U.S. men finish 1-2 in halfpipe; women bobsledders win silver
American freestyle skier David Wise successfully defended his gold medal, breaking through on his final halfpipe run Thursday for a 1-2 U.S. finish.
Wise wiped out on his first two runs before sneaking past countryman Alex Ferreira on his third.
Ferreira took the silver, and 16-year-old Nico Porteous of New Zealand got the bronze.
It’s the seventh gold for the U.S. in Pyeongchang, with five coming at Phoenix Snow Park. Chloe Kim and Shaun White won snowboard halfpipe gold last week, and Red Gerard and Jamie Anderson won in snowboard slopestyle.
Germany’s Mariama Jamanka, winless in 23 top-tier starts coming into the Olympics, put together four nearly flawless runs on her way to taking gold in women’s bobsled Wednesday night.
Germany held off Elana Meyers Taylor of the U.S. and Kaillie Humphries of Canada.
Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs were just 0.07 seconds off the pace, the closest margin between first and second in any Olympic women’s bobsled race.
“We came up short, but me and Lauren gave everything we had until the very last hundredth,” said Meyers Taylor, who won her third medal. “We won a silver medal.”
Jamie Greubel Poser and brakeman Aja Evans of the U.S. were fifth.
Nigeria finished last in the 20-sled field, nearly four seconds behind 19th-place Jamaica.
Austria’s Anna Gasser edged two-time gold medalist Jamie Anderson of the U.S. in the Olympic debut of women’s big air snowboarding.
Anderson, who captured her second Olympic gold in slopestyle last week, led going into the final round but sat down while trying to land her last jump. Gasser took full advantage.
Mia Manganello, Heather Bergsma and Brittany Bowe teamed to give the U.S. women a medal in long-track speedskating, ending a 16-year drought with a bronze in team pursuit.
The trio beat Canada by 0.45 seconds with a time of 2 minutes, 59.27 seconds.
Curler Alexander Krushelnitsky will give back his bronze medal after failing a drug test, according to Russian TV.
Krushelnitsky tested positive for the banned substance meldonium, which is believed to help blood circulation, after winning bronze in mixed doubles with wife Anastasia Bryzgalova.
The IOC is due to decide Saturday whether to reinstate the Russian team for the closing ceremony. Russia was banned from the Pyeongchang Olympics over widespread doping at the Sochi Games.