Day 13 is done – and here's what happened
And there ends day 13 of the 2018 Winter Olympics. It’s been a thrill. If you’ve missed any of it, here’s your summary of another action-packed day. Bye!
What’s happened on Day 13
- The US has won a thrilling women’s ice hockey final, beating Canada in a sudden death shootout after the teams finished overtime level on 2-2.
- Sweden’s Andre Myhrer won the men’s slalom gold after Austrian favourite Marcel Hirscher crashed out. Britain’s Dave Ryding ended ninth.
- Switzerland’s Michelle Gizin waltzed off with the women’s alpine combined, leaving silver to America’s Mikaela Shiffrin. Lindsey Vonn, in what could be her final Games, did not finish.
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David Wise of the US clinched gold in the men’s ski halfpipe, with countryman Alex Ferreira in silver, and a breathtaking bronze for 16-year-old Nico Porteous of New Zealand.
- New Zealander Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, also 16, also won bronze, this time in the women’s snowboard big air. That was won by Austria’s Anna Gasser, with Jamie Anderson of the US in silver.
- China’s Wu Dajing broke the world record twice on his way to 500m speed skating gold, while there were shocks in both the women’s 1,000m – won by Holland’s Suzanne Schulting – and the men’s 5,000m relay, in which Korea crashed out and Hungary took a surprise gold.
- Germany won gold in the Nordic Combined Team Gundersen large hill, continuing their dominance of the discipline.
- Darya Domracheva anchored Belarus to gold in the women’s 4x6km biathlon relay, with the favourites, Germany, nearly a minute back in eighth at the end of a race held in swirling wind and, for much of the time, heavy snow.
- Sweden will play the USA in the men’s curling final, after the former eased past Switzerland and the latter edged past Canada in the semi-finals. Earlier the Swiss eliminated Great Britain in a play-off: here’s Sean Ingle’s report on how the Swiss thumped their way back from 4-5 down to a 9-5 win with just one deft stone.
- And away from the action, the Russian curler Alexander Krushelnitsky was stripped of his mixed doubles bronze medal after testing positive for meldonium.
And finally, here’s our pick of the day’s best pics:
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USA will play Sweden in the men’s curling final! They complete a shock victory over Canada – their second of the week – by controlling the final end to seal a 5-3 success. Canada will play Switzerland for bronze.
Down to the last end in the second men’s curling semi-final. Canada took a point from the ninth, but USA lead 4-3 and have the hammer in the last.
Here’s the latest medal table, with Sweden overtaking France and taking sixth position since it was posted earlier:
In the other semi-final, for the first time, daylight: USA steal two in the eighth end and lead 4-2!
Sweden qualify for the men’s curling gold medal match! At the end of the eighth end, with the Swedes holding a 9-3 lead, Switzerland accept the inevitable. They will have a chance of bronze, but still don’t know who they’ll be facing.
Another end, and another step closer to the final for Sweden, who now lead 9-2. But who will they be playing? Midway through end eight, it’s still Canada 2-2 USA.
Sweden add another two points from end six, and lead Switzerland 8-2.
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So Thursday’s action is over, everywhere except for the Gangneung curling centre, where the men’s semi-finals are both on end six. It’s currently Canada 2-2 USA, and Sweden 6-2 Switzerland.
Here’s an Elise Christie video update:
There’s another sporting power couple in the biathlon: Domracheva’s husband is the Norwegian Ole Einar Bjorndalen, 13 years her senior and a veteran of six Olympics – with eight gold medals of his own. He couldn’t get in Norway’s team for these Games, but is in the stadium to celebrate Belarus’s success. Their daughter, Xenia, was born in October 2016; 16 months later her mum has won two Olympic medals.
Gold for Belarus in the women's 4x6km biathlon relay!
Nobody can get anywhere near Domracheva! She picks up a Belarus flag in the final straight, holds it aloft, and it flies off its pole to leave her waving a big, blank stick. That’s as close as she gets to disappointment, though. Sweden seal silver, and France take bronze!
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Domracheva reaches the top of the course’s one big climb still in the lead, but behind her Sweden’s Hanna Oeberg has moved into second, just ahead of France’s Anais Bescond.
Not really – she misses three of her first five attempts, but collects herself and is still first away. It’s so close, though, with France six seconds behind and Sweden four seconds behind that. Surely one of those will win this – can anyone catch Domracheva?
Into the range for the final time! Can Domracheva nail this one and race away to gold?
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In the men’s curling semi-finals, Sweden have stormed into a 6-1 lead over Switzerland after getting a four in the fourth end. The other match is still too close to call, Canada leading 2-1.
Point of information here, from Erwin Hofman:
@Simon_Burnton In the live blog you wrote about Arianna Fontana: "No woman has ever won more speed skating medals." That may be true for short track, but in long track speed skating there are several women with more medals, topped by Ireen Wüst who yesterday won her 11th medal.
