The Washington Post - USA (2022-02-20)

D10 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20 , 2022

b eijing OlyMPics

climb into the stadium and won

in 1 hour 11 minutes 32.7 sec-

onds.

Russian teammate Ivan Yaki-

mushkin crossed the line 5.5 sec-

onds behind for silver. Simen

Hegstad Krueger of Norway

took bronze, seven seconds be-

hind.

Bolshunov, who is coached by

Yuri Borodavko, also won gold in

the skiathlon and the relay at the

Beijing Games. He took silver in

the 15-kilometer classical ski

race and bronze in the team

sprint.

hovered around minus-18 degrees

Celsius (0 degrees Fahrenheit).

“Overall I can say that when the

conditions are harder, this is in my

favor because when it is harder, it

is easier for me,” Bolshunov said.

“In the morning the weather was

harder. The wind was stronger,

and the temperature was colder.

When we started the race, the

weather got a bit better, and I

think today we could have skied

50 kilometers.”

Bolshunov was part of a five-

man breakaway in the last kilome-

ter. He pushed ahead on the final

ASSOCIATED PRESS

zhangjiakou, china — The
windy conditions played right
into the hands — and skis — of
Alexander Bolshunov.
The Russian earned his third
gold medal of the Beijing Olym-
pics on Saturday, winning the
weather-shortened 30-kilometer
mass start cross-country ski race.
The race was delayed by an
hour and then shortened from the
originally planned 50 kilometers
because of frigid temperatures
and strong wind. The temperature

MEN’S CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING

In frigid conditions, ROC’s Bolshunov claims gold

end and put his penultimate

stone into the center of the target

area.

When British skip Bruce

Mouat failed to knock it out on a

ricochet, the Swedes had

clinched it. They paused — it’s not

polite to celebrate an opponent’s

miss — and then let out a yell.

Oskar Eriksson, who won the

bronze in mixed doubles, is the

first person to win two curling

medals at one Olympics. The

Swedish vice skip has four Olym-

pic medals — the only curler in

history with more than Edin.

Saturday, beating Britain, 5-4, in

the first extra-end men’s final in

Olympic history.

“It feels so crazy. I almost had

to ask someone before I came

here, ‘We have won, right?’ ” said

Edin, who in four trips to the

Winter Games has finished — in

order — fourth, third, second and

first.

With the podium already set

up and Canada standing by to

collect the bronze it won Friday

by beating the Americans, Edin

took advantage of the last-rock

advantage in the first tiebreaker

ASSOCIATED PRESS

beijing — Five-time world

champion. Olympic bronze

medalist. Olympic silver medal-

ist.

And now, finally, Niklas Edin

of Sweden has claimed the only

major title missing from a ca-

reer in which he has estab-

lished himself as the most deco-

rated skip in curling history.

Four years after losing in the

final to American upstart John

Shuster in PyeongChang, Edin

led Sweden to the gold medal

MEN’S CURLING

Edin cements status as sport’s most decorated skip

MARKO DJURICA/REUTERS

Skiers turn a corner during the weather-shortened men’s 30-kilometer mass start cross-country race Saturday. Alexander Bolshunov of the Russian Olympic Committee won gold, his third of the Beijing Games.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The International Olympic
Committee member who over-
saw preparations for the Beijing
Games was voted back onto the
body’s executive board Saturday.
Juan Antonio Samaranch,
whose father of the same name
was IOC president from 1980 to
2001, was the only candidate for
the sole vice president slot that
was open.
The move puts Samaranch in
position for an expected run at
the IOC presidency. Current IOC
rules require Thomas Bach to
stand aside in 2025 after 12 years
as president.
Samaranch received 72 votes
in favor and four against. Nine
abstained.
Samaranch will take over the
vice president seat of Yu Zaiqing
of China, who had to step down
after completing the maximum
two consecutive four-year terms.
Samaranch, who served as a
vice president from 2016 to 2020,

returns to the 15-member IOC

board, where decision-making

and power has become more

concentrated under Bach’s

hands-on leadership.

Samaranch served as chair-

man of the IOC coordination

commission for the Beijing

Olympics from 2018 and became

the main point of contact with

officials in China.

The IOC board now includes

several potential candidates to

succeed Bach, including another

vice president, Nicole Hoevertsz

of Aruba, who had her IOC

membership renewed Saturday

and is leading the IOC’s over-

sight of the 2028 Los Angeles

Games.

l MEN’S HOCKEY: Members

of the U.S. men’s team were

involved in a noisy late-night

party at the Athletes’ Village that

prompted a conversation be-

tween the U.S. Olympic and Para-

lympic Committee and USA

Hockey.

The USOPC confirmed Satur-

day that a noise complaint was

reported inside the village. No

property damage was involved,

and no one was kicked out.

It was not at all like the 1998

Nagano Olympics when U.S.

hockey players — many of them

NHL stars — caused $3,000 in

damage by trashing apartments

and throwing chairs and a fire

extinguisher through windows.

“We hold Team USA athletes to

very high standards of personal

conduct,” the USOPC said in a

statement. “We have spoken to

USA Hockey leadership, affirmed

those expectations and can con-

firm that athletes will remain in

the village until their scheduled

departures.”

NHL players are not at the

Olympics for the second consec-

utive time. The U.S. team is made

up of 15 college players and

almost a dozen others now in

European professional and

North American minor leagues.

The Americans were eliminat-

ed in the quarterfinals Wednes-

day with a shootout loss to

Slovakia....

Finnish hockey veteran Marko

Anttila, 36, had time for many

thoughts while at an isolation

hotel for six days after he tested

positive for the coronavirus upon

arrival in Beijing, wondering

when he could resume his quest

for gold.

There was a lot of time to kill,

and the mental anguish was

worse than the physical toll.

“I was just lonely in a hotel

room,” Anttila said. “It wasn’t

easy.”

But after returning for the

second game of the tournament,

Anttila scored twice, and on

Sunday he will play in the final

against the Russians, looking to

help deliver the country’s first

Olympic hockey gold medal.

Anttila, the captain for Fin-

land at the past two world cham-

pionships, is a respected leader

in the locker room. After scoring

in his first game back, he did so

again in the quarterfinals.

NOTES

Samaranch voted back onto IOC executive board

BY LES CARPENTER

beijing — An arbitration panel

rejected a last-second bid by nine

American figure skaters to get

their silver medals won nearly two

weeks ago in the team event. The

decision by the Court of Arbitra-

tion for Sport (CAS) on Saturday

night means the U.S. skaters will

not receive their medals before

the end of the Beijing Games as

they had hoped.

The CAS ruling upholds an In-

ternational Olympic Committee

decision not to give out medals for

any event in which Russian skater

Kamila Valieva finished in the top

three.

Valieva, who tested positive for

a banned heart medication in De-

cember, was part of the Russian

Olympic Committee team that

won the team event Feb. 7. The

result of her test was revealed the

next day. CAS upheld the Russian

Anti-Doping Agency’s decision to

allow Valieva to compete at the

Olympics on Feb. 14, but the IOC

and the World Anti-Doping Agen-

cy have questioned that decision

and are investigating the positive

result.

The medal ceremony, originally

scheduled for the night after the

team event, was canceled at the

last minute. The American skaters

have said they want to be awarded

their medals together as a team

before departing Beijing, even un-

derstanding that they might even-

tually be given gold if Valieva is

ruled ineligible and the ROC is

stripped of its first-place finish.

U.S. Olympic officials have

been critical of Russia’s handling

of the positive test result and were

frustrated that CAS allowed Va-

lieva to compete in the individual

competition, in which she fin-

ished fourth Thursday. U.S. offi-

cials and skaters have said the

decision not to award the medals

is unfair and denies them an op-

portunity to celebrate together.

In a news release, CAS did not

give a reason for rejecting the U.S.

appeal, which was filed Saturday.

U.S. figure skaters’ bid to get

medals during G ames denied

scored four to take an 8-2 lead,

bringing the biggest cheer yet

from the British fans in the

crowd.

It was the most lopsided

women’s final in Olympic his-

tory.

The Swedish women won

bronze Saturday night with a 9-7

victory over Switzerland.

two points in the first end and

controlled the scoreboard from

there. They essentially clinched it

in the seventh after Japanese skip

Satsuki Fujisawa failed to keep her

last stone in the scoring area.

That left just one red Japanese

rock and three yellow British ones

in the house. Muirhead easily

picked off Japan’s lone stone and

ASSOCIATED PRESS

beijing — Eve Muirhead led Brit-
ain to the Olympic women’s curl-
ing gold medal, helping her team
pull away with a four-ender in the
seventh Sunday for a record-set-
ting 10-3 victory over Japan.
One day after the British men
took silver, t he women picked up

WOMEN’S CURLING

Britain tops Japan in the m ost one-sided final

In the third period, Slafkovsky

and forward Pavol Regenda add-

ed empty-net goals to seal the

win.

Slafkovsky scored a tourna-

ment-high seven goals in seven

games in Beijing.

Finland will play the Russian

Olympic Committee for gold

Sunday.

Finland in the semifinals, Slova-

kia bounced back with a strong

offensive performance Saturday.

It took 43 shots in the game

and broke through twice in the

second period. The first goal was

scored by Juraj Slafkovsky 3:17

into the period, and the second

was by forward Samuel Takac on

a power play at 12:47.

BY ANDREW GOLDEN

In the bronze medal game of

the men’s tournament in Bei-

jing, Slovakia defeated Swe-

den, 4-0, earning the country’s

first men’s hockey medal since

it became an independent

state.

Coming off a 2-0 loss to

MEN’S HOCKEY

Slafkovsky lifts Slovakia to milestone victory