And with that, I’m going to sign off. The Olympic day isn’t quite over – there are a couple of hockey matches ongoing – but nothing remotely medallish remains to be decided. It’s been a big bag of fun. Bye!
Winter Olympics 2018: all the latest from day 11 in Pyeongchang – as it happened
This article is more than 6 years old
Martin Fourcard’s brilliant Biathlon gold and a German clean sweep in the Nordic Combined were the highlights, as Elise Christie’s Games came to an end
Updated
Tue 20 Feb 2018 08.58 EST
First published on Tue 20 Feb 2018 00.00 EST
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Here’s the latest on the fall-out from Russia’s curler Alexander Krushelnitsky testing positive for meldonium:
Italy beat Norway 6-4 in the final curling game of the day. The top four teams qualify for the semi-finals and as it stands that is Sweden (who are already through), Canada, Great Britain and Switzerland. Japan, who play seventh-placed Korea in their last game, and the USA, who play Britain, could still go through if they win. Both those games will be played tomorrow.
Mica McNeill, pilot of the British bob, has a quick chat. They remain sixth, 0.16sec from medals:
This is day six on the track for us, and we haven’t had a lot of time here. We just wanted to build each run. It’s a fun track and it’s gone well so far, so we’re looking forward to carrying that into tomorrow.
The bobsleigh heats are over, and Germany’s Mariama Jamanka and Lisa Buckwitz lead at the end of day one. Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs of the USA are 0.07sec behind them in second.
A couple of completed curling results from the men’s round robin: the USA have beaten Switzerland 8-4, and Japan have prevailed over Denmark, 6-4. Italy seem to be on their way to victory over Norway in the final game of the day, leading as they do 6-3 after nine ends.
A spokesperson for the Hungarian Olympic Committee has given an official reaction to the controversial performance of Elizabeth Swaney in the halfpipe, and it doesn’t sound very encouraging for Swaney’s future Olympic hopes.
We, the Hungarian Olympic Committee, have to learn the lessons from this case, and we must consider rethinking our nomination procedures. We shall be doing this, with the assistance of the appropriate experts, in the near future.
Aha, that’s because I’m looking at the results for the heat, and not the cumulative timings.
The British are next down, and though on my television it says they beat the Canadians by 0.04sec, the official results suggest they didn’t, finishing level with the slower Canadian bob and 0.04sec behind the faster one. Then the third Canadian pair, piloted by Kaillie Humphreys, beats them all – but only just.
With the fastest six from the first heat still to go, Canada are first and second in the bobsleigh.
There are also a couple of hockey matches, and potential for more good news for Germany there: Switzerland’s Cody Almond was thrown out or sent off or whatever they call it in ice hockey after nine seconds. Despite that, it’s currently 1-1 after the second period.
There are three curling matches ongoing, and they’re all very close to a conclusion. Switzerland, who could overtake Britain if they beat the USA, are 7-4 down and almost out of time.
And it is! It’s gold for Johannes Rydzek in the large hill Nordic Combined! Riessle comes second, and Frenzel takes the bronze as Germany gobble up all the medals! Which probably makes up for
It’s down to four: Riiber and the three Germans. It could be a German one-two-three!
Those six, then: Norway’s Jarl Magnus Riiber, Japan’s Akito Watabe, Finland’s Eero Hirvonen, and Johannes Rydzek, Eric Frenzel and Fabian Riessle of Germany.
In the Nordic Combined, then, the top six are in a group and only half of them can win a medal. Geiger has done brilliantly, but is still 16.9sec behind and won’t be able to make up that much time with only 1.5km to go.
I don’t mean to bicker about the BBC, but it is beyond comprehension that they are discussing Elise Christie at length for the 43rd time today, while an actual race is happening and set for an absolutely thrilling conclusion.
The women’s bobsleigh is back on! The second heat has just started, with Nigeria, slowest in heat one, the first down. Their time of 52.55 is half a second slower than their first effort.
The leaders have been caught! The front six are now all together, with only a couple of seconds between them. And Geiger is now 21.7sec behind the leader!
Germany’s Vinzenz Geiger, in seventh, is the name on everybody’s lips – he was a minute behind the leaders as the race started, and has halved that gap in the first half.
The men’s nordic combined 10km cross-country is on! Indeed, the leaders are nearly halfway through, and Japan’s Akito Watabe leads from Norway’s Jarl Magnus Riiber by a wafer-thin 0.3sec, with Germans in third, fourth, fifth and seventh.
ESPN have interviewed Marc Roberge, lead singer of the American rock band OAR, about the fact that the decision to force Russia to compete without a flag as “Olympic Athletes from Russia”, and then to abbreviate that to an acronym, has led to an unexpected boost to his outfit’s popularity.
It’s been surreal, absolutely surreal. At first I thought it would be a cool coincidence, maybe somebody would mention it on TV or something. But now, every single morning I’m getting phone calls, emails, text messages. Family, friends, strangers. It’s pretty wild to think somebody is watching the Olympics and thinking about us
They never say Olympic Athlete from Russia. It’s OAR over and over and over. This is the most coverage our band name has ever had. Everyone, everywhere, all around the world saying OAR.
Here he is in action:
The BBC has finally deigned to show that women’s 3,000m speed skating final. Absolute madness.
And here’s Associated Press on the 3,000m speed skating relay final:
South Korea defended its women’s Olympic short-track 3,000-meter relay title on Tuesday, overtaking China with two laps to go in the penalty-filled final.
The team of Shim Suk-hee, Choi Min-jeong, Kim Ye-jin and Kim Alang crossed the finish line first after rallying from third spot late in the 27-lap race. Four years ago in Sochi, the Koreans won when they passed China on the last lap to take the lead.
China finished second, but was penalised by the referees. That allowed Italy, which finished third, to move up to silver.
Canada was penalised, too, moving the Netherlands onto the podium for bronze. The Dutch had won the B final in a world-record time of 4 minutes, 3.471 seconds, bettering South Korea’s mark of 4:04.222 set in November 2016 at Salt Lake City, Utah.
The Canadians, with their arms on each other’s shoulders, watched the overhead video board intently. Their jaws dropped and they initially celebrated before realising they too had been penalised.
Belgium bring the first bobsleigh heat to a close. The second starts in a shade under half an hour. The leaders as they stand:
- USA (Pilot: Elana Meyers Taylor): 51.52sec
- Germany (Mariama Jamanka): +0.02
- USA (Jamie Greubel Poser): 0.07
- Germany (Stephanie Schneider): +0.11
- Canada (Kaillie Humphries): +0.20
- Great Britain (Mica McNeill): +0.25
Reuters have this to say about the Biathlon:
France’s Martin Fourcade gave another brilliant display of skiing and shooting to erase a big German lead and claim the Olympic gold for his team in the Olympic biathlon mixed relay on Tuesday.
France’s greatest Olympian destroyed Germany’s Arnd Peiffer over the final leg to win by 20.9 seconds and collect his third gold medal of the Games and fifth overall.
Norway took the silver and Italy bronze in a thrilling sprint finish.
There’s no fairytale for Jamaica, though, whose time of 51.29sec makes them joint 15th, faster only than Austria and Nigeria.
And they cross the line in 50.77sec, 0.25sec behind the leaders and good enough for sixth!
Back to the Bobsleigh, where the time set by America’s Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs still hasn’t been beaten. Britain’s bob is going now.
Fourcade crosses the line, with the French flag held aloft, to take gold for France in the Biathlon! Norway take second, and Windisch comes through on the final straight to take silver! Germany, having started the final leg with a massive lead, ends it in fourth!
Arnd Peiffer has overtaken Italy’s Dominik Windisch in the race for Biathlon bronze. There’s nothing between them, with 500m to go.
Martin Fourcard has already won gold in the men’s 12.5km pursuit, and gold in the men’s 15km mass start. This will be his third gold of this Games, and his fifth in all.
Germany drop down to fourth! Peiffer has a penalty loop to run, and they might have no medal at all here! France have a 34sec lead over Norway, with Italy and Germany now fighting for bronze.
The front two are back on the range in the Biathlon. Fourcade, chasing his fifth gold medal, gets five out of five and is away! Peiffer messes up again, and the French are celebrating already!
A gold medal has been decided while I’ve been distracted by the Biathlon: Korea have won the Ladies’ 3,000m speed skating relay, with Italy coming second and Holland third.
Fourcade has overtaken Peiffer, and now has a 2sec lead of his own. Norway and Italy are 18sec behind, battling for bronze.
Peiffer misses his first target! And his second! The other three go down, though, and he sweeps up the remaining two at his second attempt. But France’s Martin Fourcade gets all five targets down at the first attempt, and as they get up and get skiing is just 6.1sec behind!
Peiffer’s lead is now 24.3sec, and any wobbles on his first visit to the range could yet throw this wide open.
The race for the other Biathlon medals, however, couldn’t be closer: France have a 1sec lead over Norway, who are 0.7sec ahead of Italy. Belarus are a further 15sec behind, so it looks like two of those three will take the remaining spots on the podium.
The final German in the relay, Arnd Peiffer, is basically running his own race with gold – which would be his second of the Games, after the men’s 10km sprint – the glittering reward.
Germany continue to lead the Biathlon relay. Erik Lesser is currently in action for them and has personal motivation for Olympic excellence; his grandfather Axel was in the East German cross country relay team in 1976 and in second place when he collided with a spectator, injuring himself and ending his race. Erik won two silver medals in 2014, and is in search of his first gold. His leg has just ended, with Germany holding a 32.6sec lead.
And indeed they are immediately bettered by the Americans, Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs, whose run is far from perfect, but still 0.20sec better than the rest so far. The first of two German bobs go next.
Kaillie Humphries, who won gold for Canada in this event in 2010 and 2014, and Phylicia George take the lead in the bobsleigh, half a second faster than the Koreans, though they are the first of the real medal contenders to go down.
And they start well, powered by the former Olympic hurdler Seun Adigun, but it goes in many ways downhill from there, and they finish 0.97sec behind the Koreans, who were first down.
Next up in the bob, Nigeria – Africa’s first ever Olympic bobsleigh team.
Germany have taken a stonking lead in the Biathlon, 28.8 seconds ahead of Italy, with Belarus just behind in third and France a further 17 seconds back.
More sport alert! The women’s bobsleigh heats are about to start. Mica McNeill and Mica Moore represent Britain, and will go 17th out of 20, just before Jamaica.
Biathlon is quite a good thing, I think, though it’s easy to say that at the end of the first leg of a lengthy relay. Italy, Germany and France lead after that first leg, with the Czech Republic, in fourth place, 16 seconds behind that leading three.
Lisa Vitozzi, first out for Italy, is an absolute dead-eye shot, and their lead is now a little over seven seconds. Sweden, though, have an absolute disaster: Mona Brorsson misses so many times that she’ll have to do a penalty loop.
3km into leg one of that biathlon relay, and Italy have a lead of about four and a half seconds over France, with Germany a further second or so back in third.
Biathlon news! The 2x6km women + 2x7.5km men mixed relay has begun!
In the men’s speed skating, Holland’s much-fancied Sjinkie Knegt has received a penalty and is out. Thankfully, he disappears without making his frustration apparent – which isn’t always guaranteed with Knegt.
The Nordic Combined jumping is over, and Akita Watabe pulled out a 134m jump that, while 5m shorter than Riiber’s, was given 0.3 more points, so he will start the cross-country section with a second’s lead over Riiber, with Denifl third and then German athletes in fourth, fifth and sixth
We’ve now got a bit of video to go with yesterday’s article on Elizabeth Swaney, Hungary’s unlikely Olympian:
This video has been removed. This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason.
Norway’s Jarl Magnus Riiber has just outjumped him, though, landing an effort measured at 139m, and he takes a narrow lead.
With the Nordic Combined ski jumping competition round about three-quarters done, Austria’s Wilhelm Denifl has jumped almost 10m further than anyone else, with 137.5m.
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