On Sunday all this will all be over: but before Beijing 2022 comes to a close, Great Britain have a shot at not one but two gold medals, in the women’s and men’s curling.
Thanks for reading and emailing today, and see you soon for more.
ROC beat Sweden to advance into the men's hockey final!
Russian joy, Swedish woe. Arseni Gritsyuk nets the decisive goal at sudden death in the shootout.
ROC will go to the final and play Finland. At the end of the shootout the match ends 4-3 but it goes in the book as a 2-1 win for ROC. Sweden will play Slovakia for a bronze medal. They look devastated. But they still have a medal to play for.
Updated
Today’s Olympics pieces:
Men’s ice hockey: It remains 1-1 at the end of overtime so we move on to what Barry Davies used to call ‘the dreaded penalty competition’.
In the men’s ice hockey semi-final, Sweden and the ROC team were locked at 1-1 after three periods, and they have now gone into overtime.
Anton Slepyshev put ROC ahead in the second period, before Anton Lander levelled it up for Sweden in the third.
Updated
Report!
“None of us put our heads down, we all rallied round each other,” says Jennifer Dodds. “That is such an important part of curling, supporting your teammates ... I think we’ve done that so well with this [team of] five.”
Updated
Vicky Wright is asked how she felt after the first end, when Sweden had streaked into a 4-0 lead. “I was like right, here we go, buckle up. I fully believed in all of us. I knew we could pull it out of the bag. When you do down, you’ve just got to go for it, and we did. We stuck to our processes, made a lot of shots, and put the pressure on Sweden. And we got there in the end.”
“When you get to that final, no one likes going away with the silver medal, so believe you me, we’re going to fight hard for the gold now,” says Muirhead.
Updated
Twitter joy for Team Muirhead:
WE ARE GOING TO THE OLYMPIC FINAL!!!!!@TeamGB @Olympics @BritishCurling | #TeamGB #Curling #Beijing2022 pic.twitter.com/2Y4g9OJ3km
— Team Muirhead (@Team_Muirhead) February 18, 2022
Eve Muirhead speaks to the BBC: “Third time lucky. I’ve lost two semi-finals before and I was desperate for it because these moments, and these opportunities, don’t come round very often ... I really, really was so, so proud of these girls. All week we’ve dug so deep ... I’m pretty speechless right now, but what a moment. It sounds amazing to say we are in an Olympic final.”
Updated
Eve Muirhead staged a stunning fightback to steer Great Britain’s women’s curling team into the Olympic final in Beijing with a thrilling 12-11 win over the defending champions Sweden. Muirhead recovered from a nightmare start when she conceded four in the first end to move to the brink of victory with a magical final stone of the ninth that scored four of her own.
That thrust Britain into the lead for the first time in the match, turning an 8-7 deficit into an 11-8 advantage, only for Swedish skip Anna Hasselborg to reply with a three of her own to force an extra end. Great Britain held the ‘hammer’, or final stone, but Muirhead did not need it as Hasselborg’s attempt with her final stone drifted wide and gifted the Britons the point they needed to seal a stunning win. It means the 31-year-old Muirhead will experience her first Olympic final at the fourth time of asking, along with team-mates Vicky Wright, Jennifer Dodds and Hailey Duff. (PA Media)
“I’ve never seen a match like that ... I’m so excited to see both our teams in the final of an Olympic Games,” says the commentator Jackie Lockhart.
“Hasselborg tried to chase ... and the mistakes started creeping in.”
Updated
I’ll bring you some reaction when the BBC speak to the victorious team.
Anna Hasselborg is pictured, looking ashen-faced, sending someone a text message. Great Britain’s Vicky Wright is checking her own phone and smiling and laughing.
The women’s curling final will be at 1am UK time on Sunday morning.
Hazel Irvine on the BBC says that was the highest-scoring match of the entire Olympic programme.
Great Britain are into the Olympic final of the women's curling!
Sweden, the champions, are out! Great Britain will meet Japan in the final!
They were 4-0 down after the first end, but clawed it back, and in the extra end, Hasselborg got it wrong with her final stone, and Great Britain can celebrate!
They are guaranteed a silver medal at the Olympics, just like the men’s team.
Updated
Now one stone remaining each ... Hasselborg is weighing it up for Sweden. Muirhead and Wright look on with concerned faces.
Two more stones each remaining in the first extra end. The teams are locked at 11-11. The house is ‘invitingly open’, as Cram says on commentary.
Sweden hit back at the very last and pull it back to 11-11 after 10 ends! That was a remarkable effort from Hasselborg for Sweden. They score three to level it up, pushing the Great Britain stones away with unerring accuracy with the very last stone of the scheduled 10 ends. It will be an extra end. Hasselborg is an Olympic champion and she’s in no mood to give up her title easily ...
Updated
Hasselborg’s penultimate stone leaves two stones each in the red ring at the centre of the house. One stone left for each side. Great Britain are looking good for a place in the final but nothing is certain yet.
Japan have beaten Switzerland 8-6.
