Hanyu leaps into men’s skating history Goepper gets silver as Kenworthy falters
GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu was introduced as the Olympic gold medalist, skated over to the podium and jumped high onto it. With a perfect landing, naturally.
He also leaped into the figure skating history books Saturday, becoming the first man to repeat as Olympic champion since Dick Button in 1952.
“Just happy. I can’t say anymore, just happy,” Hanyu said through his ever-present smile.
American Nathan Chen surged from a fiasco of a short program, when he was 17th, by winning the free skate to wind up fifth. He did it with a historic routine featuring six quads.
“I think after having such a disastrous short program and being so, so low in the ranking — lower than I usually ever am — it allowed me to completely forget the results and focus on enjoying myself out on the ice,” Chen said, “and getting rid of expectations helped a lot.”
Chen’s U.S. teammates Vincent Zhou and Adam Rippon placed sixth and 10th, repestively. Norway’s Oystein Braaten captured the gold medal in ski slopestyle Sunday, far outdistancing American Gus Kenworthy, who failed to land any of his three runs and came in last.
The 22-year-old Braaten edged out American Nick Goepper, who added a silver medal to the bronze he won at Sochi.
Hirscher collects a second gold
Marcel Hirscher won the men’s giant slalom Sunday — his second gold medal at the Pyeongchang Games.
The 28-year-old Austrian star extended his first-run lead to win by a huge margin of 1.27 seconds over hard-charging Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway. Kristoffersen rose from 10th-fastest in the morning.
Bronze medalist Alexis Pinturault of France finished 1.31 seconds behind Hirscher.
Brit Yarnold repeats as skeleton champ
Lizzy Yarnold picked the perfect time to end a threeyear winless streak, extending Britain’s dominance in women’s skeleton in the process.
Yarnold won her second consecutive Olympic women’s skeleton gold medal, leaving no doubt by setting a track record in the fourth and final heat to beat Germany’s Jacqueline Loelling by nearly a half-second and fellow Brit Laura Deas by .62 seconds.
It’s the third time since women’s skeleton was added to the Olympic program in 2002 that a nation grabbed two podium spots; the U.S. won gold and silver in 2002, and Germany took silver and bronze in 2010.
Norwegian Bjoergen ties mark for medals
Marit Bjoergen moved into a tie for the most career Winter Olympic medals with 13 after helping the Norwegian women to a first-place finish in the crosscountry relay.
Bjoergen tied male biathlete and fellow Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, and can move into sole possession of the record with a medal in either one of the last two women’s events.
“I don’t think about that now,” Bjoergen said. “I’m just focused on each race and I think I have to look behind me after the Olympics and see how many medals I have.”