The final live action of the day is over in the men’s ice hockey. Germany went goaltender-less for the last couple of minutes in a desperate attempt to claw back a 3-2 deficit against the US. It was to no avail. Canada beat China 5-0 in Group A’s other match.
That finalises the play-off and quarter-finals bracket. The US, ROC, Finland and Sweden are all through to Wednesday’s quarter-finals with an extra rest day. Everybody else will face a play-off game on Tuesday.
Those matches (I think – this hasn’t been confirmed on the Olympics website yet) will be Slovakia v Germany, Czech Republic v Switzerland, Denmark v Latvia, and bizarrely, China and Canada face an immediate re-match. What an odd tournament format. It is also important to note that Canada and the US are on a semi-final collision course, with ROC looking the strongest team on the other side of the draw.
Here is what I put in our daily briefing that we could look forward to tomorrow.
- 9.05am and 2.05pm and 8.05pm Curling – would you be surprised to learn that there is curling all day long? 🥌
- 9.15am Figure skating – have they put the most romantic couples’ dancing on Valentine’s Day on purpose? Your guess is as good as mine. Twenty couples will free dance for the medals 🥇
- 10am-11.01am and 3pm-3.45pm and 7pm-8pm Freestyle skiing – weather permitting, the morning is the rescheduled women’s freeski slopestyle qualification, the evening is the women’s aerials final. They’ve had to newly shoehorn the aerials qualification round in at 3pm as it was cancelled today 🥇
- 9.30am and 11am and 8.05pm and 9.40pm Bobsleigh – the first two sessions are the conclusion of the women’s monobob, the final two are heats one and two of the men’s 2-man contest 🥇
- 9.30am-11am and 1.30pm-3pm Snowboard – big air qualification day, the women go in the morning, the men in the afternoon
- 12.10pm and 9.10pm Ice hockey – it is semi-finals day for the women, Canada v Switzerland and Finland v US 🏒
- 6pm-8.06pm Ski jumping – the men are doing their team competition 🥇
We’ll see you all again tomorrow. I’m off to watch what is left of Newcastle v Aston Villa, you can join Tim de Lisle on his live blog for that here.
Today at the Winter Olympics …
- Snow caused chaos, disrupting the men’s giant slalom and causing the freeski to be cancelled. Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt took giant slalom gold for Switzerland. Jamaica’s Benjamin Alexander finished 46th of the 46th skiers who finished – but plenty didn’t.
- The Russian Olympics Committee (ROC) team won a pretty slow men’s 4 x 10km relay cross-country skiing race in difficult conditions.
- Erin Jackson won the women’s 500m speed skating for the US – she’s only at the Games because her friend Brittany Bowe initially gave up her place.
- Marte Olsbu Roeiseland took the gold in the women’s 10km pursuit biathlon. It is her third gold of the Games so far, and she still has the 12.5km mass start race on Saturday to go.
- Quentin Fillon Maillet of France won gold in the men’s 12.5km pursuit – despite having to deal with a frozen rifle.
- Liu Shaoang of Hungary won the gold in the men’s 500m short track skating. ROC’s Konstantin Ivliev took silver. Canada’s Steven Dubois got the bronze.
- Suzanne Schulting, Selma Poutsma, Xandra Velzeboer and Yara van Kerkhof gave the Netherlands gold in the women’s 3,000m relay short track speed skating.
- Kaillie Humphries of the US leads the first ever women’s monobob after the the first two heats earlier today. Humphries went just over a second faster than her nearest rival, Canada’s Christine de Bruin.
- Women’s slalom gold medalist Petra Vlhova is leaving the Beijing Olympics early due to an inflamed left ankle tendon and will miss the Alpine combined event where she had another medal chance.
- In the men’s team pursuit speed skating the semi-finals on Tuesday wil be Norway v Netherlands and US v ROC. Canada missed out.
- Team GB’s men won both their curling matches today and are handily placed second in the round robin standings, having won four of their five matches so far.
- Finland staged an incredible comeback from 3-0 down at the end of the second period to win their men’s ice hockey match with Sweden 4-3 in overtime.
We are just waiting now for the final two group stage hockey matches to finish, and that will be a wrap on the day’s action. The US lead Germany 3-1 and Canada lead China 5-0, with around eleven minutes of regulation time left in the matches.
There are more goals in the ice hockey. The US are now 3-1 up against Germany. Canada are beginning to rack up the kind of score we expected against China – it is 5-0 now.
And what has that all done for the medal table? You can see it in full here:
1 🇳🇴 Norway 🥇 9 🥈 5 🥉 7 total: 21
2 🇩🇪 Germany 🥇 8 🥈 5 🥉 1 total: 14
3 🇺🇸 United States 🥇 6 🥈 5 🥉 1 total: 12
4 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🥇 6 🥈 4 🥉 2 total: 12
5 🇸🇪 Sweden 🥇 5 🥈 3 🥉 3 total: 11
OK, deep breath. That was the last of the medals to be awarded today. Let me catch you up with what is happening elsewhere.
The two Group A men’s ice hockey matches have reached the end of the second period. Canada raced to a 3-0 lead against China in ten minutes, but then haven’t scored since. The US have a narrow 2-1 lead over Germany.
