American teenager, Chloe Kim, claimed gold in Women’s Snowboard Halfpipe by defeating China’s Liu Jiayu by almost 10 points. Kim scored a near-perfect score of 98.25 on her final run. Kim is the dual gold medallist from the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Lillehammer 2016. Arielle Gold of USA who was a dual silver medal-winning YOG athlete from Innsbruck 2012 won the bronze. Kim, who won gold medals at the YOG in Snowboard Halfpipe and Slopestyle Events, was already an assured winner before the final run. But still she produced back-to-back 1080s – a rapid spinning manoeuvre that is one of the most difficult tricks to land – and was awarded 98.25 points out of a possible 100.
Johannes Hoesfolt Klaebo of Norway bagged the Men’s Sprint Classic gold and thus gave his nation the second gold in Pyeongchang. After a tenth-place finish in the men’s skiathlon, 21-year-old Klaebo was determined to bring in good result in this event. He eased passed silver medal winner Federico Pellegrino of Italy to grab the gold. But the second and the third position finish was a thrilling one as Pellegrino, the reigning world sprint champion, hold his nerve to emerge victorious in a photo finish end over Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR) Alexander Bolshunov.
World champion Kjeld Nuis powered to gold in the Men’s 1,500m Skates ahead of compatriot Patrick Roest to add to Netherland’s growing medal tally in this year’s Winter Games. Kim Min-seok of the host nation took bronze among much frenzy in the audience. Nuis, finished in 1 minute 44.01 seconds to become the first reigning world champion to win Olympic gold in 1,500km distance. The Dutch team have now won 8 of 12 medals, including all four golds. At Sochi 2014, they secured 23 out of 36 medals.
It was time for the favourites Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris of Canada to win their Curling Mixed Doubles gold at Pyeongchang. Though silver medallist Jenny Perret and Martin Rios of Switzerland are the reigning World Champions, still the Canadian pair dominated the tournament. They only lost their opening game to Norway, but remained undefeated throughout the rest of the tournament. The Olympic Athlete of Russia team formed by husband and wife Alexander Krushelnitskiy and Anastasia Bryzgalova, took the bronze. Their bronze was the first medal awarded for the first-ever mixed doubles final of Curling.
Sweden’s Stina Nilsson, a Team Sprint bronze medallist at Sochi 2014, took the gold this year in Women’s Sprint Classic. In her march towards the golden podium, she thrashed defending champion Maiken Caspersen Falla’s hopes of retaining her title. 24-year-old Yulia Belorukova representing Olympic Athlete from Russia settled for bronze.
There was no surprise in the Women’s Luge event as the gold was won by the defending champion Natalie Geisenberger of Germany. Geisenberger is the reigning six-time World Cup champion, seven-time world champion and a double gold medallist at Sochi 2014. Her compatriot Dajana Eitberger won the silver and Canada’s Alex Gough won the bronze. Gough became the first ever woman to win a luge singles medal for Canada.
The Women’s Short Track 500m final saw a dramatic photo finish end when Italian Arianna Fontana edged out South Korea’s Choi Minjeong in a dramatic photo finish in 42.569 seconds. But Minjeong was later penalised and disqualified, and thus the silver went to Netherlands Yara van Kerkhof and bronze to Canada’s Kim Boutin. This is Fontana’s first Olympic gold adding to her tally of bronze at Vancouver 2010 and silver at Sochi 2014. She was Italy’s flag bearer in the Opening Ceremony.
Marcel Hirscher of Austria added a gold to his Sochi 2014 silver when he won the Men’s Alpine Combined Event. In this event the athlete has to first perform a fast-downhill run and then a technical slalom. Slalom specialist, Hirscher, finished with a combined time of 2 minutes 6.52 seconds, which was 0.23 seconds quicker than silver medallist Alexis Pinturault of France and 1.02 seconds ahead of third-bronze medallist Victor Muffat-Jeandet, also representing France. Hirscher is the ruler in this event having six successive overall World Cup titles in his kitty.