— Erwin Hofman (@Erwin_Hofman) February 22, 2018
And Domracheva nails her first visit to the range, and Belarus take the lead! This is exciting stuff – rush to your nearest on-demand Olympic footage outlet for the final stages.
Back, then, to the biathlon. The final leg has started, and there are still two shoots which could shake everything up again, but as it stands Poland lead, ahead of France and Belarus, who have Darya Domracheva, three times a gold medalist in 2014 but with only a bronze from these games, on the last leg.
The result has been confirmed, Hungary winning in an Olympic record time.
The judges still have to ratify this skating result, and they have quite a lot of footage to check.
Finally we get to see Elise Christie celebrating at the Gangneung Ice Arena! She’s bouncing around on the sidelines as her boyfriend, Shaolin Sandor Liu, wins gold for Hungary.
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Hungary win gold in the men's 5,000m speed skating relay!
Hungary’s first ever olympic speed skating gold! China take silver, and Canada bronze!
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With 10 laps to go, China lead ahead of Canada and Hungary, with Korea hoping that one of them falls over or gets penalised.
Drama in the speed skating, as Korea’s Lim Hyojun goes down! They’re not out of the race, but they are a long way behind!
The snow has stopped falling on the biathletes, but the wind continues to howl across the shooting range. Italy’s Nicole Gontier comes into it first, hits her first three targets and then loses her cool, misses the remainder and ends up with a penalty loop to do. Belarus are the new leaders!
The A final is about to begin, with South Korea, Hungary, China and Canada involved.
USA have won the men’s 5,000m relay final, with Kazakhstan in second, the two of them way clear of the rest in the crucial final stages.
In the biathlon, Germany’s third leg isn’t going great either – after the first visit to the range, Franziska Hildebrand is off for a penalty loop and they are now nearly two minutes off the lead. Italy are in that position, by a wafer.
I’ve been criminally ignoring the men’s curling semi-finals, which still have a way to go. It’s currently Canada 1-1 USA after three ends, and Sweden 2-1 Switzerland at a similar stage.
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Today’s final speed skating event is the men’s 5,000m relay. The B final is about to start, involving Japan, the USA and Kazakhstan.
The third of four legs of biathlon relay has just begun, with Finland currently in the lead, 14.2sec ahead of Italy, with Slovakia and the USA close behind. Germany are more than one and a half minutes off the pace.
Some fabulous photographs from day 13 at the Games:
Incredible scenes! Wierer comes back to the range, where because of the wind everyone is taking their time, reels off five perfect shots and emerges in the lead again!
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Slovakia take the lead in the biathlon, but then Anasasiya Kuzmina misses with her first three shots on the range, she has a penalty loop to do, and they too will drop down.
Wierer ends up with two penalty loops to complete, and Italy are suddenly in 12th, and over a minute behind.
Biathlon latest: Italy are in the lead for now, but Dorothea Wierer’s shooting has let her down and in these conditions, anything could still happen.
Schulting is in bits, utterly astonished at this unexpected glory. Meanwhile Arianna Fontana has added another medal to her collection – she had already won silver in the 3,000m relay, to go with a haul of a silver and two bronzes from Sochi, and a bronze each from 2010 and 2006. No woman has ever won more short track speed skating medals.
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To make matters worse, Shim Sukhee is penalised by the judges and officially comes last.
Gold for Holland's Suzanne Schulting in the women's 1,000m speed skating!
Schulting leads from the front and can’t be beaten. Shim Sukhee and Choi Monjeong move wide to make their move in the final stages but collide and slide out, leaving Canada’s Kim Boutin and Italy’s Arianna Fontana to take silver and bronze!
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The Koreans have taken each other out on the final lap!
Meanwhile the women’s 1,000m B final has been cancelled, because with two athletes penalised and one advanced only Kim Alang of Korea was going to skate in it. So it’s on with the A final, in which Canada’s Kim Boutin takes the inside track, with Arianna Fontana of Italy, Suzane Schulting of Holland, Korea’s Shim Sukhee and Choi Minjeong, also from Korea, to her right, in order.
The result has been confirmed: Wu Dajing takes gold – China’s first of these Games – Hwang Daeheon and Lim Hyojun sweep up the remaining medals for Korea, and Canada’s Samuel Girard comes fourth.
Wu Dajing wins 500m speed skating gold!
China’s Wu Dajing hits the first bend in front, and stays there! The 39.8 second world record – a record that hadn’t been beaten for six years until today – that he set in qualifying is smashed in the process, as he clocks 39.584!
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Back to the skating, where the men’s 500m final has started … with a false start. The tension rises.
The biathlon is on, in suitably wintry conditions – strong winds, and heavy snowfall.
