And with that, I’m going to sign off. The Olympic day isn’t quite over – there are a couple of hockey matches ongoing – but nothing remotely medallish remains to be decided. It’s been a big bag of fun. Bye!
Here’s the latest on the fall-out from Russia’s curler Alexander Krushelnitsky testing positive for meldonium:
Italy beat Norway 6-4 in the final curling game of the day. The top four teams qualify for the semi-finals and as it stands that is Sweden (who are already through), Canada, Great Britain and Switzerland. Japan, who play seventh-placed Korea in their last game, and the USA, who play Britain, could still go through if they win. Both those games will be played tomorrow.
Mica McNeill, pilot of the British bob, has a quick chat. They remain sixth, 0.16sec from medals:
This is day six on the track for us, and we haven’t had a lot of time here. We just wanted to build each run. It’s a fun track and it’s gone well so far, so we’re looking forward to carrying that into tomorrow.
The bobsleigh heats are over, and Germany’s Mariama Jamanka and Lisa Buckwitz lead at the end of day one. Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs of the USA are 0.07sec behind them in second.
A couple of completed curling results from the men’s round robin: the USA have beaten Switzerland 8-4, and Japan have prevailed over Denmark, 6-4. Italy seem to be on their way to victory over Norway in the final game of the day, leading as they do 6-3 after nine ends.
A spokesperson for the Hungarian Olympic Committee has given an official reaction to the controversial performance of Elizabeth Swaney in the halfpipe, and it doesn’t sound very encouraging for Swaney’s future Olympic hopes.
We, the Hungarian Olympic Committee, have to learn the lessons from this case, and we must consider rethinking our nomination procedures. We shall be doing this, with the assistance of the appropriate experts, in the near future.
Aha, that’s because I’m looking at the results for the heat, and not the cumulative timings.
The British are next down, and though on my television it says they beat the Canadians by 0.04sec, the official results suggest they didn’t, finishing level with the slower Canadian bob and 0.04sec behind the faster one. Then the third Canadian pair, piloted by Kaillie Humphreys, beats them all – but only just.
With the fastest six from the first heat still to go, Canada are first and second in the bobsleigh.
There are also a couple of hockey matches, and potential for more good news for Germany there: Switzerland’s Cody Almond was thrown out or sent off or whatever they call it in ice hockey after nine seconds. Despite that, it’s currently 1-1 after the second period.
There are three curling matches ongoing, and they’re all very close to a conclusion. Switzerland, who could overtake Britain if they beat the USA, are 7-4 down and almost out of time.
And it is! It’s gold for Johannes Rydzek in the large hill Nordic Combined! Riessle comes second, and Frenzel takes the bronze as Germany gobble up all the medals! Which probably makes up for
Updated
It’s down to four: Riiber and the three Germans. It could be a German one-two-three!
Those six, then: Norway’s Jarl Magnus Riiber, Japan’s Akito Watabe, Finland’s Eero Hirvonen, and Johannes Rydzek, Eric Frenzel and Fabian Riessle of Germany.
In the Nordic Combined, then, the top six are in a group and only half of them can win a medal. Geiger has done brilliantly, but is still 16.9sec behind and won’t be able to make up that much time with only 1.5km to go.
I don’t mean to bicker about the BBC, but it is beyond comprehension that they are discussing Elise Christie at length for the 43rd time today, while an actual race is happening and set for an absolutely thrilling conclusion.
The women’s bobsleigh is back on! The second heat has just started, with Nigeria, slowest in heat one, the first down. Their time of 52.55 is half a second slower than their first effort.
The leaders have been caught! The front six are now all together, with only a couple of seconds between them. And Geiger is now 21.7sec behind the leader!
Germany’s Vinzenz Geiger, in seventh, is the name on everybody’s lips – he was a minute behind the leaders as the race started, and has halved that gap in the first half.
The men’s nordic combined 10km cross-country is on! Indeed, the leaders are nearly halfway through, and Japan’s Akito Watabe leads from Norway’s Jarl Magnus Riiber by a wafer-thin 0.3sec, with Germans in third, fourth, fifth and seventh.
Updated
ESPN have interviewed Marc Roberge, lead singer of the American rock band OAR, about the fact that the decision to force Russia to compete without a flag as “Olympic Athletes from Russia”, and then to abbreviate that to an acronym, has led to an unexpected boost to his outfit’s popularity.
