Teen Gerard wins USA’s 1st gold medal
PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA >> Red Gerard and his brothers built their own snowboarding features park in the backyard of their Colorado home as kids, one that provided them a gateway into a sport that is an equal mix of technical precision and daring creativity.
Halfway across the world from his makeshift beginnings, the teenager made the Olympic stage look like just another afternoon back in Silverthorne, Colo.
The 17-year-old won gold in men’s slopestyle snowboarding on Saturday, drilling his final run to put up a score of 87.16 — good enough to edge Canadians Max Parrot and Mark McMorris and give the United States its first gold medal at the Pyeongchang Games.
“It’s a little bit hard to believe, that’s for sure,” Gerard said.
“I’m just absolutely just mind-blown. I can’t believe everything worked out.”
Gerard stumbled his way through his opening two runs at tricky, windy and sun-splashed Phoenix Snow Park. It hardly mattered.
He found the line and the rhythm he was missing his third time.
“I think I was just a little bit nervous (at first),” Gerard said. “I was just like, ‘I came all the way out here, I was just trying to land a run most of all.’ ’’
He finished with a backside triple cork three twists and a flip.
COUPLE OF FIRSTS >> Charlotte Kalla of Sweden won the first gold medal of the Pyeongchang Games a few hours before Lim Hyo-jun earned host country South Korea its first gold.
In the first medal event of the Winter Olympics, Kalla won the women’s 15-kilometer skiathlon by more than seven seconds.
Later in the day, Lim crossed the finish line first in the men’s 1,500-meter short-track speedskating event, setting off a huge roar from a capacity crowd at Gangneung Ice Arena.
Lim pushed past Sjinkie Knegt of the Netherlands, finishing in an Olympic-record of 2 minutes, 10.485 seconds. Knegt won silver while bronze went to Semen Elistratov, who was the first Russian medalist of the games.
For Kalla, it was her sixth career Olympic medal — and third gold.
Marit Bjoergen finished behind Kalla for silver, but made Olympic history by becoming the most decorated female Winter Olympian ever.
The Norwegian won her 11th career medal to break a tie with Raisa Smetanina of Russia and Stefania Belmondo of Italy.
DUTCH SWEEP IN SPEEDSKATING >> The Dutch are off to a great start on the Olympic speedskating oval again with a sweep of the medals in the women’s 3,000-meter race.
Carlijn Achtereekte surprisingly beat two-time 3,000-meter champion Ireen Wust. Antoinette de Jong finished third.
The Netherlands won 23 of 36 speedskating medals in Sochi four years ago.
GERMANY TAKES TWO GOLDS >> Laura Dahlmeier pushed through bitterly cold conditions to win gold in the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint biathlon after hitting all 10 of her targets.
Marte Olsbu of Norway won silver and Veronika Vitkova of the Czech Republic earned bronze.
Andreas Wellinger won the gold in men’s ski jumping. Norway won the silver and bronze with Johann Andre Forfang in second and Robert Johansson in third.