Anderson defends title in blustery final Canada live up to mantle with gold
Lundby strikes
GANGNEUNG, South Korea, Feb 12, (Agencies): Canada’s ice dance star Scott Moir said Monday’s Olympic figure skating team gold was inspired by the sour taste left by their too “casual” approach at Sochi four years ago.
Moir with partner Tessa Virtue helped Canada live up to their mantle as favourites with a commanding win over defending champions Russia and the United States for the Winter Games’ heavyweights first gold in South Korea. Moir and his compatriots came in second best in Sochi, a defeat that the 30-year-old said was irking for “a country born on ice”.
“We weren’t happy with our approach in Sochi, it was too casual,” he said.
“We came home with a sour taste in our mouth, so we set a four year plan, we wanted to win it, we believed in ourselves.”
“Canadians are born on the ice, we think we are best in world... we are proud we took it more seriously, especially against two very good teams.”
They took command on Friday, despite Sochi dual silver medallist Patrick Chan tumbling in his men’s short programme.
Competing in their third Olympics, Virtue and Moir earned a maximum 10 points for their short programme, and matched that in the concluding free with an exhilarating four-and-a-half minute performance to the music of Moulin Rouge.
Canada finished on 73 points, with Russia on 66 and the USA a further four points behind.
This was the first silver of the Pyeo-
Moir
The Canada team celebrate on the podium during the venue ceremony after winning gold in the figure skating team event during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung on Feb 12. (AFP)
Canada’s Patrick Chan competes in the figure skating team event men’s single skating free skating during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic
Games at the Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung on Feb 12. (AFP)
win two Olympic golds, successfully defending the title she won in Sochi four years ago by putting up an 83.00 during the first of her two runs. It was more than enough to top a field more focused on mere survival than putting on a show.
Yet the enduring image from slopestyle’s second Olympic appearance won’t be Anderson beaming from the victory podium but the hour of carnage that preceded it as rider after rider either crashed or bailed or did some combination of the two.
Even Anderson wasn’t immune. She washed out in her second run with the gold already wrapped up.
Laurie Blouin of Canada took
silver,
Norway’s Maren Lundby competes to win the women’s Normal hill individual ski jumping event during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Gasmes on Feb 12, in
Pyeongchang. (AFP)
with Finland’s Enni Rukajarvi finishing third, a testament more to their courage than their actual skill.
High winds scrubbed qualifying on Sunday, turning Monday’s final into a 26-woman, two-run free-for-all with Anderson, the top-ranked snowboarder in the world, scheduled to go last.
Officials pushed back the start due to weather concerns, and while the wind eventually calmed enough for the event to start following a 75-minute delay, the course ended up being an unpredictable mess anyway. Maybe, but there’s pushing the limit and then there’s trying to ride in the middle of what several competitors likened to a tornado.
Only nine of the combined 50 runs were anywhere close to clean. The event became like a NASCAR race with skis, only there was no caution flag in sight. The wind kept whipping. And the riders kept going. And falling. And flailing.
Sarka Pancochova of the Czech Republic set the tone when she led off by bailing at the top of the first of the three big air jumps at the bottom of the course, literally turning around as if to say “no thanks” before simply sliding down the hill. Pancochova openly wondered why officials thought it was OK to push back the Alpine events about an hour away but let the snowboarders try to make a go of it anyway.
Speed skater Ireen Wust won the women’s 1,500m to become the first Dutch athlete to win five Olympic gold medals, eclipsing track and field legend Fanny Blankers-Koen.
And Norway’s Maren Lundby won a dramatic women’s normal hill ski jump competition when she eclipsed German Katharina Althaus and Japan’s Sara Takanashi with the last jump of the night.
But angry snowboarders lashed out at organisers after the women’s slopestyle final was held in heavy gusts, causing nearly every competitor to take a tumble.