It’s been surreal, absolutely surreal. At first I thought it would be a cool coincidence, maybe somebody would mention it on TV or something. But now, every single morning I’m getting phone calls, emails, text messages. Family, friends, strangers. It’s pretty wild to think somebody is watching the Olympics and thinking about us
They never say Olympic Athlete from Russia. It’s OAR over and over and over. This is the most coverage our band name has ever had. Everyone, everywhere, all around the world saying OAR.
Here he is in action:
The BBC has finally deigned to show that women’s 3,000m speed skating final. Absolute madness.
And here’s Associated Press on the 3,000m speed skating relay final:
South Korea defended its women’s Olympic short-track 3,000-meter relay title on Tuesday, overtaking China with two laps to go in the penalty-filled final.
The team of Shim Suk-hee, Choi Min-jeong, Kim Ye-jin and Kim Alang crossed the finish line first after rallying from third spot late in the 27-lap race. Four years ago in Sochi, the Koreans won when they passed China on the last lap to take the lead.
China finished second, but was penalised by the referees. That allowed Italy, which finished third, to move up to silver.
Canada was penalised, too, moving the Netherlands onto the podium for bronze. The Dutch had won the B final in a world-record time of 4 minutes, 3.471 seconds, bettering South Korea’s mark of 4:04.222 set in November 2016 at Salt Lake City, Utah.
The Canadians, with their arms on each other’s shoulders, watched the overhead video board intently. Their jaws dropped and they initially celebrated before realising they too had been penalised.
Belgium bring the first bobsleigh heat to a close. The second starts in a shade under half an hour. The leaders as they stand:
- USA (Pilot: Elana Meyers Taylor): 51.52sec
- Germany (Mariama Jamanka): +0.02
- USA (Jamie Greubel Poser): 0.07
- Germany (Stephanie Schneider): +0.11
- Canada (Kaillie Humphries): +0.20
- Great Britain (Mica McNeill): +0.25
Reuters have this to say about the Biathlon:
France’s Martin Fourcade gave another brilliant display of skiing and shooting to erase a big German lead and claim the Olympic gold for his team in the Olympic biathlon mixed relay on Tuesday.
France’s greatest Olympian destroyed Germany’s Arnd Peiffer over the final leg to win by 20.9 seconds and collect his third gold medal of the Games and fifth overall.
Norway took the silver and Italy bronze in a thrilling sprint finish.
There’s no fairytale for Jamaica, though, whose time of 51.29sec makes them joint 15th, faster only than Austria and Nigeria.
And they cross the line in 50.77sec, 0.25sec behind the leaders and good enough for sixth!
Back to the Bobsleigh, where the time set by America’s Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs still hasn’t been beaten. Britain’s bob is going now.
Fourcade crosses the line, with the French flag held aloft, to take gold for France in the Biathlon! Norway take second, and Windisch comes through on the final straight to take silver! Germany, having started the final leg with a massive lead, ends it in fourth!
Updated
Arnd Peiffer has overtaken Italy’s Dominik Windisch in the race for Biathlon bronze. There’s nothing between them, with 500m to go.
Martin Fourcard has already won gold in the men’s 12.5km pursuit, and gold in the men’s 15km mass start. This will be his third gold of this Games, and his fifth in all.
Germany drop down to fourth! Peiffer has a penalty loop to run, and they might have no medal at all here! France have a 34sec lead over Norway, with Italy and Germany now fighting for bronze.
The front two are back on the range in the Biathlon. Fourcade, chasing his fifth gold medal, gets five out of five and is away! Peiffer messes up again, and the French are celebrating already!
A gold medal has been decided while I’ve been distracted by the Biathlon: Korea have won the Ladies’ 3,000m speed skating relay, with Italy coming second and Holland third.
Fourcade has overtaken Peiffer, and now has a 2sec lead of his own. Norway and Italy are 18sec behind, battling for bronze.
Peiffer misses his first target! And his second! The other three go down, though, and he sweeps up the remaining two at his second attempt. But France’s Martin Fourcade gets all five targets down at the first attempt, and as they get up and get skiing is just 6.1sec behind!
Updated
Peiffer’s lead is now 24.3sec, and any wobbles on his first visit to the range could yet throw this wide open.
The race for the other Biathlon medals, however, couldn’t be closer: France have a 1sec lead over Norway, who are 0.7sec ahead of Italy. Belarus are a further 15sec behind, so it looks like two of those three will take the remaining spots on the podium.
