver at the 2018 Winter Olympics. The 22-year-old will leave Beijing with two medals after winning bronze in big air on her birthday.
Gu was ranked eighth entering the final run after landing a conservative, safety run on the first attempt and falling on her second. As Gu made her way through the course a third time, cheers from Chinese fans and volunteers rose in an anticipation. When she landed her final 900, fans waved plastic hand clappers.
Despite the pressure on the final run, Gu said her mind was largely blank going into it. “I think the more that there’s more pressure, the more I enter the zone, the less internal talk I have,” she said.
What might actually raise the stakes for Gu is the arrival of her grandmother to watch her compete in her next event, something that Gu said she’s never done before.
“Hopefully I can put on a good show for her,” Gu said while snacking in between media interviews and rushing to her halfpipe training.
With a gold medal from big air won in similar last-run fashion, Gu has a chance to add a third medal in freeski halfpipe on Friday. The 18-year-old star is undefeated in halfpipe competition this year.
“It’s absolutely incredible,” American Maggie Voisin said of Gu’s attempt at three medals. “That girl deserves it all. I’ve never met anyone who works as hard she does. She’s so dedicated, so determined. I’m really, really happy for her and I have no doubt she will go out and get on the podium in halfpipe.”
Voisin, who finished fourth in slopestyle in Pyeongchang, recovered from a first-run gaffe to finish fifth. The 23-year-old three-time Olympian seemingly slipped when going off one of the tricky tilted jumps on the slopestyle course, flailing through the air instead of pulling off a skill. While she didn’t fall on the run, it only scored a 35.48.
Her second run score of 74.28 temporarily put her in bronze-medal position, but she got knocked down in the final round by Anatasia Tatalina of the Russian Olympic Committee and Gu.
Brittany Bowe’s unselfish act leads to U.S. winning a speedskating gold
BEIJING — Ryan Shimabukuro wasn’t surprised when Brittany Bowe made a sacrifice that launched a thousand Twitter responses. Not only was he not surprised that the three-time Olympian would forfeit her Olympic position in the 500 meters to teammate Erin Jackson after an uncharacteristic slip from the world’s top sprinter, the U.S. speedskating coach expected Bowe to do it.
“It’s just in her DNA,” said Chancellor Dugan, Bowe’s former college basketball coach.
With a mix of compassion and competitiveness that earned the respect of her Olympic peers, Bowe carried the flag for the United States during the opening ceremony and is ready to take center stage as a favorite to earn her first individual medal in her signature 1,000-meter event Thursday at the National Speed Skating Oval.
When Jackson slipped during the 500-meter Olympic trials race and finished third, Bowe, who had already qualified for the Olympics in the 1,500- and 1,000-meter races, forfeited her spot in the sprint distance. She knew Jackson had a chance to win gold. The 29-year-old was the world’s No. 1-ranked skater in the 500 and proved it Sunday when she became the first Black American woman to win an Olympic speedskating medal.
Bowe, 33, was one of her loudest supporters at the track.
“I want this moment to be about her,” said Bowe, who raced in the event when other countries failed to fill their quotas. Bowe finished 16th of 30 skaters.
The selfless gesture came as no surprise to Dugan, who coached Bowe at Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton. Bowe was a three-year starter and captain for the Owls and ranks eighth in the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,062 points after graduating in 2010. Dugan remembered Bowe sacrificing her time to come in before practice or stay late to shoot with and mentor younger teammates.
U.S. defeats Finland, advances to women’s hockey final vs. Canada
BEIJING — To the surprise of no one, the U.S. and Canada, the two superpowers of women’s hockey, will meet again with an Olympic championship at stake.
Second-period goals by Cayla Barnes and Hilary Knight and third-period goals by Hayley Scamurra and Abby Roque lifted the defending champion U.S. women to a 4-1 semifinal victory over Finland on Monday at Wukesong Arena and clinched a berth in Thursday’s gold medal game. Canada clinched its berth earlier in the day with a 10-3 rout of Switzerland.
The U.S. has reached at least the semifinals of every women’s Olympic hockey tournament since women’s hockey was added to the program in 1998. The Americans and Canadians have met in every gold medal game except one, at Turin in 2006. That year, the U.S. lost to Sweden in the semifinals and went on to win a bronze medal.
Canada defeated the U.S. in a preliminary-round game here, 4-2. However, at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018, Canada won the teams’ preliminary-round matchup but the U.S. won their rematch in the gold medal game, prevailing in a shootout.
Neither team scored in the first period, but the tempo was good and there were few stoppages. U.S. goaltender Alex Cavallini kept Finland scoreless by extending her left pad to stop a shot by four-time Olympian Michelle Karvinen from the right side in the closing seconds, one of six shots she faced in the opening period.
The U.S. got lucky on a phantom tripping call made against Finland forward Tanja Niskanen at 2:12 of the second period. Barnes, a native of Eastvale in Riverside County, took a crisp pass from Hannah Brandt and whipped a shot from the lower edge of the right circle to beat goalie Anni Keisala, Barnes’ first Olympic goal in her second tournament. Hilary Knight earned the second assist.
Knight padded the lead to 2-0 at 18:53 of the second period, again capitalizing on a bit of luck. A shot by Savannah Harmon hit a Finland player and bounced to the left circle, where Knight pounced on it and scored.
Scamurra, with her back to the net, got her stick on a long shot by Barnes for the third goal, at 15:20 of the third period. Finland scored its only goal with 26 seconds left when Susanna Tapani converted a chance during a scramble.
The Americans have had some trouble scoring in this tournament but on Monday they got enough goals to subdue a Finland team that was gritty but unlucky.
Elliott: A disgraceful decision by arbitration court in allowing Kamila Valieva to skate
BEIJING — What the Court of Arbitration for Sport essentially said in deciding figure skater Kamila Valieva can compete in the Olympic women’s singles event despite having tested positive for a banned stimulant in December is that it’s OK to be a drug cheat if you’re 15 and you have “protected person” status under the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency. That’s reprehensible on more levels than Valieva has quadruple jumps in her repertoire.
Valieva, who became the first woman to land a quadruple jump in Olympic competition while boosting a gold-medal effort by athletes of the Russian Olympic Committee in the team event, was suspended last week by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) after it received a report the prohibited substance trimetazidine had been detected in a test she took at the national championships. She appealed, and the same agency lifted her suspension the next day. Surprise!
The International Olympic Committee, International Skating Union and World Anti-Doping Agency challenged the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s decision to lift Valieva’s suspension, all of them apparently foolish enough to think a doping violation committed, even unknowingly, by a stellar athlete would be punished according to the rules established for everyone. A panel of three arbitrators appointed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed those challenges Monday, allowing Valieva to compete starting Tuesday.
Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue earn bronze medal in ice dance
BEIJING — Before she stepped off the ice for the last time as a competitive ice dancer Madison Hubbell did a little twirl, soaking in the moment and the lively atmosphere at Capital Indoor Stadium.
She and partner Zachary Donohue had earned the satisfaction of knowing they had saved their best for last, earning an Olympic bronze medal Monday with a mesmerizing and technically accomplished free dance that capped their careers on a high note.
Hubbell and Donohue’s performance to “Drowning” by Anne Sila was the highlight of a partnership that included three U.S. championships and a fourth-place finish at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. Their final total of 218.02 points — which included a deduction of one point for an extended lift in their free dance — put them on the podium alongside incomparable gold medalists Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France (226.98 points) and runners-up Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of the Russian Olympic Committee (220.51 points).
Madison Chock of Redondo Beach and partner Evan Bates, who won the U.S. ice dance title last month, finished fourth with 214.77, their best showing in their three Olympic appearances together. Bates also competed at the 2010 Games with a different partner.
U.S. teammates overcame numerous challenges on way to one-two monobob finish
BEIJING —If bobsledder Kaillie Humphries got a bit emotional on the podium, if the third gold medal of her storied career felt more special than the others, there was good reason.
A few good reasons.
“It has been a journey to get here,” she said. “It hasn’t always been easy.”
The actual racing might have been the easiest part, as Humphries confirmed she is the best in her sport, outpacing the nearest competition by a sizeable 1.54 seconds to win the debut of women’s monobob at the Beijing Olympics.
The real story was what happened before she arrived in China. As recently as two months ago, it was unclear if the 36-year-old Olympic veteran would be allowed to compete.
Austria wins Olympic gold in men’s team ski jumping
Austria has won Olympic gold in the ski jumping team event at the Beijing Games.
Manuel Fettner jumped 420 feet Monday night on his final jump to seal the first-place finish.
The team of Fettner, Stefan Kraft, Daniel Huber and Jan Hoerl combined to score 942.7 points, beating Slovenia by 8.3 points with a combination of jaw-dropping distances and style that impressed the judges.
The Slovenians earned silver, and Germany won bronze.
Slovenia went into the final round with a nine-point lead over Austria. Norway, Germany, Japan and Poland followed after the first round in the last ski jumping event of the 2022 Olympics, but they couldn’t keep up with the top two nations.
Germany’s result was particularly impressive because the team didn’t have one of the best, two-time gold medalist Andreas Wellinger, in their lineup because he tested positive for COVID-19.
Megan Nick of U.S. claims bronze in freestyle skiing aerials
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — A relatively small risk resulted in a big reward for Megan Nick as she used a perfectly executed, but less difficult trick to win a bronze medal in freestyle skiing aerials on Monday at Genting Snow Park.
The 25-year-old Olympic rookie completed the least difficult trick in the six-woman super final. Up against competitors throwing triple-flipping, triple twists, Nick’s full double-full (two flips with three twists) only has a difficulty degree of 3.525. But her clean execution won Nick her first Olympic medal as three women stumbled on more difficult skills.
Nick jumped second and anxiously waited for four more competitors to see where she would land. When the results went final, the prevailing emotion for Nick wasn’t necessarily joy or elation at winning an Olympic medal, but instead relief.
“I was just trying to be extremely present and grateful that I was even there and in the super final,” Nick said. “I tried to come into these Games with no expectations with only wanting to compete the way I’ve been training. And so I was just focused on doing the jumps that I know how to do, which is what my coach kept reminding me all day.”
One of those who gambled on the tricky back full-full-full with a 4.293 difficulty degree was U.S. teammate Ashley Caldwell.
Caldwell, who helped the United States to a gold medal in the mixed team event Thursday, finished fourth despite being the top qualifier. The four-time Olympian nailed the difficult triple-twisting skill during her second jump in the first final but failed to land it cleanly in the last round.
“I got first [in mixed team aerials] at the Olympics and I got fourth, which I think are the worst and the best positions that you can get,” Caldwell told reporters. “I just feel relief. There is a lot of relief taken off my shoulders, and I did all I could.”
China’s Xu Mengtao was the only competitor to land the difficult triple twist with three flips in the super final, winning gold with a score of 108.61. Hanna Huskova of Belarus took silver with 107.95 points after completing a double-twisting, triple flip. Xu, a 31-year-old four-time Olympian, won her first Olympic gold medal.
Kamila Valieva cleared to compete in women’s figure skating
BEIJING — Russian teenager Kamila Valieva has been cleared to compete in the women’s figure skating competition at the Winter Olympics despite failing a pre-Games drug test.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport released its ruling less than 12 hours after a hastily arranged hearing that lasted into early Monday morning that the 15-year-old Valieva, the favorite for the women’s individual gold, does not need to be provisionally suspended ahead of a full investigation. The court gave her a favorable decision in part because she was a minor or “protected person” and was subject to different rules from an adult athlete.
“The panel considered that preventing the athlete to compete at the Olympics would cause her irreparable harm in the circumstances,” CAS Director General Matthieu Reeb said.
Now, Valieva and her fellow Russian skaters can aim for the first podium sweep of women’s figure skating in Olympic history. The event starts with the short program Tuesday and concludes Thursday with the free skate.
Eileen Gu reaches freestyle skiing slopestyle finals
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Eileen Gu’s quest for another Olympic medal continues.
The 18-year-old freestyle skiing sensation qualified for the women’s slopestyle finals on Monday after a rocky start that placed her on the cusp of the top dozen athletes moving onto the next event. Her second run bumped her up from 11th to third place, cinching her a spot in the finals.
Gu, who won gold during the women’s freestyle big air event last week, is a strong contender to snag another medal in slopestyle, having racked up several first- and second-place wins in competitions over the last year. She’s also favored to win gold in women’s halfpipe later this week.
Gu passed through the media mixed zone after the event without taking questions.
Another Olympic newcomer, Kelly Sildaru from Estonia, finished first in the qualifying round with a score of 86.15. Sildaru placed first in World Cup slopestyle earlier this year at Mammoth Mountain, where Gu came in second.
French skier Tess Ledeux and Swiss skier Mathilde Gremaud, who won silver and bronze, respectively, in big air last week, moved on to finals as well. Gremaud won silver in slopestyle at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, but 2018 gold medalist Sarah Hoefflin from Switzerland failed to place in qualifiers.
The event, initially scheduled for Sunday, was postponed because of weather conditions. The finals were also pushed back to Tuesday morning Beijing time. Also competing Tuesday are American skiers Maggie Voisin and Marin Hamill.
Kaillie Humphries, Elana Meyers Taylor win gold, silver in women’s monobob
BEIJING — Kaillie Humphries stood straight up in her moving bobsled, stretching her arms out wide in a pose reminiscent of a favorite internet meme
Are you not entertained?
Humphries and fellow American Elana Meyers Taylor solidified their status as the top pilots in the world by finishing first and second, respectively, in the inaugural Olympic women’s monobob competition Monday at Yanqing National Sliding Center.
Erin Jackson becomes first U.S. woman to medal in the 500 meters since 1994
BEIJING — Erin Jackson didn’t let this chance go to waste.
After teammate Brittany Bowe gave up her qualifying spot in the 500-meter speedskating race to ensure Jackson could compete at the Olympics despite a slip during the Olympic trials, the top-ranked sprinter repaid her longtime friend’s selfless gesture by winning a gold medal on Sunday at the National Speedskating Oval.
Skating in the second-to-last heat, Jackson blazed to a 37.04-second finish to become the first U.S. woman to medal in the 500 meters since 1994 and win the United States’ first individual speedskating medal at any distance since Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick took gold and bronze, respectively, in the 1,000 meters in 2010. Jackson, who four years ago became the first Black woman to represent the United States in speedskating at the Olympics, is now the first Black woman to win a speedskating gold medal for the United States.
‘Like riding a bike’: Skier Tommy Ford races for first time since devastating crash
BEIJING — Tommy Ford emerged from the swirl of snowflakes and low-slung clouds that transformed the treacherous giant slalom course known as the Ice River into a maze.
He shot through the finish, skidded to a stop in a spray of white and, for a moment, absorbed the scene at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre on Sunday as whining leaf blowers cleared snow from the grandstands and course workers scrambled to repair the run before the next skier started.
He had finally returned.
Four hundred days had passed since Ford’s last race ended in a devastating crash he still can’t remember. On a day when snow piled up at the Winter Olympics and simply making it down the mountain without incident was an accomplishment, the 32-year-old took a significant step in a recovery that has tested his body and spirit.
“It’s like riding a bike,” Ford said after his first run. “It was pretty familiar. I felt comfortable and ready to charge.”
Behind the unassuming words, however, there’s a painful, winding path to his third Olympics.
Near the finish of the giant slalom in Adelboden, Switzerland, on Jan. 9, 2021, Ford collided with a gate at full speed, banged into the snow headfirst, tumbled down the slope for three seconds and bowled over two course workers before coming to a stop. He had found a rhythm on the World Cup circuit in previous months, twice reaching the podium in 2020. Now he lay motionless in the snow as emergency personnel rushed over in a stomach-turning scene, even by the standards of a sport in which violent crashes are commonplace.
‘Here to grow the game’: Why North American hockey players are competing for China
BEIJING —The players agreed to take different names. Names they couldn’t necessarily pronounce at first. Jeremy Smith became Jieruimi Shimisi and Jake Chelios chose Jieke Kailiaosi, and maybe it seemed weird.
“A little bit,” said Spencer Foo, who became Fu Jiang. “Yeah, I picked it up pretty quick.”
Few of them spoke Chinese or had spent time in China, but they knew the difference between a forecheck and a cross check. That sufficed to draw these hockey players together, transport them halfway around the globe and plunk them down in a new country.
Which made perfect sense to them.
“There’s a bigger picture,” said Ye Jinguang, who grew up in British Columbia as Brandon Yip. “We’re here to grow the game.”
The Chinese men’s hockey team made its Winter Olympic debut in Beijing last week, part of a grand experiment by the government to build a national hockey program from scratch, in a hurry.
The roster featured minor-league talent gleaned from throughout North America — players with some Chinese ancestry or who were willing to live in country for several years. Team officials also asked them to take those transliterated names.
Not everyone was thrilled about this prefab roster.
How an NBC reality show helped launch bobsledder Josh Williamson’s Olympic career
BEIJING — An Instagram ad changed Josh Williamson’s life.
The Florida native didn’t have high expectations when he clicked on a post about a reality show searching for athletes. He was just a 20-year-old former Division I lacrosse player searching for a challenge.
“Next Olympic Hopeful” was it.
Five years after winning the first season of the televised scouting camp, Williamson made good on the NBC show’s catchy name by making the U.S. bobsled team for the Beijing Olympics. He and fellow bobsledder Sylvia Hoffman, who was a contestant in the second season, are the show’s first Olympic success stories and both will make their Olympic debuts this week.
Dutch win 3,000-meter short track speedskating
Led by Suzanne Schulting, the Netherlands won Olympic gold in the 3,000-meter relay in short track speedskating.
Schulting collected her second gold and third medal overall in Beijing. She earned silver in the 500 meters and gold in the 1,000.
The Dutch team of Schulting, Selma Poutsma, Xandra Velzeboer and Yana van Kerkhof lowered its own Olympic record with a time of 4 minutes 3.40 seconds at Capital Indoor Stadium.
South Korea rallied to take silver. China earned bronze.
Schulting screamed and raised her arms in triumph after crossing the finish line.
There were no crashes in the four-team final. Canada finished fourth.
In the B final, Italy won with Arianna Fontana skating. The Russians were penalized and the U.S. team was penalized for a lane change that caused an obstruction.
France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet wins 12.5-kilometer biathlon pursuit
Quentin Fillon Maillet of France hit all 20 of his targets despite howling wind, and he skied to his second gold and fourth medal of the Beijing Games, winning the 12.5-kilometer biathlon pursuit.
Johannes Tingnes Boe of Norway had started off first after winning gold in the sprint, but he missed two targets in his first standing shooting. Fillon Maillet passed him and stayed out front.
Tarjei Boe of Norway was second in the sprint and went off second Sunday. He missed only one target and finished 28.6 seconds behind the Frenchman for the silver medal.
Russian Eduard Latypov also missed only one target and won the bronze.
Fillon Maillet also won gold in the individual race and two silvers, one in the mixed relay and one in the sprint.
Marte Olsbu Roeiseland wins her third gold medal
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Marte Olsbu Roeiseland earned her third gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, and fourth medal overall, by winning the women’s biathlon 10-kilometer pursuit race Sunday.
The Norwegian started the race with a lead because of her win in the sprint race and hit 19 of her 20 targets. Despite strong winds and blowing snow, Roeiseland held her focus and shot cleanly in the last standing stop to win in 34 minutes, 46.9 seconds.
Elvira Oeberg, who was second in the sprint race and started 31 seconds behind Roeiseland, had three misses in her second and third shooting bouts, but cleaned the last standing to finish 1:36.5 behind for silver.
Tiril Eckhoff of Norway also missed three targets but came in 1:48.7 behind her teammate for the bronze medal.
Roeiseland previously won gold in the mixed relay as well as the sprint. She also won bronze in the individual race.
In her first Olympic appearance, Oeberg has won two silver medals. Eckhoff earned her first medal of the Beijing Games.
Russian team wins men’s cross-country relay
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Just like in the women’s cross-country ski race, the Russian team opened a lead on the first leg of the men’s relay on Sunday and then held on for the Olympic gold medal.
Sergey Ustiugov maintained more than a minute lead on the last lap over the two-man chasing group of Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo of Norway and Maurice Manificat of France.
Ustiugov grabbed a flag on his way to the finish line and won the 10-kilometer relay 1 hour, 54 minutes, 50.7 seconds. Klaebo pulled away from Manificat for the silver, 1:07.2 back. France took third, 1:16.4 behind the Russians.
Snowy conditions made the ski tracks slow, especially on the first two classic ski legs. Leaf-blowers were used to clear the snow out of the ski tracks. By contrast, the winning time in the four-man relay at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics was more than 20 minutes quicker.
Alexey Chervotkin led off for the Russians, with Alexander Bolshunov skiing the second classic leg. Denis Spitsov and Ustiugov took the two freestyle legs.
All four are in the top 12 of the overall World Cup standings.
Norway led off with Emil Iversen, who has not yet raced at the Beijing Olympics and is ranked 42nd in the World Cup standings. Missing from their lineup was Erik Valnes, who is ranked third in the World Cup and finished 15th in the 15-kilometer classic race last week.
Norway’s second skier was Paal Golberg, who was 11th in the 15-kilometer classic race. Hans Chister Holund, who was fourth in that race, skied the third leg ahead of Klaebo.
The same four skiers won gold for Norway in the relay at the 2021 world championships in Germany.
The four-man relay began as a mass-start with 15 racers. Each athlete skied three laps on a 3.3-kilometer (2-mile) course.
Marco Odermatt wins the men’s giant slalom
BEIJING — Marco Odermatt has owned the giant slalom this season, and now he owns an Olympic gold medal in the event.
The 24-year-old Swiss skier plowed through snow and poor visibility Sunday to win the men’s giant slalom at the Beijing Games.
“I really risked everything in the second run because I wanted not just the medal, I wanted the gold medal,” Odermatt said. ”It’s difficult because you can lose everything but today it paid off.”
It was the first time snow fell during an Alpine skiing race at this year’s Olympics and the bad weather conditions caused the second run to be postponed by 1 hour, 15 minutes.
“It was a hard day, with the conditions, with such a long wait between the two runs,” Odermatt said. “It was more than five hours for me, it was such a long time to re-think everything and it was hard to stay focused. I tried to sleep some minutes in between.
“I actually never dreamt about it but now it still feels like a dream.”
Odermatt coped with the conditions and the delay — and a first-run mistake — to post an unofficial combined time of 2 minutes, 09.35 seconds.
Zan Kranjec of Slovenia took silver, 0.19 seconds behind, and world champion Mathieu Faivre of France earned bronze, 1.34 behind.
The skiers had been racing and training on artificial snow until the real thing started to fall on Saturday at the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center. A second women’s downhill training run was canceled because of the conditions on Sunday.
It was the first medal in a major championship for Odermatt, who is competing at his first Olympics. He was seventh in Monday’s downhill and failed to finish the super-G the following day.
Odermatt has dominated in the giant slalom this season, winning four of the five races on the World Cup circuit to lead the discipline standings as well as the overall standings.
He let out a roar after crossing the line on Sunday and raised his ski poles above his head.
Odermatt was fastest in the first run despite having to recover quickly after getting pushed low and off the racing line about 15 seconds in. But Kranjec beat him by more than half a second in the afternoon to leap from eighth and also claim his first medal at a major championship.
Stefan Brennsteiner of Austria was 0.04 behind Odermatt after the first run but he fell with a few gates remaining. He managed to get back on course but finished more than 15 seconds off the pace.
Henrik Kristoffersen, who won silver at the world championships, also almost skied off the course known as The Ice River but managed to catch himself. He had been fourth after the first run but finished eighth, 1.90 behind Odermatt.
Two of the other top eight finishers from the first run — Manuel Feller and Luca De Aliprandini — failed to finish, helping Kranjec move up six places.
U.S. in the hunt for Olympic medals as ice dance showcases its newfound vibrancy
BEIJING — Ice dance has come a long way from the days of sleepy compulsory waltzes and endless repetitions of foxtrots.
The rhythm dance segment of the Beijing Olympics ice dance competition Saturday featured music by Billie Eilish, Rihanna, Janet and Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Donna Summer and that old standby Elvis Presley, bringing vibrancy and interest to a figure skating discipline that sometimes has been criticized — with good reason — for being garishly over the top.
Ice dance has evolved with the times and has moved forward. French dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron advanced it to another level Saturday with a captivating performance that put them in position to win the gold medal that eluded them four years ago at Pyeongchang after Papadakis’ unfortunate costume malfunction cost them precious points.
Using a form of street dancing called “waacking” as their inspiration and adapting it to their near-flawless technique, Papadakis and Cizeron broke their own world record with a score of 90.38 points. Reigning world champions Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of the Russian Olympic Committee stood second with 88.85 points, followed by Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue with a season-best 87.13 points.
Hannah Neise rallies to become first German woman to win Olympic gold in skeleton
BEIJING — Hannah Neise has never won a World Cup medal. Or a medal at the world championships. Or a medal from the European championships.
She’s got an Olympic medal now.
And it’s the one that everybody wants.
Skeleton has a new champion, and she was a bit of a surprise winner. Neise, the 21-year-old who won the junior world title last year, became the first German woman to capture the gold medal in Olympic skeleton by rallying in the final two heats at the Beijing Games on Saturday.
Her four-run time was 4 minutes, 7.62 seconds. Jaclyn Narracott of Australia — the midpoint leader of the event — won the silver in 4:08.24, and World Cup overall champion Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands took the bronze in 4:08.46.
