China's Su Yiming who won Gold in the Men's Snowboard Big Air. Photo: @Beijing2022/Twitter.
Day 11 of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was actioned packed with nine gold medals up for grabs over seven different sports.
It was a good day for Switzerland which won two gold medals, while Norway continued to amass medals to all but cement their spot atop the medal tally
Freestyle Skiing: Women’s Freeski Slopestyle
The first medal event of the day was the Women’s Freeski Slopestyle, where 12 women were competing for gold. Each lady was given three runs, with the best score of the runs used to determine the winner.
Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud finished with the highest score of 86.56, delivering her nation its fourth gold of the games. After winning silver at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Gremaud was able to finally become an Olympic Champion, and collect her second medal of the games, having won bronze in the Big Air.
It was a tight finish with China’s Eileen Ailing Gu almost claiming her second gold of the games on her final run, falling just short of Gremaud score, with a total of 86.23.
Estonia’s Kelly Sildaru was awarded the bronze medal, after a strong first jump who delivered a score of 82.06. With the bronze, Sildaru becomes the first medallist for Estonia at these games.
Gold: Mathilde Gremaud [SUI]
Silver: Eileen Ailing Gu [CHN]
Bronze: Kelly Sildaru [EST]
Snowboard: Women’s Snowboard Big Air
After a strong day yesterday in the medal tally, Austria continued where it left off, behind Anna Gasser who defended her 2018 crown to win gold in the Women’s Big Air.
Each snowboarder had three runs, with their best two scores combined together, with the highest total being crowned the champion.
Gasser score of 185.50, just bested her score from the 2018 Games, but like what happened in PyeongChang she dominated her competition. It was nerve racking however for the Austrian who did not secure gold until her final jump where she scored 95.50.
New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski Synnott, came in second with a score of 177.00, able to best her result from PyeongChang where she won bronze. It was a battle between Japanese pair Kokomo Murase and Reira Iwabuchi for bronze, however neither were able to bets their previous scores on their final run, with Murase just edging out her fellow countrywomen for Bronze.
Gold: Anna Gasser [AUT]
Silver: Zoi Sadowski Synnott [NZL]
Bronze: Kokomo Murase [JPN]
Snowboard: Men’s Snowboard Big Air
After the conclusion of the Women’s Big Air, it was the men up next in the first male medal event of the day. There were three new faces on the podium from the 2018 Games, with China’s 17 year old wonder boy Su Yiming delivering gold for his nation.
Su was outstanding, scoring 89.50 and 93.00 with his first two jumps amassing an almost uncatchable total of 182.50. Su becomes the first Chinese snowboarder to win gold at the Winter Olympic Games and now has two medals at these Games, winning silver in the Men’s Slopestyle event.
Norway’s Mons Roisland won the silver medal, however fell over 10 points short of Su, finishing with a score of 171.75.
After qualifying with the best score leading into today’s final, many thought that Canada’s Max Parrot would be the one with gold around his neck, but it was not to be. Parrot had a poor first run only scoring 28.25 but backed it up with the biggest score of the finals on his second jump with an incredible 94.00.
Needing a jump of 88.75 or above to win, Parrot was unable to deliver on his final run with the judges giving him a score of 76.25 and therefore a total of 170.25 which was enough to still get him on the podium with Bronze.
Gold: Su Yiming [CHN]
Silver: Mons Roisland [NOR]
Bronze: Max Parrott [CAN]
Alpine Skiing: Women’s Downhill
The Women’s Downhill took place at the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre in the afternoon, where 36 women battled it out on the 700 meter course.
Switzerland’s Corinne Suter was able to dethrone 2018 gold medallist, Italy’s Sofia Goggia in the event with a time of 1:31.87, just 0.16 seconds faster than Goggia.
Suter entered the Games as one of the favourites to take out the event having won at the World Championships last year.
While Goggia could not back up her 2018 gold, it was still a strong result for Italy with her fellow compatriot Nadia Delago joining her on the podium with the bronze medal.
Gold: Corinne Suter [SUI]
Silver: Sofia Goggia [ITA]
Bronze: Nadia Delago [ITA]
Biathlon: Mens 4×7.5km Relay
The Men’s 4×7.5km Biathlon Relay went down in the afternoon with Norway continuing its dominance so far in these Games, winning another gold after falling short with silver in 2018. The win marked its first gold in the event since 2010.
The Norwegian quartet featured the brother pairing of Tarjei Boe and Johannes Thingnes Boe, who were part of the 2018 Silver medal team, as well as newcomers Sturla Holm Laegreid and Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen.