The final German in the relay, Arnd Peiffer, is basically running his own race with gold – which would be his second of the Games, after the men’s 10km sprint – the glittering reward.
Germany continue to lead the Biathlon relay. Erik Lesser is currently in action for them and has personal motivation for Olympic excellence; his grandfather Axel was in the East German cross country relay team in 1976 and in second place when he collided with a spectator, injuring himself and ending his race. Erik won two silver medals in 2014, and is in search of his first gold. His leg has just ended, with Germany holding a 32.6sec lead.
And indeed they are immediately bettered by the Americans, Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs, whose run is far from perfect, but still 0.20sec better than the rest so far. The first of two German bobs go next.
Kaillie Humphries, who won gold for Canada in this event in 2010 and 2014, and Phylicia George take the lead in the bobsleigh, half a second faster than the Koreans, though they are the first of the real medal contenders to go down.
Updated
And they start well, powered by the former Olympic hurdler Seun Adigun, but it goes in many ways downhill from there, and they finish 0.97sec behind the Koreans, who were first down.
Next up in the bob, Nigeria – Africa’s first ever Olympic bobsleigh team.
Updated
Germany have taken a stonking lead in the Biathlon, 28.8 seconds ahead of Italy, with Belarus just behind in third and France a further 17 seconds back.
More sport alert! The women’s bobsleigh heats are about to start. Mica McNeill and Mica Moore represent Britain, and will go 17th out of 20, just before Jamaica.
Biathlon is quite a good thing, I think, though it’s easy to say that at the end of the first leg of a lengthy relay. Italy, Germany and France lead after that first leg, with the Czech Republic, in fourth place, 16 seconds behind that leading three.
Lisa Vitozzi, first out for Italy, is an absolute dead-eye shot, and their lead is now a little over seven seconds. Sweden, though, have an absolute disaster: Mona Brorsson misses so many times that she’ll have to do a penalty loop.
3km into leg one of that biathlon relay, and Italy have a lead of about four and a half seconds over France, with Germany a further second or so back in third.
Biathlon news! The 2x6km women + 2x7.5km men mixed relay has begun!
In the men’s speed skating, Holland’s much-fancied Sjinkie Knegt has received a penalty and is out. Thankfully, he disappears without making his frustration apparent – which isn’t always guaranteed with Knegt.
The Nordic Combined jumping is over, and Akita Watabe pulled out a 134m jump that, while 5m shorter than Riiber’s, was given 0.3 more points, so he will start the cross-country section with a second’s lead over Riiber, with Denifl third and then German athletes in fourth, fifth and sixth
We’ve now got a bit of video to go with yesterday’s article on Elizabeth Swaney, Hungary’s unlikely Olympian:
Norway’s Jarl Magnus Riiber has just outjumped him, though, landing an effort measured at 139m, and he takes a narrow lead.
With the Nordic Combined ski jumping competition round about three-quarters done, Austria’s Wilhelm Denifl has jumped almost 10m further than anyone else, with 137.5m.
Back to the short track speed skating, where the men’s 500m heats have now started. And in style: China’s Wu Dajing has broken the Olympic record in heat one.
Elise Christie speaks:
A few days ago I didn’t think I’d be getting on the ice. I did everything I could to turn this around. I have ligament damage in my ankle and putting a skate on with that is not the comfiest thing int he world. We did everything we could to turn this around and it just wasn’t meant to be. In any other competition I’d have been on the ice for five or six weeks. The only reason they gave me the choice is it’s an Olympics. The worst that can happen is I damage it more, and I may well have. To me that didn’t matter. I’ve trained all my life for this, it was everything to me. And yeah, it’s done.
I don’t know. I really want to get short track out there. It’s such an amazing sport. Obviously at times it does this to you. I can say now I’ve no idea why I’ve got a yellow card. I’ve never had a yellow card in my life. I went up the inside and on the video I’m past the girl, so I’ve got no idea.
Right now I’m a bit shell shocked. I’ve worked so hard to come back from this injury. I can barely bend my knee. It’s just, the only thing I can say is I can promise Britain I’ll fight back from this. I will be back for Beijing, and hopefully I can make Britain proud there.
I have so much belief in the programme and myself. None of that was my physical capability. It was just, short track. What else can I say? Everyone’s been such a massive support to me, to turn this around. Everyone at home, most of them anyway. I definitely think I can come back and medal in Beijing, it’s just frustrating to have to wait four more years. It just wasn’t meant to be this time.
