Canada’s Winter Olympics came under further fire on Tuesday after a slew of problems — some man-made and others purely down to Mother Nature — threatened to take the focus away from a memorable home triumph.
Snowboarder Maelle Ricker won Canada’s second Olympic gold medal on Day Four, a first for a Canadian woman on home soil, by carving her way through a rain-soaked cross course where humiliating wipe-outs were the order of the day.
The 31-year-old’s triumph was one of the few bright spots for Winter Games hosts Canada, coming under increasing criticism for the handling of weather-wracked events and equipment mishaps such as unreliable ice resurfacing machines.
PHOTO: AFP
Malfunctions affected athletes, fans and possibly even medals. Timing errors were reported in biathlon skiing, prompting one official to call it “the blackest day ever.”
More fog and snow up at Whistler mountain forced the postponement of the men’s super combined until Sunday and a major reshuffling in the men’s Alpine skiing events.
On Cypress Mountain, the lightning rod for weather-related complaints after the warmest January on record, more than a dozen women snowboarders’ careered off a course likened to “mashed potatoes” by American favorite Lindsey Jacobellis. She fell and failed to make it into the medal final.
While Games organizers said there was little they could do about the weather, they still faced a barrage of questions over mishaps and, far worse, the death of a Georgian luger in a horrific training crash on Friday.
Adding to their woes, organizers refunded tickets for 28,000 standing freestyle and snowboard spectators worth C$1.4 million (US$1.34 million) because of unstable ground.
At Whistler’s biathlon course, it was not weather, but rather problems with the stopwatch.
A timing error in the women’s biathlon pursuit may have cost Sweden’s Anna Carin Oloffson-Zidek a medal, since she left 14 seconds too late, and a similar blunder affected the men’s race. Times were adjusted and should stand.
That overshadowed the biathlon gold medals that went to Germany’s Magdalena Neuner in the women’s race and to Sweden’s Bjorn Ferry in the men’s.
Finally, to complete this day of foul-ups a third-placed competitor in the women’s luge was forced to delay her final run because a photographer had accidentally set off a hydrant, briefly flooding part of the course.
It was that kind of day and, to an extent, has been that kind of Games.
Germany’s Tatjana Huefner took the women’s luge gold medal, Austria’s Nina Reithmayer the silver and Natalie Geisenberger of Germany the bronze.
On the other hand, although the Games has yet to witness its first world record, when the weather and human mess-ups did not interfere, fans were treated to scintillating, world-class performances throughout the day and evening.
South Korea and Germany topped the medals table with Switzerland on three golds apiece, while the US, France, Sweden and Canada all had two golds.
Host country Canada very much needed a second gold medal to avoid falling into the “one-title wonder” category.
Ricker’s win on the hills above her native Vancouver was sweet revenge for her compatriot Mike Robertson, who was edged out by Seth Wescott of the US for gold the day before.
“I’m so overwhelmed, I can’t even believe it,” Ricker said after winning before a wildly happy Canadian crowd. “The way my day started ... and the way it all went through.”
She had fallen in her opening qualifier, but took the opportunity on her second run to progress on her route to eventual gold.
The ice hockey competition started to heat up, and not only because of what was happening on the rink.
The International Olympic Committee told US goalkeeper Ryan Miller to take “Miller Time” off his mask since it is a popular beer slogan and his teammate Jonathan Quick to remove a “Support Our Troops” slogan for contravening Olympic rules on political propaganda.
Miller moved past the controversy and helped his team to a 3-1 win over Switzerland. Canada crushed Norway 8-0. Russia, their major rivals for gold, also made short work of Latvia, winning 8-2.
Canada also looked like they meant serious business in the men’s curling competition, which is more than many casual observers would have said of the Norwegian team they opposed in their opening encounter. The visitors took to the ice in trousers of eccentric design — a harlequin pattern of red, white and blue, drawing stifled sniggers and smirks from competitors and fans alike.
Once the action started, though, the Norwegians showed they were no clowns on ice and pushed Canada hard before succumbing 7-6, before they beat the US 6-5. Canada also beat Germany 9-4.
Five-time champion Novak Djokovic on Saturday tumbled out of the Indian Wells ATP Masters, falling in his first match to lucky loser Botic van de Zandschulp as two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz advanced. “No excuses for a poor performance,” 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic said after 37 unforced errors in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 defeat. “It doesn’t feel great when you play this way on the court,” he said. “But congratulations to my opponent — just a bad day in the office, I guess, for me.” Djokovic is just the latest in Van de Zandschulp’s string of superstar victims. He
Taiwanese badminton player Lin Chun-yi had to settle for silver in the men’s singles at the Orleans Masters in France on Sunday after losing in the final to his French opponent. The 25-year-old Lin, ranked world No. 14, lost to Alex Lanier 13-21, 18-21 in a match that lasted 42 minutes at the Palais des Sports arena. It was the first time that the two players were facing each other in their professional careers. In the opener, Lin was slow to warm up, which gave the 20-year-old Lanier an opportunity to take an early lead with seven consecutive points. Despite
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
Taiwan’s Lin Chun-yi on Wednesday inflicted a first-round defeat on former badminton world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen at the All England Open. Lin came out of top after a back-and-forth first game before Axelsen dominated the second, but the Dane was not able to keep that form in the decider as Lin reeled off six points in a row on the way to a 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 victory. “If I don’t play my best, everyone can win against me,” said Axelsen, the world No. 4. “Today’s opponent played a fantastic game; it was disappointing, but that is how it is.” “I just tried
RSS