Winter Olympics round-up
That’s our day.
Franjo von Allman won the Super-G gold for Switzerland
Norway, unsurprisingly, won the Nordic combined event, with ski jumping and cross-country racing, via Jens Luraas Oftebro
The controversial Julia Simon won the biathlon after France’s Olympic association was accused of cooking her suspension so she could compete
USA went one-two in the women’s moguls, via Elizabeth Lemley and Jaelin Kauf
Another American gold in the 1000m speed skating, Jordan Stolz winning after a controversial collision hampered Dutch champ Joep Wennemars
Italy doubled up in the double luge, winning the men’s and women’s medals
Sweden are leading Italy 3-2 in the men’s hockey group game, the medals are about to be awarded for the ice dance, Norway is leading the overall table that you can check below, and I am out of here. Until tomorrow.
Gold for France in the ice dance!
Laurent Beaudry Fournier and Guillame Cizeron collapse in elation and relief. There was a review of one of his early moves, where he was downgraded for coming out of a turn early. They held only a fraction of a point lead over the US team from the rhythm dance section in the first round. But they score 135.64 from their final dance compared to 134.67 for the Americans, almost a point ahead, and that will do the job!
Whatever the technical breakdown, both skates were of such high quality that really it was about what style the judges liked more: the dramatic storytelling piece of Chock and Bates, or the elegance and understatement of Beaudry Fournier and Cizeron. I’d probably go for the US performance, but here it’s the French.
Silver for the Americans, bronze for Canada. Lithuania in sixth was my favourite routine. Go and find some vision of all of them, they were all wonderful athletic displays.
Lewis and Fear finish in seventh spot, by the by, a good 13 points out of the medals, so even without that stumble from Lilah Fear, they wouldn’t likely have challenged the podium. So go easy on that.
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