Snowboard: Patrick Burgener of Brazil crashes out on his second run, as does Campbell Melville Ives of NZ. They’re 8th and 12th effectively. Now here comes Scotty James. The cab triple cork 1440 he lands to perfection, so much elevation on that first trick, but his second one he completes without nailing the landing, and doesn’t have the momentum going into his third elevation to try a trick there. Bails out and coasts down the rest of the run, but he’s through on the strength of his first run anyway.
Snowboard: A lot of fondness in Australia at the moment for Valentino Guseli, and he’ll do that no harm with a great second run. Some big tricks in there, including a triple cork cab 14, and he lands the lot. Doesn’t quite improve on his 86.75 from his first run, probably because a couple of the landings were a bit shaky, but he’s well placed.
Snowboard: If you’re ever inclined to be sniffy about snowboard sports, get over it, this is such spectacular viewing. I will not claim the slightest expertise but the halfpipe seems more advanced today than at previous Games. A couple of huge second runs from the Japanese riders Hirano and Totsuka who both improve on their first scores.
Barbieri doesn’t, he crashes out, but qualifying only takes your score from your best run, so he’s still in a good spot with an 88 first up.
Snowboard: Right! We’ve neglected the men’s halfpipe so far, given it was qualification time on the first run while there were medals being decided elsewhere. But some good news for Australians, Scotty James is top of the scores after that first run has been completed for all competitors. Yamada Ryusei is second, Alessandro Barbieri third, and the other Aussie, Valentino Guseli, lurking in fourth. There’ll be a second run, then the final happens on Saturday.
It’s an Italian double in the double luge!
Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer did it in the women’s event not long ago, and now Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner have done it in the men’s, but in very different styles. The women had the best first-run time and had to nail the last run in the competition. The men came back from third place after the first run, a remarkable result given how these competitions tend to go. They clocked a competitive time, then watched as first the Austrians, then Mueller and Haugsjaa for the USA, couldn’t match them. Nothing dramatic in those last two, just not the perfect run when it was time.
The Americans drop all the way back to sixth. And the second German team that improved their position, Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, steal into third for bronze.
Luge: The Italians do their bit, Rieder and Kainzwaldner going off at the bottom of the course after a good run that means they can’t miss a bronze medal. Then the Austrians, Steu and Kindl… and they don’t nail their run! No major errors, no collisions, but they’re just a touch too slow, can’t get momentum, and now the Italians are guaranteed silver! The Austrians will have to settle for bronze. Assuming the USA team do their bit…
Luge: Results largely going as expected in the men’s doubles, though the fifth-ranked German team have hopped up into fourth spot, assuming the top three don’t mess up.
Figure skating: I would love to see a session of ice dance done on vibes-based judging rather than technical. Just watched the full Harris and Chan routine back, and to an untrained eye, they were perfect. The emotion of it, the aesthetics. A far lovelier thing than the cheesy 90s music demanded by the first round: they went Clair de Lune, twinkling piano, there was a softness to the routine, a gentleness along with the athletic skill. Go and find it if you can, that was beautiful.
For now, they go to top spot with a 108.64, though with only four pairs having danced, they will be passed as we go. Still, reward for their work, they can proud.
So that is Jordan Stoltz’s night. An anti-climactic ending for him, he half celebrated earlier but couldn’t fully go for it, and now that his gold is confirmed he’s just getting his kit together, sorting his laces, and getting ready to exit the rink. No explosion of joy, but he’ll have his moment on the podium soon enough and that’s when it can hit home.
Jenning de Boo wins silver for the Dutch, and Ning Zhongyan bronze for China.
Speed skating: The loudest roar of the night, perhaps, as he takes off. A big Dutch contingent in the stands. He’s close in touch on the first split, but can he keep it going? Probably not… he’s a second outside gold on the second timing point, and that slips to 2.18 seconds by the time he hits the line. It was never likely to happen, racing solo so soon after spending all of that energy earlier, muscles tired, lactic acid and all the rest. He finishes a little slower than his 1:07:58 from his first attempt, so that will go down as his recorded time, leaving him fifth.
Speed skating: Wennemars is on the start line…
Luge: The men’s doubles final run is happening two, while we wait for this reskate in the men’s 1000m race. A few minutes away, as Wennemars gets ready.
