ZHANGJIAKOU, CHINA Walter Wallberg of Sweden upset “The King” to take home the gold medal in the men’s moguls at the Beijing Olympics.
Wallberg looked almost in shock when his score of 83.23 flashed on the board, edging defending Olympic champion Mikael Kingsbury of Canada on a bitterly cold Saturday night. Wallberg picked up points for his speed over the smooth and technical skiing style of Kingsbury, whose nickname is the “King of Moguls.”
Now, there’s a new king of the hill.
Ikuma Horishima of Japan took home the bronze. As the athletes were positioning themselves for the post-contest pictures, Kingsbury looked almost confused where to stand and had to switch places with Horishima. Clearly, Kingsbury’s not used to finishing second.
Wallberg’s surprise victory interrupts the men’s moguls dominance of Team Canada, which had won the event in the last three Winter Games.
This was Wallberg’s first major win on the senior circuit. The 21-year-old Swede has never even won a World Cup event, but he has finished on the World Cup podium four times this season. That includes an event before the Winter Games in Deer Valley, Utah, behind Horishima and Kingsbury.
To think, Wallberg discovered moguls almost by accident. When he moved to Are, Sweden, he saw some kids practicing on the moguls course one day and was instantly drawn to the sport.
Nick Page led the Americans with a fifth-place finish. The last American man to win a medal in the event was Bryon Wilson (bronze) at the 2010 Vancouver Games. The last American man to take home gold was Jonny Moseley in 1998.
Kingsbury entered the night as the overwhelming favorite — always is these days. Just watch the red patterns below the knees set against his white snow pants to understand why: The patterns rarely move.
But Wallberg proved speedier along the course. The last racer to go on the Secret Garden Olympic course, he pumped his fist in excitement after his run and raised the goggles to check out the scoreboard.
The new king liked what he saw.
HOME TEAM
BEIJING China won its first gold medal of the Beijing Games, emerging victorious Saturday in short track speedskating’s mixed team relay in the event’s Olympic debut.
Wu Dajing edged Pietro Sighel of Italy by .016 seconds — or half a skate blade — to claim gold. Hungary earned bronze.
Qu Chunyu, Fan Kexin and Ren Ziwei joined Wu for the historic victory. The small number of Chinese fans at Capital Indoor Arena cheered and waved tiny flags.
The results were delayed while the referee reviewed the race. Canada was penalized for pushing from behind and causing contact with Hungary late in the race.
That set the stage for China to build a big lead over Italy going into the latter stages of the race. But the Italians rallied, careening around the rink in hot pursuit of the home team. Sighel nearly caught Wu in what would have been a huge upset.
China was the gold-medal favorite coming in, having led the World Cup standings this season.
The frantic event features four skaters per team covering 18 laps. Each skater races twice in the following order: woman, woman, man, man, woman, woman, man, man.
The final got off to a rocky beginning, with Hungary and Canada crashing in the first turn, forcing the race to be called back to the start.
China needed some help even getting to the A final.
It took penalties to the United States and Russian team to elevate the Chinese to the final, along with Hungary, which won in the semifinals.
The U.S. was called for blocking by an infield skater after the Americans had finished second. The Russians were penalized for an extra skater on the team causing an obstruction.
In the first semifinal, Canada and Italy advanced to the A final. The Netherlands, ranked second in the world, didn’t advance when Suzanne Schulting crashed in a turn early in the race.
Music blared, colored lights flashed and one of the Olympic mascots waddled around, but the usually raucous atmosphere for short track was absent at Capital Indoor Stadium. COVID-19 restrictions kept most of the 17,345 seats empty. The only spectators were Chinese and they shouted behind masks for their country’s skaters, but otherwise clapped politely and waved tiny flags.
The arena is famous for hosting table tennis matches between China and the United States in 1971 that became known as ping pong diplomacy, an event that paved the way for U.S. President Richard Nixon to visit Beijing the following year. It was site of volleyball at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
FLYING HIGH
ZHANGJIAKOU, CHINA Ursa Bogataj went from last to first.
The Slovenian ski jumper won Olympic gold in women’s ski jumping on Saturday night, four years after after having the fewest points in the same event at the Pyeongchang Games.
“I didn’t handle the pressure,” she recalled.
Bogataj certainly did in China.
She floated 100 meters (328.084 feet) through the air and had 121 points on the final jump.
“It’s my dream,” the 26-year-old Bogataj said. “I can’t believe what happened.”
Sara Takanashi likely is thinking the same thing.
The Japanese star was a favorite at least to medal, but she finished fourth and the disappointment was palpable. Takanashi cried as she took off her skis following her final jump, which she knew wouldn’t be good enough.
Katharina Althaus of Germany won silver for the second straight Olympics. Nika Kriznar of Slovenia took the bronze.
After Althaus and Kriznar stepped on the podium, Bogataj took her spot atop the structure and had one of her biggest jumps of the night.
