Today in a nutshell: It was a tough day at the office for favourites Mikaela Shiffrin and Charlotte Bankes, but the redemption of Lindsey Jacobellis is a tale for the ages
Next up: The opening men’s curling matches and the luge doubles, and then tomorrow we get the chance to watch Nathan Chen going for gold, while the US men start their ice hockey campaign
Petra Vlhova set the pace early in the women’s slalom, and then had to watch a series of world-class skiers come down the hill and just fail to pip her time, giving her Slovakia’s first ever Alpine skiing gold. Katharina Liensberger took silver for Austria. Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener was third. Swede Sara Hector had looked set to win a second gold in three days, but the newly-crowned giant slalom champion fell with the finish line in sight and an advantage over Vlhova of almost half a second.
Yet perhaps the defining image of the event was US star Mikaela Shiffrin sitting in the snow with her head bowed in disbelief for several minutes after she was disqualified after missing a gate early in first run. After crashing out of her last event, her dream of a record medal haul is rapidly becoming a nightmare and afterwards she said she might not continue to compete in these Games.
It was a very different story for Lindsey Jacobellis, who won the first US gold of Beijing in the women’s snowboardcross final. It was redemption for the 36-year-old, who missed out on gold in the 2006 Turin Games with a late fall while in the lead after she attempted a showboating jump trick while well clear of eventual winner Tanja Frieden.
After today’s victory, Jacobellis said: “They can keep talking about the 2006 Games all they want because it really shaped me into the individual that I am and kept me hungry and really helped me keep fighting in the sport.”
Chloe Trespeuch of France took the silver, while the bronze went to Meryeta O’Dine of Canada. Charlotte Bankes was Britain’s biggest medal hope of these Games, but the 2021 world champion failed to progress beyond the quarter-finals. “I can’t explain,” she said after finishing third.
A dominant 108m jump by Japan’s Ryota Yamamoto meant he went into the cross-country leg of the Nordic combined normal hill/10km in front, but he couldn’t live with the pace of the leading group. Vinzenz Geiger of Germany took gold, 0.8 seconds ahead of Norway’s Joergen Graabak.
Things you might have missed
Natalie Geisenberger won an incredible third consecutive gold in the women’s single luge late yesterday, saying victory this time – her first event since becoming a mother – was different. “I think it was a pretty hard way because my son is absolutely my number one, and my training was around my child,” she said. “But that I’m now here with another gold medal is just amazing.” Geisenberger’s compatriot Anna Berreiter took the silver.
The medal ceremony for the team figure skating competition has been delayed because of an ongoing legal issue that could affect medalists, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said. The athletes of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) had been placed first, with the US second and Japan third. Canada finished in fourth. Several of the ROC skaters, including star Kamila Valieva, did not appear at practice sessions today. No reason was given.
One of the journalists who conducted the first independent sit-down interview with Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai says the carefully controlled conversation did not answer questions about whether she can speak her mind or move freely. However, the IOC president Thomas Bach, who watched the freestyle skiing with her as his guest yesterday, said: “We answered the question, ‘Where is Peng Shuai?’. You could see it in her appearances that she is enjoying the Games, enjoying being among athletes and the public and this is why we are continuing to have this contact. I hope I will meet her again in the summer in Lausanne.”
Sweden took a one-two in the women’s cross-country sprint free event yesterday, with Jonna Sundling finishing nearly three seconds ahead of Maja Dahlqvist. Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo of Norway won the men’s event by a much tighter margin over Italy’s Federico Pellegrino, who was just 0.26 seconds shy of gold.
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The briefing’s picture of the day
Norway’s Birk Ruud claimed the first ever men’s freeski big air Olympic gold. Having landed a switch left triple 1980 mute – that is five and a half rotations – in the first run, the 21-year-old scored a total of 187.75 and was assured of the title before the third and final jump, which he made holding the Norwegian flag. Colby Stevenson was second for the United States.
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 – Wednesday 9 February
8.05pm Curling – the round-robin stage gets under way in the men’s competition 🥌
8.20pm Luge – two runs will decide the doubles medals 🥇
9.10pm Ice hockey – the men’s ice hockey competition began earlier with a bad-tempered clash between ROC and Switzerland which the Russians won 1-0. The Czech Republic and Denmark are in the same group and will play tonight’s late game
9.20pm Short track speed skating – the men’s 1,500m final 🥇
Tomorrow – Thursday 10 February
9.05am and 2.05pm and 8.05pm Curling – 12 matches spread across the men’s and women’s competitions
9.30am Figure skating – Nathan Chen goes for gold as the men perform free skating 🥇
9.30am – 3.15pm Snowboard – it starts with the women’s half-pipe, with the final scheduled for 10.25am, and then it is the men’s cross, with the final right at the end of the session 🥇
10.30am and 2.15pm Alpine skiing – it is the men’s combined event, they do the downhill in the morning, and the slalom in the afternoon 🥇
12.10pm and 4.40pm and 9.10pm Ice hockey – four matches in the men’s preliminaries, of which the pick is probably the US v hosts China in the evening slot.
3pm Cross-country skiing – the women race the 10km classic 🥇
7pm Freestyle skiing – tomorrow evening in Beijing it is the mixed team aerials 🥇
8pm Speed skating – the women’s 5,000m 🥇
9.30pm Luge – it is the team relay, which promises to be as wild as it sounds – do not miss it 🥇
Full Winter Olympics schedule | Results, sport by sport | Medal table
How things stand
Here’s what the emoji table looked like at 6pm Beijing time …
1 🇳🇴 Norway 🥇 4 🥈 2 🥉 4 total: 10
2 🇩🇪 Germany 🥇 4 🥈 2 🥉 0 total: 6
3 🇸🇪 Sweden 🥇 4 🥈 1 🥉 2 total: 7
4 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🥇 3 🥈 3 🥉 1 total: 7
5 🇨🇳 China 🥇 3 🥈 2 🥉 0 total: 5
6 🇦🇹 Austria 🥇 2 🥈 4 🥉 3 total: 9
7 🇮🇹 Italy 🥇 2🥈 4 🥉 1 total: 7
8 ◻️ Not Russia 🥇 2* 🥈 3 🥉 5 total: 10
Selected others
10 🇺🇸 United States 🥇 1 🥈 5 🥉 1 total: 7
12 🇨🇦 Canada 🥇 1 🥈 1 🥉 5 total: 7
15 🇦🇺 Australia 🥇 1🥈 0 🥉 1 total: 2
16= 🇳🇿 New Zealand 🥇 1🥈 0 🥉 0 total: 1
[*The ‘Not Russia’ total includes the team figure skating gold which is yet to be formally presented]
You can always get in touch with me at martin.belam@theguardian.com and let me know whether, if like me, you don’t think there’s a single Winter Olympics event where as soon as the starting gun / buzzer / whistle went, you wouldn’t just simply fall over. I’m not even sure I could successfully balance on a luge while lying down.
The last word
I think the Olympics in your home country is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. People saw it and now there will be so many people who are going to try it out. Maybe this will be the beginning for many Italian people in curling” – Stefania Constantini, the 22-year-old curling mixed doubles gold medallist who hails from Cortina, which will co-host the 2026 Games.
