Image: @beijing2022/twitter
Day 13 saw six medal opportunities and the talent of some inspiring women was on show for all, from 17-year-old Anna Shcherbakova taking gold in figure skating, to Miho Takagi setting an Olympic record in speed skating.
Alpine Skiing
Women’s Combined Slalom
Switzerland has once again dominated the Women’s combined slalom event in 2022 by occupying two of the podium placings.
More specifically, Michelle Gisin and Wendy Holdener have backed up their efforts from the 2018 Winter Olympics. Gisin claims the gold medal for the second time in the event whilst Holdener does one better on her bronze in 2018 by collecting the silver this time around.
Gisin finished the downhill leg with a time of 1:33.42 which was good enough for 12th, however, she was rapid in the slalom leg. Gisin finished the slalom leg with a time of 52.25, the quickest of all, 0.87 seconds faster than the next best.
Glisin’s total of 2:25.67 was 1.05 seconds faster than her national counterpart with the silver medal.
Italian Federica Brignone finished third overall and took home the bronze medal.
Gold: Michelle Gisin [SUI]
Silver: Wendy Holdener [SUI]
Bronze: Federica Brignone [ITA]
Figure Skating
Women’s Single
Russian teenager, Anna Shcherbakova, has blown the competition away and will bring home gold from her first Olympics campaign.
The 17-year-old scored an 80.20 in the short program aspect of the competition, the second-best of all contestants, before backing it up with a 175.75 free skating score, also the second-best.
With an overall score of 255.95, only her Russian teammate in Alexandra Trusova, also just 17 years old, came close with a total of 251.73, earning the silver medal.
Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto won her second bronze medal this Winter Olympic games after managing a score of 233.13.
Gold: Anna Shcherbakova [ROC]
Silver: Alexandra Trusova [ROC]
Bronze: Kaori Sakamoto [JPN]
Freestyle Skiing
Women’s Ski Cross Big
In her third Winter Olympic campaign, it was the Swede in Sandra Näslund who won gold for the first time.
Näslund is in some form at the moment, coming off the back of winning 10 World Cup events from a possible 11, so winning gold in Beijing was no surprise.
The silver medal was won by Canadian, Marielle Thompson, who won gold in the 2014 event in Sochi and the bronze went to German, Daniela Maier. Maier originally finished fourth, however was elevated to the bronze medal position after Switzerland’s Fanny Smith was given a yellow card.
Gold: Sandra Näslund [SWE]
Silver: Marielle Thompson [CAN]
Bronze: Daniela Maier [GER]
Ice Hockey
Women’s Gold Medal
The women’s Ice Hockey final showcased an exciting finale to an epic tournament.
Canada took home the gold for the fifth time and extend their domination in the sport after defeating USA 3-2 in a thriller.
Natalie Spooner thought she had Canada’s first, nearly halfway through the first period, but it ultimately saw it scratched off after a coach’s challenge.
Seconds later, it was Sarah Nurse that broke the deadlock from a set face-off play. With just a couple of minutes left in the period, Marie Philp –Poulin doubled Canada’s lead and suddenly USA emergency sirens were going off.
Poulin became USA’s worst nightmare as she scored Canada’s third in the second period, seemingly the match felt decided.
The US was able to get one before the end of the second period through a shorthanded goal by Hilary Knight.
Gold: Canada
Silver: USA
Bronze: Finland
Nordic Combined
Team Gundersen Large Hill/4x5km
Led by the now, four-time Olympic medallist, Jørgen Graabak, Norway won comfortably in the combined team event.
Norway was able to put distance on their competitors late in the race and eventually claimed the win with a time of 50:45.1, just under 55 seconds faster than Germany.
Norway was originally going to compete with Jarl Magnus Riiber, however, he decided to pull out after not being to fully recover from COVID-19 despite competing in individual events. In his place was Espen Bjoernstad who found out he’d be competing in the event just two days prior.
Winning silver was Germany who was just able to beat the bronze winners, Japan, by 0.3 seconds in an exciting finish.
Speed Skating
Women’s 1000m
Japan’s Miho Takagi won gold in the women’s 1000m speed skating and produced an Olympic record time whilst doing it. Takagi finished the 1000 meters with a time of 1:13.19.
This is Takagi’s first time winning gold in an individual event, however, she previously won gold at PyeongChang in 2018 in the team pursuit.
Dutch 23-year-old, Jutta Leerdam, won her first Olympic medal. She takes home the silver after finishing just 0.64 seconds slower than Takagi.
USA’s veteran, Brittany Bowe, earned her second Olympic medal, winning the bronze with a time of 1:14.61.
Gold: Miho Takagi [JPN]
Silver: Jutta Leerdam [NED]
Bronze: Brittany Bowe [USA]
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