The Latest on the Pyeongchang Olympics (all times local):
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) — The Latest on the Pyeongchang Olympics (all times local):
5:20 p.m.
The Winter Olympics are more than halfway done, and the Russians still don’t have a gold medal.
It’s an unpleasant experience for the nation that finished top of the medal table in Sochi with 13 gold medals — though two have since been stripped for doping.
But then again, the country of Russia is not here.
On the wall of the «Olympic Athletes from Russia» delegation office in Pyeongchang is a board with Russian medal winners’ photos attached under pictures of gold, silver and bronze medals. The gold column is empty.
Like most of the world, Russia counts gold medals first in the standings, so to sit behind gold-winning Belarus and Britain is galling.
Dozens of Russian athletes weren’t invited to the games because the International Olympic Committee said it couldn’t be sure they hadn’t been part of doping schemes.
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4:55 p.m.
Norway has continued its dominance in cross-country skiing by winning the gold medal in the men’s 4×10-kilometer relay.
The team of Didrik Toenseth, Martin Johnsrud Sundby, Simen Hegstad Krueger and Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo won the race in 1 hour, 33 minutes and 4.9 seconds to beat the second-place Russian athletes by 9.4 seconds. France captured the bronze.
Norway has now won five of the eight gold medals awarded in cross-country at the Pyeongchang Games, and 11 medals overall. The record for most gold medals in cross-country in a single Olympic Games is 13, set by the Soviet Union in Calgary in 1988.
Krueger battled back from 24.5 seconds down at the midway point of the race to give Norway the lead. Klaebo took it from there, pulling away from Russian anchor Denis Spitsov in the final 1 1/2 kilometers to deny the Russians their first Pyeongchang gold medal.
Sweden had won this event in the previous two Olympics but finished in fifth place more than 2 minutes behind.
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4:30 p.m.
Some three dozen figure skaters in the Pyeongchang Games are competing for nations other than the ones where they were born.
There’s a Russian skating for Australia who at first thought she was headed to Austria. Two Americans are ice dancing for host South Korea. Another American is competing for Brazil. Four members of the Israeli team are not natives.
Then there are pairs and ice dancing teams where the members are from two different countries and competing for a third.
Sometimes such pairings fail because the skaters are at different levels, and there can be language difficulties. But they can also work beautifully: Aliona Savchenko of Ukraine and Bruno Massot of France won gold for Germany in the pairs competition.
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4 p.m.
Ted Ligety’s defense of his Olympic giant slalom gold medal has ended with a 15th-place finish behind Austrian Marcel Hirscher.
Ligety knew he hadn’t turned in the best opening run, but what he couldn’t tell as he was heading down the hill was just how poorly he’d done.
The American says he was «really surprised» when he saw his time.
He says, «It didn’t feel like I crushed it,» before adding with a chuckle: «But it didn’t feel 2½ seconds bad.»
Ligety lost more ground to Hirscher in the second leg Sunday and ended up tied for 15th place, 3.21 seconds slower than the winning time of 2 minutes, 18.04 seconds.
Ligety says it was «a really bad day and time to not ski up to the level I wanted to.»
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3:30 p.m.
Sabrina Zollinger scored on a power play in the first period and Switzerland beat Korea 2-0 in a classification hockey game after routing the Koreans 8-0 in their Olympic opener.
Janine Alder made 19 saves for the shutout Sunday, with Florence Schelling getting a day off after playing in a 6-2 loss to the «Olympic athletes from Russia» in the quarterfinals. Evelina Raselli also scored for the Russians, who won bronze in Sochi.
They will play either Sweden or Japan for their final slotting Tuesday.
Shin So Jung made 51 saves, and the Koreans also killed three of four penalties. Shin gave up a hat trick to Alina Muller in the first period of the opener against Switzerland, and she said she felt a little pressure.
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3:15 p.m.
Patrick Hager scored in regulation and again in a shootout as Germany beat Norway 2-1 to wrap up group play at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
Danny aus den Birken made 28 saves and stopped all three shots he saw in the shootout Sunday.
Germany opened the scoring on a power play in the second when Hager took a pass from Dominik Kahun and stuffed the puck past goaltender Lars Haugen.
Norway tied the game in the third period. Both teams played cautiously in overtime, with Norway failing to capitalize even with nearly two minutes on the man advantage.
Haugen made 36 saves but didn’t stop a shot in the shootout.
Both teams face elimination games Tuesday to get into the quarterfinals.
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2:55 p.m.
Marcel Hirscher has won the Olympic men’s giant slalom. It’s his second gold medal at the Pyeongchang Games.
The 28-year-old Austrian star extended his first-run lead to win by a huge margin of 1.27 seconds over hard-charging Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway. Kristoffersen rose from 10th-fastest in the morning.
Bronze medalist Alexis Pinturault of France finished 1.31 behind Hirscher’s two-run time of 2 minutes, 18.04 seconds.
Hirscher can complete a sweep of three individual titles in his best event, the slalom, which is scheduled for Thursday.
Hirscher also won the Alpine combined Tuesday. Pinturault took silver in that race.
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2:50 p.m.
Norway’s Oystein Braaten has captured the gold medal in ski slopestyle at the Pyeongchang Olympics, far outdistancing American Gus Kenworthy, who failed to land any of his three runs and came in last.
Braaten edged out American Nick Goepper, who added a silver medal to the bronze he won four years ago in Sochi.
Canadian Alex Beaulieu-Marchand took the bronze.
The buzz for this event swirled around Kenworthy, who came out as gay about two years after capturing the silver medal in Russia and has since become a strong voice in the LGBT community.
With family and boyfriend Matt Wilkas watching, Kenworthy bobbled all three runs in the finals. After the last one, he shrugged, shook his head and said, «It’s OK,» to the TV cameras before walking off the course.
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2:30 p.m.
Ticket sales for the Pyeongchang Olympics have exceeded 1 million.
Local organizing committee spokesman Sung Baik-you says the 1 million mark exceeds expectations — 692,443 people attended games venues from Feb. 9 to Feb. 17, and there’s still about a week remaining.
Sung says, «Our target was 1,068,000, so we don’t have many tickets remaining.»
Attendance peaked Saturday, with 146,506 people attending on a holiday for the Lunar New Year. There were long delays in traffic around Pyeongchang on a holiday that usually is the busiest on Korean roads every year, but games organizers weren’t disappointed.
Sung acknowledges traffic jams and bus operation interruptions but says, «Nonetheless, I think we can say we were successful in attracting spectators, so it was a positive thing.»
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2:15 p.m.
Lindsey Vonn has returned to the Olympic Alpine speed race course, where she was fastest in a practice run for Wednesday’s downhill race.
One day after placing sixth in the super-G at Jeongseon, Vonn clocked 1 minute, 41.03 seconds on the 1 ¾-mile (2.8-kilometer) downhill course.
The American star was 0.18 seconds faster than Ramona Siebenhofer, with the Austrian’s time recorded despite missing a gate.
Alice McKennis of the United States was third-fastest, 0.53 behind Vonn.
Sunday’s practice was the first of three official training days before Vonn tries to regain the Olympic title she won in 2010.
The surprise super-G gold medalist, Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic, did not take part in the practice. Ledecka is also due to compete in snowboard parallel giant slalom this week.
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1:30 p.m.
Russian officials have a store of uniforms ready if their team is formally reinstated for the Pyeongchang Olympics closing ceremony.
The head of the delegation of «Olympic Athletes from Russia» Stanislav Pozdnyakov, wouldn’t say where the uniforms are being stored, but says «as regards the closing ceremony, we’re ready for any development, including with extra uniforms.
