WINTER OLYMPICS U.S. women’s hockey survives scare; Skater’s right to compete under review

By The Associated Press

Once the sense of relief subsided following an all-too-tense quarterfinal victory for the defending Olympic women’s hockey champions, United States coach Joel Johnson’s focus turned to just how far other countries have come.

In a tournament that appeared destined for a gold-medal showdown between the global powers of U.S. and Canada, the upstart Czech Republic nearly crashed the party. So much for the lack of parity in the sport that some have been griping about after the U.S. and Canada rolled through their first three preliminary round games outscoring opponents by a combined margin of 47-5.

“When I read some articles from people who have no clue what they should be talking about, this game is a good reminder for them,” Johnson said following the Americans’ 4-1 victory against the Czechs. “There might be some scores that look a little lopsided, but this is exactly what everybody knows, that people are making strides.”

The Americans overcame a 1-0 deficit and avoided what would have been a stunning upset by scoring three times in the third period.

Lee Stecklein scored the go-ahead goal 6:49 into the third period when her shot from the right point deflected in o the stick of Czech forward Michaela Pejzlova. Hilary Knight had a goal and assist, Savannah Harmon also scored and Kendall Coyne Schofield added an empty-netter. Alex Cavallini stopped five shots, while getting plenty of support from her shotblocking defenders.

The second-seeded Americans, who have never failed to reach the semifinal stage since women’s hockey was introduced at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, next play on Monday against an opponent that won’t be determined until the quarterfinal results between Finland and Japan, and Switzerland and the Russian team today.

Alpine skiing

Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland won the wom-

White

FROM PAGE 1 as he eased down the pipe into retirement.

“The end,” he said to Switzerland’s Jan Scherrer, the eventual bronze medalist, at the bottom of the hill. “That’s it.”

Japan’s Ayumu Hirano clinched the gold medal in the final round at Genting Snow Park H&S Stadium.

But Friday morning will be best remembered as the day White, who over the course of a record-setting five edge-of-the-envelope Olympics revolutionized the Games and his sport, finally returned to earth.

White, 35, finished fourth at 85.00 points, 2.25 behind Scherrer, in a final Olympic appearance that only weeks ago seemed unlikely.

“Sorry you’re going to get me ugly crying here, but I’m not upset about the result,” he said. “I would have loved to put it down. I made it happen for two runs and I couldn’t hold on for the last. It’s hard for me not to get hung up on that last run, I wanted it so badly.

“I’m proud of the runs I put down, I’m proud to be here for my last goodbye. Just missed the podium, I would have loved to walk out there with everyone, for one last time but you can’t always get what you want, you get what you need.”

White might be the most transformative figure in the history of the Win - en’s super-G at the Beijing Games, capturing her first Olympic gold medal.

Two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shi rin finished ninth after failing to finish in either of her two previous races in Beijing.

Mirjam Puchner of Austria won silver and Michelle Gisin of Switzerland won bronze.

Figure skating

Russian figure skater

Kamila Valieva’s right to compete in the women’s event at the Beijing Olympics will be decided at an urgent hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Both the World AntiDoping Agency and the International Testing Agency — on behalf of the IOC — said Friday they would fight the decision by Russia’s anti-doping agency to allow the 15-year-old Valieva to skate. The Russian agency provisionally banned Valieva on Tuesday because she failed a doping test in December. After an appeal, the agency lifted the ban Wednesday.

Valieva is the heavy favorite in her event, which begins Tuesday. She set world record scores this season and landed the first quad jump by a woman at an Olympics as the Russian athletes competing as ROC, ter Olympics, dominating the competition and sucking the oxygen out of the Games much like Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps for 16 years. The San Diego native took a sport initially dismissed by Olympic purists as a novelty made up of a generation of Je Spicolis and landed it squarely on center stage at the Games right next to figure skating, surpassing alpine skiing.

“Everyone else who was riding today grew up, looking up to him as a huge idol,” Scherrer said. “When I was 15, he was just so much better than everyone else, and I feel he was probably the most dominant snowboard character in competition ever. He looks back on 20 years of riding at the highest level, and it was a huge pleasure to have him today in this competition.”

He was a godsend for the International Olympic Committee, desperate to connect with a younger audience amid dwindling ratings. But it wasn’t just teens that White reached.

Americans got used to seeing White, his shock of red hair, wide smile, everywhere, on morning shows, on the couch of late-night talk shows, in films and at the mall. White even had his own clothing line with Target.

At the peak of his career, he was earning $8 million in endorsement fees annually, according to Forbes.

But it wasn’t just White’s charisma and his short for Russian Olympic Committee, won the team event. The ROC said it will fight to keep that gold medal, and Valieva has passionate support from the Kremlin.

The ITA confirmed reports that Valieva tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine at the Russian national championships in St. Petersburg six weeks ago.

The positive test was flagged by a laboratory in Sweden only on Tuesday — the day after Valieva helped the Russians win the team event and just hours before the medal ceremony, which was then postponed. Whether the Russians will lose that gold medal will be decided later.

Cross-country skiing

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

SoCal cool that made the world sit up and take notice. His ability to take flight was comparable to Jordan and Beamon, Fosbury and Bubka.

White was just 19 when he won his first gold medal at the 2006 Games in Turin. He repeated four years later in Vancouver.

But his greatest triumph came four years ago in South Korea, after a fourth-place finish in Sochi in 2014.

White trailed Hirano by a point going into the final run but clinched the gold by nailing back to back-to-back 1440s.

“That was the highlight of my career,” he said. With the years, competing became increasingly di cult. An ankle injury forced him out of a qualifying event in Mammoth earlier this season, leaving his Olympic qualification in peril.

He continued to have knee issues after undergoing surgery last summer and injured his back working out.

White was in Austria when he realized it was time to retire.

“On the chairlift ride, the mountain was closing and no one was around, and I was watching the sun go down, and it just hit me,” White recalled. “I was like, ‘This is it, these are the signs.’

“It was a very sad and surreal moment, but very joyous as well. I reflected on all the things I’ve done, and looked at that sunset

Hoesflot Klaebo of Norway secured the bronze 37.5 seconds behind the Finn.

Short-track speedskating

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.

Schulting was the silver medalist behind Fontana in the 500.

Skeleton going down, and I thought, ‘Next time I’m here I won’t be stressed about learning tricks. I won’t be worried about some kind of competition. I’ll just purely be here to enjoy the resort, maybe check out other runs besides the halfpipe for once.’

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.

“I broke down a little, got very emotional and called friends and family, manager, and told them where I was at. They all agreed, ‘Hey, beautiful run. Let’s see what’s next.’”

He came to Beijing determined to enjoy every moment of this final Olympic experience. “My bonus round,” White said. He posed for selfies at the Opening Ceremony. “A little fan-girling action over here,” said Paula Moltzan, a U.S. alpine skier. And he crashed U.S. board cross rider Nick Baumgartner’s Facetime with his son and his friends, significantly increasing Baumgartner’s street cred at home.

White was so busy trading pins afterward that he almost missed the bus back to the Olympic Village.

“The goal has been to just squeeze every bit of fun and excitement and joy out of this experience,” he said. “I’m having as much fun as I can.

Going out in a fifth Olympic final was in jeopardy in Thursday’s qualifying round. He fell on the first of two runs but rebounded to finish the day in fourth place.

FRIDAY’S MEDALISTS

ALPINE SKIING

Women’s Super-G Gold — Lara Gut-Behrami, Switzerland Silver — Mirjam Puchner, Austria Bronze — Michelle Gisin, Switzerland

BIATHLON

Women’s 7.5km sprint Gold — Marte Olsbu Roeiseland, Norway Silver — Elvira Oeberg, Sweden

Bronze — Dorothea Wierer, Italy

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING

Men’s 15km classic Gold — Iivo Niskanen, Finland Silver — Alexander Bolshunov, ROC Bronze — Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, Norway

SNOWBOARD Men’s snowboard halfpipe Gold — Ayumu Hirano, Japan Silver — Scotty James, Australia Bronze — Jan Scherrer, Switzerland

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. Speedskating

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 a air. 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.

His first run Friday was solid if not spectacular, putting him in fourth at 72.00. White showed signs of his old self on a second run he punctuated with a fist pump. His 85.00 score moved him briefly into second before slipping to fourth by the end of the round.

And so the sport held its breath one more time as White headed into the halfpipe. With the opening 1440 he seemed headed to the medal podium a fourth time. But he couldn’t hold the landing on his second trick.

“I wish I could have landed my last run, but I was having some diculty in my back leg for some reason, it was giving out on every run, I don’t know why,” White said. “Maybe it was the pressure, maybe it was just exhaustion.

“Really challenging, but that’s OK, that’s it, I’m done. I’m so thankful for my career, thankful to China for having us.

“It’s been a journey.”

In the days and weeks ahead, the rawness of Thursday’s emotion will fade, and White will find peace and perspective.

“I don’t know how many kids really aspire to be a cowboy and get to be a cowboy,” he said earlier this week. “At a young age, snowboarding was what I wanted more than anything, and to be walking in these shoes today is just incredible. It feels so amazing, I’m so proud.”

SKELETON Men Gold — Christopher Grotheer, Germany Silver — Axel Jungk, Germany Bronze — Wengang Yan, China

SPEED SKATING

Men’s 10,000m Gold — Nils van der Poel, Sweden Silver — Patrick Roest, Netherlands Bronze — Davide Ghiotto, Italy

SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING

Women’s 1,000m Gold — Suzanne Schulting, Netherlands

Silver — Minjeong Choi, South Korea

Bronze — Hanne Desmet, Belgium

ALPINE SKIING

WOMEN’S SUPER-G

Lara Gut-Behrami, Switzerland,

2. Mirjam Puchner, Austria,

3. Michelle Gisin, Switzerland,

4. Tamara Tippler, Austria,