Today in a nutshell: Norway set a record gold medal haul as the fallout from the way Kamila Valieva’s coaching team treated her continues
Next up: There is bobsleigh, ice hockey and curling still to come today. On Saturday, Team GB will win their first medal of these Games – but will it be silver or gold?
Eileen Gu of China wrote a new chapter of Olympic history by soaring to a third medal at these Games. The 18-year-old won gold in the freeski halfpipe final, adding to her big air gold and slopestyle silver to complete an unprecedented hat-trick. Canada filled out the podium as the defending Olympic champion, Cassie Sharpe, won silver three points clear of teammate Rachael Karker.
“It has been two straight weeks of the most intense highs and lows I’ve ever experienced in my life,” said Gu, who became the youngest person to win three individual medals in the history of the Winter Olympics. “It has changed my life forever.”
In the men’s ski cross it was Switzerland who took two medals. Ryan Regez grabbed a lead early and never let go. Teammate Alex Fiva finished second and Sergey Ridzik of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) took bronze.
Sean Ingle described yesterday’s figure skating final as chaotic and cruel. A tearful Kamila Valieva slipped to fourth, Anna Shcherbakova quietly won gold and runner-up Alexandra Trusova wept and shouted at her coaches as ROC sealed a one-two. Kaori Sakamoto took bronze for Japan.
Perhaps the least edifying sight of the entire Beijing Games, after all the pressure that has been heaped on Valieva’s shoulders, was her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, barking in her ear after the 15-year-old had fallen twice during her routine. “Why did you let it go?” she demanded. “Explain to me, why. Why did you stop fighting? You let it go after that axel. Why?”
For once, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach has broken his unwritten rule of absolute diplomacy at all times, describing the scenes after the event as “chilling”. Sean Ingle has more on Bach’s words here.
Also speaking out was Sweden’s speed skating gold medallist Nils van der Poel. Back home from Beijing, he told Sportbladet: “The Olympic Village was very nice, the Chinese people I met were absolutely amazing. The Olympics is a lot, it’s a fantastic sporting event where you unite the world and nations meet. But so did Hitler before invading Poland, and so did Russia before invading Ukraine. I think it is extremely irresponsible to give it to a country that violates human rights as blatantly as the Chinese regime is doing.”
Belgium meanwhile have easily got the best speed skating uniform, but it hasn’t delivered them many medals. Mathias Voste couldn’t add today to Hanne Desmet’s bronze in the women’s 1000m earlier in the Games, finishing 27th in the men’s event. Team GB’s Cornelius Kersten came ninth as Dutchman Thomas Krol won gold.
Finland are guaranteed a silver medal at worst in the men’s ice hockey. Over the years they have had two silvers and four bronzes, but they’ve never won gold. They beat Slovakia 2-0 in today’s early semi-final, while defending champions ROC will play Sweden to decide who faces them this evening.
Things you might have missed
Unfortunately you might have missed the women’s 12.5km mass start biathlon – they bought it forward from tomorrow due to an adverse weather report and I failed to notice – my apologies. Justine Braisaz-Bouchet of France didn’t miss – she held off a twin Norwegian threat to take gold. “In the first weeks of the Olympics I did not have the equipment or the shape, I don’t know what happened, why I was so slow on the track, but I dealt with it,” Braisaz-Bouchet said afterwards. “Today I was very serene and calm.”
Nobody could hold off Johannes Thingnes Bø though, who won the men’s mass start for his fifth medal of the Games for Norway – including just the four golds. It was his nation’s 15th gold medal in Beijing, a new record for a country at a Winter Games – overtaking the 14 won by Germany and Norway in 2018, and Canada in 2010.
You might also like to read:
Not just snow: what’s the secret to Norway’s Winter Games success?
Mikaela Shiffrin’s two weeks of pain don’t detract from lifetime of greatness
The briefing’s picture of late yesterday
You are looking at Team GB’s first – and still possibly only – medallists of the Beijing Games. An 8-4 victory over the USA in last night’s curling semi-final ensures at least a silver for skip Bruce Mouat and his team. They play Sweden for gold tomorrow, while Canada picked up the bronze today.
What to look out for next
Times are all in local Beijing time. For Sydney it is +3 hours, for London it is -8 hours, for New York it is -13 hours and San Francisco is -16 hours.
Later today – Friday 18 February
8pm and 9.30pm Bobsleigh – it is the first and second heats of the two-woman bobsleigh variety
8.05pm Curling – the women’s semi-finals: Great Britain v Sweden and Japan v Switzerland – 🥌
9.10pm Ice hockey – the second semi-final between ROC and Sweden 🏒
Tomorrow – Saturday 19 February
9.30am-10.25am Freestyle skiing – the men’s freeski halfpipe final 🥇
9.30am-11.05am and 8pm-9.30pm Bobsleigh – heats in the men’s 4-man in the morning session, the 2-women’s event has the final two heats in the evening 🥇
11am-12.46pm Alpine skiing – it is the mixed team parallel event as the final set of races on the slopes. Should be great fun. 🥇
2pm Cross-country skiing – the men’s 50km mass start free 🥇
2.05pm and 8.05pm Curling – A medal for Team GB at last! Great Britain and Sweden’s men will play for gold; the women who lose this evening’s semi-finals play for their bronze in the evening 🥇🥉
3pm-5pm Speed skating – the semi-finals first and then the finals in both the men’s and women’s mass start final 🥇
5pm Biathlon – the women do the 12.5km mass start race 🥇
7pm Figure skating – the pair skating free skating 🥇
9.10pm Ice Hockey – the bronze medal play-off for the men 🥉
Full Winter Olympics schedule | Results, sport by sport | Medal table
How things stand
Here’s what the emoji table looked like at 6.15pm Beijing time …
1 🇳🇴 Norway 🥇 15 🥈 8 🥉 11 total: 34
2 🇩🇪 Germany 🥇 10 🥈 7 🥉 5 total: 22
3 🇺🇸 United States 🥇 8 🥈 8 🥉 5 total: 21
4 🇨🇳 China 🥇 8 🥈 4 🥉 2 total: 14
5= 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🥇 7 🥈 5 🥉 4 total: 16
5= 🇸🇪 Sweden 🥇 7 🥈 5 🥉 4 total: 16
7 🇨🇭 Switzerland 🥇 7 🥈 2 🥉 5 total: 14
8 🇦🇹 Austria 🥇 6 🥈 7 🥉 4 total: 17
9 ◻️ Not Russia 🥇 5* 🥈 9 🥉 13 total: 27
10 🇫🇷 France 🥇 5 🥈 7 🥉 2 total: 14
Selected others
11 🇨🇦 Canada 🥇 4 🥈 7 🥉 13 total: 24
17 🇦🇺 Australia 🥇 1 🥈 2 🥉 1 total: 4
18 🇳🇿 New Zealand 🥇 1 🥈 1 🥉 0 total: 2
- 🇬🇧 Great Britain 🥇 🥌? 🥈 🥌? 🥉 0 total: 1
[*this total includes the team figure skating gold, which the IOC has said will “not be sorted out during this Games”]
The last word
I must say I was very disturbed yesterday when I watched the competition on television. First in [Kamila Valieva’s] performance, how high the pressure must have been on her. To see her struggling on the ice. But this was not all. When afterwards I saw how she was received by her closest entourage, with what appeared to be a tremendous coldness … Rather than giving her comfort, rather than trying to help her, you could feel this chilling atmosphere, this distance. And if you were interpreting the body language, it got even worse because there were even some dismissive gestures I saw on TV. – Thomas Bach, IOC president
