Japanese teenager Ami Nakai goes for a shock Olympic gold in women’s figure skating on Thursday after ski mountaineering made its debut in heavy snow at the Winter Games.
Nakai, 17, set the pace in the short programme on Tuesday, upstaging teammate Kaori Sakamoto, a three-time Olympic medallist who has never won gold.
The 25-year-old Sakamoto is saying goodbye to the sport and would dearly love to end her career by topping the podium at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.
Sakamoto is just 1.48 points behind her younger teammate ahead of Thursday’s free skating programme, while US world champion Alysa Liu also has her eyes on the main prize.
Nakai said she felt like she was “dreaming” after taking the lead at the halfway stage, though insisted Sakamoto remained the favourite.
Sakamoto said she would love to sign off with a medal.
“It would be very nice, but I want to let everybody know what I have done over my career,” she said.
“I want people to know that there was a skater of this kind in Japan who had performed for a long period.”
In the snow-swept mountains above Bormio, ski mountaineering — an adrenaline-packed sprint requiring athletes to negotiate uphill climbs on ski and foot before descending by ski — made its Olympic bow.
Switzerland’s Marianne Fatton won gold in the women’s ski sprint, beating France’s Emily Harrop by 2.38sec.
In the men’s skimo event, Russian Nikita Filippov claimed the first medal at the Milan-Cortina Games for individual neutral athletes (AIN) when he bagged silver.
The race was won by Spain’s Oriol Cardona Coll in 2min 34.03sec with Filippov 1.52sec behind.
It was Spain’s first gold medal at a Winter Games since the 1972 event in Sapporo, Japan.
“Winning this gold after so many years, it means a lot for us as a country,” said Cardona Coll, 31. “It also means a lot for the ski mountaineering family to be here.”
Russia and Belarus have been banned from international competition since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Filippov and his AIN teammates have been allowed to compete at the Winter Olympics in Italy under a neutral banner having met strict conditions.
– Canada v USA hockey battle –
The USA and Canada meet on Thursday in the final of the women’s ice hockey tournament after Switzerland beat Sweden 2-1 to clinch bronze.
Canada have maintained their record of appearing in the gold medal game of every women’s hockey tournament since it became part of the Winter Games at Nagano in 1998.
The Canadians have won five of the previous seven gold medal matches, including a 3-2 victory over the Americans at the Beijing 2022 Olympics.
The men’s tournament could produce the same match-up after the USA and pre-tournament favourites Canada stayed on track in Wednesday’s quarter-finals.
Canada go on to face reigning champions Finland and the USA will play Slovakia, with both semi-finals taking place on Friday.
Recent political tensions between the North American neighbours could add spice to the contest.
China’s freeski star Eileen Gu, who has one more chance to win a gold medal in Italy, is scheduled to compete in the women’s halfpipe qualifiers after other events in Livigno were postponed due to heavy snow.
In curling, undefeated Switzerland will play Great Britain in the men’s semi-finals, with Canada taking on Norway.
The curling tournament was rocked after a Swedish player accused a Canadian opponent of cheating, and the latter responded by insulting him.
Speed skater Ning Zhongyan won China’s third gold in the men’s 1,500 metres, denying America’s Jordan Stolz a third triumph of the Games.
But Norway’s Jens Luraas Oftebro did bag a third gold, in the Nordic Combined team sprint event, as his nation soared further clear at the top of the medals table.
Norway has 16 golds and 34 medals overall, well clear of hosts Italy, who have nine golds and a total of 26 medals.
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