Sweden’s Kalla wins Games’ 1st gold; Lim has hosts celebrating
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Charlotte Kalla won the first gold medal of the Pyeongchang Games a few hours before Lim Hyo-jun earned host country South Korea its first gold.
In the first medal event of the Winter Olympics on Saturday, Kalla won the women’s 15-kilometer skiathlon by more than seven seconds. Later in the day, Lim crossed the finish line first in the men’s 1,500-meter shorttrack speedskating event, setting off a huge roar from a capacity crowd at Gangneung Ice Arena.
Lim pushed past Sjinkie Knegt of the Netherlands, finishing in an Olympic-record time of 2 minutes, 10.485 seconds. Knegt won silver while bronze went to Semen Elistratov, who was the first Russian medalist of the games.
For Kalla, it was her sixth career Olympic medal — and third gold.
Marit Bjoergen finished behind Kalla for silver, but made Olympic history by becoming the most decorated female Winter Olympian ever with her 11th medal.
“It feels very good to be ahead of Marit,” the Swede said. “She’s a fantastic skier.”
Jessica Diggins placed fifth, missing a chance to become the first U.S. woman to earn a medal in cross-country skiing. Diggins was third in the World Cup standings coming into the race.
Finishing behind Lim and Knegt in the speedskating event was Semen Elistratov, who became the first Russian to earn a medal at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
He wasn’t able to compete officially for Russia, which was banned from the games after revelations of a massive doping operation. But the International Olympic Committee cleared 168 Russian competitors to take part under the moniker “Olympic Athletes from Russia.” Women’s speedskating: The Dutch are off to a great start on the Olympic speedskating oval again with a sweep of the medals in the women’s 3,000-meter race. Carlijn Achtereekte beat two-time 3,000-meter champion Ireen Wust. Antoinette de Jong finished third for the bronze. Women’s hockey: In a game that got little attention because of the debut of the unified Korean team against Switzerland, Sara Hjalmarsson scored 1:53 into the third period and Sweden held off Japan 2-1. It was only Japan’s third appearance in the Olympics for women’s hockey. Biathlon: Laura Dahlmeier pushed through bitterly cold conditions to win gold in the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint biathlon after hitting all 10 of her targets. Marte Olsbu of Norway won silver and Veronika Vitkova of the Czech Republic earned bronze.
Saturday night’s events — under in windy conditions under the lights and in 10-degree weather — added an extra layer of challenges to the biathlon, a sport that mixes the endurance and speed of crosscountry skiing with the focus and precision of shooting a rifle.
Of the 86 participants in Saturday night’s race, only three hit all 10 targets.
American Susan Dunklee, who won gold and silver at the world championships last year to stamp herself a contender for an Olympic medal, missed five targets and finished 66th. Dunklee called it “frustrating.” Emily Dreissigacker was the best American finisher, taking 51st place, hitting nine of 10 targets. Briefly: Canada beat Korea to secure a spot in curling’s mixed doubles semifinals on the last day of the round robin. Canada will be joined in the semifinals by Switzerland and a team of athletes from Russia. A tiebreaker match on Sunday night will determine whether China or Norway secures the final playoffs spot. American sibling duo Matt and Becca Hamilton lost 7-5 to Finland, ending the U.S. team’s Olympic mixed doubles bid . ... Germany’s Andreas Wellinger won the men’s ski jumping gold.