“Maybe that was the energy of the day,” she said with a giggle. “When two good friends stand on the podium on Olympic Games, that’s just a dream. We have very good spirit and me and Nika feel like sisters. We are very good friends. Our dreams came true.”
The 21-year-old Kriznar might’ve been even happier than Bogataj.
“I’m a really energetic girl,” she said.
Althaus was No. 1 after the first round, but insisted she was not disappointed to finish second.
“My old head coach always said, ‘You never lose a medal. You win a medal,’” she recalled. “And, I did it.”
In a surprise, Takanashi didn’t earn a spot on the podium. She has won a record 61 World Cup events, won bronze four years ago in South Korea and finished fourth at the 2014 Olympics.
Norway’s Maren Lundby, who won gold at the 2018 Olympics, chose not to defend her title because she decided to make her physical and mental health priorities.
Marita Kramer of Austria, the top-ranked woman in World Cup standings, was not cleared to compete after testing positive for COVID-19.
The absence of Lundby and Kramer cleared the way for the field of women that jumped on a cold night with a wind chill of minus-13 Celsius (8.6 degrees Fahrenheit) as gusts made flags from participating nations flap.
Tickets are not for sale at the Beijing Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but about 150,000 invited spectators are expected to attend events. About 500 of those fans were in the stands at the National Ski Jumping Center, one of the jewels at the Beijing Games.
The spectacular facility has been nicknamed Snow Ruyi after an ancient ski slope-shaped jade ornament symbolizing good fortune.
Women jumped for gold for the third time, and each Olympics has had a unique winner. Lundby, who was a dominant force in the sport, won four years ago, and Germany’s Carina Vogt finished first at the inaugural Olympic ski jumping event for women at the Sochi Games in 2014.
“I hope ski jumping in Slovenia for girls will become more popular,” Bogataj said. “Maybe in the future it will be as popular as the boys.”
On Saturday night, the final round was delayed by 15 minutes to give the athletes a brief break after the first round took more time than expected.
Althaus jumped 105.5 meters (346 feet) had 121.1 points in the first round. She was closely followed by a trio of Slovenians. In the end, she came up just short of gold.
Anna Hoffman, the only American woman to jump in China, finished 37th in her first Olympic appearance.
MULTI-TASKING
ZHANGJIAKOU, CHINA Therese Johaug won the first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics on Saturday, finishing first in the women’s 15-kilometer cross-country skiathlon.
The Norwegian fought wind and frigid temperatures to ski away from a chase group of four, winning in 44 minutes, 13.7 seconds.
“I’ve trained thousands of hours for this and been away from home a lot over the years. So it’s beautiful to reach this goal,” Johaug said. “I’ve never had an Olympic gold medal, it’s my first one.”
The skiathlon is a mass-start race that began with 7.5 kilometers of classic skiing. After two laps around the 3.75-kilometer course, racers came through the stadium and quickly switched to skate skis before heading out for another two laps.
Johaug lead through the first skate lap, opened a gap on the second lap and crossed the line with a comfortable lead.
Russian athlete Natalia Nepryaeva, the current overall World Cup leader, pulled away from the group on the last climb to take silver, 30.2 seconds behind Johaug. Nepryaeva is competing in her second Olympics. She won bronze in a relay race at the Pyeongchang Games.
“I’m pleased to get silver,” Nepryaeva said. “It’s my first time to produce a performance like this at the Olympic Games, and it gives me a lot of confidence for the races later this week. I feel very powerful now.”
Teresa Stadlober of Austria followed just behind for the bronze medal. She’s competing in her third Winter Games and won her first medal, having just missed out in Pyeongchang.
“Four years ago, I was tied for a medal and then I made a mistake and I didn’t get it. And I was working four years, and always had the dream to reach a medal,” Stadlober said. “And now I have it and it’s unbelievable for me.”
Kerttu Niskanen of Finland finished fourth and Frida Karlsson of Sweden was fifth, just ahead of Jessie Diggins of the United States in sixth.
Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a skier from China’s Uyghur community who helped light the Olympic cauldron at Friday’s opening ceremony, finished in 43rd place — 5:57 behind Johaug.
Heidi Weng of Norway missed the race. She tested positive for COVID-19 and spent time in isolation. It was unclear whether she would attend the Winter Games.
The 33-year-old Johaug has raced at the top international level since 2007. She won Olympic gold in the 4×5-kilometer relay at the 2010 Vancouver Games and has won 10 world championship titles but had never before won an individual Olympic gold medal.
This win was a bit of a redemption after missing the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics after testing positive for a banned substance, which resulted in an 18-month suspension. Johaug blamed a team doctor who mistakenly gave her lip balm that contained the substance.
Defending champion Charlotte Kalla, a three-time Olympic champion, finished 19th after her preparations were hampered by complications caused from contracting COVID-19.