Neise’s win might have been a bit of a stunner, but at this point, nothing Germany does on this track should be that surprising. After six sliding events at the Beijing Games — four in luge, two in skeleton — the Germans have captured six gold medals.
Oh, and all they have in the four remaining bobsled races — two for men, two for women — are the reigning Olympic champion drivers in Francesco Friedrich and Mariama Jamanka.
Tina Hermann of Germany was fourth and Mirela Rahneva of Canada, the first-run leader, was fifth.
Neise’s win capped a year that was unpredictable in women’s skeleton from the outset. There were eight World Cup races leading up to the Olympics, with five different winners and 11 different medalists — Neise not being one of them.
But there was a big hint that she could contend at the Olympics. There was a preseason race at the Yanqing Sliding Center after three weeks of international training this fall, and Neise was second in that event.
Clearly, she figured some things out about the new track faster than most everyone else did.
Katie Uhlaender, racing in her fifth Olympics, was the top American and finished sixth in 4:09.23. Uhlaender strained a muscle in her side before competing Saturday and still moved up two spots from where she was after Friday’s first two runs of the competition.
Kelly Curtis, the other U.S. slider in the field, was 21st.
This was the first time in six Olympic women’s skeleton competitions that a woman from Britain didn’t find her way to the podium. Alex Coomber won bronze in 2002, Shelley Rudman won silver in 2006, Amy Williams took gold in 2010, Lizzy Yarnold won gold in both 2014 and 2018 and Laura Deas captured bronze four years ago as well.
Deas was the top British slider in this race, placing 20th.
Narracott’s medal, though, had a very British feel — and that has nothing to do with Queen Elizabeth II remaining the head of state in 15 Commonwealth countries, including Australia. Narracott spends the season traveling and training with the British team, and her husband is retired British skeleton athlete and 2018 Olympic bronze medalist Dom Parsons.
Narracott was great.
Neise was just better. And the world’s most accomplished nation in sliding just continues to dominate the Beijing Games.
Norway’s Marius Lindvik holds off Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi to win ski jumping gold
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Marius Lindvik of Norway won Olympic gold in ski jumping on the large hill Saturday, holding off Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan.
Lindvik jumped 140 meters (459 feet) on his final jump and earned 296.1 points overall to become the first Norwegian to win the event since Toralf Engan in 1964.
Kobayashi, who won gold on the normal hill on Sunday, earned silver. Karl Geiger of Germany, who is No. 1 in the World Cup rankings, finished third.
Two-time defending champion Kamil Stoch of Poland was fourth, coming up short on his shot to become the first to win three straight Olympic titles on the large hill.
Kobayashi went into the final round with the lead after jumping 142 meters (466 feet) and earning 147 points. Lindvik trailed by only 2.2 points, then soared past him with nearly flawless style.
Two-time gold medalist Andreas Wellinger is unable to compete in China because he tested positive for COVID-19.
Men have been ski jumping at the Winter Olympics since the first edition in 1924, while women did not have access to the sport at the Olympics until 2014.
The men will be back on the large hill on Monday for a team competition. Norway, Germany and Austria have won the last three Olympic team events. The trio of traditional powers will likely contend for medals again, trying to hold off Slovenia and Japan.
ROC skater Kamila Valieva’s doping case to be heard Sunday
BEIJING — The Court of Arbitration for Sport has scheduled a hearing via videoconference on Sunday to decide figure skater Kamila Valieva’s eligibility to compete in the women’s singles competition. In a news release, the CAS said it anticipates it will relay its decision to Valieva on Monday, a day before the women’s competition will begin.
Valieva, 15, was provisionally suspended by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency after she tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned substance, in late December during the Russian championships. However, that agency, known as RUSADA, lifted the suspension a day later, on Feb. 9. Valieva competed in the team event and contributed two programs to the gold medal won by the Russian Olympic Committee team. She became the first woman to land a quadruple jump in Olympic competition.
Known for her ability to easily land quadruple jumps that few other women can perform, she holds the records for highest score in the short program, long program and total score and has been considered the favorite to win the singles gold medal.
The International Skating Union, the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency have filed appeals of RUSADA’s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The CAS panel will be headed by Fabio Iudica of Italy. Sports lawyer Jeffrey Benz, who has offices in Los Angeles and in London, and Dr. Vesna Bergant Rakocevic of Slovenia were designated the arbitrators.
The medals for the team event have not been awarded. The U.S. finished second and Japan was third, with Canada fourth. They would all move up a place if the Russian Olympic Committee is disqualified because of Valieva’s participation.
Russian team wins women’s cross-country relay
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — The Russian team took the lead at the start of the women’s four-person relay and held on at the end to win another Olympic gold medal in cross-country skiing on Saturday.
Yulia Stupak broke away early with nine women chasing. On the next leg, Natalia Nepryaeva was chased down by Katharina Hennig of Germany.
The Germans briefly took the lead on the last lap, with Russian skier Veronika Stepanova just behind Sofie Krehl. But Stepanova pulled away on the final climb and won in 53 minutes, 41 seconds. Germany took silver, 18.2 seconds behind. Sweden edged Finland for bronze.
“Of course, it is a special day,” Stepanova said. “It was really tough because we have a win in the World Cup, and a lot of people know we can win, so they say, ‘You must win. You must win.’ So I am like, ‘OK, we need a good result,’ and I do what I can do.”
Tatiana Sorina skied the third lap for the Russian team, which is competing at the Beijing Games under the acronym ROC — short for Russian Olympic Committee.
Despite settling for silver, Krehl was satisfied.
“Maybe I need some time and then I can recognize what we have done,” the German said. “Of course it’s a surprise, but we all had really good races the last [few] days.”
The four-person relay began as a mass-start with 18 racers. Each woman skied two laps on a 2.5-kilometer (1.5-mile) course. The first two skiers raced in the classic style and the last two in freestyle.
Norway ended up in fifth place, just ahead of the United States in sixth. Therese Johaug, who already has won two gold medals at the Beijing Games, briefly brought the chase group closer to the leaders but she couldn’t catch them.
On the first lap, Tiril Udnes Weng of Norway fell and lost some time.
“So I tried to do the best with the position I had,” Johaug said. “I tried to reach both Sweden and Finland, but Russia and Germany, they were the strongest today. Anyway, it’s relay.”
Johaug won gold in the skiathlon and the 10-kilometer race. She also won gold in all three events at the 2021 world championships, plus the 30-kilometer mass start race. She said she is setting her sights on that one next.
The gold was the Russian team’s second in cross-country skiing at the 2022 Games. Alexander Bolshunov won the men’s skiathlon.
In the 2018 Olympic relay, Norway took gold, followed by Sweden and the Russian team. Finland was fourth. The only Norwegian from that gold-medal team racing in the relay on Saturday was Ragnhild Haga.
The Americans finished 1:28.2 behind the Russians. Jessie Diggins praised her U.S. teammates for their performance.
“Personally I’m really, really proud of this team,” Diggins said. “Every single one of these girls went out and skied so hard and skied gutsy races and we gave it everything we have. Some days that ends up being the results of your life and some days it doesn’t.”
Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway wins the biathlon sprint race
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway skied fast enough to overcome a missed target and win the Olympic gold medal in the biathlon sprint race Saturday.
Boe covered the 10-kilometer course in 24 minutes, 0.4 seconds to win his third medal of the Beijing Games. He also took gold in the mixed relay and bronze in the individual race.
Quentin Fillon Maillet of France also missed one target but couldn’t match Boe’s speed, finishing 25.5 seconds behind for silver. Fillon Maillet won gold in the individual and silver in the mixed relay — out-sprinted by Boe. He’s also the overall World Cup leader.
Tarjei Boe, also with a single miss on the day, took bronze, 38.9 seconds behind his younger brother. Maxim Tsvetkov of the Russian team shot clean but finished 40.6 seconds behind in fourth.
Sebastian Samuelsson of Sweden, the World Cup sprint leader, missed one target and finished fifth.
Boe dominated the sprint races for three seasons but has struggled this year. He won one sprint race in France and was third in another. His success at this year’s Olympics make him a favorite for the upcoming pursuit and mass-start races.
China’s Gao Tingyu wins men’s 500 meters in speedskating
BEIJING — Gao Tingyu thrilled the home crowd by becoming the first Chinese man to claim an Olympic gold medal in speedskating, winning the 500 meters on Saturday.
Gao added to the bronze medal he took in the 500 at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
Zhang Hong had been the only Chinese gold medalist at the oval. She won the women’s 1,000 eight years ago in Sochi.
Now, she’s got company.
Gao skated in the seventh of 15 pairs, setting an Olympic record of 34.32 seconds. Then he waited nervously on the infield as 16 other skaters took aim at his time.
None could beat it. Gao knew he had at least a medal after the next-to-last pair crossed the line.
But the real celebration began when the final group finished.
Gao was engulfed by his teammates and coaches. He then grabbed the red Chinese flag and sprinted around the inside of the track as the socially distanced fans roared their approval.
When he got next to the finish line, Gao stopped and let out a scream that could be heard throughout the only new venue built in Beijing for these pandemic-marred games.
The silver went to South Korea’s Cha Min Kyu, whose time of 34.39 gave him a matching medal to the one he earned four years ago in Pyeongchang.
Wataru Morishige of Japan took the bronze in 34.49.
Defending Olympic champion Haavard Lorentzen of Norway didn’t come close to repeating. He finished 15th in 34.921 — more than a half-second off his Olympic-record time of 34.41 at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
Reigning world champion Laurent Dubreuil just missed out on the podium, finishing fourth in 34.552. He shook his head dejectedly when he saw the time on the scoreboard.
The top American finisher was 17-year-old Jordan Stolz, who was 13th in 34.85.
Shaun White goes from Beijing to the Super Bowl
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Shaun White’s next big contest — the Super Bowl.
Less than 24 hours after snowboarding’s global icon took his final competitive halfpipe ride at the Olympics, he was bound for the airport. The destination: Los Angeles to watch his first Super Bowl in person.
White said his girlfriend, actress Nina Dobrev, has been suggesting he get busy making a list of things he wants to do in retirement “so I’m not sitting around twiddling my thumbs.”
“I’ve been to the house parties and stuff. Never been to the game, so I’m excited to check that off the list,” White said in a phone interview with the Associated Press, as he rode to Beijing on Saturday to catch a late-night flight.
After that, he’ll take some time to relax.
The build-up to his last contest, then the tear-stained aftermath of his fourth-place finish, have been an emotional roller coaster for the three-time champion.
“I woke up this morning and I just felt this peacefulness,” White said. “It was amazing to know I have so much ahead of me.”
White said his phone has been blowing up — all of it supportive. And though no single athlete has meant more to the sport of snowboarding than the 35-year-old Californian, he conceded he had been nervous about what kind of reaction he’d get.
“As a competitor, I always wanted to be on the podium and I didn’t know if people would still respect my legacy,” he said.
He put down a solid run to get into medal contention, but with a chance to move up one spot and land on the podium, his legs grew weak and he fell as he tried the second of back-to-back 1440s — one of the toughest combinations in the sport.
The less-than-perfect performance, his emotional reaction to it, and even his worries about what others would think — all of that revealed the softer side of White, who grew from “The Flying Tomato” to a multiplatform sports and business icon in front of the world’s eyes. The past week in the mountains above Beijing has triggered an outpouring of feelings along every step of the way.
Any second thoughts about his decision to hang it up?
“The initial competitive reaction was, ‘Oh, I almost had the podium and I want to come back and try that again,’” White said. “It’s one of the things that’s driven me to be one of the best in sports. But I think I’m going to enjoy this new lifestyle much better.”
Dobrev praised her boyfriend on social media, saying: “You will forever be the G.O.A.T. of snowboarding. Not to mention you are also the G.(B).O.A.T. = Greatest Boyfriend Of All Time.”
“I couldn’t be more proud. Of everything you have accomplished over the last 20 years as a competitor and the man you have become,” she wrote.
White’s next chapter will include a dive back into business.
He has combined with his brother, Jesse, to launch a new snowboard brand, Whitespace. He said a first run of snowboards sold out online in 15 minutes. White is also owner of a music-and-competition event, Air & Style, which could get fresh legs if COVID-19 subsides.
White said one of his realizations as he weighed whether to retire was that “instead of beating these guys out here, I want to start sponsoring them.”
He’s still figuring that part out. He said offering advice and helping a few young riders find their way in the sport is intriguing. A dip into coaching — at least in the way that his buddy and coach, 2002 bronze medalist J.J. Thomas, is doing it — might take a little longer.
“I would need time before I did something like that, and it would have to be a very special situation,” White said. “But definitely supporting in some capacity would be very enjoyable, I think.”
But before that, some rest.
Even for a megastar used to traveling the globe, the last four months have been a lot. There was a long stretch in Europe for training, which also led to the decision to retire.
There was a hectic swing through qualifying events, which were hampered by an ankle injury, a bout with COVID-19, a broken binding in one contest, then a quick unexpected trip to Switzerland to secure his spot on the team.
And then China. It was not an easy trip for anyone, and for White, it was made all the more hectic — and emotional — because the spotlight was shining on the final performance of his one-of-a-kind career.
“Advice I’ve got from others is ‘Just take a second,’” White said. “I just want to take a pause and really soak in this moment, everything I’ve done and earned and enjoyed, and then see what sparks my interest.”
U.S. defeats Canada in men’s hockey 4-2
BEIJING — Building their roster around college kids, while giving those kids enough freedom to be creative and enough structure to feel secure, paid off again with a victory for the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team.
A clever backhander by Brendan Brisson of Manhattan Beach and the University of Michigan held up as the winning goal Saturday as the U.S. defeated Canada 4-2 in preliminary-round play at National Indoor Stadium and improved to 2-0. Brisson, drafted 29th by the Vegas Golden Knights in 2020, is one of 15 college players on the U.S. roster. They’ve brought enthusiasm, energy and impressive skills to a team that’s coming together more cohesively than they might have imagined when the withdrawal of NHL players in December left little time to create and execute a Plan B.
“We have a really good coaching staff, and all the older guys have been really important to us so far, just teaching us things,” said Brisson, a former L.A. Junior King. “And it’s all about just dialing in, knowing where to be on the ice and just trusting the process.
“You grow up watching the Olympics and imagine scoring a goal and winning games here. It’s just been amazing so far.”
Mikaela Shiffrin clocks ninth-fastest time on first day of downhill training
BEIJING — Mikaela Shiffrin clocked the ninth-fastest time during the first day of women’s downhill training at the Yanqing National Alpine Center on Saturday.
She finished the Rock course in 1 minute, 34.80 seconds — 1.33 seconds off the pace of Switzerland’s Priska Nufer, who recorded the day’s top time.
Shiffrin placed ninth in the super-G on Friday after not finishing her first two races at the Winter Olympics. Another downhill training session is scheduled for Monday before the final Tuesday.
“I haven’t decided for sure,” Shiffrin said of the final. “Today gives me a bit more positivity. I would love to race this downhill, so that’s the plan.”
The U.S. is without its top medal threat in the event, Breezy Johnson, who is missing the Games after sustaining a knee injury during training last month.
Italy’s Sofia Goggia, the defending gold medalist in the downhill and top-ranked World Cup competitor in the event, was 12th in the training session. She is still recovering from a knee injury last month, leading to her skipping the super-G.
Jacobellis, Baumgartner win mixed team snowboard cross gold medal
BEIJING — In four Olympics, Nick Baumgartner was missing just one thing.
“One of these medals,” he said tearfully after a 10th-place finish in men’s snowboard cross on Thursday.
He finally got it two days later. The 40-year-old who is the oldest American snowboarder in Olympic history earned his first Olympic medal Saturday, taking gold with Lindsey Jacobellis in mixed team snowboard cross at Genting Snow Park.
Jacobellis, a five-time Olympian who finally earned her elusive gold medal this week, crossed the finish line first in the relay race-type event that was making its Olympic debut.
COVID isolation behind her, Elana Meyers Taylor is ready for monobob’s Olympic debut
BEIJING — Elana Meyers Taylor was ready. The three-time Olympic medalist who was elected by her peers to carry the United States flag during the opening ceremony pulled on a red, white and blue jacket, white pants, red boots and a blue beanie. The only thing missing from the bobsledder’s ensemble was the flag she was meant to carry.
That accessory was instead in the hands of Brittany Bowe and John Shuster.
Sitting inside an isolation hotel, Meyers Taylor missed the opening ceremony because of a positive coronavirus test. She said she couldn’t imagine a greater honor than being elected flag bearer, but she watched on television as Bowe, a speedskater who carried the flag with Shuster on Meyers Taylor’s behalf, lead U.S. athletes into Beijing National Stadium.
It was only the latest hurdle in the star bobsledder’s path to her fourth Olympics, but after learning to balance life as a new mother and elite athlete during a pandemic, the three-time medalist isn’t stopping for anything.
The 37-year-old is set to compete in the inaugural Olympic races of women’s monobob, which begin on Sunday at Yanqing National Sliding Center. Meyers Taylor, the reigning monobob World Cup winner, is a favorite to medal, along with rival-turned-teammate Kallie Humphries.
Nathan Chen’s path to Olympic gold wound through Southern California
The ice rink in Irvine, now a well-scraped path to the Olympics, seems frozen in time. Notecards wish Nathan Chen, a regular there, good luck and young skaters swivel to the beat of their coaches’ instructions.
Chen, 22, won a gold medal at the Olympics in Beijing a day earlier, cementing his spot as the top men’s figure skater in the world and the first U.S. man to win gold since 2010. It was a redemptive victory — Chen finished in fifth place at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics — that many of his coaches and family members were unsurprised by.
“Last Olympics, he was very technical already, very good in the artistic part,” said Vera Arutyunyan, one of Chen’s coaches, at the Great Park Ice rink where she was leading a handful of young skaters in practice on Thursday.
“He’s different now,” she said. “He’s more mature, he’s a real artist on the ice.”
Great Park Ice, a sprawling, warehouse-like complex the length of two football fields houses four rinks and is home to five Olympians currently at the Olympic Games. The facility, which opened in 2019, is nestled between a residential neighborhood and the massive Great Park outdoor recreation area, not far from the office towers and industrial parks of Irvine.
At around age 12, Chen, then a dedicated ice skater who got into the sport watching his siblings play hockey, convinced his mother that they should move to Southern California from their family home in Salt Lake City. He wanted to turbocharge his training by working with a renowned figure skating coach, Rafael Arutyunyan, now Chen’s main coach and husband of Vera.
In addition to Chen, U.S women’s figure skater Mariah Bell, Czech men’s skater Michal Brezina and U.S. pairs skaters Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier all train at the facility, under the tutelage of Rafael Arutyunyan and his team.
U.S. women’s hockey is through to quarters but struggling to convert scoring chances
BEIJING — A good goaltender can be a great equalizer. Members of the defending champion U.S. women’s hockey team were harshly reminded of that on Friday when they were repeatedly stymied by Czech goalie Klara Peslarova and needed a lucky deflection to rally from a second-period deficit against an Olympic newcomer.
A long shot by U.S. defenseman Lee Stecklein glanced off the stick of Czech forward Michaela Pejzlova and past Peslarova to break a tie at 6:49 of the third period, allowing the Americans to exhale and claw out a 4-1 victory at Wukesong Sports Centre. At no point was it easy: The Americans took 59 shots on goal but didn’t put it away until Savannah Harmon scored a rare power-play goal at 16:51 and team captain Kendall Coyne Schofield scored into an empty net with 5.6 seconds left.
“We had nothing to lose,” said Czech forward Denisa Krizova, who honed her skills at Northeastern University in Boston. “This is what we’ve dreamed of for a long time.
Olympic athletes deal with expectations, which leads to crushing pressure
BEIJING — The world’s most famous skier had kicked off her skis and dropped her poles. Sitting alone in the snow, she buried her head in her hands.
Other racers zipped past as the women’s slalom event at the Beijing Olympics continued. But Mikaela Shiffrin, who had skidded out of control and missed a gate near the top of the course, did not move. She remained off to the side for 20 minutes.
“There’s a lot of disappointment over the last week,” she said. “There’s a lot of emotions.”
In what will be an enduring if wrenching moment from these Games, her anguish over failing to finish, much less medal, in the second consecutive event in a little over 48 hours highlighted the unrelenting pressure athletes face at a global competition that comes around once every four years.
For some, the Games have become a suffocating crucible that drains much of the joy from the sport they love.
Netherlands’ Suzanne Schulting defends Olympic short track gold
BEIJING — Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands successfully defended her Olympic title in 1,000 short track speedskating Friday night.
She set the world and Olympic records of 1 minute, 26.514 seconds in the quarterfinals. She wasn’t as fast in the final, finishing in 1:28.391.
Schulting let out a scream and raised her right fist after crossing the finish line at Capital Indoor Stadium. She’s the second woman to defend an Olympic title in the 1,000 after Chun Lee-Kyung of South Korea did it at the 1998 Nagano Games.
“I really wanted it,“ said Schulting, who also won silver in the 500 meters. “I am so happy I got it.”
Choi Minjeong of South Korea took silver, crying on the side of the rink after the race. She finished fourth in 2018, the only time her country had missed the podium since the event’s debut in 1994.
Hanne Desmet of Belgium earned bronze, her country’s first short track medal at the Olympics.
“It means a lot for Belgium. We don’t get a lot of medals, especially for winter sport,” said Desmet, who was fifth in the 500.
Arianna Fontana of Italy was penalized for a lane change that caused contact with American Kristen Santos. Both skaters went down and slid on their sides into the padding.
Fontana was chasing an 11th career medal, having already earned two in Beijing. She’s the most decorated skater in Olympic short track.
Schulting won her semifinal and Santos won the other semifinal.
World Anti-Doping Agency will appeal decision to reinstate ROC skater Kamila Valieva
The World Anti-Doping Agency said Friday it plans to appeal the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s decision to lift a provisional suspension imposed on 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva after she tested positive for a banned substance during the Russian figure skating championships in late December.
The Russian agency, known as RUSADA, suspended Valieva after she tested positive for trimetazidine, which is prescribed for angina, or chest pain. Valieva requested a hearing with RUSADA’s disciplinary committee, held on Feb. 9 — after she had contributed two performances to the team gold medal won by the Russian Olympic Committee. The committee rescinded the suspension, freeing her to compete in the women’s singles event, which begins on Tuesday. Valieva has been considered the favorite to win the gold medal.
However, WADA joined the International Testing Agency in announcing they will appeal the RUSADA decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The ITA said in a statement it will lead the appeal on behalf of the International Olympic Committee.
“Under the terms of the World Anti-Doping Code, WADA has a right to appeal the decision to lift the provisional suspension before CAS and does so on the grounds that the Code has not been correctly applied in this case,” WADA said in a statement.
The medals for the team event have not yet been awarded. The U.S. finished second to the Russian Olympic Committee team, with Japan third and Canada fourth. If the Russian Olympic Committee team is disqualified, the teams that finished below them would each be bumped up by one place.
“The decision on the results of the ROC team in the Team Figure Skating event can be taken by the [International Skating Union] only after a final decision on the full merits of the case has been taken,” the ITA said in a statement. “The procedure, which is initiated currently, can only address the provisional suspension.”
The ITA also said that because the sample in question was collected before the Winter Olympics, the IOC does not have direct jurisdiction.
Marte Olsbu Roeiseland of Norway wins the biathlon sprint
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Marte Olsbu Roeiseland of Norway replicated her top form from throughout this season, using fast skiing and composed, deliberate shooting to become the Beijing Olympic biathlon sprint champion Friday.
Roeiseland, the overall World Cup leader and sprint leader, hit all 10 targets and finished the 7.5-kilometer race in 20 minutes, 44.3 seconds.
Sweden’s Elvira Oeberg, in her first Olympics, also shot clean and skied to silver, 30.9 seconds back. Her sister, Hanna, won a gold medal in the 2018 Olympics in the individual race. She finished 19th, 1:34.8 back in the sprint.
Dorothea Wierer of Italy came in 37.2 seconds behind Roeiseland, winning her first individual Olympic medal. She won bronze in the mixed-relay in the 2014 and 2018 Winter Games.
Temperatures for the sprint race hovered around minus-6 C (21F) — balmy compared with the minus-16 C (3.4F) last weekend. More important for the shooting, there was no wind.
The first five finishers, and 13 total, shot clean.
Nils van der Poel of Sweden sets world record in men’s 10,000-meter speedskating
BEIJING — Nils van der Poel of Sweden broke his own world record and captured his second gold medal of the Beijing Olympics with a dominant victory in men’s 10,000-meter speedskating Friday.
Van der Poel added to his victory in the 5,000, which was a much closer affair.
This time, it was just the outspoken 25-year-old vs. the clock.
Swinging both arms to build extra speed over his closing laps, Van der Poel crossed the line in 12 minutes, 30.74 seconds.
The Swede easily broke the world mark of 12:32.95 he set in February 2021 and was more than 9 seconds ahead of the Olympic record set four years ago by reigning champion Ted-Jan Bloemen of Canada.
The silver medal went to Patrick Roest of the Netherlands, the same spot he took behind Van der Poel in the 5,000, but this time he was nearly 14 seconds behind in 12:44.59.
The margin in the 5,000 was just 0.47 seconds.
Italy’s Davide Ghiotto, who skated in the next-to-last pair with Van der Poel, grabbed the bronze in 12:45.98, though he could barely see the champion up ahead.
