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YANQING: Germany’s anthem may be the most-played song northwest of Beijing after Hannah Neise won the women’s skeleton on Saturday, making it an astonishing six sliding golds out of six for her country.
German dominance has fast become the norm in the Yanqing hills, but the skeleton race also brought firsts, as silver-winning Australian Jaclyn Narracott became the first female slider outside of Europe and North America to claim a medal in the sport.
Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands took her country’s first skeleton medal with the bronze.
Skeleton sliders use slight tweaks of muscle to steer as they plummet headfirst down a twisting ice track at speeds up to 130 km an hour.
Narracott had led at the half-way mark, but with eight other contenders within 0.53 seconds of her time, the door to the medals was still open.
Suited in iguana-like yellow and green, Narracott soared and swooped round the “Flying Snow Dragon” pearl-white track, barely brushing its sloped sides in her two runs.
But Germany’s Hannah Neise came diving down after her like an angry hornet in yellow and black. She ricocheted against the walls towards the end, but sheer momentum carried her ahead, shaving a massive 0.59 seconds off the previous track record.
The last run of the night gave Neise a total time of 4:07.62, an enormous 0.62 of a second ahead of the Australian and 0.84 of a second ahead of the Dutchwoman.
It follows her compatriot Christopher Grotheer’s gold in the men’s event on Friday, Germany’s first ever in the men’s event.
Norway’s Marius Lindvik delivered a monster 151.3-point second jump to win a high-quality men’s Olympic large hill ski jumping final, denying Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi a golden double.
Kobayashi, fresh from winning the normal hill title last weekend, set the standard again in the first round with a 142-metre jump for 147 points. Lindvik, who led the way in Friday’s qualifying session, also continued the hot streak of form that brought him three World Cup wins in January, posting 144.8 points to sit in second place.
The Norwegian then delivered a superlative last effort to reach a tally of 296.1 and though Kobayashi produced the next-best jump of the round, it left him just short on 292.8.
GAO TOPS ALL-ASIAN PODIUM
On Saturday, when China’s Gao Tingyu hopped onto the podium at the Beijing Olympics to receive his gold medal in the men’s 500 metre speed skating, he marked a special moment for Asian sport — and one that could give Chinese speed skating in particular a boost.
Gao was flanked by South Korea’s Cha Min Kyu and Japan’s Wataru Morishige, completing the first ever Olympic podium involving three different Asian countries in speed skating’s shortest event, where the powerhouse Dutch have been less dominant over the years.
The last all-Asian men’s 500m podium was in Vancouver, when Korea’s Mo Tae-bum took gold and Japanese skaters claimed the silver and bronze.
“That all Asians have won medals — Korea, China and Japan — is very good. I’m happy that Korea is one of them,” Cha said after the race.
Asian countries have much more of a foothold in the men’s 500m than in other distances, but they still lag behind countries such as the United States and Norway in the medal tally.
Meanwhile, the Russian Olympic Committee delivered a dominant display to win the 4x5km cross-country relay, with Germany fending off the superpowers of the sport to take a sensational silver.
Sweden secured bronze, as individual sprint champion Jonna Sundling made up ground after a poor third leg by Frida Karlsson to beat Finland’s Krista Parmakoski in a sprint for third place.
The race will go down as one of the greatest Olympic days for Germany’s women on the cross-country trails, as they broke early along with the Russians and combined power and courage to hang on for a scarcely believable second place.
Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe blazed to another Olympic gold medal in the men’s 10km sprint event in Beijing on Saturday while his brother Tarjei won bronze, their second medals of the Games after last week’s mixed relay win.
France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet came in second to add a silver medal to the gold he secured in the men’s individual race and a relay silver, on a night that the Boe brothers made their own.
“It is a fairy tale you could write, to be on the podium with Johannes,” said Tarjei. “It is big for me … there is a lot of joy but also relief … to share this together both as a team, and for the rest of our lives.”
Lindsey Jacobellis won her second gold of the Beijing Games after she and team-mate Nick Baumgartner, with a combined age of 76, won the inaugural snowboard cross mixed team gold for the US.
Jacobellis, 36, and Baumgartner, 40, were the oldest team to compete at Saturday’s mixed team event, but defeated their younger rivals in a nail-biting final.
Jacobellis, who won the United States its first gold at the Beijing Olympics earlier this week for the women’s snowboard cross, came out swinging in the final run, but was quickly overtaken by Pyeongchang gold medallist Michela Moioli of Italy.
Moioli and Jacobellis were neck-and-neck while the other two racers, for Canada and Italy, fell behind and later crashed on top of each other.
Jacobellis kept hot on Moioli’s heels and the American edged out the Italian at the last moment, winning by 0.2 seconds.
Canada eventually caught up to win bronze.
Also on Saturday, four years after a costume malfunction cost them the ice dance title in Pyeongchang, French duo Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron made a stylish return to the Winter Olympics with a world record score in the rhythm dance.
The duo scored 90.83 — a 0.80 improvement on their own previous record mark set in 2019 — to advance into Monday’s free dance. They will be attempting to become the first French ice dancers to win the Olympic title since Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat struck gold in 2002.
Their beat closest rivals, Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, by 1.98 points, while Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of the United States finished third with 87.13.