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The men’s 500m B final is over, and Shaolin Sandor Liu wins it by a 0.043sec ahead of China’s Ren Ziwei, meaning that he retains an outside chance of a medal, should a couple of finalists be penalised or otherwise fail to finish.
Aside from the skating, the only medals still to be decided today are at the Alpansia Biathlon Centre, where the women’s 4x6km relay is about to start. Germany are again heavy favourites here, with France expected to offer some competition.
The speed skating finals are about to begin, starting with the men’s 500m B final, due to start in about one minute.
Gold for Germany in the Nordic Combined Team Gundersen!
Johannes Rydzek crosses the line, fluttering flag in hand, and is swamped by celebrating team-mates. After a lengthy wait Norway comes home second, and Austria take bronze!
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After 43 minutes of racing, Germany’s lead in the Nordic Combined is now 1min 20sec, and another gold is in the can. Germany have won every Nordic Combined gold so far, as well as 50% of the silvers and 50% of the bronzes.
Roars from the crowd, as China’s Qu Chunyu is penalised by the judges, and Choi is advanced into the A final!
Suzanne Schulting comes through to win that semi-final, with Shim Sukhee in second. But Choi Minjeong, gold-medalist in the 1,500m and in the 3,000m relay, is – pending official ratification – heading only to the B final!
The women’s 1,000m speed skating semi-finals are on. The first ended with Canada’s Kim Boutin and Italy’s Arianna Fontana qualifying for the A final. The second is currently in progress, with Korea’s Shim Sukhee at the back with two laps to go – but unlikely to stay there.
The second leg of the Nordic Combined relay is now finishing. Germany’s Eric Frenzel, already a gold medalist in the individual Gundersen normal hill – and with a bronze in the large hill to boot – holds a lead of precisely one minute and 0.3 seconds ahead of Austria, who themselves are six seconds ahead of Norway, with Japan now 59 seconds further back.
Back to the speed skating, where the men’s 500m semi-finals have just finished. In the first, China’s newly-minted world record-holder Wu Dajing won again, with Canada’s Samuel Girard also qualifying for the A final. In the second, China’s Ren Ziwei led for much of the race only to finish third, behind two Koreans – Hwang Daeheon and Lim Hyojun.
Here’s a video report (in Dutch) on a remarkable event at Holland’s Heineken House in Peongchang in which two people were injured by a flying outsized massive fake Olympic medal. According to nltimes.nl, Holland’s men’s skating pursuit team were taking part in a ceremony during which “medal winners hand the plate holding their medal to the crowd. The plate is then passed from hand to hand over the crowd to a wall where all the medals won by Dutch athletes are hung”. But instead of passing it to the crowd they threw it, injuring two women, one of whom required treatment in hospital.
Today the Dutch team have released a statement, which read:
At our ceremony last night in the Holland Heineken House two visitors were injured. We obviously find that very regrettable. After this incident we contacted the two ladies who were hit in the head by the big medal that we gave to the audience from the podium. Meanwhile we have understood that one of them had to go to the hospital and was treated there.
Fortunately both ladies are doing well but are very shaken. Let it be clear that we obviously never intended to cause this. We let them know that and in this way we also want to let the public know.
Hopefully everyone can enjoy the Olympics here in Peyonchang for another four days.
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Riessle now leads by 44.8 seconds, with the three athletes behind him having apparently given up on the chase in favour of a tactical three-way battle for the two remaining medals, though of course there is a long way (12.5km, to be precise) still to go.
Fabian Riessle, the second German in the Nordic Combined relay, is stretching their lead, which now stands at 32.6 seconds. Behind him Austria, Norway and Japan are within a second of each other.
Here’s Reuters on New Zealand’s success today: 26 years after their first and only Winter Olympic medal they won two in a single morning, both bronzes taken by 16-year-olds:
After waiting 26 years for a second Winter Olympics medal, New Zealand secured two bronzes in snowboarding and freestyle skiing within a few hours on Thursday.
Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Nico Porteous, both 16, made the Winter Games podium, emulating the feat of compatriot Annelise Coberger who won silver in Alpine skiing women’s slalom in 1992.
Sadowski-Synnott produced an outstanding performance in the inaugural big air snowboarding event, recording the highest individual score of the competition.
An hour later, Porteous stood at the top of the halfpipe having watched team mate Byron Wells crash out and, overcome by nerves, he vomited.
But he was fired up by Sadowski-Synott’s performance.
“It was so sick watching her getting a bronze medal right before I was going to drop. It was a huge inspiration for me,” he told Reuters.
“It is super special and I am so proud to be a New Zealander right now. I think it is safe to say we broke the curse by getting two medals in one day.”
The first leg of the Nordic Combined relay is just finishing, with Germany 12.1 seconds ahead of Norway and Austria, who are neck and neck in second place.