Van der Poel’s victory came after he ripped the Dutch federation over a report that it was trying to influence ice makers at the oval to set up conditions that benefit its skaters.
While saying he had nothing against athletes from the Netherlands, Van der Poel called the report a sign of “corruption” that needed to be investigated by the IOC and the International Skating Union.
Dutch officials shrugged off the complaints.
Van der Poel is the only non-Dutch winner through the first six events at the oval.
Iivo Niskanen of Finland wins gold in the 15-kilometer cross country
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Iivo Niskanen of Finland won gold in the 15-kilometer cross country race at the Beijing Olympics on Friday to maintain his dominance in classic skiing.
Niskanen crossed the line and collapsed, spread eagle, with a time of 37 minutes, 54.8 seconds. It was his third Olympic gold. He won the 50km classic race in Pyeongchang and the classic team sprint at the 2014 Sochi Games.
Alexander Bolshunov of Russia came in 23.2 seconds back to earn silver, while Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo of Norway secured the bronze 37.5 seconds behind the Finn.
Both Bolshunov and Klaebo have won gold medals at the Beijing Olympics — Bolshunov in the skiathlon and Klaebo in the sprint.
Niskanen had a 28.8-second lead over Bolshunov at the 10.5-kilometer mark and was 52.5 seconds faster than Klaebo at that point in the race, and he held it to the finish.
Niskanen’s sister, Kerttu, won the silver medal Thursday in the women’s 10-kilometer classic race, finishing just .4 seconds behind Theresa Johaug of Norway.
Niskanen and Bolshunov had led the classic ski portion of the skiathlon, the opening cross-country race of the Beijing Olympics, but Bolshunov and Denis Spitzov skied away from Niskanen when the race switched to freestyle skiing. Spitzov took the silver and Niskanen bronze.
Bolshunov won four medals at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games but the skiathlon was his first Olympic gold.
Dario Cologna of Switzerland was aiming for his fourth consecutive Olympic title in the men’s 15km classic race but finished 44th, 3:45.1 behind Niskanen.
This year’s Olympic 15-kilometer (9.3-mile) cross-country race was in the classic ski style and covered two laps of the 7.5-kilometer course. The race alternates between classic and freestyle every Olympic cycle.
Cologna won the 15km freestyle race in Pyeongchang. Simen Hegstad Krueger, who won silver, is not in China due to COVID-19. Russian skier Denis Spitsov, who won silver in the Beijing skialthon, won bronze in the Pyeongchang 15km.
Cologna also was the 15km classic ski champion in Sochi in 2014. Johan Olsson and Daniel Rickardsson of Sweden won silver and bronze. Cologna also won in 2010.
U.S. women’s hockey defeats Czech Republic to advance to Olympic semifinals
BEIJING — The defending Olympic champion U.S. women’s hockey team held off an impressive quarterfinal challenge by the first-time Olympian Czech Republic on Friday, winning their quarterfinal 4-1 at Wukesong Sports Centre.
The Americans outshot the Czechs 59-6, but Czech goaltender Klara Peslarova was outstanding while keeping her underdog team in the game.
The U.S. women’s semifinal opponent is to be determined because teams are reseeded after the quarterfinal round, which continues through Saturday.
After heartbreak, Mikaela Shiffrin finds some satisfaction with ninth in super-G
BEIJING — In a normal time, Mikaela Shiffrin finishing a race wouldn’t be worth mentioning.
The world’s top female skier has piled up victories and gold medals and world championships with such regularity that the accomplishments became routine. She paired the success that appeared to come so easily — at least from the outside — with a thoughtful, vulnerable approach that is unusual for such a dominant athlete.
Shiffrin’s pursuit of medals in five individual events at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre was supposed to be one of the main attractions at the Winter Olympics.
Kamila Valieva’s Olympics fate to be determined at doping hearing
Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva’s right to compete in the women’s event at the Beijing Olympics will be decided at an urgent hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The International Testing Agency said Friday it will lead an appeal on behalf of the IOC against a decision by Russia’s anti-doping agency to lift a provisional ban — which Russian officials had imposed Tuesday — on the 15-year-old Valieva for failing a doping test in December.
Valieva is the heavy favorite in her event, which begins Tuesday after setting world record scores this season and landing the first quad jump by a women at an Olympics.
The ITA confirmed reports that Valieva tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine at the Russian national championships in St. Petersburg six weeks ago
The positive test was flagged by a laboratory in Sweden only on Tuesday — the day after Valieva helped the Russians win the team event and just hours before the medal ceremony, which was then postponed. Whether the Russians will lose their gold medal in the team event will be decided later.
The legal handling of Valieva’s case started with an immediate interim ban from the Beijing Olympics imposed by the Russian agency, known as RUSADA, which oversaw testing at the national championships.
On Wednesday, a RUSADA disciplinary panel upheld her appeal to overturn the skater’s interim ban.
The urgent hearing at CAS will only consider the question of the provisional ban at these games, said the ITA which is prosecuting on behalf of the IOC.
“The IOC will exercise its right to appeal and not to wait for the reasoned decision by RUSADA, because a decision is needed before the next competition the athlete is due to take part in,” the testing agency said.
Though Valieva is at the heart of the case, as a 15-year-old she has protections in the sports’ rule book — the World Anti-Doping Code. Under these guidelines she could ultimately receive just a simple reprimand.
The focus will turn on her entourage, such as coaches and team doctors, who face a mandatory investigation as “athlete support personnel” when a minor is implicated in doping rules violations.
Valieva looks likely to be disqualified from her Russian national title in December, but could still be cleared to compete in Beijing next week.
U.S. Ski and Snowboard investigating sexual harassment allegations against head coach
U.S. Ski and Snowboard is investigating allegations of sexual harassment that were levied against head coach Peter Foley by former team member Callan Chythlook-Sifsof, according to a story published on Friday by the website Outsports.com.
Chythlook-Sifsof alleged via Instagram that Foley had made inappropriate comments to her of a sexual nature while she was a minor. She also said he had taken photos of unclothed female athletes and that “other athletes have engaged in racist, misogynist behavior, actively participated in the strange dynamics that Peter Foley created and caused female athletes/staff to be victims of sexual violence.”
Shaun White finishes fourth as his prolific Olympic career comes to a close
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Shaun White lifted his helmet off, the red hair that made him famous much shorter than it once was. He waved his black helmet to the crowd, lifted his hand and nodded his head.
Awaiting his score that he knew he wouldn’t change the standings, White wiped a tear from the corner of his eye as fans cheered.
This is how it ends.
The snowboard legend finished fourth in the snowboarding halfpipe final on Friday at Genting Snow Park in the last competition of his storied career. The 35-year-old dropped in for his final run in fourth place with a chance to overtake Switzerland’s Jan Scherrer for the bronze medal. Instead, White fell on his second hit.
Nathan Chen’s sense of purpose, and great skating, made him destined for gold
BEIJING — Nathan Chen’s figure skating talent was apparent at a precocious age, surfacing quickly after he followed his hockey-playing older brothers out to the ice and realized he enjoyed the tickling breeze on his face and the problem-solving satisfaction of conquering a tricky jump or intricate spin. His resolve was obvious at an early age, too, never wavering despite his occasional bruised knee or bruised ego.
That unshakable sense of purpose was a key reason he commanded the ice this week and became an Olympic champion, the seventh American man to win an Olympic singles figure skating gold medal. It was the eighth gold medal won by American male singles skaters, including those that Dick Button won in 1948 and 1952. In addition, seven American women have won Olympic singles gold medals.
Clearly, Chen is in rare and exalted company.
“I actually didn’t know it was that few. That’s amazing,” he said on Thursday, after he landed five quadruple jumps in his Elton John-themed free skate performance and defeated Yuma Kagiyama of Japan by a staggering 332.60 points to 310.05.
Germany wins gold in luge relay
Germany has swept the gold medals in luge’s four events at the Beijing Games.
The Germans won the team relay Thursday night, holding off Austria and Latvia for the victory. Natalie Geisenberger won the women’s gold, Johannes Ludwig the men’s gold, and Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt the doubles gold. They then teamed up to take the relay by less than one-tenth of a second over Austria.
The U.S. was seventh, with the team of Chris Mazdzer, Ashley Farquharson and the doubles sled of Zack DiGregorio and Sean Hollander.
Germany has now won 11 luge gold medals in 12 events over the last three Winter Olympics.
Netherlands’ Irene Schouten completes sweep of speedskating distance events
Irene Schouten of the Netherlands has completed a speedskating sweep of the women’s distance events at the Beijing Games, setting another Olympic record with a victory in the 5,000 meters.
Schouten also won the 3,000 on Saturday, setting an Olympic mark on the opening day of speedskating at the Ice Ribbon oval.
She was even more dominant Thursday in the longest women’s race with a winning time of 6 minutes, 43.51 seconds. That broke the 20-year-old Olympic mark held by Germany’s Claudia Pechstein.
No one else was even close. Schouten finished 4.67 seconds ahead of silver medalist Isabelle Weidemann of Canada, while the bronze went to Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic.
It was the seventh career medal for Sablikova, making her the most decorated Czech Olympic athlete. She had been tied with cross-country skier Katerina Neumannova.
Sablikova had been the most recent skater to pull off the 3,000/5,000 double, at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Schouten is the sixth skater to win both events.
U.S. upsets China for gold in mixed team aerials
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Justin Schoenefeld stood at the top of the aerials course at Genting Snow Park with simple instructions. All we have to do, his coach said, is land.
“I can do that,” Schoenefeld responded.
In a twisting blur of red, white and blue, the 23-year-old clinched the inaugural Olympic gold medal in mixed team aerials for the United States on Thursday, helping the Americans upset the favored Chinese team with an aggressive, high-risk strategy.
Schoenefeld, Ashley Caldwell and Christopher Lillis went for the most difficulty in the competition, and the gamble paid off with the United States’ third gold medal of the day and fourth of the Beijing Games.
China, which had won both team aerial World Cup events this season, settled for the silver medal, and Canada won bronze.
Canadian Miha Fontaine said his team’s plan was to play conservatively during the mixed event, saving their biggest tricks for individual competitions. But the United States, which hadn’t won gold in aerial freestyle skiing since 1998, wasn’t happy just shooting for any spot on the podium.
“This team’s goal was gold medal all the way,” Lillis said, emphasizing Schoenefeld’s consistency and Caldwell’s status as one of a few women in the world who could throw a triple twist. “We had that capability … I would say that we maybe took a more aggressive approach, but really I think we just competed at this team’s capability, and that’s what we expect of ourselves going forward.”
Lillis put the United States in the lead with the most difficult trick of the day, throwing a back double full-full-double-full. What seems like gibberish amounted to three flips, five twists and a sky-high 5.0 difficulty degree. With a clean landing, Lillis earned 135 points, the highest score of the competition. Caldwell jumped into Lillis’ arms when he landed the skill.
A mistake from China’s Jia Zongyang right after Lillis’ run left the door open for the United States. Jia, the 2018 Olympic silver medalist, missed his landing and jumped into a forward roll instead of riding cleanly down the hill. He let out an anguished scream as the mistake turned a 17-point Chinese lead into a 21-point deficit.
When Schoenefeld delivered a clean jump for 114.48, China needed 136.29 points to pass the United States for gold. Qi Guangpu could only muster 122.17.
“Doing this with two of my best friends and Ashley, my girlfriend, is incredible,” Schoenefeld said. “I feel like an Olympic champion.”
Caldwell scored 88.86 in the second final after her score of 104.31 was the highest for any female competitor in the first final. After going to the Olympics at 16 as the youngest American in Vancouver, the 28-year-old four-time Olympian finally won her first medal.
“I’ve always felt like a top-level competitor, jumper, and I proved it today alongside Justin and Chris,” Caldwell said. “It feels surreal. This is a dream come true.”
Defined by controversy abroad, Beijing Olympics spur pride at home
BEIJING — The international political disputes and human rights concerns surrounding the Beijing Winter Olympics have not bothered the Chinese, who have been closely following their favorite athletes, copping near-impossible event tickets and scouring stores for dwindling merchandise of the popular Olympic mascot, Bing Dwen Dwen.
Strict COVID-19 protocols have limited access to ceremonies and competitions and muted the excitement and economic boost the Olympics usually draw. Despite the unusual circumstances, Chinese fans watching from home have reacted with pride to the nation’s theatrical performances and athletic showing — the country has so far won five medals, including a gold by Eileen Gu, an American-born freestyle skier with a Chinese mother.
But some, like Karri Wang, a 30-year-old cryptocurrency and equity investor who started snowboarding four years ago, believe they’ve missed the rare chance of being in the stands to watch the Games. As the pandemic dragged on, it became clear that getting into the closed loop of tightly regulated venues or obtaining a limited-release ticket would be out of reach for most.
“If I didn’t have a day job, I’d definitely be in the bubble,” said Wang, a sentiment that he added was shared by friends in his snowboarding club. “We really want to be there, to be honest, regardless of the price.”
The event has given Beijing the distinction of being the only city to host both the Summer and Winter games. Though last week’s opening ceremony was less of a blockbuster spectacle than the one that kicked off the 2008 Summer Olympics, it inspired enthusiasm and emotional reactions from viewers online, who saw it as a tribute to China’s unique beauty.
Sweden beats U.S. in men’s curling
BEIJING — In a rematch of the Pyeongchang gold medal match, Sweden beat John Shuster’s foursome 7-4 on Thursday to take an early lead in the round-robin standings and hand the defending champions their first loss of the Beijing Games.
The result left the Americans hoping for a rematch against Niklas Edin’s foursome, which could happen only if they both qualify for the playoffs.
“I can’t think of very many Olympics or world championships where Niklas isn’t somewhere hanging around at the end of the week,” said Chris Plys, a newcomer to Shuster’s team since Pyeongchang. “We hope to be there with them and I’d love to get another crack at them, for sure.”
Four years after Team Shuster won five straight elimination games — including a victory over Edin that clinched the first U.S. gold medal in Olympic curling history — it was the Swedes celebrating.
Trailing 7-4 in the 10th and final end, Shuster conceded after Edin left the Americans with just one stone in the target area and just one more to play.
The Swedes improved to 2-0 in Beijing and the defending champions fell to 1-1. Edin also took a 5-4 edge against Shuster dating to the 2018 gold medal match.
“We play them tons of times. It’s always close battles, always good games,” Edin said. “So we knew was going to be a big one — both our teams are playoff contenders — so winning this is big.”
In other results from men’s play on Thursday, the Russian team beat China 7-4 in nine ends, Canada edged Norway 6-5 and Britain beat Italy 7-5.
Women’s play opened Thursday morning with Tabitha Peterson’s American team beating the Russian team 9-3 in seven ends.
The other women’s matches saw defending champion Sweden beat Japan 8-5, Britain beat Switzerland 6-5 in extra ends and Denmark beat China 7-6.
Mikaela Shiffrin will compete in the super-G
BEIJING — Mikaela Shiffrin will compete in the super-G on Friday, a U.S. Alpine spokesperson confirmed.
Shiffrin, ranked eighth in the world in the super-G this season, has experienced a difficult start to the Winter Olympics. She skied out in the first run of the giant slalom Monday — the event where she won a gold medal four years ago at the Pyeongchang Olympics — then skied out again in the first run of the slalom Wednesday. It was a shocking debut for the world’s top-ranked female skier who could have challenged for medals in five individual events.
“As disappointed as I feel and as much as I’m feeling right now, there is so much to be optimistic about,” Shiffrin said after the slalom. “It’s just that there feels like there is a lot to be disappointed about right now.”
The setback had opened questions about what the remainder of her program would look like at the Games.
In addition to the super-G, Shiffrin could still enter the downhill and combined plus the mixed team parallel event.
Another gold medal for Therese Johaug
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Therese Johaug’s appetite for Olympic gold medals was satisfied again Thursday.
The Norwegian great added another title to her tally by winning the 10-kilometer classic race five days after winning the first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics.
Johaug glided around the cold, windy course in 28 minutes, 6.3 seconds. As she watched others come in with slower times, realizing the gold was hers, she shouted and howled, throwing her head back and pumping her arms in the air.
Kerttu Niskanen of Finland was ahead of Johaug at the 8.6-kilometer mark but crossed the finish line .4 seconds behind. Krista Parmakoski of Finland earned bronze, 31.5 seconds behind.
After winning the skiathlon on Saturday, the first gold medal awarded at the 2022 Games, Johaug said “when you have tasted this gold medal, you want more.”
This year’s Olympic 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) cross-country race was in the classic ski style. The race alternates between classic and freestyle every Olympic cycle.
Ragnhild Haga of Norway won gold at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games by skiing freestyle. She was a late addition to the Norwegian team for this year’s Olympics after a teammate tested positive for COVID-19, but didn’t race Thursday.
The last time the 10K race was classic was at the 2014 Sochi Games. Johaug took bronze in that race behind gold medalist Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland and silver medalist Charlotte Kalla of Sweden.
Alessandro Haemmerle of Austria wins men’s snowboardcross gold
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Alessandro Haemmerle of Austria held off Eliot Grondin of Canada in a photo finish to win the Olympic men’s snowboardcross at Genting Snow Park on Thursday.
The 20-year-old Grondin made it close by almost diving toward the finish line with his board. It wasn’t enough to overtake Haemmerle, who took home a medal — gold at that — in his third Olympics. Omar Visintin of Italy earned the bronze.
This was the first men’s Olympic snowboardcross final not won by either Seth Wescott (2006, ’10) or Pierre Vaultier (’14, ’18). The retired racers cleared the stage for Haemmerle, a three-time snowboardcross crystal globe winner.
Snowboardcross is an Olympic event where four riders simultaneously fly down the same course full of jumps, banked turns and other features. It’s rough and filled with spills. The riders were seeded based on a time trial and then took part in a bracketed tournament, with the top two advancing through to the next round until the final.
Jake Vedder wound up sixth — second place in the small final — as a late injury replacement for the United States. He took the spot of Alex Deibold, who suffered a head injury in a crash during qualifying at a World Cup event leading up to the Olympics and couldn’t compete.
Johannes Strolz wins gold in Alpine combined
BEIJING — Just like his father did more than three decades ago, Austrian skier Johannes Strolz won the Olympic gold medal on Thursday in the Alpine combined race.
The 29-year-old Strolz, who has only ever won one World Cup slalom, was fourth fastest after the downhill run. But he was half a second quicker than anyone else in the slalom, helping him edge first-run leader Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway by 0.58 seconds.
The combined adds the times from one downhill run and one slalom run.
Strolz’s father, Hubert, won gold in combined at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Hubert Strolz also won silver in the giant slalom that year.
Jack Crawford of Canada finished third, 0.68 behind Strolz and 0.09 behind Kilde. World champion Marco Schwarz of Austria was fifth, just behind Swiss rival Justin Murisier.
Kilde won his second medal of the Beijing Games. He also took bronze in the super-G on Tuesday.
One of the favorites for the race, Alexis Pinturault, had a disappointing first run and then fell in the slalom.
The Frenchman won silver in the combined at the 2021 word championships — where he was defending his title — and at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. He had failed to finish four of six slalom races in the World Cup this season.
Another pre-race favorite, Loic Meillard of Switzerland, had an error in the downhill but managed to stay on the course. He failed to finish the second run after straddling a gate.
Thursday’s race had only 27 total entrants, compared to 43 for the downhill and 47 for the super-G earlier in the week. It’s the first time in Olympic history that the event is taking place without at least one American racer.
The downhill run had to be delayed for about 10 minutes when Yannick Chabloz crashed and was taken away in a sled. The Swiss skier tumbled into a barrier and then slid down part of the mountain.
Sweden defeats Latvia in men’s hockey
BEIJING — Former NHL forwards Lucas Wallmark and Anton Lander scored to help Sweden beat Latvia 3-2 on Thursday in each team’s opener at the Olympic men’s hockey tournament.
Wallmark had a goal at even strength and another on the power play. He was also in the penalty box for two Latvia goals that made the score closer than the play on the ice, which was dominated by Sweden for the first two periods.
“We played pretty solid, I think, for 40 minutes,” said Wallmark, who played in 204 NHL games with Carolina, Chicago and Florida. “We were getting a little bit small in the third, but overall it’s nice to get the ‘W’ and start in the right direction and we have something to build on.”
Outshooting Latvia 26-17 and winning in regulation, Sweden avoided the kind of loss the Czechs experienced Wednesday night, outshooting Olympic newcomer Denmark 40-17 but losing 2-1.
The game took place several hours before the United States opens against China, which has several American players who naturalized to represent the host country. Boston University’s Drew Commesso, a Blackhawks prospect, is expected to start and become the youngest U.S. goaltender to play in the Olympics.
Restrictive coronavirus countermeasures seem to be working at Olympics
The coronavirus mitigation measures at the Winter Olympics can be invasive and baffling — but they appear to be working.
Organizers reported nine new coronavirus cases Thursday, the third consecutive day that positive tests have been in the single digits.
The numbers represent a steep drop from the single-day high of 55 new cases recorded last week amid a flurry of pre-Games arrivals.
Since Jan. 23, organizers have reported 407 cases among the athletes, team officials, media and others inside the bubble separated from the rest of Chinese society where the Olympics are being held.
“We are now seeing more people coming out of isolation than going into isolation,” said Brian McCloskey, chairman of the expert medical panel for the Games. “We like that but it does not mean we are comfortable because we can never be comfortable with coronavirus.”
Nathan Chen fulfills his Olympic dream by winning figure skating gold
BEIJING — Twenty years after a young Nathan Chen watched the figure skating competition at his hometown Salt Lake City Olympics and decided he wanted to be like them, a virtuoso Chen became an Olympic gold medalist.
Chen, who trains at Great Park Ice in Irvine, on Thursday blended the power and musicality that have made him a world champion three times and took them to the next level to become the eighth American man to win a figure skating singles gold medal. Chen retained the lead he had built with his short program by performing an animated and accomplished free skate to an Elton John medley, finishing with 332.60 points and living out the dream he had kept close to his heart since 2002.
That dream had eluded him four years ago in Pyeongchang, where a mistake-filled effort consigned him to 17th after the short program and only a superhuman free skate elevated him to fifth. This time, he was surefooted and unbeatable at Capital Indoor Stadium as he ended the reign of two-time Olympic gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan.
Chloe Kim successfully defends Olympic title, wins gold in snowboard halfpipe
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — A final fall, a shrug and a gold medal. All in a casual day’s work for Chloe Kim.
Four years after becoming the youngest woman to win Olympic gold in snowboarding, Kim became the first woman to win two gold medals in snowboard halfpipe Thursday at Genting Snow Park. When many of her fellow American stars have fallen short of gold medal expectation during these Games, Kim lapped her competition, throwing down an untouchable score in the first run and falling on her final two runs when she attempted to debut never-before-seen combinations. Dropping in last with the gold medal already secured, Kim launched herself off the halfpipe wall in an attempt to land a cab 1260 — three and a half spins — but sat down the trick.
Kim sheepishly raised both arms in the air as she rode to the bottom of the halfpipe.
Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva reportedly tests positive for banned medication
BEIJING — Fifteen-year-old figure skating sensation Kamila Valieva, who became the first woman to land a quadruple jump in the Olympics while leading the Russian Olympic Committee to a gold medal in the team event this week, tested positive for a banned heart medication in December, according to a report Thursday in the Russian newspaper RBC.
The drug, trimetazidine, is used to treat angina and is on the list of drugs prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency. It’s not known if Valieva has a heart problem. WADA can issue therapeutic use exemptions to athletes who are required to treat an injury or illness with a substance or treatment method that is on the agency’s banned list, but it’s unclear if she applied for such an exemption.
The positive test result could lead to a forfeiture of the team medal and jeopardize Valieva’s participation in the women’s singles competition, which she was favored to win. The U.S. finished second in the team event, with Japan third and Canada fourth. Each of those teams would move up a spot if the ROC team’s medal is stripped.
The ceremony to award the team event medals was canceled without explanation on Tuesday. Mark Adams, a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee, said on Wednesday a “legal issue” was delaying the ceremony. “We have athletes that have won medals involved,” he said.
Because Valieva is not yet 16, she can’t be officially identified if she is guilty of a doping violation, according to the World Anti-Doping Code.
Athletes from Russia are competing in Beijing as “neutrals” and their affiliation is the Russian Olympic Committee. Russia itself was banned from international competition for four years in 2019 after WADA determined it had operated a state-run doping scheme and tried to cover up its offenses.
The uncertainty over Valieva’s status on Thursday overshadowed the men’s singles final, normally one of the premier events of the Winter Games. Nathan Chen led after the short program, but two-time champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan was planning to attempt an unprecedented quadruple axel jump to earn enough points to lift him from eighth place and into medal contention.
Mikaela Shiffrin fails to finish second straight slalom race at Olympics
BEIJING —On a lonely stretch of snow next to orange safety netting that lines the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre, Mikaela Shiffrin searched for the answer.
The world’s best female skier sat on the side of the steep course known as the Ice River, head buried in her arms, skis and poles discarded nearby, and wondered how the Winter Olympics had gone so wrong.
She had been cast as one of the faces of the Games, featured in television commercials and on magazine covers, as cameras focused on her chase for medals in five individual events.
Instead, heartbreak has followed heartbreak.
On Wednesday, two days after Shiffrin started the Games with a shocking “did not finish” in the giant slalom that she didn’t think she would ever get over, she returned to the mountain for redemption. But she skied out seconds into the first run of the slalom, abruptly ending medal hopes in her signature event.
“When there is pressure and there’s some nerves and the feeling that I want to do well, I always just go back to that fundamental idea that good skiing will be there for me,” Shiffrin said, fighting through tears. “So, it’s not the end of the world and it’s so stupid to care this much, but I feel that I have to question a lot now.”
Lindsey Jacobellis erases memories of Torino with snowboard gold
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Go ahead. Keep talking about 2006.
Lindsey Jacobellis was on the second-to-last jump in the Olympic snowboard cross final when she decided to spice things up. Rather than taking her considerable lead to the finish, she decided to do a needless backside air, but instead she fell. By the time she recovered, her gold had turned to silver. And that’s exactly what got her here, on top of an Olympic podium 5,000 miles away from Torino, Italy.
The 36-year-old five-time Olympian finally added the elusive Olympic gold medal to her overflowing trophy case with a snowboard cross victory at Genting Snow Park on Wednesday, redeeming herself for a 16-year-old gaffe that she never seemed to escape.
Teammates rejoiced at the bottom of the run, shrieking as Jacobellis squatted low to the ground to cross the finish line in front of Chloe Trespeuch of France and Canada’s Meryeta O’Dine, who took silver and bronze, respectively. Australian Belle Brockhoff finished fourth in the final race.
Already sporting a wide grin while charging through the final feet of the course, Jacobellis clutched her hands to her chest after the finish.
“It just seemed like an unbelievable moment,” she said. “It didn’t seem real at the time.”
Germany wins more luge gold, this time in doubles
Germany is making the Olympic luge competition its own national showcase once again.
Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt won the doubles title at the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday night, their third consecutive gold medal in the event.
They finished two runs in 1 minute, 56.653 seconds, holding off fellow Germans Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken by 0.099 seconds.
Austria’s Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller survived a wobble just before the finish line to get the bronze.
Zack DiGregorio and Sean Hollander were 11th for the U.S. in their Olympic debut.
Germany is now three for three in luge gold medals at these Games and will try to sweep the events when the team relay is contested Thursday night.
South Korea’s Hwang Daeheon wins 1,500 in short track speedskating
South Korea’s Hwang Daeheon has won the 1,500 meters in Olympic short track speedskating.
Hwang stuck his skate in front at the tight finish of the 10-man final Wednesday night at the Capital Indoor Stadium.
Steven Dubois of Canada took silver. Semen Elistratov of the Russian Olympic Committee earned bronze.
There were so many skaters in the final that six lined up on the start and the other four were in back. The pack circling the rink looked more like a relay than an individual final.
Liu Shaoang of Hungary finished fourth. His brother, Liu Shaolin Sandor, was sixth.
Germany’s Vinzenz Geiger wins Nordic combined gold
Germany’s Vinzenz Geiger has won a Nordic combined gold, rallying from a 1-minute, 26-second deficit to cross the finish line first in a 10K cross-country race after ranking 11th in ski jumping earlier in the day.
Joergen Graabak of Norway earned silver Wednesday night, and Lukas Greiderer of Austria took bronze.
Japan’s Ryota Yamamoto jumped 108 meters (354 feet) and had 133 points in the first part of the event, giving him a 38-second lead over the pack, but he faded from contention halfway through the cross-country race.
In the sport that forces athletes to have ski jumping and cross-country skiing skills, the athlete who jumps the farthest and impresses judges the most gets to start the cross-country portion with a lead. The rest of the field follows, in order of their finish in ski jumping. The first to cross the finish line wins gold.
‘He’s the most clutch guy ever’: Shaun White qualifies for halfpipe final
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — U.S. half-piper Lucas Foster couldn’t even entertain the idea when a reporter asked him about the possibility that the most famous man in snowboarding wouldn’t make an Olympic final.
This was Shaun White after all.
Foster’s confidence was rewarded when White delivered a classic clutch second run to send him through to the final of the men’s snowboard halfpipe at Genting Snow Park. After he fell on his signature Double McTwist in the first attempt, White attacked his second run for a score of 86.25 that qualified fourth. No scores carry over to the final.
The 35-year-old was the top American in Wednesday’s qualifiers, leading the way for Taylor Gold, who qualified eighth and Chase Josey, who snuck into the 12-man final in the last position on the last run of the day. Foster, a first-time Olympian, finished 17th.
White was in a precarious position needing to hit his second run to make the final. He dropped to 23rd out of 25 riders with many of the top competitors having already completed their runs. His teammates never had a doubt.
“He’s the most clutch guy ever,” said Gold, who finished 14th in the Sochi Olympics, but suffered a broken kneecap in 2016 that derailed his career for four years.
Mexico’s Donovan Carrillo is giving Latin America hope and excitement in ice skating
Donovan Carrillo might have been in Beijing, but his image was all over Mexico on Tuesday morning.
There he was smiling as he knelt on the ice in a full-page photo behind the headline ¡Mágico! in the Mexico City daily Reforma. “His Dream Comes True” shouted El Norte, Monterrey’s leading newspaper, alongside a photo of a smiling Carrillo gliding across the ice. “Makes History” said the tabloid Esto below a cover photo of — what else? — a smiling Carrillo, balancing on one skate on the ice at the Winter Olympics.
The Mexican media hasn’t featured that much ice since Disney’s “Frozen” opened in the country nearly a decade ago. But then when you’re a big underdog on a global stage, the whole world cheers for you.
And few winter athletes came to Beijing as bigger underdogs than Carrillo, 22, who made history Monday by becoming the first Latin American male skater to advance to the free skate in an Olympic Games.
Fifth time is golden for Lindsey Jacobellis
ZHANGJIAKOU, China – Finally.
In her fifth Olympics, Lindsey Jacobellis added the elusive Olympic gold medal to her overflowing trophy case with a snowboard cross victory at Genting Snow Park on Wednesday. The 36-year-old five-time Olympian has 31 World cup victories, 10 X Games gold medals and six world championship gold medals, but before her wire-to-wire win in the big final Wednesday, her only Olympic medal was silver from 2006.
Teammates rejoiced at the bottom of the run, shrieking as Jacobellis squatted low to the ground to cross the finish line in front of Canada’s Meryeta Odine and Chloe Trespeuch of France. Australian Belle Brockhoff finished fourth.
Already sporting a wide grin on her face in the final feet of the course, Jacobellis put her hands to her chest after the finish.
The victory comes 16 years after a last-second mistake cost her a dream Olympic debut. Jacobellis led for almost the entire final in Torino but on the second to last jump, pulled off a backside air. The flourish backfired when she lost her balance and fell. In 2010 and 2014, she failed to even make the final, and in Pyeongchang, an early lead turned into a fourth-place finish as she was only 0.03 seconds from winning bronze.
Jacobellis’ victory gave the United States its first gold medal of the Beijing Games.
For the last time, Shaun White qualifies for the halfpipe final
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — He’s not done yet.
Shaun White lived up to his legacy by delivering a clutch second run in qualifying for the men’s snowboard halfpipe on Wednesday, advancing to Thursday’s final in fourth with 86.25 points.
His three runs in the final at Genting Snow Park will be his final rides of his illustrious career. The five-time Olympian and three-time halfpipe gold medalist announced before the competition that the Olympics would be his final contest.
Two-time silver medalist Ayumu Hirano qualified in first and is in position to earn his first Olympic gold. The Japanese star could unleash a triple cork during the finals after he became the first man to land one in a halfpipe during competition last year.
In his Olympic return after finishing 14th in Sochi, Taylor Gold qualified with a seventh with an 83.50 on his second run.
Following White’s timely second run, Chase Josey took the final qualifying spot with the last run of the day after falling on his first run.
Lucas Foster, a 22-year-old who had never even competed in a world championship before his Olympic debut, finished 17th. A violent crash on the fourth trick of his second run derailed a promising effort, but the first-time Olympian was able to ride down after landing on the lip of the halfpipe.
White crashed on his first run, sitting down on his signature Double McTwist. Left to chase the top competitors in the second round, White stomped a five-trick run and whipped a single finger through the air in celebration. When his score appeared on the screen, White pumped his fist with a determined grimace on his face.
Team figure skating medal ceremony canceled without explanation
BEIJING — A ceremony to present the medals won in the team figure skating competition was canceled without explanation on Tuesday while the International Skating Union looked into an “emerging issue,” Mark Adams, a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee, said on Wednesday.
The Russian Olympic Committee won the gold medal, with the U.S. taking silver and Japan taking bronze. It was the best U.S. showing in the team event, which was added to the Olympic program in the 2014 Sochi Games.
Speaking during the IOC’s daily briefing, Adams said the situation “requires legal consultation with the ISU.” He said he couldn’t elaborate but said he expected to have an update later Wednesday Beijing time. “We have athletes that have won medals involved....Legal issues can sometimes drag on.”
Canada finished fourth in the event and China finished fifth.
Six years after near fatal car crash, Colby Stevenson wins silver in freeski big air
Six years ago, doctors didn’t even know if Colby Stevenson would walk out of the hospital. The freestyle skier underwent two surgeries after a car crash left him with a fractured skull, eye socket, jaw and neck.
On Wednesday, he was skiing down a 534-foot ramp and launching himself toward an Olympic silver medal.
Stevenson finished second in freeski big air on at Beijing’s Big Air Shougang by landing a switch 1800 on his third run. His score of 183.00, which combined a 1620 in the second run, gave the 24-year-old his first Olympic medal and the United States’ seventh of these Games.
Stevenson, who was in a medically induced coma for several days and needed a titanium plate in his skull after the accident, still has a scar on his forehead. The faded mark snakes down between his eyebrows.
“Coming back took a lot of just focusing on little things in life and realizing that just getting to ski is such an amazing opportunity,” Stevenson said before the competition. “I basically took that mindset into competing and, instead of going out there trying to make money to just pay for the travel and stuff, was doing it more for the love of the sport and just enjoying these amazing places we get to travel to.”
Norway’s Birk Rudd, who landed a 1980 in his first run, took gold with a 187.75, and Sweden’s Henrik Harlaut won bronze with 181 points.
Alex Hall, who landed a double cork 2160 to win the X Games in January, attempted the historic trick with his third run, but crashed and settled for eighth. Mac Forehand finished 11th.
Two-time gold medalist Jamie Anderson ‘just straight up couldn’t handle the pressure’ during slopestyle
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — After finishing ninth in snowboard slopestyle last week, Jamie Anderson disappeared quickly. The two-time defending gold medalist did a cursory interview with TV but escaped before talking to reporters in the mixed zone. Four days later, the 31-year-old spoke on social media.
“Reality sinking in,” Anderson posted in an Instagram story Wednesday morning in which she thanked fans for their support. “This s— is a rollercoaster of emotions.
“At the end of the day, I just straight up couldn’t handle the pressure … had an emotional break down the night before finals and my mental health and clarity just hasn’t been on par. Looking forward to some time off and self care. After big air of course.”
Like all slopestyle athletes, Anderson is scheduled to compete in snowboard big air, which will begin qualifying on Feb. 14 at Beijing’s Big Air Shougang. Anderson won a silver medal in the event in 2018.
Anderson fell on all three of her finals runs, missing the podium for the first time in her Olympic career. Instead, the United States was represented on the medal stand by Julia Marino, who won the country’s first medal of these Games with a silver. New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski Synnott won gold and Tess Coady of Australia took bronze.
Shaun White’s run as greatest snowboarder ever is coming to an end
BEIJING — By the end of the day, his body ached all over. His ankle and back, a knee still sore from surgery. Shaun White was feeling every bit of 35 years old, worn down from a lifetime spent attacking the halfpipe, launching himself skyward, spinning and twisting and landing hard.
Riding a chairlift on a mountain in Austria, he saw the truth of it.
“The mountain was closing down and no one was around,” White recalls. “I was watching the sun go down and it just hit me. I was like ‘This is it. These are the signs.’”
The men’s halfpipe contest at the Beijing Olympics will be his last, he says. If so, it will mark the end of an era, an unmatched career that has spanned three gold medals and a record 13 X Games titles, making White the greatest competitive snowboarder ever.
Maybe the greatest American athlete in the history of the Winter Games.
“My riding speaks for itself,” he says when asked about this legacy. “I’ve always been trying to push and progress and do the next biggest thing … be ahead of the curve.”
Medals cannot tell the whole story. As snowboarding’s first crossover star, “the Flying Tomato” cut a striking figure with all that flowing red hair and millions upon millions in endorsements. His signature Double McTwist 1260 was one of many innovations he brought to the sport.
Chloe Kim cruises through halfpipe qualifiers
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — This is still Chloe Kim’s halfpipe to rule.
Four years after she threw down back-to-back 1080s in a gold medal victory run in Pyeongchang, Kim is still lapping the field in women’s snowboard halfpipe. The 21-year-old qualified in first Wednesday for Thursday’s finals at Genting Snow Park with a score of 87.75. The Torrance native will defend her Olympic gold medal in the 12-woman final at 9:30 a.m. Thursday (5:30 p.m. PST on Wednesday).
Fellow Americans Maddie Mastro, Tessa Maud and Zoe Kalapos missed the qualifying cut, finishing 13th, 16th and 17th, respectively.
The next closest qualifier to Kim was Japan’s Mitsuki Ono, whose best run earned an 83.75. Japan sent three riders into the final, tied with China for the most for any country. Sena and Ruki Tomita qualified fifth and sixth to join Ono while China’s Cai Xuetong, who entered the competition as the top-ranked snowboarder in the world, qualified third with an 82.25 after falling on her second run. Cai’s teammates Liu Jiayu and Qiu Leng qualified in seventh and 12th, respectively.
Kim, who entered the Games with six straight victories after her return to the sport, was conservative and clean on the first run, notching a solid 87.75. Although Kim became the first woman to land a cab 1260 in a halfpipe in a 2021 training session, she kept it tame on a five-trick first run highlighted by a cab 900. She fell on her second trick of her second run and bypassed reporters in the mixed zone.
Mastro, who finished 12th at the Pyeongchang Games, also did not speak to reporters after qualification. She entered her second run in the precarious 11th place spot but was unable to upgrade her first score of 65.75 after settling for two backside airs. After dropping in fifth, Mastro was knocked down to 12th by Qiu and fell out of the final when Canada’s Elizabeth Hosking, who dropped in 20th, moved into ninth with a 70.50.
Two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin out of the slalom in first run
BEIJING — It happened again.
Two days after the Winter Olympics started with a shocking “did not finish” in the giant slalom for Mikaela Shiffrin, she returned to the Yanqing National Alpine Centre looking for redemption.
Instead, the world’s best female skier ended up with more heartbreak.
Shiffrin skied out seconds into the first run of the slalom Wednesday, abruptly ending medal hopes in her signature event. She sat next to orange safety netting, head buried in her arms, skis and poles lying nearby in the snow.
Not finishing any race is unusual enough for the two-time Olympic gold medalist. But doing so in back-to-back races at the Winter Olympics where she was expected to challenge for medals in five individual events is something no one could have predicted.
After the giant slalom disappointment, Shiffrin remained determined: “I’m going to do my very best to keep the right mentality and keep pushing.” The slalom seemed to provide the ideal bounce-back opportunity. Last month, her 47th win in the event broke the World Cup record for the most victories in a single discipline. But that ended after a few seconds, too, on a course set by her coach Mike Day.
Plenty of opportunities remain at the Games. Shiffrin could still compete in the super-G, downhill and combined.
Germany’s Natalie Geisenberger wins third Olympic luge title
BEIJING — Natalie Geisenberger of Germany became the first to win the Olympic women’s luge competition three times Tuesday night at the 2022 Games.
Her four-run time at the Yanqing Sliding Center was 3 minutes, 53.454 seconds — 0.493 seconds ahead of silver medalist Anna Berreiter of Germany and 1.053 seconds ahead of bronze medalist Tatiana Ivanova of the Russian team.
“It’s hard to compare Olympic medals because every one has its own history,“ Geisenberger said. “My first was very, very special because it was the first. Now I’m a third-time Olympic champion, but the first time as a mother. It’s just great.“
Geisenberger’s resume is beyond compare in luge history. No woman has more Olympic gold medals, no woman has more world championship gold medals, no woman has more World Cup race wins (52).
She joins German great Georg Hackl — the men’s champion in 1992, 1994 and 1998 — as the only luge athlete to win three consecutive gold medals in the same event. Add a pair of team relay victories in there and Geisenberger is up to five Olympic golds in her collection, with a sixth possibly coming soon since Germany will be the heavy favorite to prevail when that event is held on Thursday.
Ashley Farquharson was the top American finisher in her Olympic debut, placing 12th and moving up five spots after a brilliant fourth run that could give her some momentum heading into the relay.
Also for the U.S., three-time Olympian Summer Britcher was 23rd and two-time Olympian Emily Sweeney was 26th, both of their chances ruined by crashes during Monday’s opening night of the competition.
— Tim Reynolds
Italy wins gold in mixed doubles curling
BEIJING — Italy completed a near-perfect Olympics with an 8-5 victory over Norway to win the gold medal in mixed doubles curling on Tuesday.
The win capped a dominant performance for Amos Mosaner and Stefania Constantini, who were undefeated in the round-robin and then advanced to the gold medal match with an 8-1 victory over Sweden.
Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten will take a silver medal back to Norway four years after claiming bronze at the Pyeongchang Games.
Sweden beat Britain 9-3 earlier Tuesday for the bronze medal in a matchup of longtime curling powerhouses. Norway is also a regular on the Olympic podium, earning five medals in the seven Winter Games since the sport returned to the program in 1998.
And then there’s Italy.
Mosaner and Constantini not only earned the first Olympic curling medal in Italian history, they did it with an ease rarely seen in a sport where the outcome can turn on one bad throw of the rock.
Even more: With the 22-year-old Constantini and her 26-year-old partner, the Italians have a likely medal favorite when they host the next Winter Games in Milan-Cortina.
The Norwegians stole two points in the first end of the final, putting the dominant Italians in an unfamiliar position.
But Italy came back to take two points in the second end, stole one in the third even without the last-rock advantage, and then opened a 6-2 lead at the halftime break when Skaslien’s final throw failed to clear a trio of red Italian stones out of the target area.
Norway could manage only one point in the fifth and Italy matched it in the sixth before the Norwegians scored two in the seventh end to make it 7-5. But in the final end, Italy held the last-rock advantage known as the hammer.
With her last throw, Skaslien knocked out Italy’s red rock and left Norway lying two. But Constantini easily knocked both yellow stones out with the hammer.
Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, Sweden’s Jonna Sundling claim cross-country gold
Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo is still the fastest man on the cross-country skiing sprint course, while Sweden’s Jonna Sundling nabbed gold in the women’s race.
Klaebo defended his Olympic sprint title at the Beijing Games on Tuesday, leading the final for the entire race and punching the air when he crossed the finish line with a time of 2 minutes, 58.06 seconds. Frederico Pellegrino of Italy took silver, .26 seconds behind. Russian skier Alexander Terenteva earned bronze, 1.31 behind.
In the women’s sprint, Sundling went into the final wearing bib No. 1 after qualifying with the fastest time and carried that momentum to the finish line. She won the race in 3:09.68, finishing 2.88 seconds ahead of teammate Maja Dahlqvist. Jessie Diggins of the United States took bronze, 3.16 seconds behind.
Sundling is a first-time Olympian but has two world championship sprint titles, and team sprint titles with Dahlqvist.
Dutch speedskater Kjeld Nuis defends Olympic title in men’s 1,500 meters
Kjeld Nuis of the Netherlands has become the first speedskater since 1994 to successfully defend his Olympic title in the men’s 1,500 meters, edging countryman Thomas Krol at the Beijing Games.
Krol, the reigning world champion, broke the 20-year-old Olympic record in his race Tuesday. Nuis went even faster in the very next pair, crossing the line with a blistering time of 1 minute, 43.21 seconds.
There were still three pairs to go, but no one came close to the Dutch duo. Nuis took his country’s third gold in four events at these Games, while Krol’s runner-up finish of 1:43.55 gave the Netherlands a total of six medals in a competition that is shaping up as another rout for the Big Orange Machine.
The bronze went to South Korea’s Kim Minseok, who was more than a second behind the winner in 1:44.24.
Nuis became the first repeat 1,500 champion since Norway’s Johann Olav Koss won his second straight gold at the 1994 Lillehammer Games. The only other back-to-back champions were Clas Thunberg of Finland in 1924 and 1928, and Yevgeny Grishin of the Soviet Union in 1956-1960.
The Americans again came up short of their first individual Olympic speedskating medal since 2010. World Cup leader Joey Mantia got off to a strong start but couldn’t hold his pace through a race that requires both speed and endurance. He wound up sixth in 1:45.26.
Nathan Chen soars in short program at Winter Olympics
BEIJING — A shocking mistake by Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan cracked the door open for the end of his reign as two-time men’s Olympic figure skating champion. Nathan Chen barged through that door, blowing past Hanyu on Tuesday with a brilliant, world-record performance that put him in the lead after the short program, the first of two segments in the competition.
Hanyu touched off an audible gasp throughout Capital Indoor Stadium when he reduced his first planned jump, a quadruple salchow, to a single jump. His score of 95.15 left points on the table and gave hope to the challengers who for years had been stymied by his blend of technical wizardry and elegance. Chen, a three-time world champion and six-time U.S. champion, landed two quadruple jumps in his “La Boheme” program to earn 113.97 points, breaking Hanyu’s record short program score by more than two points. Dynamic Yuma Kagiyama of Japan was second (108.12), ahead of Japan’s Shoma Uno (105.90). Hanyu was eighth and faces a tough climb to medal contention in the free skate on Thursday.
“Scores are out of my control and I really wasn’t expecting that,” said Chen, who felt uneasy during the six-minute warmup but used his experience on the world stage to calm himself. “I’m definitely just very happy with the way I skated and happy to be here.”
U.S. skier Ryan Cochran-Siegle goes from broken neck to silver medal in a year
BEIJING — The two-inch scar winds along the base of Ryan Cochran-Siegle’s neck.
It’s the remnant of a terrifying crash 13 months ago during the downhill in Kitzbuhel, Austria, when he lost his balance and plowed into the safety netting at full speed. The impact broke his neck, though he’s quick to insist it wasn’t as bad as it sounds.
Cochran-Siegle underwent surgery to fuse the C6 and fractured C7 vertebrae, ending his breakthrough season on the World Cup circuit and underlining the perilous nature of hurling yourself down mountains.
“It’s the closest that I’ve been to a career-ending injury,” he said. “You’re just micro-millimeters from a full sever of your spinal cord and then it’s game over. I thought about how close I was to having permanent damage, but being able to walk away from that and recognizing that I’m fortunate right now and taking advantage of the opportunities I have.”
That’s what Cochran-Siegle did under a cloudless sky Tuesday at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre, almost a year to the day since the surgery. On the strength of a near-flawless run through the “Rock” course that drew gasps of surprise when his time flashed on the giant video board at the finish, the 29-year-old won the silver medal in the super-G at the Winter Olympics.
U.S. wins shot battle against Canada, but loses one that matters — goals
BEIJING — If nothing else, the U.S. women’s hockey team learned a valuable lesson from Tuesday’s tough loss to rival Canada.
Quantity does not necessarily mean quality.
The Americans controlled the play for much of the game and continually peppered the Canadian goal with shots but could not generate enough strong chances in a 4-2 defeat at Wukesong Sports Centre.
“Shots don’t win games, goals do,” U.S. coach Joel Johnson said. “When we shoot the puck and it gets blocked, it takes away some offensive momentum and actually creates momentum for them.”
These teams are unquestionably the superpowers of their sport, taking turns winning every world championship and Olympic gold medal over the last three decades. Their shared history includes a long list of close games and overtime thrillers.
It didn’t seem to matter that Tuesday was merely the final day of group play at the Beijing Games, with both teams assured of advancing.
Quentin Fillon Maillet of France wins gold in the 20-kilometer individual biathlon
ZHANGJAIKOU, China — Quentin Fillon Maillet of France won decisively in the 20-kilometer individual biathlon Tuesday, adding a gold medal to the silver he won in the mixed relay over the weekend.
Fillon Maillet has dominated the biathlon world lately. He’s had 10 World Cup podium finishes this season — half being wins, making him the overall leader. Now he’s also an Olympic champion. He missed two of 20 targets and finished the course in 48 minutes, 47.4 seconds.
Anton Smolski of Belarus shot clean — hitting all 20 of his targets — and came in 14.8 seconds behind the Frenchman.
Defending individual Olympic champion Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway also missed two targets and took the bronze medal, 31.1 seconds behind Fillon Maillet. He had outsprinted the Frenchman in the mixed relay Saturday to secure the gold.
Boe and Russian skier Maxim Tsvetkov raced most of the course together, heading out with bib Nos. 1 and 2, but Tsvetkov missed his very last shot and finished 34.9 seconds behind Fillon Maillet.
Competitors raced 20 kilometers in five ski loops, shooting twice in the prone position and twice standing between each lap. In all other biathlon events, they ski a 150-meter loop for each missed shot, which takes about 20 seconds. But in the individual race, one minute is added for each miss, making shooting accuracy especially important.
The wind stayed calm throughout the race, making the shooting results less chaotic and more consistent.
Despite big lead, Nathan Chen is taking nothing for granted
BEIJING — Nathan Chen’s world-record score for his “La Boheme” short program gave him a cushion of nearly six points atop the standings in the men’s singles figure skating competition, but the six-time U.S. champion and three-time world champion isn’t taking anything for granted as he prepares for Thursday’s free skate finale.
