And that is a wrap for the live sport today, as the final two men’s matches in Group B of the ice hockey come to an end. Denmark have beaten Switzerland 5-3. The Czech Republic faced a late comeback from the ROC to tie up the game at 5-5, but the Czech team scored an overtime winner with thirty seconds to go to edge it 6-5. The Russians hadn’t let in a single goal before today.
That concludes the group. Russia are top and go straight through to the quarter-finals. The Czech Republic and Switzerland finished third and fourth, and go through to the play-off round.
Denmark have to wait. Six points and a goal difference of +1 is unlikely to be the best second-placed record and put them straight through to the quarters, with Canada set to face China in their last game where they will expect to score heavily, but you never, never know.
That is the end of the action today. I will see you here tomorrow, we’ll be back with you when Sunday’s action starts in Beijing. Here is what we have to look forward to …
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.
Tomorrow – Sunday 13 February
- 9.05am and 2.05pm and 8.05pm Curling – various men’s and women’s round robin matches, with Team GB and the US involved in every session 🥌
- 9.30am and 11am Bobsleigh – heats one and two of the women’s monobob
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10.15am and 1.45pm Alpine skiing – it is the men’s giant slalom. Benjamin Alexander will take part – Jamaica’s first ever Alpine skier 🥇
- 12.10pm and 4.40pm and 9.10pm Ice hockey – the US face Germany in the final game of the day 🏒
- 3pm Cross-country skiing – the men’s 4x10km which would last approximately 1,057 hours if they were doing it at the pace I could cover 10km on skis 🥇
- 5pm and 6.45pm Biathlon – they are absolutely spoiling us with the biathlon on Sunday. The women do their 10km pursuit first and then the men do their 12.5km pursuit 🥇
- 7pm-8.14pm Short track speed skating – the women’s 3,000m relay and the men’s 500m race 🥇
- 9.56pm Speed skating – the women’s 500m 🥇
Until then, take care, stay safe.
The rhythm dance component of the ice dance figure skating finished with Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron on top with 90.83 for France. The Russian Olympic Committee’s Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov are placed second with 88.85, and US pair Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue are in third place. The British pair of Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson qualified in tenth place. They skate again in the free dance element on Monday when the medals will be distributed.
Today at the Winter Olympics
- Jaclyn Narracott took Australia’s first ever medal in skeleton, finishing second behind Hannah Neise of Germany.
- Lindsey Jacobellis captured her second gold in four days after pairing with Nick Baumgartner to win the inaugural mixed team snowboard cross event for the US.
- Kamila Valieva’s controversial coach, Eteri Tutberidze, insisted that her skater was clean but accepted that the situation was “very controversial and difficult”. “I want to say that I am absolutely sure that Kamila is innocent and clean,” she said. “For us, this is not a theorem, but an axiom, it does not need to be proved. We are with our athletes, in trouble and in joy, to the end.”
- Johannes Thingnes Boe took gold for Norway in the 10km sprint biathlon. His elder brother Tarjel won bronze.
- Marius Lindvik won a thrilling massive enormous gigantic hill ski jumping competition for Norway, stopping Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi making it a double gold.
- The Russian Olympic Committee won the 4 x 5km cross-country skiing women’s relay.
- Great Britain’s women won their curling match 10-5 against the US to rekindle their campaign.
- The US beat Canada 4-2 in Group A of the men’s ice hockey. In the women’s competition, Finland and Switzerland advanced to the semi-final.
- There was a home victory in the men’s 500m speed skating for Gao Tingyu of China.
There are no more medals going anywhere today, so here’s how the medal table stands at the moment: Germany top it with eight gold, five silver and one bronze. Norway are second with eight gold, three silver and six bronze. The US are third with five gold, five silver and one bronze.
There’s still a couple of ice hockey matches going on. Denmark now lead Switzerland 4-2. The Czech Republic have extended their leads against the Russian athletes, and the score there is also 4-2.
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There have been a couple of very emotional interviews with the British skeleton sliders after their disappointing results today. Laura Deas finished 19th, and Brogan Crowley finished 22nd, failing to qualify for the final. A tearful Crowley told the BBC:
I’ve come a long way in the last four years. It’s been a hard four years, and I’m so proud of where I’ve got to because a few years ago, I didn’t even think I’d be here. And without the support of my family and friends at home, I honestly, I wouldn’t be here right now. So I’m proud of where I am, and I hope that I can come back in the future and achieve a lot more.
Of the poor performance from Team GB, her teammate Deas said:
It’s been a tough two years for everyone. And I think it’s really important for me to be proud of the fact that I came here and I put in a great performance. The fact that the outcome is nowhere near what I wanted, I think shouldn’t take away from the fact that I think I put down some pretty good runs.
I mean, clearly, we’re lacking speed. It’s something that we’re going to go away and review pretty pretty closely and hopefully come back stronger.
