The 15-year-old Alina Zagitova yesterday stole the show in figure skating, as US skier Lindsey Vonn took bronze in her final Olympic downhill and Norway’s Marit Bjoergen became the most successful athlete in Winter Games history.
Zagitova was breathtaking in the Russian-dominated short program, breaking the world record set just minutes earlier by her teammate, 18-year-old Evgenia Medvedeva.
It put the Russian starlets on top of the standings ahead of tomorrow’s free skate, where Zagitova will attempt to become the youngest women’s singles figure skating champion since Tara Lipinski in 1998.
Photo: Reuters
They also look set to win the first gold of the Games for the Olympic Athletes from Russia.
“We are friends, we are young girls, we can talk about anything with each other,” said Medvedeva, who like Zagitova is making her Olympic debut.
“But on the ice, we must fight. I feel like it’s a little war, when you skate you are alone,” said the double world champion.
Vonn, 33, was aiming for a second downhill title in her final Olympics, but it was not to be as she finished third behind Italy’s Sofia Goggia and Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway.
However, the 2010 winner was delighted to reach the podium, becoming alpine skiing’s oldest female medalist after a series of injuries that threatened to wreck her career and ruled her out of Sochi in 2014.
“If you think what’s happened over the last eight years and what I’ve been through to get here, I gave it all and to come away with a medal is a dream come true,” Vonn said.
“You’ve got to put things into perspective. Of course, I would have loved a gold medal, but, honestly, this is amazing and I’m so proud,” she added.
Goggia described herself as a “samurai” after timing 1 minute, 39.22 seconds for a first ever downhill title for the Italian women’s team.
“Usually, I’m really chaotic, but I wanted to take in every little detail, every particular in the morning. I believed in myself -— and then what counts. I didn’t take any risks. I just used my brain because I have one sometimes and I use it,” she said.
Bjoergen won a total of 14 Olympic medals when she took bronze in cross-country skiing’s women’s team sprint, outstripping compatriot Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, who has 13 in the biathlon.
Bjoergen, 37, is also the second most successful woman at either the Summer or Winter Games, trailing only Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina with 18 medals.
“It’s hard to understand, actually,” Bjoergen said. “I think I’ll need to have time to myself and look behind me and look how I’ve been able to do this. It’s still hard to understand it when I’m standing here.”
There was disappointment for the US when their men’s ice hockey team, missing NHL players after a row over money, crashed out 3-2 in the quarter-finals against the Czech Republic, who are to face the Olympic Athletes from Russia in the semi-finals on Friday.
In women’s hockey, Finland defeated the Russians 3-2 to take the bronze medal.
Petra Nieminen put Finland on top just 2 minutes, 23 seconds into the game and Susanna Tapani doubled the lead 10 seconds into the second period.
Olga Sosina answered for the Russians, but Linda Valimaki responded for Finland later in the second period.
Lyudmila Belyakova’s power-play goal with 13 minutes, 57 seconds remaining pulled the Russians within the final margin, but they could not find an equalizer.
The Finns matched their best Olympic women’s hockey finish, having also taken bronze in 1998 and 2010. Russia have never taken a medal in the event.
Four-time defending champion Canada and the US meet today for gold.
In other action, Russian skier Sergey Ridzik recovered from a crash in the ski cross final to take bronze, behind Canada’s Bredy Leman and Marc Bischofberger of Switzerland.
Ridzik went down early in the race, but he got up, clambered to the top of a slope and restarted his run, coming in behind the front two as Canada’s Kevin Drury failed to finish.
The competition, where four skiers race each other down a twisting track featuring a number of jumps, was marred by a series of heavy falls.
France’s Terence Tchiknavorian fractured his tibia and was to undergo surgery later yesterday, while Canadian racer Chris Del Bosco was also taken to hospital after a sickening wipe-out.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but