A Day of Nordic Mastery and Historic Shocks in Milano Cortina - Day 4 summary
A Day of Nordic Mastery and Historic Shocks in Milano Cortina
Cross-country skiing
2/6 for Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo as his quest for immortality continued:
Qualifying fastest for the men's sprint classic, Klaebo dominated his quarter-final, semi-final and the final as expected, as he soared to the Gold. To nobody's surprise, he was especially dominant in the final as he destroyed the other five men on the final climb, allowing him to ease down the home straight, waving to the crowd. American Ben Ogden will be delighted with his silver as best of the rest as he comfortably out sprinted Norweigian youngster Oskar Opstad Vike into bronze. Vike was visibly shocked at what he'd achieved, as no one thought he had a chance of a medal going into this competition. Harald Oestberg Amundsen will be the most disappointed as he exited early in the quarter finals, despite being strongly tipped as the biggest threat to Klaebo.
Swedish Domination in the women's sprint classic
Sweden locked out the podium in dominant fashion in the women's event, with it never looking like anyone else would feature throughout the early rounds, especially Lin Svahn and Joanna Sundling. It was just a question of which way round them, along with Maja Dahlqvist. In the final, it became a two-person shoot-out as Svahn and Sundling, who dropped the other competitors on the final climb, came into the final sprint with Sundling in prime position to get a slingshot using Svahn's slipstream, but Svahn proved to be too strong, pulling away down the final straight to claim the Gold from Sundling in silver and Dahlqvist bronze after pulling away from the rest of the final on the last climb to secure a historic one-two-three for Sweden.
A huge shock in the women's alpine combined as the USA duo of Breezy Johnson and Mikaela Shiffrin failed to claim a medal despite being massive favourites. The only duo on paper with an elite downhill and slalom skier, Johnson did her job putting them ahead by a slim margin after the downhill and once that was done everyone assumed the Americans would win as Shiffrin has won all but one slalom this season, usually by a vast margin and given the only slalom skier usually close to Shiffrin, Camille Rast was left over a second behind and given no chance this looked over but Shiffrin's history of Olympic failure resurfaced its ugly head as she was only the 15th fastest slalom dropping the huge favourites from first to fourth. The Americans did still get a medal with their second pair of Jacqueline Wiles and Paula Moltzan taking the bronze on the back of Wiles drastically improving her performance in the downhill to leave Moltzan fourth, and she did just enough to see Shiffrin off to claim the bronze. An amazing Slalom run from downhill silver medalist Emma Aicher dragged Germany to the silver from sixth after the downhill and nearly to gold, only missing out by 0.05 to the unheralded Austrian pair of Ariane Raedler and Katherina Huber. Raedler was over a second closer to Johnson in this event than she was in the downhill on sunday giving Huber the opportunity to lay down a great run, dealing with the ruts and bumps well to maintain their lead over Germany and take the Gold.
Short-track speed skating
A huge shock in the short track mixed team relay as the powerhouse squads from South Korea and the Netherlands both failed to even make the final despite arriving as the massive favourites. Korea, boasting stars like Choi Min-jeong and Hwang Dae-heon, saw their golden hopes vanish in a chaotic semifinal where they were wiped out by the Americans, while the Dutch world champions were relegated to the B-Final after Xandra Velzeboer suffered a rare fall. The Dutch are going away with something as they set the Olympic record in the B-final. With the heavy hitters out of the way, the door swung wide open, and host nation Italy seized the moment with a clinical performance that brought the Milano Ice Skating Arena to its feet. With legendary Arianna Fontana being the architect of the victory, pouncing on a mistake from the Chinese team to take a lead they would never relinquish, securing her 12th Olympic medal and a third career gold in the process.
Freestyle skiing
Birk Ruud was brilliant to claim gold, laying down a massive 86.28 on his very first run to set a benchmark that no one else could touch, claiming revenge on defending champion Alex Hall by just 0.53 points despite Ruud taking a fall on his final victory lap. Ruud was the favourite for this title four years ago but fell on runs one and two in Beijing and ultimately finished fifth. Ruud looked back to his absolute best, adding the slopestyle gold to his Big Air title from Beijing, while Luca Harrington put in the performance of his life with all the pressure in the world on his final run after falling on runs one and two to leapfrog into the bronze position for his first Olympic medal, nearly taking the gold as he finished 1.13 points behind Ruud.
Japan’s Ikuma Horishima effectively silenced the field at the Livigno Snow Park, becoming the only male skier to break the 80-point barrier with a commanding 85.42. The reigning World Champion looked in a league of his own, executing a high-difficulty run featuring a double full and a cork 10 to comfortably lead the pack into Thursday’s final. Behind him, Canada’s Julien Viel and the legendary Mikaël Kingsbury secured their spots in second and third, though Kingsbury was notably vocal about Horishima's aggressive tactics, suggesting that while Horishima skied like it was a final, the real battle for gold hasn't even begun.
