Here’s How Much Winter Olympic Athletes Get From Their Country For Taking Home the Gold
Follow all the action from the Winter Olympics with six gold medals up for grabs on day 13.
Team GB have guaranteed a first medal of the Beijing Games after Bruce Mouat’s men’s curling team defeated USA in their semi-final. That means they have a silver medal at worst to play for against Sweden in Saturday’s final. There was more good news from the ‘Ice Cube’ where Eve Muirhead’s curling rink advanced to the women’s semi-finals in dramatic fashion. Britain not only had to defeat the ROC in their final group match but then hope results elsewhere went their way and, after an agonising wait following their victory, the fates aligned in their favour. They will now face defending champions Sweden in the semi-finals on Friday.
Elsewhere, Russian teenager Kamila Valieva endured a torrid end to her controversial Games, falling twice in her free skate routine in the women’s figure skating to finish fourth and outside the medals. The IOC had already confirmed there would be no medal ceremony should she win one after it emerged she tested positive for a banned substance back in December. Compatriot Anna Shcherbakova took gold with fellow Russian Alexandra Trusova second and Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto third.
Follow live coverage from the Winter Olympics below:
Silver medallist vows to ‘never skate again’ after missing out on gold
The pressure weighing on teenage figure skaters was all too evident on Thursday when silver medallist Alexandra Trusova broke down in tears before the podium ceremony after the women’s single event at the Beijing Olympics.
The 17-year-old Russian, who attempted five quadruple jumps in a high-octane routine at the Capital Indoor Stadium, missed out on gold by 4.22 points after the judges favoured her compatriot Anna Shcherbakova’s free skate.
World champion Shcherbakova, also 17, landed only two quads, and Trusova’s athletic performance to Cruella and the Stooges’s “I Wanna Be Your Dog” helped her score more points in the free skate, but it was not enough to make up for her disappointing performance in Tuesday’s short programme.
With all the attention on 15-year-old prodigy Kamila Valieva, who in the wake of a doping scandal slipped to the ice and tumbled to fourth after topping the standings in the short programme, Trusova’s moment of despair almost went unnoticed.
“Everyone has a gold medal, everyone, but not me. I hate skating. I hate it. I hate this sport. I will never skate again. Never,” Trusova said as she briefly left the sight of Eteri Tutberidze, who coaches her, Shcherbakova and Valieva.
Full details on the outburst here:
Karl Matchett17 February 2022 17:30
Weight limits exclude larger women, bobsleigh competitors say
As the women’s bobsleigh teams prepare to push to their limits in the Olympic competition starting on Friday, some competitors believe they are also pushing against a different kind of limitation – one placed on their weight.
A two-person bobsleigh must weigh a minimum of 170 kilos in both the men’s or women’s competition, according to rules from the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF), the sport’s governing body.
The men must weigh less than 390 kilos combined with their bobsleigh and the women and their bobsleigh must be below 330 kilos, leaving little room for athletes with bigger builds.
The IBSF reduced the weight limits for the two-woman event from 2015, in a bid to reduce the amount of bulking-up women needed to do.
“The IBSF saw an increased number of female athletes starting to participate in bobsleigh over the last years which follows an initiative by the IBSF development program,” the IBSF said in a statement to Reuters.
“This program for example also supported the women’s monobob program in the past two years.”
For relatively lighter competitors like Australia’s Breeana Walker and Kiara Reddingius, the weight limits are in the right place.
“We’re a bit smaller than some of the girls, we actually have to put a bit of weight on, so for us it’s not a problem,” said Reddingius on Thursday.
“I’m a smaller-size pilot, there’s a lot of smaller-sized pilots, we struggle to make those upper kilos,” said Walker.
“You have to keep eating and maintain your training and that can be really hard. It works both ways – it’s hard to put on weight but also hard to take off weight,” Walker added.
Other athletes said the reduction had caused problems.
“I really do think there is a major issue when you lower the weight limit in a sport that thrives off of strong powerful women who tend to be naturally bigger,” said Canada’s Cynthia Appiah.
Like many in the sport, Appiah came from an athletics background, where she specialised in the hammer throw and shot put.