Back to the speed skating, where the women’s 1,000m quarter-finals are ongoing. In the third and latest, Korea’s Choi Minjeong just absolutely destroyed her rivals, hanging safely at the back before overtaking the lot of them around the outside on the penultimate lap and winning with ease ahead of China’s Qu Chunyu.
Here’s Sean Ingle on the extraordinary men’s slalom, and the ninth-placed finish of Dave ‘The Rocket’ Ryding:
Meanwhile at the Alpensia cross-country centre, the Nordic Combined team Gundersen relay has just got under way. There’ll be four legs, of 5km each.
And there is good news for Azhgaliyev: Hungary’s Shoang Liu has been penalised, and the Kazakhstani has been advanced into the semi-finals, which start in precisely 22 minutes.
When it finally actually happens, Korea’s Lim Hyojun skates to an extremely popular victory, with Daan Breeuwsma of Holland behind him, though the judges are again checking the replays, with Kazakhstan’s Abzal Azhgaliyev feeling hard done by after apparently being impeded in the closing stages.
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That result has been ratified, and the fireworks continue in the final quarter-final, which began with a false start, followed by a two-man pile-up and consequent stoppage before the first bend, forcing another restart.
The third quarter-final sees Seo Yira, the South Korean world champion, crash out about halfway through. China’s Han Tianyu also went, leaving Canada’s Sam Girard and Japan’s Ryosuke Sakazume to skate calmly into the two qualifying places – though the judges are still examining the replays.
We have live sport! The men’s speed skating 500m quarter-finals are in progress, and they have started explosively: in the first of them Ren Ziwei of China set a new Olympic Record, and in the second Wu Dajing, also of China, broke a six-year-old world record.
This AP story about North Korea’s Olympics seems a little mean of spirit:
Unprepared and outclassed, North Korea’s 22 athletes wrapped up their competition at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Thursday without a finish higher than 13th.
North Korea wasn’t expected to come to Pyeongchang until a last-minute announcement by Kim Jong Un on New Year’s Day that he wanted to send a team, which set off a flurry of North-South diplomatic machinations allowing their delegation to cross the border.
With few athletes prepared and ready, the North sent more than 140 musicians, a demonstration taekwondo team, a 229-woman strong cheering squad and 21 journalists, though the sporting aspect of the Olympics has gotten virtually zero coverage in the North.
Their athletes’ lack of experience and preparation showed.
The sentimental highlight of the North’s participation in the games was the joint Korea ice hockey team, which featured players from North and South for the first time. Although it was ranked below the Olympic qualifying level, South Korea won an ice hockey berth in the games because it is the host nation. South Korean President Moon Jae-in championed the effort to allow 12 North Korean players to join the team.
The concept won emotional support from many South Koreans, but it was also controversial because it took slots away from more talented South Koreans who had trained hard for the Olympics. The team ended up losing every game they played giving up 28 goals and scoring only twice in their five matches. They lost their final match on Tuesday to Sweden, 6-1.
Not counting the mostly South Korean hockey squad, the North’s best performance came from figure skaters Ryom Tae Ok and Kim Ju Sik, who finished 13th in pairs.
They were the only North Koreans to have actually qualified for the Olympics in pre-games competition, though the North missed a registration deadline and the two had lost their slot until politics intervened on their behalf.
We’re in a bit of a lull, as we wait for the speed skating to get under way in about 20 minutes, with the Nordic Combined cross-country starting 20 minutes after that. You could spend some of that time looking at this photograph:
Here’s our news story on Alexander Krushelnitsky’s meldonium-related medal-stripping:
The men’s slalom is certainly going to be one of the stories of the day. Marcel Hirscher and Henrik Kristoffersen had finished first and second in four of the eight World Cup slaloms this season; today they both crashed out, allowing a 35-year-old who thought his chance had gone, and a 6ft 7in Swiss who had always been told, in his own words, “that a two-metre man couldn’t go fast in slalom”, to claim the top two places. This from Associated Press:
The shock wasn’t only about who won the Olympic gold medal in the men’s slalom, it was also about who failed to even finish the race.
Andre Myhrer, a 35-year-old Swede who took bronze in the event eight years ago in Vancouver, was the unlikely champion on Thursday. But it was Marcel Hirscher and Henrik Kristoffersen the best slalom skiers on the World Cup circuit that couldn’t complete two runs to give themselves a chance at the title.
“To be able to do this after the season they have had is, of course, amazing for me,” Myhrer said.
Hirscher skied off course in the opening run, while Kristoffersen set the fastest time. But the Norwegian couldn’t make it all the way down the piste on the second run, leaving Myhrer at the top of the podium.
Both Hirscher and Kristoffersen won Olympic medals in this event four years ago in Sochi. They also combined for 1-2 finishes in four of the eight World Cup slaloms this season.