Figure skating: The ice dance final round is on now, the free dance part of the program, and there’s a gorgeous routine from the Swedish pair early, Milla Ruud Reitan and Nikolaj Majorov with a passionately romantic number. Seems to be a Romeo and Juliet theme there? Now the Australians are up, Holly Harris and Jason Chan.
Speed skating: Last pair, and Damian Zurek can’t make it stick! He’s ahead of the gold-medal time with 400 metres to go, but he’s a 500-metres specialist, and his last burst to the finish isn’t enough. He drops back past the whole podium, finishing a second outside the top time.
But there will be a re-skate! Joep Wennemars is currently in fifth spot, but he’s been afford a re-skate based on being impeded earlier. How likely is it that he can challenge on that basis? Surely he would be physically and emotionally spent after his flying run earlier? He finished 1.3 seconds outside the gold medal spot, the collision probably didn’t cost him that much time, but he was only 0.22 seconds from the bronze time and 0.8 seconds from silver.
He’s the reigning world champion. He’ll have to race solo, too, which generally means a slower time. So don’t expect this to change the result, but then what do we know?
Speed skating: New Olympic record! Both skaters in this pair beat the old mark, in fact. But it’s Jordan Stoltz of the USA who holds it for now. He looks beaten by Jenning de Boo with a lap to go, then surges back to take the pair and take the lead. Both under 1:07.
Speed skating: Wennemars loses top spot immediately after the next pair, with another Chinese skater Ning Zhongyan pipping him by two tenths of a second. Four skaters to go.
Speed skating: Back underway in the men’s 1000m after a break to reset the ice, and there’s drama on the track for the Dutch team. Not for their racer Kjeld Nuis, who gets past di Stefano to the top of the rankings in the first pair, but for their world champion Joep Wennemars in the second pair. As they come around for the final transition, Chinese skater Lian Ziwen makes a mess of it. Comes out wide, gets in the way of Wennemars, then doesn’t follow through to clear out of the way. There’s a stumble as Wennemars tries to avoid a collision, then a clip of skates as the Dutchman tries to get around. They both manage to stay upright, and Wennemars eventually charges past and hammers to the line in what is still the fastest time of the night, but it’s 1:07:58 and that will be caught by others to come. The obstruction might have cost him a second overall, which makes all the difference. He loses his cool after the race, gesturing angrily at Lian, who is disqualified for the error as well, and looks emotional himself, and a little confused as to how that all played out. The other skater was behind him when the mistake was made.
Hockey: Slovakia have beaten Finland 4-1 in the end, in the men’s group match.
They hold their nerve. Perfect through the chicane, home chute advantage, and there is another gold medal for the home side. They’re getting mobbed! The whole support team pours out, wrapped up in white padded shell suits. Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer have done it, bettering the second time recorded by the Germans just as they bettered the first time. Neither team was quite as fast as their own first run, but in the second it’s about doing what needs to be done to protect the standings.
Italy gold, Germany silver, Austria bronze, and the Latvians didn’t see the errors they were hoping for to swoop into a medal spot.
Luge: Eitbgerger and Matschina for Germany, only trailing top spot by about a tenth of a second, have their chance. A slight problem at the top of the course costs a fraction of their speed. They finish with a good time, but just outside their first run. Can the Italians nail the final run?
Luge: Egle and Kipp, for Austria, go third last, and they can’t go lower than bronze as they clock 53.350, not quite as fast as their first run but no mistakes. They’re pumped.
Luge: Domowicz and Piwkowska, the Polish pair, have jumped themselves up the list a couple of spots. The China and Ukraine teams coming after them can’t beat their combined time. So Poland third for now, as Latvia and USA skip ahead, though the fastest teams are to come.
Curling: A couple of emails that I missed on that curling win yesterday. Tony Mason: “What a fantastic and delightful victory jump by the Swedes in the curling and then humbly congratulating the Americans. Beautiful stuff. Sweden have had a great day.”
Beau Dure: “Before the competition started, everyone would’ve been happy with silver. But Korey and Cory ended with some tactical mistakes, even with their coach involved. Hate to lose on correctable errors. Too much risk when it would’ve been perfectly fine to give up 1 and take the hammer in the extra end.”
Now to put all that behind everyone, for now, and onto the next medal attempt.
Curling: A bunch of games about to get underway in the men’s round robin: Sweden and Italy, Canada and Germany, Czechia and the US, China and Great Britain. These are four-man competing teams with a fifth alternate player.