“You open a can of worms, almost a Pandora’s box of problems. And we’ve heard so many times over the last few years about body image issues, dietary issues, or just eating disorders, especially in women’s sport.
“We’ve had to adapt. Thankfully we haven’t lost many competitors, but I can’t say how many more women could have considered bobsleigh that now can’t.”
Karl Matchett17 February 2022 17:15
Japan’s Miho Takagi wins gold in women’s 1,000 metres speed skating
Japanese speed skater Miho Takagi finally clinched a gold medal on Thursday after winning three silvers at the Beijing Olympics, as fans breathed a sigh of relief that she would end the Winter Games on a high.
After coming up just short in the 1,500m, the 500m and the team pursuit, she secured the elusive top spot on the podium as she sailed to victory in the women’s 1,000 metres.
“There have been lots of ups and downs for me, winning silver medals. To finally win the gold, I am happy, but I am happy not just for the medal, but because I could really give it my best today,” Takagi said.
During this Winter Games, she became the most decorated female Japanese Olympian, after previously winning a gold, silver and bronze in Pyeongchang four years ago.
The 27-year-old finished behind speed skating great Ireen Wust in her strongest 1,500m distance, while the gold slipped out of her hands again when a team mate fell on the last corner in the team pursuit.
“I was terrified to watch the race today, especially because the team pursuit race was so heartbreaking,” said one fan at the National Speed Skating Oval.
“So I was just praying that she would win gold today… I’m so glad it actually happened.”
“To finish on a gold medal – it was like watching a TV series! Thank you for inspiring us,” said another fan on Twitter.
Thursday’s victory was Takagi’s first individual title in a career spanning 12 years. She made her Olympic debut at Vancouver in 2010 as a 15-year-old, but did not qualify for Sochi.
In a sport where skaters would usually save themselves for two or three races, Takagi raced in five – the 500m, 1,000m, 1,500m, 3,000m, and team pursuit.
Karl Matchett17 February 2022 17:00
US skaters tell Olympic chief they wanted to leave Beijing with their medals
The U.S. figure skating team told the president of the International Olympic Committee they would have liked to leave the Beijing Games with their figure skating medals won 10 days ago, the U.S. Olympic Committee said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) has sent a letter to the International Skating Union asking that last week’s team results, in which the Russians won gold, should stand regardless of the outcome of Kamila Valieva’s drug case.
The ROC also said it would “categorically disagree” with any asterisk placed next to the results if 15-year-old Valieva finishes in the top three of the single event later on Thursday.
With the doping case against the teenager unresolved, none of the top competitors in the Feb. 7 team event can receive their medals.
If Valieva, who is favourite, finishes in the top three on Thursday, those medals also will not be awarded until well after the Games end.
The U.S. finished second behind Valieva and the ROC in last week’s team event. Japan were third and Canada fourth.
Members of the U.S. team met with the IOC president Thomas Bach.
“The athletes have expressed their view that they would like to go home with the medals, albeit at this point with the silver medals,” United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) CEO Sarah Hirshland said.
“It’s unfair to these athletes, not only on our team, but all the athletes who show up here and expect the integrity of the competition to be intact, and we did not give it to them and that’s not right.”
Fresh from leaving the ice for her single free skate Thursday night, American Karen Chen said she was looking forward to receiving a torch from Games officials.
“It’s unfortunate that we aren’t able to get our medals,” Chen said. “I have yet to see the torch, but once that is given to us, I think it’s also such a special moment that we will cherish forever.”
Karl Matchett17 February 2022 16:45
Brits keep stiff upper lips after crash, ready to go full bore in the four-man bobsleigh
Britain’s Brad Hall and Nick Gleeson were back in bobsleigh action on Thursday, two days after a dramatic crash, joining team mates Greg Cackett and Taylor Lawrence as they made ready for the four-man event, the finale of the sliding sports.
Some in the British press may have painted it as if disaster had struck when Hall and Gleeson crashed in the third run of the two-man bobsleigh on Tuesday.
But the pair kept calm and carried on for a fourth run soon after, and Hall said he was feeling “pretty good” after training on Thursday ahead of the four-man competition that begins on Saturday.
“Second day back in the four-man, so a couple of nice runs today and we can progress into tomorrow and get ready for the race.”
