Yuzuru Hanyu entered his name in the history book of Olympics when he won the Men’s Figure Skating title at Pyeongchang. He became the 1,000th gold medal winner in the history of Winter Olympics. The very first Winter Olympic gold medal was won by Charles Jewtraw of USA on 26th January 1924 in 500m Speed Skating event. Hanyu whi is hugely popular in Japan, a huge celebrity in Japan, scored 206.17 and 317.85 overall during the free programme. Earlier, he scored a record 111.68 in short programme. His compatriot, a YOG winner, Shoma Uno won silver at the Gangneung Ice Arena while Javier Fernandez of Spain took bronze.
Ester Ledecka of Czech Republic surprisingly won the Women’s Super-G by beating defending champion Anna Veith of Austria. Tina Weirather representing Liechtenstein won the bronze. Ledecka stared at the final clock in disbelief as she won the race by just 0.01 seconds. Veith was among the favourites for Olympic super-G gold. But could not cross the finishing line ahead of Ledecka. However, Weirather added a medal to her family collection of Olympic medals. She is the daughter of former World Cup ski racers Harti Weirather and Hanni Wenzel and niece of Andreas Wenzel.
Sarah Hoefflin from Switzerland won the Women’s Ski Slopestyle with a score of 91.20, which came on her third and final run. 27-year-old, Hoefflin, is the second-oldest athlete in the event who took up Skiing only after she did not get into medical school. The only other major medal she won is at the Aspen Winter X Games in 2018. The Swiss came ahead of her compatriot, Mathilde Gremaud who is a former Winter Youth Olympic Games competitor. Isabel Atkin from Great Britain claimed bronze.
Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina won gold in the Women’s 12.5km Mass Start with an incredible accuracy at the range and finished at the final line with a score of 35 minutes 23 seconds. Kuzmina has already won two silver in the women’s pursuit and individual races at Pyeongchang 2018. She equalled the record of her compatriots, twin brothers Pavol and Peter Hochschorner in Canoe Slalom, for the most gold medals in Summer and Winter Games representing Slovakia. Darya Domracheva of Belarus finished second to win silver, 18.8 seconds behind the the Slovak. Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff, 27.7 seconds behind Kuzmina, won a second consecutive bronze medal in this event.
Choi Min-jeong of the Republic of Korea, the world record holder at the distance and a three-time winner on the World Cup circuit this season, sent the crowd in frenzy as she won the Women’s 1,500m Short Track Speed Skating title. Among those celebrating at the Gangneung Ice Arena were Republic of Korea President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook. Li Jinyu of China won the silver with Canada’s Kim Boutin adding another bronze to the one she collected in the 500m.
With a crash taking out three of five skaters as the pack entered the final lap, Canada’s Samuel Girard kept his nerves strong to emerge winner in Speed Skating Men’s 1000m Short Track ahead of John-Henry Krueger of USA, who took the silver and Republic of Korea’s Seo Yirawho took bronze. The 21-year-old Girard joined compatriots Charles Hamelin and Marc Gagnon as the only Canadian men to win an individual gold medal in short track at the Winter Games. Girard’s gold was also Canada’s ninth in short track history, equalling their event totals, for freestyle skiing and speed skating. They have won more only in ice hockey (13).
Lizzy Yarnold became the first British athlete to defend an Olympic Winter Games title when she won he Skeleton title. Her time of 51.46 seconds in the final heat broke the track record by two tenths of a second. With Yarnold’s gold, British women have now medalled at every Skeleton event since the sport was reintroduced to the Winter Games in 2002. Germany’s Jacqueline Loelling finished second and the bronze medal went to another British Laura Deas.
Kamil Stoch, the reigningSki Jump champion from Poland and the defending champion in Men’s Large Skill Ski Jump, retained the gold medal with a score of 285.7. His victory gave him his third Winter Olympic gold medal, thus making him the first reigning Four Hills champion to win the men’s Large Hill event since Japan’s Kazuyoshi FunakiI in 1998. Germany’s Andreas Wellinger who had already won gold in the Men’s Normal Hill won the silver while Norway’s Robert Johansson finished in the bronze medal position.
Norway won the gold in the women’s 4x5km Cross Country Relay with Marit Bjoergen rounding the final corner to win her 13th Olympic medal. In doing so, she joined countryman Ole Einar Bjoerndalen as the most successful winter Olympian of all time. Sweden took silver and finished two seconds behind, after fantastic legs by Charlotte Kalla, Ebba Andersson and Stina Nilsson, while Olympic Athlete from Russia came third to take the bronze, 43.3 seconds behind the winners.
