Canada leads in women’s ice hockey gold medal game
Canada draws first blood in women’s ice hockey gold medal game
Canada’s Sarah Nurse has just put her team 1-0 ahead in the women’s ice hockey final against the United States.
It came moments after a Canadian goal was ruled out for offside.
Canada and the USA have topped the podium in the sport for years, with Canada looking to avenge defeat to Team USA in the final at Pyeongchang four years ago.
Mikaela Shiffrin is shooting for gold in today’s alpine combined event
The first part of the women’s alpine skiing combined event has wrapped, with Austria’s Christine Scheyer leading the pack.
But there were strong runs from Czech skier Ester Ledecká in second place, and Team USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin in fifth, who are both eyeing the gold.
The event started with a downhill course this morning, followed by a slalom race later this afternoon that will decide the final results. This is the final individual medal event for the alpine skiers at the Winter Games.
“Yesterday I finally felt I could really trust my instincts in the track, and it’s silly, but just try to ski fast basically,” said Shiffrin after her downhill run. She had a rough start to the Games, crashing out of her first two events.
“In downhill it takes a little bit of practice and a little bit of understanding (of) how the hill is dragging you around and I finally started to feel that the right way yesterday,” she added. “Today I was just trying to stay calm and not think about the course too much and not try to make too much of a strategy but just ski it.”
Defending Olympic champion USA advances to men’s curling semifinals
The US men’s curling team, the defending Olympic champion, is through to the semifinals in Beijing after a 7-5 win against Denmark.
Team Shuster, led by skip John Shuster, came out on top in the final action of round-robin play.
What’s next: The US will face off against Great Britain on Thursday, while fellow semi-finalists Sweden and Canada will battle it out at the same time for a place in the final.
Read more about curling:
Team USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin has borrowed some special skis to compete today
As Team USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin competes today in the women’s alpine combined event, she has a special pair of skis strapped to her boots — borrowed from Italy’s Sofia Goggia.
Goggia won silver in the women’s downhill event on Tuesday after returning from a knee injury sustained at the Cortina d’Ampezzo super-G in January.
Sharing skis: It’s not uncommon for skiers to switch skis — at the last Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Czech skier Ester Ledecká used Shiffrin’s skis to compete in the super-G event.
“As a racer, you go through your skis and you use what you want, and then maybe you move onto a different pair and your skis go back into the pool,” Shiffrin told NBC today.
“But it is actually a little different this time with Sophie (Goggia) because they’re a pair of the skis that she’s currently training and competing on. She didn’t need them because she wasn’t competing here so I was able to try them yesterday, and I was able to ski on them today.
“She actually wrote a small message on them on a sticky note, I saw it in the start and I almost started crying because it was just like, ‘You can fly on these skis,’ or something like that.”
Shiffrin praised Goggia and her “perfect team,” saying the Italian, the downhill gold medalist in Pyeongchang, won races thanks to her incredible skill — as well as the pair of skis expertly maintained by servicemen.
Eileen Gu says she has a few more tricks up her sleeve for the freeski halfpipe final
After advancing to the halfpipe finals, China’s freeskiing star Eileen Gu said she hadn’t gone all out yet — and she might unveil some surprises in the medal runs tomorrow.
“I have a few more tricks I would like to be able to have the opportunity to do, but also given that it’s the Olympics, I definitely want to be consistent and just do my best and land my own runs and ski for myself,” she told NBC.
“I have to put a safety run down first, but there are some things that I’m hoping to bring out if I have the opportunity.”
At the final, skiers will have three runs, with the best score taken as their result — so many often perform a “safety run” with reliable and well-honed maneuvers to land a high score first, before gauging whether they have space to experiment with any more complex tricks in the following runs.
Eileen Gu tops leaderboard to qualify for freeski halfpipe finals
China’s Eileen Gu goes through to the freeski halfpipe finals tomorrow as favorite after leading the qualifying today.
She landed all her jumps at the Genting Snow Park, gaining decent height in both runs to post a 93.75 and a second-run best of 95.50.
That second run saw her open with two back-to-back 900s, a 720, and ended with a smooth flat spin at the bottom.
Home fans cheered Gu’s runs, waving flags, cutouts of the Olympic panda mascot, and signs with her name written in Chinese.
Gu will be looking for a third Olympic medal at the finals tomorrow, after winning gold last week at the big air competition and silver in slopestyle Tuesday.
Canada’s Rachael Karker qualified in second place, with Estonia’s slopestyle bronze medalist Kelly Sildaru in third.
Ukrainian cross-country skier Valentyna Kaminska suspended over doping violation
From CNN’s Hannah Ritchie
Ukrainian Olympic skier Valentyna Kaminska has received a provisional suspension from the International Testing Agency (ITA) over a doping violation, the organization said Thursday.