What is going on in the men’s ice hockey? Well, it is the end of the second period in both Group B preliminary matches. ROC are slightly surprisingly behind the Czech Republic 3-2. Denmark have come back strongly against Switzerland and now lead 3-1.
And a Pokémon Go update? No word of a lie, after I posted about my struggles earlier I immediately caught three rare shiny Hoppip in quick succession, after several fruitless hours looking for them. The sadness of an eight-year-old has been averted. Good, good times.
Hannah Neise wins gold, Jaclyn Narracott silver, in women's skeleton!
Hannah Neise takes the gold for Germany on the final run! It is Germany’s first gold in the event. Jaclyn Narracott of Australia is second. That is Australia’s first ever skeleton medal! Neise went more than half-a-second faster than the Australian in the end. Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands takes bronze. It is a first for them too!
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Australia’s Jaclyn Narracott was in the lead halfway through the event. She does the penultimate run. Can she do it? Could it be Australia’s first ever medal in the skeleton? SHE CAN! SHE CAN! Silver at worst! Her total time is 4:08.24. Hannah Neise from Germany will now go for gold!
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Germany’s Tina Hermann doesn’t go faster than Kimberley Bos, and so the Dutch athlete is guaranteed a bronze medal at worst, and Hermann misses out!
We are right at the sharp end of the women’s skeleton now. Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands goes into the lead with an error-strewn run. The three fastest women are now set to slide. Tina Hermann of Germany, currently third, goes next.
Just to spite me, I got the number of ends wrong in the women’s curling again. They only played nine because Great Britain have beaten the US 10-5 with an end to spare. The British women’s team really needed that. They are now 2 for 2. The US had been unbeaten up to that point.
I got over-excited earlier when I thought we were close to the last end of the women’s curling match between Team GB and the US. I forgot that it is eight ends in the mixed doubles, but ten ends in the full-scale team event. D’oh! I blame the fact that I am also watching the figure skating and the ice hockey and the skeleton and also it is community day on Pokémon Go and I’m under strict instructions from my eight-year-old that I have to catch three shiny Hoppip for him today. The curling is 7-5 to Team GB in the ninth end. Which really is the last-but-one.
The other matches stand ROC 5-6 Japan, Denmark 4-6 Switzerland and Sweden 6-8 China.
We are halfway through the final heat of the women’s skeleton. They go in reverse order, so we still haven’t seen the fastest sliders yet. Yulia Kanakina of the Russian Olympic Committee leads at this point, but it isn’t going to stay that way.
A brilliant two on the seventh end for Team GB means that the pressure is all on the US to retain their unbeaten women’s curling record at this Olympics so far. The two go into the 8th and final end with the British side leading 7-4.
Laura Deas finishes her final skeleton run with a 1:02.70. It is the fastest of the four she has made in this competition, but she’ll be hugely disappointed with the performance in Beijing where they were hopes she would win a medal.
The next run is Endija Terauda of Latvia. She goes 0.02 seconds slower than Deas overall, so at least the British athlete has the consolation that she didn’t finish last in the final.
Stay tuned because we have got the climax of that extremely close and vital curling match, and the two ice hockey games going on. But most importantly, we are about to have the fourth heat of the women’s skeleton. As the slowest placed woman, Laura Deas of Team GB is just sliding for pride, but there’s a real chance Jaclyn Narracott could earn Australia’s first ever Olympic medal in the sport. She’s currently placed second.
Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson have just ice danced their way to fourth place for Team GB. They are targeting a top eight finish overall. They are safely qualified through to the free dance stage.
Ice hockey scores latest: the ROC are tied 1-1 with the Czech Republic. Switzerland have a 1-0 lead over Denmark, exactly the opposite of the kind of result Denmark needed if they are to secure an automatic quarter-final spot. Both matches are at the end of the first period.
Three of the games in the women’s curling have teams posting strong leads. ROC are beating Japan 5-2, China are up 6-2 against Sweden, and Switzerland lead Denmark 3-1. The match between Team GB and the US has turned into a nail-biter. After six ends it is poised 5-4 to the British team. *Eric_Morecambe_sucks_teeth_and_looks_to_camera.gif*
The Canadian pair of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Soerensen have just done their ice dance to a medley of Careless Whisper, I Want Your Sex and Freedom 90, and I must say at my age it is always lovely to have a bit of unexpected George Michael on a Saturday afternoon. The judges obviously like a bit of ol’ Geroge too, as they’ve gone into the lead.
Spain’s Olivia Smart and Adrian Diaz are second, with Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker in third. The British pair of Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson skate soon.
Our picture desk have put together a gallery of today’s greatest images from the Beijing Winter Olympics for you. Nice one.
The third heat of the women’s skeleton is over, and Laura Deas of Team GB just held on to a top twenty position, and will slide again. Her team-mate Brogan Crowley will not.
The top three going into the last heat are Hannah Neise of Germany in the lead, Jaclyn Narracott of Australia second and Neise’s teammate Tina Hermann in third.
