Dario Cologna of Switzerland became the first ever Cross Country Skier to win the Men’s 15km event thrice. Cologna showed his power and endurance to score hat-trick at Pyeongchang after Sochi in 2014 and Vancouver in 2010. He also won the Skiathlon at Sochi taking his total Olympic medal tally to four. Cologna now stands equal to Switzerland’s Ski Jumping great Simon Amman with four gold medals. Simen Hegstad Krueger of Norway who won gold in the Skiathlon event this year, took the silver while Denis Spitsov representing Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) won the bronze.
Esmee Visser of the Netherlands won in Women’s 5,000m Speed Skating event to give her country the sixth Speed Skating gold at Pyeongchang. 22-year-old Visser covered the longest Speed Skating distance for women in the Olympics in a time of 6:50.23. Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic settled for silver in a time of 6:51.85. Natalia Voronina competing the tournament under the flag of Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR) took the bronze in a time of 6:53.98.
Hanna Huskova kept the gold in Aerials in her country Belarus that was won by Alla Tsuper at Sochi 2014. Huskova scored 96.14 to produce her best performance of the three-stage final. Chinese duo Zhang Xin clocking 95.52 and Kong Fanyu clocking 70.14 took silver and bronze medal respectively.
Michela Moioli from Italy won the Women’s Snowboard Cross final. Four years back, at Sochi, Moioli reached the final as an 18-year old. Julia Pereira De Sousa Mabileau won the surprise silver as a 16-year old edging past Eva Samkova in a photo finish. Samkova, who won gold at Sochi 2014 was one of the favourites. But she had to settle for bronze this time.
Austria’s Matthias Mayer grabbed gold in the Alpine Skiing Super-G ahead of Swiss master Beat Feuz. Feuz followed up his bronze medal in Downhill won earlier this week with this silver. The reigning super-G Olympic gold medallist Kjetil Jansrud of Norway finished third in the race. Mayer became only the second Austrian to win a Super-G gold after Hermann Maier won it in Calgary 1998 where Mayer’s father Helmut Meyar was the silver medallist.
Frida Hansdotter, a 32-year-old veteran of the World Cup circuit, won her first Olympic gold medal in the Women’s Slalom event. She became the second-oldest Swedish woman to win an individual event at an Olympic Winter Games. She was followed by Wendy Holdenor of Switzerland who won silver and Katharina Gallhuber who won bronze.
Yun Sung-bin gave joy to the host nation when he won the Men’s Skeleton final at Pyeonchang. Yun held the lead throughout the final, after each of four runs, and finished with a comfortable 1.63 seconds ahead of silver medallist Nikita Tregubov of OAR and bronze-medallist Dom Parsons of Great Britain. Yun is the first athlete from Asia to win a medal in the Skeleton. He won five of the eight men’s World Cup races in 2018. Parsons’ bronze was the first skeleton medal for a British male since 1948.