On Tuesday, the pair were rocketing down the Yanqing at over 130 km an hour when the bobsleigh’s runners mounted the siding and tipped over, leaving their heads perilously close to the ice as they skidded through the finish line.
But Hall and Gleeson said they were “perfectly fine”.
“These sorts of things happen in sport racing especially. The best way to get over them is to just jump straight back in the driving seat and carry on,” Hall said.
Despite the flip, the team still finished the round with a competitive time, finishing 11th overall, Britain’s highest finish in the Olympic event since 2002.
While the team garners attention back home, the current crop doesn’t feel any pressure, said Gleeson.
“Everyone out there knows that we’re not a massive winter sporting nation. We don’t have snow, we don’t have ski slopes. We don’t have our own bobsleigh track or anything like that.
“The closest track from us is about a 10-, 12-hour drive. So trying to do all this stuff against some of these nations out here that have home facilities is quite hard.”
The four-man team was feeling confident on Thursday, where they finished sixth and seventh respectively on their two runs on the day.
It comes after they finished the last World Cup season in fourth place overall – heights Britain hadn’t scaled this century.
“Considering the season that we just had, obviously we’ve got the COVID and everything, the results we have in the world cup is absolutely amazing. So we try and top it off here,” Gleeson said.
“The pressure for us really is internally created because we had an amazing season, and internal pressure’s easy to control,” said Greg Cackett.
“We just chill out, we come together. We do what we’ve done today, a couple of good pushes, couple of good drives. The boys are back with us now, so it feels like we’re a solid unit again. We go full bore on the weekend,” he said. “Can’t wait, honestly.”
Karl Matchett17 February 2022 16:30
Mikaela Shiffrin has responded via Twitter to people she says “have so much apparent hate.”
Not long after Mikaela Shiffrin skied off-course for the third time in five races at the Beijing Olympics, she wondered aloud to reporters about what sort of vitriol might be directed her way.
“There’s going to be a whole chaotic mess … that people are saying about how I just fantastically failed these last couple weeks in the moments that actually counted,” the two-time gold medalist at other Winter Games said after failing to finish the slalom run of the two-leg Alpine combined on Thursday. “It’s really strange, but I’m not even afraid of that right now. Maybe that’s because I have zero emotional energy to give anymore.”
Hours later, the 26-year-old American went on Twitter to post what seemed to be a series of comments she might have seen on social media in reaction to Thursday’s fall, which followed similar mistakes in the giant slalom and slalom last week.
Some examples of what she included: “Choker,” “Can’t handle the pressure,” “Arrogant.”
Shiffrin followed that up with a tweet referring to “the people who have so much apparent hate.” Typed in all capital letters, her second post said, in part: “Let the turkeys get you down. There will always be turkeys. Or get up, again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again.” She continued: “Just get up. It’s not always easy, but it’s also not the end of the world to fail. Fail twice. Fail 5 times. At the Olympics. (Enter me …).”
Shiffrin arrived in Beijing as one of the biggest stars of the Winter Olympics. She won the slalom at the 2014 Sochi Olympics at age 18, then added a gold in the giant slalom and a silver in the combined at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. Shiffrin also owns six world championship golds and three overall World Cup titles and is leading the current standings, too.
“Pressure is a tough thing and expectation’s a tough thing, and that comes with the territory of being one of the greatest in the sport, ever,” U.S. ski team head women’s coach Paul Kristofic said. “She feels that and it weighs on her.”
The best Shiffrin did at the 2022 Games was a ninth-place finish in the super-G and 18th in the downhill. Her “Did Not Finish” result in the giant slalom was her first in that event in more than four years, a streak of 30 races, and was followed by “DNFs” in the slalom and combined.
While all of the individual ski races are done, Shiffrin does plan to enter a sixth contest Saturday: a team event that was added to the Olympics four years ago and closes the Alpine schedule.
Her second tweet ended with a mention of some of her U.S. teammates, such as Paula Moltzan and River Radamus, and ended with this: “If you are playing the side of hater today, ignore me but definitely look out for them!”
Karl Matchett17 February 2022 16:15
Riiber-less Norway wins gold in Nordic combined team event
Norway won Olympic gold in the Nordic combined team competition on Thursday, overcoming the COVID-related loss of Jarl Magnus Riiber.
The team of four-time Olympic gold medalist Joergen Graabak, Jens Luraas Oftebro, Espen Bjoernstad and Espen Andersen pulled away late in the cross-country race, winning by 54.9 seconds.
“It was actually possible to enjoy the last kilometers and just savor the moment,” said Graabak, who was the final Norwegian skier.
It was an impressive result after Riiber, a three-time champion, chose to go home earlier in the day because he didn’t feel fit to compete.
“Jarl texted me quite soon after the race (Tuesday) and he told me to get ready,” Bjoernstad said.
Riiber took the wrong turn early in a 10K cross-country race and lost a large lead he earned in ski jumping on Tuesday, a day after getting out of COVID isolation. That mistake helped Graabak win gold, making him the first two-time Nordic combined Olympic champion on the large hill after winning the event in 2014.
Graabak also helped Norway win the team event eight years ago and with another first-place finish, he’s the first to win four Olympic gold meals in the sport that combines ski jumping and cross-country skiing.
Germany won silver, giving Eric Frenzel a seventh Olympic medal in Nordic combined to match the record set by Austrian great Felix Gottwald.
Frenzel had only one day to train for the final Nordic combined event of the 2022 Olympics because he was in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 upon arrival in China.
“It was a long time and it’s a good feeling to be back,” he said.
The Germans’ performance also gave Vinzenz Geiger more hardware to go with the gold he won on the normal hill at the Beijing Games.
Japan finished third, getting an Olympic medal in a Nordic combined competition for the first time since winning gold at the 1994 Lillehammer Games.
“We were working hard in the last four years,” said Akito Watabe, who won bronze on the normal hill.
Austria could not keep the eight-second lead it earned in ski jumping, or the advantage it had on the cross-country course midway through the race and finished fourth. The traditional power failed to medal for the first time since 1994.
Karl Matchett17 February 2022 15:57
When is the Winter Olympics men’s curling final and how can I watch it?
Set your alarm clocks for a gold medal match – here are all the details you need for the men’s curling final this weekend.
Team GB will face Sweden after seeing off USA in the semis; they’ve already beaten the Scandinavian nation during the round robin, but it was a very close game there too.
Time, day, channel and all the rest of what you need to know can all be found here:
Karl Matchett17 February 2022 15:43
Gus Kenworthy proud to be part of LGBT+ community at Beijing Games
When Gus Kenworthy competed at the Sochi Olympics in 2014 he was afraid that someone would find out that he is gay — fast-forward eight years and he is out and proud, as are dozens of other athletes at the Beijing Games.
The British-American freestyle skier, who won silver for the United States in Sochi in the slopestyle competition, famously kissed his boyfriend Matt Wilkas live on television before his qualifying run four years later at the Olympics in Pyeongchang.
“It was really tough being in Sochi actually,” 30-year-old Kenworthy recalled in an interview with Reuters. “We had all sorts of media training ahead of the Games because there was anti-LGBT legislation in place and they said that no athletes, no press, no diplomats, would be exempt from the laws in Russia.
“Although I was in the closet and I wasn’t even out, I just felt very not welcomed there, and I didn’t feel like I could be my true self, and I think I had hopes in the back of my mind to maybe speak my truth at the Games in spite of that legislation, and I didn’t. Ultimately that Games was kind of the catalyst for me to start thinking about coming out, and kind of put the gears in motion for me to make that announcement and do that,” he added.
Karl Matchett17 February 2022 15:33
Team GB beat USA to guarantee medal and book place in curling final
Great Britain are set for a medal in curling and will have the chance to go for gold against Sweden, after beating USA 8-4 in their men’s semi-final on Thursday.
Bruce Mouat and his side were kept waiting until the final throws in what was a very tight encounter which remained 6-4 until the last stone, but skip John Shuster was unable to find magic with his last attempt and the defending champions are out.
With Sweden beating Canada 5-3 in the other semi-final, it means another intriguing match-up between the two nations in the final at the National Aquatics Centre in Beijing on Saturday.
Team GB are also up against Sweden in the women’s curling semi-final, which is set to take place a day earlier.
Karl Matchett17 February 2022 15:21