Rasmus Wranå, gold medallist in the mixed doubles only yesterday, now has to get back in the game for the Swedes. Korey Dropkin who won silver for US is not in the men’s team, though. Bruce Mouat, who missed bronze for GB, will skipper the Brits.
Luge: The women’s doubles has started, second run, meaning this is where the medals will be decided. The young Canadian pair, Allan and Podulsky, improve on their first run by a full two seconds. That puts them ahead of the Slovakians, then the Romanians pass to the top. Results going on start order so far, now Poland go top. Four teams out of 11 to go, changing the order is basically a matter of whether someone makes a mistake.
Speed skating: For now, di Stefano holds onto top spot, with Klein and Voste (Germany and Belgium) falling short of his time. It’s a photo finish, with four thousands of a second putting the German ahead. Plenty of skaters to go, though.
Hockey: Slovakia have kicked ahead in the third period of their men’s group game, Dvorsky and Slafkovsky scoring in quick time to go ahead of Finland 3-1.
Speed skating: Something for the Italians now, as Daniele di Stefano just pips Laurent Dubreil of Canada on the line. Dubreil is more a sprinter, Dubreil typically does longer distances, and Dubreil was absolutely hammering down the back straight but running out of puff, while di Stefano outlasted him and caught him on the line.
Speed skating: Betti’s time soon starts to get bumped down the list. Koo-Kyung Min blasts to the top for Korea, with 1:08:53, leaving his Norwegian opponent Bjorn Magnussen back in third place.
Speed skating: It’s time for the men’s 1000 metres. Francesco Betti goes first, and sets a track record, but the expectation is that this will soon be beaten. This is a strange one, because normally speed skating happens in pairs, even though the standings are decided by overall time. But Betti doesn’t have a pair partner, he has to race on his own. Not sure if that was an injury scratching or something else, the commentary won’t actually say why. (Email to let me know.) But it’s a disadvantage because on the turns, the skaters use each other as cover to catch a draft and be more aerodynamic.
Luge: I’ve been especially enjoying how janky the luge course is, just a bunch of cheap pine panelling wherever the ice ends, walls at apparently random height. Someone’s uncle knew a guy who knocked it together in a weekend. The first run is now complete for the men’s doubles, and the Americans are on top in a track record of 52.482. Mueller and Haugsjaa are a couple of youngsters, 21 years old.
The Austrians, Steu and Wolfgang, are second, while Reider and Kainzwaldner are another Italian success story in third. Three runs to go, and the times for all four runs get combined. The two German teams are fourth and fifth.
Good day, all. A bit of pointless push and shove between the Finns and the Slovakians as the second period comes to an end, scores tied up at 1-1. That’s the kind of energy with which I’m entering the blog today.
Time for me to hand over to Geoff Lemon, with the Men’s double luge in full flight and things still level in the ice hockey. Thanks for your company – bye!
An email! Julia Simon’s gold medal in the biathlon has irked Chris Page. “I can’t escape the feeling that being a potential gold medal prospect had something to do with the French Olympic Committee looking the other way and allowing Julia Simon to be selected, when an ordinary French citizen would probably be in prison for the theft and fraud she committed.”
Chris, I couldn’t possibly comment.
Men’s luge doubles: They don’t hang about. First the Italian pairing of Nagler and Malleier, who can’t catch the Austrian pair after a little wobble and a foot on the ice. Then the bookies’ favourites, the Bayern Express. They hurtle away, but its a wobbbly racing line, and they too finish behind the Steu and Kindl.
Men’s Luge doubles: Austria’s duo of Steu and Kindl go first and immediately nab the track record. “It wasn’t pretty,” says the commentator, “but it was fast.”
Men’s Luge doubles: Back to the sliding centre, where the leading men prepare for their first run. The Bayern Express of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt are after a fourth successive gold in this event. Is there a world where Bayern Express meets Burnley Express?
Men’s Ice hockey: Finland deservedly draw level in Milan: from a rattle of sticks, a backhand across the ice by Tolvanen outwitting the keeper.
Shortly afterwards, the stripey-shirted refs have to get involved to break up a face-off.
Men’s Ice hockey: It’s still 1-0 to Slovakia at the Milano Santagiulia Arena, despite Finland having more than three times the number of shots on goal.
The Guardian
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