Chen, who trains at Great Park Ice in Irvine, earned 113.97 points, to 108.12 for Yuma Kagiyama of Japan and 105.90 for Shoma Uno, also of Japan. Two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan stood a surprising eighth after he “popped” his planned quadruple salchow jump when he encountered a hole in the ice as he took off and did a single jump instead. He earned no points for that element because it didn’t meet the requirements for moves in the short program.
“You can never really count out any of these athletes,” Chen said. “The competition is not one program. Whatever happens in the short program is not indicative of what will happen in the free program.”
He knows that all too well. Chen was expected to battle Hanyu for gold at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics but finished a bleak 17th in a mistake-filled short program, ending his medal hopes. A spectacular long program packed with six quadruple jumps — five of them cleanly landed — lifted him to a fifth-place finish. He was so near to a medal and yet so far.
He’s more experienced and comfortable now, able to focus on himself and the million details he must take care of to skate his best. He planned to spend the time between the short and long programs by picking up his team silver medal but otherwise following the same routine he follows before any competition.
“My competitors are not in my control. Nor is the score, or a lot of variables,” he said. “None of these competitors are people that you think are out of the running. Every single person is still very, very much in the running. It’s not easy to make it to the Olympics, especially in Japan, where the field is so deep. So certainly there’s going to be quite a lot of amazing skating on Thursday.”
Ester Ledecka wins parallel giant slalom gold
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic defended her Olympic snowboard parallel giant slalom title with a quick final run on a sun-splashed course Tuesday.
On deck, a switch over to ski racing to try and defend her super-G crown.
Four years ago in South Korea, Ledecka became the first competitor to win gold in two different sports at the same Winter Games. She has a chance to accomplish the feat once again in China. The women’s super-G ski race is scheduled for Friday at the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center.
In the gold-medal race, the top-seeded Ledecka opened an early lead on Daniela Ulbing, putting pressure on the Austrian snowboarder along the side-by-side course at the Genting Snow Park. Ulbing made a mistake up top and later veered off course. Gloria Kotnik of Slovenia earned the bronze.
On the men’s side, second-seeded Benjamin Karl of Austria held off Tim Mastnak of Slovenia for the gold. Russian athlete Vic Wild picked up the bronze as the No. 9 seed in the bracketed field. Wild, who is from the United States and was granted Russian citizenship in 2012, won gold in the event at the 2014 Sochi Games.
The 26-year-old Ledecka was a surprise winner in the super-G at the Pyeongchang Games. Wearing bib No. 26 that day, she made a late charge when many thought the race was over to wind up on top of the podium.
These days, she’s no longer a surprise.
Just don’t ask her to pick snowboarding or skiing over the other. In her heart, she’s equal parts of both.
Ryan Cochran-Siegle wins silver in the super-G
BEIJING — Ryan Cochran-Siegle won the silver medal in the super-G on Tuesday at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre in an unexpected result after a slow start to the Winter Games for the U.S. men’s speed team.
Cochran-Siegle finished the “Rock” course in 1 minute, 19.98 seconds, 0.04 seconds behind Austria’s Matthias Mayer. The American raised his arms in triumph as he skidded to a stop and the scattered crowd gasped with surprise.
The medal for Cochran-Siegle, ranked 11th in the world in the event, came 50 years after his mother, Barbara Cochran, won a gold medal in the slalom at the Sapporo Olympics.
Cochran-Siegle placed 14th in the downhill on Monday, the best U.S. finisher with Bryce Bennett placing 19th and Travis Ganong coming in 20th.
Canada defeats U.S. in women’s hockey, 4-2
BEIJING—When it comes to women’s hockey, the U.S. and Canada are the undisputed superpowers, their fierce rivalry marked by a history of overtime thrillers and games decided by late goals.
Tuesday at the Beijing Olympics did not quite add to that list.
Though the Americans dominated the action for much of the afternoon, the Canadians finished their shots when it counted, earning a 4-2 victory at Wukesong Sports Center.
The turning point came late in the second period after the U.S. took a 2-1 lead on Alex Carpenter’s backhander. Canada stormed back with three consecutive goals, Marie-Philip Poulin’s penalty shot giving her team a two-goal cushion.
The U.S. kept up the pressure through the third but could not make good on a string of power plays. Canadian goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens always seemed to have an answer, sprawling, stretching, making the save.
This matchup was really just a warmup, the final game in group play with both teams advancing. Given that one team or the other has won every gold medal since women’s hockey became an Olympic sport in 1998, there seems a good chance they will meet again.
U.S. Alpine skier Nina O’Brien suffers compound fracture of fibula after violent crash in giant slalom
BEIJING — U.S. Alpine skier Nina O’Brien suffered a compound fracture of her left fibula and fibula after a violent crash Monday in the giant slalom at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre.
Megan Harrod, the U.S. Alpine spokesperson, said Tuesday that O’Brien underwent an “initial stabilization procedure” by doctors at a nearby hospital and will “return to the U.S. for further evaluation and care.”
The crash happened just short of the finish line in O’Brien’s second run through the giant slalom course dubbed the “Ice River.” Her leg bent at a gruesome angle and she skidded across the snow before finally coming to a stop and being tended to by more than a dozen emergency personnel.
“Nina would like to express her gratitude to all of the people who assisted her so quickly in the finish area at the race and especially to the doctors and nurses at the hospital who have taken such great care of her,” Harrod said in a text message to media.
Chinese star skiier Eileen Gu wins big air gold
BEIJING — The Snow Princess’ reign has officially started.
Eileen Gu, a California-born freestyle skier representing China in the Beijing Olympics, won her first of what could be three gold medals on Tuesday in a thrilling women’s final at Shougang Big Air. Entering the final run, Gu was in third but overtook Swiss star Mathilde Gremaud and French leader Tess Ledeux by throwing a double 1620, a skill she had never landed in competition or practice before.
In front of a stadium full of adoring fans, the 18-year-old stomped the trick and dropped to her knees in disbelief at the bottom of the ramp. Fans erupted in cheers when her total score of 188.25 put her in first place.
“I just had the happiest moment of my life here,” she said, noting somewhat sheepishly that the victory had brought her to tears.
For the past month or so, Gu’s phone background has been a picture of a gold medal to help her visualize her potential success. Before the final run, Gu consulted on the phone with her mother, who advised her to do a trick she had done before and settle for silver. “Mmmm...no,” she had responded.
That decision paid off.
However, she insisted she would have been just as happy if she hadn’t won.
“I’m not trying to be better than others, I’m trying to be the best that I can be,” she said. “To make history, to break records has always been my goal.”
Afterwards, Gu expressed her gratitude to her teammates from the U.S. and China, taking questions in both English and Mandarin. Gu decided to compete for China in 2019, and has since become a beloved sports icon by those in the country and abroad. Despite her widespread fame, she insists she’s a normal 18-year-old who likes calling her friends and seeing her cat.
“That is something I’m still wrapping my head around,” Gu said. “I don’t really think of myself as a big dog yet.”
Gremaud fell on her third run, settling for bronze in the first Olympic freestyle skiing big air competition, and Ledeux, who became the first woman to land a 1620 just two weeks ago at X Games, rode out her final run on one ski, a deduction that had no chance of passing Gu.
Ledeux, who landed the double 1620 on her first run and scored the same 94.50 on the trick as Gu, finished less than a point behind the Chinese teenager, breaking down in tears with a 187.50 final score.
Gu is still set to compete in the slopestyle and halfpipe competitions with finals taking place on Feb. 14 and 18, respectively at Zhangjiakou’s Genting Snow Park. She is undefeated in halfpipe this season. Following her victory Tuesday, she said she’s not yet thinking about her upcoming events and trying to enjoy the moment.
American Darian Stevens finished 11th in the 12-woman final.
U.S. figure skater Vincent Zhou withdrew from men’s competition after a confirmed positive coronavirus test
BEIJING — Figure skater Vincent Zhou, who contributed to a silver-medal performance for the U.S. in the team event, withdrew from the men’s competition after a confirmed positive test for the coronavirus. The men’s singles event starts Tuesday at Capital Indoor Stadium with the short program.
Zhou, 21, tested positive late on Sunday during a regular screening. Additional testing confirmed his status.
Zhou, a native of San Jose, finished third at the U.S. championships last month. Last October, he ended U.S. and world champion Nathan Chen’s post-Pyeongchang Olympics winning streak by defeating Chen at the Skate America competition. Zhou finished sixth at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, one place behind Chen.
Zhou posted an emotional video on his Instagram account expressing his disbelief over the positive test. He had to stop several times to regain his composure.
“It seems pretty unreal that of all the people it would happen to myself. And that’s not just because I am still processing this turn of events but also because I have been doing everything in my power to stay free of COVID since the start of the pandemic,” he said. “I’ve taken all the precautions I can. I’ve isolated myself so much that the loneliness I felt the last month or two has been crushing at times. The enormity of the situation, just the pain of it all is pretty insane.
“But I do recognize that this absolutely does not define me as an athlete, as a person. I am more than just another positive COVID test. I am more than just another face in the crowd. While it was always my dream to medal on an Olympic stage, which I did accomplish before this happened, the overarching dream was just to skate. If I didn’t love this I wouldn’t still be doing it. I know I love this. That passion goes a long way.”
Zhou competed in the men’s free-skate portion of the team event and ranked third with his performance to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” He had a distant shot at an individual medal. Chen and Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu are considered the favorites for gold but in a sport where one small slip can wipe out years of hard work, nothing is for sure.
“I’ve already lost count of the number of times I’ve cried today. But I’m happy to say that at least one of those times was happy tears. That was when I found out that I became an Olympic silver medalist,” Zhou said. “And I think that wraps things up nicely on a positive note.
“I’m extremely honored and grateful and humbled to call myself an Olympic silver medalist. Of course it wouldn’t be possible without my absolutely incredible, superhuman teammates, who are the best in the world at what they do. So thankful to each and every one of you and I’m sorry that I couldn’t do this journey with you guys any longer.
“Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to represent Team USA at the world championships and I will be back stronger. I will be back better. This is not the end. This is a setup for a bigger comeback.”
Olympics Day 4 recap: Russian skater makes history with quadruple jump. Then does another
Before Monday, no woman had ever landed a quadruple jump in Olympic figure skating competition.
Now someone has done it twice.
That someone is Kamila Valieva, a Russian teenager who landed a a quadruple salchow and a quadruple toe loop during her free skate program in the team event at Capital Indoor Stadium.
Valieva fell while attempting a third quadruple jump, a quadruple toe loop, but still had the highest-scored program (178.92).
Her performance helped the Russian Olympic Committee claim the team gold medal with 74 points, followed by the U.S. with 65 for silver and Japan with 63 for bronze.
“To perform with a team like this means everything,” Valieva said. “We all did such a good job. I’m very proud of my team.”
Here’s more of what you might have missed overnight during the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing:
Switzerland’s Beat Fuez wins gold in men’s downhill skiing
Red Gerard can’t pull off golden repeat trick in slopestyle as U.S. fails to medal
Canada’s Max Parrot wins snowboard slopestyle gold three years after cancer battle
Sweden’s Sara Hector wins women’s giant slalom
Another speedskating gold for Netherlands’ Ireen Wüst
Germany’s Denise Herrmann wins Olympic gold in biathlon individual race
Italy’s Arianna Fontana wins 10th short track medal; China wins men’s race
Mikaela Shiffrin is no stranger to heartbreak. Now can she bounce back in Beijing?
BEIJING — Early Monday morning, text messages flew back and forth between Mikaela Shiffrin and her brother Taylor long before the sun rose over the barren brown mountains streaked with rivers of man-made snow at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre.
Taylor Shiffrin kidded his sister about being up so early before her first race at these Winter Olympics, defending the gold medal she won in the giant slalom four years ago. It was the start of an ambitious week and a half in which she could chase medals in five individual events.
Then the unthinkable happened.
Seconds into the first of two runs down the steep course dubbed the “Ice River,” Mikaela Shiffrin missed a gate, fell on her side, then skied off. It was the first giant slalom she failed to complete in four years. The day ended with nothing for the world’s most dominant female skier other than shock and questions.
“I won’t ever get over this,” Shiffrin said, reciting a handful of races that haven’t gone as expected in her career. “That heartbreak never goes away and I think that’s what drives me to keep working.”
This heartbreak, however, isn’t anything like what the 26-year-old has faced on her winding journey to the ski runs carved out of the Xiaohaituo Mountain Area. She has experienced the sudden death of her father, a back injury and a positive test for the coronavirus.
Slovenia wins Olympic debut of ski jumping mixed team
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Slovenia won the first Olympic ski jumping mixed team gold medal Monday.
The team of Ursa Bogataj, Nika Kriznar, Peter Prevc and Timi Zajc had 1,000.5 points, dominating the competition by more than 100 points.
Prevc jumped last and soared 101.5 meters (333 feet) and had 126.3 points to seal the top spot on the podium for the Slovenians.
Russia won silver and Canada, in a surprise, earned bronze.
Germany, one of the favorites to win, was disqualified after the first round because of an equipment violation by Katharina Althaus, who won silver for the second straight Olympics on Saturday.
Japan, with Olympic champion Ryoyu Kobayashi and star Sara Takanashi, finished fourth in the 10-nation field after Takanashi had a jump disqualified because of a jumpsuit violation. Kobayashi won on the normal hill Sunday, becoming the first Japanese jumper to finish first in the event since Yukio Kasaya in 1972.
The Slovenians had a 49-point lead over Norway entering the final round, and floated to a lopsided victory.
Slovenian women and men, including Bogataj and Prevc, teamed up to win a mixed team World Cup event last month and showed that was not a fluke. Bogataj won Olympic gold in women’s ski jumping Saturday night, four years after having the fewest points in the same event at the Pyeongchang Games.
Men have been ski jumping at the Winter Olympics since the first one in 1924. Women did not have access to the sport at the Olympics until 2014.
The International Ski Federation hosted the first mixed team event in 2012, when Takanashi was part of the winning team, and it has been at the World Cup four times over the last decade.
Norway was the only nation that earned a spot on the podium in each of the previous four mixed team World Cup events, but that streak was snapped with an eighth-place finish.
Although the women are finished jumping in China, the men have two more opportunities with the large hill in an individual event Saturday and team competition Feb. 14.
— Larry Lage
Italy’s Arianna Fontana wins 10th short track medal; China wins men’s race
BEIJING — Arianna Fontana burnished her legacy as short track’s most decorated skater with her second Olympic medal in Beijing and 10th of her career.
The 31-year-old Italian took the lead from world champion Suzanne Schulting late in the 500-meter final and let out a yell as she crossed the line in 42.488 seconds on Monday.
Fontana won a silver in the inaugural mixed team relay Sunday, putting her ahead of Viktor An and Apolo Ohno for career medals with nine.
Fontana was already the only athlete to win a medal of every color in the same individual event. She won gold in the 500 four years ago at the Pyeongchang Games, silver in Sochi in 2014 and bronze in Vancouver in 2010.
Schulting took silver in 42.559 and Kim Boutin of Canada earned bronze in 42.724.
The men’s 1,000 final was full of the kind of moments that the skaters often explain by saying, “That’s short track.”
It was restarted in the middle of the race to remove metal debris on the ice and repair a rough spot just past the finish line.
The Chinese-only crowd had plenty to cheer for in the final. Three of the skaters were Chinese and the Liu brothers from Hungary — Shaolin Sandor and Shaoang — have a Chinese father and Hungarian mother.
Liu Shaolin Sandor crossed the line first, fell and spun into the pads while raising his arms in triumph.
But he was too quick to celebrate. Liu and the other skaters had to wait several minutes while the referee sorted through the chaos. Liu put his hands together in a gesture of prayer while awaiting the final ruling.
Liu was penalized twice and earned a yellow card. That elevated Ren Ziwei of China, who crossed second, to the gold medal.
Li Wenlong of China earned silver. Liu Shaoang took bronze.
Liu Shaolin Sandor appeared to bump Ren in taking the lead late in the race. Ren grabbed Liu Shaolin Sandor approaching the finish line, but the Hungarian still managed to cross first before going down.
It was quite a night for Liu Shaoang, who crashed on the last lap in the semifinals but was advanced to the final when another skater was penalized for a lane change that caused contact.
In the quarterfinals, Park Janghyuk of South Korea was carted off the ice on a stretcher. He had been advanced to the semifinals, but didn’t skate because of his injury.
— Beth Harris
Germany’s Denise Herrmann wins Olympic gold in biathlon individual race
ZHANGJAIKOU, China — Denise Herrmann’s performance on the range, missing only one of 20 shots, put her at the front of the pack.
Her skiing didn’t hurt, either.
Herrmann won the women’s 15-kilometer individual race in biathlon on Monday at the Beijing Olympics after a season of mixed results on the World Cup circuit. The German’s only podium finish this season was a bronze medal in the individual race in Oestersund, Sweden.
Herrmann, a former Olympic cross-country skier, won Monday’s race in 44 minutes 12.7 seconds.
Anais Chevalier-Bouchet of France missed her last shot, a costly mistake, and took silver, 9.4 seconds behind Herrmann. Marte Olsbu Roeiseland of Norway, the overall World Cup leader, missed two shots, one prone and one standing, and settled for bronze, 15.3 seconds behind.
The women raced over 15 kilometers in five ski loops, shooting twice in the prone position and twice standing between each lap. In all other biathlon events, they ski a 150-meter loop for each missed shot, which takes about 20 seconds. But in the individual race, one minute is added for each miss, making shooting accuracy especially important.
Defending Olympic champion Hanna Oeberg of Sweden had three misses in her standing shooting and finished 23rd, 2:23.1 behind. Marketa Davidova of the Czech Republic, the leader in the World Cup individual standings, also missed her last shot and finished sixth, 31.9 seconds behind Herrmann.
“I think it was just my mistake. It was nothing special,” Davidova said of missing the last shot. “I was trying to do what I did in the 19 shots before, but one goes up so one miss, and it’s quite a lot in this race today.“
Some of the biggest obstacles on the biathlon range — strong wind and frigid temperatures — were less of a factor on Monday. Temperatures hovered around 14 degrees F, compared with 5 F for Saturday’s mixed relay race. The winds calmed from around 9.3 mph to around 3 mph.
Another speedskating gold for Ireen Wüst
Ireen Wüst added to her haul as the most decorated speedskater in Olympic history with another gold Monday at the Beijing Games.
The 35-year-old Dutch skater defended her title in the 1,500 meters, setting an Olympic record with a time of 1 minute, 53.28 seconds at the Ice Ribbon oval.
Miho Takagi of Japan claimed the silver in 1:53.72, while the bronze went to Antoinette de Jong of the Netherlands in 1:54.82.
The mighty Dutch team won its second gold in three speedskating events, setting itself up for another big performance after dominating the last two Winter Games at the oval.
It was another Olympic disappointment for Brittany Bowe. The 33-year-old American again came up short in the quest for her first individual medal, fading badly at the end to finish 10th in 1:55.81.
Wüst just keeps getting stronger. She’s now won 12 medals over her career, including six golds. That makes her the most decorated athlete in the history of speedskating, as well as her country’s most prolific Olympic medalist.
Amazingly, Wüst has medaled in the 1,500 at the last five Olympics. She’s won the gold three times, to go along with a silver and a bronze.
Wüst broke the previous Olympic mark of 1:53.51 set by Jorien ter Mors of the Netherlands at the 2014 Sochi Games.
The 33-year-old Bowe, a former college basketball player and inline champion who is one of three American skaters from Ocala, Florida, has long been a stalwart of the U.S. program.
But the last two Olympics have been a disappointment for the four-time world champion, whose only medal came four years ago when she was part of the bronze-winning squad in the team pursuit.
The 2018 Games were especially painful for Bowe, who had a fourth and two fifths in her individual events, missing out on three medals by a total of less than a second.
After carrying the American flag in the opening ceremony, she wasn’t even close in her first event at the Beijing Games. Bowe finished 2 1/2 seconds behind the winner and nearly a second off the podium.
Bowe still has two more individual events to redeem herself. She also qualified in the 500 and 1,000.
Kamila Valieva, 15, becomes first woman to land a quad jump in Olympic figure skating
BEIJING — Russian sensation Kamila Valieva, 15, became the first woman to land a quadruple jump in Olympic figure skating competition when she landed a quadruple salchow, the first jump in her free skate program in the team event on Monday at Capital Indoor Stadium.
Not long afterward she landed another quadruple jump, a quadruple toe loop, in combination with a triple toe loop. She also attempted a quadruple toe loop later in her stunning “Bolero” program but fell. She still had the highest-scored program and helped lead the Russian Olympic Committee to victory over the U.S., 74 points to 65. Japan won the bronze medal with 63 points.
Valieva might leave Beijing with two gold medals, since she’s the favorite to prevail in the women’s singles event. She said on Monday she enjoyed the team event because of the camaraderie.
“It’s been quite overwhelming. I was very nervous but I am just glad I was able to execute all of my elements well,” she said. “To perform with a team like this means everything.
“We all did such a good job. I’m very proud of my team.”
Sweden’s Sara Hector wins women’s giant slalom
BEIJING — Swedish skier Sara Hector capped a recent career resurgence in the best way possible, winning the gold medal in the women’s giant slalom at the Beijing Olympics on Monday for her first individual victory at a major championship.
The 29-year-old Hector finished two runs down a course known as The Ice River at the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center in an unofficial combined time of 1 minute, 55.69 seconds. She was quickest down the hill in the first run
Federica Brignone of Italy was 0.28 seconds slower over the two legs to add a silver medal to the bronze she won in the GS at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games behind champion Mikaela Shiffrin, who fell during Monday’s opening run.
Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland was third, 0.72 behind Hector, and now has another bronze to go alongside the one she collected in the downhill at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
When Hector crossed the line, she raised her ski poles overhead and yelled to celebrate before being embraced by Brignone and Gut-Behrami.
Hector earned her first World Cup race win all the way back in December 2014 -- and then waited seven years to get No. 2 this past December. And then all of a sudden, as though she had discovered the secret to success, she tacked on Nos. 3 and 4 in January.
Now, in February, Hector has her most important triumph of all.
The race was delayed for about 15 minutes when American Nina O’Brien, who was sixth-fastest in the opening run, slid across the finish line, screaming in pain, after stumbling through the last gate as her skis crossed in front of her. She was checked by medical personnel and U.S. team staff before being taken away on a sled.
U.S. ski team spokesperson Megan Harrod said O’Brien was “alert and responsive.”
The skier right before, Tessa Worley of France, owner of four world titles and currently second in the World Cup GS standings, crashed on the lower part of the course, hitting a gate as she was attempting a left turn. She spun round, lost a ski and slid down the hill before rising and making it the rest of the way to the bottom.
Canada’s Max Parrot wins snowboard slopestyle gold three years after cancer battle
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Three years ago Max Parrot was lying in a hospital bed. The muscles on his previously healthy frame were gone. His energy was sapped. Less than a year after basking in the glory of an Olympic silver medal, the Canadian snowboarder was drowning in chemotherapy treatments.
“I almost wanted to quit sometimes because it was getting so hard to get to the next morning,” Parrot said. “And to be standing here today three years later and winning gold, that was completely crazy.”
Parrot, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma 10 months after the Pyeongchang Games, led an emotional slopestyle podium on Monday at Genting Snow Park. The 27-year-old upgraded his 2018 Olympic silver medal to a gold, countryman Mark McMorris took his third consecutive bronze medal and 17-year-old Su Yiming won silver in front of a hometown crowd that cheered China’s first male snowboard Olympic medalist.
Parrot wrapped himself in the Canadian flag after the results went final, his 90.96 from his second run surviving the third round that included podium-clinching run from McMorris.
McMorris, who nearly died after a backcountry riding accident in 2017 left him with injuries including a fractured pelvis, arm and ribs, a collapsed lung and ruptured spleen, scored an 88.53 on his third run, which knocked American Red Gerard off the podium.
In the moment, McMorris believed his score would be enough to challenge for silver or gold. But adding a third bronze medal didn’t damper the 28-year-old’s spirits as he became the first snowboarder to podium in slopestyle for three consecutive Olympics.
“For me to be able to land on podiums consistently is pretty special,” McMorris said, who emphasized that the everchanging course designs in slopestyle make it difficult for repeat winners as opposed to halfpipe.
McMorris’ consistency in the sport helped shape the path of Su. McMorris, who traveled to China often to promote snowboarding, recalled often seeing the same little kid at his events. The small child “loved snowboarding more than anything,” McMorris remembered.
“Then boom! This fall, he’s just like, so damn good,” McMorris said. “He became a man. … I’m super proud of him because he is a true snowboarder. He loves the sport, he’s been around it forever and I’m honored to share the podium with him.”
Su said he first dreamed of becoming a professional snowboarder on the very mountain that hosted the Olympic competition. His parents, who were also involved in snowboarding, took him to Zhangjiakou when he was a child. When Beijing was named the host city for the 2022 Games, Su imagined competing in his home country, but his real-life experience surpassed his wildest dreams.
“When I decide to become snowboarder, I also had a dream to be on the podium and get medals at the Olympic games,” Su said draped in a Chinese flag. “But this moment, this moment come to true, still cannot believe it that it just happened.”