This just in from the Press Association:
Elise Christie’s Olympics dream is over after she was dramatically disqualified from her women’s 1,000m heat in Pyeongchang.
The 27-year-old crashed to the ice within the opening seconds of the start but under short track rules, a crash on the first lap leads to a re-start.
Despite evidently being in a lot of pain, Christie soon got back into her stride and crossed the line second, before being disqualified after bumping Holland’s Anna van Ruijven.
It was a nightmare end for Christie, who had faced a race against time to be fit after suffering an ankle injury in a crash in the 1500m on Saturday.
Her participation in the heats for her favoured distance was only confirmed one hour before the start, and it was evident she was still troubled by the injury as she struggled to make the start line for the re-start of her heat.
It is the second consecutive Olympics in which Christie has failed to finish in her three events, after she was disqualified from all three in Sochi four years ago.
Kim Boutin dominates the heat and wins it, with Japan’s Hitomi Saito pulling well clear of Gilmartin over the last couple of laps.
Italy’s Cynthia Mascitto falls early in the final heat, leaving the three remaining athletes – including Britain’s Charlotte Gilmartin – to decide the top two.
The seventh and penultimate heat sees Korea’s Kim Alang and Canada’s Marianna St Gelais tussle for victory, with the Korean coming out on top. Japan’s Sumire Kikuchi and America’s Lana Gehring were never really in contention. The judges are going to have a look at this one as well, though.
The judges get busy at the end of that heat, too. It ends with Prosvirnova and Germany’s Anna Seidel being penalised, and Yara van Kerkhof of Holland qualifying instead of them.
Honestly, you couldn’t make it up.
Unfortunately @Elise_Christie is given two penalties and won't progress to the quarter-finals of the 1000m. pic.twitter.com/9NLv5nTuSf
— Team GB (@TeamGB) February 20, 2018
Heat six has been blown apart by a fall early in the race, which saw three of the four athletes go down and China’s Li Jinyu skate calmly to uncontested victory. The others get up and start again, and Sofia Prosvirnova of The Nation That Must Not Be Named comes second, fully 10 seconds behind Li.
Elise Christie has been disqualified!
That’s the last we’ll see of Elise Christie in these Olympic Games! She has been given a yellow card, and Warakomska takes her place in the quarter-finals!
The official result has not yet been announced, so Christie’s qualification is not quite confirmed.
She has now been physically carried from the arena, to prepare for the quarter-finals. There were a couple of bumps and touches in the race, which the judges are now examining.
Elise Christie qualifies in second place!
it’s not all over! Christie squeaks past Poland’s Magdalena Warakomska in the last couple of laps, to come second behind Holland’s Lara van Ruijven.
Christie starts deliberately slowly, keeping herself out of trouble. She needs to overtake at least two of the three women in front of her, though.
Heat five, then, is about to restart.
She’s up, and she’s going to go again!
She was clipped by the blade of Hungary’s Andrea Keszler, which tripped her.
Elise Christie is down!
Elise Christie falls within 15m of the start, and though the race is halted she looks in too much pain to participate in any restart!
Updated
Heat four was a bit of a belter, with three of the four skaters neck and neck with half a lap to go and Italy’s Arianna Fontana emerging to finish first. Valerie Maltais of Canada came second and is through, while Britain’s Kathryn Thomson was a way back in fourth. Now Elise Christie takes the ice, ready for her heat. Or as ready as she’ll ever be.
Heat three has been won by Holland’s Suzanne Schulting, with Ekaterina Efremenkova of The Nation That Shall Not Be Named also qualifying, in second place.
The second heat has also had a South Korean winner, in the shape of Choi Minjeong, already a gold medalist in the 1,500m.
Those skating heats have started: South Korea’s Shim Sukhee won the first of them. Christie is due to go in the fifth, which is due to go at 12 minutes past whatever hour it’s at where you are (10.12am GMT, 7.12pm local time).
Bong! A new hour, a new day, and this one brings the women’s 1,000m speed skating heats!
Here’s Reuters on the ice dancers’ wardrobe security:
Olympic ice dancers are taking extra precautions to ensure their costumes get attention for all the right reasons, using tape and glue to guarantee they stay covered up as they glide around the ice.
They are trying to avoid the fate of France’s Gabriella Papadakis, who skated to an ice dancing silver medal after the clasp holding her dress together came undone at the start of her routine.
