×

Gisin tops Shiffrin; Wise wins gold in men’s halfpipe

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) –David Wise delivered another gold for the United States, winning the men’s halfpipe in freestyle skiing.

It was the second straight Olympic gold for Wise, who put down the most difficult, technically precise run ever seen in the sport of halfpipe skiing. He edged out his Olympic roommate, Alex Ferreira.

“I’m honestly just in disbelief right now,” Wise said. “Winning, losing, whatever, just the fact that I landed that run in the moment when it needed to happen, on that that third run, just felt so good.”

Mikaela Shiffrin couldn’t make it a third on the day for the U.S. , taking the silver as Michelle Gisin of Switzerland won the women’s Alpine combined.

In the men’s slalom, Andre Myhrer, a 35-year-old Swede, was the unlikely champion after Marcel Hirscher and Henrik Kristoffersen — the best slalom skiers on the World Cup circuit — couldn’t complete two runs.

In other events Thursday, Anna Gasser of Austria won the women’s Big Air snowboarding event, and Germany took the Nordic combined team title.

In short-track speedskating, Dajing Wu of China won the men’s 500 meters, Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands took the women’s 1,000, and Hungary was the winner of the men’s 5,000-meter relay.

Belarus won the gold in the women’s 4×6-kilometer biathlon relay, finishing in 1 hour, 12 minutes, 3.4 seconds.

In Gangneung, the U.S. women’s team won it all 20 years after their last gold medal in women’s hockey and 38 years to the day after the men’s famous “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union at the 1980 Lake Placid Games.

The victory was redemption for the 10 Americans still on the team who watched Canada snatch gold away four years ago.

Several members of the Canadian team wept on the ice while accepting the silver medals, and defenseman Jocelyne Larocque immediately removed hers from around her neck and held it in her left hand.

“We were going for gold,” Larocque said. “We were chasing a gold medal.”

TAKING A CHANCE

With a third of the 12 riders limping off the course with injuries, Wise faced an all-or-nothing run after his ski bindings failed him in his two previous trips down.

“We cranked my bindings up as high as they would go,” Wise said. “We’re like, ‘You know what, my leg’s coming off before the ski does.'”

Everything stayed on, and he skied to victory.

GISIN’S GOLD

Gisin finished the Alpine combined in 2 minutes, 20.90 seconds to eclipse silver-medalist Shiffrin by 0.97 seconds. Wendy Holdener of Switzerland was 1.44 seconds back to earn the bronze.

“I tried to put my heart into that run,” Gisin said. “It’s insane.”

Lindsey Vonn made a mistake early in the slalom and didn’t finish in what was likely the final race of her Winter Games career.

SLALOM SURPRISE

Hirscher skied off course in the opening run of the men’s slalom, while Kristoffersen set the fastest time. But Kristofferson couldn’t make it all the way down on the second run.

That left Myhrer at the top of the podium.

“To be able to do this after the season they have had,” Myhrer said of Hirscher and Kristoffersen, “is, of course, amazing for me.”

Ramon Zenhaeusern of Switzerland won the silver, 0.34 seconds behind Myhrer. Michael Matt of Austria took bronze.

GASSED UP

After American Jamie Anderson overshot the landing a bit while trying to nail a cab 10 on her third jump in Big Air, Gasser had the opening she needed.

The Austrian did a “cab double 10” — two flips and three full rotations — to slip past Anderson. Her score of 96 was the highest of the day and boosted her two-jump total to 185.00.

“My mind was, ‘I can only win here if I land, I can change the color of this medal,'” Gasser said. “I decided to do a trick I wasn’t 100 percent sure it would work but a trick I really wanted to show and that’s what mattered to me the most.”

GERMANY’S

DOMINANCE

Johannes Rydzek crossed the finish line with an overwhelming 52.7-second advantage as Germany joined Finland as the only countries to win three gold medals in Nordic combined in one Winter Olympics.

Defending champion Norway was second, followed by Austria, which was first after the ski jump.

US curlers to play for gold

John Shuster and his U.S. team will play for a gold medal against Sweden after a 5-3 semifinal upset over Canada, a country that has struggled at the Pyeongchang Olympics despite dominating the world of curling for years.

The U.S. victory Thursday was a remarkable comeback story for team which had never beaten Canada at the Olympics and hadn’t made the podium since the 2006 Turin Games, when they won a bronze medal.

Just as remarkable was the loss for Canada, which has won the gold in men’s curling at the last three Winter Olympics. The Canadian women’s team, meanwhile, didn’t even make the semifinals, despite being the defending world champions.

It was the second time in the day that the Americans beat the Canadians in one of their national sports. The U.S. women’s hockey team won the gold medal game 3-2 in a shootout, snapping Canada’s streak of four consecutive gold medals in that event.

Shuster’s victory follows a particularly rocky Olympic path. After winning the bronze in Turin, he was benched at the 2010 Vancouver Games in the middle of the tournament because his performance was so poor. In Sochi, Shuster’s team finished in ninth place.

“It’s a pretty good story. This is just another step,” Shuster said. “I just decided that, 50 years from now, maybe I’m long gone, when my kids are showing my grandkids video from the Olympics, I don’t want all my videos to be me failing.”

The turning point in the semifinal game came in the eighth end, of period. The teams were tied 2-2, and Canada had a distinct advantage known as the hammer, the right to throw the final rock of the end. But Kevin Koe, the team’s “skip,” or captain, threw the stone too light and it came up short of the target known as the house. The U.S. had two rocks in the target, giving them a two-point steal and putting them ahead 4-2.

In the next end, Canada blew its chance to score two points with its final rock, when Koe threw the stone a bit too hard and it skittered out of the house. The Canadians had to settle for one point, bringing the score to 4-3.

In the final end, Shuster threw the last rock, which knocked the lone Canadian stone out of the center of the house, adding one point to their score and sealing their win.

An elated Shuster pumped his fist in victory and the Americans whooped with joy. Vice-skip Tyler George ran up and down the arena holding up his index finger in a symbol of No. 1 as the crowd chanted, “USA! USA!”

Matt Hamilton said he planned to celebrate by going back to the athletes’ village and ordering a McFlurry.

“The U.S. has been waiting for something like this and needing a sort of spark,” he said.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today