Red Gerard can’t pull off golden repeat trick in slopestyle as U.S. fails to medal
Olympic volunteers lined up shoulder to shoulder at Genting Snow Park’s slopestyle course to witness history. They clapped and waved ski poles in the air as, 50 feet below the impromptu audience, Su Yiming stepped onto the Olympic podium.
Su, a 17-year-old Olympic rookie, won China’s first Olympic men’s snowboarding medal, taking home silver in slopestyle Monday. Canadians Max Parrot and Mark McMorris took home gold and bronze, respectively, while defending champion Red Gerard finished fourth.
The home crowd gasped louder with every jump of Su’s runs. When he landed at the base, fans who filled about all of the stands erupted and waved blue and pink flags with the Olympic mascot on them. Chinese coaches and athletes at the bottom hugged and raised a big Chinese flag after Su stomped the final jump on a second run that scored 88.70.
Parrot, the 2018 silver medalist, won with a 90.96, which he secured on his second of three runs.
Su qualified first, a surprising result for a first-time Olympian competing next to McMorris, a three-time Olympic bronze medalist whom Su called his “idol.” Su told reporters he learned how to snowboard by watching videos of McMorris, who qualified second. Su was the youngest competitor in the finals and will turn 18 on Feb. 18, three days after the men’s snowboarding big air final.
Switzerland’s Beat Fuez wins gold in men’s downhill skiing
BEIJING — For three days, gusts of sub-zero wind baffled and battered the men trying to navigate the two-mile downhill run at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre.
The wind delayed the competition at the Winter Games by a day in addition to wreaking havoc with the prerace training schedule.
But the wind calmed Monday and allowed Switzerland’s Beat Feuz to claim the sport’s signature race.
“It was perfect weather, no wind, and I was just standing perfectly on the skis,” he said. “A dream come true.”
Feuz, a 13-time downhill winner on the World Cup circuit, finished in 1 minute, 42.69 seconds. France’s Johan Clarey took silver, 0.10 seconds behind, and Austria’s Matthias Mayer earned bronze.
“With all the delays and the conditions and everything that is around the downhill slope, I think to have some experience was OK today,” Clarey said. “You can see it on the podium.”
The favorite in the race, Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, finished fifth.
The American contingent didn’t fare well. Ryan Cochran-Siegel led the way in 14th place; Bryce Bennett, who won the World Cup downhill in Val Gardena, Italy, in December, placed 19th; and Travis Ganong came in 20th.
The U.S. men haven’t won a downhill medal at the Olympics since Bode Miller took bronze at the Vancouver Games in 2010.
U.S. figure skater Vincent Zhou tests positive for coronavirus
American figure skater Vincent Zhou has tested positive as part of regular COVID-19 screening at the Beijing Olympics, one day after struggling through a poor free skate for the eventual team silver medalists.
Zhou is undergoing additional testing Monday to confirm his status. If the results are negative, he will be allowed to compete in the individual competition, which begins with the men’s short program on Tuesday.
The high-flying but wildly inconsistent 21-year-old Zhou arrived in Beijing with high hopes of contending for a medal. He finished sixth in the men’s program at the Pyeongchang Games, but his second-place finish at the NHK Trophy and victory at Skate American in his two Grand Prix assignments gave him hopes of earning a medal.
He’ll get at least one as part of the team silver medalists. He’ll await another COVID-19 test to see if he can earn another.
Evan Bates and Madison Chock put on otherworldly show to help U.S. take silver
BEIJING — An astronaut and an alien danced eloquently about the power of love and Karen Chen discovered the power of redemption, two seemingly unrelated concepts that somehow came together Monday to fuel a silver-medal finish for the U.S. in the Olympic figure skating team event.
“Astronaut” Evan Bates teamed with “alien” Madison Chock of Redondo Beach to perform an exquisite free dance to music by Daft Punk and defeat the reigning world champions, Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of the Russian Olympic Committee.
Chock and Bates pretty much clinched the silver medal by performing the highest-scored free dance and earning a personal-best 129.07 points. But Chen, who was upset with herself after falling on a familiar jump in her short program Sunday, added a nice flourish in the last phase of the event with a free skate program that had a few minor flaws but was otherwise entrancing.
The Russian Olympic Committee won the three-day team event with 74 points, to 65 for the U.S. and 63 for Japan. The U.S. had won the bronze medal in the two previous team events, at Sochi in 2014 and at Pyeongchang in 2018, and Bates was proud to have helped the Beijing squad improve on its predecessors’ results.
Mikaela Shiffrin slips in giant slalom, will not defend her Olympic title
BEIJING — The night before Mikaela Shiffrin’s first race at the Beijing Olympics, a post on her social media accounts endorsing headphones carried a simple tagline: “Yeah, I am human.”
The words meant something much different Monday.
The world’s top female skier fell seconds into her first run of the giant slalom and was eliminated from competition at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre.
In one shocking sequence, the defending gold medalist in the event who was chasing five individual medals at the Games missed a gate, fell on her side, then skied off the course. Her day ended more quickly than the NBC commercial that promotes her as one of the must-watch athletes at the Games as she skis through a dinosaur-filled forest.
Germany’s Johannes Ludwig wins gold in men’s luge
Johannes Ludwig of Germany is the Olympic champion in men’s luge, adding that to the World Cup overall title he won this season.
It’s the 11th time in 16 Olympics that a German man — counting both East Germany and West Germany — has won the luge title. Wolfgang Kindl of Austria was second and Dominik Fischnaller of Italy was third.
Ludwig led after all four heats. He set the tone for Sunday’s final two runs of the competition by setting a track record leading off the third heat, putting more pressure on everyone else in the field to catch him.
Nobody did. Only Kindl came close. Chris Mazdzer was the top American, finishing eighth.
Madison Chock and Evan Bates to compete for U.S. in team competition
BEIJING — The U.S. will use its second and final substitution in the team figure skating competition to enter Madison Chock and Evan Bates in the free dance phase on Monday, their Olympic debut in that event.
Chock and Bates, three-time U.S. champions, will replace Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, who performed the highest-scored rhythm dance. Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, who skated a strong short program that was ranked third, will return for the pairs free skate.
Using the second substitution to change the ice dance entry means that Karen Chen, who struggled to a fifth-place finish in the women’s short program on Sunday, will represent the U.S. in the free skate.
Entering Monday’s finale, the Russian Olympic Committee leads the team event standings with 45 points, to 42 points for the U.S. and 39 for Japan. The U.S. has won a bronze medal at each of the previous two Olympics in which the team event was contested.
Jaelin Kauf gets redemption with silver medal in mogul skiing
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — After a disappointing seventh-place finish at the Pyeongchang Games, Jaelin Kauf won silver in women’s mogul skiing at Genting Snow Park on Sunday, giving the United States its second medal of the Beijing Olympics.
When her score of 80.28 appeared on the results screen and put her into first, Kauf’s jaw dropped as she raised both arms above her head. A teammate wrapped her up in a tight hug knowing the 25-year-old was guaranteed a medal with only one skier left.
Jakara Anthony then bumped Kauf off the top step with a gold medal-winning score of 83.09. Kauf was the first to hug the Australian winner when the score appeared.
All four American women made Sunday night’s final. Olivia Giaccio and Hannah Soar finished sixth and seventh, respectively, and 17-year-old Kai Owens came back from a fall in training that forced her to miss the first qualifications on Thursday to ski in the second qualification round and finish 10th.
Kauf was the only American with previous Olympic experience and used it to set her course for the Beijing Games. Four years ago, she was the favorite and wore the No. 1 bib, which symbolized her top ranking. It felt like a foregone conclusion she would get a medal.
She didn’t even make it into the last final round.
Motivated by the disappointing finish, Kauf entered the Beijing Games with an aggressive mindset. Instead of trying to do just enough to advance to the next round like she did in Pyeongchang, Kauf wanted to “ski every run to win,” she said after the first qualifying round when she finished third.
Kauf picked up skiing from her parents, who were both professional mogul skiers. Before settling on mogul skiing late in her high school career, Kauf experimented in Alpine racing, ski cross and big mountain skiing. Her varied background ultimately led her back to her family’s roots in moguls, which combines speed from Alpine and ski cross and technique from big mountain and adds challenging aerial skills.
Kauf spends every summer working on improving her aerials, especially as women’s moguls skiing goes the way of most freestyle sports that are pushing the boundaries of gravity by adding more difficulty to every trick. Airs are not her forte, she acknowledges.
Where she excels is her speed. She was the fastest woman in every round of competition at the Olympics, including a blazing 26.37-second run in the third final. The closest time from another competitor in the round was Russian bronze medalist Anastasiia Smirnova, who completed the course in 27.59 seconds.
The subtle art of zipping between moguls came naturally to Kauf, who got her start in dual moguls, where pairs of riders race down the mountain side by side. Kauf won silver and bronze dual moguls world championships in 2019 and 2017, respectively.
She loves the adrenaline of a face-to-face battle to get down the mountain first. Considering her family, there’s no wonder how she became so competitive.
Her father, Scott, was a five-time World Pro Mogul Tour champion. Her mother, Patti, was a three-time champ and tried to qualify for the Vancouver Olympics in ski cross, but suffered a knee injury. However, the sight of her mother competing into her 40s left a lasting impression on Kauf.
“Growing up watching her compete and push limits in the sport herself, it was never a question for me if I could do that,” Kauf said.
Patti is a three-time X Games bronze medalist in ski cross. Kauf remembers standing on the X Games podium with her mother. A photo shows a young Kauf, standing next to her brother Skyler while clutching a stuffed monkey with their mother wearing a medal around her neck.
On Sunday night, Kauf stood on a different podium. She traded the monkey for Olympic panda mascot Bing Dwen Dwen and raised the keepsake in the air with a wide smile on her face.
Beijing Olympic volunteers share a sense of pride amid challenging conditions
BEIJING — Volunteers working inside the Olympic closed loop have to suffer long quarantines, coronavirus infection risks and being away from their families during the Chinese New Year holiday. Many say it’s worth it, though, to be a part of the historic event.
“Spending New Year’s at the Winter Olympics is definitely unforgettable,” said Fu Yu, a volunteer in the media center whose responsibilities include writing up summary drafts and arranging meetings.
Wang Yue, another media center volunteer, said that for many of the staff, it was their first time working the night shift, which helped solidify a sense of belonging. Wang, a PhD student from Shandong province, said she has come to think of her fellow volunteers as comrades-in-arms.
“Working in the middle of the night, thinking of the lights of 10,000 homes, and defending one of those, our hearts are very proud,” Wang said.
Lü Haoyi, a 24-year-old Beijing resident, remembered the deep impression the fireworks left on him as a fifth-grader during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The city’s hosting another Olympic event this year moved him to volunteer.
For China’s leader, a successful Winter Games means international validation. It proves that he has strengthened China and the world must play along.
“I feel I’m already very honored to be witnessing history, but being able to actually participate in that history is an even bigger honor,” Lü said. “To be a Beijing person and Chinese person makes me proud.”
It’s a sentiment shared by the rest of his family, he said, with whom he video-chatted on the eve of Chinese New Year, sharing some of his experiences with them.
Volunteers also brushed off concerns about contracting the coronavirus, despite positive infections within the closed loop and frequent contact with recent arrivals. They pointed to rigorous virus control measures within the Olympic bubble and across China.
“I think our sports arenas’ and country’s pandemic prevention is done really well, so for this I feel there isn’t anything to be worried about,” said Zhao Hongfei, a 39-year-old professor of food sciences and engineering at Beijing Forestry University.
Sweden’s Nils van der Poel wins speedskating gold, sets Olympic record
Nils van der Poel gave Sweden its first Olympic speedskating medal since 1988, pulling off a stunning comeback to win gold in the 5,000 meters at the Beijing Olympics.
Van der Poel was a big favorite coming into the event as the reigning world champion with an undefeated record in the distance events on this season’s World Cup circuit.
He lived up to the hype in the 12½-lap race at the Ice Ribbon oval, turning on the speed at the end to overcome Patrick Roest of the Netherlands with an Olympic record of 6 minutes 8.84 seconds.
Roest had skated about an hour earlier in the sixth of 10 pairs, initially breaking the Olympic mark in 6.09.31.
Then he nervously watched in the workout room as one pair after another failed to take down his time.
It looked as though van der Poel would come up short too, as he fell 2 seconds behind Roest’s pace with only three laps to go.
Then the Swede kicked it into another gear.
He thrilled the sparse crowd by slicing into Roest’s time with each stride. Turns out, van der Poel had just enough time to win gold.
The bronze went to Norway’s Hallgeir Engebraaten in 6:09.88.
Russian Alexander Bolshunov wins gold in 30-kilometer skiathlon
Russian skier Alexander Bolshunov pulled away from the pack early to win gold in the 30-kilometer skiathlon.
Bolshunov, the World Cup points leader in distance races, grabbed a Russian Olympic Committee flag in the final stretch and waved it in the air as he crossed the finish line in 1 hour 16 seconds.
Bolshunov and Iivo Niskanen of Finland led the race through the first four classic ski laps, but Russia’s Denis Spitsov passed Niskanen once they were on the freestyle legs.
Spitsov stayed out front and secured the silver, 1 minute 11 seconds behind Bolshunov. Niskanen held on for the bronze two minutes back.
Sean FitzSimons leads U.S. men into snowboard slopestyle finals
ZHANGJIOKOU, China — Three U.S. riders advanced to the final of men’s snowboard slopestyle, led by first-time Olympian Sean FitzSimons, who finished third.
After FitzSimons, it was defending Olympic champion Red Gerard and Chris Corning, who finished fifth and 11th, respectively, in their qualifying runs Sunday. The 12-man final takes place Monday at noon at Genting Snow Park and will have a home-crowd favorite leading the way with Su Yiming, who qualified first.
Mammoth Lakes native Dusty Henricksen finished 17th.
FitzSimons, a 21-year-old from Oregon, didn’t seal his spot on the Olympic team until Jan. 15 when he won the Laax Open in Switzerland. The podium finish guaranteed his Olympic position in the final competition before the Games and he traced the recent momentum to a simple mentality.
“I just stopped caring, you know?” said FitzSimons, who scored a 78.76 on his first run before falling on his second.
The laid-back attitude could help him in Monday’s final, which is expected to include massive tricks on the complicated Olympic course. FitzSimons predicted that at least one 1,600 would be required to podium and two to win.
“It’s probably going to be one of the heaviest slope contests ever,” FitzSimons said.
Su threw down a backside 1,600 on the final jump of his qualifying run, which drew loud cheers from spectators dressed in hooded parkas waving flags with the Olympic mascot Bing Dwen Dwen. China has never won a men’s Olympic snowboarding medal.
The United States is the only country to win an Olympic gold in men’s slopestyle since the discipline debuted in 2014. After Sage Kotsenburg won the event’s inaugural medal, Gerard, who was 17 at the time, became the youngest American to win an Olympic snowboarding medal.
Men’s downhill postponed to Monday because of high winds
BEIJING — High winds forced the postponement of the men’s downhill at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre on Sunday.
The race was delayed three times as competitors waited at the top of the two-mile course where wind gusted to 40 mph before officials decided they were too much.
The downhill is now scheduled to start at noon Monday, sandwiched between the two runs of the women’s giant slalom that will include the debut of Mikaela Shiffrin at the Beijing Olympics.
“It’s a bummer but it’s also a relief that they’re trying to have a fair race,” said Bryce Bennett, one of three U.S. entires in the downhill along with Travis Ganong and Ryan Cochran-Siegle.
“I think it always is going to be windy. That’s how just this place is. … If we can do it as close to fair as possible, that’d be great.”
Last week, wind delayed the start of the second downhill training session and led to the cancellation of the third session after three skiers completed their runs.
The subzero gusts have added another variable to a course that’s already unfamiliar to the entire field. It was finished in late 2019 and no test events were held because of the pandemic. The training runs were the first time any of the competitors had skied it.
Karen Chen struggles as the U.S. loses lead in figure skating team competition
BEIJING — The triple loop has long been one of Karen Chen’s most reliable jumps, a trusted friend during her figure skating career. Her nerves have long been her enemy, holding her back from consistently skating with the lightness and precision that illuminate her best performances.
Her enemy overpowered her friend on Sunday while she performed her short program in the Olympic team final at Capital Indoor Stadium, leaving the Northern California native with another disappointing result in Olympic competition.
Chen finished 11th in the women’s singles event at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, a result that led her to consider retiring from the sport before she decided she missed it too much to leave. She finished second at the U.S. championships before the Beijing Games but her performance on Sunday highlighted the weakness of the U.S. women against their fearless and remarkably skilled Russian counterparts.
Julia Marino claims silver as Jamie Anderson’s golden reign in slopestyle ends
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — As all eyes turned toward the podium positioned at the base of Genting Snow Park’s slopestyle course, Jamie Anderson slipped quietly through a maze of TV cameras, dragging her snowboard by her side.
It’s unfamiliar territory for the queen of slopestyle snowboarding.
New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott dethroned the two-time Olympic gold medalist in the women’s slopestyle final at Zhangjiakou Genting Snow Park on Sunday, winning gold on the last run of the day. Her clutch 92.88 points was New Zealand’s first Winter Olympic gold medal and knocked American Julia Marino from the top spot as the 24-year-old claimed silver for Team USA’s first medal of the 2022 Games.
Once Sadowski-Synnott landed the second of consecutive 1080s, a repeat of a historic feat that won her gold at X Games two weeks ago, Marino was the first to charge the New Zealand rider and tackle her to the ground in celebration.
“I’m feeling a lot of feelings right now, honestly,” Marino said, “but mostly a lot of happiness and a lot of excitement for everything that happened today.”
Russian Olympic Committee takes lead in team figure skating
BEIJING — Gold-medal favorite Kamila Valieva nearly eclipsed her own world record in the short program of the team figure skating event, sending the Russian Olympic Committee team into the lead heading into the men’s free skate later Sunday.
The 15-year-old Valieva’s score of 90.18 points to “In Memoriam” by the Russian pianist and composer Kirill Richter was just off the record of 90.45 points set weeks ago at the European championships.
The Russians moved into first place with 36 points, two ahead of the United States and seven ahead of Japan.
Karen Chen took the ice for the Americans but made a couple of mistakes, including a fall on her triple loop near the end of the program. That left her in fifth place in the short program, costing her team valuable points.
Wakaba Higuchi was second, pushing Japan into podium contention. Reigning gold medalist Canada survived the cutoff thanks to a strong performance from Madeline Schizas, while China claimed the last spot in the free skates by winning a tiebreaker with Georgia.
U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor to leave COVID isolation
U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor said Saturday she was about to leave isolation and could start preparing in earnest to compete at the Beijing Olympics.
Meyers Taylor said on NBC’s “Weekend Today” show that she wouldn’t be in isolation much longer.
“I’ll be leaving tonight, which is the morning for you guys, and headed to another hotel, so I can start the process of getting back into training and getting everything ready to race,” she said.
Meyers Taylor revealed Tuesday she had tested positive for COVID-19. She had to give up her spot as a flagbearer at the opening ceremony, but bobsled doesn’t begin until about a week into the Olympics. Women’s monobob official training begins Thursday, with competition beginning Feb. 13. Training for the two-woman event starts Feb. 15, with competition beginning Feb. 18.
So Meyers Taylor always had a chance to come back and compete. She posted a video on Twitter on Saturday, showing her lifting a huge barbell in what she called an “isolation hotel workout.”
“Fortunately I have a lot of friends internationally,“ she said during her TV appearance. “They’ve been sending me notes on the track and doing different things like that. I also have tons of video from our coaches, who have just been doing everything they can to keep me engaged and keep me involved. So I’ve just been going over that as much as I can, watching video and doing whatever I can to stay ready.“
Meyers Taylor is the only woman to win three Olympic bobsled medals for the U.S.
U.S. women’s hockey team adjusts without Brianna Decker, wins second game 5-0
BEIJING — No matter what came at them, no matter how many of their pre-Olympic plans were shredded by the impact of the coronavirus, the mantra of the U.S. women’s hockey team has remained the same: Adjust and adapt.
Even though they were shaken when standout forward Brianna Decker suffered a ghastly left leg injury Thursday, they knew they had to adapt to the reality that she won’t return in the tournament. The richness of their talent will allow them to compensate for her absence. Their resolve is just as deep. It allowed them to adjust to the physical, defense-minded style the Russian Olympic Committee team favored Saturday, a distinct contrast to the speed-based game Finland had played in their Olympic opener.
“We know our character and we know our identity in the room,” forward Hilary Knight said. “But it’s good to test us and figure out how to work our way through a tournament with different obstacles and do it together. It was good to present ourselves with that obstacle, to say, ‘OK, how do we figure this out? How do we problem solve on the fly and find the back of the net and come home with the W?’”
The answers were simple: Be patient, and get people and pucks to the net. Held to one goal in each of the first two periods by the exceptional goaltending of Maria Sorokina, the Americans manufactured three goals in the third period to earn a 5-0 victory Saturday in preliminary round play at Wukesong Sports Centre. U.S. goaltender Nicole Hensley faced 12 shots; Sorokina and Daria Gredzen — who took over for Sorokina after the fifth U.S. goal — faced 62 shots.
Shaun White ready to retire; first medals won: Olympics Day 2 recap
Shaun White didn’t compete Saturday, but the prolific halfpipe snowboarder made news by announcing he’s planning to retire from the sport after the Olympics.
“A sad and surreal moment,” White told reporters in Zhangjiakou, China. “But joyous, as well. I kind of reflected on things I’ve done and looked at the sun going down and went, ‘Wow, next time I’m here, I won’t be stressed about learning tricks or worried about some competition thing.’”
White, 35, is trying to win his fourth gold medal in his fifth Olympic games. The men’s halfpipe competition begins Wednesday.
Here’s a recap of what happened overnight during the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing:
Norway wins first gold medal of the Beijing Games
Irene Schouten breaks Olympic record, wins gold
China wins its first gold medal of Beijing Olympics
Norway wins gold in the biathlon mixed relay
China wins its first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics
China won its first gold of the Beijing Games, emerging victorious in the mixed team relay at short track speedskating in the event’s Olympic debut.
Wu Dajing edged Italy’s Pietro Sighel by .016 second. That’s half a skate blade. Hungary earned bronze.
Qu Chunyu, Fan Kexin and Ren Ziwei joined Wu for the historic victory. The small number of Chinese fans at Capital Indoor Arena cheered and waved tiny flags.
The results were delayed while the referee reviewed the race. Canada was penalized for pushing from behind and causing contact with Hungary.
China was the favorite coming in, having led the World Cup standings this season.
Sweden ends Canada’s gold-medal dominance in men’s freestyle moguls
Walter Wallberg of Sweden dethroned the so-called King of Moguls to take home gold in the freestyle skiing men’s moguls.
The Swede looked almost in shock when his score of 83.23 flashed on the scoreboard, edging that of defending Olympic champion Mikael Kingsbury of Canada. Wallberg picked up points for his speed over the smooth and technical skiing style of Kingsbury, who ended up with silver.
Ikuma Horishima of Japan took home the bronze.
Wallberg’s surprise victory interrupts the men’s moguls dominance of Team Canada, which had won the last three gold medals in the event. It was Wallberg’s first major win — the 21-year-old has never even won a World Cup event.
Slovenia earns gold and bronze in women’s ski jumping
Slovenia’s Ursa Bogataj won Olympic gold in women’s ski jumping, floating 100 meters (328 feet) with 121 points on the final jump.
Katharina Althaus of Germany won silver for the second straight Olympics, and Bogataj’s fellow Slovenian Nika Kriznar took bronze. Japan’s Sara Takanashi entered as one of the favorites but finished fourth.
Takanashi had won a record 61 World Cup events and earned bronze four years ago in South Korea. 2018’s gold medalist, Maren Lundby, did not participate this year. The top-ranked woman in World Cup standings, Austrian Marita Kramer, could not compete after testing positive for COVID-19.
