The Latest on the Pyeongchang Olympics (all times local):
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) – The Latest on the Pyeongchang Olympics (all times local):
5:30 p.m.
Japanese forward Rui Ukita has been suspended one game by the International Ice Hockey Federation for kicking at an opposing player late in Japan’s 2-1 loss to Sweden to open preliminary play in women’s hockey.
The IIHF announced the suspension Sunday. Ukita will miss Monday’s game against Switzerland in preliminary play.
Ukita scored the lone goal for Japan. But the disciplinary panel studied videos and ruled Ukita made a kicking move toward Annie Svedin’s lower body after a battle for the puck in front of the Swedish bench. Svedin pushed Ukita to the ice. While Svedin was over Ukita, the Japanese forward kicked.
The IIHF says the panel determined the kicking motion was not momentum from the play but a clear movement toward an opponent. That violates a federation rule.
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5:20 p.m.
American skier Gus Kenworthy is embracing an unofficial role at the Pyeongchang Winter Games – as flagbearer for the LGBT community. He hopes to help reach a point where being a gay athlete is no longer an issue.
The 2014 slopestyle silver medalist is a still-rare example of an openly gay athlete, and he’s encouraging others to be open about themselves too.
His „We’re here. We’re queer. Get used to it“ post from the games‘ opening ceremony, with a photo of him kissing U. S. skater Adam Rippon, also openly gay, got lots of attention. So did an Instagram post that took a dig at U. S. Vice President Mike Pence.
Kenworthy says the visibility of openly gay athletes in Pyeongchang „shows a shift and a change and hopefully it means that in the future it won’t be a big thing. It won’t be a headline, it won’t be ‚the gay Olympian,‘ the ‚gay skier,‘ the gay anything. It will just be ‚a skier.'“
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4:40 p.m.
Norway’s Simen Hegstad Krueger crashed on the first lap of the men’s 30-kilometer cross-country race but stormed back to take home the gold medal.
When the mass start began and with skiers bottled up in lines, Krueger slipped and his right ski came out from under him, causing him to fall.
The two skiers directly behind him were Andrey Larkov and Denis Spitsov, Russian athletes competing under the Olympic flag, and they toppled over him.
By the time the three untangled themselves, they were at the rear of the field.
But Krueger methodically worked his way back through the pack and took the lead with 5 kilometers remaining.
Norway swept the podium with Marting Johnsrud Sundby taking silver and Hans Christer Holund earning bronze.
Spitsov nearly medaled, finishing in fourth place.
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4:30 p.m.
Patrick Chan, Gabrielle Daleman and ice dance dynamos Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will try to deliver figure skating team gold for Canada when the event concludes Monday.
The Canadians have 45 points, six ahead of the Russians, heading into the men’s, women’s and ice dance free programs. The U. S. is third with 35 points, one ahead of Italy.
Teams were required to submit their final lineups after Sunday’s competition.
Alina Zagitova will handle the free skate for the Russians, while Mikhail Kolyada tries to rebound from his dismal short program. Dmitri Soloviev and Ekaterina Bobrova will do the ice dance.
The U. S. team is making two substitutions with Mirai Nagasu taking the baton from Bradie Tennell and Adam Rippon replacing Nathan Chen. Alex and Maia Shibutani will be back for the dance.
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4:25 p.m.
Norway’s Simen Hegstad Krueger, who fell and crashed on the first lap of the men’s 30-kilometer cross-country race, has stormed back to take the lead with five kilometers left.
As the mass start began and with skiers bottled up in lines, Krueger appeared to slip in mid-stride and his right ski came out from under him, causing him to fall to the ground. The two skiers directly behind him – Russians Andrey Larkov and Denis Spitsov – couldn’t stop and toppled over him.
The skiers became entangled and lost more than 10 seconds to the field.
Spitsov has battled back to move into seventh place.
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4:05 p.m.
Maddie Rooney will be in net for the United States against Finland in the Americans‘ Olympic opener in women’s hockey.
