Key events
Hockey: Canada v USA in a women’s group stage game at the moment, which is something of a grudge match in purely hockey terms even in normal times, and might be even more so when one of their governments keeps talking about invading the other. Not that you’d find many of the players endorsing that position, I’d wager. The US are leading 2-0 so far.
Figure skating: That’s 16 skaters out of 29 in the men’s singles. Cha Junwhan and Andrew Torgashev are the two who’ve gone past Gogolev so far, so the top three are Korea, USA, Canada so far, remembering that this is a qualifying round for the free skate program on a subsequent day.
🥇 Slovenia take gold in the mixed team’s ski jumping
We had a brother-sister gold medal in the curling, and now another, with Nika and Domen Prevc part of that combined team. Four jumpers, accumulated scores, and the Slovenians have romped it in, over 30 points clear.
Ski jumping: Nikaido Ren anchors the Japanese team’s tilt, after sharing bronze in the individual event last night. Marius Lindvik for Norway lands his jump perfectly to wrap up silver, assuming that the Slovenian champ Domen Prevc does his job… and he does.
Ski jumping: Barring a fall, China have slipped back into last place in the group, then USA, and Finland have jumped two spots. Then Austria, then Germany. Now for the medal spots.
Ski jumping: We have the same standings as earlier after three jumps per team, expect that Germany has jumped Austria into fourth spot.
Curling: The gold medal ceremony is taking place now, with the Wranås singing their anthem on the top of the podium. They’re a delightfully nerdy pair, doing their little jump up and down thing as the crowd cheers them. The Italians have the bronze, one of them wearing the team beanie and the other a team fluffy headband. That’s wardrobe alignment. One of the attendants takes a picture of everyone on the podium, then shows her phone to the TV camera.
Figure skating: I’m on board with Vladimir Samoilov, partly because I love Polish people and partly because he skated to Freestyler by Bomfunk MCs. Now we’re talking. One of the great music videos, a time-travel twist that with really ushered in the MP3-player era. Samoilov has qualified.
Ski jumping: Here’s another event. The finals of the mixed team jump are underway. We have teams of four, two men and two women, jumping for a combined score. The scores are marked partly on distance and partly on a judged mark of form and execution of the jump. After one jump apiece, it’s Slovenia leading from Norway and Japan, then Austria, Germany, China, USA, and Finland.
Figure skating: We have 29 skaters in the men’s short program, and 24 will advance to the free program. The tenth is on the rink now, so five have qualified. Stephen Gogolev is top so far, doing his routine in a very sharp fitted suit, but more impressively (or not, depending how you look at it) with one bootlace coming untied for most of the duration. Thankfully it didn’t cause him to fall. Perhaps he didn’t notice. The whole thing looked perfect, it scores him an 87.41.
🥇 Sweden’s Wranå siblings win gold in the mixed curling
It needed nerves of ice on the ice. Rasmus Wranå has competed in two previous Olympics in the Swedish men’s team, winning gold last time and silver before that. His sister, Isabella had never been to a Games. She’d won a women’s junior championship, then a mixed world championship a couple of years ago, but never been to the peak.
Now, she is there, walking around the rink pumping fists at the crowd. And not just there, but delivering the winning stone with impeccable composure, having nailed several absolutely crucial throws to score points for Sweden in previous ends.
The final score was 6-5, as the deflated Americans leave the arena.
Curling: Sweden have the second and third best stones, USA have the best, but if Isabella Wranå can remove it… and she does! Curls around the right-hand side of the rink, arounds the guards, and knocks the USA stone clear!
Impressive from Dropkin in the background, applauding them sincerely along with the crowd as the spectators erupt.
Curling: It doesn’t take much. A slight error from Dropkin, just too much weight on his throw as he tries to set up a stone at the back of the house, but the Swedes are able to sweep it a long way towards the back. Their second-last stone in reply, though, is another error, this one from Rasmus Wranå, trying to get it around a yellow at the front of the house and nestle in with two reds closer in. But the stone curls too much and clips that yellow, stopping too far away to be much use to the Swedes.
One stone each remaining.
Curling: Some sharpshooting from Korey Dropkin manages to get around the Swedish guard stone and take out their one stone in the house. The USA now have three stones clinging on to the outside rings of the house, meaning that if Sweden go in with their last stone, then have it knocked out, USA could score three or four points. The defensive option is to cannon two of the yellow stones out of play, meaning the Americans can score a max of two. Isabella Wranå does exactly that. Smashes those two yellows with her red, a powerful drive, and concedes the two points as Cory Thiesse lands the final stone.
It’s USA 5-4, but Sweden with last stone in the final end.