“I use special glue to make sure I can actually glue my dress to my skin so luckily I haven’t had any problems,” Russian ice dancer Tiffani Zagorski told Reuters after her free dance performance at the Gangneung Ice Arena.
“I’ll stick to that and make sure that I’m well glued in.”
British ice dancer Penny Coomes relies on body tape and safety pins to keep her colourful costumes in place.
“I am taped in. I always do that with this dress,” she said.
“I think it’s just a precautionary thing because no one wants that to happen.”
Papadakis said she took steps to make sure there would be no repeat of Monday’s incident, which she described as her “worst nightmare”.
“Yeah, we made sure,” she said with a laugh about her preparations after winning the silver medal on Tuesday, missing out on gold by less than a point.
Here’s some actual sport for you to watch! Not much of it, but beggars and choosers and all that.
The Nordic Combined individual ski jumping trial round is over – the actual competition round starts in about half an hour, with the medals to be decided after the 10km cross-country bit, which is in three hours or so.
No news from Elise Christie, which given that Team GB said that if she was going to withdraw she would do so by now, presumably means she isn’t going to withdraw.
Those two hockey matches are still stuck at 1-0. Meanwhile, we have more live sport! The Nordic Combined individual ski jumping trial round is in progress. There are no Britons involved; France’s François Braud is in the star as I type, with a distance of 132.5m and 65 points.
I think that photographs of ice hockey are particularly entertaining when placed among pictures of ice skating. Here’s a few from this morning/evening/whatever:
The only sport currently ongoing is ice hockey: in the women’s classifications Switzerland are currently 1-0 up against Japan, while in the men’s play-off qualifications Slovenia are 1-0 up against Norway.
Also today, a third athlete has tested positive for a banned substance: the Slovenian ice hockey player Ziga Jeglic has tested positive for fenoterol, has accepted the result and will leave the Games within 24 hours. Fenoterol is often used as an asthma medication.
Here’s a story from Reuters, about the local businesses that are suffering because of the Olympics. The public are not allowed to ski on any slopes in Peongchang, even those not reserved for Olympic use:
Visitors coming to Phoenix Snow Park for the Winter Olympics’ freestyle skiing and snowboarding events are being stopped in their tracks by a jarring red banner that marks the front lines in a battle between local business owners and Games organisers.
“2018 Pyeongchang Olympics kill us! Keep our right to live!”
The banner, written in both English and Korean, greets visitors at the entrance to the venue while another is draped across the front of dozens of shuttered ski and snowboard rental shops on the road leading to the park.
The shops are closed because the slopes have been off limits to the public since Jan. 22 when the Olympics took over the site. The nearby equipment rental outlets have been hit hard by the loss of ski and snowboard revenues and the mountain will not reopen for public use until next season.
The shop owners say they have received no compensation for the loss of business and many workers are now without a job during the usually profitable winter months.
“There are no customers even if I have the shop open. All business is stopped,” said Bae Sang-beom, who has run a ski rental shop in Pyeongchang for seven years.
“The government and Olympic organisers should have come up with ways to avoid this situation before the Olympics began but they didn’t.”
Hello world!
So, an Elise Christie update: she’s at “80-90% fitness”, will warm up as normal, will “reassess and make sure the ankle’s OK” and then make a call in about 40 minutes about whether she will compete in the 1,000m.
😁🤟🏻 pic.twitter.com/Shs0YHhGST
— Elise christie (@Elise_Christie) February 20, 2018
OK I have to head off now and hand over to my London colleague, but here are some of the key events of today.
- Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada won gold in ice dance free dance
- Cassie Sharpe of Canada won gold in women’s ski halfpipe
- The USA men’s ice hockey team advanced to the quarter-finals
As for what’s coming up, we have the following medal events.
- Biathlon: 2x6km women + 2x7.5km men mixed relay (AEDT 22:15)
- Nordic combined: individual Gundersen LH/10km cross-country (AEDT 23:45)
- Speed-skating: women’s 3000m relay (AEDT TBC)
And, for some final good news for UK readers, Elise Christie WILL compete in the 1000m short-track.
See you here same time tomorrow.
Updated
Women’s round robin curling results are in! Our winners are:
China 7-5 over Canada, Republic of Korea 9-6 over USA and Great Britain 8-6 over Japan.
There’s plenty of support out there today for the women’s Jamaican bobsleigh team. Here’s one of my favourite moments to come out of this Olympics, from Jazmine Fenlantor-Victorian.