This is the first Olympics for the 20-year-old goalie from Andover, Minnesota. U. S. coach Robb Stauber picked Rooney over Alex Rigsby and Nicole Hensley for their opener after Rooney went 4-0-2 with 1.81 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage.
Rooney won three of the first four games between the Americans and Canada last fall. Her last international game was Dec. 17 in Edmonton, Alberta, in a 2-1 overtime loss to Canada to wrap up an exhibition slate between the sport’s North American powers.
The United States is looking for its first gold medal in 20 years. The Americans won gold when women’s hockey debuted in the Olympics in 1998 in Nagano and have been shut out in the past four games.
They’ve never lost to Finland in six games at the Olympics, and they beat Finland 3-1 in the preliminary round in 2014 in Sochi.
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3:55 p.m.
The men’s 30-kilometer cross-country skiathlon turned into a NASCAR race on the first lap.
As the mass start began and with skiers bottled up in lines, Norway’s Simen Hegstad Krueger appeared to slip midstride, and his right ski came out from under him, causing him to fall to the ground.
The two skiers directly behind him were Andrey Larkov and Denis Spitsov, Russian athletes competing under the Olympic flag, and they toppled over him.
The three men spent several seconds desperately trying to untangle their bodies and their skis from one another.
By the time they got going, they had lost several seconds to the lead pack.
All three were considered top skiers. Hegstad was ranked seventh in the World Cup standings, with Larkov 11th and Spitsov 16th.
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3:30 p.m.
Mikaela Shiffrin and the rest of the women’s giant slalom racers get a rare chance to open the Alpine schedule at the Olympics. The men’s downhill has been postponed because of high winds. That means the women will compete before the men in ski racing at a Winter Games for the first time since 1984.
As her mother, Eileen, who also serves as a coach, watched from the bottom of the Yongpyong hill, Shiffrin joined other racers in taking a couple of casual trips down a gateless giant slalom piste during a free ski the day before Monday’s race.
The last time the women competed before the men was at the Sarajevo Games, when a blizzard led to a rearranged schedule.
The 22-year-old Shiffrin could be a transcendent figure over the next two weeks. She was the slalom gold medalist at the 2014 Sochi Games, where she also finished fifth in the giant slalom. She is considered a top medal contender in both this time around.
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3:05 p.m.
Canada leads the Olympic team figure skating event heading into the final day, offsetting a record women’s short program by two-time world champion Evgenia Medvedeva by winning the ice dance short and pairs free skate.
The Canadians used a flowing routine by Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford in the free skate to extend their lead over the Russians. Earlier, 2010 Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won the ice dance.
That leaves Canada with 45 points to 39 for the Russians, who slipped further behind when Italy’s Valentina Marchei and Ondrej Hotarek were a surprising second in pairs. The Italians trail the United States by a single point, 36-35, heading into Monday’s free skates in the other three disciplines.
Americans Alexa Scimeca-Knierim and Chris Knierim were fourth.
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2:55 p.m.
Qualifying in women’s slopestyle snowboarding has been canceled amid high winds.
Officials initially pushed back the start time for 30 minutes Sunday while hoping the winds at Phoenix Snow Park would die down. When they didn’t, they pushed back qualifying to Monday morning.
American Jamie Anderson is a heavy favorite to repeat as Olympic champion in the event, which made its Olympic debut in Sochi four years ago.
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2:45 p.m.
Figure skater Evgenia Medvedeva says after setting a world record in the short program of the team event that Russia’s doping troubles have made her stronger.
Medvedeva is the two-time reigning world champion and favorite for gold in the women’s individual competition.
She was also picked to represent Russia in front of the International Olympic Committee in December before the IOC opted against a blanket ban on Russian athletes but required a reduced team to compete under the Olympic flag.
Medvedeva says a foot injury as well as the uncertainty around the Russian team helped make her a better skater.
She says the problems inspired her and the difficulties made her stronger.
