ALPINE SKIING
Women's Alpine Combined
Defending champion Michelle Gisin of Switzerland clinched a second straight Olympic gold medal in the Alpine combined race after Mikaela Shiffrin again skied out in the slalom run.
Gisin beat teammate Wendy Holdener by 1.05 seconds in the two-run race to help Switzerland make it a record five gold medals in Alpine skiing at a single Olympics.
Federica Brignone of Italy was third, 1.85 seconds behind Gisin, to claim a second medal in Beijing. She also took silver in the giant slalom — another race Shiffrin failed to finish.
FIGURE SKATING
Women's Individual
Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva ends in fourth place in the women’s individual figure skating event, which she competed in despite failing a pre-Olympics doping test.
The 15-year-old was atop the leaderboard after Tuesday’s short program, but falls and stumbles shunted her out of contention Thursday night.
The stumble means Valieva’s Russian teammate Anna Shcherbakova took first. Russian Alexandra Trusova placed second and Japanese figure skater Kaori Sakamato claimed third. The trio will get medals. The IOC had said they wouldn’t hold a medal ceremony if Valieva placed in the top three.
FREESTYLE SKIING
Women's Skicross
World champion Sandra Naeslund of Sweden won the women’s Olympic skicross competition in a race where the third-place finisher was disqualified.
Naeslund opened up a lead and held off Canada’s Marielle Thompson on a snowy day along the winding course filled with bumps and jumps.
The third-place finisher was Fanny Smith of Switzerland, but after a delay the bronze was awarded to Daniela Maier of Germany. Smith moved her left ski directly into the line of Maier and Maier briefly lost her balance. Maier fell two body lengths behind and couldn’t catch up. Following the review, Smith’s place was listed as “RAL” -- ranked as last.
HOCKEY
Women's
Canada defeated the United States 3-2 in the fierce rivals’ latest showdown to win the gold medal in women’s hockey.
Marie-Philip Poulin scored twice and assisted on Sarah Nurse’s goal to add another chapter to her legacy as “Captain Clutch” for Canada. Goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens made 38 saves and was at her best when under siege.
Canada won Olympic gold for the fifth time in seven chances since women’s hockey was introduced at the 1998 Nagano Games. The defending champion U.S. settled for silver for a fourth time.
Finland won bronze a day earlier by beating Switzerland 4-0.
NORDIC COMBINED
Team Gundersen Large Hill/4x5km Cross-Country
Norway won Olympic gold in the Nordic combined team competition after overcoming the COVID-related loss of Jarl Magnus Riiber. The team led by four-time Olympic gold medalist Joergen Graabak pulled away late in the cross-country race to win by 54.9 seconds. It was an impressive result after Riiber went home earlier in the day.
Germany won silver for its sixth straight Olympic medal in the team event. Japan finished third.
SPEEDSKATING
Women's 1000M
Miho Takagi of Japan won her fourth speedskating medal of the Beijing Games and the first individual gold of her career with an Olympic-record victory in the women’s 1,000 meters.
The silver went to Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands, while Brittany Bowe of the United States claimed the first individual medal of her career with a bronze.
Takagi won with a time of 1 minute, 13.19 seconds, easily breaking the previous Olympic record of 1:13.56 set in 2018 by Jorien ter Mors. Leerdam posted a time of 1:13.83 despite dragging her left hand on the ice to stay upright in a turn. Bowe grabbed the bronze in 1:14.61.