Myhrer watched in the finish area as Kristoffersen, holding a 0.21-second advantage out of the starting gate, skied out early in the second run.
That allowed Ramon Zenhaeusern of Switzerland to take an unexpected silver medal, 0.34 seconds behind Myhrer. The tallest man in the race at 6-foot-7 (2 meters) threw his ski poles in the air after seeing he had taken the lead several racers before Myhrer completed his second run.
Bronze medalist Michael Matt of Austria was 0.67 behind Myhrer’s two-run time of 1 minute, 38.99 seconds.
Matt, whose brother Mario won slalom gold four years ago at the age of 34, said he had given up hope of a medal before Kristoffersen started.
“I got my backpack and said, ‘That’s it,’ because Henrik is really fast and skis very safe as well,” said Matt, who had been 12th-fastest in the first run. “I thought it was over.”
Kristoffersen is so safe he had top-three finishes in all eight World Cup slaloms this season. He won one race, while Hirscher won six times and also completed the rest safely.
“It’s better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all,” Kristoffersen said.
Hirscher fell short in his quest for a third gold medal at the Pyeongchang Olympics. The Austrian great also won the combined event and the giant slalom, when Kristoffersen took silver.
“I had already really a bad feeling about the whole situation,” Hirscher said, adding he has had some “really bad training days here.”
Myhrer became the second 35-year-old Alpine skier to take gold at the Pyeongchang Games. Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, barely two weeks older than Myhrer, won the downhill and set a record as the sport’s oldest male Olympic champion.
Michael Matt, the Austrian who won bronze in the slalom earlier today, has unusual family history in the Olympics: His elder brother Andreas won silver in ski cross in 2010, and his even older brother Mario won gold in the slalom in Sochi four years ago.
News just in of Alexander Krushelnitsky, the Russian curler, who has been stripped of the mixed doubles bronze he won with his wife, Anastasia Bryzgalova. This from the Press Association:
Russian Alexander Krushelnitsky has been stripped of the mixed doubles curling bronze medal he won at the Winter Olympics after being found guilty of doping, the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s anti-doping division has announced.
Krushelnitsky finished third in the event representing the Olympic Athletes of Russia with his wife, Anastasia Bryzgalova, but now the medal will likely be reallocated by the International Olympic Committee and World Curling.
A statement from CAS’ ADD read: “The athlete has admitted the anti-doping rule violation; he is disqualified from the mixed doubles curling event at the Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018 and the results obtained by the team OAR at the same event are disqualified.”
Krushelnitsky earlier this week denied taking meldonium, which increases blood flow, and the OAR delegation announced a criminal investigation would take place to determine how the positive test happened.
The CAS ADD statement added: “The athlete has accepted a provisional suspension beyond the period of the Games and reserved his rights to seek the elimination or reduction of any period of ineligibility based on ‘no fault or negligence’ following the conclusion of the Games.”
For meldonium to be performance-enhancing it must be used on a regular basis and over a prolonged period of time, the OAR statement added. And the OAR said Krushelnitsky provided a clear drug sample on January 22. Meldonium was found to be used by more than 100 Russian athletes in 2016. Former world tennis number one Maria Sharapova served a 15-month ban for using the substance after it was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list.
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Hello world!
The Nordic Combined Team Gundersen ski jumping round has just finished, with Austria in the lead and Germany second. Of the 10 teams eight are from Europe, leaving Japan (currently third) and USA (ninth) to represent the rest of the world. What it all means is that in the cross-country relay the top four teams, rounded out by Norway, start within 27 seconds of each other, with France in fifth starting more than a minute behind the leaders. It would be a surprise, then, if gold was won by any team other than Austria, Germany, Japan or Norway. The racing gets under way at 7.20pm local time, 10.20am GMT.
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Day 13 so far
What’s happened
- The US has won a thrilling ice hockey final, beating Canada in a sudden death shootout after the teams finished overtime level on 2-2.
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David Wise of the US clinched gold in the men’s ski halfpipe, with countryman Alex Ferreira in silver, and a breathtaking bronze for 16-year-old Nico Porteous of New Zealand.
- New Zealander Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, also 16, also won bronze, this time in the women’s snowboard big air. That was won by Austria’s Anna Gasser, with Jamie Anderson of the US in silver.
- Switzerland’s Michelle Gizin waltzed off with the women’s alpine combined, leaving silver to America’s Mikaela Shiffrin. Lindsey Vonn, in what could be her final Games, did not finish.
- Sweden’s Andre Myhrer won the men’s slalom gold after Austrian favourite Marcel Hirscher crashed out. Britain’s Dave Ryding ended ninth.
- There were no smiles for Great Britain in the men’s curling, where hopes of making the semi-finals evaporated after a walloping in the ninth end from Switzerland. Read Sean Ingle’s report on how the Swiss thumped their way back from 4-5 down to a 9-5 win with just one deft stone.