In the women's event, Australia’s Jakara Anthony took the first definitive step toward becoming the first woman to defend an Olympic moguls title, topping the qualifiers with a clinical 81.65. Anthony's run was a masterclass in composure, though the American duo of Elizabeth Lemley and Olivia Giaccio kept the pressure high by finishing less than a point behind her in second and third. While the leaders cruised, the session provided a shock for Team USA's Jaelin Kauf; despite being the fastest skier on the course, a mid-section stumble left her in 24th place, forcing the Beijing silver medalist into a high-stakes second qualification round tomorrow.
Biathlon
Men's 20km individual: Brilliant Botn
Johan Olav Botn was brilliant to claim gold as one of just two men out of 89 to shoot the perfect 20 out of 20 to claim gold, beating Eric Perrot by only 14.8 seconds despite Perrot missing a target thus adding a minute to his time showing just how fast Perrot was on his ski's to take his second medal of the games after the gold in the mixed relay on Sunday. There were doubts on the form of Botn and fellow Norwegian Sturla Holm Laegreid, who took the bronze, coming into this event as both have been struggling with illness and form in the run-up to these games, but both look to have peaked at the right time, with Botn looking close to his early-season brilliance and Laegreid taking his first individual podium of the season and looking close to his brilliant season last year where he won the overall title. Huge shoutout to Olli Hiidensalo, who put in the performance of his life, being the other man hitting all the targets and skiing as well as he ever has, to finish a heartbreaking fourth, beating the rest of the pre-race favourites like Giacomel, Samuelsson and Fillon-maillet who all look in good ski form just missed one or two more targets than they could afford but will all be feeling confident of individual medals during these games.
Bronze medal game mixed doubles:
Great Britain 3-5 Italy: The Italians take the Bronze by edging past Great Britian in a very low scoring cagey affair where no end saw more than one scored the Italians ultimately stole the hammer in end one and three to take control early and despite the GB pair playing better and better as the game went on and had a slim opportunity to take big scores in both end six and seven with Constanini saving end six with a brilliant draw and Dodds' just missed a very difficult shot in end seven that nearly allowed GB to claim four but just missed the second stone of the double take-out attempt. Reigning champions Italy will be happy to at least claim a medal this time around at home, whereas Dodds and Mouat will be so annoyed with themselves at just how poor they played in the semi-final and the first half of this game to leave them in fourth for the second Olympics in a row in what is becoming a common place for British athletes in these games with team GB's third fourth place in roughly 24 hours with no medal yet to show for it. Dodds and Mouat will both have a chance to claim a medal at these games as they are both in the respective team events, with Mouat's team in particular expected to finish in the medals in the men's event.
Gold Medal Match: Sweden 6–5 United States: In a thrilling championship final that came down to the final stone, Sweden’s sibling duo of Isabella and Rasmus Wranå defeated Americans Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin to claim gold. The match was a tactical battle of nerves, with the score locked at 3–3 after five ends. Sweden used their power play in the sixth to take a narrow lead, but the Americans responded with a massive seventh end, scoring two points to move ahead 5–4. Entering the final end without the hammer, the U.S. sat in a scoring position until Isabella Wranå delivered a masterclass final shot. With precision and composure, she executed a perfect takeout to clear the American stone and score two points, securing Sweden’s first-ever Olympic gold in the mixed doubles discipline. While the loss was bittersweet for the Americans, the silver medal is historic: Cory Thiesse becomes the first American woman to win an Olympic curling medal.
Luge
Julia Taubitz finally banished the ghosts of Beijing 2022 to claim the Olympic gold medal she had long coveted. The reigning world champion was untouchable across four runs, finishing with a combined time of 3:30.625, nearly a full second ahead of her closest competitor. Taubitz’s victory ensures the continuation of a remarkable German legacy, marking the eighth consecutive Winter Games in which a German woman has stood on the top step of the luge podium. While Taubitz celebrated a dominant return to form, the battle for the remaining medals was blown wide open during the third run. Germany’s Merle Malou Fraebel, who began the day in second place, saw her medal hopes vanish after a disastrous start on her third run that saw her ping-pong off the track walls and plummet out of medal contention This error paved the way for Latvia's Elīna Ieva Bota to secure a sensational silver, marking a historic first-ever Olympic luge medal for a Latvian woman. Not far behind, Team USA’s Ashley Farquharson delivered the performance of her life to edge the bronze ahead of the home favourite Verena Hofer by only 0.63
Ski Jumping
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