This time Ayumu Hirano would not be denied. Not by the judges. Not even by the greatest snowboarder in history. Instead, amid the most intense pressure and anger, the 23-year-old from Japan found the halfpipe equivalent of the holy grail.
And as Hirano stood on the podium with his gold medal there was a sense of something else too. That a torch was being passed from one generation to the next, as if by osmosis, from Shaun White to Hirano: from the goat to the new breed of bucks pushing at the boundaries like the American once did.
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Canada go 11-0 up against Sweden in the final period in the women’s ice hockey! That’s Canada beating Sweden 11-0.
That match is definitely over (although they have seven minutes to play) and so is today’s blog ... See you tomorrow for much, much more.
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