San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
SHIFFRIN’S LAST CHANCE FOR MEDAL FALLS JUST SHY
Mikaela Shiffrin and the American mixed ski team missed out on a medal by 0.42 seconds, losing in the bronze matchup Sunday to cap an exasperating Beijing Olympics for the two-time gold medalist who is going home empty-handed.
“I have had a lot of disappointing moments at these Games. Today is not one of them,” Shiffrin said. “Today is my favorite memory.”
The top-ranked Austrians won gold in the Winter Games’ second iteration of the mixed team parallel event, holding off Germany in the final Sunday (Saturday night PST).
The U.S. primarily used Shiffrin on the slower of the parallel courses, and she lost three of her four heats, including in the bronze matchup against Norway. Teammate River Radamus delivered the win the U.S. needed in the last heat to force a 2-2 deadlock, but he wasn’t fast enough to tilt the tiebreaker — combined times of the fastest man and woman — to the Americans’ favor.
Shiffrin went 0 for 5 in her bid for an individual medal in Beijing. She only reached the finish line at two individual events, coming in ninth in the super-g and 18th in the downhill, her two worst contests. She only lasted about five gates in giant slalom, five gates in the slalom and 10 in the slalom portion of the twoleg combined.
Diggins earns silver
Norwegian great Therese Johaug won her third gold medal of the Beijing Olympics and Jessie Diggins took silver for the best result by an American in an individual cross-country skiing event since 1976.
Fighting fierce winds and brutal temperatures, Johaug went out front early in the 30kilometer mass start race and held on to win in 1 hour, 24 minutes, 54 seconds. Johaug
also won the skiathlon — the first gold medal of the Olympics — and the 10-kilometer classic race.
Diggins, also skiing alone for much of the race, kept a steady pace behind the Norwegian as gusts whipped across the tracks and battered the skiers, many with tape on their faces to protect from the cold. She dropped to the ground after crossing the finish line, 1:43.3 behind Johaug.
Home gold in pairs
Sui Wenjing and Han
Cong won the pairs figure skating gold medal in their home country, performing a smooth and elegant free skate program to “Bridge Over Troubled Water” to top three duos from the Russian Olympic Committee.
The Chinese couple, who won the silver medal four years ago at the Pyeongchang Games, beat a strong field by skating the top-ranked program in both segments of the competition. They earned a world-record 155.47 points for a total of 239.88, edging out Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov (239.25).
Gold at last in curling
Four years ago, the Swedish men’s curling team watched as a team of Americans exulted in winning their country’s first curling gold. It was a bitter upset they did not forget. Eight years after winning a bronze medal and four years after settling for silver, Sweden finally has its first curling gold.
• Eve Muirhead led Britain
to the Olympic women’s curling gold medal — the first for the sport’s homeland since 2002 — pulling away with a four-ender in the seventh for a record-setting 10-3 victory over Japan. It was the most lopsided women’s final in Olympic history.
Notable
Arbitrators have rejected a last-ditch request by American figure skaters to have their silver medals awarded before the end of the Olympics after finishing second in the team event marred by a doping positive from 15year-old Russian Kamila Valieva.
• Francesco Friedrich won his second Olympic gold medal in Beijing and fourth of his career by driving to the win in the four-man bobsled, the final sliding race of these Games. There were 10 sliding events in Beijing. Germany won gold in nine of them and took 16 medals overall. The rest of the world combined had 14 medals in sliding.