IOC confirms ban on Russia; no flag in closing ceremony

The International Olympic Committee upheld Russia’s ban from the Pyeongchang Olympics, voting Sunday to deny the country the chance to march into the closing ceremony under its own flag.

Russia was banned from these Winter Games after a massive doping scandal at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, but the IOC had left open the possibility of reinstatement before the start of the closing ceremony.

However, two of the more than 160 athletes competing as Olympic Athletes from Russia tested positive for banned substances. That’s half of the four doping cases reported so far.

“Despite a good collaboration from the OAR delegation to respond to these (doping) cases in a prompt and transparent way, the implementation group was convinced that these cases caused significant concern,” said IOC member Nicole Hoevertsz of Aruba.

The U.S. women’s hockey team won gold in a shootout, and the U.S. men were eliminated in a shootout. And it doesn’t appear shootouts are going away.

International Ice Hockey Federation President Rene Fasel said continuous sudden-death overtime is impossible.

“You cannot let the team play the whole night,” Fasel said. “(Soccer) is the biggest sport in the world. And they finish the final of the World Cup with a shootout. So I will never convince North Americans to accept that, but it is like it is.”

U.S. women’s coach Robb Stauber knows it can go both ways.

“The men’s team lost in a shootout, and two of our coaches said, ‘That’s a terrible way to lose,’ ” Stauber said. “My response was, ‘Unless you’re on the other end.’ ”

Andrew Ebbett, Chris Kelly and Derek Roy scored in the first period, and Canada took the bronze medal in men’s hockey by beating the Czech Republic 6-4.

This was the third bronze for Canada to go along with nine gold medals for the country that created hockey and won the last two men’s Olympic titles.

South Korean police detained a Canadian ski cross competitor, his wife and a coach for allegedly taking a car.

Police said the three got into a car in front of a bar and drove it near the Athletes Village before police stopped them. All three were intoxicated, police said. NATION Norway Germany Canada United States Netherlands Sweden South Korea Switzerland France Austria Japan Italy Czech Republic Belarus OA Russia China Slovakia Britain Finland Poland Hungary Ukraine Australia Slovenia Belgium New Zealand Spain Kazakhstan Latvia Liechtenstein ALPINE SKIING Parallel Team G: Switzerland (Denise Feierabend, Wendy Holdener, Daniel Yule, Luca Aerni, Ramon Zenhausern) S: Austria (Stephanie Brunner, Manuel Feller, Michael Matt, Marco Schwarz, Katharina Gallhuber, Katharina Liensberger) B: Norway (Nina Haver-Loeseth, Leif Kristian Haugen, Jonathan Nordbotten, Sebastian Foss-Solevaag, Maren Skjoeld, Kristin Lysdahl) CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING Men’s 50km Mass Start Classic G: Iivo Niskanen, Finland S: Alexander Bolshunov, OA Russia B: Andrey Larkov, OA Russia CURLING Men G: United States (Joe Polo, Tyler George, John Landsteiner, John Shuster, Matt Hamilton) S: Sweden (Niklas Edin, Henrik Leek, Oskar Eriksson, Rasmus Wranaa, Christoffer Sundgren) B: Switzerland (Benoit Schwarz, Peter de Cruz, Dominik Maerki, Valentin Tanner, Claudio Paetz) SNOWBOARD Men’s Big Air G: Sebastien Toutant, Canada S: Kyle Mack, United States B: Billy Morgan, Britain Men’s Parallel Giant Slalom G: Nevin Galmarini, Switzerland S: Lee Sangho, South Korea B: Zan Kosir, Slovenia Women’s Parallel Giant Slalom G: Ester Ledecka, Czech Republic S: Selina Jorg, Germany B: Ramona Theresia Hofmeister, Germany SPEEDSKATING Men’s Mass Start G: Lee Seung-Hoon, South Korea S: Bart Swings, Belgium B: Koen Verweij, Netherlands Women’s Mass Start G: Nana Takagi, Japan S: Kim Bo-Reum, South Korea B: Irene Schouten, Netherlands CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING Women’s 30km Mass Start Classic, 1:15 a.m.

The three have been banned from leaving South Korea, but police said they likely would be released after paying a fine.

Police described those being held as two Canadian men, 35 and 48, and an American woman, 32. No names were released, but four Canadian men competed in ski cross, and the only one who is 35 is Dave Duncan.

U.S. Alpine director Patrick Riml knows he has work to do after producing its fewest golds in the sport since 2002 and fewest medals since 2006.

Riml called the men’s team’s performance “disappointing” and acknowledged “we definitely have to rebuild.”

The Americans finished with three medals in 11 Alpine races: one gold and one silver from Mikaela Shiffrin, and one bronze from Lindsey Vonn.

“We had some very strong performances, and in other events, we definitely were struggling,” Riml said. “On the men’s side, the performance was disappointing. Not just talking about medals, but the performances on each day.”

The American men had only one top-10 finish in their five individual events, Ted Ligety’s fifth in the combined.

In the final speedskating event, Lee Seung-hoon delivered the host nation’s first gold medal, winning the inaugural men’s mass start.