Beijing 2022: Nolte & Levi secure Germany's 11th gold medal
February 19, 2022
Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi made it clear they were not to be caught this Olympics as the pair soared to another gold on Saturday — Germany's record-extending eighth sliding gold in Beijing.
Their two-women bobsleigh rivals were forced to rely on mistakes by Nolte, 23, and Levi, 24, for a way back into the race after the Olympic first-timers took a commanding lead on Friday — but they kept their nerve for a combined time of 4:03.96 over four runs.
"I’ve never had this feeling before," Nolte said. “It’s like we are drunk, but we’re not. We’re just drunk on happiness.”
Germany's total of golds brings them level with the 11 Team Deutschland won in Turin in 2006, but still short of the team's all-time record of 14 golds at a Winter Olympics —achieved in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018.
Elana Meyers Taylor of the United States took bronze to become the most successful Black athlete in Winter Olympics history — it could be her last medal too as the 37-year-old has hinted at retirement.
"There’s a lot of people that came before me," Meyers Taylor said. "[2002 Olympic gold medalist] Vonetta Flowers is the reason I’m here, and Shani Davis and even [US speed skater] Erin Jackson. It’s just been such a long legacy of Black athletes at the Winter Olympics and hopefully it just continues."
Schouten queen of the Ice Ribbon
Irene Schouten of the Netherlands has won her third gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, outsprinting Canada's Ivanie Blondin to win the women's mass start.
In the final speed-skating event of the Winter Games, Schouten established herself as the biggest star at the Ice Ribbon with a furious push to line to beat Blondin by 0.06 seconds. This followed her gold medals in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters. Blondin settled for silver, while the bronze medal went to Italy's Francesca Lollobrigida.
The Netherlands, a traditional power in the sport, again topped the speed-skating medal table, finishing with six golds and 12 medals overall.
Sweden take men's curling gold
Niklas Edin has claimed the only major title missing from his career by leading Sweden to a 5-4 gold-medal victory in the first extra-end men's final in Olympic history.
Edin used his last-rock advantage in the first tiebreaker end to 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 gold.
On Friday, Brad Gushue's Canada had won bronze by beating the 2018 gold medal winners, the United States, 8-5.
Nico Porteous wins New Zealand's second-ever gold
20-year-old Nico Porteous emerged victorious in a wild halfpipe final on Saturday, despite a crash on his final run that left him bleeding from one ear and nursing a sore shoulder. Porteous had already done enough to win thanks to his first-run score of 93.00 and he was given a congratulatory haka by his New Zealand teammates, having ended American David Wise's eight-year run as champion.
Snowboarder Zoi Sadowski Synnott had given New Zealand their first-ever Winter Olympics gold the previous week.
Wise, who finished second on 90.75, said the weather "defined the competition", realizing beforehand that it "might be the kind of day where a stock run could be on the podium."
Porteous's title-winning first run was anything but ordinary, but he acknowledged that he needed "a little bit of luck" to claim the gold.
"It's a constant uphill battle to keep your legs warm and keep your body warm because there's nothing worse than dropping into a run with cold muscles and not feeling sharp," said Porteous.
American Alex Ferreira finished third on 86.75, putting all three medal winners from the 2018 Pyeongchang Games back on the podium but in different order.
Last Alpine skiing event moved to Sunday
American star Mikaela Shiffrin will have to wait a little longer for her final chance at a Beijing Olympics medal after those high winds forced the mixed team parallel, the last Alpine skiing event to be postponed until Sunday.
It's been a severely disappointing Games for Shiffrin, whose best result in the individual events was a ninth-place finish in the super-G. She also finished 18th in the downhill and crashed out of three others.
There are doubts about whether she will get that last chance at a medal on Sunday, as more wind is forecast for Yanqing, north of Beijing, on Sunday. According to the AFP news agency, if it ends up being cancelled. It will be only the second time in Winter Olympics history that an event could not take place during the Games.
Friedrich on course to make history
Germany's Francesco Friedrich is on course for an unprecedented back-to-back golden Olympic bobsleigh double after he took the overnight lead with his four-man team on Saturday. Friedrich and his crew rebounded from second after the first run to first after two, leading another German bob,, piloted by Johannes Lochner by three-hundredths of a second.
Justin Kripps of Canada takes third place into the final two runs on Sunday but is under pressure from the third German bob of Christoph Hafner.
Friedrich, Lochner and Hafer had swept the two-man medals earlier in the week. Friedrich won both men's events 2018 and if he does so again Sunday will be the first to get successive doubles at the Olympics.
Margis named Germany's flag bearer
Meanwhile, the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) has announced that Thorsten Margis, who, with Friedrich, won gold in the two-man bobsleigh earlier in the week, will be the country's flag bearer at Sunday's closing ceremony. Margis had also won the two- and four- man double with Friedrich in 2018.
"This is an unbelievable honor. It is something very special for a push athlete," Margis said.