The US Virgin Islands only sent one athlete to these games – skeleton slider Katie Tannenbaum. She finished last, over twelve-and-a-half seconds off the pace, and nearly five seconds behind the next fastest woman. She’s had a right old time of it in Beijing. She missed being the flag-bearer at the opening ceremony because she was in isolation with Covid, and that also meant she couldn’t do any test runs on the track. But she’s still an Olympian. She posted on her social media that her team actually video-called her from the middle of the opening ceremony so she would feel like she was there.
The last two men’s ice hockey matches for the day have got underway. It is the simultaneous final matches in Group B. ROC v Czech Republic, and Switzerland v Denmark. If you remember how the tournament works, there are three groups of four. The top team in each group goes straight through to the quarter-finals, as does the second placed team with the best record. Everybody else then goes into a play-off round for the final four quarter-final births.
ROC have won their first two games, and so are already guaranteed top spot in Group B. Neither the Czech Republic or Switzerland can finish higher than third. So the only thing really at stake today is whether Denmark can win and score a lot of goals and put themselves in a position to maybe get that automatic spot.
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Britain’s Brogan Crowley has followed Laura Deas down the track in the women’s skeleton, and she is out. She ended up 22nd fastest of the 22nd women to slide so far today.
Laura Deas from Team GB has just gone in the women’s skeleton, and has positioned herself 20th overall. Only twenty women go through, so if any of the final four women go faster than her, her individual skeleton campaign is over.
Here’s confirmation of those results in the men’s enormous hill ski jumping. Norway’s Marius Lindvik delivered a monster 151.3-point second jump to snatch the gold medal, denying Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi a golden double.
Kobayashi, fresh from winning the normal hill title last weekend, set the standard again in the first round with a 142-metre jump for 147 points. Lindvik, who led the way in Friday’s qualifying session, also continued the hot streak of form that brought him three World Cup wins in January, posting 144.8 points to sit in second place. The Norwegian then delivered a superlative last effort to reach a tally of 296.1 and though Kobayashi produced the next-best jump of the round, he fell just short on 292.8.
Reuters note that Germany’s World Cup leader Karl Geiger, who finished a disappointing 15th in the normal hill, was sitting back in sixth place, more than 10 points off the pace at halfway, but his 144.6 effort earned him the bronze medal.
The way heat three of the women’s skeleton is organised, with the fastest having gone first, means it doesn’t actually make for that gripping viewing. Essentially it is just watching people go slightly slower each time.
Ice dancing update. We’ve had eleven couples so far, of which the top eight are already now guaranteed to progress. Leading the pack is the Chinese pairing of Wang Shiyue and Liu Xinyu. They danced a routine soundtracked by Elvis Presley, and they’ve scored 73.41.
I can also tell you that they scored 8.71 for their execution of the sequential twizzles, which makes me sound more knowledgable than I am – I just read that off the data feed. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what a twizzle is, or how to make it sequential.
You were wondering what the latest curling scores were, weren’t you? I can help with that. Currently in the women’s round robin there are four matches happening, and the scores are:
ROC 2-1 Japan
Denmark 1-1 Switzerland
Sweden 0-3 China
Great Britain 4-0 China
Phew! That was great. Now back over to the women’s skeleton. Eleven of the women have gone so far in the third heat, and the top three remains:
1. Hannah Neise (Ger) 3:05.99
2. Jaclyn Narracott (Aus) +0.14
3. Tina Hermann (Ger) +0.48
Gold for Marius Lindvik of Norway in men's big hill ski jumping
Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan jumps for double gold! And he doesn’t get it!!! He misses out by a smidge. Marius Lindvik of Norway is Olympic champion. What drama at the last. He out-scored the Japanese athlete 296.1 to 292.8.
The big hill ski jumping has been intense. The penultimate jump leaves Marius Lindvik on Norway on the podium, it is a huge score and he goes into the lead.
There are two men left to jump. Geiger, Stoch and Eisenbichler are in the medal positions. Timi Zajc’s jump placed him fourth. Karl Geiger has a medal for sure.
Over at the women’s skeleton, nobody has been able to touch those times of Neise and Narracott yet, they still sit one and two. Germany’s Tina Hermann is third.
Cene Prevc’s jump meant that briefly Slovenia had one-two-three in the ski jumping, but pretty much everybody jumping is now going straight into the lead as we run through the top ten jumpers from the first round. As a reminder, Ryoyu Kobayashi scored an incredible 147.0 points in the first round, and lead by 2.2 points. You feel like he pretty much just needs to land in one piece on his second jump to win gold. Germany’s Karl Geiger leads with five to jump.
The lead has changed hands in the men’s giant hill ski jumping, with Peter Prevc and Lovro Kos, both of Slovenia, in the gold and silver medal positions. The ten jumpers who scored the most points in the first round are still to jump.
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Team GB have won the first end in the women’s curling 2-0 against the US. That is exactly the kind of start they would have wanted.
Jaclyn Narracott has made a fantastic start to heat three of the women’s skeleton. She’s only gone and set a new track record at 1:01.79 after being the first woman to go in this session. You would think it is going to be a tough mark to beat – but then Hannah Neise of Germany immediately beats her time by 0.14. It is the first time the women have raced in the night session – and the track is fast!
Ten of the thirty men in the men’s big hill ski jumping final have done their thing. Finland’s Antti Aalto holds the lead at the moment. His second jump was 134m, so he has finished with 257.2 points. At this moment in the contest, in order to haul themselves into medal contention, the guys have got to pull something really special out of the bag.
The final round of the men’s ski jumping on the big hill has started, and we are also about to get some more of the women’s skeleton. Team GB have had a torrid time in that, with expected medal hopes dashed by some shocking performance. Pyeongchang bronze medallist Laura Deas and newbie Brogan Crowley go into heat three lying 21st and 22nd. Here’s what 33-year-old Deas said after yesterday’s runs:
It’s certainly not the outcome I wanted. I came to the start block in a great frame of mind, I put together two good runs that I think I can be proud of. I can’t tell you now why the speed wasn’t there, I don’t know. I think I did myself proud. I’ve worked incredibly hard for the last four years to get to the start block today. We’re going to have to go back and look at all of it. Review, and try and come back stronger tomorrow. I need to go back to the hotel, recover as best I can and make sure I’m in good physical shape tomorrow as well as mental shape. Review everything, and put down two good runs and show everyone what I can do on the sled. I know I’m a good slider.
There are four preliminary round matches just starting in the women’s curling. The match-ups are Russian Olympic Committee v Japan, Denmark v Switzerland, Sweden v China, and Great Britain v USA. It is match you feel the British team really need to win, as they have two defeats in their three games so far. After this morning’s fourth session, the US and Switzerland both remained unbeaten after three matches.
The Lithuania couple of Paulina Ramanauskaite and Deividas Kizala have just danced themselves into fifth place out of the five to go so far in the ice dancing with a soundtrack of Rihanna. They scored 58.35, which I am reliably informed is their season’s best – but probably won’t be enough to see them through to the next stage. The top twenty couples dancing today progress.
Hello, it is Martin Belam here to bring you all the latest Winter Olympics developments from *checks notes* sunny Walthamstow. I’m glued to the telly and the data feeds, so I’ll bring you everything that happens between now and the close of play today.
On my watch we’ve got some ski jumping, a couple of ice hockey matches, the business end of the women’s skeleton competition, there’s ice dancing going on and there’s always, always curling preliminary round matches happening.
I’ve been very much enjoying the sport at these Games. The geopolitics and the doping controversies, maybe not quite so much.
With the men’s large hill ski jumping nicely poised after an excellent first round, and the ice-dancing ongoing, I will hand you over to my colleague Martin Belam to guide you through the afternoon. Bye!
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Finland, Czech Republic and Ukraine currently top the charts in the ice-dancing but there is a long, long way to go. Ukraine’s duo of Oleksandra Nazarova and Maksym Nikitin look utterly depressed at the way they performed:
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The top five in the large hill men’s ski jump, before the final and decisive round:
Ryoyu Kobayashi (Japan)
Marius Lindvik (Norway)
Timi Zajc (Slovenia)
Kamil Stoch (Poland)
Manuel Fettner (Austria)
Whaaaaat! Absolute scenes in the men’s ski jumping.
Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan jumps 142m on the nose and amasses 147pts. The new leader.
“One of the best, if not the best first rounds of the whole season,” observes the man on the mic for Eurosport.
Only a handful of athletes still to jump in the first round of the men’s individual large hill ski jumping. Zajc, Stoch, Fettner the top three ... but no!
Marius Lindvik of Norway nails his jump, and goes top, with 140.5m distance and 144.8pts on the board.
Timi Zajc (Slovenia) fires off a 138.5m jump and hits the top of the ski-jumping charts. Stoch (Poland) second, Fettner (Austria) third.
No sign of this guy yet:
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Early days in the ice-dancing, but Iceland lead the way as it stands with a score of 68.23. Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson will be up for Great Britain before too long.
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Kamil Stoch of Poland hits the top with a jump of 137.5m! And here comes Prevc ... and he jumps 137m on the nose, scores 131.3 points, and goes second.
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Gregor Deschwanden (Switzerland) breaks up the ROC party and goes third with a jump of 132m – a metre shorter than Klimov, but garnering 127.8pts.
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Ski jumping: men’s individual – large hill first round: It’s all happening. ROC have gone one-two-three early doors, with Sadreev (134m), Trofimov (133m) and Klimov (133m) leaving the rest in their wake ... for now. Plenty of jumpers to come, including Prevc of Slovenia and Stoch of Poland.
