Around Beijing
Highlights from Day 4:
Mixed biathlon relay: Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway took gold in the first biathlon race. Boe, Quentin Fillon Maillet of France and Eduard Latypov of the Russian team left the range close together after the last round of shooting and raced for position until the final stretch, when Boe sprinted for the win in 1 hour, 6 seconds.
Women’s cross-country skiing: Therese Johaug won the first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, finishing first in the women’s 15-kilometer cross-country skiathlon. Russian athlete Natalia Nepryaeva, the current overall World Cup leader, pulled away from the group on the last climb to take silver. Teresa Stadlober of Austria followed just behind for the bronze medal.
Mixed doubles curling: With one day left in roundrobin play, Italy picked up two wins to maintain the lead with a 6-0 record. Britain and Sweden are each 5-2; Canada is 4-2.
Figure skating team event: The Russians are in first place after 4 of 8 events with 36 points. The U.S. team is second with 34 points and Japan is in third with 29.
Men’s freestyle skiing: Walter Wallberg of Sweden took home the gold medal in the men’s moguls. Wallberg looked almost in shock when his score of 83.23 flashed on the board, edging defending Olympic champion Mikael Kingsbury of Canada. Ikuma Horishima of Japan took home the bronze.
Women’s hockey: Hilary Knight had a goal and an assist, Nicole Hensley stopped 12 shots and the United States beat the Russians, 5-0, in a Group A game. Savannah Harmon had a goal and two assists for the defending Olympic champions, who improved to 2-0 and next play Switzerland (0-2) Sunday. ... Also in Group A Canada beat Finland, 11-0. ... Group B saw Japan and the Czech Republic pick up wins.
Men’s luge: Germany’s Johannes Ludwig, Austria’s Wolfgang Kindl and Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller were the leaders after Saturday’s first two runs.
Women’s ski jumping: Slovenia’s Ursa Bogataj won Olympic gold in women’s ski jumping. Bogataj floated 328.084 feet through the air and had 121 points on the final jump. Katharina Althaus of Germany won silver for the second Olympicsin a row. Nika Kriznar of Slovenia took the bronze.
Women’s snowboarding: Zoi Sadowski Synnott captured New Zealand’s first gold medal in Winter Olympic history, stomping down a pressurerun on her last trip down the mountain to win the title in women’s slopestyle.
Mixed short track speed skating: China won its first gold medal of the Beijing Games, emerging victorious in short track speed skating’s mixed team relay in the event’s Olympic debut. Wu Dajing edged Pietro Sighel of Italy by .016 seconds — or half a skate blade — to claim gold. Peters Township native JohnHenry Krueger helped Hungary earn bronze.
Women’s speed skating: Irene Scouten gave the mighty Dutch a gold medal in the first speed skating event, breaking a 20-year-old Olympic record in the women’s 3,000 meters. Schouten turned in a winning time of 3 minutes, 56.93 seconds. That broke the previous Olympic mark of 3:57.70, set by Germany’s Claudia Pechstein in 2002. Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida, pushing Schouten all the way in the final pair, held on for the silver in 3:58.06. The bronze went to Canada’s Isabelle Weidemann in 3:58.64.