The last two curling games have finished as well. The US beat China 7-6 in their match, but more significantly, Italy have beaten Switzerland 8-4. That is a big result for Team GB’s men, who won their own match against Denmark earlier. Here is how the top of the round robin group stage standings now look after seven sessions.
1 Sweden W5 L0
2 Great Britain W4 L1
3= Canada W3 L2
3= ROC W3 L2
3= Switzerland W3 L2
There are four semi-final spots to be had. Tomorrow’s matches are Canada v Italy, Denmark v Norway, ROC v Sweden and Switzerland v Great Britain
Gold for Erin Jackson of the US in the women's 500m speed skating
The last race is finished and the gold medal goes to Erin Jackson of the US. Miho Takagi of Japan has silver. Angelina Golikova of ROC is third.
It is an incredible story. Jackson looked set to miss out on Beijing after making a terrible mistake in the US trials. Then her friend Brittany Bowe gave up her spot on the team so that Jackson could go in her stead. And now Jackson has won it! Bowe, who picked up a later qualifying slot, finished 16th. Absolute scenes.
Erin Jackson of the US takes top spot with only two skaters to go. Incredible effort from her on the ice there! The time is 37.04. Miho Takagi still not guaranteed a medal at all, though she has lead for much of the evening. The last pair are about to race.
Angelina Golikova of the Russian Olympic Committee goes into the medal positions in the women’s 500m speed skating - but it is the silver position. She is 0.09 slower than Miho Takagi. Four skaters to go!
The US have taken a 2-1 lead in the men’s ice hockey against Germany in their final Group A game.
Tian Ruining of China got the crowd excited as she initially set of at a pace that looked like it could be gold medal bound, but it all fell away. There are six skaters to go.
We are down to the last eight skaters in this women’s 500m speed skating, and Miho Takagi of Japan is still just quietly warming down on an exercise bike while waiting to see if anybody can beat her time. Austria’s Vanessa Herzog and Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands are in the virtual silver and bronze positions.
They had a quick pause in the women’s 500m for ice maintenance again. So far seven of the fifteen pairs have gone. Miho Takagi of Japan is in the virtual gold position at this stage with a time of 37.12
The second period has just started in the men’s ice hockey Group A matches. The scores remain Canada 3-0 China and US 1-1 Germany.
Reuters have this on how the conditions were affecting athletes today, with Quentin Fillon Maillet of France explaining that he had problems with a frozen rifle at the National Biathlon Centre in Zhangjiakou.
“There was a little bit of ice on my magazine and it would not go down (into the rifle). I had big gloves on today because of the cold and it was difficult to get it down normally, it just went down a little bit late today,” Fillon Maillet told reporters.
With his fingers hindered by his larger, warmer gloves, he resorted to slamming the weapon with the heel of his hand before firing off a salvo of five perfect shots in terrible weather conditions.
Fillon Maillet was able to make the most of several misses by rival Johannes Thingnes Boe to take over the lead after the halfway point of the race despite driving snow and whirling winds, and after that he never looked back. He shot a clear round and won gold.
“I worked a lot this summer to prepare for these conditions, with the cold, with the rain, and today that is the gift of my profession,” he said. “It’s incredible to do it again, to be in the medals - four races, four medals.”
Great Britain beat Denmark 8-2 in men's curling round robin match
The British men’s team have wrapped up victory over Denmark 8-2 with two ends to spare. That gives them four wins out of five. In the other matches the US look set to beat China, they are 7-3 up after seven ends. Italy are leading Switzerland 5-4 after seven ends.
It is Belgium v Argentina in the first pair of the women’s 500m speed skating. Mihaela Hogas had the better of Maria Victoria Rodríguez and sets the first benchmark. It is three-and-a-half seconds off Olympic record pace at 39.45.
While we wait for the women’s 500m speed skating to start in just under fifteen minutes, here is an update on the scores in the men’s curling. After seven ends Team GB still look to be comfortable against Denmark, leading 5-2. But you know how quickly those scores can swing. The US are 7-3 up against China after six ends. Italy have just scored three in the sixth end to take the lead against Switzerland 5-4. Tight, that one now.
There has already been a flurry of goals in the ice hockey. Canada have put three past China in the first ten minutes to make it 3-0 early doors, and the US and Germany have exchanged a goal each to make it 1-1.
Through a skeleton career almost derailed by a lack of funding and a severe concussion, Jackie Narracott found a way to win Australia’s most unlikely Olympic medal.
Steven Bradbury became part of folklore with his speed-skating gold medal heroics while Chloe Esposito snatched a surprise modern pentathlon gold, but Narracott winning a silver medal in a sport where Australia has no facilities or training program tops the lot.
The 31-year-old, who has not been home to Queensland since 2019, scorched to second behind German Hannah Neise.
She made history, winning Australia’s first Olympic sliding medal, and it is the first time Australia has won four medals at a Winter Games.
Team chef de mission Geoff Lipshut admitted he thought he would never see an Australian sliding medal, with Narracott finishing 16th in PyeongChang.
“We actually tried to run a skeleton program from 2006 to 2014 and we actually didn’t get the results and that’s why Jackie is so remarkable,” Lipshut said on Sunday from Zhangjiakou.
“She’s found a way to do something that’s truly incredible.”