Beijing Winter Olympics medal winners
Here’s a rundown of every medal winner so far at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games:
(Updated Feb. 19 at 11 p.m. PST)
Men’s Alpine skiing combined
🥇 Gold — Johannes Strolz (Austria)
🥈 Silver — Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (Norway)
🥉 Bronze — Jack Crawford (Canada)
Women’s Alpine skiing combined
🥇 Gold — Michelle Gisin (Switzerland)
🥈 Silver — Wendy Holdener (Switzerland)
🥉 Bronze — Federica Brignone (Italy)
Men’s Alpine skiing downhill
🥇 Gold — Beat Feuz (Switzerland)
🥈 Silver — Johan Clarey (France)
🥉 Bronze — Matthias Mayer (Austria)
Men’s Alpine skiing giant slalom
🥇 Gold — Marco Odermatt (Switzerland)
🥈 Silver — Zan Kranjec (Slovenia)
🥉 Bronze — Mathieu Faivre (France)
Women’s Alpine skiing downhill
🥇 Gold — Corinne Suter (Switzerland)
🥈 Silver — Sofia Goggia (Italy)
🥉 Bronze — Nadia Delago (Italy)
Women’s Alpine skiing giant slalom
🥇 Gold — Sara Hector (Sweden)
🥈 Silver — Federica Brignone (Italy)
🥉 Bronze — Lara Gut-Behrami (Switzerland)
Men’s Alpine skiing slalom
🥇 Gold — Clement Noel (France)
🥈 Silver — Johannes Strolz (Austria)
🥉 Bronze — Sebastian Foss-Solevaag (Norway)
Women’s Alpine skiing slalom
🥇 Gold — Petra Vlhova (Slovakia)
🥈 Silver — Katharina Liensberger (Austria)
🥉 Bronze — Wendy Holdener (Switzerland)
Women’s Alpine skiing super-G
🥇 Gold — Lara Gut-Behrami (Switzerland)
🥈 Silver — Mirjam Puchner (Austria)
🥉 Bronze — Michelle Gisin (Switzerland)
Men’s Alpine skiing super-G
🥇 Gold — Matthias Mayer (Austria)
🥈 Silver — Ryan Cochran-Siegle (United States)
🥉 Bronze — Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (Norway)
Mixed Alpine skiing parallel team
🥇 Gold — Austria
🥈 Silver — Germany
🥉 Bronze — Norway
Women’s biathlon 6-kilometer relay
🥇 Gold — Sweden (Elvira Oeberg, Linn Persson, Mona Brorsson, Hanna Oeberg)
🥈 Silver — Russia
🥉 Bronze — Germany
Biathlon 6-kilometer mixed relay
🥇 Gold — Norway (Marte Olsbu Roeiseland, Tiril Eckhoff, Tarjei Boe, Johannes Thingnes Boe)
🥈 Silver — France (Anais Chevalier-Bouchet, Julia Simon, Emilien Jacquelin, Quentin Fillon Maillet)
🥉 Bronze — Russian Olympic Committee (Uliana Nigmatullina, Kristina Reztsova, Alexander Loginov, Eduard Latypov)
Women’s biathlon 7.5-kilometer sprint
🥇 Gold — Marte Olsbu Roeiseland (Norway)
🥈 Silver — Elvira Oeberg (Sweden)
🥉 Bronze —Dorothea Wierer (Italy)
Men’s biathlon 10-kilometer sprint
🥇 Gold — Johannes Thingnes Boe
🥈 Silver — Quentin Fillon Maillet (France)
🥉 Bronze —Tarjei Boe (Norway)
Men’s biathlon 12.5-kilometer pursuit
🥇 Gold — Quentin Fillon Maillet (France)
🥈 Silver — Tarjei Boe (Norway)
🥉 Bronze — Eduard Latypov (Russian Olympic Committee)
Women’s biathlon 12.5-kilometer mass start
🥇 Gold — Justine Braisaz-Bouchet (France)
🥈 Silver — Tiril Eckhoff (Norway)
🥉 Bronze — Marte Olsbu Roeiseland (Norway)
Men’s biathlon 15-kilometer mass start
🥇 Gold — Johannes Thinges Boe (Norway)
🥈 Silver — Martin Ponsiluoma (Sweden)
🥉 Bronze — Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen (Norway)
Men’s biathlon 20-kilometer individual
🥇 Gold — Quentin Fillon Maillet (France)
🥈 Silver — Anton Smolski (Belarus)
🥉 Bronze —Johannes Thingnes Boe (Norway)
Women’s biathlon 15-kilometer individual
🥇 Gold — Denise Herrmann (Germany)
🥈 Silver — Anais Chevalier-Bouchet (France)
🥉 Bronze — Marte Olsbu Roeiseland (Norway)
Women’s biathlon 10-kilometer pursuit
🥇 Gold — Marte Olsbu Roeiseland (Norway)
🥈 Silver — Elvira Oeberg (Sweden)
🥉 Bronze — Tiril Eckhoff (Norway)
Men’s biathlon four-man relay
🥇 Gold — Norway
🥈 Silver — France
🥉 Bronze — Russia
Two-man bobsled
🥇 Gold — Francesco Friedrich/Thorsten Margis (Germany)
🥈 Silver — Johannes Lochner/Florian Bauer (Germany)
🥉 Bronze — Christoph Hafer/Matthias Sommer (Germany)
Two-woman bobsled
🥇 Gold — Laura Nolte/Deborah Levi (Germany)
🥈 Silver — Mariama Jamanka/Alexandra Burghardt (Germany)
🥉 Bronze — Elana Meyers Taylor/Sylvia Hoffman (United States)
Four-man bobsled
🥇 Gold — Francesco Friedrich (Germany)
🥈 Silver — Johannes Lochner (Germany)
🥉 Bronze — Justin Kripps (Canada)
Women’s bobsledding, monobob
🥇 Gold — Kaillie Humphries (United States)
🥈 Silver — Elana Meyers Taylor (United States)
🥉 Bronze — Christine de Bruin (Canada)
Men’s cross-country skiing team sprint classic
🥇 Gold — Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo/Erik Valnes (Norway)
🥈 Silver — Joni Maki/Iivo Niskanen (Finland)
🥉 Bronze — Alexander Terenteva/Alexander Bolshunov (Russian Olympic Committee)
Women’s cross-country skiing team sprint classic
🥇 Gold — Victoria Carl/Katharina Henning (Germany)
🥈 Silver — Jonna Sundling/Maja Dahlqvist (Sweden)
🥉 Bronze — Natalia Nepryaeva/Yulia Stupak (Russian Olympic Committee)
Men’s cross-country skiing 15-kilometer classic
🥇 Gold — Iivo Niskanen (Finland)
🥈 Silver — Alexander Bolshunov (Russian Olympic Committee)
🥉 Bronze — Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (Norway)
Women’s cross-country skiing 10-kilometer classic
🥇 Gold — Therese Johaug (Norway)
🥈 Silver — Kerttu Niskanen (Finland)
🥉 Bronze — Krista Parmakoski (Finland)
Men’s cross-country skiing sprint
🥇 Gold — Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (Norway)
🥈 Silver — Federico Pellegrino (Italy)
🥉 Bronze — Alexander Terenteva (Russian Olympic Committee)
Men’s cross-country skiing sprint
🥇 Gold — Jonna Sundling (Sweden)
🥈 Silver — Maja Dahlqvist (Sweden)
🥉 Bronze — Jessie Diggins (United States)
Men’s cross-country 15-kilometer skiathlon
🥇 Gold —Alexander Bolshunov (Russian Olympic Committee)
🥈 Silver — Denis Spitsov (Russian Olympic Committee)
🥉 Bronze — Iivo Niskanen (Finland)
Women’s cross-country 15-kilometer skiathlon
🥇 Gold — Therese Johaug (Norway)
🥈 Silver — Natalia Nepryaeva (Russian Olympic Committee)
🥉 Bronze — Teresa Stadlober (Austria)
Men’s cross-country skiing 50-kilometer mass start free
🥇 Gold — Alexander Bolshunov (Russian Olympic Committee)
🥈 Silver — Ivan Yakimushkin (Russian Olympic Committee)
🥉 Bronze — Simen Hegstad Krueger (Norway)
Women’s cross-country skiing 30-kilometer mass start free
🥇 Gold — Therese Johaug (Norway)
🥈 Silver — Jessie Diggins (United States)
🥉 Bronze — Kerttu Niskanen (Finland)
Men’s cross-country 10-kilometer relay
🥇 Gold — Russian Olympic Committee
🥈 Silver — Norway
🥉 Bronze — France
Women’s cross-country 5-kilometer relay
🥇 Gold — Russian Olympic Committee (Yulia Stupak, Natalia Nepryaeva, Tatiana Sorina, Veronika Stepanova)
🥈 Silver — Germany (Katherine Sauerbrey, Katharina Hennig, Victoria Carl, Sofie Krehl)
🥉 Bronze — Sweden (Maja Dahlqvist, Ebba Andersson, Frida Karlsson, Jonna Sundling)
Men’s curling
🥇 Gold — Sweden
🥈 Silver — Great Britain
🥉 Bronze — Canada
Women’s curling
🥇 Gold — Great Britain
🥈 Silver — Japan
🥉 Bronze — Sweden
Mixed doubles curling
🥇 Gold — Italy (Amos Mosaner, Stefania Constantin)
🥈 Silver — Norway (Kristin Skaslien, Magnus Nedregotten)
🥉 Bronze — Sweden
Men’s figure skating
🥇 Gold — Nathan Chen (United States)
🥈 Silver — Yuma Kagiyama (Japan)
🥉 Bronze — Shoma Uno (Japan)
Women’s figure skating
🥇 Gold — Anna Shcherbakova (Russian Olympic Committee)
🥈 Silver — Alexandra Trusova (Russian Olympic Committee)
🥉 Bronze — Kaori Sakamato (Japan)
Pairs figure skating
🥇 Gold — Sui Wenjing/Han Cong (China)
🥈 Silver — Evgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov (Russian Olympic Committee)
🥉 Bronze — Anastasia Mishina/Aleksandr Galliamov (Russian Olympic Committee)
Team figure skating
🥇 Gold — Russian Olympic Committee
🥈 Silver — United States
🥉 Bronze — Japan
Figure skating ice dance — Free dance
🥇 Gold — Guillaume Cizeron/Gabriella Papadakis (France)
🥈 Silver — Nikita Katsalapov/Victoria Sinitsina (ROC)
🥉 Bronze — Zach Donohue/Madison Hubbell (USA)
Men’s freestyle skiing aerials
🥇 Gold — Qi Guangpu (China)
🥈 Silver — Oleksandr Abramenko (Ukraine)
🥉 Bronze — Ilia Burov (Russian Olympic Committee)
Women’s freestyle skiing aerials
🥇 Gold — Xu Mengtao (China)
🥈 Silver — Hanna Huskova (Belarus)
🥉 Bronze — Megan Nick (United States)
Mixed team freestyle skiing aerials
🥇 Gold — United States (Ashley Caldwell, Christopher Lillis, Justin Schoenefeld)
🥈 Silver — China
🥉 Bronze — Canada
Men’s freestyle skiing big air
🥇 Gold — Birk Ruud (Norway)
🥈 Silver — Colby Stevenson (United States)
🥉 Bronze — Henrik Harlaut (Sweden)
Women’s freestyle skiing big air
🥇 Gold — Eileen Gu (China)
🥈 Silver — Tess Ledeux (France)
🥉 Bronze — Mathilde Gremaud (Switzerland)
Women’s freestyle skiing halfpipe
🥇 Gold — Eileen Gu (China)
🥈 Silver — Cassie Sharpe (Canada)
🥉 Bronze — Rachael Karker (Canada)
Men’s freestyle skiing halfpipe
🥇 Gold — Nico Porteous (New Zealand)
🥈 Silver — David Wise (United States)
🥉 Bronze — Alex Ferreira (United States)
Women’s freestyle skiing slopestyle
🥇 Gold — Mathilde Gremaud (Switzerland)
🥈 Silver — Eileen Gu (China)
🥉 Bronze — Kelly Sildaru (Estonia)
Men’s freestyle skiing slopestyle
🥇 Gold — Alex Hall (United States)
🥈 Silver — Nick Goepper (United States)
🥉 Bronze — Jesper Tjader (Sweden)
Men’s freestyle skiing moguls
🥇 Gold — Walter Wallberg (Sweden)
🥈 Silver — Mikael Kingsbury (Canada)
🥉 Bronze — Ikuma Horishima (Japan)
Women’s freestyle skiing moguls
🥇 Gold — Jakara Anthony (Australia)
🥈 Silver — Jaelin Kauf (United States)
🥉 Bronze — Anastasiia Smirnova (Russian Olympic Committee)
Women’s freestyle skiing skicross
🥇 Gold — Sandra Naeslund (Sweden)
🥈 Silver — Marielle Thompson (Canada)
🥉 Bronze — Daniela Maier (Germany)
Men’s freestyle skiing skicross Big
🥇 Gold — Ryan Regez (Switzerland)
🥈 Silver — Alex Fiva (Switzerland)
🥉 Bronze — Sergey Ridzik (Russian Olympic Committee)
Men’s ice hockey
🥇 Gold — Finland
🥈 Silver — Russian Olympic Committee
🥉 Bronze — Slovakia
Women’s ice hockey
🥇 Gold — Canada
🥈 Silver — United States
🥉 Bronze — Finland
Luge doubles
🥇 Gold — Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt (Germany)
🥈 Silver — Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken (Germany)
🥉 Bronze — Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller (Austria)
Luge relay
🥇 Gold — Germany ( Johannes Ludwig, Natalie Geisenberger, Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt)
🥈 Silver — Austria
🥉 Bronze — Latvia
Men’s luge singles
🥇 Gold — Johannes Ludwig (Germany)
🥈 Silver — Wolfgang Kindl (Austria)
🥉 Bronze — Dominik Fischnaller (Italy)
Women’s luge singles
🥇 Gold — Natalie Geisenberger (Germany)
🥈 Silver — Anna Berreiter (Germany)
🥉 Bronze — Tatiana Ivanova (Russian Olympic Committee)
Nordic combined individual normal hill / 10K
🥇 Gold — Vinzenz Geiger (Germany)
🥈 Silver — Joergen Graabak (Norway)
🥉 Bronze — Lukas Greiderer (Austria)
Nordic combined individual large hill / 10K
🥇 Gold — Joergen Graabak (Norway)
🥈 Silver — Jens Luraas Oftebro (Norway)
🥉 Bronze — Akito Watabe (Japan)
Nordic combined team large hill / 5K
🥇 Gold — Norway
🥈 Silver — Germany
🥉 Bronze — Japan
Mixed team ski jumping
🥇 Gold — Slovenia (Ursa Bogataj, Nika Kriznar, Peter Prevc and Timi Zajc)
🥈 Silver — Russian Olympic Committee
🥉 Bronze — Canada
Women’s normal hill ski jumping
🥇 Gold — Ursa Bogataj (Slovenia)
🥈 Silver — Katharina Althaus (Germany)
🥉 Bronze — Nika Kriznar (Slovenia)
Men’s large hill ski jumping
🥇 Gold — Marius Lindvik (Norway)
🥈 Silver — Ryoyu Kobayashi (Japan)
🥉 Bronze — Karl Geiger (Germany)
Men’s ski jumping team
🥇 Gold — Austria (Manuel Fettner, Stefan Kraft, Daniel Huber,Jan Hoerl)
🥈 Silver — Slovenia
🥉 Bronze — Germany
Men’s snowboard cross
🥇 Gold — Alessandro Haemmerle (Austria)
🥈 Silver — Eliot Grondin (Canada)
🥉 Bronze — Omar Visintin (Italy)
Women’s snowboard cross
🥇 Gold — Lindsey Jacobellis (United States)
🥈 Silver — Chloe Trespeuch (France)
🥉 Bronze — Meryeta Odine (Canada)
Mixed snowboard cross
🥇 Gold — United States (Nick Baumgartner, Lindsey Jacobellis)
🥈 Silver — Italy (Omar Visintin, Michaela Moioli)
🥉 Bronze — Canada (Eliot Grondin, Meryeta Odine)
Women’s snowboard halfpipe
🥇 Gold — Chloe Kim (United States)
🥈 Silver — Queralt Castellet (Spain)
🥉 Bronze — Sena Tomita (Japan)
Men’s snowboard parallel giant slalom
🥇 Gold — Benjamin Karl (Austria)
🥈 Silver — Tim Mastnak (Slovenia)
🥉 Bronze — Vic Wild (Russian Olympic Committee)
Women’s snowboard parallel giant slalom
🥇 Gold — Ester Ledecka (Czech Republic)
🥈 Silver — Daniela Ulbing (Austria)
🥉 Bronze — Gloria Kotnik (Slovenia)
Men’s snowboard halfpipe
🥇 Gold — Ayumu Hirano (Japan)
🥈 Silver — Scotty James (Australia)
🥉 Bronze — Jan Scherrer (Switzerland)
Men’s snowboard slopestyle
🥇 Gold — Max Parrot (Canada)
🥈 Silver — Su Yiming (China)
🥉 Bronze — Mark McMorris (Canada)
Women’s snowboard slopestyle
🥇 Gold — Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (New Zealand)
🥈 Silver — Julia Marino (United States)
🥉 Bronze — Tess Coady (Australia)
Men’s snowboard big air
🥇 Gold — Su Yiming (China)
🥈 Silver — Mons Roisland (Norway)
🥉 Bronze — Max Parrot (Canada)
Women’s snowboard big air
🥇 Gold — Anna Gasser (Austria)
🥈 Silver — Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (New Zealand)
🥉 Bronze — Kokomo Murase (Japan)
Women’s short-track speedskating 500 meters
🥇 Gold — Arianna Fontana (Italy)
🥈 Silver — Suzanne Schulting (Netherlands)
🥉 Bronze — Kim Boutin (Canada)
Women’s short-track speedskating 1,000 meters
🥇 Gold — Suzanne Schulting (Netherlands)
🥈 Silver — Choi Minjeong (South Korea)
🥉 Bronze — Hanne Desmet (Belgium)
Women’s short-track speedsking 1,500 meters
🥇 Gold — Choi Minjeong (South Korea)
🥈 Silver — Arianna Fontana (Italy)
🥉 Bronze — Suzanne Schulting (Netherlands)
Women’s short-track speedskating 3,000-meter relay
🥇 Gold — Netherlands (Suzanne Schulting, Selma Poutsma, Xandra Velzeboer, Yara van Kerkhof)
🥈 Silver — South Korea
🥉 Bronze — China
Men’s short-track speedskating 1,000 meters
🥇 Gold — Ren Ziwei (China)
🥈 Silver — Li Wenlong (China)
🥉 Bronze — Liu Shaoang (Hungary)
Men’s short-track speedskating 1,500 meters
🥇 Gold — Hwang Daeheon (South Korea)
🥈 Silver — Steven Dubois (Canada)
🥉 Bronze — Semen Elistratov (Russian Olympic Committee)
Men’s short-track speedskating 5,000-meter relay
🥇 Gold — Canada (Charles Hamelin, Steven Dubois, Jordan Pierre-Gilles, Pascal Dion)
🥈 Silver — South Korea
🥉 Bronze — Italy
Mixed short-track speedskating relay
🥇 Gold — China (Fan Kexin, Qu Chunyu, Ren Ziwei, Wu Dajing)
🥈 Silver — Italy (Arianna Fontana, Martina Valcepina, Pietro Sighel, Andrea Cassinelli)
🥉 Bronze — Hungary (Petra Jaszapati, Zsofia Konya, Shaoang Liu, Shaolin Sandor Liu)
Men’s speedskating team pursuit
🥇 Gold — Norway (Hallgeir Engebraaten, Peder Kongshaug, Sverre Lunde Pederse)
🥈 Silver — Russian Olympic Committee
🥉 Bronze — United States
Women’s speedskating team pursuit
🥇 Gold — Canada (Ivanie Blondin, Valerie Maltais, Isabelle Weideman)
🥈 Silver — Japan
🥉 Bronze — Netherlands
Women’s speedskating 500 meters
🥇 Gold — Erin Jackson (United States)
🥈 Silver — Miho Takagi (Japan)
🥉 Bronze — Angelina Golikova (Russian Olympic Committee)
Women’s speedskating 1,000 meters
🥇 Gold — Miho Takagi (Japan)
🥈 Silver — Jutta Leerdam (Netherlands)
🥉 Bronze — Brittany Bowe (United States)
Men’s skeleton
🥇 Gold — Christopher Grotheer (Germany)
🥈 Silver — Axel Jungk (Germany)
🥉 Bronze — Wengang Yan (China)
Women’s skeleton
🥇 Gold — Hannah Neise (Germany)
🥈 Silver — Jaclyn Narracott (Australia)
🥉 Bronze — Kimberley Bos (Netherlands)
Men’s speedskating 1,000 meters
🥇 Gold —Thomas Krol (Netherlands)
🥈 Silver — Laurent Dubreuil (Canada)
🥉 Bronze — Haavard Holmefjord Lorentzen (Norway)
Men’s speedskating 1,500 meters
🥇 Gold — Kjeld Nuis (Netherlands)
🥈 Silver — Thomas Krol (Netherlands)
🥉 Bronze — Kim Minseok (South Korea)
Women’s speedskating 1,500 meters
🥇 Gold — Ireen Wüst (Netherlands)
🥈 Silver — Miho Takagi (Japan)
🥉 Bronze — Antoinette de Jong (Netherlands)
Women’s speedskating 3,000 meters
🥇 Gold — Irene Schouten (Netherlands)
🥈 Silver — Francesca Lollobrigida (Italy)
🥉 Bronze — Isabelle Weidemann (Canada)
Men’s speedskating 5,000 meters
🥇 Gold — Nils van der Poel (Sweden)
🥈 Silver — Patrick Roest (Netherlands)
🥉 Bronze — Hallgeir Engebraaten (Norway)
Women’s speedskating 5,000 meters
🥇 Gold — Irene Schouten (Netherlands)
🥈 Silver — Isabelle Weidemann (Canada)
🥉 Bronze — Martina Sablikova (Czech Republic)
Men’s speedskating 10,000 meters
🥇 Gold — Nils van der Poel (Sweden)
🥈 Silver — Patrick Roest (Netherlands)
🥉 Bronze — Davide Ghiotto (Italy)
Men’s speedskating 500 meters
🥇 Gold — Tingyu Gao (China)
🥈 Silver — Min Kyu Cha (South Korea)
🥉 Bronze — Wataru Morishige (Japan)
Norway wins gold in the biathlon mixed relay
Norway won gold in the biathlon mixed relay, beating France and the Russian team in the first biathlon event of the Beijing Olympics.
Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway, Quentin Fillon Maillet of France and Eduard Latypov of the Russian team left the range close together after the last round of shooting and raced for position until the final stretch, when Boe sprinted for the win.
Norway, which came into the relay as the World Cup leader, also got strong performances from Marte Olsbu Roeiseland and Tarjei Boe. But they trailed early in the race when Tiril Eckhoff struggled.
Fillon Maillet was joined on the French team by Emilien Jacquelin, Julia Simon and Anais Chevalier-Bouchet. The Russian team of Uliana Nigmatullina, Kristina Reztsova, Alexander Loginov and Latypov were leading after the last handoff, but France and Norway caught them on the range.
Shaun White says Beijing Games will be his final Olympics
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — This really is it for Shaun White.
The three-time gold medalist made it clear that not only will the Beijing Games be his last Olympics, they’ll mark his final contest, too.
During a reflective, sometimes emotional news conference Saturday, not far from the halfpipe where he’ll take his last competitive ride, the 35-year-old said that, yes, he’ll be hanging ’em up for good after the medal round next week.
“In my mind, I’ve decided this will be my last competition,” he said.
It’s a decision that’s been building since a soul-sucking training stop in Austria in November. He was dealing with nagging remnants from injuries to his knee ... and back ... and ankle. He got lost on the mountain with the sun going down. It was one of those rare times when snowboarding didn’t feel fun anymore.
“A sad and surreal moment,” he called it. “But joyous, as well. I kind of reflected on things I’ve done and looked at the sun going down and went, ‘Wow, next time I’m here, I won’t be stressed about learning tricks or worried about some competition thing.’”
He is soaking in every moment on this fifth trip to the Olympics, and over his 45-minute session with the media, he fielded an equal number of questions about his past as about what’s to come over the next seven days and beyond.
“I have some runs in my head that I’d like to do,” he said. “And it’s all about visualizing and making that happen the ‘day of.’”
Irene Schouten breaks Olympic record, wins gold for the Netherlands in speedskating
Irene Schouten gave the mighty Dutch a gold in the first speedskating event of the Beijing Winter Games, breaking a 20-year-old Olympic record in the women’s 3,000 meters.
Skating in the last of 10 pairs, Schouten turned in a blazing final lap to post a winning time of 3 minutes, 56.93 seconds.
That broke the previous Olympic mark of 3:57.70, set by Germany’s Claudia Pechstein at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
In a fitting bookend to the event, Pechstein skated in the opening pair to become the oldest female athlete in Olympic history at age 49. The German finished last — more than 20 seconds behind the winner.
Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida, pushing Schouten all the way in the final pair, held on for the silver in 3:58.06.
The bronze went to Canada’s Isabelle Weidemann in 3:58.64.
Claudia Pechstein becomes oldest woman to compete in Winter Olympics
Germany’s Claudia Pechstein became the oldest woman to compete at a Winter Olympics. The 49-year-old raced in the 3,000 meters, the opening event of the speedskating competition at the Ice Ribbon.
She is the second athlete — and first woman — to compete in eight Winter Games.
Pechstein’s career includes nine Olympic medals and a two-year doping ban, which she continues to fight in court. She tied Japanese ski jumper Noriaki Kasai for the most Winter Olympics.
Pechstein, who turns 50 two days after the end of the Beijing Games, finished with a time of 4 minutes, 17.16 seconds in the opening pair of the event. That was nearly 20 seconds off the Olympic record (3:57.70) she held from the 2002 Salt Lake City Games that was broken by gold-medal winner Irene Schouten of the Netherlands on Saturday. She won her first medals at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.
High winds force cancellation of men’s downhill training session
BEIJING — High winds forced the cancellation Saturday of the third and final training session in the men’s downhill at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre.
Three skiers completed their runs before officials ended the session. Referee Markus Waldner said the gusts picked up suddenly.
“This is dangerous,” he said. “It’s unpredictable. We cannot handle this. These wind gusts are coming so fast.”
Waldner believes the forecast for Sunday’s final is promising. It calls for the wind to die down around the 11 a.m. start (7 p.m. Pacific time Saturday). Temperatures could still feel like almost eight degrees below zero at the downhill start, however.
“You’re going to need some luck on your side to not get totally screwed by the wind,” said Bryce Bennett, one of three U.S. entries in the event along with Travis Ganong and Ryan Cochran-Siegle. “It’s a pretty unique downhill in that sense because we’re not used to dealing with that much wind.”
