Russian teen breaks skate record as Vonn gets bronze
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WINTER GAMES Zagitova, 15, steals show in figure skating; Vonn ends oldest female alpine medallist PYEONGCHANG:
Record-breaking Alina Zagitova, 15, stole the show in figure skating as America’s Lindsey Vonn wound up her Olympic downhill career by becoming the oldest female alpine ski medallist in Games history. Zagitova was breathtaking in the Russian-dominated short programme, breaking the world record set just minutes earlier by her teammate, 18-year-old Evgenia Medvedeva.
It put the Russians top of the standings ahead of Friday’s free skate, where Zagitova will attempt to become the youngest women’s figure skating champion since Tara Lipinski in 1998.
They also look set to win the first gold of the Games for the Olympic Athletes from Russia, who are competing as neutrals after Russia’s national team was banned over a doping scandal.
“We are friends, we are young girls, we can talk about anything with each other,” said Medvedeva, 18, who like Zagitova is making her Olympic debut. “But on the ice, we must fight, I feel like it’s a little war” added the double world champion.
DOWNHILL BRONZE America’s Vonn, 33, was aiming for a second downhill title in her final Olympics, but it was not to be as she finished third behind Italy’s Sofia Goggia and Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway.
But the 2010 winner was delighted to reach the podium -the oldest female alpine skier to do so -- after a series of injuries threatened to wreck her career and ruled her out of Sochi 2014.
“If you think what’s happened over the last eight years and what I’ve been through to get here, I gave it all and to come away with a medal is a dream come true,” said Vonn. “You’ve got to put things into perspective. Of course, I would have loved a gold medal but, honestly, Country G Nor Ger Can Ned USA 12 11 9 6 6 S 11 7 5 5 3 B 9 5 6 3 5 Total 32 23
PYEONGCHANG:
20 14 14
this is amazing. I’m so proud.”
Russian skier Sergey Ridzik recovered from a crash in the ski cross final to take bronze, behind Canada’s Bredy Leman and Marc Bischofberger of Switzerland. Ridzik went down early in the race but he got up, clambered to the top of a slope and restarted his run, coming in behind the front two.
The International Olympic Committee told its longest-serving member, Dick Pound, he was free to leave the organisation after the Canadian labelled fellow members ‘old farts’ for not being tougher on Russia over doping. The 75-year-old Pound, a 1960 Olympics swimming participant who joined the IOC in 1978 and is a two-time former vice president, has been a vocal critic in the media of the IOC’s handling of the Russian doping scandal.
But he has never voted against the IOC’s decisions on Russia for both the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro as well as Pyeongchang Olympics. “In the end if you don’t like the coffee, if you don’t like the decor or the prices, you can go to another coffee shop,” said IOC spokesman Mark Adams. Adams was responding to the latest criticism by Pound who said athletes should scare the IOC by threatening to stay away from the Games unless the IOC got tougher on doping.
“The only people that scare these old farts are athletes saying ‘if you won’t clean this up, we’re not going to participate in these events’,” Pound had said.