Read more here: Jackie Narracott’s wild ride from bad concussion to unlikely Olympic silver
The Netherlands and Canada were watching anxiously to see if China or the Russian Olympic Committee could push them out of the semi-final spots in the men’s pursuit. China were well off the pace and nearly got caught. It was more touch and go with ROC – they eventually finished strongly, despite the slow Chinese team getting in their way and/or providing air assistance depending on whether you support Canada or not. Their 3:38.67 was enough to push Canada out of contention, so the semi-final line-up will be Norway v Netherlands and US v ROC and Canada miss out. The semi-finals are on Tuesday.
There will be a pause now while they do ice maintenance, and then we will have the women’s 500m, which sees thirty skaters race each other in 15 pairs, and then the fastest gets the gold.
Updated
Denmark have pinched a stone back against Great Britain in the men’s curling. It is 4-1 to Team GB after five ends.
The US and Norway both seemed to get off to slow starts, but then recovered well enough to go first and second, with Norway being the fastest by 0.04 at 3:37.47. That means South Korea and Italy are out. China and the Russian Olympic Committee go next, and they know if they go faster than 3:40.17 they will be in the semi-finals.
The next quarter-final in the men’s pursuit has seen terrific runs by Canada and the Netherlands. The Dutch posted 3:38.9 to go into the lead. Canada slot into second with 3:40.17. There are four more teams to go. Only four teams can progress. The US and Norway are up next. The US posted a new world record in Salt Lake City back in December last year, and must be strong favourites to medal.
A curling score update after four ends – Team GB 4-0 Denmark, China 2-5 US, Switzerland 2-2 Italy.
The four fastest teams overall progress to the next round in the men’s team pursuit. South Korea have posted 3:41.89, Italy have posted 3:42.04. Last time out in PyeongChang 3:41.18 was the benchmark to reach the semi-finals. Neither of those sides may end up qualifying.
You can be forgiven for moaning that most of the matches in the ice hockey in this Winter Olympics have been low stakes, with the group stages not eliminating anybody in the men’s competition, but this is very much not the case for these men’s teams pursuit quarter-finals in the speed skating. Each of these match-ups looks brutal.
QF1 South Korea – Italy
QF2 2014 Champions Netherlands – 2010 Champions Canada
QF3 World record holders US – Olympic record holders Norway
QF4 Hosts China – ROC
Eight laps and the winner takes it all. Or goes through to the semi-finals anyway.
The men’s ice hockey starts at ten past the hour. I’m not a psychic but this is how I expect the last games in Group A to play out. A young NHL-star free US side should still have enough about them to see off Germany, and claim top spot in the group with three wins and an automatic quarter-final slot. Canada should be able to score freely against a China team who have already shipped 11 goals in two games, but it won’t be enough to make a difference to them. Sweden’s point gained in overtime defeat to Finland earlier was enough to guarantee the Swedes will have the best second-placed team record and also advance direct to the quarter-finals. The play-off round is on Tuesday, the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Pejman Faratin has put together a brilliant picture gallery of some of the more outlandish helmet designs that competitors have been sporting in Beijing during these Winter Games. You can find that here.
A quick curling scores update after two ends of session seven of the men’s round robin stage: Team GB lead Denmark 2-0, Switzerland and Italy are tied 1-1, and the US lead China 2-1.
Before I joined you on the live blog today I was putting together my daily Beijing Briefing. Catch up on what happened late yesterday and earlier this morning all in one place – all with emojis. You can read it here:
You can also sign up to get it sent to you by email every single day for the rest of the Games. It is completely free.
Gold for Liu Shaoang of Hungary in the men's 500 short track skating!
Forty seconds of blistering racing decides the 500m short track skating for the men – and the gold medal goes to Liu Shaoang of Hungary! ROC’s Konstantin Ivliev takes silver. Canada’s Steven Dubois with bronze!
I feel like I could have been there today if I hadn’t spent so much time at Lea Valley Ice Centre in the 1980s eating chips in the cafe rather than doing the actual skating.
They just false-started at the first attempt to get the 500m men’s short track skating final underway.
Updated
The 500m short track B final has just finished. Wu Dajing of China, the reigning Olympic champion in this event until the very next race, came first. Pavel Sitnikov of ROC was second.
Today’s final round of curling has got underway. There are three men’s matches: Great Britain (W3 L1) v Denmark (W0 L4), Switzerland (W3 L1) v Italy (W0 L4) and China v US (both W2 L3).
We get the B final first, and then the A final in the men’s 500m. Surprisingly World and Olympic record holder Wu Dajing of China didn’t make the A final.
Hello, it is Martin Belam here to take you through to today’s close of play. Coming up is the men’s 500m short track, the kind of event that is over before I’ve typed out who is racing. In about an hour we get the men’s pursuit quarter-finals in speed skating which should be great, followed by the women’s 500m. There’s some ice hockey as well – China face Canada and the US face Germany as Group A wraps up. The freestyle skiing women’s aerials qualification has been postponed though due to snow. Boooooo! And then there’s curling. There’s always curling. When I close my eyes at night I see only curling.
My work here is done. Martin Belam will take you through the rest of the day.
Women's 3,000m relay short track speed skating gold for the Netherlands!
Suzanne Schulting brings it home for the Dutch, for an Olympic record of 4min 03.409sec. A great team effort from Schulting, Selma Poutsma, Xandra Velzeboer and Yara van Kerkhof, who dominated the race pretty much from start to finish. South Korea in silver, Canada bronze, China in fourth, unless there is going to be a VAR check ... and China are subsequently bumped up to third and the bronze-medal position.
Updated
The slalom gold medalist Petra Vlhova is leaving the Beijing Olympics early due to an inflamed left ankle tendon. She will miss the Alpine combined event in which she would have been a challenger to Mikaela Shiffrin, the favourite. Mauro Pini, Vlhova’s coach, said they did not want to risk making the injury worse by trying for a medal in the combined.
By winning the slalom, Vlhova became Slovakia’s first Olympic medalist in Alpine skiing. Pini added that Vlhova also wants to make sure she has time “to go home and share this medal with those closest to her.” Vlhova had already sat out the super-G and the opening downhill training session. The Alpine combined is scheduled for Thursday. (AP)
In the short track women’s 3,000 relay Final B, it is confirmed that Italy have beaten Poland after a lengthy review by the judges ... now it’s time for Final A.
Netherlands, China, Canada and South Korea will contest it.
You can see the full schedule here:
Real snow finally arrived at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and disrupted events on Sunday, leading to mixed fortunes for the Alpine skiiers who were breaking new ground for their countries in difficult conditions.
Saudi Arabia’s Fayik Abdi finished 44th, but Haiti’s Richardson Viano failed to finish. Benjamin Alexander, Jamaica’s first ever Alpine skiier, was slowest of those to complete the course, finishing more than a minute behind the gold medallist, Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt.
Updated
So Ivliev (ROC), Sighel (Italy), Liu (Hungary) and Azhgaliyev (Kazakhstan) are through to the ‘A’ final in the 500m short track men’s event. The semi-final results are here.
500m short track skating: Liu (Hungary) wins semi-final two. But the result is under review. Azhgaliyev second and Dajing third for the moment ...
Ivliev, Sighel and Sitnikov were the top three in the first semi-final, with Nikisha fourth.
Updated
The gruelling nature of cross-country skiing was laid bare on Sunday when Norway’s Ingrid Tandrevold, on the verge of winning a medal in the women’s 10km biathlon, hit the wall, plummeted back through the field and collapsed on the finish line. Fellow Norwegian Marte Olsbu Røiseland had been ahead and clear en route to her third gold of the Games, but Tandrevold, 25, was locked in battle with Swede Elvira Öberg behind her.
With only around 300m to go, however, Öberg forged clear as Tandrevold came to a virtual standstill. She recovered enough to start gliding, but skier after skier passed her and another Norwegian, Tiril Eckhoff, took bronze before Tandrevold crossed the line in 14th place.
Such was the sudden nature of the turnaround that the Eurosport TV commentator called Tandrevold as the bronze medallist, not realising his mistake until minutes after the race. Tandrevold immediately collapsed to the snow - not a particularly unusual sight after cross-country and biathlon races - but needed lengthy medical attention before getting to her feet and being helped away.
“She tried as hard as she could and she did everything to follow Elvira,” Norway team doctor Lars Kolsrud said. “She went empty on top of the hill and hardly got to the finishing line. When she got there she was very sad and sorry, because she lost this medal and she was all empty for power. She was not unconscious but she was very, very exhausted. She said nothing except: ‘I’ve spoiled everything’.”
Tandrevold, a relay gold medallist at the last three world championships, finished fifth and eighth in the sprint and individual Olympic races during the week and had been hoping to take part in two further events. “We will talk to her and see her and see that she get the proper food and proper drink tonight and then the days that follow and we have to decide whether she should compete anymore,” Kolsrud said. (Reuters)
Updated
Men’s biathlon 12.5km sprint gold for Fillon Maillet of France!
Quentin Fillon Maillet of France crosses the finish line! He wins gold with a time of 39min 07sec – and he hit 20 out of 20 on the range! Tarjei Boe (Norway) will take silver, Eduard Latypov (ROC) will win bronze.
That was a spectacular collapse in the shooting from JT Boe of Norway, who missed seven shots on the range and paid a heavy price ... it sounds like he had the worst of the conditions, with the wind dropping in time for his French rival to nail his shooting.
Updated
Men’s ice hockey: Incredible scenes. Two late goals from Iiro Pakarinen pull Finland back to 3-3 against Sweden, on 56 and 58 minutes. And Harri Pesonen knocks in the overtime winner for the Finns!
As a result, Finland top Group C with three wins out of three.
Updated
Men’s 500m short track skating: Liu (Hungary) wins the fourth quarter-final. Dubois (Canada) qualifies alongside him.
Men’s biathlon 12.5km pursuit: Wow. Boe misses three shots on his third visit to the range! It’s all going wrong for the Norwegian. He’s down to fifth! Fillon Maillet leads, Latypov second, Lukas Hofer (Italy) third. It just shows you how impressive that dominant win by Røiseland was earlier in the women’s event.
Updated
Men’s 500m short track: The qualifiers from the quarter-finals so far are Nikisha (Kazakhstan), Sitnikov (ROC), Dajing (China), Sighel (Italy), Ivliev (ROC) and Dae Heon (South Korea).
Men’s biathlon 12.5km pursuit: Boe misses twice! His lead is down to 19.9sec. Fillon Maillet second, Latypov of ROC third, 36sec off the pace of the Norwegian.
Updated
A correction on that women’s round robin curling table from Mike Todd on email. Great Britain are third thanks to the head-to-head record against USA and Sweden. The official table is here.
Updated
The men’s 500m short-track skating has officially begun.
These pursuit biathlon events, perhaps needless to say, favour the fast, skilful skiers in the field. Earlier on Marte Røiseland dominated in the women’s 10km pursuit. It looks very much like JT Boe is going to do the same for Norway in this men’s event.
Updated
Biathlon – men’s 12.5km pursuit: The latest biathlon fun has kicked off. Sadly it doesn’t seem to be on TV anywhere ... but wait! I’ve found it in the Eurosport app. Happy days.
Johannes Thingnes Boe nails five out of five on his first visit to the range. The usual suspects are there: Quentin Fillon Maillet of France, Maxim Tsvetkov of ROC.
Fillon Maillet gets back in Boe’s face with five out of five ... but he’s 41sec off the pace. The next closest athlete is Eduard Latypov of ROC, 1min 21 sec down.
Updated
Women’s round robin curling: Following a win against Denmark earlier, Great Britain’s team are fifth in the standings. Switzerland top the table, with five wins from five, Japan next with four out of three, then the USA, Sweden and Great Britain all have three wins out of five.
Men’s ice hockey: Finland pull a goal back against Sweden, in Group C, and they now trail 3-1.
In case anyone is not clear on the format of the ice hockey competition, by the way, thanks to Pawel Smrek for emailing in:
“Both Slovakia and Latvia [in Group C] can still advance to the quarter-finals. Three group winners and one runner up with the best record advance automatically to the quarter-finals. Remaining eight teams will play a one match playoff to determine who gets remaining 4 spots.”
So it’s all to play for, even for the teams that are left trailing in their respective groups. USA currently top Group A, with Canada second. ROC and Denmark occupy the top two spots in Group B. And Finland and Sweden lead the way in Group C.
Updated
As for that men’s 500m short track speed skating, the event briefly flashed up as live and then promptly disappeared, hence a bit of confusion at this end. Anyway, it does seem to be starting in half an hour or so. So keep it locked.
Men’s ice hockey: Both Finland and Sweden had two wins from two before this Group C encounter, so something has to give. Sweden lead 3-0 after three power play goals, moving into the third period.
Another near-perfect shooting performance gave Marte Olsbu Røiseland of Norway her third gold medal of the Beijing Olympics when she cruised to victory in the women’s 10km pursuit at the National Biathlon Centre. The Swedish prodigy Elvira Öberg took her second Olympic silver medal in 48 hours with Røiseland’s teammate Tiril Eckhoff winning bronze.
A thick layer of fresh snow covered much of the man-made course as the race got under way, making the going heavy and punishing those who missed shots and had to endure a penalty loop of 150 metres. With the staggered start based on the results from Friday’s sprint, Roieseland, 31, was not initially troubled as she hit her first five shots.
A miss by Öberg allowed Dorothea Wierer to slide into second place early on but the Italian was unable to exploit a miss by the Norwegian leader at the third shoot, missing two of her own five shots to fall more than 90 seconds behind on the fourth lap.
With her biggest rivals struggling, Røiseland was never going to turn up her nose at such an opportunity and she flashed off her last five shots in perfect fashion before skiing away from the range, safe in the knowledge that only a broken pole or ski could keep her from gold.
Behind her the battle for silver gathered pace as the rest of the pack followed Wierer on to the range, with the 22-year-old Oeberg making a stunning comeback to retake second place ahead of the final lap. Norway’s Ingrid Tandrevold was hot on her heels as the two exited the final shoot, but Oeberg quickly dropped her to secure the silver medal, her second at the Games after second place in Friday’s sprint. Tandrevold’s challenge fell apart completely on the final lap, allowing Eckhoff to glide past and take the bronze, with Tandrevold eventually finishing in 14th place before collapsing. She needed medical attention before being helped off the course. (Mitch Phillips, Reuters)
Updated
Men’s ice hockey: Sweden have raced into a 3-0 lead against Finland! Anton Lander tucks in the third goal after 31 minutes of the second period. Finland have given up a couple of costly penalties, and now have an icy mountain to climb.
Updated
On the sidelines of the doping scandal involving the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, the skaters of Japan are hoping to receive their medals for the figure skating team event, the Japan Olympic Committee said on Sunday.
“They’re not really thinking about the doping issue or what medal they’ll get. They’re more interested in the medal ceremony and wondering whether they will be able to collect their medals while in Beijing,” said Japan’s chef de mission, Hidehito Ito.
The Japanese skaters came third in the team figure skating event on Monday, behind Russia and the USA, before news broke of a positive doping test involving 15-year-old Valieva, part of the winning ROC ensemble. Valieva’s future at the Games is due to be decided at a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearing on Sunday, with a decision expected on Monday.
Teams from the USA and Japan are also awaiting the results. “The athletes are a bit disappointed that they have to wait for the medal ceremony to happen – they had really worked so hard for that medal,” Ito said.
The chef de mission said the Japan Olympic Committee would accept the results of the doping case. “It’s a shame that the timing of the medal ceremony hasn’t been decided yet, but it doesn’t concern Japan, so we would like to refrain from commenting on Valieva’s case,” Ito said. “We believe that the relevant organisations will take the necessary steps so we won’t comment on the issue.” (Sakura Murakami, Reuters)
Updated
Men’s ice hockey: Sweden lead Finland 1-0 in the second period of that grudge Group C match. Bodies continue to smash into each other on the ice with regularity. There will be some bruised bodies among those players in the morning.