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Regarding the controversy over the judging in the snowboarding slopestyle final – here’s an interesting report here from Jenna Zucker of Reuters which dropped on the newswires a little earlier today:
The men’s snowboarding slopestyle final at the Beijing Olympics seemed to have a perfect ending when Max Parrot took gold following a comeback from cancer. Parrot, who completed his last round of chemotherapy treatments for Hodgkin lymphoma in 2019, came out in front of China’s Su Yiming, who took silver, and fellow Canadian Mark McMorris bronze.
However, as new video angles of the competition appeared, fans’ attitudes shifted. Those shots showed that during Parrot’s winning run the Canadian grabbed his knee during a trick, not the board, and should have lost points. Supporters of Su and McMorris were outraged and berated the judges on social media. McMorris said it was a shame the knee grab was not caught earlier.
“Any other contest, if they would have seen it, that would have been a complete write-off of a run, like a 75-80,” said McMorris. “The fact the angle the judges had just was not that easy to make out if he touched his board or not, and by the time they went to slo mo it became super apparent that he didn’t grab and he grabbed his knees and no board purchase,” said McMorris.
A media representative for Parrot did not reply to an email request for a comment. Comments on McMorris’s social media were a mixture of congratulations and anger about getting “robbed”. On China’s Weibo, Su’s coach Yasuhiro Sato posted a message asking fans to refrain from criticising the judges and that he and Su respect the outcome.
In an interview with snowboarding publication Whitelines, Iztok Sumatic, the Beijing Olympics head judge for snowboarding, admitted that judges missed the error. Sumatic said the trick looked clean from the camera angle they were given, the report said.
Japan’s Ayumu Hirano, who won gold in the men’s halfpipe on Friday, also questioned the judging process for snowboarding. In a news conference on Saturday, Hirano said there needed to be a “more robust system” to accurately assess the tricks.
“We want to have sound standards and I think we should look into exactly what the judges were looking at,” Hirano added. “For the athletes, they’re putting their lives on the line, they’re giving it their all. So for the riders, I think some steps need to be taken to address this issue regarding the judges,” he said.
The International Ski Federation did not respond to a request for comment.
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Now, the men’s individual – large hill ski jumping first round has begun. Updates to follow.
The figure skating, mixed ice dance, rhythm dance is also under way. Who do you like for that one? You can email me or send me a message on Twitter
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Martin Belam’s unsurpassed daily Winter Olympics briefing has just landed:
Jaclyn Narracott of Australia will be going for gold in the skeleton later today. Run three is set for 12.20pm, and run four for 1.55pm, UK time.
Run three is scheduled to start in a little over an hour, in other words.
Men’s hockey: Germany hold off that late fightback from China and take the Group A match 3-2.
Women’s hockey: Finland round off that convincing 7-1 victory against Japan and advance into the semi-finals.
Let’s just call it hockey, taking it as read that’s it’s ice hockey rather than field hockey.
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Germany now lead China 3-2 in Group A of the men’s ice hockey with a minute or so to play! Wang Taile’s goal has ensured an exciting finish.
Earlier on in Group A:
The United States men’s hockey team beat Canada, its biggest rival, 4-2 in a preliminary round game at the Beijing Olympics. Andy Miele responded to Canada’s early goal by equalising 70 seconds later and Brendan Brisson scored his second of the Olympics. The Americans are now in the driver’s seat to earn a spot in the quarter-finals of the men’s hockey tournament.
Sean Farrell also set up Ben Meyers to give him three assists and six points and goaltender Strauss Mann made 35 saves to help the US improve to make it two wins from two in the preliminary round. Beating Germany on Sunday would put the US first in the group, and could made it the top seed in the knockout round.
The boom or bust potential of the youngest team in the tournament was on full display against Canada, a bigger, stronger and more experienced opponent. The US — with 12 college players on the ice — went hit for hit with Canada and used a combination of attacking skill and bad opposing goaltending to take control of the game. (AP)
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Finland now lead Japan 7-1 in the women’s ice hockey quarter-final, clearly a subtle tribute to Nottingham Forest’s crushing win over Sheffield Wednesday in the 1994-95 Premier League.
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That was the first time I saw the replay of the mixed team snowboard cross. What a race! Brilliant from Lindsey Jacobellis, who was trailing Michela Moioli of Italy, but executed a superb overtaking move down the inside on one of the final corners, carrying plenty of speed past her opponent ... and then she grabbed over the final jump! The ghosts of 2006 officially exorcised. Wonderful stuff.
Congratulations to Jacobellis and her 40-year-old partner, Nick Baumgartner, who becomes the oldest USA gold medalist at a Winter Games.
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The Beeb are now replaying the final of the team snowboard cross event. If you don’t want to know the result, don’t click this link!
An email arrives from Kurt Perleberg, entitled: ‘Question’.
“Do you think that Mikaela Shiffrin could win the gold medal in the women’s downhill?”
Shiffrin was ninth-fastest in the first training. So I’m going to say yes, in theory she could. What do you think?
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HOCKEY UPDATE! Germany lead China 3-1 in Group A of the men’s contest. Finland are cruising into the women’s semi-finals, leading Japan 5-1.
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The ROC cross-country skiing team started strong and finished strong in the women’s four-person relay, winning another Olympic gold medal. Yulia Stupak broke away early with nine women chasing and on the next leg, Natalia Nepryaeva was chased down by Katharina Hennig of Germany. The Germans briefly took the lead on the last lap, with the ROC skier Veronika Stepanova just behind Sofie Krehl.
But Stepanova pulled away on the final climb and won in 53min 41sec. Germany took silver, 18.2sec behind. Sweden edged Finland for bronze in a sprint to the finish line. “Of course, it is a special day,” Stepanova said. “It was really tough because we have a win in the World Cup, and a lot of people know we can win, so they say, You must win. You must win.’ So I am like, OK, we need a good result,’ and I do what I can do.” (AP)
Gao Tingyu thrilled the home crowd in Beijing by becoming the first Chinese man to claim an Olympic gold medal in speed skating, winning the 500m. Gao added to the bronze medal he took in the 500m at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. He skated in the seventh of 15 pairs, setting an Olympic record of 34.32sec. The silver went to Korea’s Cha Min Kyu, whose time of 34.39sec gave him a matching medal to the silver he won four years ago in Pyeongchang. Wataru Morishige of Japan took the bronze in 34.49sec. (AP)
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Coming up later today:
Figure skating: Mixed ice dance, rhythm dance
Ski jumping: men’s individual – large hill, first round + final round
Women round robin curling: Denmark v Swizterland, Sweden v China, Great Britain v USA, ROC v Japan
Skeleton: Women’s individual, runs three and four
Men’s ice hockey: Group B – ROC v Czech Republic and Switzerland v Denmark
It’s a busy day and no mistake. Ideally I’d bring you a bit more detail on these events but there isn’t much time to really focus on any of them, such is the volume of stuff happening.
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Germany top the medal table with Norway second and USA third. No medal for Great Britain just yet. Belgium, Latvia and Poland are the nations that have mustered a solitary bronze medal, while Hungary have nabbed two.
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USA v Switzerland and Canada v Finland is the likely semi-final lineup in the women’s ice hockey. Finland now lead Japan 4-1 at the end of the second period. Canada destroyed Sweden 11-0 and USA defeated Czech Republic 4-1 yesterday ... Switzerland beat ROC 4-2 earlier.
Gold for Johannes Thingnes Boe (Norway) in the men's 10km biathlon sprint!
It’s that man again ... Norway mop up another gold medal with another accomplished performance by Boe. Quentin Fillon Maillet wins silver, 25.5sec behind, and Tarjei Boe, Johannes’s older brother grabs bronze. He is 38.9sec back.
Maxim Tsvetkov (ROC), in fourth and 40.6sec back, is the only competitor to hit 10/10 at the range so far.
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Gold for China's Gao Tingyu in the men's 500m speed skating!
It’s over! A first gold medal for China in the long track speed skating events. Gao Tingyu and his team celebrate wildly. Gao leans back and roars, holding his arms aloft, and then embarks on a lap of honour holding China’s flag, lapping up the adulation of the home crowd.
Cha Min Kyu of Korea finishes in silver medal position, +0.07sec behind, with Wataru Morishige taking bronze, +0.17sec down. Laurent Dubreuil of Canada – who skated in the final pairing – misses out on a medal by just 0.03sec.
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Men’s 500m speed skating: Wataru Morishige (Japan) clocks 34.49sec and bumps Michalski, of Poland, off the podium ... Gao is edging to gold with his Olympic record of time of 34.32sec. There is one more pairing to go.
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Men’s ice hockey: Germany lead China 3-0 in the second period.
Women’s ice hockey: Finland now lead Japan 4-1 in their quarter-final, thanks in part to a Petra Nieminen double.
Olympic record for Gao Tingyu in men's 500m speed skating!
The Chinese skater completes his 500m race in 34.32sec and shaves 0.9sec off the Olympic record! There are still several skaters to compete ... but can anyone beat that?
Min Kyu Cha (Korea) is in silver-medal position, +0.07sec, with Piotr Michalski (Poland) third, +0.20sec.
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Men’s 10km Sprint Biathlon: Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway cruises home in gold-medal position, 40 seconds up on Maxim Tsvetkov (ROC)! I say he cruises ... naturally he collapses to the floor with the sheer effort he’s just expended. That looks to be an unbeatable time, 24min 004sec. Let’s see.
Now Quentin Fillon Maillet finishes and bumps Tsvetkov down to bronze position. Fillon Maillet of France is 25sec down.
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Valieva’s coach breaks her silence on doping scandal
The Russian coach of the brilliant 15-year-old skater at the eye of a doping storm in Beijing has broken her silence to insist that Kamila Valieva is “clean and innocent”.
Eteri Tutberidze admitted that the situation surrounding her skater was “very controversial and difficult”, with the Court of Arbitration for Sport expected to rule within 24 hours whether Valieva can compete in the individual event on Tuesday after she tested positive for a banned heart drug.