Curling: Right, back to the gold medal mixed doubles match. It’s been a grind so far, scores in units of one, and into the seventh end out of eight, it’s Sweden leading 4-3. Isabella Wranå nailed another cold-blooded throw at the end of the sixth to sneak that lead. She starts the seventh by setting up a guard in advance of the house, then her brother lands one in the centre circle. The Americans drop one just in front of that last stone. Rasmus knocks out a wider American stone.
Hockey: Germany beat Italy 2-1 earlier in the women’s group game. The winners are second in Group B.
🥇 Julia Taubitz wins comeback gold in women’s luge
She was devastated four years ago in Beijing, after recording a track record and then crashing out of contention. This time, there are no mistakes. She’s an island of calm out there on her sled at 116 kilometres an hour, not trying to push her speed to the absolute max given she already has a big lead.
Bota got up to 121.9 kph on her last run, and Farquharson up to 123, gunning for their eventual silver and bronze spots. Taubitz just has to get through clean, and she does, tight in the chicane but otherwise untroubled.
Gold is going to Germany.
Luge: Elina Bota of Latvia the second-last slider. A much slighter frame than some of the others, not sure what that means for momentum, but she’s fast at the top of the course and also holds on during the chicane. She’s now top, with the German Julia Taubitz the only one left, needing to hold her nerve for gold.
Luge: That error won’t come from Ashley Farquharson, who almost clips the chicane, the one section of track that has brought so many undone today, but doesn’t lose any speed through there, and finishes strongly. She can’t do worse than bronze with that.
Luge: Verena Hofer is pumped! The Italian goes top of the list, with three racers to come. So if one mistake comes in the next three runs, she’s in the medals. Another aggressive run, and she scores 3.926.
Luge: Ouch, Emily Fischnaller almost crashes on the way down. Rebounds from one wall to another after an early clip. The American was hoping to challenge the last few but will now finish well back in the back. That opens things up a touch.
Luge: The results largely going on start order so far, though Anna Berreiter is pretty happy at gaining one place when Lisa Schulte loses a few fractions having to correct. That’s Germany v Austria. Berreiter top of the list for now, six racers to go though. And the Italian Sandra Robatscher goes past her with a very aggressive run. Five left.
Our expert winter sport email correspondent Beau Dure checks in. “I’ve taught a couple hundred new curlers over the past five years or so, and some of them simply won’t get into that squat. They try to remain partially upright and then somehow slide. It never works.”
Ya gotta do the squat, Jerry! He won’t do the squat!
Curling: Some low-scoring ends, the Americans take one before the Swedes reply, so it’s 3-2 to Sweden after four.
Luge: Summer Britcher of the USA is pretty annoyed after clipping a couple of walls on the way down, after a really promising first half of the run. She’s gone top for now, but not with a time that will give her enough to defend.
Luge: Delightful response from Yulianna Tunytska: third to race, goes top of the three so far though, with a very fast time. The Ukrainian racer is absolutely beaming. Not going to win today, but so happy to have made the final 20 here and to have competed with the best in the world.
Luge: Final round of the women’s singles! This is where the medal will be decided. Their fourth run, and the times are all added together, so you need more than just one blazing run to win this event. Consistency is key. The race order of the 20 lugers today goes from slowest to fastest times after their first three rounds, so the main contenders will be last.
Figure skating: The men’s single short program is about to begin, the first round before the free program to follow. We’ll keep an eye on that over the next little while.
Curling: What a shot from Isabella Wranå, with last stone in this end, and her brother barely even needs the broom as a perfectly weighted delivery nestles up against the other red rock at the centre of the house. Two for Sweden, 2-1 up.
Curling: Cat and mouse with the Swedes trying to build a wall, the Americans knocking bits of out, but shooting last, eventually with a cannon from one stone to another, they knock traffic around a busy house such that the USA team emerges with the first point of the encounter.
Curling: We are away. I love that creepy little squatting move that they do when they first send a stone down the ice, looking like a supernatural bird trying to hatch life from that stone egg. The nature of Monkey was irrepressible. The Swedish feller, Rasmus Wranå, does a particularly impassive magic-mother-hen move.
Geoff Lemon
Thanks Daniel. Hello, you. Are you ready to curl? I was born to curl.
So I’m going to leave you with Geoff Lemon, who’ll chill with you until the close. Peace out, people.
We’re five minutes away from the gold-medal match in the curling mixed doubles, USA v Sweden. It should be a belter.
In the ice hockey, Germany have equalised against Italy. It’s 1-1 with 6.30 left in the second.
Dolour is a great word. Capello, Andy Bull.
Run three of the luge is over and Julia Taubitz of Germany is a merely poor run away from gold; the other medals could go anywhere. But spare a thought for poor Merle Frabel, who made a terrible error which has cost her a medal.
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