D8 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 , 2022
b eijing OlyMPicsASSOCIATED PRESSKaillie Humphries has a big
lead in the first part of the mono-
bob competition.
H umphries is competing for
the first time as an American citi-
zen. It’s also the first time mono-
bob, a one-woman bobsled, has
been an Olympic event.
The reigning world monobob
champion finished two runs Sun-
day in 2 minutes 9.10 seconds,
giving her a massive lead of
1.04 seconds over second-place
Christine de Bruin of Canada. De
Bruin’s time was 2:10.14.
Laura Nolte of Germany was
third in 2:10.32, and three-time
Olympic medalist Elana Meyers
Taylor of the United States is right
in the medal hunt, her time of
2:10.42 putting her fourth.
Medals will be decided Monday
morning in Beijing, late Sunday
night in the United States.
l SNOWBOARDING: Slope-
style gold medalist Max Parrot
said fellow Canadian snowboard-
er Mark McMorris apologized to
him for saying Parrot won only
because of questionable Olympic
judging.
Parrot acknowledged to the As-
sociated Press on Saturday that he
failed to fully execute a grab on the
first jump of the slopestyle course
and said he was lucky the judges
didn’t see it. He maintains he still
had the best run of the day and
earned his first Olympic gold.
McMorris finished third,
2.43 points behind Parrot, close
enough that he would have taken
silver if the judges had dinged
Parrot for the missed grab. Mc-
Morris told Canadian Broadcast-
ing Corp. on Friday he deserved to
beat Parrot and Chinese silver
medalist Su Yiming.
“Obviously would have been
nice to have a different shade of
medal. But knowing that I kind of
had the run of the day and one of
the best rounds of my life and the
whole industry knows what hap-
pened — pretty, pretty crazy,” Mc-
Morris said.
Parrot said McMorris apolo-
gized to his face Saturday morn-
ing. McMorris also tweeted to say
he was sorry later in the day.
“I let my emotions get the better
of me in the days following slope-style and I want to sincerely apolo-
gize to Max,” he wrote. “I’m amazed
by what you’ve overcome and I’m
extremely proud to have shared the
podium with you. Let’s get another
one for @TeamCanada.”
Parrot said there were no hard
feelings.
“He actually came to me earlier
today, and he apologized for his
non-sportsmanship,” Parrot said.
“I told him no worries.”
McMorris declined to be inter-
viewed Saturday.
Parrot and McMorris are set for
another showdown Monday,
when qualifying begins for big air.
The event will be scored by the
same nine-judge panel that was
immediately criticized at Genting
Snow Park this past Monday after
broadcast replays clearly showed
Parrot grabbing his knee instead
of his board.
The lead official on the panel
told snowboarding website
Whitelines that the judges weren’t
provided with replays or shots of
some of the angles that were show-
ing up on social media after the
contest....
The w omen’s slopestyle qualify-ing event was postponed because
of high wind, snow and low visibil-
ity, putting Eileen Gu’s pursuit of a
second gold medal on hold.
No new time for qualifying was
announced. T he final is currently
set for Monday.
l CROSS-COUNTRY SKI-
ING: Estonia’s Kristjan Ilves was
released from isolation and
cleared to train on the Beijing
Games’ cross-country course.
Ilves, the world’s sixth-ranked
Nordic combined skier, previously
tested positive for the coronavi-
rus, and that knocked him out of
the normal hill competition and
10-kilometer cross-country race
Wednesday night.
Three-time world champion
Jarl Magnus Riiber of Norway was
still in isolation Sunday.
Fifth-ranked and three-time
Olympic champion Eric Frenzel of
Germany w as still in isolation as of
Saturday night.
l ALPINE SKIING: The sec-
ond women’s downhill training
run for American Mikaela Shif-
frin, Italian Sofia Goggia and oth-
er Alpine skiers was canceled be-
cause of snowfall.NOTES
Humphries grabs early lead in inaugural monobob
ON TV TODAYAll listings are Eastern time. Event times are approximate and
subject to change. All events also will be streamed on Peacock.Bobsledding10:45 p.m. — Women’s monobob,
final — NBC (live)Figure skating8:15 p.m. — Free dance — USA
(live)10:50 p.m. — Free dance — NBC
(live)Freestyle skiing11:30 p.m. — Men’s slopestyle
qualifying — USA (live)12:30 a.m. (Mon.) — Women’s
slopestyle final — NBCHockey8:10 a.m. — Men: United States vs.
Germany — USA (live)Short-track speedskating6 a.m. — Men’s 500m — USA (live)6:35 a.m. — Women’s 3,000m
relay finals — USA (live)Snowboarding1:30 a.m. (Mon.) — Women’s big air
qualifying — NBC1:35 a.m. (Mon.) — Men’s big air
qualifying — USA (live)Speedskating8 a.m. — Men’s team pursuit
qualifying — NBC (live)8:56 a.m. — Women’s 500m —
NBC (live)ASSOCIATED PRESSzhangjiakou, china — The Boe brothers
packed a 1-3 punch on the Olympic biathlon
course.
Johannes Thingnes Boe, the younger of the
Norwegian siblings, won gold Saturday in the
sprint race. Older brother Tarjei Boe took bronze.
“We are very proud being here, in first place
and third place, as brothers,” said Johannes
Thingnes Boe, who won his third medal of the
Beijing Games. “We are both biathletes, but we
are also family. We have something between us
that is really great. He’s the reason I started in this
sport.”
Johannes Thingnes Boe skied fast enough over
the 10-kilometer course to overcome a missed
target and win in 24 minutes 0.4 seconds. He also
won gold in the mixed-team relay and bronze in
the individual race.
At the 2018 PyeongChang Games, Johannes
Thingnes Boe also won gold in the individual race.
Quentin Fillon Maillet of France took silver,
splitting the brothers on the podium. He finished
25.5 seconds behind Johannes Thingnes Boe.
Tarjei Boe, who also won gold in the mixed
relay alongside his younger brother, ended up
38.9 seconds behind with one miss. It was his first
individual Olympic medal.
Fillon Maillet also missed one target but
couldn’t match Johannes Thingnes Boe’s speed.
He won gold in the individual and silver in the
mixed relay — out-sprinted by Johannes Thingnes
Boe. He’s also the overall World Cup leader.
MEN’S BIATHLONFor Norwegian brothers,sprint is a family a≠airASSOCIATED PRESSbeijing — Hannah Neise has never won a World
Cup medal. Or a medal at the world champion-
ships. Or a medal from the European champion-
ships.
She has an Olympic medal now.
And it’s the one that everybody wants.
Skeleton has a new champion, and she was a bit
of a surprise winner. Neise, the 21-year-old who
won the junior world title last year, became the
first German woman to capture the gold medal in
Olympic skeleton by rallying in the final two heats
Saturday.
“It is mind-blowing,” Neise said. “I can’t realize
it right now. I think it’ll take some time to realize
it. It’s an unbelievable feeling.”
Her four-run time was 4 minutes 7.62 seconds.
Jaclyn Narracott of Australia — the midpoint
leader of the event — won the silver in 4:08.24, and
World Cup overall champion Kimberley Bos of the
Netherlands took the bronze in 4:08.46.
Neise’s win might have been a bit of a stunner,
but at this point, nothing Germany does on this
track should be that surprising. After six sliding
events in Beijing — four in luge, two in skeleton —
the Germans have captured six gold medals.
Tina Hermann of Germany was fourth, and
Mirela Rahneva of Canada w as fifth.
Neise’s win capped a year that was unpredict-
able in women’s skeleton from the outset. There
were eight World Cup races leading up to the
Olympics, with five different winners and 11 dif-
ferent medalists — and Neise was not one of them.WOMEN’S SKELETONNeise rallies for gold,sliding into spotlightASSOCIATED PRESSzhangjiakou, china — The Russian Olympic
Committee took the lead at the start of the wom-
en’s four-person relay and held on to win another
gold medal in cross-country skiing Saturday.
Yulia Stupak broke away early with nine wom-
en chasing. On the next leg, Natalia Nepryaeva
was chased down by Katharina Hennig of Ger-
many.
The Germans briefly took the lead on the last
lap, with Russian skier Veronika Stepanova just
behind Sofie Krehl. But Stepanova pulled away on
the last climb and won in 53 minutes 41 seconds.
Germany took silver, 18.2 seconds behind. Sweden
edged Finland for bronze.
“Of course, it is a special day,” Stepanova said.
“It was really tough because we have a win in the
World Cup, and a lot of people know we can win,
so they say: ‘You must win. You must win.’ So I am
like, ‘Okay, we need a good result,’ and I do what I
can do.”
The four-person relay began w ith 18 racers.
Each woman skied two laps on a 2.5-kilometer
(1.5-mile) course. The first two skiers raced in the
classic style and the last two in freestyle.
Norway ended up in fifth place, just ahead of
the United States in sixth. Therese Johaug, who
already won two gold medals at the Beijing
Games, briefly brought the chase group closer to
the leaders, but she couldn’t catch them.
The gold was the ROC’s second in cross-country
skiing at the 2022 Games. Alexander Bolshunov
won the men’s skiathlon.WOMEN’S CROSS-COUNTRY SKIINGROC team pulls awayo n final climb of relayASSOCIATED PRESSbeijing — When the last pair crossed the line, the
excruciating wait finally over, Gao Tingyu was
swallowed by his teammates and coaches.
Then he grabbed a Chinese flag and took off on a
sprint around the infield at National Speed Skating
Oval, the striking red banner fluttering behind his
head.
When he pulled up alongside the finish line, Gao
let out a scream that could be heard throughout the
only new venue built in Beijing for this year’s Winter
Games.
Gao felt plenty of excitement Saturday, setting an
Olympic record with his victory in the 500 meters.
The 24-year-old Gao skated in the seventh of
15 pairs, posting a blistering time of 34.32 seconds.
Then he waited nervously on the infield as 16 other
skaters took aim.
No one could beat it.
“It felt like I was riding a roller coaster,” Gao said.
“When I finished my race, there are 16 people
behind me, and all of them are great. I felt some
pressure until the last group of people.”
Zhang Hong had been China’s only speedskating
gold medalist. She won the women’s 1,000 meters
eight years ago in Sochi.
The silver went to Cha Min Kyu of South Korea,
whose time of 34.39 gave him a matching medal to
the one he earned four years ago in PyeongChang.
Wataru Morishige of Japan took the bronze in
34.49, completing an Asian sweep of the podium.
It was the first time in Winter Games history that
three different Asian countries medaled in an event.MEN’S SPEEDSKATINGGao thrills home crowdwith 500-meter recordPATRICK SMITH/GETTY IMAGESEduard Latypov, left, of the Russian Olympic Committee warms up ahead of the men’s biathlon 10-kilometer sprint. Norwegian brothers Johannes Thingnes Boe and Tarjei Boe won gold and bronze medals.