It was not smooth sailing for the Norwegian’s with the team sitting in sixth place at the halfway mark before Johannes Boe brought them into third during his 7.5km. Christiansen then took Norway home with a time of 19:38 to take them from the Bronze medal spot to Gold in the final 7.5km.
The Norwegian team finished with a time of 1:19:50.2, 27.4 seconds better than silver medallists France and 45.3 seconds better than the Russian Olympic Committee.
Gold: Norway
Silver: France
Bronze: Russian Olympic Committee
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Speed Skating: Women’s Team Pursuit
The second team medal event of Day 11, which kicked off the night festivities was the Women’s Team Pursuit in the Speed Skating. The final took place between Canada and Japan, with the Canadian team skating out victorious and in the process setting a new Olympic Record with a time of 2:53.44.
The Canadian’s had their hands full with the Japanese team who set the World Record in 2020 and were able to rally back after a slow start. After the first lap and a half, it was the Canadians in the lead, however Japan turned it around, leading from the start of the third lap onwards.
Heartbreak struck for the Japanese team on the final lap when Takagi Miho, fell over on the final turn gifting Canada the win with a time of 2:53.44 to 3:04.47. With the silver, Japan was unable to defend its 2018 PyeongChang Gold.
In the bronze medal match between the Netherlands and Russian Olympic Committee, it was the Dutch who won the bronze after having won silver in the previous games. While the race was close with just 1.8 seconds separating the two teams at the end, the Dutch led from start to finish.
Gold: Canada
Silver: Japan
Bronze: Netherlands
Speed Skating: Men’s Team Pursuit
The Men’s Team Pursuit went down straight after the women’s medallists were decided with much less drama ensuing. The gold medal final saw 2018 Olympic Champions Norway take on the Russian Olympic Committee.
It was Norway which were again victorious in the event, able to take a one second lead over the Russian Olympic Committee by the two and a half lap mark. Norway had just one skater from its 2018 Olympic team as part of these game’s with Sverre Lunde Pedersen. The teams other two skaters were Peder Kongshaug and Hallgeir Engebraaten.
In the end, Norway finished with a time of 3:38.08, 2.38 seconds faster than the Russian Olympic Committees 3:40.46.
The bronze medal race saw the United States up against the Netherlands, however the Dutch were unable to make it bronze medals in both the men’s and women’s event losing by 2.81 seconds.
Gold: Norway
Silver: Russian Olympic Committee
Bronze: United States of America
Nordic Combined: Individual Gundersen Large Hill/10km
One of the most gruelling events of the games took place at night with the 10km Cross Country Skiing element of the Nordic Combined. The event works by the athletes first competing in Ski Jump to determine their starting placement in the 10km portion of the event.
Depending on the results from the Ski Jump and where the athletes place, time advantages and disadvantages are added to their total times in the Cross-Country Skiing segment.
While Norway’s Jarl Magnus Riiber had the best result in the Ski Jump, he was unable to make it translate in the Cross Country segment finishing. Rather it was his fellow countrymen, Joergen Graabak, who won the Gold, after coming 12th in the Ski Jump and receiving a 2:07 minute disadvantage.
Graabak slowly made his way up the rankings, until the last 1,500 meters where he charged home from sixth place to capture Gold.
Graabak becomes the first two-time champion of the Individual Gundersen Large Hill/10km after winning the gold at the Sochi 2014 Games.
It was a one, two finish for Norway with Jens Luraas Oftebro who started in 10th and was on the tail of Graabak for the final four kilometres winning the silver.
Japanese Akito Watabe who remained in the top three for most of the race, finished in third place and subsequently was the bronze medallist. Watabe led for most of the middle portion of the race and found himself in second place going into the final 1,500 meters before the Norwegian pair of Graabak and Oftebro were able to pass him.
Gold: Jarl Magnus Riiber [NOR]
Silver: Jens Luraas Oftebro [NOR]
Bronze: Akito Watabe [JPN]
Bobsleigh: two-man
The final medal event of Day 11 at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was the two-man Bobsleigh. For the second games in a row, it was the German pair of Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis who were the Olympic gold medal champions in the event, with a time of 3:56.89.
It was a German whitewash in the event, with German pairings taking home the silver and bronze. Johannes Lochner and Florian Bauer were the Silver medallists while Christoph Hafer and Matthias Sommer won Bronze.
The gold and silver medal pairings dominated the event from the first to the last heat, remaining as the top two throughout. Hafer and Sommer came strong on the final two heats, moving from sixth place to their third place finish.
Gold: Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis [GER]
Silver: Johannes Lochner and Florian Bauer [GER]
Bronze: Christoph Hafer and Matthias Sommer [GER]
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