USA’s White bags third Olympic gold

American snowboard superstar Shaun White pulled out his biggest tricks when it mattered to regain his Olympic halfpipe title at the age of 31.

White went into the third and final run of the competition trailing 19-year-old Japanese rider Ayumu Hirano, who had moved into first place with a dazzling second run.

But White roared back with a near-flawless 97.75 to seal his third Olympic gold medal and earn redemption from Sochi, when his decision to also try slopestyle back-fired and he left without a medal.

Bad weather continued to play havoc with the PyeongChang schedule with the women’s slalom and the biathlon postponed, while precautions had to be taken around the Gangneung Olympic Park due to exceptionally high winds.

Inside the venue, Eve Muirhead’s curling team made an impressive start with a 10-3 victory over the Olympic Athletes from Russia.

There were mixed fortunes for Muirhead’s brother Thomas in the men’s rink, who started their campaign with a tight 6-5 victory over Switzerland, but fell 6-4 to gold medal favourites Canada in the evening.

Eric Frenzel of Germany won the Nordic combined, which features a ski jump and 10km cross-country race.

Holland’s Jorien ter Mors claimed gold in the women’s 1,000m long-track speedskating and Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt of Germany won the men’s doubles luge.