Today in a nutshell: We said farewell to Shaun White, Lara Gut-Behrami finally got a medal, Nils van der Poel smashed a world record and Irene Schouten is hopefully having a nice rest after destroying the field in the speed skating late yesterday
Next up: There’s more curling and ice hockey today, and then tomorrow we can anticipate the US v Canada in the men’s ice hockey
After his final Olympics appearance retiring snowboarding legend Shaun White said of the younger generation: “I don’t want to beat these guys anymore. I want to sponsor them.” White first won Olympic gold when aged 19 in 2006. This year’s gold went to Japan’s Ayumu Hirano. Australia’s Scotty James took silver, while Switzerland’s Jan Scherrer took the bronze.
“I just tried to ski today, nothing more, nothing less,” Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami said when asked if her previous near misses had played on her mind. “Sometimes that’s the problem: we just try to think too much and try to do something different at the Olympics.” The 30-year-old won gold today in the women’s super-G after two consecutive agonising fourth-placed finishes at previous Games. Her compatriot Michelle Gisin took bronze, Austria’s Mirjam Puchner was second, 0.22 seconds behind Gut-Behrami. Mikaela Shiffrin finished ninth after failing to finish in either of her two previous races in Beijing.
On the endurance side of things, Finland’s Iivo Niskanen dominated the men’s 15km classic cross country. He finished just over 23 seconds ahead of Alexander Bolshunov of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). Marte Olsbu Roeiseland won gold for Norway in the women’s 7.5km biathlon.
The future of 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva remains in limbo despite the Independent Testing Agency confirming that she tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine on Christmas Day. Whether she is allowed to compete or not – along with whether the Russian team can keep its team gold – is still being contested in a courtroom.
Irene Schouten is just a phenomenon on ice. Yesterday she added the 5,000m speed skating gold to her earlier 3,000m victory, 4.67 seconds ahead of Canada’s Isabelle Weidemann. It wasn’t just a second gold – it was a second Olympic record in the space of a few days, breaking a mark that was set in Salt Lake City by Claudia Pechstein 20 years ago. Nils van der Poel of Sweden was also a record-breaker, setting a new world fastest time in the men’s 10,000m as he took a second gold of these Games.
Things you might have missed
The mixed teams aerials final in the freestyle skiing yesterday went to the US, with China in second and Canada third.
There was no surprise in the result of the first quarter-final of the women’s ice hockey, as the US progressed 4-1 at the expense of the Czech Republic. However, the Czech team had taken the lead, and once again the US women unleashed attack after attack without scoring prolifically. “You’ve just got to keep shooting – doesn’t matter how many shots you’ve taken, one’s going to go in,” four-time Olympian Hilary Knight said after the match. “These goalies are great at this level and we really have to challenge them.”
If it is the luge, then it is probably a gold medal for Germany. The team relay competition yesterday was no different.
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The briefing’s picture of the day
There’s a relentless amount of curling going on. So far in the round robin stage, in the women’s contest Switzerland and the US remain unbeaten after three matches. In the men’s, Sweden are unbeaten after three, and Canada have a 100% record after their two games.
What to look out for next
Times are all in local Beijing time. For Sydney it is +3 hours, for London it is -8 hours, for New York it is -13 hours and San Francisco is -16 hours.
Later today – Friday 11 February
8.05pm Curling – Great Britain face boring-trousers-Norway in the pick of the last session 🥇
8.20pm-9.55pm Skeleton – the men will go in their final two runs to decide the medals 🥇
8.43pm Short track – we have the women’s 1,000 metres final 🥇
9.10pm Ice hockey – Canada v Sweden in the women’s quarter-final 🏒
Tomorrow – Saturday 12 February
9.05am and 2.05pm and 8.05pm – roll up, roll up for all day curling with 11 preliminary matches 🥌
10am Snowboard – the mixed team cross event, with the final scheduled to begin at 10.50am 🥇
12.10pm and 4.40pm and 9.10pm Ice hockey – in the women’s competition there are two quarter-finals: ROC v Switzerland (12.10pm) and Finland v Japan (4.40pm). The US face Canada in the biggest game for the men on the day – that one is at 12.10pm too 🏒
3.30pm Cross-country skiing – the women do a 4x5km relay 🥇
4pm Speed skating – the women’s team pursuit quarter-finals are first, followed by the men’s 500m 🥇
5pm Biathlon – the men will do their 10km sprint. I remain unconvinced anybody actually “sprints” on skis and especially not for 10km but what do I know? 🥇
6pm–8pm Ski jumping – the opposite of the normal hill is disappointingly not the weird hill, it is the large hill. The men are jumping off it today 🥇
7pm Figure skating – the rhythm dance section of the ice dance competition ⛸
8.20pm and 9.55pm Skeleton – the final two rounds for the women 🥇
Full Winter Olympics schedule | Results, sport by sport | Medal table
How things stand
Here’s what the emoji table looked like at 6.15pm Beijing time …
1 🇳🇴 Norway 🥇 6 🥈 3 🥉 5 total: 14
2 🇩🇪 Germany 🥇 6 🥈 3 🥉 0 total: 9
3 🇸🇪 Sweden 🥇 5 🥈 2 🥉 2 total: 9
4 🇦🇹 Austria 🥇 4 🥈 6 🥉 4 total: 14
5 🇺🇸 United States 🥇 4 🥈 5 🥉 1 total: 10
6 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🥇 4 🥈 4 🥉 1 total: 9
7 🇨🇳 China 🥇 3 🥈 3 🥉 0 total: 6
8 ◻️ Not Russia 🥇 2* 🥈 4 🥉 6 total: 12
9 🇮🇹 Italy 🥇 2🥈 4 🥉 4 total: 10
10 🇯🇵 Japan 🥇 2 🥈 2 🥉 4 total: 8
[*The ‘Not Russia’ total includes the team figure skating gold which is yet to be formally presented]
As we head into the second weekend of the Winter Games don’t forget you can get in touch at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
The last word
Those latest terrible Olympic skating news have honestly touched me. Kamila Valieva is a young girl and child prodigy, whose highly difficult performances and grace enchanted the whole world at only 15, a minor, depending on adults and she is not to blame here. It is a shame, and the responsible adults should be banned from the sport forever – skating legend Katarina Witt posting on her social media