This member of the Jamaican bobsleigh team fought back tears as she explained why representation matters. pic.twitter.com/XF2YelP29s
— AJ+ (@ajplus) February 17, 2018
The women’s heats are happening tonight, starting at 22:50 AEDT (or 20:50 local time).
Some good news, Korean fans... looks like it’ll be yet another victory in the curling, this time at the expense of the USA. All our women’s round robin matches are about to finish, so we’ll have results for them all soon. Great Britain leading Japan 8-5, and China leading Canada 6-5!
Team Korea takes another two on a strong hammer from skip Yogurt, and the score is now 9-6 over the U.S. coming into the final frame. Barring a disaster, Team Korea is set to extend its winning streak to five. pic.twitter.com/7sgEIjIpUJ
— Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) February 20, 2018
Earlier today we had the men’s ski halfpipe qualification. Coming in first was Aaron Blunck of the USA, with a best score of 94.40. In fact, the USA nabbed spots 1-3, with Alex Ferreira and Torin Yater-Wallace finishing second and third with 92.60 and 89.60 respectively. New Zealand then had both Byron Wells and Beau-James Wells (who, yes, are siblings) come in fifth and sixth, with 88.60 and 88.20 respectively.
There are actually four Wells brothers – Jossi, Byron, Beau-James and Jackson, and all four of them have followed in father Bruce’s footstpes to become Olympic freestyle skiers (their father worked as a ski patrolman in Cardrona). Jossi finished fourth in the halfpipe at Sochi four years ago, but had to pull out of Pyeongchang with a knee injury. Jackson competed in the men’s ski slopestyle event – but missed out on the final.
Good news for British fans/bad news for Japanese fans, the Brits are up 7-5 in the ninth in the women’s round robin curling. Also there’s a sport Canada might NOT win in today, with China going a further point ahead, 6-4 in the ninth.
Women’s round robin curling is happening live currently, which means there are another couple of games on. Currently, Republic of Korea are leading USA 7-4 (in the eighth), and Great Britain lead Japan 6-5 (also in the eighth).
These are some very tense matches!
We have a VERY tight curling match happening between Canada and China currently, with China up 5-4. A Chinese miss, however, has given Canada the chance to steal in the eighth.
Updated
We’ve got plenty of curling action today, with the men’s round robin session 10 over and done with earlier.
Our winners were: Great Britain 10-3 Norway; Canada 8-4 Japan; Republic of Korea 8-7 Switzerland; and Sweden 7-3 Italy.
Speaking of the women’s downhill, the third training session finished today, and Vonn came in fourth fastest. She recorded a time of 1:40.96, behind Ramona Siebenhofer of Austria (first with 1:40.67), Michelle Gisin of Switzerland with 1:40.87 and Nadia Fanchini of Italy with 1:40.88.
This is a nice little behind the scenes look at what (and who else!) is behind a run at Olympic gold.
Just before Lindsey Vonn embarks on her run in the Olympic downhill on Wednesday, a nervous 55-year-old Austrian will hand her a pair of skis that he believes will be the fastest on the mountain. Heinz Haemmerle, or “Magic Heinzi” as Vonn calls him, is the American’s service rep and in a sport that can be decided by hundredths of a second, his work in preparing her skis can be the difference between winning and losing.
In the nine years the pair have been working together, it has mostly been the former as the now 33-year-old Minnesotan has become the most successful woman skier of all time.
“That’s something to be proud of,” Haemmerle told Reuters in his temporary workshop, a shipping container at the bottom of the Jeongseon downhill run. “It’s worked many times and I hope it continues like that. We are trying hard, she is pushing, I am pushing, and I would say we fit perfectly together. She trusts me and I trust her and that’s how it should be. She has to concentrate on her stuff and I concentrate on mine, she has to believe in me.”
Haemmerle will spend six to seven hours a day in his workshop during the Pyeongchang Olympics, carefully applying two or three layers of fluorocarbon wax to the wooden bottom of the skis and sharpening the metal edges. For all the metal brushes and waxes on his bench, a large part of his work is digesting the information provided by the wax companies, coaches and his own trips up the mountain to determine what kind of snow and temperatures can be expected.
Even more important than that though, he said, was listening to Vonn. “The key factor is to talk to Lindsey, she knows exactly how she needs the edges and she talks to me, say ‘I want to have it sharper’ or whatever,” he said. “I always make it as sharp as possible anyhow because it’s easier to dull it up at the start than making it sharper.”
