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sports Thursday 17 February 2022
Epic tricks lift U.S. freestyle skiers to 1-2 Olympic finish

By BERNIE WILSON first run, by 0.61 seconds.
AP Sports Writer World champion Sebastian
BEIJING (AP) — Shred, Foss-Solevaag of Norway
white and flew. took the bronze.
Innovative American free- WOMEN'S BIATHLON RELAY
style skiers Alex Hall and Elvira Oeberg skied fast and
Nick Goepper landed shot clean in anchoring
jaw-dropping tricks on Sweden to Olympic gold in
the Secret Garden slope- the four-woman biathlon. It
style course and won the was the third medal of the
gold and silver medals at Beijing Games for Oeberg,
the Beijing Olympics on who won silver in the sprint
Wednesday. and pursuit races in her
Hall clinched the gold on Olympic debut.
the first of three runs when CROSS-COUNTRY
he defied gravity with a Norwegian skier Johannes
trick called "right double Hoesflot Klaebo completed
10 pretzel one." He spun a second straight Olympic
900 degrees one way and, cross-country sprint double
as G-forces took over, and Victoria Carl of Ger-
stopped the spin in midair many barely edged Swed-
and spun 180 degrees the ish rival Jonna Sundling
other way. He stuck the at the line in the women's
landing and skied in back- race.
ward to the finish, earning a MEN'S AERIALS
score of 90.01. Qi Guangpu of China won
Goepper was so impressive From left silver medal winner United State's Nick Goepper, gold medal winner United States' Alex- the gold medal in men's
ander Hall and bronze medal winner Sweden's Jesper Tjader celebrate afrter the men's slopestyle
on his second run that he finals at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. aerials after missing the
clinched the silver with a Associated Press podium in Sochi and Py-
score of 86.48. eongchang. Qi was the
American men have won we do, we call 'spin to win,' ning a medal in her next "Our team battled hard. only competitor to cleanly
six of nine medals since and, so, everyone is spin- two races. Sometimes those bounces land a quintuple-twisting
slopestyle made its Olym- ning as much as they can," Maybe that will change happen in hockey. Unfortu- triple back flip in the medal
pic debut in 2014. Goepper Hall said. "To take a new ap- in Thursday's Alpine com- nate it was on our side." round.
added to his silver from the proach and do a trick that bined. Shiffrin is the reigning Marek Hrivik of Slovakia Defending champion
2018 Pyeongchang Games has almost no rotation but world champion in com- knocked a loose puck past Oleksandr Abramenko of
and bronze from the 2014 is still really, really hard — it bined and also won the goalie Strauss Mann to tie Ukraine won silver and Ilia
Sochi Olympics. was really, really sweet." silver medal in the 2018 Py- the game 2-2 with 43.7 Burov of the Russian team
Also up in the mountains, Goepper's big trick was a eongchang Games. seconds left in regulation. took bronze.
Mikaela Shiffrin set the fast- new approach at a dou- She finished Wednesday's Peter Cehlarik scored the SHORT TRACK SPEEDSKAT-
est time in a downhill train- ble-cork 1440. training session in the down- game winner in the shoot- ING
ing session ahead of the Al- "Sometimes big contests hill 0.93 seconds ahead of out, while the Americans Choi Minjeong of South
pine combined, which will are just sort of business as Wendy Holdener of Switzer- went 0 for 5 against Patrik Korea successfully de-
be held Thursday. That will usual and you have to just land. The combined adds Rybar. fended her Olympic title
be the superstar skier's fifth slog together a run," Goep- the times from one downhill Miele was the final Ameri- in the 1,500-meter short
event and she's still looking per said. "This, it felt good to run and one slalom run. can player denied by Ry- track speedskating race
for her first medal. do it how we wanted to do HOCKEY KNOCKOUT bar. He wiped away tears while Arianna Fontana
Those were far better re- it." The U.S. men's hockey team after the loss. of Italy took silver by two-
sults than down in the The Secret Garden course was the top seed in the "It's a tough situation with thousandths of a second
city, where the U.S. men's has replicas of portions of knockout round and was the game riding on you," over Suzanne Schulting of
hockey team was knocked the Great Wall carved out looking for a deep run that Miele said. "I wanted to the Netherlands. Fontana
out in the semifinals of the of artificial snow, and Go- would culminate in winning score, I didn't and it stinks. is the most-decorated short
Olympic tournament when epper skied on top of a pa- its first Olympic gold medal I don't know what else to track skater in history with
it blew a lead in the last goda-shaped guard house since the "Miracle on Ice" say." 11 Olympic medals, includ-
minute of regulation and known as The Shred Shed team in 1980. MEN'S SLALOM ing three in Beijing.
was shut out in a shootout, that doubles as a rail sec- It's not going to happen. Clement Noel of France The Canadian team of
losing 3-2 to Slovakia. tion up top. The Americans blew a late won the men's slalom on Charles Hamelin, Steven
On the slopestyle course, "I think I had to separate lead and lost 3-2 to Slo- the strength of a fast sec- Dubois, Jordan Pierre-Gilles
Hall and Goepper were re- myself in some other way," vakia in a shootout in the ond run. He moved up and Pascal Dion won the
warded by the judges for Goepper said. "And I also semifinals. from sixth after the first leg 5,000-meter relay, the
their epic creativity. Hall's thought jumping on top of "I'm just sad it's over," U.S. to beat Johannes Strolz of country's eighth gold med-
gold medal was the eighth that house would be really captain Andy Miele said. Austria, who led after the al in the 45-lap race.q
for the United States in Bei- cool."
jing. SHIFFRIN SHINES — IN PRAC- LIKE US ON
"I'm just stoked I did it, my TICE
best slopestyle ever — and The Beijing Olympics
for the world to see that," haven't gone Mikaela Shif-
said Hall, who was born in frin's way. She skied out
Alaska, grew up in Switzer- of the two events she has
land and lives in Utah. gold medals in, the giant
"With where our sport's slalom and slalom, and Facebook.com/arubatoday/
been going, a lot of what didn't come close to win-