Stolz (USA) goes fastest in the 500m skating final in 34.85sec.
Johannes Thingnes Boe (Norway) has assumed the lead in the men’s 10km sprint biathlon. Maxim Tsvetkov (ROC) second.
Germany lead China 2-0 in the men’s ice hockey (Group A).
Japan have pulled a goal back in the women’s ice hockey quarter-final and trail Finland 2-1.
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Simon Desthieux, the Frenchman, has forged an early lead in the men’s 10km sprint biathlon.
Over in the speed skating, Cornelius Kersten of Great Britain edges into an early lead in the 500m final. He comes around on the inside of his opponent from Kazakhstan, Ivan Arzhanikov, and clocks 35.36sec. Nice work.
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The men’s 10km sprint biathlon has just started. That’ll be fun. Philipp Nawrath of Germany leads the way but only four athletes have begun.
Speed skating-wise, they’re trying to sort the ice rink out, apparently. There is damage in the outside lane which they are having to resurface before the racing can begin. It’s the men’s 500m final, by the way.
Women’s ice hockey: Finland lead Japan 2-0 in their quarter-final, towards the end of the first period. Petra Nieminen and Viivi Vainikka with the goals.
Men’s ice hockey: In Group A, Germany and China locked at 0-0 in the first period.
Journalists receiving death threats from those angered by the suspicion surrounding Kamila Valieva after she failed a doping test. The Olympic spirit!
Sweden did of course beat Canada 7-4, not the other way around, so they top the standings in the men’s curling round robin with four wins out of four. Switzerland second: played four, won three, and Great Britain third as it stands with two wins out of three. Great Britain have two matches coming up tomorrow, against China and Denmark.
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Men’s round robin curling results: China 12-9 Italy, Sweden 7-4 Canada, Switzerland 8-6 Denmark, Norway 7-6 USA ... let me have a look at what that does to the table.
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Women’s team pursuit speed skating quarter-final: Japan seal the win and with an Olympic record of 2min 53.61sec! Canada, Netherlands and ROC all progress to the quarter-finals – Canada were just 0.36sec off Japan’s pace. The BBC commentators reckon the Netherlands’ time was disappointing (3.65sec down in third), and that they are not working together well enough as a team given their prodigious talents. A famous theme when it comes to Dutch sport, also often applied to the football team.
They are safely through, anyway, with China, Norway, Poland and Belarus failing to progress to the semi-final.
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For those of you waking up and checking the overnight news: Lindsay Jacobellis has won another gold medal for the USA! She was considered the nearly-woman of Olympic snowboarding, but any such demons have been officially banished in Beijing.
Bryan Armen Graham has the story:
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ROC win women’s 4 x 5km relay skiing gold!
Stepanova roars over the finish line and is mobbed by her teammates ... what a performance from her on that fourth leg. She blew the competition away. Germany take a tremendous silver medal, +18.2sec, Sweden edge to the bronze medal, +20.7 sec.
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Women’s 4 x 5km relay skiing: Stepanova has stormed away at the front of the race for ROC! She has overturned the lead of Germany and ROC are set for gold! She is flying to the finish!
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Latest men’s round robin curling scores: Sweden 5-4 Canada, Norway 7-5 USA, Switzerland 7-4 Denmark.
Women’s team pursuit speed skating: Canada fractionally fail to overhaul the leaders Japan: they clock 2min 53.97sec v the previous mark of 2min 53.61
Norway and Belarus are now fifth and sixth respectively. Poland and ROC still to go.
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Victoria Carl, the German, storms home at the end of the third leg, having overtaken the ROC athlete who was previously ahead! So Germany lead the way into the fourth leg ... ROC +5sec, Norway +14.7sec, Finland +18.1sec.
Sophie Krehl is tasked with bringing this home for Germany after a phenomenal third let by her teammate Carl. Veronika Stepanova is giving chase for the ROC team.
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Thanks Geoff and hello everyone. Right, what’s occurring? Cross-country skiing, as you know, plus women’s team pursuit speed skating: Japan lead their quarter-final there, beating Netherlands, China and Norway into second, third and fourth respectively as it stands ...
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Cross-county: Henning comes in to finish the second leg fastest, Nepryaeva second by 4.3 seconds, and Johaug hauls Norway into third by 22.8 seconds. For the third and fourth legs, I’ll leave you with Luke McLaughlin.
Cross-county: Hennig attacks Nepryaeva up the main hill on the course, their second time around this 2.5km loop. She passes on the outside and goes to the front. Johaug is still attacking in third, leading a chasing group.
Cross-county: Therese Johaug, the Norwegian double-gold winner at these Games, is burning up the course. Chasing the front pair with intensity. She won over 10km and in the 7.5km skiathlon, so 5km is nothing for her.
