American gets silver in big air debut
Canadian snowboarder Sebastien Toutant soared to gold in the Olympic debut of men’s big air Saturday.
Toutant scored a 174.25 in the final to give Canada its 11th gold of the Pyeongchang Games.
Kyle Mack of the United States took second with a score of 168.75. He had a chance to better Toutant but sat down on his third and final jump.
Billy Morgan of Great Britain earned bronze in front of a boisterous crowd at Alpensia Ski Jumping Centre.
Red Gerard, who captured the first gold medal for the United States in Pyeongchang in the slopestyle event two weeks earlier, finished fifth. Skiing: U.S. Alpine director Patrick Riml calls his men’s team’s Olympic performance “disappointing” and acknowledges they “definitely have to rebuild” before the Beijing Games in 2022.
Riml said that the American skiing team “had quite a few ups and downs.” He says it is now time for a “thorough evaluation” after finishing with three medals, all from Mikaela Shiffrin or Lindsey Vonn.
At Sochi four years ago, when Vonn was sidelined after knee surgery, the U.S. team collected five medals.
This time around, the American men had only one top-10 finish in their five individual events: Ted Ligety came in fifth in the combined.
Vonn has said repeatedly that the Pyeongchang Games will be her last Olympics. Shiffrin isn’t sure she means it. Vonn is 33. Shiffrin is 22. Each has won three Olympic medals.
“Whenever I hear anybody say something about this,” Shiffrin said, laughing. “It’s like, ‘most likely,’ ‘probably,’ ‘maybe,’ ‘we’ll see,’ ‘not sure.’ I’m like, ‘Knowing Lindsey, I don’t believe her.’ ” Switzerland knocked off top-seeded Austria in the goldmedal race of the Olympic debut of the Alpine team event. Norway edged France in the bronze-medal match as the Alpine ski program came to a close.
The Alpine medals table was dominated by Austria, Switzerland and Norway, each of which went home with seven. Austria had three golds, the Swiss two and Norway one. Four years after rescuing five stray dogs at the Sochi Games, American skier Gus Kenworthy visited a dog meat farm in South Korea with boyfriend Matthew Wilkas and decided to adopt a puppy.
“It’s one of the saddest places I’ve ever been,” Kenworthy said. Bobsledding: The only nation to come to an Olympics and leave with all three bobsled gold medals was Germany, which pulled off the title triple 12 years ago. Francesco Friedrich has the Germans in position to do it again.
Friedrich and his team of Candy Bauer, Martin Grothkopp and Thorsten Margis leads by nearly three-tenths of a second after Saturday’s first two heats of the four-man competition, the final sliding event of the Olympics.
Medals will be decided in the final two runs Sunday, and Germany — which won gold in women’s bobsled and got a shared two-man gold with Canada when Friedrich and Justin Kripps tied for the top spot — surely is thinking about another trip to the top of the podium. Biathlon: The United States biathlon team has announced it will boycott the International Biathlon Union’s final World Cup meet in Russia next month. The American athletes say the IBU’s recent decision to move forward with the March 22-25 event despite a recent doping scandal in Russia is “completely unacceptable.” Hockey: Viewers who think the Olympic hockey arenas look empty are not alone.
International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel says he’s disappointed with the crowds at some playoff games but acknowledges South Korea is not a hockey country. He says, “I think the pricing was also relatively high for people.”
Tickets for the bronze- and gold-medal games run from $140 to $278 on the Pyeong-