Haemmerle brought 30 pairs of skis to Pyeongchang – Vonn uses the longer men’s skis –and he will prepare two sets for race-day before deciding which to take up in the gondola and hand over to the American at the start. Then ensues the wait of 100 or so seconds when he gets to see whether his labour bears fruit. - Reuters
I have to say, I loved Elizabeth Swaney’s (lack of?) effort on the halfpipe. In case you missed it, she finished last in qualification for the women’s ski halfpipe final after completing both runs without attempting any tricks more advanced than an alley-oop (when a skier rotates 180 degrees or more in the uphill direction). Her best scores were 30.00 and 31.40 (more than 40 points behind the 12th-placed qualifier for the final).
Born in the USA but competing for Hungary, Swaney defended her performance:
“I didn’t qualify for the finals, so I’m really disappointed with that. But I worked really for several years to achieve this,” Swaney replied when asked about her emotions after competing at an Olympics.
Do not miss the footage below:
The Winter Olympics feature 2,951 of the world's greatest athletes, and also this woman: https://t.co/jGCNyxZGSX pic.twitter.com/2mo6X0JpTQ
— Deadspin (@Deadspin) February 19, 2018
Read more: Elizabeth Swaney: the Olympic halfpipe athlete who doesn’t really do tricks
There was one other ice hockey match on today, and unfortunately for our hosts, the combined Korean women’s side have lost to Sweden, 1-6. This was for the position of seventh or eighth, meaning Sweden take seventh.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Chloe Kim has finally got herself an ice-cream. Her tweet, “could be down for some ice cream rn” (purportedly tweeted while competing) has over 35,000 likes! Legend. Anyway, team USA offered to shout her one after her gold medal performance, and are now satisfied that she splurged on some frostbites crepes. I probably would’ve gone double caramel ego, but OK.
FINALLY! @chloekimsnow got her ice cream. 🤗🍦 pic.twitter.com/vDloIIHL3d
— U.S. Olympic Team (@TeamUSA) February 19, 2018
Now for something you’ll really enjoy: does anyone remember ski ballet, the long-lost winter discipline? It only appeared in the 1988 and 1992 Winter Olympics, respectively. Apparently the International Olympic Committee didn’t see its athletic merit.
Judge for yourself! I see plenty of artistic merit in this..!
Bring back ski ballet – a tribute to the lost winter discipline pic.twitter.com/s9vq2ORmJm
— The Guardian (@guardian) February 19, 2018
Thanks to Claire Phipps for this and other tip-offs above and below, this one is particularly brilliant.
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Although I am infinitely skeptical about this, Benjamin Haas reports that a top North Korean sports official has said his country could co-host the Asian Winter Games in 2021 with South Korea. This was from Chang Ung, the sole North Korean member of the International Olympic Committee, and echoes the comments of Choi Moon-son.
“We are considering the idea of South and North Korea jointly hosting the Asian Winter Games as one way to increase the usage of the facilities after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and of continuing inter-Korean harmony and exchange,” Choi said at a press conference, according to South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh. “We will initiate detailed preparations after the Pyeongchang Olympics.”
Read more: North Korea could co-host 2021 Asian games with South, official says
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Ice-hockey: USA defeat Slovakia 5-1 to advance to quarter-finals
For all the talk of a depleted USA men’s ice hockey team (thanks to the NHL boycott), they’ve won their way through to the Olympic quarter-finals with a 5-1 win over Slovakia. Ryan Donato scored twice (for his third and fourth goals of the tournament), while Troy Terry had three assists.
They will now face the Czech Republic, who went undefeated through their pool on Wednesday.
Read more: USA men’s hockey team through to last eight at Olympics with Slovakia rout
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Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron may have almost toppled Virtue and Moir (and broken their own world record), but lots of the current talk is about Papadakis’ wardrobe malfunction. Papadakis’ costume became unhooked and slipped, and she added later that it was “kind of my worst nightmare happening at the Olympics. I told myself: ‘I don’t have a choice. I have to keep going.’ And that’s what I did. I think we can be proud of ourselves being able to deliver a great performance with that happening.”
Pyeongchang has delivered plenty of wardrobe malfunctions, including when Swede Henrik Harlaut’s pants came down during his freestyle skiing slopestyle. You can catch up with all the unfortunate embarrassment here.