Updated
Both teams have four stones left in the 10th end, both teams have two stones towards the centre of the house.
“This is not over yet, folks,” observes Steve Cram.
Updated
Four for Great Britain in the ninth end! Muirhead does indeed deliver with a perfect final stone that flicks two Swedish stones away! Great Britain now lead 11-8 and it’s Sweden on the back foot.
“Calm down everybody,” says an animated Steve Cram on commentary for the BBC. “Please, no more fours.”
“Is it written in the stars?” asks Rhona Howie on co-commentary.
Updated
A good result from Sweden’s last stone as they push a British stone away from the ‘mixer’, in football parlance. Now Eve Muirhead with the hammer, in what looks to be the decisive ninth end ... Can she deliver?
Women’s curling semi-finals: Japan and Switzerland is as nervy as Great Britain v Sweden. It’s 7-6 to Japan in the 10th and final end.
Now, Great Britain look like the might be on for four points, and maybe even five, unless Sweden can find something from somewhere with their final stone! Drama!
If by some bizarre chance you missed it earlier here is John Windmill’s collection of some of the best images from day 14:
Excellent shots from Jennifer Dodds and Vicky Wright for Great Britain. They now have five stones within the house ... Sweden have a couple of stones left, their third-last is a good shot which taps a red stone towards the centre.
Updated
It’s another crowded house, if you will, in the ninth and potentially decisive end of Great Britain’s semi-final against Sweden. Three stones each near the centre. This could go any which way. Sweden are 8-7 ahead overall.
The American Mikaela Shiffrin will get her last chance to win a medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Saturday when the mixed team parallel event closes the Alpine skiing programme. All eyes will once again be on Shiffrin, Alpine skiing’s biggest star, who will be competing in her sixth event of the Games but has so far ended up with ninth place in super-G, 18th in the downhill and three DNFs.
“I should probably quit,” Shiffrin said after her individual medal hopes had collapsed in the combined. “But I’m going to come back out... and ski some parallel GS because I’m that much of an idiot.” The competition gets under way at 10am local time (2am GMT) on the ‘Rainbow’ course with a round of 14, followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals, a race to decide the bronze medal and one to decide gold and silver. (Reuters)
Updated
A belting shot from Muirhead nudges a British stone into the middle of the house. One more stone for Sweden. It’s a one-point gain for Sweden after the eighth end and they lead 8-7. I am no expert but it feels like Great Britain just left themselves with a bit too much to do after that first end. They are still in with a chance.
Updated
Now it’s time for Sweden to have a long debate about the way forward in the eighth end, with two stones to go for Sweden, and one for Great Britain ... Hasselborg then takes out a British stone but the situation remains the same in the house, with a line of stones in a central position near the top: three Swedish and two British.
Updated
Women’s curling semi-finals: Two stones remaining for each side in the eighth end. Sweden have two right now so would take a 9-7 lead unless GB can change something. Great Britain are weighing up their options.
Sui Wenjing and Han Chan of China shattered their own world record for a short program at the Beijing Games on Friday, giving them the narrowest of leads over Russian rivals Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov heading into the free skate to decide the Olympic champion. Sui and Han, who won the short program at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games before settling for the silver medal, scored 84.41 points to their orchestral suite from the film “Mission: Impossible 2.” That topped the record of 82.83 points that they set during the short program of the team competition earlier this month. Tarasova and Morozov, who are coached in part by the controversial Eteri Tutberidze, also would have broken the record with their short program. Instead, the fourth-place finishers in Pyeongchang were 16-hundredths of a point behind. (AP)
Women’s curling semi-final: Hasselborg goes for a big take out, but fluffs it slightly and now Muirhead, with the hammer, can score two ... and she makes it ... just! Muirhead has her teammates to thank for some energetic sweeping there.
The score is locked at 7-7!
Sweden will have the hammer in the eighth end.
Updated
At the end of the session, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China lead the mixed figure skating with a world-record score of 84.41. Three pairs from the ROC team occupy the second, third and fourth positions: Tarasova and Morozov, Mishina and Galliamov, and Boikova and Kozlovski, in that order.
Updated
It’s the seventh end in Great Britain’s match with Sweden. Sweden lead 7-5 overall. Sweden have a stone in the red, outer ring in the middle of the house. The outer bull, in darts lingo ... and now they are scoring three as it stands. This could be bad news for Muirhead and co.
Japan lead Switzerland 6-2 in the other semi-final, in the seventh end.
Updated
“Is there a time limit in curling – does each team have a set period in which to make their play after the opposing team’s stone has stopped?” asks Andrew Benton on email.
The answer is yes, there is a time limit, although it’s cumulative and not done stone-by-stone:
“Each team shall receive 38 minutes of thinking time for a 10-end game and 30 minutes of thinking time for an 8-end game (38 minutes in wheelchair curling, 30 minutes in wheelchair mixed doubles curling and 22 minutes in mixed doubles curling). This time is recorded, and visible to the teams and coaches, throughout the game.”
Here are the full rules of curling if you fancy some further reading.
Updated
Six ends down in the women’s curling. Sweden have just scored two, and now lead 7-5. Four ends to go, advantage to the Swedes ... can Great Britain pull it back again?
Eve Muirhead delivers Great Britain’s final stone of the sixth end. It’s a fine attempt, nearly curling beyond two red Swedish stones ... but it stops just short of being perfect. Sweden with a decision to make, they could potentially score three, but will need to take out that latest stone by Muirhead. Hasselborg delivers ...
Updated
All change in the mixed skating short program ... and it’s a NEW world record for Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China! The judges award them a score of 84.41! Anastasia Mishina and Alekansdr Galliamov of the ROC team sit second now, with 82.76, and Cheng and Yang now third, with 76.10pts. Another pair from the ROC representation are up now – Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov – and will need to produce something special to get into contention.
Updated
Japan strike back against Switzerland and now lead their semi-final 5-2. In Great Britain’s match, there is a solitary Swedish stone on the edge of the house. It’s 5-5 in the sixth end.
The BBC co-commentator reckons Sweden are ‘running scared’.
Updated
Women’s curling semi-final: Great Britain might have stolen the lead there, but a good defensive play from Sweden saves them a couple of points ... anyway, it’s 5-5 at the halfway stage. Following the calamitous first end, when Sweden roared into a 4-0 lead, Great Britain would certainly have taken that.
Peng Cheng and Jin Yang of China thrill the home fans by scoring 76.10 in the short program of the pair skating. So it’s China, then two pairs from the USA, occupying the podium positions at the moment.
Updated
Anna Hasselborg of Sweden goes for a take out. She doesn’t get it quite right and Great Britain now have three in the house. One stone each to go in the fifth end. Sweden lead 5-4 overall.
Updated
Women’s curling semi-finals: A lovely shot by Vicky Wright, slap-bang in the middle of the house, for Great Britain with their third-last stone of the fifth end. GB should be able to pull at least a point back here.
In the other semi-final, Switzerland lead Japan 2-1 going into the fifth end.
Women’s curling semi-final: Great Britain are still playing catch-up but they are not out of it by any means. As the fourth end comes to a close, they score a point to peg it back to 5-4 to Sweden. Six ends to go, and Sweden have the hammer in the fifth end. GB had chances to make that a two-point gain, but couldn’t manage it.
Updated
Team figure skating: Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy Leduc make it a one-two at the top of the live standings with a stunning routine. There is a huge smile on Cain-Gribble’s face as they finish, and the pair embrace. Then, while waiting for the judges’ verdict, Cain-Gribble squeezes in a wide-ranging greeting to family and friends, and thanks them, knowing she’s live on camera and on mic. The scores come in and they are a fraction behind their compatriots, Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier: 74.13 to 74.23.
The free skating comes tomorrow, and it’s all to play for.
Updated
Two-woman bobsleigh: Germany’s pair of Nolte and Levi top the charts after the first run with a track-record time of 1min 1.04sec. Mariama Jamanka and Alexandra Burghardt, also of Germany, are second, 0.06sec back. Elana Meyers Taylor and Sylvia Hoffman (USA) occupy the bronze-medal position heading into the second run later – in under an hour. They are 0.22sec behind the leaders.
Updated
Sweden move 5-3 ahead in the women’s curling semi-final going into the fourth end. Momentum doesn’t exist in curling, as I feared.
“A classy move.”
“Someone has to lose I guess.”
“My heart hurts.”
The Dutchman Kai Verbij had to give up on a podium finish on Friday as an awkward lane change with his skating pair in the men’s 1,000m meant he had to give way, costing him a chance of a medal. Paired against the Canadian Laurent Dubreuil in the last race, Verbij found himself in an awkward position at a crossover. The world champion stuck to the rules and held back to let his opponent race ahead.
“I didn’t have enough speed to go before him at the lane change. I just had to quit, because otherwise I would have been disqualified and probably messed up his race,” Verbij said after finishing last. “It’s pretty sad and I’m pretty disappointed that it happened at the Olympics, but yeah. Someone has to lose I guess.”
Skaters are required to change lanes after every lap, and the skater on the outside lane has the right of way at the crossover. “It’s tough to do that in an Olympic race,” said Dubreuil, who won the silver medal in an explosive race. “I can’t say thank you enough for him, that was a really professional and classy move to do,” he added.
Gold medallist and compatriot Thomas Krol also felt for Verbij after the race. “It’s just sad to see this happen, because he’s my best friend,” Krol said. “He was on course for a medal for sure, and I was really cheering for him and hoping that he would be on the podium for me. My heart hurts.” (Reuters)
Updated
In the bobsleigh, it doesn’t look like anyone is going to knock Nolte and Levi off the top in the first run. Unless the Belgians can produce something special, they are the last nation to go.
Updated
Not sure I agree with this ... Great Britain thought they were out of it after just one end, and now they’re right back in it. “Momentum”, if such a thing exists in curling, is with them.
@LukeMcLaughlin ... it's only one stone after two ends, but somehow 4-3 feels a lot worse than one-nil ... #BBCOlympics #Beijing2022 #Curling
— VoiceOfTheMysterons (@Mysteron_Voice) February 18, 2022
Updated
Three for Great Britain in the second end of the curling semi-final! They pull it back to 4-3! After a storming start by Sweden, and a nervy opening from GB, Eve Muirhead and co are right back in this. This time it’s Sweden’s turn to produce a howler or two, missing chances to take out British stones, and it’s all looking rosier from a British point of view.
Updated
Cornelius Kersten came within three tenths of a second of claiming a remarkable speed skating medal for Great Britain at the Winter Olympics in Beijing on Friday. The 27-year-old finished in ninth place in the men’s 1,000m, just 0.31sec off third-placed Haavard Lorentzen of Norway, for the best result by a British Olympic speed skater in 58 years.
“On the one hand I’m really happy but to be that close to the podium is slightly frustrating - those three tenths were really in there,” said Kersten. This is the hardest 1000m I’ve ever done and I’m pretty proud of myself but it was so close. I need just another year of hard work and good training to really close that gap, this is my first year training at a world level and look how close I’ve come.”
Kersten and his partner Ellia Smeding were the first speed skaters to represent Great Britain at the Games since 1992. Earlier, he finished 25th in the 500m and 19th in the 1500m. He added: “If you compare me with my rivals, I just need another year to get a lot closer to them. Skaters don’t tend to peak until their late 20s, early 30s, so there is a lot more time for me to develop as we look towards the next Olympics.” (PA Media)
In the curling, each team has two stones remaining in the second end. Great Britain have three stones in the house. Sweden are going to try to knock two out in one hit.
No, in the end, they settle for a single-stone take out ... could Great Britain pick up three points here?
Updated
I’ve got the figure skating on the laptop, but can’t find live coverage of the two-woman bobsleigh: However, I can tell you that Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi, of Germany, lead that event right now with a time of 1min 01.04sec. Another German pair, Mariama Jamanka and Alexandra Burghardt, are second. Curling, bobsleigh, figure skating and Big Jet TV live from Heathrow – it’s a packed Friday afternoon of sport.
Updated
Sweden take a 4-0 lead after the first end. That’s a real shocker for Great Britain’s hopes of making the final. They look suitably stony-faced, if you’ll pardon the pun. They need to dig deep here. They have got nine ends to do so.
Updated
A very poor start from Great Britain in the curling, to be perfectly honest. The latest stone is short, and doesn’t even make the house. This could be a four-point lead for Sweden, right out of the gate, if GB are not careful.
The first teams are speeding down the course in the two-woman bobsleigh. And over in the mixed pairs figure skating, the USA team of Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier currently top the charts, with a score of 74.23. Japan second (70.85), Georgia third (66.11).
Updated
Sweden well in control of the first end. Four Swedish stones crowd the centre. Now it’s three ... Eve Muirhead is having a look at how GB can knock one or two of these away.
Hello again everyone. Here we go then. Great Britain’s women in action against Sweden in the curling semi-final. Great Britain will be using the yellow stones, Sweden the red. It’s a shaky opening to the match from Hailey Duff, who misses the Swedish stone for starters.
Updated
The only live event going on at present is the pairs figure skating short program, where the USA’s Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier are the early leaders. The curling semi-finals are coming up any moment, though – with Team GB facing Sweden and Japan v Switzerland – as is the first run of the two-woman bobsleigh.
The best images from Beijing today including biathlon, halfpipe skiing, curling and ice hockey.
Here’s Martin Belam with today’s daily briefing.
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?”
The story behind Eileen Gu is one that takes in a deep strain of geopolitics.
Gu, now 18, was born in San Francisco to an American father and a Chinese mother. She’s a big fan of Chinese dumplings and, every summer, she flew back to Beijing to attend cram school for mathematics. “When I’m in China, I’m Chinese and when I go to America, I’m American,” the she once said.
But as the geopolitical mood between China and America began to shift, Gu was also caught in the middle between nationalism, identity and loyalty on both sides of the Pacific. While she was lauded in China, for which she has won three Olympic medals, she was denounced by a Fox News analyst as “ungrateful”, saying that her “reverse migration” was “shameful”.
Beau Dure on the pressure the four-year cycle of the Olympics create.
We’re still obsessed with “busts” and those who “choke”. Great athletes’ careers are considered unfulfilled if they don’t win the biggest prizes – even in team sports, where one athlete can only do so much. One 2012 list of biggest disappointments included LeBron James, reasoning that he had never won a championship. Oops.
Bryan Armen Graham saw the American-born Chinese star complete an unprecedented hat-trick.
The 18-year-old soared into history on Friday morning in becoming the first action-sports athlete to win three medals at a single Olympics – missing out on triple gold by a fraction of a point in Tuesday’s slopestyle – making good on years of hype that only intensified in the months leading up to the Beijing Games and grew to deafening levels over the past fortnight as her culture-straddling origin story has become the subject of intense public scrutiny on both sides of the Pacific.