Updated
We just saw the replay, and Tandrevold simply seemed to run out of gas at the end of the 10km pursuit biathlon. Eckhoff powered past her on what I think was the final climb before the finish. Eckhoff looks suitably delighted to have grabbed a medal at the last, while Tandrevold collapses in a heap at the finish, and not just through exhaustion. She is devastated.
Updated
Tiril Eckhoff (Norway) has jumped into the bronze medal position! It wasn’t on camera, but it looks like Ingrid Tandrevold must have fallen, or had a technical problem, and she falls out of the top 10.
Sweden’s Elvira Öberg wins silver!
Updated
Women’s 10km pursuit biathlon gold for Norway's Marte Røiseland!
Røiseland skis across the finish line, waving to the crowd all the way and smiling. She’s got it! A massively accomplished performance of endurance and accuracy.
Updated
Røiseland is beaming as she skis away from the range. She knows she’s got the gold secured, unless something astonishing happens.
Wierer misses once and she is going to be under pressure in the silver medal position ... and in fact she is bumped down to fourth! Elvira Öberg (Sweden) and Ingrid Tandrevold (Norway) now occupy the second and third places on the virtual podium.
Öberg is only a couple of seconds ahead of Tandrevold!
Updated
Røiseland hits five out of five at her last visit to the range! She is closing in on a third gold medal of these Games!
Biathlon – women’s 10km pursuit: Røiseland has missed just the once at the shooting range so far, in three visits, and has amassed a lead of 1min 33sec over her closest challenger, Wierer of Italy. Røiseland is having a seriously impressive Olympics and I can only imagine the Norwegian snow sports fans are going crazy for this.
Updated
Biathlon – women’s 10km pursuit: Marte Røiseland of Norway currently tops the charts by a healthy 38.7sec. Dorothea Wierer, of Italy, second on the course at the moment. Røiseland is halfway around the course now, having started with a 38sec advantage, after dominating the sprint event. Elvira Öberg (Sweden) is third.
Updated
Women’s round robin curling: China clinched a dramatic 6-5 win against South Korea after they were tied at 5-5 at the end of 10 ends.
Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt won gold in the men’s giant slalom at the Beijing Olympics on Sunday, fending off a superb effort from Zan Kranjec of Slovenia. Odermatt finished with a combined time of 2min 9.35sec, putting him 0.19sec ahead of runner-up Kranjec with France’s Mathieu Faivre taking bronze. The first run took place in driving snow with poor visibility but the decision to delay the second run by 75 minutes paid off, with better conditions producing a thrilling battle.
“It’s unbelievable. It was a hard day, with the conditions, with such a long wait between the two runs,” said the 24-year-old Odermatt. “It was more than five hours for me, it was such a long time to rethink everything and it was hard to stay focused. I tried to sleep some minutes in between. I actually never dreamt about it but now it still feels like a dream.”
As the overall World Cup leader, Odermatt was the clear favourite having had four wins and a runner-up spot in five races in giant slalom this season. But Kranjec, who finished fourth in Pyeongchang four years ago, produced a magnificent second run to put himself top of the podium. Austria’s Manuel Feller took a risky, aggressive line and skied out, and Italian Luca de Aliprandini struck a gate.
Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway almost missed a gate, sliding wide and although he recovered to finish he lost valuable time that left him in eighth. Austria’s Stefan Brennsteiner had finished just 0.4sec behind Odermatt in the first run but he too paid the price for almost missing a gate in the second.
Odermatt had to keep his cool on the second run and he did just that with his smooth, classic technique delivering a time of 1min 6.42sec, which was 0.59sec slower than Kranjec’s second effort but just enough to secure him his first Olympic medal. Kranjec’s run meant that the Swiss could not afford to be too conservative but his aggression was controlled enough to avoid the errors that had plagued so many of the challengers.
“I really risked everything in the second run because I wanted not just the medal, I wanted the gold medal,” Odermatt said. “It’s difficult because you can lose everything but today it paid off.”
Odermatt’s triumph continues an impressive Beijing Games for the Swiss Alpine team following Beat Feuz’s gold in the men’s downhill and Lara Gut-Behrami’s victory in the women’s giant slalom. The Swiss also have three bronze medals in women’s races and are top of the Alpine medals table. There was an excellent fourth-place finish for 24-year-old American River Radamus but disappointment for French pair Thibaut Favrot and Alexis Pinturault, who had to settle for fifth and sixth.
Kranjec’s disappointment at seeing Odermatt pip him to gold was tempered by his delight at getting on the podium. “I don’t fully understand it yet. In Korea I was fourth so you never know if you will get another chance to fight for a medal,” he said. “After the first run I said maybe it’s over, I don’t have any more chance. But my second run was really good. It’s unbelievable.” (Reuters)
Updated
On to hockey: in Group C of the men’s competition, Finland and Sweden is goalless with nearly seven minutes of the first period played. The Swedish goalie just got smashed into the net by a body-check from a Finnish opponent. The officials have had a look at it, and have decided it’s fine. Sweden’s coach, watching on, looks unimpressed with that decision.