The cross-country skier tested positive for three banned substances, in a sample collected Feb. 10 and tested at a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited lab in Beijing. The positive result was reported on Tuesday, according to the ITA.
The three substances include one anabolic androgenic steroid and two banned stimulants, which all have performance-enhancing effects.
“The athlete has been informed of the case and has been provisionally suspended …This means that the athlete is prevented from competing, training, coaching, or participating in any activity, during the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022,” the ITA statement said.
“The athlete has the right to challenge the imposition of the provisional suspension before the Court of Arbitration for Sport – Anti-Doping Division (CAS ADD),” it continued.
Her competitions: The 34-year-old, who previously competed for Belarus at both the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi and Pyeongchang, has already taken part in three events in Beijing.
Her best result was 18th in the 4x5km team relay.
Doping controversy: Kaminska isn’t the only athlete to receive a doping violation at the Winter Olympics. Iranian alpine skier Hossein Saveh-Shemshaki received a provisional suspension last week for testing positive for a banned anabolic androgenic steroid.
But the most talked about doping case involves the 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, who was allowed to continue competing despite her positive test provided in December.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has made it clear that Valieva — and the people surrounding her — will continue to be investigated long after the closing ceremony. The governing body also ruled that no medal ceremonies will take place in Valieva’s events until the case is concluded.
US Olympian Mirai Nagasu: It’s “mind-blowing” that Kamila Valieva is still allowed to compete in Beijing
Former US figure skater Mirai Nagasu said it’s “mind-blowing” that Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva is still competing in Beijing despite testing positive for a banned substance.
Valieva, 15, leads the field going into the women’s free skate Thursday after a top sports court ruled she could continue at the Olympics, even after she provided a positive sample for the prohibited drug trimetazidine in December.
The International Olympic Committee said an asterisk will appear next to Valieva’s results as the investigation into her case remains open — and there will be no medal ceremony if she makes the podium.
Nagasu, an Olympic bronze medalist four years ago in Pyeongchang, said Valieva’s case was only an example of a larger issue for the sport.
“Kamila is an intermediary to a bigger problem, and there are people who are supposed to be guiding her appropriately who are most likely saying ‘This is what you need to take to be your best,’ so those are the people we need to hold accountable,” she said.
“But at the end of the day, until our system is willing to change, then protocol seems to change from athlete to athlete, and that’s where I think we have an issue with what’s happening in Beijing.
“I think that we’re kind of at a point now where all of us figure skaters are like, ‘We need a change in the system’ because we need to ensure all sports are on clean grounds.”
“Mind-blowing” decision: Nagasu said she has “nothing but admiration” for the way Russian athletes “have pushed the boundaries of our sport,” but hinted at the shadow of doping that has followed Russia for many years.
“However, there’s always been this underlying factor — there’s a reason that those athletes are not competing under their own flag,” Nagasu said, referring to the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team — a loophole that allows Russian athletes to compete in the Olympics while their country is banned from the Games because of its doping scandal.
“This is not the first time that this has happened. But it is the first time that we’re allowing a skater — an athlete with kind of a red alert — to compete. The fact that this is happening is mind-blowing.”
Eileen Gu’s grandma is watching her compete today for the first time ever
Eileen Gu takes to the halfpipe today for qualifying — with a special guest in attendance.
Her grandma flew into Beijing on Tuesday to watch her compete, Gu said after winning silver in the slopestyle competition.
“She’s never watched me before so hopefully I can put on a good show for her,” Gu said. “But I love halfpipe, it’s just it’s so much fun for me, so feeling good about it.
“This is the moment I really look forward to,” she added.
Mom knows best: Gu has long spoken about how her mother and grandmother are the two pillars in her support system — which was clearly shown at the slopestyle Tuesday when Gu fumbled her second run, endangering her podium position.
She was in eighth place at the time, and pressure was mounting. So Gu did what many teenagers do in times of need — she talked to her mom.
“My mom knows me very well and she knows the way my brain works with pressure,” Gu said afterward. “So in the first round, in the second round, I wasn’t fully in the zone, if that makes sense. I wasn’t in that headspace.
“And my mom could see that, so I talked to her after the first run. She was like: ‘Pretend your second run is your third run, pretend you have no more chances.’ I was like: ‘I’m trying,’ but I guess my imagination is not that good.”
And as the saying goes, mom knows best — Gu produced a stunning final run to surge back into the medal hunt, eventually finishing just 0.3 points behind gold medalist Mathilde Gremaud.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/beijing-winter-olympics-02-17-22-spt/h_24ef8cbafa85feac855e185f8775a5d6