I’m off for a cup of tea. I’ll be back in time for the curling and the bobsleigh in an hour. My esteemed colleagues will guide you through the next little bit.
Quotes from the Finland men’s ice hocky captain, Valtteri Filppula, via the Olympics website, following his team’s 2-0 semi-final win against Slovakia earlier today:
“Close game for sure. There wasn’t a lot of room out there. I think both teams played well defensively, and we spent more time defending our net, which we did a good job of today and our goalie played well. It was a hard game and it was a good thing we were able to get the lead, because they came [at us] really hard and there wasn’t a lot of room. ... It [winning gold] would be huge. Obviously, that’s been the goal and I think, coming into the tournament, we knew we had a good chance if everything goes well and now we have just one game left. It’s going to be, at least for me, the last time I play in the Olympics and the last game, so I’m going to have to try and enjoy it as much as I can.”
Updated
Great Britain’s women are in curling action in a little over an hour: they face Sweden in the semi-final, with Japan v Switzerland the other last-four encounter.
Eve Muirhead and co. achieved a convincing win against Sweden in the round robin – it was 8-2 then – so more of the same would do nicely from a British point of view.
Presuming Storm Eunice doesn’t knock out my internet and telly beforehand, I’ll be bringing you updates from that, and all the action later today.
The last Alpine skiing race of the Beijing Olympics has been rescheduled to an hour earlier than planned because of forecast strong wind. The mixed team parallel event is now set to start at 10am on Saturday Beijing time, instead of 11am. The wind is supposed to top 20mph.
The team event involves men and women from each participating country and is the last chance for American Mikaela Shiffrin to pick up a 2022 Winter Games medal. Only one of the 10 athletes who earned individual Alpine golds in Beijing was listed on the team rosters released Friday: Austria’s Johannes Strolz. He won the men’s combined last week and also picked up a silver in slalom on Wednesday.
There is a 16-team bracket but only 15 nations entered, so top-ranked Austria will get a first-round bye. The first-round matches are United States v Slovakia, Switzerland v China, Italy v Russia, Norway v Poland, France v Czech Republic, Germany v Sweden, and Slovenia v Canada. (AP)
Updated
The medal table is here. Norway, as mentioned previously, have broken the record for gold medals at a single Winter Games: they now have 15, following JT Boe’s latest biathlon masterclass:
In the mixed pairs figure skating, there were due to be 20 pairs, but it seems the Hungarian duo have withdrawn. So that makes 19 – I achieved grade ‘C’ in GCSE maths, you know. Anyway, the Georgian team are out there now – Karina Safina and Luka Berulava – sporting grey sequinned outfits.
“How good was that for starters?” asks Simon Reed on Eurosport, at the end of their routine.
Updated
Overnight (if you happen to be in the UK / Europe), Eileen Gu was at it again, winning freeski halfpipe gold:
“The overriding emotion is just this deep-seated sense of gratitude and resolution, just like this all coming together, years and years in the making and it’s like letting out a deep breath,” she said.
Updated
Coming up in a few minutes: The short program in the mixed pairs figure skating.
Johannes Thingnes Boe’s brilliant skiing more than made up for some errant shooting in difficult conditions to win gold in the men’s 15km mass start, setting a new record with Norway’s 15th gold of the Beijing Games. With Boe blowing kisses to the TV cameras as he crossed the line, the Norwegians have now taken more gold medals at a single Games than any other nation, breaking the previous record of 14 that they shared with Germany and Canada.
Martin Ponsiluoma of Sweden finished 40.3sec after Boe to take the silver, with fellow Norwegian Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen picking up the bronze medal 1min 12.5sec after his countryman. France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet missed his chance to take a sixth medal and become the most successful athlete at a single Winter Games, finishing fourth after five costly misses in a whistling, freezing wind that made shooting difficult.
After a tense opening with the athletes tightly packed, Boe wasn’t bothered by an early miss, flying around his penalty loop and then retaking the lead as the front runners entered the second shoot, and a perfect five-shot salvo sent him back out in lead. Germany’s Philipp Nawrath kept the pressure on Boe, entering the first standing shoot a few seconds behind, but he missed three of his five shots to drop out of contention as Sweden’s Ponsiluoma took on the role of the main challenger.
Alone on the range for the final time, Boe blasted through his five shots, missing the last two as Maillet and Ponsiluoma arrived, but the Frenchman missed twice and the Swede once, allowing Boe to streak away once. Despite three misses, Christiansen surged late, passing Maillet and trying to join in the chase for Boe, but with his fifth Olympic gold medal and a record in his sights, Boe was never going to be caught and Norway’s status as a winter sports super-power was confirmed. (Reuters)
Updated
The Dutchman Thomas Krol swept around the National Speed Skating Oval to win the men’s 1,000m, handing the Netherlands its 11th medal in speed skating at this Winter Games. Although slow to start, the 29-year-old quickly gained pace and crossed the finish line in 1min 07.92sec.