Updated
Germany currently top the medal table with eight golds, five silvers and a bronze:
Updated
Gold for Russia in the men's 4x10km cross-country skiing!
Sergey Ustiugov has plenty of time to grab a Russian flag and coast home, into the arms of his waiting teammates who cheer him over the line. Another dominant effort from the ROC team in cross-country. Silver for Norway, France win bronze. Klæbo looks dejected as he crosses the line despite winning his duel for silver with Manificat. He, and the Norway team, wanted more. In contrast, the French team celebrate lustily as they welcome Manificat over the line.
Updated
Norway v France. Klæbo v Manificat for silver in the men’s 4x10km cross country.
Women’s round robin curling: South Korea and China are locked at 5-5 after 10 ends, and they’re playing an extra end to determine the winner. Drama.
Updated
Biathlon – the women’s 10km pursuit and men’s 12.5km pursuit are coming up today. The women’s 10km is slated to begin in about 10 minutes.
Updated
Inside the final 4km of the 40km race. It seems ROC have gold secure, barring disasters, while France and Norway will duke it out for silver.
Scratch that! France have caught Norway! Maurice Manificat storms past Klæbo and takes his team into the silver medal position!
Updated
ROC, and Ustiugov, lead the cross-country by 53sec ahead of Norway. They have surely got this in the bag. France are further back, but only by 16sec.
Updated
Great Britain, in the women’s round robin curling, close out a 7-2 win against Denmark! Sweden beat USA 10-4.
Women’s curling team member Vicky Wright speaks to the BBC: “We had a really strong start out there, we were going well, we were a couple up early on ... We always felt in control, we had a game plan and we stuck to it every end ... Eve put the brush in the right place today. We take every game as it comes, we’ve just got to keep going one step at a time. Tomorrow’s another day.
Hailey Duff: “It’s just the same as what we’ve been doing, coming out with confidence, knowing exactly what we want to do. There’s never any easy games, especially here, we have to come out with the exact same mentality ... everyone’s really tough.”
Great Britain face Canada tomorrow.
Updated
On commentary for the BBC, Rob Walker (often spotted at the Crucible for the snooker) speculates that Klæbo may be biding his time and skiing steadily before an all-out effort later on.
Cross-country skiing: The leading teams have handed over for the fourth and final leg in the men’s 4x10km. This course, which contains plenty of tough climbing, leaves the finishing athletes completely spent.
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, a cross-country galactico, is the man chasing down ROC. Can he overhaul their lead of almost a minute ... ? Not so far! Sergey Ustiugov has extended the ROC lead to 58sec at the first time check on the fourth leg.
Updated
Will Great Britain come home empty-handed from the Beijing Games?
Here’s Sean Ingle:
With nearly 30km raced in the men’s 4x10km cross-country and the ROC lead is holding steady, more or less: They’ve got 53 seconds right now, a commanding lead, and they are looking well set to continue ROC success in cross-country after the women triumphed yesterday in the 4x5km relay.
Updated
Women’s round robin curling, latest scores:
Switzerland 6-4 Canada
Korea 4-3 China
USA 4-7 Sweden
Denmark 2-4 Great Britain
The race leader, Spitsov of the ROC team, just went through a time split on this third leg, and the gap has widened a bit more, to 54.4sec. Holund of Norway is second with Burman (Sweden) and Parisse (France) next in the chase group bunched together.
Updated
Thanks Geoff. Hello everyone. Here we go for day nine. The ROC team continue to lead the way in the cross country skiing (Men’s 4x10km Relay). Norway, Sweden, Germany, France and Finland giving chase.
Updated
That’s enough from me for the day, next it will be Luke McLaughlin.
Gold for Switzerland in the giant slalom
Marco Odermatt seals it with the last run of the day! He has the worst conditions too, it has got quite dark and foggy, visibility is poor, and the track is icy. His second run is slower than Kranjec’s by about 0.4 of a second, but his first run was so fast that he has enough of a buffer. He wins gold by 0.19 of a second. Kranjec silver, and Mathieu Faivre takes bronze for France.
Cross-country: Bolshunov taps his countryman away for the third leg with a lead of 59.4 seconds. Norway and Sweden get away next, then Finland only 10 seconds behind them! Niskanen, way back in the field, has produced one of the great races. Gobbled up almost everyone in front of him, and got his country back into medal contention. France, Germany, Italy after that.
Cross-country: Bolshunov is nearly 56 seconds up now! And Niskanen has got Finland up to sixth, having made up 50 seconds on the leader. Incredible stuff. Italy have dropped back to seventh. Poromaa has Sweden up to third. Germany and France to follow.
Giant slalom: Henrik Kristoffersen nearly crashes out, but somehow regains control to get through a gate. He was ahead of the pace but with that slip he finishes sixth. Three contenders to come, Kranjec still top.
Giant slalom: Zan Kranjec goes top for Slovenia. Only five contenders to come.
Updated
Cross-country: Bolshunov is out to nearly 47 seconds in front now. Niskanen has made up 35 seconds of the two-minute gap he started with. Outstanding. Finland back up to eighth and closing. Norway, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland in front of him.
Curling: The score still just 3-2 in favour of Great Britain in the seventh end.
Giant slalom: The lead keeps changing here. Pinturault of France takes it, Caviezel of Switzerland comes in second, then the USA go top via River Radamus.
