BEIJING (AP) — The Newest on the Beijing Winter Olympics:
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Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China shattered their very own world file for a brief program on the Beijing Video games on Friday night time, giving them the narrowest of leads over Russian rivals Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov heading into the free skate to determine the Olympic champion.
Sui and Han, who gained the brief program on the 2018 Pyeongchang Video games earlier than settling for the silver medal, scored 84.41 factors to their orchestral suite from the movie “Mission: Inconceivable 2.” That topped the file of 82.83 factors that they set through the brief program of the workforce competitors earlier this month.
Tarasova and Morozov, who’re coached partially by the controversial Eteri Tutberidze, additionally would have damaged the file with their brief program. As a substitute, the fourth-place finishers in Pyeongchang had been 16-hundredths of some extent behind.
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The beginning of the Olympic males’s curling remaining between Britain and Sweden has been pushed again 45 minutes to accommodate TV viewers in Europe.
The match can be performed at 2:50 p.m. on Saturday, moderately than 2:05 p.m. Sweden is seven hours behind Beijing, and Britain is eight hours again.
The ladies’s bronze medal match will happen afterward on the authentic begin time of 8:05 p.m.
Organizers additionally stated that the boys’s victory ceremony will now happen on the Ice Dice curling venue, as an alternative of the medals plaza. Canada beat the USA for the bronze on Friday.
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Russian determine skating coach Eteri Tutberidze was again rink-side for the pairs competitors Friday, hours after she was criticized by Worldwide Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach for her callous perspective towards Kamila Valieva after the ladies’s free skate.
Tutberidze helps to educate the Russian pairs workforce of Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii.
Valieva, the 15-year-old on the heart of a doping scandal, crashed out of the ladies’s program with no medal Thursday night time. As she exited the ice, Tutberidze was caught on digicam berating her in Russian.
Bach by no means recognized Tutberidze by title, however he did consult with Valieva’s coaches and stated throughout his Friday information convention that there “gave the impression to be an incredible coldness” and that “it was chilling to see this.”
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Determine skater Timothy LeDuc turned the primary nonbinary American athlete to compete on the Winter Video games, becoming a member of up with Ashley Cain-Gribble for a powerful brief program to open their pairs competitors Friday night time.
Their rating of 74.13 factors was a season finest and put them squarely within the prime 10 getting into Saturday’s free skate.
The 31-year-old LeDuc got here out as nonbinary final 12 months. The time period is used to explain an individual who doesn’t determine as solely male or feminine, and may embody agender, bigender, genderqueer and gender-fluid.
Final 12 months, Canadian ladies’s soccer participant Quinn turned the primary brazenly transgender and nonbinary Olympic medal winner when the workforce earned gold in Tokyo. Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, skateboarder Alana Smith and bike owner Chelsea Wolfe additionally had been amongst at the very least 186 brazenly LGBTQ members through the Summer time Video games.
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Elana Meyers Taylor has been picked to be a flagbearer once more. And this time, she’ll have the ability to take the job.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee introduced Friday night time that the four-time Olympian bobsledder will carry the American flag into Sunday night time’s closing ceremony of the Beijing Video games.
The announcement was synched to Meyers Taylor’s first run within the ladies’s bobsled occasion. As quickly as she crossed the road within the first warmth, the USOPC revealed that she was the flagbearer decide.
Meyers Taylor was chosen to be one of many flagbearers for the U.S. on the opening ceremony on Feb. 4 however couldn’t take part as a result of she was in isolation following a constructive COVID-19 take a look at. That spot went to speedskater Brittany Bowe as an alternative, who led the U.S. delegation into the opening alongside roller John Shuster.
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The final Alpine snowboarding race of the Beijing Olympics has been rescheduled for an hour sooner than deliberate due to sturdy wind within the forecast.
The blended workforce parallel occasion is now set to begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday Beijing time, as an alternative of 11 a.m.
The wind is meant to prime 20 mph (30 kph.)
The workforce occasion includes women and men from every taking part nation and is the final likelihood for American Mikaela Shiffrin to select up a 2022 Winter Video games medal.
Solely one of many 10 athletes who earned particular person Alpine golds in Beijing was listed on the workforce rosters launched Friday: Austria’s Johannes Strolz. He gained the boys’s mixed final week and likewise picked up a silver in slalom on Wednesday.
