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A14 sports
Monday 14 February 2022
Skiers struggle as real snow falls on Winter Olympics

A decision by CAS is ex-
pected roughly 24 hours
before the 15-year-old
Valieva is due on the ice
at Capital Indoor Stadium
for the short program on
Tuesday. The overwhelm-
ing favorite, she drew the
26th starting spot Sunday
among the 30 in the event.
Valieva has yet to miss a
scheduled practice since a
drug test taken in Decem-
ber was flagged last Mon-
day for traces of a banned
heart medication. That was
the same day the reign-
ing European champion
helped the Russian skaters
win team gold with a dy-
namic free skate in which
she became the first wom-
an to land a quad in Olym-
pic competition.
On several occasions since
then, the stress appeared
Erin Jackson of the United States hoists an American flag after winning the gold medal in the speedskating women’s 500-meter race
at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022, in Beijing. to have gotten to Valieva,
Associated Press including a moment during
Saturday’s practice session
By BERNIE WILSON minutes. During the delay, run scheduled for Sunday the final to Tuesday. The when she fell during a triple
AP Sports Writer workers cleared snow from was canceled. switch avoids putting the axel and eventually skated
BEIJING (AP) — The Winter the course with snow blow- CROSS-COUNTRY RELAY gold-medal round directly to the boards and tear-
Olympics finally look like, ers and shovels. The snow affected the against the Super Bowl, fully hugged her embattled
well, the Winter Olympics. “It was a hard day, with men’s cross-country relay which is also being tele- coach, Eteri Tutberidze.
Real snow fell in Beijing on the conditions, with such ski race so much that work- vised by NBC. JACKSON’S HISTORIC GOLD
Sunday for the first time a long wait between the ers used leaf blowers to The men’s slopestyle quali- Erin Jackson won gold in
since the Olympics began, two runs,” Odermatt said. clear it out of the tracks. fication also was switched the 500 meters to become
giving the city the appear- “It was more than five hours The snow made the ski from Monday to Tuesday, the first Black woman to win
ance and feel of a real Win- for me, it was such a long tracks slow, especially on with its final now set for a speedskating medal at
ter Games. There was fresh time to re-think everything the first two classic ski legs. Wednesday. the Winter Olympics. With a
snow in the mountains as and it was hard to stay fo- Just like in the women’s The 18-old-year Gu was at time of 37.04 seconds, she
well, where all events have cused. I tried to sleep some race, the Russian team the top of the hill stretching gave the Americans their
been contested on artificial minutes in between. opened a lead on the first and getting ready for some first speedskating medal
snow. While the snow was “I actually never dreamt leg and then held on for warmup runs in the blustery at the Beijing Games. The
mostly a welcome sight, up about it but now it still feels the gold medal. Sergey conditions when qualifying 29-year-old Jackson joins
in the mountains it affected like a dream.” Ustiugov maintained more was postponed. The snow fellow American Shani Da-
visibility and made it tough- Many other skiers had a than a minute lead on the was blowing sideways and vis as the only Black ath-
er for ski racers to make it rough day on the course last lap over the two-man the flags on the bottom letes to win Olympic speed-
down the hill, especially in known as The Ice River at chasing group of Johannes of the course were whip- skating gold medals.
the first run of the two-leg the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Hoesflot Klaebo of Norway ping in all directions. Vis- ROEISELAND’S TRIPLE GOLD
giant slalom. Center. and Maurice Manificat of ibility also was low, which Marte Olsbu Roeiseland
Marco Odermatt of Swit- “It’s a shame what the France. makes landing jumps off held her focus in the blow-
zerland handled the snow weather is like. I was hop- Ustiugov grabbed a flag the massive kickers along ing snow and shot cleanly
and poor visibility better ing for the sun, like on all on his way to the finish line the course dangerous. in the last standing stop to
than anyone else and won the other days. Couldn’t and won the 10-kilometer Gu was born and raised in win the women’s biathlon
his first Olympic gold med- see anything,” said Luca relay 1 hour, 54 minutes, the United States but chose 10-kilometer pursuit race.
al. “I really risked everything de Aliprandini of Italy, who 50.7 seconds. By compari- to compete for China, her It was her third gold medal
in the second run because I was sixth after the first run son, the winning time in the mother’s home country. of the Beijing Olympics and
wanted not just the medal, but skied off course and four-man relay at the 2018 Her victory in big air last fourth medal overall.
I wanted the gold medal,” didn’t finish the second run. Pyeongchang Olympics Tuesday was hugely popu- The Norwegian started the
Odermatt said. “It’s difficult “When I was going down, was more than 20 minutes lar in China. race with a lead because
because you can lose ev- the flakes were big.” quicker. RUSSIAN DOPING of her win in the sprint race
erything but today it paid American skier Tommy Ford GU’S RACE ON HOLD Russian figure skater Kamila and hit 19 of her 20 targets.
off.” came in 12th. Freestyle skier Eileen Gu has Valieva continued to prac- She won in 34 minutes, 46.9
While a light snow fell Sat- “It’s great conditions on the to wait a day to try to win a tice in the hours before the seconds.
urday, it came down a lot course, but you can’t see second gold medal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport In the men’s race, Quentin
harder on Sunday, the first it,” Ford said. Beijing Games after gusty was to decide whether she Fillon Maillet of France hit
time it snowed during an Al- “It was difficult for every- wind and snow postponed will be allowed to compete all 20 of his targets despite
pine race during the Beijing one,” said Henrik Kristoffer- the qualifying round for this week. An expedited howling wind and skied to
Olympics. The heavy snow sen of Norway, who was women’s slopestyle. hearing was scheduled for his second Olympic gold,
forced the second run to eighth overall. A second Qualifying was pushed Sunday, with a ruling ex- and fourth medal overall, in
be postponed by 1 hour, 15 women’s downhill training back to Monday and pected sometime Monday. the 12.5-kilometer pursuit.q