SPEEDSKATING WOES FOR UNITED STATES

KOREA» Three GANGNEUNG, SOUTH events into the Olympic speedskating competition, the Americans have yet to climb onto the podium.

The latest setback came Monday night when world champion Heather Bergsma finished eighth in the 1,500 meters. Brittany Bowe had the highest U.S. finish, fifth, while Mia Manganello was 22nd out of 26 skaters.

The Americans’ results so far recall four years ago in Sochi when the U.S. team was blanked, a stunning result for a sport that has earned America’s most Winter Olympic medals.

Bergsma faded badly on her last lap, with her time going up three seconds from her previous lap.

“It was just a hard last lap,” she said in a flat voice. “It wasn’t my best race, so I can’t be super happy about it.”

Bergsma’s final time of 1 minute, 56.74 seconds was well off her personal best of 1:50.85, also the current world mark she set two years ago. She finished 2.39 seconds behind gold medalist Ireen Wust of the Netherlands.

If there was a bright spot at all, it was Bowe. She had the best result since Sochi, where no one finished higher than seventh individually.

Bowe has lost valuable training time since suffering a concussion in July 2016 after colliding with a teammate during practice. The recovery limited her to one World Cup event before the Olympics.

“Felt great,” she said. “Best 1,500 I’ve had in a couple of years. It gives me great momentum going into my favorite race, which is the 1,000, so super happy about it.”

Bowe’s time of 1:55.54 had her in first place before she dropped to third with two pairs remaining. She got bumped off the podium by two Dutch skaters and another from Japan. Bowe’s personal best is 1:51.31.

Five golds for Wust. Dutch speedskater Ireen Wust won her fifth Olympic gold medal, victorious in the 1,500 meters, and Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury continued Canada’s domination of the men’s moguls with his first Olympic title and Canada’s third in a row in the discipline.

Speedskater tests positive for banned substance.

PYEONGCHANG» The first doping case of the PyeongChang Olympics was announced.

Officials say Japanese shorttrack speedskater Kei Saito tested positive for acetalozamide, a diuretic that is also a masking agent, which can disguise the use of other banned substances.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Saito “accepted on a voluntary basis to be provisionally suspended and to leave the Olympic Village.”

Saito did not race in any event before the test result from a precompetition sample was confirmed.

In pursuit.

German biathlete Laura Dahlmeier became the first double gold medalist of the Olympics by capturing the women’s 10-kilometer pursuit, and Frenchman Martin Fourcade bounced back from a disappointing eighth-place finish in the sprint race to win the gold medal in the 12.5-kilometer pursuit.

Chilly jump.

Maren Lundby overcame frigid temperatures to win the women’s ski jumping normal hill gold medal.

Lundby nailed a jump of 110 meters for 264.6 points to capture Norway’s second gold medal of the Games.

Katharina Althaus of Germany was second, followed by Japan’s Sara Takanashi.

The temperature was 12 degrees at the start of competition at the Alpensia Ski Jumping Center.

A first for Olympic curling.

A team of Russian athletes won the bronze medal in mixed doubles curling after beating Norway 8-4 and recovering from a rare tumble on the ice.

The Russians’ win Tuesday gives them the distinction of nabbing the first-ever Olympic medal in mixed doubles curling.