He waited tensely on the sidelines as he watched the last two races, before raising his fists in victory and covering his face in apparent disbelief when his gold medal was confirmed. His title makes the Netherlands the first country to win three consecutive gold medals in the distance. Laurent Dubreuil of Canada claimed silver in 1min 08.32sec and Haavard Lorentzen of Norway took bronze in 1min 08.48sec. (Reuters)
Paul MacInnes spoke to Kersten last month as he built up to the Olympics:
Hats off to Cornelius Kersten of Great Britain for an excellent ninth place in the men’s 1,000m speed skating.
He is the first long track speed skater to compete for Great Britain since 1992. He also finished ninth in the World Cup meeting in Norway in November, and a strong showing in those World Cup events allowed him to qualify for Beijing.
Updated
A Swedish gold medallist has said it was “extremely irresponsible” to hold the Winter Olympics in China because of the government’s human rights record.
Nils van der Poel, a 25-year-old speedskater, made the comments after returning home from the Beijing event, where officials have been at pains to keep politics and protest out despite diplomatic boycotts.
Gold for Thomas Krol in the men's 1,000m speed skating!
Krol takes it with a time of 1min 07.92sec! He looks like he can’t quite believe what he’s achieved. Laurent Dubreuil (Canada) grabs silver and Haavard Lorentzen (Norway) wins bronze. The previous leader, Michalski of Poland, is knocked off the podium and down to fourth.
Updated
Gold for Johannes Thingnes Boe in the men's 15km mass start biathlon!
He missed two shots on his final visit to the range, but he still closes out a dominant win. He has plenty of time to slow up on the final straight and wave to the smattering of fans in the stand. Silver for Sweden’s Ponsiluoma. Bronze for Vetle Christiansen of Norway. Fillon Maillet comes home having fallen out of contention with a nightmare shooting performance late in the race.
Updated
Boe is skiing to glory. His lead is nearly 40 seconds. He’s already won three gold medals and a bronze at these Games!
Updated
Biathlon men’s 15km mass start: THREE misses from Fillon Maillet on the final shoot! That’s a horror show. Boe of Norway leads by 17.8sec! Sweden’s Ponsiluoma looks set for silver with Christiansen of Norway rounding out the podium ... Fillon Maillet is now fourth and is giving chase but it looks like that nightmare final visit to the range is going to cost him a medal.
Updated
Kersten, who was 0.23sec slower than Michalski, has now been bumped down to fifth. Ignat Golovatsiuk (Belarus) second.
Men’s 1,000 speed skating: Cornelius Kersten of Great Britain is now third-fastest! That’s an excellent effort. Still, no one can knock Poland’s Michalski off the top. Marten Liiv (Finland) in the silver-medal position, 0.9sec off Michalski’s pace, having bumped Kersten down a spot. There are 22 athletes finished so far.
Updated
Fillon Maillet shoots clean on the third visit to the range! Can he make up what is currently a 15.9sec deficit to Boe, up front? Sweden’s Martin Ponsiluoma has now slotted in in second pace, six seconds back.
Updated
That man again: Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway is now out front as the leading pack of biathletes come into the second shoot. Christian Gow (Canada) shoots clean. Fillon Maillet misses one again but will hope to make it up with his skiing. It’s all to play for: Boe holds a three-second lead over Philip Nawrath of Germany.
Updated
Men’s biathlon 15km mass start: One miss for Fillon Maillet on the first visit to the range. Sebastian Samuelsson of Sweden shoots clean, one of 10 skiers to do so, and he now leads the way.
Here we go with the men’s mass start, 15km biathlon. The Frenchman, Quentin Fillon Maillet, is punishing the rest of the athletes with a seriously hot pace to begin with. He’s trying to whittle down the field to a select group, right from the start. The bunch of skiers is already strung out.
Updated
Why are Norway so good at this Winter Olympics stuff? Martin Belam and Sean Ingle investigate:
Men’s 1,000m speed skating: Piotr Michalski of Poland continues to lead with a time of 1min 08.56sec. Pavel Kulizhnikov (ROC) second, 0.31sec behind, and Damian Zurek, also of Poland, is in the bronze-medal position, 0.52sec down.
Updated
In less than 15 minutes, we’ve got biathlon to enjoy: the men’s 15km mass start.
“Is society getting any better at recognising the humanity of those who walk the high wires of elite sports, where one momentary slip can undo a lifetime of work – if we define their work solely by what happens when people tune into the Olympics every four years?”
Mikaela Shiffrin’s two weeks of pain don’t detract from a lifetime of greatness, writes Beau Dure:
Updated
This time Eileen Gu didn’t leave things late. After her first two events at the Winter Games came down to nail-biting finishes, the emerging American-born superstar representing China lay waste to all-comers in the Olympic freeski halfpipe final, adding to her big air gold and slopestyle silver to complete an unprecedented hat-trick of medals in the mountains northwest of Beijing.
Updated
Speed Skating: Men’s 1,000m: Piotr Michalski, of Poland, has just gone fastest in the final. Nine pairs will skate, then they will take a break to resurface the ice, after which the remaining athletes will go for gold.
Updated
Bronze for Canada in the men's curling!
It’s over. Canada win 8-5 – the USA, having won gold four years ago, go home empty-handed. There are a few tears as Canada celebrate. The USA team just want to get off the ice.
Updated
Men’s curling bronze medal match: With a 2-0 margin at the end of the ninth end, Canada streak away to an 8-5 lead moving into the 10th and final end. The USA team look like they know this is over. But they fight on. There are smiles on the faces of the Canadian team, in contrast.
Updated
“Maybe worth contrasting the reception that Valieva got with that Nana Takagi received after crashing out of the speed skating on the final bend,” emails Daniel Howell. “And Takagi took her team’s gold medal hopes with her, not just her own ...”
Very much so. The Olympic spirit. Nana Tagaki must have been so thrilled to see her sister, Miho, subsequently take gold in the 1,000m individual event.
Men’s curling: A lovely effort from Canada puts them three up in the ninth end ... John Shuster, USA’s skip, clasps his face in one hand as he weighs up his options. Which aren’t great right now. Shuster goes big, trying to knock Canada’s stones away, but he leaves two for Canada. Two stones each left in the eighth.
An unusually strong intervention, as Sean Ingle writes, from the IOC president Thomas Bach on the treatment of the ROC skater Kamila Valieva:
Curling bronze medal match: Canada take two points and lead 6-5. We’re into the ninth end.
Updated
Thanks Mike. Hello everyone. Canada’s curlers are having a debate about strategy. As Mike said, they are trailing 5-4 in the eighth end. If they get this stone right the lead could change hands.
Curling: It’s getting to squeaky-bum time in the Ice Box, with a bronze medal on the line. The US still have that narrow 5-4 lead, with two stones each to throw in the eighth end. And at this point, I’ll pass over to Luke McLaughlin, who will see this one through to a conclusion, and beyond with more medals to be won in the men’s 1000m speed skating, men’s 15km mass start in biathlon and figure skating (pairs short programme).
Updated
Justine Braisaz-Bouchet wins women’s biathlon 12.5km mass start gold
Biathlon: Braisaz-Bouchet of France wins gold, ahead of the Norwegian pair of Tiril Eckhoff and Marte Olsbu Roeiseland.
It might not have been gold, but ever wondered what the secret to Norway’s success at Winter Games is? I reckon you can find the answer below:
Updated
Curling: Here’s a massive shot to make at the end of the seventh end, with Canada trailing 4-5 to the US... this could be crucial. And what a shot by Brad Gushue, who knocks out two US stones! It’s a blank for Canada, and their hopes are still alive of winning bronze. Into the eighth end we go.
The way 15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva was treated by her coach after her two falls in her figure skating routine on Thursday evening was “chilling” and does not inspire any confidence in her entourage, the International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has said.
In an unusually strong intervention, Bach admitted that he was shocked to see the controversial Russian Olympic Committee coach Eteri Tutberidze berate Valieva as she came off the ice, barking at her “why did you stop fighting?” even though she had been under enormous mental stress ever since her positive drugs test was revealed last week.
Read Sean Ingle’s full report below:
Ryan Regez wins men's skicross gold
Freestyle skiing: Regez leads after a quick start in the big final, ahead of compatriot Fiva in a Swiss one-two. The pair open up a bit of daylight - in fact all four racers are spaced out - and there won’t be any late drama as Regez zips across the finish line and wins gold! Fiva claims silver and Ridzik of the ROC bronze for a second Games in a row. The young Swede Mobaerg finishes out of medals, but he’s a name to watch in the future.
Crossing the line as the new Olympic champion! 💪 pic.twitter.com/kw4esGop84
— Olympics (@Olympics) February 18, 2022
Updated
Freestyle skiing: A bit of drama at the start of the small final as the racers are twice pulled back from the gates, which appear to be suffering from some kind of malfunction! A crack team of officials descend and the problem is fixed soon enough. Deromedis, the young Italian, flies out of the gates and never relinquishes his lead. He finishes with a bit of showboating - performing a star jump over the final jump - to end his Games in fifth place. Leman places sixth, Rohrweck seventh, and Place eighth. The medals will be decided next.
Biathlon: And we’re under way in the the final women’s event of these Games - the 12.5km mass start at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre.
Freestyle skiing: There’ll be two Swiss competitors in the final after Fiva and Regez made it through. They’ll be joined there by Mobaerg and Ridzik. The final coming right up (after the small final).
Curling: Game on at the National Aquatics Centre! The US enjoy a great fourth end and, having fallen 3-1 behind, pull back onto level terms at 3-3.
Freestyle skiing: The semi-finals are set! Run one will feature the Swiss Alex Feva, Canada’s Brady Leman, Italy’s Simone Deromedia and Sergey Ridzik of ROC. Erik Mobaerg of Sweden, Frenchman Francois Place, another Swiss Ryan Regez and Austria’s Johannes Rohrweck go in the other. There’s no place for Kevin Drury (the Canadian they’ve just called Quadzilla on the TV), and he appears a bit cheesed off at that.