Cross-county: Nepryaeva for the ROC and Hennig for Germany are with each other, but well in front of everyone else. Their advantage 11 seconds at the moment.
Cross-country: There’s no baton in this relay, obviously, as cross-country skiers use both their hands to hold poles. There’s an approach lane, and the next skier can start moving as long as they don’t pass a certain point, and the approaching skier has to touch them in the back to constitute a handover. ROC handover first, Germany and Japan next.
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Cross-country: The women’s 5km relay has begun. We’re on the first leg, with the leaders approaching the handover.
Curling: Shuster again has the final stone and a chance to make a save, but his shot slides just a bit too long, and that leaves Norway two scoring stones. They lead the USA 6-3 now as we start the seventh end.
Curling: China leading 5-4 over Italy, Sweden 2-0 over Canada, Switzerland 4-3 over Denmark, Norway 4-3 over the USA.
Curling: One stone in the rings for Norway with three to play, sitting behind the button, and they’ve assembled a big defensive wall in front of that. Hoping to save that one in place, then drift their last stone in for a second score? Not sure. They send down another that sits in front of the button. Not sure if the US could use that top stone to knock the other one out. They attempt something else though, and it doesn’t work, striking one of the guards. But Norway botch their last stone, looking to set one more guard in place but not landing it right. It allows John Shuster to set up a series of ricochets that knocks out the middle Norway stone and lands his own stone a tiny margin closer to the button. Instead of two points for Norway, it’s one point for USA. They lead 3-2.
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Curling: The Norwegians level it up, 2-2 and playing the fourth end now.
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Curling: The USA men leading Norway 2-1 in the third end.
Lots of curling starting now for the men’s round robin. China v Italy, Canada v Sweden, Denmark v Switzerland, USA v Norway.
As for the men’s Group A match, same score, USA beating Canada 4-2.
Switzerland are through to the women's ice hockey semis
The ROC take off their tender and throw an extra skater on in a desperate bid for an equaliser, and as so often happens the other team scores an empty net goal instead, Muller firing almost the full length of the rink and right into the middle of the target. Switzerland win 4-2.
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One! Two! The Russians equalise through Luchnikova, but 30 seconds later Muller comes flying down the length of the rink, passes a couple of defenders, passes right to Stalder, skates left herself, and is there on the left side of goal when Stalder flicks a pass across for Muller to send home. It’s 3-2 to the Swiss. A couple of minutes to play.
Now the Swiss have a penalty against them for a cross-check, which is when a player uses the handle of the stick between both hands to check an opponent. Nicole Bullo is off, so the Russians have a chance with five on four on the ice.
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The Swiss go ahead! Dominque Ruegg scores to make it 2-1, and then seconds later the Russians have Polina Luchnikova sent off for two minutes to rob them of a chance at a quick counter.
Ice hockey: We’re at the start of the third period in both matches now. It’s 1-1 in the women’s quarters between the Swiss and the Russians. USA still leading Canada 3-2 in the men’s group match.
The Mikaela Shiffrin story has been one of the most compelling at these Games, and Bryan Graham wrote on it from Beijing.
Also, apparently people are mad about results in the skeleton? Each to their own I guess.
Ice hockey: Approaching the end of the second period, the USA lead Canada 3-2.
And here’s a bit more on the silver in that event for Scotty James.
Meanwhile, Sean Ingle wrote really nicely on the snowboarding.
Barney Ronay responded to the Valieva case.
And the intensely parochial response to it.
Here is the report about the positive doping test recorded by Kamila Valieva.
Given we mentioned national human rights failures, let’s start with the looming possibility of another one.
What is on today?
I’ll give you the events in GMT, given most of our readers are in the UK. Add eight hours for China, eleven hours for Australia. Subtract five hours for the USA’s east coast, eight hours for the west coast.
Currently the only event happening is the ice-hockey: a women’s quarter-final between the ROC and the Swiss, and a men’s pool match between Canada and the USA. The mixed team snowboard cross final has already been... boarded? USA took gold, Italy and Canada next in.
6am: Men’s round robin curling matches, including USA v Norway.
7:30am: Women’s 5km cross-country ski relay final.
8:40am: Women’s ice hockey quarter-final, Japan v Finland. Men’s pool match, Germany v China.
8:53am precisely: Men’s 500m speed skating final
9am: Men’s biathlon 10 kilometre sprint final.
11am: Couples ice dance - rhythm dance.
Midday: Women’s curling round robin, including GB v USA. Men’s large hill individual ski jumping.
1pm: Men’s ice hockey pool matches, ROC v Czechia and Switzerland v Denmark.
1:50pm: Women’s skeleton final.
Hello all, the weekend has begun at the Olympics, and it’s time to start off another day in the fake snow of Beijing. We have plenty of action ahead with medals up for grabs in a number of sports, and we also have a lot of news out of an increasingly controversial Games. Not that there was a lack of controversy going into it, with China’s human rights landscape under the microscope. I’ll tell you everything that’s coming up shortly.
