Danes beat Czechs in their men's hockey debut
Denmark made a spectacular Olympic debut by shocking the Czech Republic 2-1 in men's ice hockey Wednesday.
Markus Lauridsen and Frans Nielsen each had a goal and Sebastian Dahm made 39 saves as the men completed an Olympic Danish double following the path blazed by the women, who also made their Games debut in Beijing and beat the Czechs to land a first win in the competition.
“(It's) a good win for us and a great start for us in our first ever Olympics,” said Danish forward and former San Jose Shark Mikkel Boedker. “Obviously we're a real small country that doesn't have that many participants in hockey, but both women and men are here and both teams have beaten Czech Republic in their Olympics and that's pretty cool.”
It was an edge-of-your-seat day at the National Indoor Arena as defending gold medal winners the Russian Olympic Committee escaped with 1-0 win over Switzerland.
The ROC and Czech Republic arrived in Beijing tipped as medal contenders. Opening day action underscored just how unpredictable the Games could be without National Hockey League players.
Before the NHL pulled out of the Beijing Games due to COVID-19 concerns that created havoc with its schedule, there had been clear medal favorites with Canada and the United States topping the list.
But when play got underway Wednesday, the podium spots were considered up for grabs.
Denmark came out flying, scoring twice in the opening period with Lauridsen notching the country's first Olympic goal and Nielsen adding the eventual game-winner on a penalty shot.
Roman Cervenka got the Czechs on the scoreboard in the second, but Dahm shut the door after.
The ROC also needed a spectacular effort from their netminder to snatch a nervy victory.
The Swiss outshot the ROC 3330 but couldn't put a puck past goalie Ivan Fedotov. Anton Slepyshev's goal with 2.7 seconds left in the opening period proved to be the game's lone goal.
Alpine skiing
Petra Vlhova added an Olympic gold medal to her growing list of achievements, winning the women's slalom.
It was Slovakia's first Olympic medal in Alpine skiing. Mikaela
Shiffrin again failed to finish the race.
Katharina Liensberger of Austria was 0.08 seconds slower than Vlhova over the two legs for second. Wendy Holdener of Switzerland was third, 0.12 behind Vlhova.
Freestyle skiing
Norway's Birk Ruud won gold in the Olympics' first men's freestyle skiing big air event, re-emerging as a leader in the extreme sport after losing his father to cancer and injuring his knee.
Ruud has two Winter X Games big air gold medals and four world cup wins, but only one since 2019.
Ruud's final score of 187.75 was well clear of American silver medalist Colby Stevenson's 183. Swedish veteran Henrik Harlaut took bronze at 181.
Luge
Germany's Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt won the doubles title, their third consecutive gold medal in the event.
They finished two runs in 1 minute, 56.653 seconds, holding off fellow Germans Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken by 0.099 seconds.
Austria's Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller survived a wobble just before the finish line to get the bronze.
Nordic combined
Germany's Vinzenz Geiger won a men's gold, rallying from a 1-minute, 26-second deficit to cross the finish line first in a 10K cross-country race after ranking 11th in ski jumping earlier in the day.
Joergen Graabak of Norway earned silver Wednesday night and Lukas Greiderer of Austria took bronze.
Japan's Ryota Yamamoto jumped 108 meters (354 feet) and had 133 points in the first part of event, giving him a 38-second lead over the pack, but he faded from contention halfway through the cross-country race.
Short track speedskating
South Korea's Hwang Daeheon won the men's 1,500 meters in Olympic short track speedskating.
Hwang stuck his skate in front at the tight finish of the 10-man final at the Capital Indoor Stadium.
Steven Dubois of Canada took silver. Semen Elistratov of the ROC earned bronze.
There were so many skaters in the final that six lined up on the start and the other four were in back. The pack circling the rink looked more like a relay than an individual final.
Figure skating
Olympic favorite Kamila Valieva tested positive for a banned heart medication before her arrival at the Beijing Olympics, the Russian newspaper RBC reported, putting in jeopardy the team gold medal that she helped win earlier this week.
The sample was reportedly obtained in December, when the 15-year-old Valieva was still in Russia but did not come to light until after she helped ROC win the gold medal.
The drug, Trimetazidine, is used to treat angina — a type of chest pain marked by reduced blood flow to the heart — and is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency as a stimulant. It is unclear whether Valieva has any heart problems.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said that “legal consultation” was required between the IOC and the International Skating Union, the world the governing body of skating. Details of the case were not specified, but Adams acknowledged that “we have athletes that have won medals involved.”
If ROC is disqualified, the U.S. team would be elevated to gold, Japan to silver and fourth-place finisher Canada — the defending champion in the team event — would receive the bronze medal.