NORWEGIAN FALLS, GETS UP AND WINS
PYEONGCHANG» When Simen Hegstad Krueger slipped and fell on the first lap of the 30-kilometer cross country skiathlon and found himself face down in the snow with two rivals on top of him, he figured his hopes for an Olympic medal were over.
He couldn’t have been more wrong.
“Here it is my first ever Olympic race, and it starts in the worst possible way,” said the Norwegian, who untangled his legs and his skis from the two Russian competitors he wrecked, grabbed his broken ski pole and stormed up the hill to get back in contention.
Starting from the rear, Krueger passed 63 other skiers to take the lead and win the gold medal Sunday, capping an amazing comeback. After Krueger crossed the finish line in 1 hour, 16 minutes, 20 seconds, he looked toward the sky and repeatedly pumped his fists in the air.
Norway swept the medals, with Martin Johnsrud Sundby taking silver and Hans Christer Holund getting bronze.
Sundby said Krueger’s return to the front of the field after crashing is an incredible testament to his perseverance.
“I think we have a deserving Olympic champion,” Sundby said.
Kramer three-peats.
Speedskater Sven Kramer of the Netherlands won his third consecutive 5,000-meter Olympic gold medal, becoming the first man to take three in a row.
He won with a devastating kick late in the race, coming back from behind to beat Ted-Jan Bloemen of Canada and setting an Olympic record.
Bloemen, who was born in the Netherlands, took silver by 0.0002 of a second in a headto-head showdown with Norwegian Sverre Lunde Pedersen.
Kramer is looking for two more gold medals — in the 10,000 and in the team pursuit.
Kramer used his typical late kick to make the difference, taking the lead two-thirds of the way through the race and letting his massive stride do the rest to finish in 6 minutes 09.76 seconds, holding an edge of 1.85 seconds over Bloemen and Lunde Pedersen.
Stunning biathlon result.
The men’s 10-kilometer biathlon was supposed to be a two-man race between France’s Martin Fourcade and Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe.
What happened sent shock waves through the biathlon world.
Fourcade, the No. 1-ranked biathlete in the world, missed three of his five shots from the prone position, forcing him to do three penalty laps, and finished eighth overall.
Thingnes Boe, ranked No. 2 in the world, missed three from the prone position and one from the standing position with his .22caliber rifle to finish a distant 31st.
Germany’s Arnd Peiffer, ranked No. 5 in the world, connected on all 10 of his targets and won the gold medal. Michal Krcmar of the Czech Republic won silver and Italy’s Dominik Windisch took bronze.
American medal hopeful Lowell Bailey finished 33rd.
Footnotes.
The United States women’s hockey team rallied to beat Finland 3-1 to in its Olympic opener. Down 1-0 after one period, Monique Lamoureux-Morando and Kendall Coyne scored in the second period, and Dani Cameranesi clinched it on an empty-net goal with 13 seconds left. Goalie Maddie Rooney made 23 saves. … An estimated 21.4 million viewers watched NBC’s prime-time coverage Saturday night, with the number increasing to 24.2 million when consumption on the digital live stream and NBCSN cable network are added. Both figures are down from the 25.1 million who watched the corresponding Saturday at Sochi four years ago. … NBC apologized to South Korea for a remark by analyst Joshua Cooper Ramo on Friday’s coverage of the opening ceremony. Ramo credited Japan as an influence for South Korea’s resurgence over the past three decades. That angered many South Koreans with memories of Japan as an occupying force from 1910 to 1945. — The Associated Press