Peerless Hirscher claims Olympic double
Russian doping spectre returns
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea, Feb 18, (AFP): Austrian Marcel Hirscher claimed his second Olympic gold of the Pyeongchang Games on Sunday, showing all his class and experience to comprehensively win the men’s giant slalom.
Hirscher, who finally won an individual gold in the alpine combined on Tuesday after dominating the World Cup for the last six years, clocked an aggregate of 2min 18.04sec down the Rainbow 1 course at the Yongpyong Alpine Centre.
Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen claimed silver, 1.27sec adrift of Hirscher, with France’s Alexis Pinturault following up on his combined silver with bronze, a further fourhundredths back.
“Right now he’s the best,” Hirscher’s coach Michael Pircher said.
“At aged 28, he’s had his best season since he started skiing — already 10 victories in the World Cup, leading in GS, slalom and overall standings, and now two gold medals.
Pircher added: “He’s very special, very focused on his skiing and very professional, be it with his preparation, material, nutrition, conditioning, training or physiotherapist.”
Hirscher, a six-time consecutive World Cup overall champion, showed none of the nerves that afflicted American Mikaela Shiffrin in her failed attempt to defend her slalom title after winning the giant slalom the previous day.
He laid down a near-faultless first run on a course that saw many other racers come unstuck on a tricky, twisting run-in to the finish line.
That left him a very healthy 0.63sec ahead of closest rival Pinturault, Kristoffersen paying the price for a mistake to finish 10th, 1.31sec off the pace.
When the Norwegian took to the slope for the second run, he raced down in the fastest time in an impressive display of aggressive skiing, 0.04sec faster than Hirscher’s leg.
But Kristoffersen’s late heroics were not quite enough for a second alpine Norwegian gold of the Olympics as his Austrian nemesis powered from the start gate to deliver yet another masterclass under pressure.
Defending Olympic champion Ted Ligety had a shocker.
After failing to finish the superG in South Korea, the 33-year-old American laboured down the course in his bid to become the event’s oldest Olympic medallist, eventually coming in a massive 3.21sec behind Hirscher.
That first World Cup victory came three weeks after Turin, when he won a giant slalom at Yongpyong. He hasn’t raced there since.
World champion Nao Kodaira shook off the pressure of the biggest race of her life Sunday to become Japan’s first female Olympic speedskating gold medallist by capturing the 500m title.
Coming off a silver-medal 1,000m effort, Kodaira dethroned two-time defending champion Lee Sang-hwa of South Korea to win in an Olympicrecord 36.94 seconds with Lee taking silver in 37.33sec, just 0.01sec ahead of third-place Karolina Erbanova of the Czech Republic.
Kodaira, who has won her past 15 World Cup 500m starts, is only the second speedskater from her homeland to take Olympic gold after Hiroyasu Shimizu in the men’s 500m in 1998.
It was a same-oval rematch of last year’s 500m world championship battle, where Kodaira edged Lee, and after the race, Kodaira shared a victory lap with her long-time rival, displaying
their flags together.
“Sport makes the world one, together and simple,” Kodaira said.
“She was so proud of me and I was so proud of her, especially after she did the 1,000,” Lee said.
Kodaira broke Lee’s old Olympic mark by 0.34sec and posted the time to beat just before Lee raced in the penultimate pair.
Lee was on pace to take the lead after the first 100 but faded and when the last duo could not crack the podium, the gold belonged to Kodaira.
Tears after the race were of happiness, Lee stressed.
Dutch coaches guide Japan’s women and it was a trip to the Netherlands that helped produce golden results for the 31-year-old Japanese barrier-breaker.
Kodaira became only the third reigning world champion to claim 500m women’s Olympic gold after Lee in 2014 and Canadian Catriona Le May Doan in 2002.
The only prior Japanese woman to medal at 500m in Winter Olympic history was 1998 Nagano bronze medallist Tomomi Okazaki.
One week shy of her 29th birthday, Lee failed in her bid to win on home ice but still received a thunderous ovation from the crowd.
Lee, who had delayed surgery on
a chronic left knee injury until after Pyeongchang, still owns the 500m world record of 36.36 seconds.
Norway’s Oystein Braaten won the men’s freestyle skiing slopestyle and
Norway also triumphed in the 4x10km men’s cross-country relay to reach nine gold medals and draw level with Germany at the top of the medals table.
Martin Fourcade became France’s first four-time Winter Olympic goldmedallist after a mad dash to the line in the men’s 15km mass start biathlon, where he edged Germany’s Simon Schempp in a dramatic photo finish.
But away from the action a fresh doping scandal threatened to set back Russian efforts to return to the Olympic fold after they were banned over a major drugs scandal.
Sources said a curler with the Olympic Athletes from Russia team has been implicated in a doping case involving meldonium — the same banned substance that earned Russia’s former number one tennis player Maria Sharapova a 15-month suspension.
Russia was banned from the Games after the emergence of systemic doping, but it was allowed to send 168 athletes deemed clean to compete as neutrals.
The International Olympic Committee said if the case was confirmed, it would be considered by the panel deliberating whether to lift Russia’s ban before the end of the Games.
“On the one hand, it is extremely disappointing when prohibited substances might have been used, but on the other hand, it shows the effectiveness of the anti-doping system at the Games,” an IOC statement said.
The incident emerged on a day when the Olympic Athletes from Russia won two medals: silver in the cross-country relay and bronze in the men’s aerials.
Biathlon’s Fourcade outstripped ski legend Jean-Claude Killy as the first Frenchman to win four Winter Games gold in the most dramatic of circumstances.
After flinging himself over the line, Fourcade was convinced he had missed out to Schempp — before the photo finish revealed he had won by mere inches.
“It’s incredible, I can’t answer, I’m still waiting for them to tell me that I’m not the winner,” said a disbelieving Fourcade.