Mom helps skater dress for success
Surprise U.S. champs Hubbell and Donohue are feeling confident
Susan Hubbell once found a piece of lace from the 1920s, probably the last such piece in existence, and paid hundreds of dollars so she could cut it up for a figure skating costume.
Her daughter, American ice dancer Madison Hubbell, never wore it in competition.
She once spent more than $1,000 on rhinestones for a glittery jewel of a costume, one that sparkled like a million diamonds, and her daughter wore it once before packing it away.
“It was incredible. The thing was solid, tiny little rhinestones,” Susan Hubbell recalled with a chuckle. “But it happens all the time, I’ll make a costume and they’ll change their mind, or they want to go with a different feel, and all it does is hangs in the closet. Nobody ever sees it again.”
Well, millions of people will see some of her handiwork this week.
Madison Hubbell and her partner, Zachary Donohue, are among three American ice dance teams with a shot at the Olympic podium when competition begins Sunday with the short program. And while they are unlikely to challenge the favorites, Canadian superstars Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and French rivals Gabriella Papdakis and Guillaume Cizeron, Hubbell and Donohue still have plenty of confidence.
That’s because they’re fresh off an upset win at nationals, when they beat teammates Maia and Alex Shibutani and Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and still believe their best is yet to come.
Giant slalom
Marcel Hirscher has turned his domination in the giant slalom into a second gold medal. The 28-year-old Austrian star extended his first-run lead to win by a huge margin of 1.27 seconds over hardcharging Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway. Kristoffersen rose from 10th-fastest in the first run with the quickest time in the second run. Alexis Pinturault of France finished 1.31 behind Hirscher’s two-run time of 2 minutes, 18.04 seconds to get the bronze medal.
Ted Ligety, the 2014 Olympic champion and a three-time world champion before Hirscher, let his title slip without contending for a medal. The American was 20th-fastest after first run and finished more than three seconds back, outside the top 10.
Freestyle skiing
Gus Kenworthy’s Olympics turned into Oystein Braaten’s party. Braaten, the 22-year-old from Norway, captured the gold medal in ski slopestyle, far outdistancing the dingedup Kenworthy, who failed to land any of his three runs and came in last. Braaten, edged out American Nick Goepper, who added a silver medal to the bronze he won four years ago in Sochi.
Alex Beaulieu-Marchand of Canada took this year’s bronze.
But the loudest cheers on this sunny day at the action park were for Kenworthy, the 26-year-old from Colorado who came out as gay about two years after capturing the silver medal in Russia. He has since become a strong, steady voice in the LGBT community, and has used the Pyeongchang Games to amplify his message .
Ski jumping
Defending champion Kamil Stoch won ski jumping’s large hill. The 30-year-old Polish jumper had leaps of 135 and 136.5 meters for 285.7 points to beat normal hill gold medalist Andreas Wellinger of Germany, who took the silver. Robert Johansson of Norway won the bronze. Stoch was left off the podium in the normal hill, finishing behind Wellinger, Johann Andre Forfang and Johansson.
Skeleton
Britain’s Lizzy Yarnold has won her second consecutive gold medal in women’s skeleton, her first victory in an international skeleton race in three years. Yarnold finished four runs in 3 minutes, 27.28 seconds. She wound up winning by nearly a half-second over Germany’s Jacqueline Loelling. Britain’s Laura Deas took third. Yarnold threw down a track-record time of 51.46 seconds in the final heat.
Speedskating
Samuel Girard of Canada won Olympic gold in the 1,000-meter short-track speedskating. John-Henry Krueger of the U.S. earned silver, and Seo Yira of South Korea took bronze.
Krueger’s medal was the first by an American in speedskating at the Pyeongchang Games.
• American Maame Biney was been eliminated in shorttrack speedskating. The 18-year-old, who was born in Ghana, finished last in her heat of the 1,500 meters.
Cross-country skiing
Norway’s Marit Bjoergen has moved into a tie for the most career Winter Olympics medals after helping the Norwegian women to a first-place finish in the 4x5kilometer relay.
Sweden finished second while the Olympic athletes from Russia were third. Bjoergen has now has 13 medals, which ties male biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, also from Norway. Bjoergen can become the most decorated Winter Olympian ever with a medal in either one of the final two women’s events the women’s team sprint relay or the 50-kilometer mass start.