Olympic roundup
TEAM FIGURE SKATING
American lands triple axel Mirai Nagasu became the first American woman — and third overall — to land a triple axel in the Olympics, accomplishing the rare feat in the women’s free skate at the team figure skating competition in Pyeongchang. The 24-year-old from Montebello, Calif., skated first of the five women and led off her routine with the triple axel just 21 seconds in. The feat drew huge cheers from the crowd at the Gangneung Ice Arena. Japan’s Midori Ito and Mao Asada also landed triple axels during the Olympics. Nagasu completed a flawless routine, pumping both fists as she finished and got a standing ovation from the excited crowd. She received a personal-best score of 137.53.
Canada gold, U.S. bronze Canada showed that sending out your best is a winning strategy, easily taking the gold medal in the team figure skating event today. Patrick Chan placed first in the men’s free skate, and ice dancing superstars Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue won the free dance to give Canada the comfortable victory. The team of Russians won the silver medal thanks in part to a first place by Alina Zagitova in the women’s free skate. The United States was third, led by Mirai Nagasu, who gave a near-perfect performance eight years after her last Olympic appearance. Several nations steered away from their A-teams, at least for the climactic free skates. Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan and Evgenia Medvedeva of Russia — both gold medal favorites in their individual events — and Nathan Chen of the United States did not appear for the free skates, although Medvedeva and Chen had skated in the short program. Canada had come into the final day with the lead, and never was in danger of losing it, especially after Chan’s opening victory. A third place by Gabrielle Daleman in the women’s event was not enough to stop their momentum, and another strong performance by Virtue and Moir locked up the victory.
MIXED DOUBLES CURLING
Canada to go for gold Canada will compete for an Olympic gold medal after sweeping to an 8-4 victory over Norway in the mixed doubles curling semifinal. Canada went into the seventh end, or round, of today’s match leading 5-4 after a tight game. Canada’s Kaitlyn Lawes then threw the defining shot of the game, knocking Norway’s stone out of the center of the house and leaving three Canadian rocks close to the target. That gave Canada an 8-4 lead, and Norway was unable to come back from the deficit. Switzerland and a team of Russian athletes will face off later today in a semifinal match. The winner of that game will play Canada in a gold medal match on Tuesday. Norway will play the loser for bronze. Canada’s John Morris said it was a high pressure game, but that’s what he lives for.
WOMEN’S SNOWBOARDING
U.S. takes gold Jamie Anderson defended her title in Olympic women’s slopestyle snowboarding, surviving blustery and treacherous conditions at Phoenix Snow Park to give the United States its second gold medal at the Pyeongchang Games. Anderson was one of the few riders in the final to navigate the tricky series of rails and jumps safely as the wind wreaked havoc on the field. Anderson posted a score of 83.00 in the first of her two runs, then watched it hold up as rider after rider either crashed or bailed. Even Anderson wasn’t immune. She washed out in her second run with the gold medal already wrapped up. Laurie Blouin of Canada finished second, with Finland’s Enni Rukajarvi third. Anderson is the first woman to win multiple gold medals in women’s snowboarding at the Olympics.
WOMEN’S GIANT SLALOM
Event reset for Thursday The women’s giant slalom featuring Mikaela Shiffrin has been rescheduled for Thursday, the same day as the men’s downhill at the Pyeongchang Olympics. The first two events on the Alpine skiing schedule were postponed because of strong winds. Both events will be contested Thursday but on different hills. The women will compete at the Yongpyong Alpine Center used for technical races, and the men about 30 miles away at the Jeongseon Alpine Center used for speed races. The women’s giant slalom, which was supposed to be Shiffrin’s debut at these Winter Games, was called off about three hours before it was supposed to begin today. The same happened with the men’s downhill on Sunday. Now Shiffrin’s first race in South Korea will be Wednesday in the slalom, where she is the defending Olympic champion.
MEN’S SINGLES LUGE
USA wins silver
Felix Loch’s reign came to a sudden and shocking end Sunday, with David Gleirscher a surprise men’s luge gold medalist and Chris Mazdzer giving USA Luge its first men’s singles medal. Germany’s Johannes Ludwig took third. Gleirscher, who had never medaled in a World Cup singles race, finished his four runs in 3:10.702 for the gold, Austria’s first in men’s luge in 50 years. Loch struggled in the final run and slipped all the way to fifth, ending his bid to become the second slider to win the event three consecutive times.
MEN’S BIATHLON
Top two lose out
The 10-kilometer biathlon, expected to be a two-man race between Martin Fourcade and Johannes Thingnes Boe, sent shockwaves through the biathlon world Sunday. Arnd Peiffer of Germany connected on all 10 of his targets to win gold, ahead of Michal Krcmar of the Czech Republic and Dominik Windisch of Italy. The top-ranked Fourcade missed three of five shots from the prone position, forcing him to do three penalty laps. The Frenchman finished eighth overall. Thingnes Boe, a Norwegian ranked No. 2, missed three from the prone position and one from the standing position to finish a distant 31st.
MEN’S SKIATHLON
Norwegians sweep
An early crash couldn’t keep Simen Hegstad Krueger from gold on Sunday. His Norwegian teammates then helped complete a sweep in the 30-kilometer cross-country ski race. Krueger slipped when the mass start began and his right ski came out from under him, causing him to fall. Russian athletes Andrey Larkov and Denis Spitsov toppled over Krueger and the three ended up at the rear of the field by the time they untangled. Krueger stormed back, though, and took the lead with 5 kilometers remaining and powered his way to gold. Norwegian teammates Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Hans Christer Holund completed the 1-2-3 finish.
WOMEN’S MOGULS
France wins 1st gold Perrine Laffont gave France its first women’s gold medal in the moguls in the 26-year history of the event, landing both her jumps without a bobble in the snow and cold on Sunday. The 19-year-old Laffont’s score of 79.72 was more than two points better than 2014 gold medalist Justine Dufour-Lapointe of Canada, who had to settle for silver. Yulia Galysheva of Kazakhstan won bronze.
MEN’S SPEEDSKATING
Third gold medal win Dutch speedskater Sven Kramer broke his own Olympic record in the men’s 5,000 meters to win his third consecutive medal in the event on Sunday. Kramer won the 5,000 in 6:09.76, besting the mark of 6:10.76, which he set in 2014 in Sochi. He also became the first man to win three golds in the event, using a late kick to beat Canada’s Ted-Jan Bloemen. Kramer has a chance at winning two more golds in other events: the 10,000 next Thursday and the team pursuit.