Price golden in halfpipe for U.S. team
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — American freestyle skier David Wise has successfully defended his gold medal, breaking through on his final run to give the United States its third gold in the Phoenix Snow Park halfpipe.
Wise wiped out on his first two runs before sneaking past countryman Alex Ferreira on his third with a score of 97.20. Wise landed double corks in all four directions — front left, front right, switch (backward) left and switch right — a goal he set for himself entering these games.
It’s the seventh gold for the U.S. in Pyeongchang, five of which have come at Phoenix Snow Park. Chloe Kim and Shaun White won snowboard halfpipe gold last week, and Red Gerard and Jamie Anderson won at snowboard slopestyle.
Ferreira took silver with 96.40 points, and 16-year-old Nico Porteous from New Zealand got bronze. Porteous got the Kiwis’ second medal of the day after snowboarder Zoi Sadowski Synnott won bronze in Big Air earlier Thursday to end a 26-year Winter Games drought for New Zealand.
Russian rivals
GANGNEUNG, South Korea — A true figure skating rivalry requires surpassing skills, intriguing back stories, and significant rewards on the line. Throw in a friendship, and Russians Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova hit all the marks — just as they do on the ice.
The teenagers stood 1-2 after the women’s short program at the Pyeongchang Olympics. Barring a collapse by one of them, something that would be tantamount to the New England Patriots going winless, they will finish with gold and silver after Friday’s free skate.
Indeed, this could be a skating showdown for the ages, better even than the Battle of the Brians in 1988, or Lipinski-Kwan in 1998. Or the ice-melting classic in the free dance earlier this week.
Don’t expect the 15-year-old Zagitova or the 18-year-old Medvedeva to back off an inch.
“We are friends first and rivals second, because you have to have competitiveness in sport,” says Zagitova, who has called Medvedeva an inspiration for her career. So much of an inspiration, apparently, that Zagitova handed “Zhenya” her first defeat in two years at the European Championships.
“Zhenya and I are friends, there’s no ill-feeling there, but there is a competitiveness in our training sessions which spurs us on.”
Seriously. In Thursday’s practice session, Zagitova did more jumps than the other four skaters on the ice combined. At one point, just fooling around perhaps, she nailed a triple lutz-triple loop-triple loop-triple loop-triple loop series. Nonstop.
Gasser gets gold
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Anna Gasser edged two-time gold medalist Jamie Anderson in a thrilling final to earn gold in the Olympic debut of women’s Big Air snowboarding.
Gasser, the reigning world champion, stomped the last of her three jumps, a double cork 1080 that saw the Austrian flip twice while spinning three times. Her score of 96 was the highest of the day and gave her a total of 185.00.
Anderson, who captured her second Olympic gold in women’s slopestyle last week, led going into the final round but sat down while trying to land her last jump. Gasser took full advantage. The 26-year-old raised her arms in triumph and embraced Anderson after the score flashed.
Zoi Sadowski Synnott grabbed the bronze to give New Zealand its first Winter Olympic medal in 26 years.
Hirscher out
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — In an Olympic stunner, Marcel Hirscher’s quest for a third gold medal at the Pyeongchang Games ended quickly on Thursday.
The 28-year-old Austrian star was the big favorite in slalom, his specialty, but he skied out early in the opening run.
Hirscher looked uneasy on a course where the gates were set by an Austrian team coach. He already lost speed at one combination of gates and trailed by more than a half-second at the midway time split before going off the course.
“I had already really a bad feeling about the whole situation,” Hirscher said.