Updated
Cross-country: Bolshunov is all on his own out the front, looking like he’s enjoying a nice scenic Sunday ski. Making his own pace, setting a high cadence on the uphills. He’s extended the lead to nearly 40 seconds. Norway have come up to second place, Italy third, Germany, France, Sweden to follow, with the talent of William Poromaa racing this second leg for the Swedes.
Giant slalom: Andorra take the lead! Joan Verdu gets down in 1:06:80, fastest run today so far. There are racers to come who had faster first legs, but still. Quite a moment.
Cross-country: Behind the top three are Norway, France and Sweden.
Cross-country: Italy and Germany come through 23 and 24 seconds behind the ROC time. Finland, with the great Iivo Niskanen skiing their second leg, trail on the first by nearly two minutes. Even he can’t make that up over 10km.
Updated
Cross-country: ROC finish the lap first in 30:14:7, and now Alexander Bolshunov takes off. Already has one gold at these Games.
Giant slalom: The American Tommy Ford takes top spot off Zampa. I bet he can’t even bowl. Still a stack of racers to come.
Giant slalom: I know I’ve mentioned cricket too many times today, but Adam Zampa has just set the fastest time on the course so far today. Multi-talented. Not sure why he’s skiing for Slovakia though.
Cross-country: Alexey Chervotkin has the ROC team 27 seconds ahead about three quarters of the way through his first leg. Germany and Italy placed next.
Cross-country: It’s actually snowing on the course today. Real stuff, from the sky, not the machine-era thing we’ve had so far. The men’s race is tightly packed, big groups of racers punched together.
Giant slalom: The men’s second round, the one that will decide the medals, has begun as well. It seems quite icy on the run today, the skis are sliding and scraping rather than taking purchase. It’ll be a tough run.
Updated
Cross-country: The men’s 4x10km relay is underway, with the first-leg racers out on course. Updates to come.
Updated
Curling: With the chance at scoring one point in the fourth end, GB decide against it, because not scoring means they will keep last stone for the subsequent end, where they could score more than one. We’re all learning here.
Updated
Curling: In the other matches, Korea lead China 2-1, same score for the Swiss over Canada, and the USA and Sweden are 2-2.
Curling: The Danes score in the third end, so it’s 2-1 now into the fourth, where GB has last stone again.
Curling: The Brits set up a stone in the house and a couple of blockers, but a good shot from Denmark uses some ricochets and clears out everything. No stones in play with seven to come. The second end winds up being a blank end, no score.
Ice hockey: Slovakia wins over Latvia 5-2 in the end, with five individual scorers as well.
Updated
Curling: A good start for GB, scoring two points in the first end to lead.
Curling: We’re about to start, in the women’s round robin match. Great Britain will shoot last in the first end. That sentence makes no sense anywhere outside curling. Eve Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Jennifer Dodds, and Hailey Duff are up against Madeleine Dupont, Denise Dupont, Mathilde Halse, and My Larsen.
Ice hockey: Here come the Latvians. Back to 3-2 in the third period with Slovakia having a player sent off for two minutes.
Updated
Ice hockey: Slovakia up 3-1 now over Latvia, with three goalscorers.
And of course, make sure to check out our picture gallery from day eight. Some great shots as usual.
Updated
Here’s a much more cheery story on Jamaican skiing.
Sean Ingle has the latest on the 15-year-old skater Kamila Valieva - as Barney Ronay pointed out, if she is found to have used a banned substance, she’s a victim of abuse rather than someone to be vilified.
Here is Martin on an unusual Australian medal in the skeleton.
And here is a bit more on that snowboard win, from Bryan Graham.
This should be your first stop on every Olympic day: Martin Belam’s daily briefing.
Time to catch up with the Guardian coverage from Beijing. As someone who has just spent the southern summer covering cricket, this British angst feels slightly familiar.
What's on today?
Right now, not much. Slovakia are playing Latvia in the men’s ice hockey Group C match, and the wily Slovaks lead 2-1 in the second period.
Much coming up though. Here are the times in GMT, so add eight hours for China, 11 hours for the east coast of Australia, subtract five hours for the east coast of the USA, and eight hours for the west coast. Other zones, you’ll have to do your own homework. Ok, the Marshall Islands are plus 12 hours.
6:05am: Women’s curling round robin matches, including Great Britain v Denmark and the USA v Sweden.
7am: Men’s 10km cross-country relay, and the medal-deciding run of the men’s giant slalom.
8:40am: Finland and Sweden in the men’s ice hockey Group C match. Then at 1:10 pm we’ve got China-Canada and USA-Germany from Group A.
9am: Biathlon women’s 10km pursuit final.
10:45am: Biathlon men’s 12.5km pursuit final.
11am: Women’s aerials qualifiers, should be spectacular.
11:44am: Women’s 3000m short track relay final.
Midday: Men’s curling round robin, including Great Britain v Denmark again.
12:14pm: Men’s 500m short track final.
1pm: Men’s team pursuit quarters in the speed skating.
1:56pm: Women’s 500m speed skating final.
Updated
Preamble
Hello, ice to see you! Welcome to the Winter Olympics action once again. It is day... nine, maybe? I don’t know, my dreams are a blur of the sound of blades on ice. Everywhere I look, all I see are Austrians flying down hills. Plenty more medals up for grabs today for those who can keep their balance and hold their composure. Let’s jump in.