What’s coming up
All times are local – Pyeongchang is GMT +9, EST +14, AEDT -2, but our fancy schedule will tell you the times wherever you are, should those timezones not apply or you run out of fingers to calculate on.
- From 7pm, the men’s short-track speed skating 500m begins with quarter-finals, building up to medal races at about 8.15pm. In between comes the women’s 1,000m short-track – gold should be dished out there by about 8.30pm. The men’s 5,000m relay rounds off the track action.
- You might want to switch an eye at 7.20pm to the catchily titled men’s Nordic combined Team Gundersen LH/4x5km cross-country.
- At 8.05 it’s the men’s curling semi-finals: Sweden take on Switzerland, while the other is another USA v Canada crunch match.
- At 8.15pm it’s medal time for the women’s 4x6km biathlon relay.
Stick with the live blog for every throw, slip and whatever it is they do in the men’s Nordic combined Team Gundersen LH/4x5km cross-country. My colleague Simon Burnton will see you through the rest of the day.
The United States women’s hockey team ended Canada’s gold medal streak in dramatic fashion on Thursday afternoon, defeating their arch-rivals in a shootout to capture their first Olympic title since 1998.
USA’s Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson scored the go-ahead goal in the shootout after the teams played to a 2-2 stalemate after regulation and overtime, setting the stage for American goaltender Maddie Rooney’s save of Meghan Agosta to clinch the gold before a rollicking crowd at the Gangneung Hockey Centre.
“It is everything for our country,” American coach Robb Stauber said afterward. “I can’t tell you how happy I am for our players. We love them, it is unreal. I am just so thankful for the outcome. It was a thrilling final, it was unreal. I am just so happy for our players.”
Canada had won four straight Olympic golds, three times beating the United States in the final. Their lone failure to win the title came when women’s hockey debuted at the 1998 Nagano Games, when they fell to the Americans in the gold medal match.
Read our full report here:
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For Canadians dejected by that so-close ice hockey loss, a reminder of the medal table:
That ice hockey win brings #TeamUSA a little closer to #Canada on the #WinterOlympics2018 medal table pic.twitter.com/7wZ1Own9V5
— Claire Phipps (@Claire_Phipps) February 22, 2018
It was supposed to be a men’s slalom battle for the ages between Austria’s Marcel Hirscher and the Norwegian Henrik Kristofferson – with a British skier in the mix for bronze.
Instead, when Hirscher lost control on his first run, and Kristofferson got tangled with a gate on his second, Sweden’s Andre Myhrer claimed a surprise gold.
Meanwhile Dave “The Rocket” Ryding, who learned to ski on a dry slope in Pendle, Lancashire, was left to rue a spluttering first run as he finished ninth.
It was Britain’s best alpine skiing result for 30 years and thus a highly creditable result for the Ryding, whose overall time of 1:40.16 was just 1.17 sec behind Myhrer.
However, he undoubtedly left himself with too much to do after a cautious first run saw him 1.37 sec back at halfway. He admitted:
I had a couple of mistakes there that were a bit costly but the Olympics always give you a bit of the yips.
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Admittedly, yes, this is impressive (especially coming on a day when two 16-year-olds also won bronze medals):
Twenty. TWENTY!@maddie_rooney35, #TeamUSA's goalie, is just 20 years old! She stopped a FOUR TIME OLYMPIAN in her tracks & held her own in the shootout to help secure #GOLD for @USAHockey! UNREAL. pic.twitter.com/foHqOGP4Xh
— U.S. Olympic Team (@TeamUSA) February 22, 2018
AP is quickest with its take on that thrilling ice hockey finish:
Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson scored in the first extra round of the first shootout tiebreaker in Olympic women’s hockey history to give the United States the gold medal with a 3-2 victory over Canada.
Maddie Rooney stopped Meghan Agosta on her second try of Thursday’s shootout to clinch it. Rooney stopped 29 shots in regulation and the 20-minute overtime. Shannon Szabados made 39 saves for Canada, which had won four straight Olympic gold medals.
Marie-Philip Poulin and Haley Irwin scored in regulation for Canada.
The Americans won the inaugural women’s gold medal in 1998, but had not beaten Canada in the Olympics since.
Hilary Knight and Monique Lamoureux-Morando, Jocelyne’s twin sister, scored the American goals in regulation.
It was 2-2 after three periods and 2-2 through five shooters in the tie-breaker.
It was the second straight overtime in the gold medal game for these two teams, but the first shootout in Olympic women’s hockey history. The men have done it, most recently when Sweden beat Canada in 1994.
Fellow US Olympians are quick to congratulate their gold-winning ice hockey teammates after that rather stressful sudden death shootout.
The Shib Sibs are definitely pleased:
YESSSSSSSS!!!!!
— Maia Shibutani (@MaiaShibutani) February 22, 2018
OMG THEY DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
— Alex Shibutani (@AlexShibutani) February 22, 2018
WIN!WIN! USA HOCKEY😁😆🥇🇺🇸
— Chris Knierim (@ChrisKnierim) February 22, 2018
THAT WAS THE MOST AMAZING GAME EVER!!!!!!!! #USAvsCAN #Olympics #Peongchang2018 #WomensOlympicHockey pic.twitter.com/1v4fdKMNMM
— Alexa ScimecaKnierim (@alexa_knierim) February 22, 2018
US wins gold in ice hockey
And it remains 2-2 after two more saves. We’re into sudden death in the women’s ice hockey final.
And it’s the US that wins it!
And now it’s 2-2 after four shots each in the shootout.
Sheesh.
And it’s still 1-1 after the next two are both saved. Did I mention this is quite TENSE?
And then it’s reversed: Canada gets one, US has one stopped.
It’s 1-1.
1-0 to the US in the shootout.
Canada’s first shot was stopped.
Women’s ice hockey final goes to a shootout.
After overtime, it’s Canada 2 – 2 USA.
Is this a great way to decide a gold medal? It’s the first time ever the women’s winner will be decided this way. What do you reckon?
It’s live over here if you want to follow it intensely.
We’re edging perilously/excitingly (delete according to your view) close to a shootout to decide the gold medal winner in the women’s ice hockey.
Our blow-by-blow live coverage is over this way, though I’ll keep on with the highlights here because frankly it’s quite TENSE:
Our second 16-year-old New Zealander bronze medal winner of the day has been chatting about his success. Bryan Armen Graham sends these highlights from Nico Porteous, who finished third in the men’s ski halfpipe:
On being a bronze medallist at 16 years old:
I’ve only had about 30 minutes to think about it. I’m pretty confused about what’s going on. I just can’t believe it.
I was just so proud of my skiing today, and that’s why in the third run I just didn’t have anything left in the bag. I’d done what I’d worked on for the past four years, and I just landed my best run I could ever do.
On his bronze-medal winning second run:
I was vomiting at the top of the course with nerves and I had a lot of help from my sport psychologist, he’s an absolute legend.
I honestly don’t know why it went so well. I honestly have no clue. I’ve been a mixed bag of emotions lately, I haven’t been really getting much sleep. On the night of quals I didn’t get to sleep until 4am. I’ve been all over the show.
Maybe it was meant to be, I guess.
On competing alongside his brother Miguel Porteous:
It was really special to compete with him. It’s a bummer that he didn’t make finals, that’s a really big thing for me. It took me at least 24 hours to get over that.
That performance was really for him, he’s a legend and a much better skier than me, so it would have been so sick to see him here and he definitely would have done really well.
On how he will celebrate:
Maybe just have a quiet one with family.
On his future:
I can always get a lot better and I’m going to be pushing the sport as hard as I can in the next four years.
I don’t know what the next level is going to be, I’m just really excited to see what’s going to happen and what everyone else is going to be doing.
Meanwhile, we’re in sudden death overtime in the women’s ice hockey final.
Gisin wins Alpine combined; silver for Shiffrin
With Vonn flunking that slalom run, it’s all settled in the women’s Alpine combined.
1 Michelle Gisin (Switzerland)
2 Mikaela Shiffrin (US)
3 Wendy Holdener (Switzerland)
It’s the first gold for Switzerland in the combined event.
Updated
It’s Lindsey Vonn time.
She’s the final runner in the slalom run of the women’s Alpine combined and it all rests on this.
SHE STOPS.
It’s all over for Vonn.
Next up in the women’s Alpine combined is Norwegian Ragnhild Mowinckel.
She sat second after the downhill run. What can she wring out of this slalom?
It’s snowing pretty heavily, though I guess she won’t find that too troublesome.
But she finishes fourth – no medal for Mowinckel and a definite medal for Shiffrin. But will it be silver or bronze?
Switzerland’s Michelle Gisin knocks Shiffrin out of top spot in the women’s Alpine combined!
An epic slalom run – with just two competitors left to race – means Gisin is guaranteed a podium space.
An update from my colleague DJ Gallo on the women’s ice hockey final:
End of regulation: Canada 2-2 USA
Same as 2014, Canada and the US will head to overtime tied at 2-2.
In 15 minutes, we’ll get 4-on-4 sudden death overtime for the gold medal.
Updated
And here comes Mikaela Shiffrin in the women’s Alpine combined.
The American stood sixth after the downhill run but slalom is her favoured run.
And so it proves. She ends 0.47 quicker than Wendy Holdener, after a run in which she looked rather slower in the early stages. Will that super swift finish get her into a medal spot?
