2018 Winter Olympics: Shiffrin misses out on slalom medal
These are the highlights as events continue in PyeongChang.
If you are planning on watching the events as they are broadcast stateside, you may want to avoid the following. Some have already been aired live.
No medal for Shiffrin
Frida Hansdotter of Sweden held off Mikaela Shiffrin and the rest of a tightly bunched field to win the Olympic slalom title Friday.
Shiffrin, who grew up in Lyme, New Hampshire and attended Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont, wound up fourth. The American standout won the Olympic slalom title four years ago in Sochi when she was only 18.
Donato powers US to victory
Forward Ryan Donato scored two power-play goals to lead the United States to a 2-1 win over Slovakia Friday. It's the first win of the tournament for Team USA, and a nice bounce-back win after a 3-2 overtime loss to Slovenia on Wednesday.
Donato, a second round pick of the Boston Bruins in the 2014 NHL draft, is one of three college players on Team USA's roster. In 23 games this season at Harvard University, Donato has scored 21 goals.
Hanyu wins short program, American Chen struggles
Defending champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan has won the Olympic men’s short program with a games-record 111.68 points.
Spain’s Javier Fernandez was second at 107.58. Hanyu’s countryman Shoma Uno was third at 104.17, followed by China’s Jin Boyang at 103.32.
Hanyu missed two months of training with an ankle injury and only recently returned to full practices. No matter, as he hit every element of a highly difficult program with precision and grace.
Two-time U.S. champion Nathan Chen, a pre-games favorite, missed on all his jumps, plummeting to 17th place with a tentative and passionless showing.
Sublime sliders
Germany won the team relay in luge, with Natalie Geisenberger winning her fifth Olympic medal in the process. She is the first Olympian with four golds in luge. The U.S. finished fourth in the relay, missing out on bronze by a tenth of a second.
Missed shots lead to surprising win
France's Martin Fourcade, the world's top-ranked biathlete, frustratingly missed two shots, allowing Norway's Johannes Thingnes Boe to win his first gold medal. Fourcade rolled his eyes after his missed shots led to a two-minute penalty and a fifth-place finish.
Speedster sets a record
Canadian skater Ted-Jan Bloeman took the 10,000 meters with a in a record time of 12 minutes, 39.77 seconds. The Netherlands-born gold medalist edged defending champ Jorrit Bergsma by a little more than 2 seconds, and Italy's Nicola Tumolero won bronze.
An emotional win
Norway cross-country skier Ragnhild Haga won her first career gold medal, winning the women's 10-kilometer freestyle by more than 20 seconds. An emotional Haga held her face and sat on the ground as she reacted to the triumph. Sweden's Charlotte Kala took silver, and Norway's Mart Bjoergen and Finland's Krista Parmakoski tied for third. Bjoergen now has 12 career medals, one less that the Olympic record.
Swede Oeberg pulls off upset in Olympic biathlon
Sweden’s Hanna Oeberg has pulled off a major upset in the women’s 15-kilometer biathlon at the Pyeongchang Olympics, beating out two-time gold medalist Laura Dahlmeier to capture the gold medal.
Oeberg entered the race ranked 42nd in the World Cup standings in the individual event. She was in tears Thursday after winning her first medal in her first Olympic Games by hitting all 20 shots.
US women come close, but not close enough
Canada goaltender Genevieve Lacasse made 44 saves -- including a clutch stop on Team USA's Hilary Knight with 90 seconds left -- to help her team to a 2-1 win. The victory clinches the top spot in pool play for Canada, with the US second and the Olympic Athletes from Russia third.
Canada has won the past five gold medals, and the Americans are looking for their first since 1998. The nations are the only two to have ever won gold at the Olympics.
Shiffrin is in 4th position after 1st slalom run
Mikaela Shiffrin is in fourth position after her opening run of the slalom and remains within striking distance to capture a second straight gold medal at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
The 22-year-old American turned in a steady performance and sits 0.48 seconds behind leader Wendy Holdener of Switzerland heading into the final run Thursday afternoon. There are seven racers all within a second of Holdener.
Shiffrin won the giant slalom on Thursday. She won the slalom four years ago at the Sochi Games.
South Korea’s Yun wins Olympic gold in skeleton
Happy new year, Yun Sungbin.
On a national holiday in Korea — the start of a lunar new year — Yun became a national hero, winning gold in the men’s skeleton event at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
His four-run time of 3 minutes, 20.55 seconds was 1.63 seconds ahead of silver medalist Nikita Tregubov of Russia. It was the biggest victory margin in Olympic skeleton, topping 1948, when Italy’s Nino Bibbia topped Jack Heaton of the U.S. by 1.4 seconds in a six-heat race.
Dom Parsons of Britain was third.
For the U.S., 2014 Olympic bronze medalist Matt Antoine was 11th and three-time Olympian John Daly was 16th.
Mayer of Austria wins men’s Olympic super-G
Matthias Mayer of Austria has won the Olympic men’s super-G, breaking Norway’s 16-year grip on the title.
Mayer won the speed race by 0.13 seconds ahead of Beat Feuz of Switzerland, who added the silver medal to his bronze from downhill on Thursday.
Defending champion Kjetil Jansrud of Norway was third, 0.18 behind Mayer. It’s Jansrud’s fifth career Olympic medal after getting downhill silver.
Norway had won the past four Olympic men’s super-G races, since the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
Aksel Lund Svindal, the 2010 Olympic champion in super-G, placed fifth the day after taking Mayer’s downhill title.
It’s been an interesting week for Mayer. He crashed into a course-side television cameraman Tuesday in the slalom leg of the combined event.
Low-ranked skiers in the 62-racer lineup are yet to start.
Moioli wins snowboardcross; Jacobellis shut out
Italy’s Michela Moioli has won the gold medal in Olympic women’s snowboardcross. She overtook American Lindsey Jacobellis about halfway down the course, then beat the rest of the field to the finish line.
Jacobellis finished fourth, continuing her hard-luck career at the Olympics. The world’s most decorated rider, Jacobellis has failed to return to the podium since settling for silver after an ill-advised jump in 2006 while she was clear in the lead.
Julia Pereira de Sousa Mablieau of France took silver this time, and defending champion Eva Samkova of the Czech Republic got clipped from behind and skidded across the line for bronze.
Jacobellis had about a two-body-length lead on the field when Moioli overtook her on a curve. Samkova drafted behind and pushed Jacobellis out to the edge of the course and, from there, she couldn’t gain any ground.