PYEONGCHANG 2018: The USA’s Chloe Kim made history on Tuesday after she became the youngest female gold medallist on snow at the Olympic Winter Games.
The 17-year-old snowboarder took out the top spot on the podium in the women’s halfpipe at Phoenix Snow Park with a massive 98.25 points – beating rival and silver medallist Jiayu Liu (China) by 8.50 points.
“I knew if I went home with the gold medal knowing I could do better, I wasn’t going to be very satisfied,” Kim said.
“I did put down a really good (first) run, but I was like, ‘I can do better than that.’
“I knew that I wanted to do that third run, I wanted to do the back-to-back 10s, [to] go bigger and better.”
Kim’s compatriot Arielle Gold finished with bronze and said that being able to get up onto the Olympic podium “means everything”.
“It’s been a long season, a lot of really hard work put into this, so I’m just grateful that I have something to show for it,” she said.
With two of their riders on the podium, the USA has now won two medals in the women’s halfpipe event for the fourth Winter Games in a row.
In the Men’s Alpine combined, Austria’s Marcel Hirscher became the fifth man to win an Olympic and world title in a men’s combination event at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre on Tuesday.
“All the people expected me to win a gold medal, especially in Austria. This is perfect, unbelievable,” he said.
“I think it was my best downhill ever. I killed it, because putting on my downhill skis really, exactly one year ago, was the last time I skied on downhill skis.”
In the same event, silver medallist Alexis Pinturault and bronze medallist Victor Muffat-Jeandet became the first Frenchmen on the podium in a men’s combination event at the Winter Games in 70 years.
Italy’s Arianna Fontana won gold in the women’s 500m short track speed skating and was joined on the podium by Yara van Kerkhof (Netherlands) and Kim Boutin (Canada).
The Netherlands’ Kjeld Nuis won gold in the men’s 1500m speed skating while silver went to compatriot Patrick Roest and bronze to Korea’s Min Seok Kim
Canada won the first ever Olympic gold medal at the inaugural mixed doubles curling event at Gangneung, its 11th medal in curling at the Olympic Winter Games.
Germany’s Natalia Geisenberger and Dajana Eitberger took out the two top spots in the women’s singles luge and were joined on the podium by bronze medallist Alex Gough (Canada).
“It’s an Olympic gold medal, you can't say it's more important for me than the other ones. It's just the greatest feeling if you can stay at the top of the podium at the Olympics," Geisenberger said.
"The secret was to have four clean runs. The first time here everybody said that if you have four clean runs you will fight for the medals. That was the secret. I had four clean runs, I had four very strong starts, and I'm just happy that I'm Olympic champion all (over) again.”
Sweden’s Stina Nilsson won gold in the women’s cross-country skiing sprint classic and was joined on the podium by Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla and Yulia Belorukova (Olympic Athlete of Russia).
“I feel very emotional and also very happy,” Nilsson said.
“I felt strong during the whole day so to be able to take the gold medal was fantastic.
"It means so much. I have worked so hard for this, so many years. It's been many ups and many downs and to take the gold medal today is something that I'm going to be proud of for the rest of my life.
"I really had the best day of my life so far."
In the men’s sprint classic at Alpensia, Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo made history as the youngest man to win gold in cross-country skiing.
The 21-year-old said that though there had “been a lot of pressure from outside”, to win gold was “unbelievable”.
“It is quite cool to cross the finish line first. It is difficult to describe, everything has happened so fast and you are so happy,” he said.
David Barden
olympics.com.au