Curling: Canada held a 2-0 lead after the first end, only for the US to peg them back in the second and now, in the third, Team Canada lead 2-1.
Ice hockey: Finland will contest the men’s title match - and a chance to add a second gold to the six medals (one gold, two silver, three bronze) they have won so far at these Games. It ends 2-0 to the Finns after Harri Pesonen secured victory over Slovakia with a goal right at the death.
Updated
Freestyle skiing: Oh that’s handy, just as Oliver Davies of Britain goes in the final heat, my feed cuts out. It fires back up just as the athletes are crossing the line, with Davies in fourth. His Games is over. And that completes the men’s skicross quarter-final line-up. Four skiers now in each of the four quarters, with the top two in each going through to an eight-man semi-final stage. Then the top two from each go into the big final, with the bottom two going into the small final.
Curling: Who doesn’t love a US-Canada clash, regardless of the sport? The two old foes are staring each other down once again, this time in the men’s bronze medal match. They’re in the first end, it’s scoreless.
Freestyle skiing: The men’s skicross 1/8 finals are under way, that man Alex Fiva kicking things off in the opening heat. The US-born Swiss former alpine skier is the first man into the quarter-finals with a dominant display.
Updated
Ice hockey: A chance for the shorthanded Slovakia to pull level but the puck evades Michal Kristof by a matter of inches off the pass from Juraj Slafkovsky. And it remains 1-0 to Finland as time ticks down in the third period - just under 15 minutes remaining now.
Doping: The International Testing Agency has reported bobsledder Lidiia Hunko has tested positive for a prohibited substance. The Ukrainian returned a positive test on 14 February - the day of her monobob event, in which she finished 20th - and has been provisionally suspended. “The athlete also has the right to request the analysis of the B-sample,” the ITA said.
Ice hockey: It’s the end of the second period at the National Indoor Stadium and Finland’s narrow 1-0 lead over Slovakia remains.
Cross-country skiing: Big news from earlier today - Norway’s Therese Johaug will call time on her Olympic career after she contests the women’s 30km freestyle event that closes the Games on Sunday. Johaug, who missed the Pyeongchang Games due to a doping suspension, has already picked up two gold medals in Beijing, in the skiathlon and the 10 km classic races.
“Sunday will be my last Olympic race,” the 33-year-old said. “It [my decision] won’t happen until after the season, I’ll have to go a few rounds with myself, it could take a long time.
Johaug has one last chance to add to her collection of Olympic medals, which also includes a silver and a bronze from Sochi. “I think it will be a very tough 30k. If it has not been important previously to allocate [energy] correctly on these trails, then it will definitely be important on Sunday,” she said.
Ice hockey: Just one event in progress at the moment - it’s the men’s semi-final between Finland and Slovakia. We’re midway through the second period and Finland lead 1-0 thanks to Sakari Manninen’s first-period goal. The ROC and Sweden play in the other semi later on. Of course no USA or Canada left in the tournament.
Thomas Bach: Lots coming out of the earlier presser with the IOC president, including his thoughts on the Kamila Valieva saga. Suffice to say he has not been impressed with the athlete’s entourage. He also said the IOC did not want the ROC figure skater to continue competing, but given they lost the court case, the rule of law has to be accepted.
Anyway, my colleague Sean Ingle was there, and his report will be landing shortly. Stay tuned.
Freestyle skiing: The men’s skicross is already up and running at Genting Snow Park, with the seeding run to determine the 1/8 final line-up completed. Lots of Canadian flags in the top six - three to be precise - while Switzerland’s Alex Fiva topped the times after laying down a 1:11.94.
Freestyle skiing: The big news so far today then is that the incredible Eillen Gu has secured a second gold medal of these Games, in the women’s freeski halfpipe, to add to her big air gold and slopestyle silver. By pocketing her third medal, Gu - who has taken these Olympics by storm - became the first action-sports athlete to win three medals at a single Olympics. Here’s my colleague Bryan Armen Graham’s full report from the slopes north-west of Beijing:
Today’s schedule
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.
- 11.45am-3.10pm Freestyle skiing – after the morning’s freeski halfpipe medal battle for the women, the men do their ski cross 🥇
- 12.10pm and 9.10pm Ice hockey – the men’s semi-finals will feature Finland v Slovakia first, ROC v Sweden in the evening. 🏒
- 2.05pm and 8.05pm Curling – in the afternoon, the losers of tonight’s semi-finals will play for the men’s bronze medal. In the evening it is the women’s semi-finals 🥉
- 4.30pm Speed skating – the men’s 1,000m 🥇
- 5pm Biathlon – it is the men’s 15km mass start race 🥇
- 6.30pm Figure skating – it is the short program in the pairs ⛸
- 8pm and 9.30pm Bobsleigh – the first and second heats of the two-women bobsleigh variety
