Redmond Gerard of USA scored a run of 87.16 to win gold in the Men’s Swboarding Slopestyle event ahead of Max Parrot and Mark McMorris of Canada. 17-year old Gerard, the youngest in the men’s competition, landed a perfect backside triple cork 1440 on his final run. He became the first medallist at a Winter Olympic Games to be born after 1 January, 2000 and also the youngest gold medallist in any snowboard event. McMorris won his second Olympic medal and became the first Canadian man to win multiple medals in snowboard at the Olympic Winter Games.
Norway’s Simen Hegstad Krueger recovered from a fall on the opening lap of the Men’s Skiathlon to win gold and head up a Norwegian clean sweep. He went ahead by eight seconds from compatriots Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Hans Christer Holund. Recalling his fall, he said: “I thought it was over. They pushed hard at the start too and I was just hoping that no one would go hard at the front in the wind. I had to keep pushing and hoping that it would calm down and then, all of a sudden, I was back up with them again.”
Dutchman Sven Kramer became first man to win three golds in the same Speed Skating event at the Olympic Winter Games when he won the race against Canada’s Ted-Jan Bloemen. Kramer posted a new Olympic record of 6:09.76 and finished nearly two seconds ahead of Bloemen. Norway’s Sverre Lunde Pedersen came in just two thousandths of a second behind Bloemen to claim the bronze. Kramer now has eight Olympic medals to his name and have four other competitions left in this year’s Games.
Germany’s Arnd Peiffer shocked the favourites in the Men’s 10km Biathlon Sprint to win the gold with a flawless run in the final. With winds blowing harshly, it was a testing time for the competitors. But Peiffer did not to miss the target in the course and the shooting range. Czech Republic sprinter Michal Krcmar won the silver. Peiffer, the 2011 world champion, becomes only the sixth man to claim the Olympic and world titles in this event. He joined compatriot Laura Dahlmeier, who won the women’s biathlon 7.5km sprint 24 hours earlier. This is the first time both biathlon sprint events have been won by athletes from the same nation at one edition of the Olympic Winter Games.
France’s Perrine Laffont clinched gold in the Women’s Moguls final to win the first medal for France in 2018 Olympics. She joined compatriot Sandra Laoura, who won bronze at Turin 2006, to become only the second woman to win a medal at an Olympic Winter Games.The 19-year-old Laffont registered a time of 29.36 to beat Canadian Justine Dufour-Lapointe, who claimed silver. Dufour-Lapointe was the defending champion who finished 0.09 points behind the champion. The 23-year-old is the eighth woman to win more than one Olympic medal in this event. Kazakhstan’s Yulia Galysheva snatched bronze to give her country the first ever medal in freestyle skiing.
23-year-old Austrian David Gleirscher won a shocking gold in the Men’s Luge after two-time reigning champion Felix Loch of Germany stumbled in his last run. Loch finished fifth, ending his dream to match compatriot Georg Hackl’s hat-trick of luge titles in the 1990s. Gleirscher claimed the title by going just 0.026 seconds ahead of runner-up Chris Mazdzer of the USA. Germany’s Johannes Ludwig won the bronze. Gleirscher’s gold is Austria’s first in the event for 50 years at an Olympic Winter Games.
