BEIJING (AP) — A roundup of gold medals from Friday, Feb. 11, at the Beijing Games:
___
ALPINE SKIING
WOMEN'S SUPER-G
Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland won the women’s super-G at the Beijing Games, capturing her first Olympic gold medal.
Two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin finished ninth after failing to finish in either of her two previous races in Beijing.
It was Gut-Behrami’s first Olympic gold after two successive fourth-place finishes in super-G at the Winter Games.
Mirjam Puchner of Austria won silver and Michelle Gisin of Switzerland won bronze.
___
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
MEN'S 15KM CLASSIC
Finland’s Iivo Niskanen maintained his classic skiing dominance, winning gold in the 15-kilometer cross country race.
Niskanen crossed the line and collapsed, spread eagle, with a time of 37 minutes, 54.8 seconds. It was his third Olympic gold. He won the 50-kilometer classic race in Pyeongchang and the classic team sprint at the 2014 Sochi Games.
Alexander Bolshunov of Russia won silver 23.2 seconds back, while Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo of Norway secured the bronze 37.5 seconds behind the Finn.
___
SHORT TRACK SPEEDSKATING
WOMEN'S 1,000 METERS
Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands defended her title in 1,000-meter short track speedskating.
She set the world and Olympic records in the quarterfinals. She wasn’t as fast in the final, finishing in 1 minute, 28.391 seconds.
Choi Minjeong of South Korea took silver. Hanne Desmet of Belgium earned bronze.
Arianna Fontana of Italy was penalized for a lane change that caused contact with American Kristen Santos. Both skaters went down and slid on their sides into the padding.
Fontana was chasing an 11th career medal, having already won two medals in Beijing.
Schulting was the silver medalist behind Fontana in the 500.
___
SKELETON
MEN'S
Germany has its first Olympic skeleton champion.
Christopher Grotheer was a runaway winner in the men’s skeleton event that ended Friday night, the first German to win gold in the discipline where sliders navigate the icy chute headfirst at speeds that can exceed 80 mph.
Grotheer’s four-run time over two days of competition was 4:01.01. Axel Jungk, another German, won the silver medal in 4:01.67 and Yan Wengang of China won the bronze in 4:01.77.
It was China’s first Olympic medal in a sliding sport.
___
SNOWBOARD
MEN'S HALFPIPE
Japan’s Ayumu Hirano won gold with a boundary-pushing run in the men’s halfpipe at the Beijing Olympics.
There was no doubt over the winner after Hirano’s electric performance as the last rider to go. His run included an intricate and unprecedented series of flips and spins that pushed a sport obsessed with progression to new heights. His score of 96 reflected that and the two-time Olympic silver medalist moved past Scotty James of Australia. Jan Scherrer of Switzerland took bronze.
Three-time gold medalist Shaun White was fourth in what he has said will be his final competition.
___
SPEEDSKATING
MEN'S 10,000 METERS
Nils van der Poel of Sweden broke his own world record and captured his second gold medal of the Beijing Olympics with a dominating victory in men’s 10,000-meter speedskating.
Van der Poel added to his victory in the 5,000, which was a much closer affair. On Friday, it was just him against the clock.
He crossed the line in 12 minutes, 30.74 seconds, easily breaking the world mark of 12:32.95 he set in February 2021, and was more than nine seconds ahead of the Olympic record set four years ago by Canada’s Ted-Jan Bloemen.
The silver medal went to Patrick Roest of the Netherlands (12:44.59), the same spot he took behind van der Poel in the 5,000. The bronze went to Italy’s Davide Ghiotto in 12:45.98.
Defending champion Bloemen finished eighth.
___
More AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
The Associated Press
