Around Beijing
Highlights from Day 5:
Men’s cross-country skiing: Russian athlete Alexander Bolshunov pulled away from the pack early and won the first men’s cross-country skiing gold medal in the 30-kilometer skiathlon. Bolshunov, the World Cup leader in distance races, grabbed a Russian Olympic Committee flag in the final stretch and waved it in the air as he crossed the finish line in 1 hour, 16 minutes, 9.8 seconds. Denis Spitsov stayed out front and secured the silver, 1: 11 behind Bolshunov. Iivo Niskanen held on for the bronze, 2:00 behind.
Mixed doubles curling: The semifinals are set for Monday. Norway will face Britain in the first matchup. Italy will face Sweden in the other.
Figure skating team event: Kamila Valieva became the first woman to land a quad in the Olympics — two of them, in fact — and her historic free skate put a stamp on Russia’s dominant run to the gold medal in the team figure skating event. The 15-year-old Valieva opened with a huge quad salchow and followed with the difficult triple axel before landing another quad, this time a toe loop in combination with a triple toe loop. Valieva scored 178.92 points, giving Russia 74 points and their second gold medal in three editions of the team event. The U.S. took the silver medal after back-to-back bronze, while Japan won its first team medal with bronze.
Women’s freestyle skiing: Jakara Anthony of Australia made it look almost easy, breezing through the bumps as the last competitor to capture the women’s moguls title. Anthony’s back flip with a grab at the bottom sewed up the gold medal on the Secret Garden Olympic ski course. Her score of 83.09 edged Jaelin Kauf. Russian athlete Anastasiia Smirnova earned the bronze and defending champion Perrine Laffont of France took fourth.
Women’s hockey: Le Mi scored the lone shootout goal to secure host China a 2-1 win over Japan. By virtue of the shootout loss, Japan (2-0-1) earned a point to secure one of Group B’s three spots in the quarterfinals, the furthest the nation’s women’s team has advanced in three Olympic appearances. China (2-1), in its Olympic debut, can clinch a quarterfinal berth with a win over Sweden in its final preliminary round game, or with one more loss by Sweden (0-2) or Denmark (0-2).
Men’s luge: Johannes Ludwig is the Olympic men’s champion for the first time, making him the oldest — he’s eight days shy of turning 36 — to win that race’s gold medal. Ludwig finished four runs at the Yanqing Sliding Center in 3 minutes, 48.735 seconds, 0.160 seconds ahead of Wolfgang Kindl of Austria and 0.951 seconds ahead of bronze medalist Dominik Fischnaller of Italy. Ludwig was the bronze medalist at the Pyeongchang Games four years ago.
Men’s ski jumping: Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan won the Olympic ski jumping gold medal on the normal hill. Kobayashi jumped last and best, clearing 326 feet and had 129.6 points thanks to his graceful style from start to finish. Manuel Fettner of Austria won silver and Dawid Kubacki of Poland earned bronze.
Men’s speed skating: Nils van der Poel gave Sweden its first Olympic speed skating medal since 1988, pulling off a stunning comeback to win gold in the 5,000 meters. Van der Poel was a big favorite coming into the event as the reigning world champion, with an undefeated record in the distance events on this season’s World Cup circuit. The 25year-old lived up to the hype in the 12½-lap race at the Ice Ribbon oval, turning on the speed at the end to overcome Patrick Roest of the Netherlands with an Olympic record of 6 minutes, 8.84 seconds. Roest had skated about an hour earlier in the sixth of 10 pairs, initially breaking the Olympic mark in 6.09.31. The bronze went to Hallgeir Engebraaten of Norway in 6:09.88.