Canada, Germany dig gold together
Bobsledders Justin Kripps and Alexander Kopacz were thoroughly confused when they crossed the finish line. They knew they had just won an Olympic gold medal for Canada, and were puzzled why the Germans were running their way to celebrate. Eventually, it made sense. The closest Olympic sliding race in history had two sets of winners yesterday. Canada and Germany will share gold from the two-man event at the Pyeongchang Olympics after Kripps and Kopacz finished their four runs in the exact same time as the German duo of Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis. The winning time: 3 minutes, 16.86 seconds.
Latvia got bronze, with Oskars Melbardis and Janis Strenga finishing 0.05 seconds back.
Virtue, Moir gold again
Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won ice dance gold last night, making them the most decorated figure skaters in history.
They won two golds at these games, including the team event, two silvers in Sochi four years ago, plus ice dance gold in Vancouver.
In their Olympic debut, two-time world champs Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France came away with silver. Papadakis and Cizeron overcame a wardrobe malfunction in the short dance to hold onto their medal spot.
Brother-sister ice dance team Maia and Alex Shibutani of the United States took bronze.
Russian’s a dope(r)
Russia could lose its chance to be reinstated before the end of the Winter Olympics because of a doping charge against curling bronze-medalist Alexander Krushelnitsky. The Court of Arbitration for Sport said in a statement it has “initiated a procedure involving” Krushelnitsky, who finished third in mixed doubles with his wife, Anastasia Bryzgalova.
Russian officials said he tested positive for meldonium, which was banned in 2016. An IOC spokesman said a failed doping test could keep Russia’s banned team from marching under the national flag at the closing ceremony.
The Stache’s stash
The red handlebar mustache finally has a golden accoutrement. After winning two bronze medals, Robert Johansson helped Norway win the large hill team ski jumping title.
Johansson leapt 136 meters with the final jump as Norway, which also got strong jumps from Daniel Andre Tande, Andreas Stjernen and Johann Andre Forfang, relied on its depth to accrue 1,098.5 points and overwhelm 2014 champion Germany. He won bronze medals in the normal and large hill individual finals.
Make way for Norway
At an Olympics where almost everything is going Norway’s way, even its speedskaters are back on top. Havard Lorentzen proved that a program which has been in disarray for two decades is on the up by winning the 500-meter gold in an Olympic record time of 34.41 seconds . . . .
Cassie Sharpe soaring to a 95.80 during her second run to give Canada its first Olympic medal in women’s freestyle halfpipe skiing. France’s Marie Martinod took silver and American Brita Sigourney edged teammate Annalisa Drew for bronze . ...
For the fifth time in six Winter Games since women’s hockey was added to the program, the United States is playing Canada for the Olympic women’s hockey gold medal. The game is Wednesday night. Jennifer Wakefield scored twice to lead the Canadians to a 5-0 victory over Russia in the semifinals.