The mountains that host Alpine skiing events at the 2022 Olympics receive very little snow each year, but U.S. skiers are embracing the challenge.
Norway wins first gold medal of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games
Cross-country skier Therese Johaug of Norway won the first gold medal of the Beijing Games in the women’s 15-meter skiathlon.
Johaug fought wind and frigid temperatures to win by skiing away from a chase group of four.
Russian athlete Natalia Nepryaeva, the current overall World Cup leader, pulled away from the group on the last climb to take the silver. Teresa Stadlober of Austria followed just behind for the bronze medal. American Jessie Diggins finished in sixth place.
The skiathlon was a mass-start race that began with 7.5 kilometers of classic skiing. After striding two laps around the 3.75-kilometer course, racers came through the stadium and quickly switched to skate skis before heading out for another two laps.
Johaug crossed the line with her arms in the air and a huge smile on her face. She has 10 world championship titles but has never won an individual Olympic medal.
Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a skier from China’s Uyghur community who helped deliver the Olympic flame to Beijing Games opening ceremony, placed 43rd.
Beijing Olympic official: Positive coronavirus cases ‘within our expectations’
BEIJING — Winter Olympics organizers reported 45 new coronavirus cases Saturday, including 20 from athletes and team officials after testing on arrival at Beijing Capital International Airport.
Most of the cases at the Games since Jan. 23 — 232 out of 353 — have come from arrival testing. The other cases are from daily tests required of every person inside the closed loop.
“In general, the overall number is increasing, but it is within our expectation,” Huang Chun, deputy director general of the organizers’ Pandemic Presentation and Control Office, said Saturday during the daily press briefing. “We think the numbers will start to decrease.”
The numbers reported Saturday were unusual since the 20 athletes and team officials who tested positive came out of just 138 airport arrivals. That’s a vastly higher positive percentage than the roughly 1.8% of arrivals in all categories who have tested positive. The reason for the increase isn’t clear.
Three Americans overcome difficult conditions to advance to women’s snowboard slopestyle final
BEIJING — Hailey Langland earned her first snowboarding sponsorship before she turned 10 and made her Olympic debut before she could vote. But the X Games gold medalist and two-time Olympian, whose resume suggests experience beyond her 21 years, is still learning tricks of her trade.
The latest tip: hand warmers.
Langland recently started using the palm-sized packets of heat relief and not a moment too soon considering temperatures at Genting Snow Park during Saturday’s women’s snowboard slopestyle qualifications were in the low single digits.
With toe warmers tucked into her boots, Langland, a San Clemente native, punched her ticket to the final with a clutch second run that put her ninth. She was one of three American women to advance to Sunday’s 12-rider, three-run final, which will take place Sunday at 9:30 a.m. (5:30 p.m. PST on Saturday).
“The conditions are pretty gnarly,” Langland said, “so I’m happy to be walking away in one piece.”
Jamie Anderson, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the event, was the top American qualifier at fifth with a first-run score of 74.35. Like Langland, Julia Marino also fought back from a first-run fall to qualify sixth. First-time Olympian Courtney Rummel missed the qualifying cut by finishing 17th.
New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski Synnott was the top qualifier with a score of 86.75, followed by Kokomo Murase of Japan and Enni Rukajarvi of Finland.
The combination of temperatures hovering close to three degrees Fahrenheit, unpredictable winds that made it feel closer to minus-15 and man-made snow that is as forgiving as concrete made for difficult qualifying conditions. Anderson is still recovering from a crash she took in training Friday that left her with a large bruise on her backside.
“It sucks,” Anderson said of the conditions. “It’s cold, it’s hard to keep your core temperature warm, and then doing tricks feels a little bit more intimidating. You’re just like a little bit stiff. But we can do it.”
Anderson adjusted quickly with a clean first run that put her in second place halfway through qualifications. She could still breathe easily with the solid starting score despite a fall on the final jump of her second run.
Marino and Langland didn’t have the same comfort. Marino fell on her first rail trick on her first run while Langland stumbled on her first jump. Langland immediately felt her heart rate spike after the failed attempt as she debated whether to water down her run to ensure a clean attempt and a chance at the final.
“For me, I think it’s just thinking about what I’m doing and trying to stick to that plan,” Langland said. “And even if things go wrong like they kind of did on my run, it’s try to find a solution and just keep fighting.”
On top of the conditions, athletes were facing what Marino called “one of the most technical courses I’ve ever ridden.” The slopestyle course includes a unique house feature that several athletes used by riding across the roof and twisted jump takeoffs that Marino has only seen once. That was in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games when she finished 11th.
Marino was determined to at least match her finals appearance from four years ago so when she fell on her first run, the Westport, Conn., native felt a surge of pressure. Before a run, she would typically assess the wind conditions to establish her approach, but she felt so locked in before her second attempt Saturday that she completely ignored the wind socks at the top of the course.
“I was just like I’m going to go for my run no matter what, I don’t care about the wind,” Marino said.
Mammoth’s culture and environment has produced many of the top U.S. snowboarders, and some of them will be competing for gold at the Beijing Olympics.
Marino was so focused on her goal of making the final that she didn’t even think about the intense chill at the top of the mountain. Only when she got to the bottom successfully did she start to register just how cold it was.
But the freezing temperatures weren’t enough to keep the smile off Marino’s face, an expression more of relief than pure joy.
Australia pouring itself an Olympic perk with team barista
If there is a sudden rush of Winter Olympic athletes trying to switch their nationality to Australian after the Beijing Games, we’ll know why.
The Aussies revealed this week that they brought a team barista to China.
“Coffee is a performance-enhancing stimulant,” cross-country skier Phil Bellingham said with a laugh. “So it’s great to have that winning edge on our side.”
It might sound like a joke but Geoff Lipshut, the team’s leader or chef de mission, insisted that caffeine can give athletes a boost in certain sports. Australia brought a barista to the Tokyo Games last summer and won 17 medals, tying its best effort ever.
Doing it again, Lipshut said, “seemed like a no-brainer.”
But sports science wasn’t the only reason for making coffee an official part of the team regimen.
“Given that our athletes have been on the road for a number of months travelling outside Australia, we have actually brought a Queensland barista who is serving them Australian coffee,” Lipshut said. “And it’s something they just love.”
Three men’s hockey players in COVID-19 protocol miss first Beijing practice
BEIJING — Three players missed the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team’s first practice in Beijing because they were in COVID-19 protocol.
Forward Andy Miele and defenseman Steven Kampfer were in protocol in Beijing but defenseman Jake Sanderson remained in Los Angeles, where the team had gathered and practiced before traveling to China. According to USA Hockey, all three are expected to clear protocols and return to the ice in the coming week. The U.S. men open play against China on Thursday.
Beijing Olympics open with a scene of calm amid the turmoil of reality
BEIJING — A crowd gathered on the stadium floor, dozens of people holding luminescent green poles, waving them overhead like giant blades of grass in a spring breeze.
A child blew on a dandelion, sending white seeds into the air as fireworks streamed through the night sky.
The opening ceremony for the 2022 Beijing Olympics featured no big dance numbers, no pop stars or professional actors. Organizers instead gathered a cast of common people from across China — many of them young — to convey a theme of community and pastoral calm.
Whether intentional or not, the message stood in contrast to a Games beset by noise and turmoil on all sides.
With a scattering of athletes, including some big names, already testing positive for the coronavirus, there are doubts about competition proceeding without major disruption. More important, activists worldwide have protested the decision to stage this event in a country accused of committing human rights abuses against Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.
New events at Beijing Olympics push extreme sports limits, promote gender equity
BEIJING — Big air lived up to its name in Pyeongchang. Organizers built the world’s biggest big air ramp for the 2018 Games in South Korea, where snowboarders got the first crack at bringing the heart-stopping X Games favorite to the Olympics. They twisted through the air like spinning tops and flipped as if gravity no longer applied. Fans packed the stands alongside the skyscraping structure.
Skier Maggie Voisin looked at the snowboarders ripping down the 160-foot-tall ramp and felt a tinge of jealousy. That, she thought to herself wistfully, looks like so much fun.
Four years later, the three-time Olympian can finally join in.
Freestyle skiing big air is one of seven events making its Olympic debut this year as the Games tries to expand its reach into extreme sports and promote gender equity. In addition to men’s and women’s freestyle skiing big air, the Olympics welcome mixed team events for freestyle aerial skiing, snowboard cross, short track relay and ski jumping and added a women’s monobob to the bobsled events.
Otherworldly feel of Alpine skiing venue a perfect fit for unusual Beijing Olympics
BEIJING — The downhill track resembles a narrow white river snaking through the Xiaohaituo Mountain Area’s windswept brown scrub that extends in all directions.
In a Winter Games where the unusual has become routine — participants are segregated from society by walls, scores of security guards and strict travel limits because of the coronavirus — the competition that starts with the men’s downhill Sunday at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre is no exception.
Sixty-six miles from the main cluster of venues, the mountains that host the 11 Alpine skiing events receive less than 8 inches of snow each year. The tracks of manmade snow lend an otherworldly feel to the barren area filled with canyons and large rocks that doesn’t resemble winter, other than biting cold and gusting wind.
“It reminds me of Baja if Baja was 40 degrees colder,” Travis Ganong, the U.S. downhiller from Lake Tahoe, said after his first training run.
Nathan Chen shines and a hockey star is injured: Olympics Day 1 recap
The opening ceremony marked the formal start of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, but there was plenty of competitive action before the Olympic cauldron was set alight.
In the highlight of Day 1, the United States took the lead in the figure skating team competition, with six-time national champion Nathan Chen setting a personal-best score with his short program. Here’s a recap of Chen’s remarkable performance and other story lines that emerged Thursday and Friday at the Games:
Nathan Chen shows graceful power with personal-best score at Olympics
U.S. women’s hockey star Brianna Decker out for rest of the Olympics
Which world leaders are heading to Beijing — and who’s staying home
Three U.S. men’s hockey players test positive for coronavirus
Beijing Olympics officially underway as opening ceremony concludes
Chinese President Xi Jinping declared the Beijing Games open during an opening ceremony heavy on ice-blue tones and winter imagery that was held in the same lattice-encased National Stadium that hosted the inaugural event at the 2008 Olympics.
Cross-country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang and Nordic combined competitor Zhao Jiawen — both competing for China in the Beijing Games — lighted the Olympic flame to conclude the opening ceremony. NBC reported on its telecast of the opening ceremony that Yilamujiang is part of the minority Uyghur Muslim community China has been accused of persecuting by the United States and other countries.
The parade of athletes lasted a little more than an hour and featured representatives from 91 nations, including about 80% of the U.S. delegation of athletes.
As always at an Olympics, Greece was the first nation to enter the stadium. From there, it goes alphabetically — but by the language of the host country.
The U.S. was 56th in the order, which would be confusing to those thinking it’ll go according to the English alphabet. The team of Russian athletes competing under the Olympic emblem and not the Russian flag, part of the sanctions handed down to that nation’s Olympic committee for doping scandals, walked into the stadium as Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was in attendance, clapped.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach spoke near the end of the opening ceremony, and thanked those who have gone “beyond the call of duty” to make the Olympics happen amid a global pandemic.
Bach talked about the Olympics highlighting “ambition, courage and strength.” He likened those qualities to what China has done to grow Olympic winter sports within its country.
Spectators starting to make their way into the ‘Bird’s Nest’ for opening ceremony
The Winter Olympics opening ceremony is scheduled to start at 4 a.m. PST (8 p.m. in Beijing), and spectators are filing into Beijing’s National Stadium.
Tickets to the event were not sold to the general public, but officials will let some spectators in — by invitation only. Some of these “closed loop” spectators were led into the stadium about an hour before the start of the festivities, which are expected to last about 90 minutes.
Spectators weren’t the only ones huddling for warmth before the opening ceremony started.
World leaders and the Beijing Games: Who’s coming, who’s not
BEIJING — The U.S., Britain and a handful of other nations are declining to send dignitaries to the Beijing Winter Games as part of a diplomatic boycott, but the Chinese capital is still attracting an array of world leaders for Friday’s opening ceremony.
A look at who’s attending, who’s staying away and why:
Attending
RUSSIA: President Vladimir Putin is meeting his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, ahead of the opening ceremony, underscoring closer ties between Beijing and Moscow as they both face Western criticism and pressure.
EGYPT AND SERBIA: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic have growing frictions with the West over their authoritarian policies and human rights records. Both leaders have gravitated toward China. Vucic called Xi his “brother” for supplying Serbia with respirators and COVID-19 vaccines.
Nearly 80% of U.S. Olympians signed up to take part in opening ceremony
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — About 80% of the U.S. team’s athletes signed up to go to Friday’s opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics, dimming any notion that they would skip the celebration in a show of protest.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said 177 of its 223 athletes wanted to go to the ceremony at the Bird’s Nest.
Not a single athlete who qualified chose not to come, leaving the political statements to the U.S. government, which will not send dignitaries to the Games in protest of China’s human-rights record and other issues.
At a news conference in Beijing, held hours before the opening, chief executive officer Sarah Hirshland said the athletes have been briefed — some of them multiple times — about the laws and customs of China and have been advised to make their own choices when it comes to protesting or demonstrating on Chinese soil.
The Beijing Olympics are officially set to begin Friday with the opening ceremony. Here’s how to watch and stream NBC’s coverage of the event.
“We want to make sure that the athletes understand the IOC guidelines and the rules of the games that they’re signing up for in that environment,” Hirshland said.
Chief of sport performance Rick Adams said that having nearly 80% of the delegation at the opening could be close to a record. It’s not uncommon for athletes to skip because they have competition the next day, are staying far away, or compete late in the Olympics and haven’t even arrived.
Back in the States, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decried China’s human-rights record, but said athletes should focus on their sports instead of speaking out.
“Do not risk incurring the anger of the Chinese government because they are ruthless,” Pelosi said.
Brianna Decker will miss rest of women’s Olympic hockey tournament
BEIJING — A spokesman for USA Hockey confirmed that forward Brianna Decker will miss the rest of the women’s Olympic hockey tournament as the result of a gruesome ankle injury she sustained early in the team’s tournament-opening 5-2 victory over Finland on Thursday.
Coach Joel Johnson declined to say after the game how significant a blow it would be to lose Decker, one of the team’s alternate captains, and said the team would know more “in the coming days.” USA Hockey said Friday that Decker won’t play again in Beijing but added she will stay here to support her teammates.
Decker, a three-time Olympian and member of the gold-medal-winning 2018 team, got tangled up with Finland defender Ronja Savolainen near the U.S. net. Decker screamed in pain several times before she was taken off the ice on a stretcher. She later was seen leaning on crutches and wearing a walking boot on her left foot. No penalty was called on the play.
U.S. beats Finland, 5-2, but devasting injury to Brianna Decker leaves players saddened as Olympic tournament gets underway.
Fans on social media protested the lack of a penalty, and many said Savolainen had slew-footed Decker. Johnson asked referees Kelly Cooke (an American) and Lacey Senuk (Canadian) if a penalty should have been called on the play. “They didn’t see anything. I saw it a little differently,” he said. “It just looked like an awkward situation that they saw just as people getting tangled up, and of course I’m biased and so I saw it a little differently. I don’t think it was a missed call by any means. I just think they saw it one way and unfortunately that happens in sport. It’s unfortunate.”
The U.S. was scheduled to have a day off on Friday. They next face athletes of the Russian Olympic Committee on Saturday at Wukesong Arena.
According to the Olympic information system, which gathers quotes from athletes after games, Savolainen said the injury was unintentional. “I didn’t see the situation. It was a fast game,” she said. “I heard her screaming and I knew that it was something bad. It was an unlucky situation.”
Savolainen spoke to Decker after the game. “I just asked how she was feeling and then I just said sorry. I didn’t want to hurt her,” Savolainen said.
Beijing Olympics sees a drop in new coronavirus cases on Friday
BEIJING — A day after the highest one-day total for coronavirus cases inside the Winter Olympics bubble, new cases dropped to 21 on Friday.
Nine of the cases came from athletes and team officials — the daily totals provided by organizers don’t break down the results by country or sport — with the remaining 12 from the wide-ranging “other stakeholders” group.
Since Jan. 23, 308 cases have been reported. The majority — 206 — are from tests taken when each credential-holder arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport.
Organizers reported 55 cases on Thursday. Every person inside the bubble is tested daily with a throat swab, amounting to more than 670,000 tests in the last two weeks.
Nathan Chen delivers highest score among men in team competition
BEIJING — Nathan Chen allowed himself a small laugh, a rare indulgence that was four years in the making.
Having banished the dread that strangled him at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and contributed to his glaring missteps in the short program phase of both the team and individual events, Chen was at his powerful, expressive best on Friday during his short program in the team event in Beijing. He was light but made a weighty statement by cleanly landing two quadruple jumps and compiling a personal-best score of 111.71 points. He was attentive to every detail in his performance to “La Boheme” at Capital Indoor Stadium but skated freely, fully present and enjoying each moment in ways he couldn’t enjoy them four years ago.
Chen, who trains at Great Park Ice in Irvine, had looked forward to this moment and was ready for it. That wasn’t true four years ago. The difference was apparent to no one more than Chen, the three-time world champion and six-time U.S. champion who was expected to boost the U.S. team’s hopes of exceeding its two bronze-medal finishes in the team event before he challenges two-time Olympic gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan for the men’s individual title.
Three U.S. men’s hockey players test positive for coronavirus
The U.S. men’s hockey team has held its first pre-Olympic practice in Beijing without two top defensemen and a veteran forward because they tested positive for the coronavirus.
Defenseman Jake Sanderson remains in Los Angeles. Defenseman Steven Kampfer and forward Andy Miele are isolating in the Olympic Village in Beijing.
USA Hockey hopes all three players will be available for the tournament, which begins Wednesday. The U.S. opens against host China on Thursday.
Players and coaches arrived just after midnight. Three goaltenders and 23 skaters were on the ice for practice with coach David Quinn and his assistants.
Canada canceled practice for a second consecutive day. No reason was given.
The real Olympic challenge: traveling with sleds, bulky gear and 20 pairs of skis
There are two types of Olympic athlete.
In the warm days of summer, gymnasts compete in skimpy outfits and bare feet. Sprinters wear skin-tight tops and shorts, often minus the socks. Divers require a Speedo, maybe one of those little towels to wipe off, nothing more.
At the frosty Winter Games, a snowboarder in a bulky jacket, pants and boots could stuff all three of those uniforms into his pockets.
Cold-weather sports require gloves and goggles and helmets, duffel bags bulging with hockey sticks, rifles for biathletes and four-man bobsleds the size of grand pianos. Downhill racers bring multiple pairs of skis for every conceivable type of snow and weather.
“Yeah, the Winter Games are equipment-heavy,” said Sara Studebaker-Hall, a former Olympian who, as operations director for USA Biathlon, helps current athletes with travel. “It’s plenty of luggage.”
COVID remains the most formidable, frightening foe at Beijing Olympics
BEIJING — The opening ceremony for the 2022 Winter Olympics is still days away, but the U.S. has already celebrated its first big win.
When a team charter departed Los Angeles International Airport last week, all of the expected athletes were on board. That means all 100 of them passed their pre-travel coronavirus tests.
“It has definitely been stressful,” said Brittany Bowe, a speedskater competing in her third Olympics. “You’re usually worried about being in perfect shape, but this year has added a whole new element of trying to stay healthy.”
Beijing was supposed to herald a return to normal, or something akin to normal, after the pandemic-related challenges of the Tokyo Olympics last summer. Worries were fading as vaccinations increased and case numbers declined. There was talk of arenas packed with cheering fans.
Then came the Omicron variant.
How many medals will the U.S. win during the Beijing Olympics? COVID could alter the forecast
BEIJING — The sprawling Olympic Green is lined with brightly lit trees, an enormous glowing statue of the Winter Games mascot, an ice suit-wearing panda named Bing Dwen Dwen, and synchronized light shows speed along the sides of the 846-foot Olympic Tower.
But the festive scene each night near several high-profile venues belies the pandemic-fueled uncertainty that permeates these Games.
Everyone is tested daily for the coronavirus inside the Olympic bubble that’s separated from the rest of society by high fences, security guards and surveillance cameras. Some staffers wear white hazmat suits. Temperatures are automatically scanned when entering buildings. News of the latest athlete to test positive and be whisked to an isolation facility trickles out through social media posts or brief written statements.
As organizers apply China’s zero-COVID policy to the Games that open Friday, no one knows how the 17-day celebration of winter sports will play out.
The U.S. contingent is projected to finish fourth in the medal standings, but the still-simmering virus and strict prevention measures could upend an event or team in an instant.
Figure skater Mariah Bell proud she never gave up on Olympic dream
Each time Mariah Bell lived in one place long enough to make new friends and explore her neighborhood, her father’s job in the oil and gas industry would send the family packing.
She was born in Tulsa, Okla., but as a child she also lived in the Houston area and in several places in Colorado and had more addresses than she probably can remember. “We were moving about every three or four years,” said Bell, whose parents split their time between Dallas and Switzerland. “I went to, like, four different elementary schools because we were moving around.”
Figure skating was a comforting constant in her life. The jumps and spins and spirals were the same everywhere she went, and she would immerse herself in performing them with her exquisite musicality and ethereal lightness. Skating became a common language no matter the local accent.
“Wherever we lived, I could always skate. That was a big part also of why I have such a love for skating — because it’s always felt like my home,” she said.
NBC’s Tokyo Olympics coverage left viewers hanging. This time it promises a ‘safety net’
A 16-hour time difference. An overloaded schedule spread across a complex array of channels. Disappointing performances from star athletes. Miserable weather. A resurgent pandemic. Empty stands. Political controversy. Social media spoilers.
NBCUniversal’s broadcast of the Tokyo Olympics last summer had numerous inspirational triumphs courtesy of gymnasts Simone Biles and Suni Lee, swimmer Katie Ledecky, sprinter Allyson Felix and several others.
But the highlight reel was accompanied by a flurry of complaints, with viewers expressing exasperation and confusion with the maze of viewing options across NBC, Peacock, USA Network, the Olympic Channel and other broadcast, cable and streaming platforms, making it difficult to pinpoint events. NBC’s primetime broadcast one evening showed a rugby match while top tennis star Naomi Osaka was playing live on the Olympic Channel.
How to watch the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony on Friday
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games officially start Friday with the traditional opening ceremony. Some events, including curling, hockey and luge are already underway in Beijing. The Games will run through Feb. 20 and 224 Americans are expected to compete.
Here’s a breakdown of everything you need to know about the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.
How to watch the opening ceremony
NBC and Peacock will broadcast the opening ceremony live, starting at 3:30 a.m. PST on Friday. NBC will also broadcast expanded coverage of the ceremony in prime time.
The event is scheduled to last about three hours. Here’s a breakdown of the broadcast times (all PDT):
Live opening ceremony coverage: 3:30 a.m.–7 a.m. Friday, — NBC, Peacock
Enhanced prime-time opening ceremony coverage: 8 p.m.-11 p.m. Friday — NBC
Who will be competing in the Olympics for the United States?
A total of 223 athletes will be representing the United States at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
As Olympics 2022 set to open, avoiding a disaster might be considered success
BEIJING — China had something to prove when it hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Communist Party leaders framed the sporting event as a coming-out party, a chance to proclaim their arrival as a global superpower. A state-run news agency called it “a historical event in the great renaissance of the Chinese nation.”
“Winning the host right,” the news read, “means winning the respect, trust and favor of the international community.”
Fourteen years later, as the Games return to Beijing in their winter format, the stakes have changed. It might be enough just to avoid calamity.
“Obviously mega-events are part of China’s pursuit of soft power,” said Susan Brownell, a leading authority on sports in the Asian country. “But I think there are risks.”
Controversy has beset the 2022 Winter Olympics on two fronts, casting a harsh light on the host country’s human rights record while raising concerns about a coronavirus outbreak among thousands of athletes, coaches and media.
U.S. women’s hockey team wins first game but loses one of its toughest players
BEIJING — Brianna Decker’s raw screams, the cries of an athlete who knows her body well enough to instantly realize something had gone terribly wrong at a terrible time, suddenly filled the mostly empty, echoing spaces of Wukesong Sports Centre on Thursday.
Decker, a two-time Olympic medalist and alternate captain of the U.S. women’s hockey team, had become tangled with Finland defender Ronja Savolainen near the Americans’ net in the first period of their Olympic opener. Both women fell to the ice in a heap, with Decker’s left leg badly twisted. Decker’s loud cries conveyed her profound pain and sudden fear, sending a shiver down the spines of all who heard them. Medical personnel quickly came to her and she was carried off on a stretcher.
“It was awful, there’s no other way to put it,” U.S. captain Kendall Coyne Schofield said. “She’s one of the toughest, strongest players in the world, so to hear her react like that obviously was devastating for our group.”
Until that point, neither team had managed to score. That changed quickly.
After gathering for a few moments to settle their minds and figure out new line combinations, the Americans seized control, opening their defense of their 2018 Olympic title by scoring twice in two minutes, 23 seconds on the way to a 5-2 victory. Playing the first of four preliminary-round games, they shook off the rust they’d accumulated since Dec. 17 —the last time they had played before coronavirus precautions cut short their pre-Olympic exhibition schedule — and relied on the depth and sharp skills that have long made them and Canada the sport’s still-unassailable superpowers.