US ties it at 2-2 in ice hockey final
They’ve drawn level with Canada in the third period: we’re tracking it minute-by-minute in our devoted live blog here:
The slalom run of the women’s Alpine combined is on!
Lindsey Vonn (US) and Ragnhild Mowinckel (Norway) held the top spots after the downhill run; slalom specialist Mikaela Shiffrin was lurking in sixth and will be one to watch.
Mowinckel and Vonn already have a silver and bronze respectively from yesterday’s downhill final in their pockets (not literally; that would not be aerodynamic), while Shiffrin is going home with a gold regardless after victory in last week’s giant slalom.
My colleague Eleanor Ainge Roy reports from New Zealand:
Sixteen-year-old Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has just achieved her dream - a bronze medal in the women’s snowboard big air as well as personal congratulations from the New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern.
Huge congratulations to Snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott for your bronze medal win!! You’ve done us so proud. #PyeongChang2018
— Jacinda Ardern (@jacindaardern) February 22, 2018
Hailing from the small alpine resort of Wanaka in the Southern Alps, the teenager specialises in in slopestyle and big air, and won a silver medal last year in the slopestyle at the 2017 snowboard world championships. She also won gold in the world Cup snowboard in the Czech Republic last year.
Sadowski-Synnott was born in Australia, but moved to New Zealand age six. Her coach, Mitch Brown is a double Olympian, and told the New Zealand Herald:
I think she could really dominate the women’s snowboarding world to be honest.
People are blown away about this lady from Wanaka who has just popped up and become a force to be reckoned with on the world tour … She is an amazing athlete to work with, because of her willpower and belief.
Wanaka, in the lower south island, is ringed by five ski fields, and the local high school, Mt Aspiring, has intensive winter sports programmes for young athletes, allowing them time off school to practise as part of their outdoor education programme.
Sadowski-Synnott last year admitted it was hard to concentrate on her schoolwork:
I have no other career goals now, just snowboarding.
It was in 2012, about three years after I started snowboarding, that I found I loved it so much I wanted to skip school. I knew I wanted to go the Olympics and X-Games. Back then, it was just a dream for a little kid.
Updated
Sweden's Andre Myhrer wins slalom gold
Over in the men’s slalom, after that second-round run, we have our top three:
1 Andre Myhrer (Sweden)
2 Ramon Zenhaeusern (Switzerland)
3 Michael Matt (Austria)
Hot favourite Marcel Hirscher of Austria crashed out early on his first run and halfway leader Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen also failed to finish his second run.
Britain’s Dave Ryding finished ninth.
Updated
Day 13: here we go
Hello and welcome to our third live blog of day 13, because you can never have too many when there’s this much icy action going on.
Earlier we brought you blow-by-blow coverage of the men’s ski halfpipe: David Wise of the US clinched gold in that one, with countryman Alex Ferreira in silver, and a breathtaking bronze for 16-year-old Nico Porteous of New Zealand.
Porteous was – remarkably, given his country had won only one Winter Olympics medal before today, way back in 1992 – not the first New Zealander to reach the podium today. That honour went to Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, also 16 and now also a bronze winner, this time in the women’s snowboard big air.
That battle was won by Austria’s Anna Gasser, with Jamie Anderson of the US in silver.
Over here is every swipe of the ongoing women’s ice hockey final between the US and Canada: Canada are leading 2-1 at the end of the second period.
The men’s slalom is running right now and we’ll have that action right here any minute now.
There were no smiles for Great Britain in the men’s curling, where hopes of making the semi-finals evaporated after a walloping in the ninth end from Switzerland. Read Sean Ingle’s report on how the Swiss thumped their way back from 4-5 down to a 9-5 win with just one deft stone.
Coming up
Here are your medal must-watches for the rest of the day. All times are local – Pyeongchang is GMT +9, EST +14, AEDT -2, but our fancy schedule will tell you the times wherever you are, should those timezones not apply or you run out of fingers to calculate on.
- At 3pm, it’s the slalom run of the women’s Alpine combined, with Lindsey Vonn (US) and Ragnhild Mowinckel (Norway) leading after the downhill. But don’t count out America’s Mikaela Shiffrin, currently sitting in sixth spot.
- From 7pm, the men’s short-track speed skating 500m begins with quarter-finals, building up to medal races at about 8.15pm. In between comes the women’s 1,000m short-track – gold should be dished out there by about 8.30pm. The men’s 5,000m relay rounds off the track action.
- You might want to switch an eye at 7.20pm to the catchily titled men’s Nordic combined Team Gundersen LH/4x5km cross-country, which will no way fit on a medal.
- At 8.05 it’s those men’s curling semi-finals: Sweden take on Switzerland, while the other is another USA v Canada crunch match.
- At 8.15pm it’s medal time for the women’s 4x6km biathlon relay.
