High winds yesterday caused havoc at the Winter Games, as International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach dismissed allegations that North Korea tried to “hijack” the competition for political gain.
Angry snowboarders lashed out at organizers after the women’s slopestyle final was held in heavy gusts, causing nearly every competitor to take a tumble.
It came after the women’s giant slalom was postponed until Thursday because of the wind.
Photo: Reuters
While the skiing was postponed, the slopestyle went ahead with near-farcical results, as athlete after athlete hit the deck, including gold medal winner Jamie Anderson of the US.
“The weather was bad and too dangerous,” bronze medalist Enni Rukajarvi of Finland said.
The International Ski Federation said that conditions were “challenging,” but defended the decision to go ahead with the event.
Photo: EPA
Heavyweights Canada won their first gold of the Games in team figure skating, while the Olympic Athletes from Russia took silver to add to their earlier short-track bronze.
The Russians, with their teenage ice starlets Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova, took their first silver of the Games after Canada in figure skating, while the US was third.
Three-time world champion Canadian Patrick Chan said determination was the added ingredient that had made the difference between Sochi silver and Korean gold.
“We had determination this time around. We saw the potential we had in Sochi and didn’t capitalize on it. This time we really want to nail it into the coffin and win this thing,” he said.
US quad boy wonder Nathan Chen will be working overtime in training after making mistakes in his short routine, while Mirai Nagasu made history by becoming the first US woman — and only the third woman overall — to land the fiendishly difficult triple axel jump at an Olympics.
Clearly overjoyed, the 24-year-old, who was skating at her second Olympics, pumped her fists and grinned as she skated off the ice.
“Maybe it’s the Japanese genetics, but lucky for me I’m American, so I’ll be the first US lady,” she said after her performance.
Japan’s figure skating superstar Yuzuru Hanyu took to the ice for his first training session — which lasted less than 15 minutes.
The defending champion, who has been recovering from ankle ligament damage, suffered a scary moment when he slipped and fell as he departed, before getting up with a wry smile.
In biathlon, Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier won the 10km pursuit for her second victory in Pyeongchang, before France’s Martin Fourcade took out the men’s 12.5km pursuit.
Following his upset eighth place in the sprint yesterday, Fourcade collected only one penalty point for shooting in blustery, freezing conditions and crossed the line with 12 seconds to spare over Sweden’s Sebastian Samuelsson.
Already France’s most decorated winter Olympian prior to the race, Fourcade brings his tally to five medals overall, including three golds.
With that tally of golds, he joins alpine skier Jean-Claude Killy with three Olympic titles, a French all-time record.
North Korea, with their high-level delegation and large, female cheering squad, have also been front and center in what has been seen as a propaganda coup for the isolated state.
However, Bach played down concerns that North Korea was manipulating the Games to suit its own agenda.
“This is about the role of sport to build bridges, to open doors and nothing more. It’s just a symbol for sport and it’s a symbol for the fact that when you go over these bridges, you can come to a positive result,” he said.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB