Olympic events delayed as heavy snow hits Yanqing and Zhangjiakou

The Russian Olympic Committee blew away the rest of the field to win the gold medal in the men’s 4x10km cross-country skiing relay in a time of 1:54:50.7, one minute and 7.2 seconds ahead of runners-up Norway.

The ROC dominated from the start and Sergey Ustiugov was able to celebrate down the finishing straight knowing there was nobody to catch him.

Norway came in a relatively distant second to secure silver and France took home bronze.

Australia has racked up more medals this Winter Olympics than any previous edition after claiming its fourth for the first time ever this week.

The team of 44 athletes in Beijing now has one gold, two silvers and one bronze having won three medals at PyeongChang 2018 and also at Sochi 2014.

On Saturday, Jaclyn Narracott became the first Australian to medal in a sliding event when she won silver in the women’s skeleton.

Prior to that, Jakara Anthony became Australia’s first Winter Olympic gold medalist since Vancouver 2010 when she won the women’s moguls title, and adding to the total medal haul was Scotty James in the men’s snowboard halfpipe and Tess Coady in the women’s snowboard slopestyle.

Australia isn’t done yet, though, with Breeana Walker proving to be a medal contender in the women’s monobob.

While Australia is the driest inhabited continent on Earth, it does boast one popular snow region: the Australian Alps in the southeast of the country.

That said, most of Australia’s winter athletes are based in Europe or North America, according to the Australian Olympic Committee.

Swiss skier Marco Odermatt won gold in the men’s giant slalom with a time of 2:09.35, 0.19 seconds ahead of Slovenia’s Zan Kranjec.

“It’s unbelievable. It was a hard day, with the conditions, with such a long wait between the two runs,” Odermatt said after the race. “It was more than five hours for me, it was such a long time to re-think everything and it was hard to stay focused. I tried to sleep some minutes inbetween.

“I actually never dreamt about it, but now, it still feels like a dream.”

Odermatt, who led in the first run earlier this morning, entered the second run with an advantage of 0.78 seconds. Though he lost some time with a slow start on the second run, he was able to stay ahead through the end, letting out a yell of victory into the cameras as he finished the run.

“It was challenging, I really risked everything in the second run because I wanted not just the medal, I wanted the gold medal. It’s difficult because you can lose everything but today it paid off,” he said.

“I won the medal today, but it’s so much between (you) and a medal, there are so many shadows behind the medal, on the other side.” 

Odermatt has been peerless in the giant slalom this season in the World Cup, though he came seventh in the Olympics downhill event and failed to finish the super-G event.

The second run this afternoon was postponed for more than an hour due to poor weather conditions. Beijing, Zhangjiakou and Yanqing — the three main sites where sporting venues are located — have all seen fresh snowfall today, with workers hurrying to clear snow from sidewalks and courses.

The bronze went to France’s Mathieu Faivre.

Russia’s teen skating sensation Kamila Valieva has been named on the draw for Tuesday’s single skating short program, despite the ongoing controversy over her positive drugs test.

Earlier this week, Valieva became the first woman to land a quadruple jump at the Olympics. She helped the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) win gold at the team event; at the short program on Tuesday, she plans to skate to “In Memoriam” by Kirill Richter and attempt a triple axel as well as a triple flip.

However, all that will be moot if the Court of Arbitration for Sport rules against Valieva at a hearing later today. The results are expected to come Monday afternoon.

Some context: The 15-year-old tested positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidine in late December before the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, according to the International Testing Agency (ITA). 

The failed results were only announced on February 8, well into the Olympics, one day after the ROC’s victory in the team event.

She was immediately given a provisional suspension by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency — but she challenged the suspension and it was lifted a day later, clearing her to continue competing.

The ITA, the International Olympic Committee, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Skating Union are appealing the decision to lift her suspension. Valieva has been free to train as the deliberations continue.

The confirmation of results of the team figure skating competition could come much later, with the US poised to take gold from Russia if the court rules against Valieva at today’s hearing.

Snowboarder Jenise Spiteri, representing Malta, made headlines at the Olympics after pulling a red bean bun out of her pocket and taking a bite in front of the camera after her halfpipe qualifying run.

But her road to the Olympics is just as interesting.

The 29-year-old, born in San Francisco, has been living in a van without heating for the last two years to save money for training, she told the official Olympics site.

One morning in the van, she woke up to find that her contact lenses had frozen inside the saline solution. She had to huff warm breath over the solution to try to melt it and extract her lenses, she said.

Late learner: She came to the sport late, and learned to snowboard after asking Facebook friends to teach her. “When I decided to take up the sport, people said I was too old, poor and unskilled,” she said, according to CCTV. “All the things I lacked were stacked against me … But as long as you keep moving forward, you’ll get there.”

She returned home this weekend after finishing her competition on the half-pipe — where her family and van were waiting. She posted a photo of the van on her Instagram Stories on Sunday, with a giant red sign affixed to the back that read: “Welcome home Jenise, our Olympian.”

The men’s and women’s curling round robin games kicked off today, with the men’s Team Canada defeating Team USA, the reigning Olympic champions.

On the men’s side of the game, Great Britain also won earlier today, narrowly beating out host nation China by 7-6. And world champion Sweden defeated Norway earlier this morning.

The women’s teams are now facing off with four simultaneous games, while the men’s games will resume in the evening.

If you want to become an Olympic world record holder, you’d better be ready for some grueling training — and eating.

Sweden’s speed skater Nils Van Der Poel released a 62-page training guide after winning gold in the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter speed skating events and setting a new Olympic record last week. Here are a few things you’d need to do to get on his level:

At the Winter Olympics, perhaps no venue has been more coveted than the souvenir store.

The store, located inside the main press center, has boasted long lines every day since the Games began. One staff worker told CNN the store only opens at 10 a.m. — but today, people began lining up outside by 6 a.m., hoping to be the first ones in to snatch up fast-selling items.

When CNN stopped by the store in the afternoon, one person in line said he had waited more than two hours the last time he visited.

Signs were plastered outside the window, warning that it had sold out of stuffed toys of the Olympic panda mascot Bing Dwen Dwen — who has become an unexpected star during the Games. The panda’s merchandise has sold out in both online and brick-and-mortar stores across China, according to Chinese state media.

The staff worker told CNN the souvenir store has already restocked the doll twice in the past week — but each time, the little panda was sold out within half an hour.

Inside the store on Sunday, the only Bing Dwen Dwen merchandise left were small pins showing the panda on skis and playing ice hockey. Other items on offer include sports apparel neck cushions, teapots and tea cups, bags and thermoses.

The Beijing Olympic Committee identified three new Covid-19 cases among Olympics-related personnel as of Saturday, it said in a statement today. 

Among the three cases, two were found in a group of new airport arrivals and one from people inside the “closed loop” system, which separates Olympic athletes and participants from the Beijing public. 

Two of the three new cases involved athletes or team officials.

With these new cases, organizers have now recorded 429 Olympics-related cases since the closed loop launched on January 23, including 182 cases involving athletes and team officials.

In that same period of time, organizers have conducted more than 1.3 million Covid tests for 13,492 arrivals, according to the statement. Daily Covid tests are mandatory for participants in the bubble.