Today in a nutshell: Nathan Chen and Chloe Kim had a golden day for the US, but the delay in presenting medals in the team figure skating event continues to tarnish the Beijing Games
Next up: The US face the hosts in the men’s ice hockey, Great Britain’s women seek to get their curling campaign back on track, and tomorrow Ester Ledecká goes for a double-double
Nathan Chen, the world’s most dominant skater, roared to the Olympic men’s title, winning for the US by more than 22 points after a mesmerising long programme that included five quadruple jumps and a pair of triples. He had arrived in Pyeongchang in 2018 as joint-favourite, then had a torrid time on the ice, eventually finishing fifth. Chen has gently pushed back on the redemption narrative throughout the run-up to Beijing, preferring to frame his journey in terms of personal fulfilment. Japanese rivals Yuma Kagiyama and Shoma Uno took silver and bronze, respectively.
The figure skating remains mired in controversy. The medal ceremony for the team event has still not taken place amid a legal wrangle. The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) are competing in Beijing under that banner due to Wada sanctions for state-sponsored doping that were halved by the court of arbitration for sport in December 2020. Their figure skating team were originally placed first. The US finished second, Japan third, Canada fourth.
The IOC has refused to comment on whether the athlete at the centre of a doping controversy at Beijing 2022 is 15-year-old Russian figure skater, Kamila Valieva, despite the teenager being named in multiple reports around the world. Sean Ingle has more for us directly from Beijing.
Finland took silver and bronze in the women’s 10km cross-country skiing classic race with Kerttu Niskanen second and Krista Pärmäkoski in third. Convicted doper Therese Johaug of Norway won the first gold of these Games, and she took a second in this event by just 0.4 seconds.
American snowboarder Chloe Kim has become the first woman to successfully defend the Olympic halfpipe title. She set the bar with a huge first run, which included two 1080s and three spins. She fell on her subsequent runs while trying to debut the 1260 – three and a half revolutions in the air – but her opening foray was more than enough to secure the gold over Queralt Castellet of Spain and Sena Tomita of Japan.
Austrian skier Johannes Strolz won the Olympic gold medal in the Alpine combined race, following in the ski-tracks of his father. The first father-son duo to clinch Olympic gold in the same Alpine skiing event, Strolz said: “It’s really a great moment for me and I’m so thankful that I finally can live my dream and have this gold medal in my hands like my father did in 1988 in Calgary and, yeah, just a dream come true.”
Things you might have missed
Sweden’s men beat Latvia 3-2 in the men’s ice hockey. Last night’s late match saw Denmark beat Czech Republic 2-1.
The US ski team says Mikaela Shiffrin will compete in the super-G after all. Shiffrin failed to finish either the giant slalom or slalom, missing a gate in each within seconds of starting each time, and yesterday hinted that she might not compete any further.
Germany continued their traditional luge domination with a one-two in the doubles event, and having complained about the judging the other day, South Korea’s Hwang Dae-heon claimed his country’s first gold of these Games in the men’s 1,500m short track.
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The briefing’s picture of the day
I must confess the highlight for me of the TV coverage of the Games so far was being on-board with Lucas Eguibar’s helmetcam live during the small final of the men’s snowboard cross as Tommaso Leoni crashed out in front of him and took Eguibar out. Nobody was hurt.
The gold went to Austria’s Alessandro Haemmerle in a photo-finish after Canada’s Eliot Grondin came agonisingly short in a photo-finish as he fell crossing the line.
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 – Thursday 10 February
7.50pm Freestyle skiing – the second and final run in the mixed team aerials 🥇
8pm Speed skating – women’s 5,000m competition 🥇
8.05pm Curling – women’s round-robin matches including Team GB v Sweden 🥌
9.10pm Ice hockey – the US face China, while Canada play Germany, both in Group A of the men’s competition 🏒
9.30pm Luge – the team relay competition promises exciting and dangerous chaos 🥇
Tomorrow – Friday 11 February
9.05am and 2.05pm and 8.05pm Curling – just take it as read that there is men’s and women’s curling all day long every day now 🥌
9.30am Snowboard – there will be huge interest in the men’s halfpipe with Shaun White looking for one more gold in his last Olympics 🥇
9.30-11.00am and 8.20pm-9.55pm Skeleton – the morning sees two heats for the women, which will include Britain’s Pyeongchang bronze medallist Laura Deas. The evening features the last two runs for the men and the medals 🥇
11am Alpine skiing – Ester Ledecká attempts to retain her women’s Super-G title for an historic double-double 🥇
12.10pm and 4.40pm and 9.10pm Ice hockey – there are men’s preliminaries but the main attraction is the US v Czech Republic in the women’s play-off quarter-finals at 12.10pm. Canada’s women face Sweden at the same stage in the late session 🏒
3pm Cross-country skiing – the men’s 15km classic🥇
4pm Speed skating – it is the long distance of the speed skating. The men race over 10,000m and I can’t wait 🥇
5pm Biathlon – it is the turn of the women to do the 7.5km sprint 🥇
7pm–8.43pm Short track – the session culminates in the women’s 1,000 metres final 🥇
Full Winter Olympics schedule | Results, sport by sport | Medal table
How things stand
Here’s what the emoji table looked like at 6pm Beijing time …
1 🇳🇴 Norway 🥇 5 🥈 3 🥉 4 total: 12
2 🇩🇪 Germany 🥇 5 🥈 3 🥉 0 total: 8
3 🇸🇪 Sweden 🥇 4 🥈 1 🥉 2 total: 7
4 🇦🇹 Austria 🥇 4 🥈 4 🥉 4 total: 12
5 🇺🇸 United States 🥇 3 🥈 5 🥉 1 total: 9
6 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🥇 3 🥈 3 🥉 1 total: 7
7 🇨🇳 China 🥇 3 🥈 2 🥉 0 total: 5
8 🇮🇹 Italy 🥇 2🥈 4 🥉 2 total: 8
9 ◻️ Not Russia 🥇 2* 🥈 3 🥉 6 total: 11
10 🇸🇮 Slovenia 🥇 2 🥈 1 🥉 2 total: 5
11 🇫🇷 France 🥇 1 🥈 5 🥉 0 total: 6
12 🇨🇦 Canada 🥇 1 🥈 3 🥉 6 total: 10
[*The ‘Not Russia’ total includes the team figure skating gold which is yet to be formally presented]
I got so excited at the end of the Nordic combined race yesterday that I quickly updated the emoji table and botched it, incorrectly placing Germany above Norway. I would extend my apologies to Norway, but their curling team immediately came out to play in disgracefully boring trousers so let us just call it evens. Do drop me a line with your thoughts on the Games at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
The last word
The whole credibility of the Olympic Movement and the Paralympic Movement stands teetering on the edge of us saying that we really believe and live the values that we say we stand for” – Susanne Lyons, chair of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee Board of Directors, responds to the delay in awarding the team figure skating medals.
