BEIJING (AP) - China has won its first gold of the Beijing Games, emerging victorious in the mixed team relay at short track speedskating in the event’s Olympic debut.
Wu Dajing edged Italy’s Pietro Sighel by .016 seconds. That's half a skate blade. Hungary earned bronze Saturday night.
Qu Chunyu, Fan Kexin and Ren Ziwei joined Wu for the historic victory. The small number of Chinese fans at Capital Indoor Arena cheered and waved tiny flags.
The results were delayed while the referee reviewed the race. Canada was penalized for pushing from behind and causing contact with Hungary.
China was the favorite coming in, having led the World Cup standings this season.
Italy remained undefeated in mixed doubles curling at the Beijing Olympics with a 7-5 victory against Britain while defending gold medalist John Morris of Canada and his new partner, Rachel Homan, beat Chris Plys and Vicky Persinger 7-2 to snap the Americans' win streak at two games.
Italy’s Amos Mosaner and Stefania Constantini beat the British pair of Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds to improve to 6-0 in the round robin competition in the 10-team field. Britain dropped to 4-2.
Morris and Homan scored a 3-end in the seventh to clinch their game against Plys and Persinger. The Canadians improved to 4-2 while the Americans dropped to 3-3.
The top four teams move into the semifinals on Monday and the medals will be decided on Tuesday.
Walter Wallberg of Sweden has dethroned the so-called King of Moguls to take home the gold in the freestyle skiing men’s moguls.
The Swede looked almost in shock when his score of 83.23 flashed on the scoreboard, edging that of defending Olympic champion Mikael Kingsbury of Canada late Saturday night. Wallberg picked up points for his speed over the smooth and technical skiing style of Kingsbury, who ended up with silver.
Ikuma Horishima of Japan took home the bronze.
Wallberg’s surprise victory interrupts the men’s moguls dominance of Team Canada, which had won the event in the last three Winter Games. This was his first major win. The 21-year-old has never even won a World Cup event.
Slovenia’s Ursa Bogataj has taken Olympic gold in women’s ski jumping, floating 100 meters (328 feet) with 121 points on the final jump.
Katharina Althaus of Germany won silver for the second straight Olympics and Bogataj's fellow Slovenian Nika Kriznar took bronze. Japan’s Sara Takanashi had entered as one of the favorites, but finished fourth.
Takanashi had won a record 61 World Cup events and earned bronze four years ago in South Korea. 2018's gold medalist, Maren Lundby, did not participate this year. The top-ranked women in World Cup standings, Austrian Marita Kramer, could not compete after testing positive for COVID-19.
This was the third time women had jumped for gold in the Winter Olympics.
Snowboarder Shaun White says the Beijing Games will be his last competition.
The three-time gold medalist held a reflective, sometimes emotional news conference not far from the halfpipe where he’ll take his last competitive ride.
The 35-year-old said it’s a decision that’s been building since a soul-sucking training stop in Austria in November.
He was dealing with nagging remnants from injuries to his knee and back and ankle. He got lost on the mountain with the sun going down. This has been a rough season for him — including an ankle injury, a bout with COVID-19, a late unscheduled trip to Switzerland to secure his Olympic spot and, most recently, a training plan that got thrown off schedule during his stay in Colorado in January.
This has been a rough season for him — including an ankle injury, a bout with COVID-19, a late unscheduled trip to Switzerland to secure his Olympic spot and a training plan that got thrown off schedule.
But he says he still feels lucky to be here.