Read more: Overexposed: Gabrielle Papadakis and Winter Olympic wardrobe malfunctions
Now in keeping with less serious news, have you read this piece about Benjamin Haas meeting Kim Jong-un (well, his impersonator – known by the name of Howard - anyway)? ‘Howard’ hit the headlines last week when he attempted to gatecrash the North Korean cheerleaders at the Winter Olympics. He was also briefly detained by police after marching up to the delegation at a hockey game. And, while appearing in public as Kim Jong-un might seem like a dangerous enterprise, he apparently lives by the maxim “there’s no such thing as bad press”.
So just how does an Australian come to impersonate Kim Jong-un? Apparently it all began in April 2013, one year after the real Kim became leader of North Korea. In the last five years, Howard has appeared in Hollywood commercials for cryptocurrencies, Hong Kong mobile phone games and Russian music videos.
Read more: ‘Kim Jong-un is hitting on us!’: my night out with Dear Leader (sort of)
How incredible is Japan’s Noriaki Kasai? He’s 45, has made history by competing in his eighth (yes, eighth!) Winter Olympics, and now he says he’ll “definitely” compete in Beijing in 2022.
He hasn’t starred at Pyeongchang, helping Japan to sixth place in the team event on Monday night, but he has won ski jumping medals in 1994 and 2014 – including silver in the large hill and bronze in the team events in Sochi.
“I’m not going to try, I will definitely be there,” Kasai said. “I watched the others win medals and it fired me up. I can still keep going. I am by no means finished.”
Read more: Ski jumper Noriaki Kasai, 45, promises to return at 2022 Winter Olympics
Now, back to the Russian curler banished for doping. No, really, I’m still not over the fact that someone bothered to dope in curling? Anyway... on a more serious note, the Norwegians who were robbed of bronze because of it are now asking for a new podium ceremony so they can celebrate their medal (if he’s found guilty).
Norway’s team of Magnus Nedregotten and Kristin Skaslien finished fourth in the tournament last week, having lost their bronze medal match 8-4 to the Olympic Athletes of Russia team last week.
Read more: ‘Robbed of moment of glory’: Norwegian curlers want special medal ceremony
Did you know that the Shibutani twins are only the second brother-sister team to win an ice dance medal? Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay are the only other two to have won, with a silver at the 1992 Albertville Games. The Shibutanis won bronze with one of their best skates of the season.
“It feels like gold,” Alex said. “It’s unbelievable. I am so proud of the way we fought through this week and the season. We are so emotional.”
He added: “I was really proud of how we skated today. We knew that regardless of what the result was going to be we did everything that we could and have no regrets. We are really proud of each other and the result was amazing.”
They do say that the bronze medallists are always happier than the silver..
Read more: Virtue and Moir win ice dance gold for Canada as Shib Sibs take bronze for USA
Cassie Sharpe wins gold in women's ski halfpipe
And the good news keeps coming for Canada, with Cassie Sharpe recording the two best runs of the ski halfpipe final. Her top score, 95.80, put her well ahead of second, France’s Marie Martinod (92.60) and Brita Sigourney of the USA (91.60).
Sochi gold medallist Maddie Bowman suffered a nasty fall at the end of her third run, and required medical attention. She eventually finished in 11th place in the 12-woman final.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir win gold in ice dance free dance
First up, more on that ice dance free dance gold. Virtue and Moir took out their second Olympic gold in the ice dance in magnificent style on Tuesday, breaking the world record overall, as well as for the free skate (122.40), and defeating their long-term French rivals by less than a point.
Gabrielle Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron had broken the overall world record just moments before with a score of 205.28, but Virtue and Moir surpassed that with 206.07 skating to “Moulin Rouge” for their final routine.
Virtue and Moir retired after their silver in the Sochi Games, but have dominated the competition since – losing only once to Papadakis and Cizeron in the Grand Prix final in December last year.
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There’s a few medal events coming up today, which are as follows:
Biathlon: 2x6km women + 2x7.5km men mixed relay (AEDT 22:15)
Nordic combined: individual Gundersen LH/10km cross-country (AEDT 23:45)
Speed-skating: women’s 3000m relay (AEDT TBC)
I’ll also take you through the other results for the day in a moment.
Welcome to day 11
Hello everyone and welcome to day 11 of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
As you may have already seen with our live blog, Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir have won gold in the ice dance free dance, with an overall score of 206.07. That was just enough to surpass their rivals in Papadakis and Cizeron of France (with 205.28), while the Shibutani twins of the USA came in third with 192.59.
What an incredibly tight result!
Stay tuned for more updates on today’s results, as well as what’s to come.
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