Wise goes for it, wins halfpipe gold
David Wise decided there was nothing left to lose yesterday in the PyeongChang Games when he stood atop a halfpipe that had sent onethird of the 12 skiers limping off with injuries, facing an allor-nothing run after his ski bindings had failed him in his two previous trips down. Wise put down the most difficult, technically precise run ever seen in the sport of halfpipe skiing. He scored a 97.2 to edge out his Olympic roommate and fellow American, Alex Ferreira, by 0.8 points to win his second straight Olympic gold medal.
He and Ferreira gave the United States its fifth and sixth medals on the halfpipe . . . .
After American Jamie Anderson overshot the landing a bit while trying to nail a cab 10 on her third jump in Big Air, Anna Gasser had the opening she needed.
The Austrian did a “cab double 10” — two flips and three full rotations — to slip past Anderson. Her score of 96 was the highest of the day and boosted her two-jump total to 185.00 to win gold.
Shiffrin adds silver
Mikaela Shiffrin couldn’t make it a third gold on the day for the U.S., taking the silver as Michelle Gisin of Switzerland won the women’s Alpine combined.
Gisin finished in 2 minutes, 20.90 seconds to eclipse silver-medalist Shiffrin by 0.97 seconds. Wendy Holdener of Switzerland was 1.44 seconds back to earn the bronze. Lindsey Vonn made a mistake early in the slalom and didn’t finish in what was likely the final race of her Winter Games career . . . .
In the men’s slalom, Andre Myhrer, a 35-year-old Swede, was the unlikely champion after Marcel Hirscher and Henrik Kristoffersen — the best slalom skiers on the World Cup circuit — couldn’t complete two runs.
Ramon Zenhaeusern of Switzerland won the silver, 0.34 seconds behind Myhrer. Michael Matt of Austria took bronze.
Zagitova tops skate
Alina Zagitova won one of the games spotlight events, edging her friend and training partner Evgenia Medvedeva in the women’s free skate. That ended the gold drought for the Olympic Athletes from Russia. Zagitova and Medvedeva tied in the free skate, a rare occurrence, but Zagitova had won the short program Wednesday.
Bronze went to Kaetlyn Osmond, giving Canada four overall medals in figure skating . . . .
Wu Dajing of China domi- nated the men’s 500, setting a world record in becoming the first man from his coun- try to win short-track gold.
In the women’s 1,000, Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands pulled off a golden upset, and Kim Boutin of Canada took silver for her third medal of the games.
Arianna Fontana earned bronze, giving the Italian a complete set of hardware to go with gold in the 500 and silver in the 3,000 relay.
Hungary had an historic night by winning its first Winter Olympic gold medal — and first of any kind in short track — in the men’s relay, taking the lead on the last lap of the 45-lap race . . . .
After battling through windy conditions that created havoc on the shooting range, Darya Domracheva from Belarus won her fourth Olympic gold medal in the biathlon, more than any woman in history, when she teamed with Nadezhda Skardino, Iryna Kryoko, Dzinara Alimbekava to win the 4x6-kilometer relay in 1 hour, 12 minutes, 3.4 seconds . ...
Johannes Rydzek crossed the finish line with an overwhelming 52.7-second advantage as Germany joined Finland as the only countries to win three gold med- als in Nordic combined in one Winter Olympics.