There’s a 16-team bracket however solely 15 nations entered, so top-ranked Austria will get a first-round bye.
The primary-round matchups are United States vs. Slovakia, Switzerland vs. China, Italy vs. Russia, Norway vs. Poland, France vs. Czech Republic, Germany vs. Sweden, and Slovenia vs. Canada.
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Johannes Thingnes Boe seemed like his previous self once more, dominating from the beginning and holding his composure by means of the 4 capturing phases to win the Olympic gold medal Friday within the biathlon mass begin race.
The Norwegian nice threw his arms within the air as he crossed the road in 38 minutes, 14.4 seconds.
Martin Ponsiluoma of Sweden solely missed one goal within the final capturing and left the vary chasing Boe. He earned silver, 40.3 seconds behind Boe. Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen of Norway shot clear within the final capturing and took bronze, ending 1:12.5 behind.
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Thomas Krol has gained gold within the 1,000 meters, giving the Netherlands its third straight Olympic speedskating title within the occasion.
Krol was timed in 1 minute, 7.92 seconds.
Laurent Dubreuil of Canada took silver. Haavard Lorentzen, the 2018 silver medalist, earned bronze.
The Netherlands earned its fifth gold medal in 12 occasions in Beijing with sooner or later of competitors remaining.
In 2014, Stefan Groothuis gained the 1,000 and Kjeld Nuis adopted with a victory in 2018.
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Sixteen years after he gained the Olympic curling gold medal, Brad Gushue goes again to Canada with bronze.
The Canadians capitalized on a missed remaining shot by American — and reigning Olympic champion — John Shuster within the second-to-last finish that turned a one-point edge into an insurmountable 8-5 lead.
Gushue gained gold in Turin in 2006. Again then, he shared a podium with Shuster, who gained bronze.
This time, the Canadian skip knocked his American counterpart off of it.
The Individuals took a 5-4 lead with two factors within the sixth, then Canada scored two within the eighth to take the lead. With the USA holding the last-rock benefit within the ninth, Shuster tried to knock free two Canadian rocks within the scoring space however missed.
That gave Gushue two factors, with one finish to go. Canada’s third-to final shot cleared the entire American rocks out of the goal space, leaving no likelihood for the U.S. to tie the match, and Shuster instantly conceded.
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Justine Braisaz-Bouchet moved to the entrance with sturdy, affected person capturing and stayed there together with her cross-country snowboarding to win the ladies’s biathlon mass begin race on the Olympics.
A bitter wind affected the sector as they lined up every time to shoot, however Braisaz-Bouchet solely missed as soon as within the final standing capturing and skied out of the vary in first place. She held on and crossed the road carrying a French flag in 40 minutes, 18 seconds.
Norwegian teammates Tiril Eckhoff and Marte Olsbu Roeiseland missed two targets every in that final bout and left the vary collectively, 48 seconds behind the Frenchwoman. Eckhoff chased laborious and crossed the road for the silver, trailing Braisaz-Bouchet by 15.3 seconds.
Roeiseland took bronze — her fifth medal on the Beijing Video games.
Roeiseland is the second biathlete, male or feminine, to win a medal in all 4 particular person occasions at an Olympics, matching Norwegian nice Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. She additionally gained gold within the blended relay.
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Ryan Regez led a 1-2 end by Switzerland within the Olympic skicross remaining at Genting Snow Park.
Regez grabbed the lead early and by no means relinquished it alongside a course stuffed with bumps, jumps and rolling terrain. He raised his arms in triumph shortly after crossing the end line.
His teammate, 36-year-old Alex Fiva, completed with the silver medal and Russian athlete Sergey Ridzik grabbed the bronze.
As a child, Regez at all times thought his future was in Alpine snowboarding, extra particularly the downhill. When that didn’t pan out, he began an apprenticeship as a structural draftsman earlier than discovering skicross.
It paid off in gold.
Within the small remaining, Italian skicross racer Simone Deromedis gained the warmth with a bit little bit of aptitude. He was coming off the final bounce and did the splits earlier than crossing the end line.
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Worldwide Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has criticized Russian determine skater Kamila Valieva’s entourage for his or her “large coldness” towards the 15-year-old skater after her mistake-filled free skate on the Beijing Olympics.
Bach says it was “chilling” to see on tv. Valieva, who has been on the heart of an issue over a constructive doping take a look at, completed fourth total regardless of inserting first within the ladies’s brief program earlier within the week.
The IOC president didn’t title Valieva’s coach, Eteri Tutberidze, who was seen on digicam telling a visibly upset Valieva “Why did you let it go? Why did you cease preventing?”
Bach says “you could possibly really feel this chilling ambiance, this distance.”
Tutberidze and different members of Valieva’s entourage can be investigated over {the teenager}’s constructive take a look at for a coronary heart treatment forward of the Olympics.
Bach says the stress on Valieva was “past my creativeness.”
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Eileen Gu captured gold within the ladies’s ski halfpipe remaining on a breezy and chilly morning to turn into the primary action-sports athlete to earn three medals on the identical Winter Olympics.
Gu warmed up with a rating of 93.25 on her first run, earlier than going even greater and even larger to submit a 95.25 her second. For her third and remaining cross, and with the competition locked up, she took a pleasant leisurely stroll.
The standout American-born freestyle skier who represents China already possessed a gold from large air and a silver from slopestyle.
Defending Olympic champion Cassie Sharpe of Canada completed second and her teammate Rachael Karker earned the bronze. Teenager Hanna Faulhaber was the highest American finisher in sixth place.
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Germany’s Francesco Friedrich took half within the remaining day of four-man bobsled coaching on the Beijing Olympics on Friday, sooner or later after suggesting he would possibly skip the session.
Friedrich was the primary sled down the hill on Friday for the ultimate coaching session. Which will have performed a task in his choice to participate. Friedrich was one of many final sleds to get on the ice Thursday throughout four-man coaching and afterward the three-time Olympic champion expressed issues in regards to the situations of the monitor.
He seemingly loved what he noticed Friday. Friedrich began the day with a run of 58.98 seconds. That was his quickest in 5 journeys down the Yanqing Sliding Middle ice in his four-man sled this week.
He’s the overwhelming favourite for gold within the four-man occasion that begins on Saturday.
Some prime sliders did select to skip coaching Friday, together with Canadian teammates Justin Kripps and Chris Spring, Germany’s Christoph Hafer and Latvian veteran Oskars Kibermanis. It’s common for veterans to decide out of a coaching session, so as to protect their our bodies and sleds for the looming two days of competitors.
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Eileen Gu posted the best rating in her first run of the ladies’s ski halfpipe remaining as she bids to turn into the primary action-sports athlete to seize three medals on the identical Winter Video games.
The standout American-born freestyle skier who represents China already possesses a gold from large air and a silver from slopestyle.
On a blustery and funky day, Gu turned in a strong run and scored a 93.25 to simply cleared the path. Defending Olympic champion Cassie Sharpe of Canada sits in second place after the opening run of three and her teammate Rachael Karker was in third. American teenager Hanna Faulhaber was in fourth.
The temperature hovered round 3 levels Fahrenheit (minus 16 Celsius) with an 11 mph wind.
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The judges who let Russian determine skater Kamila Valieva compete on the Beijing Olympics regardless of a constructive take a look at for a banned substance blamed anti-doping officers for a “failure to perform successfully.”
The Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport, in a newly revealed 41-page doc explaining their choice, cited an “untenable delay” on the testing laboratory in Sweden.
It meant Valieva’s constructive take a look at for a coronary heart treatment was solely revealed through the Olympics regardless of her urine pattern arriving in Stockholm on Dec. 29. The lab’s staffing was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Her attorneys recommended she was contaminated as a result of her grandfather makes use of the banned coronary heart treatment she examined constructive for.
The judges’ full verdict was revealed early Friday, hours after the 15-year-old Valieva’s mistake-filled free skate dropped her from the result in end fourth within the Olympic ladies’s particular person occasion.
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The Worldwide Testing Company says Ukrainian bobsledder Lidiia Hunko has examined constructive for an anabolic steroid on the Beijing Video games.
The ITA says she failed a drug take a look at after competing Monday. She positioned twentieth in ladies’s monobob.
Hunko is the third athlete to check constructive for doping on the Beijing Olympics and the second from Ukraine, after cross-country skier Valnetyna Kaminska.
All three ITA circumstances in Beijing have detected a steroid.
The 28-year-old Hunko positioned second within the 2016 World’s Strongest Girl contest, in keeping with her official Beijing Olympics athlete biography.
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Extra AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports