Gao is first Chinese man with gold in speedskating

Gao Tingyu thrilled the home crowd by becoming the first Chinese man to claim an Olympic gold medal in speedskating, winning the 500 meters on Saturday.

Gao added to the bronze medal he took in the 500 at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

Zhang Hong had been the only Chinese gold medalist at the oval. She won the women’s 1,000 eight years ago in Sochi. Now, she’s got company.

Gao skated in the seventh of 15 pairs, setting an Olympic record of 34.32 seconds. Then he waited nervously on the infield as 16 other skaters took aim at his time.

None could beat it. Gao knew he had at least a medal after the next-tolast pair crossed the line. The silver went to South Korea’s Cha Min Kyu, whose time of 34.39 gave him a matching medal to the silver he won four years ago in Pyeongchang.

Wataru Morishige of Japan took the bronze in 34.49.

Cross-country skiing: The Russian cross-country skiing team started strong and finished strong in the women’s four-person relay, winning another Olympic gold medal. Yulia Stupak broke away early with nine women chasing. On the next leg, Natalia Nepryaeva was chased down by Katharina Hennig of Germany.The Germans briefly took the lead on the last lap, with Russian skier Veronika Stepanova just behind Sofie Krehl. But Stepanova pulled away on the final climb and won in 53 minutes, 41 seconds. Germany took silver, 18.2 seconds behind. Sweden edged Finland for bronze.

Skeleton: Germany has a new sliding champion. Hannah Neise has never won a World Cup medal. Or a medal at the world championships. Or a medal from the European championships. But she has the Olympic gold medal now. Neise is the Olympic skeleton women’s champion, a bit of a surprise winner. The 21-yearold who won the junior world title last year became the first German woman to capture the gold medal in Olympic skeleton by rallying in the final two heats. Jaclyn Narracott of Australia was second.

Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands was third.

Ski jumping: Marius Lindvik of Norway won Olympic gold in ski jumping on the large hill by holding off Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan. Lindvik jumped 140 meters on his final jump and earned 296.1 points overall to become the first Norwegian to win the event since

Toralf Engan in 1964. Kobayashi earned silver after winning on the normal hill on Sunday. Karl Geiger of Germany finished third.

Ice dancing: Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron broke their own world record in the rhythm dance at the Beijing Olympics, scoring 90.83 points to begin the ice dance event. That gave the four-time world champs from France a cushion over Russian rivals

Victoria Sinitsina and

Nikita Katsalapov heading into the free dance.

Madison Hubbell and

Zachary Donohue were in third, and American teammates Madison Chock and Evan Bates were in fourth place. The medals will be decided with the free dance Monday morning.

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