China’s freestyle skiing superstar Eileen Gu on Monday was beaten to gold for the second time at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics after Loic Meillard extended Switzerland’s domination of the men’s alpine skiing.
Gu was aiming to retain her big air title, one of the two golds she won four years ago when she was the darling of the Beijing Games.
The withdrawal through injury of Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud, who beat Gu into second in the slopestyle event earlier in the Games, boosted her chances, but Gu came up against inspired Canadian Megan Oldham, who pulled out all the stops to win at Livigno Snow Park.
Photo: Reuters
Gu even risked slipping out of medal position after a poor second attempt, but she recovered impressively to score 89.00 with her final effort to propel her into the silver medal position.
However, Oldham’s cleaner skiing gave her a combined score of 180.75 to finish narrowly ahead of Gu (179.00), while Flora Tabanelli won bronze for Italy.
“It feels incredible,” Oldham said. “I’m still trying to process it all. It’s been such a dream of mine.”
Photo: AFP
Gu has not competed in big air, in which competitors take off from a large ramp and perform aerial tricks, since the Beijing Games.
The Californian-born 22-year-old, who is one of the most marketable women athletes in world sport, has now won two silver medals in Italy and has a final chance of a gold when she goes in her favored event, the halfpipe, later this week.
Gu said that she felt no disappointment after collecting the fifth Olympic medal of her career.
“I’m the most decorated female free skier in history. I think that’s an answer in and of itself,” she said.
Her defeat on Monday means China has still not won a gold medal at the Milano Cortina Games, with six days of competition to go.
Meillard’s impressive victory in Bormio means the Swiss have won four of the five golds on offer in men’s skiing.
Atle Lie McGrath looked on track to redress the balance in Norway’s favor when he led the slalom after the first run, but in the second leg McGrath hit a gate high on the course, ending his hopes. Disgusted, he threw his poles away and later wandered off into the forest next to the course to reflect alone.
Instead it was Meillard who took control of the race, clocking a winning time of 1 minute, 53.61 seconds, with Austrian Fabio Gstrein winning silver and Henrik Kristoffersen rounding out the podium with a consolation bronze for Norway.
The slalom gold can be added to Franjo von Allmen’s downhill and super-G titles, while Switzerland also won the men’s team combined gold.
Meillard himself now has a full collection of medals from these Games, having also won a bronze in the giant slalom and a silver in the team combined event.
“Every medal is special,” he said. “To win the slalom in the Olympics one year after being world champ is very special.”
He hailed the current strength of Swiss skiing.
“We’re living in a bit of a golden era in Switzerland in skiing,” he said. “It’s crazy what’s been happening in the last few years, and so everyone has to enjoy it as much as possible because most likely we will not stay like that for the next 10 years.”
Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara roared back from fifth place at the start of the day to win the pair’s figure skating title.
Georgia’s Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava won silver and overnight leaders Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany took bronze.
Italy is already celebrating a best-ever medal haul at a Winter Olympics after collecting 23 medals, including eight golds, to overhaul the previous best of 20 from the Lillehammer Games in 1994.
The host nation lie second in the medals table behind Norway, with 12 golds. The US and the Netherlands both have six.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS