We witnessed an action-packed Day 3 of the Winter Games. History was made in team figure skating and results are in from alpine skiing and freestyle skiing. Also, in other Olympic news, Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai told a French newspaper that international concern over her well-being is based on “an enormous misunderstanding” and she denied having accused a Chinese official of sexual assault. The International Olympic Committee released a statement saying IOC President Thomas Bach had dinner with Peng on Saturday, and she attended the China-Norway curling match with IOC member Kirsty Coventry. Here’s the recap of Day 3. Freestyle SkiingEileen Gu’s goal of three Olympic medals nearly blew off in the wind.The American-born freestyle skier who spurned Team USA for China ahead of the Beijing Games risked missing the finals in women’s big air Monday when she lost a ski on her second run and crashed into do-or-die position entering Round 3.Gu scaled back her plans in the final round and put down a conservative right-side 900 — 2 1/2 spins while airborne on the 155-foot ramp — keeping the Olympics from a double-whammy of lost star power about an hour after American skier Mikaela Shiffren was disqualified in giant slalom.Gu said the wind changed direction between her first and second runs. Because she was the fifth of 25 skiers down the jump at Big Air Shougang, she didn’t notice the shift until she was midway through her first stab at the right-side 900. She landed awkwardly and lost a ski, putting all the pressure on run No. 3.“It was a right 9,” she said. “I’ve been doing right 9 since I was 14. I know I can do that trick.”She gathered herself for a clean third run, and that score combined with a double cork 1080 on her first turn left Gu in fifth place — easily into the 12-skier finals field. Canadian Megan Oldham narrowly led Tess Ledeux of France for the top spot after Ledeux topped Oldham for gold at last month’s X Games.Alpine SkiingTwo-time Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin’s first trip down the race hill at the Beijing Games lasted just five turns and mere seconds Monday, ending in a disqualification from the opening leg of the giant slalom that she called “a huge disappointment.”The seventh racer on a course known as The Ice River at the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center, and the defending champion, the 26-year-old American lost control coming around a left-turn gate, slid and fell on her side. Eventually, she got up and stopped on the side of slope, stuck her poles in the snow and put her hands on her hips.“The day was finished, basically,” Shiffrin said, “before it even started.”She still could have a handful of chances over the next two weeks to become the first Alpine ski racer from the United States to win three Olympic golds across a career. Shiffrin hopes to enter all five individual events in Beijing.“I’m not going to cry about this,” she said, “because that’s just wasting energy.”Not long after her competitive day was done hours earlier than expected, Shiffrin headed back out to do some training for the slalom.That is her next event, scheduled for Wednesday. Shiffrin won that at age 18 at the 2014 Sochi Games, part of a remarkable career that includes a total of three Olympic medals — there was a silver in the combined at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, in addition to her triumph in the giant slalom there — three World Cup overall titles and a half-dozen world championship golds.Figure SkatingThe Russian squad of Kamila Valieva, 15, Anna Scherbakova, 17, and Alexandra Trusova, 17, attempted history at the 2022 Beijing Games. Before now, no female figure skater had ever successfully landed a quadruple jump at the Olympics. It was Kamila Valieva who became the first woman to land a quad in the Olympics — two of them, in fact — and her historic free skate put a stamp on Russia’s dominant run to the gold medal in the team figure skating event at the Beijing Games on Monday. The 15-year-old Valieva opened with a huge quad salchow and followed with the difficult triple axel before landing another quad, this time a toe loop in combination with a triple toe loop. The only blemish on her program came when she fell on her quad toe loop late in the program, but by that point her first gold medal in Beijing was assured.Another one could come shortly in the individual event, where the Russians are favored to sweep the podium.They finished with 74 points in the team event to win their second gold medal in three editions of it. The U.S. earned the silver after back-to-back bronze medals at the past two Olympics, thanks largely to a winning dance program from Madison Chock and Evan Bates, while Japan climbed onto the team podium for the first time.
We witnessed an action-packed Day 3 of the Winter Games.
History was made in team figure skating and results are in from alpine skiing and freestyle skiing.
Also, in other Olympic news, Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai told a French newspaper that international concern over her well-being is based on “an enormous misunderstanding” and she denied having accused a Chinese official of sexual assault.
The International Olympic Committee released a statement saying IOC President Thomas Bach had dinner with Peng on Saturday, and she attended the China-Norway curling match with IOC member Kirsty Coventry.
Here’s the recap of Day 3.
Freestyle Skiing
Eileen Gu’s goal of three Olympic medals nearly blew off in the wind.
The American-born freestyle skier who spurned Team USA for China ahead of the Beijing Games risked missing the finals in women’s big air Monday when she lost a ski on her second run and crashed into do-or-die position entering Round 3.
Gu scaled back her plans in the final round and put down a conservative right-side 900 — 2 1/2 spins while airborne on the 155-foot ramp — keeping the Olympics from a double-whammy of lost star power about an hour after American skier Mikaela Shiffren was disqualified in giant slalom.
Gu said the wind changed direction between her first and second runs. Because she was the fifth of 25 skiers down the jump at Big Air Shougang, she didn’t notice the shift until she was midway through her first stab at the right-side 900. She landed awkwardly and lost a ski, putting all the pressure on run No. 3.
“It was a right 9,” she said. “I’ve been doing right 9 since I was 14. I know I can do that trick.”
She gathered herself for a clean third run, and that score combined with a double cork 1080 on her first turn left Gu in fifth place — easily into the 12-skier finals field. Canadian Megan Oldham narrowly led Tess Ledeux of France for the top spot after Ledeux topped Oldham for gold at last month’s X Games.
Alpine Skiing
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin’s first trip down the race hill at the Beijing Games lasted just five turns and mere seconds Monday, ending in a disqualification from the opening leg of the giant slalom that she called “a huge disappointment.”
The seventh racer on a course known as The Ice River at the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center, and the defending champion, the 26-year-old American lost control coming around a left-turn gate, slid and fell on her side. Eventually, she got up and stopped on the side of slope, stuck her poles in the snow and put her hands on her hips.
“The day was finished, basically,” Shiffrin said, “before it even started.”
She still could have a handful of chances over the next two weeks to become the first Alpine ski racer from the United States to win three Olympic golds across a career. Shiffrin hopes to enter all five individual events in Beijing.
“I’m not going to cry about this,” she said, “because that’s just wasting energy.”
Not long after her competitive day was done hours earlier than expected, Shiffrin headed back out to do some training for the slalom.
That is her next event, scheduled for Wednesday. Shiffrin won that at age 18 at the 2014 Sochi Games, part of a remarkable career that includes a total of three Olympic medals — there was a silver in the combined at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, in addition to her triumph in the giant slalom there — three World Cup overall titles and a half-dozen world championship golds.
Figure Skating
The Russian squad of Kamila Valieva, 15, Anna Scherbakova, 17, and Alexandra Trusova, 17, attempted history at the 2022 Beijing Games. Before now, no female figure skater had ever successfully landed a quadruple jump at the Olympics. It was Kamila Valieva who became the first woman to land a quad in the Olympics — two of them, in fact — and her historic free skate put a stamp on Russia’s dominant run to the gold medal in the team figure skating event at the Beijing Games on Monday.
The 15-year-old Valieva opened with a huge quad salchow and followed with the difficult triple axel before landing another quad, this time a toe loop in combination with a triple toe loop. The only blemish on her program came when she fell on her quad toe loop late in the program, but by that point her first gold medal in Beijing was assured.
Another one could come shortly in the individual event, where the Russians are favored to sweep the podium.
They finished with 74 points in the team event to win their second gold medal in three editions of it. The U.S. earned the silver after back-to-back bronze medals at the past two Olympics, thanks largely to a winning dance program from Madison Chock and Evan Bates, while Japan climbed onto the team podium for the first time.
