Jutta Leerdam gold, Netherlands one-two in women’s 1000m speed skating
What a finale. The last pair of the day, facing a new Olympic record having just been set, only to see it last just a few minutes. Leerdam is powerful on her start, clocks one lap in just over 26 seconds, and finishes with her height and her long strides 1:12:31. Her teammate, Femke Kok, looks on, not knowing what to think by the looks of it, some poignancy to her expression seeing her own possible gold medal become silver but seeing her national team take the top two spots in this race. Leerdam can’t believe she’s done it. Last race, last chance, the perfect performance. She pulls off her racing hood, shakes her long hair loose, and glides around the track for a little longer, then eventually pulls up at one of the soft barriers and collapses across it, eyeliner leaving tracks across her cheeks as she weeps and weeps.
Her opponent in that race, the gold medallist last time, Tigaki Miho finishes with brozne this time for Japan, a much more reserved expression on her face as she slows down.
Key events
Phew. A couple of big finals happening simultaneously there, with the distance jumping of the skiers and the trick tumbling on the snowboards. The ice dancing is still going, while USA have started playing Switzerland in the hockey, the women’s group stage.
Back to that curling bout earlier, as expected the Swedes pressed home their advantage to beat the British team heavily in the mixed doubles semis, after that one disastrous end opened up the game, while USA snuck past Italy 9-8.
Gold for Germany in men’s ski jumping
Talk about leaving your run late… Phillip Raimund roars on a teammate’s shoulders after winning the gold with the final jump of the night. He scores 138.5 on that jump, the highest mark of the day, and one that takes his combined score to 274.1.
He goes past Kacper Tomasiak of Poland, who takes silver, and there is a dead heat for bronze between Japan’s Nikaido Ren and Switzerland’s Gregor Deschwanden.
Murase Kokomo wins gold in women’s snowboard Big Air
Yu Seungeun has the final jump, tries for the same frontside 14 that she nailed with her second jump, looking to improve that score, but loses it in the air and lands falling back. It won’t get her into the gold spot, but she already knew before she jumped that she at least had a bronze for Korea.
Zoi Sadowski Synnott has a second silver medal in this event, recovering remarkably after a first-jump fall, silver for New Zealand.
But Murase Kokomo is the only rider who nailed all three jumps, including a pair of 89s with her first and third. For that reason alone she deserves to win, and she takes home gold for Japan.
Snowboard: The podium is set, now it’s just the order on it. Murase Kokomo into the gold medal spot with a frontside 14, perfect landing, she knew it was good as soon as she landed, and the judges boost her up… one rider to go.
Snowboard: Mia Brookes! So close! She tries a backside 16 melon, that’s four and a half rotations, gets them all done but jars the wrong way on the landing. Stays up but it’s not quite right. I don’t know why that’s classed as DNI by the judges, but either way it wouldn’t have got the points to challenge the podium, but that was a huge trick attempt. Massively ambitious. She’s laid down a marker.
Snowboard: The DNIs are coming thick and fast, Suzuki Momo another, so no podium for her with three riders to go.
Snowboard: Not quite the landing for Meila Stalker, missed the grab again on her first attempt, got it a second time but it throws off the landing. The jump is marked as DNI, not sure what happened there. “Oh well,” she says to somebody. “Get it next time.”
And it’s a similar story for Tess Coady. Doesn’t get the grab, and something doesn’t feel right with her jump, she bails out of the trick essentially. Didn’t have the right positioning in the air to get around for the jump she’d nominated, so she concentrates on landing and not wiping herself out for no reason. DNI.
So an anti-climactic ending for both Australians.
Snowboard: Iwabuchi Reira lands hard, loses balance and hits her chest hard, but she’s ok and smiling as she walks down and hugs a couple of her competitors. Big score on her first jump but didn’t land her second right, and DNI on her third. So she’s out.
Ski jumping: Austria in front here, Stephan Embacher. Then Vilho Palasaari for Finland is second, or was, but the German Felix Hoffman just bumped him to third.
Snowboard: Switch backside 1260 and lands it! Zoi Sadowski Synnott, gold in the slopestyle in Beijing and silver in this event, plus bronze in 2018. Fell on her first jump, nailed her second… anticipation on her face as the judges take their time…
She’s in gold medal position. Some big riders yet to come, but what a comeback. Scores 83.50, she’s up to 172.25 combined.
Snowboard: So a change in the jump order now, with the lowest scoring riders jumping first so that the leaders will know what they have to do at the end. The Austrians are out of contention: Gasser lands a 76 but doesn’t have enough early points, and Karrer falls again. So does Fukada Mari (also Mari Fukada when not using Japanese naming order, if you’re confused) who can’t rescue her final despite that huge second-jump score.
Zhang is good in the air on her last jump, not perfect on the landing, she comes through with a score of 70.25 which won’t get her on the podium, but a good night. Bows to the judges as she leaves the course.
Figure skating: The Australians are up! Holly Harris and Jason Chan, and they do not do Ricky Martin, they of course use Kylie Minogue. Big score, 67.75, second so far out of five, and they’re through to the next round.
Ski jumping: The men’s normal hill jump final is happening too. Felix Trunz leading for Switzerland after eight competitors.
Snowboard: That doesn’t last long! Murase lands a 72 to go second overall, then the possible favourite Sadowski Synnott lands a huge trick for an 88.75 to give herself a shot after her first fall. That’s the second round.
Snowboard: Mia Brookes into second place! Backside 1260, slight stutter on landing but it’s good enough to get her a 78 and take into second overall. A long way to go, but silver medal position for GB at the moment…
Snowboard: Hell of a jump from Fukada, cleanest landing of the night after four rotations, and she scores an 85 after her first-round fall. Nodding in appreciation as she watches back her replay on the big screen.
Yu Seungeun is more animated! Triple cork frontside 1440, lands a little back-heavy but stays up, and she hurls her board away in celebration at having stuck that trick… scores an 83.25, and she’s top of the pops on combined scores now, not many have landed two tricks. Coady is still third overall for that reason.
Snowboard: Iwabuchi also butt-plants on the landing, after her big first round score, so she’ll need her third trick.
Stalker, the Australian, drops in goofy foot, good in the air but just drops her hands on the landing… oh, she missed the grab in mid air on that one. Couldn’t get compact in shape, that threw off her aerodynamics and her spin, and in the end she did well to land that fairly cleanly without hitting the ice. Scores a 35.
Snowboard: Karrer and Zhang both crash on landing for their second jumps. Same jumping order as before. Gasser doesn’t fall but bounces out on the landing and gets flipped around to face the wrong way, looking super annoyed about that, big points loss, scoring 45 on it. She stacked her first score, so that’s her out of the medals. The previous two who fell both had a decent first round, so they’re still in it.
Suzuki Momo does land her frontside 1440, arms aloft as she comes down to the flat. Scored 54 in the first round, but 81.5 here and that takes her above Coady for combined scores.
Snowboard: So you have to get one score with both stances, apparently. The Australian Tess Coady goes strategically simple, a switch backside 900 scoring 61 with a nice clean landing again, so that means she has two solid scores banked and can go more ambitious on the third jump.
Snowboard: Zoi Synnot Sadowski for NZ crashes out as the last jumper, right after Murase Kokomo goes top of the board with a backside 1440. Onto round two.
Figure skating: I’ll be honest, you think ice dancing and you don’t think Great Britain. But Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez have charisma, they have chemistry, and they go top of the table early. There are 23 pairs, so don’t get carried away by the third one, but it’s a good routine, using George Michael as their backing musician.
Importantly they didn’t go for Ricky Martin again, because the Swedes did, La Vida Loca. That’s two Ricky Martins in four pairs. I’m getting Sparky Polastri vibes here, is he selling his wares around the circuit?
Snowboard: Mia Brookes for GB now, going with her opposite stance, cab 14 with a stalefish grab. (No, I don’t know what these mean, I’m just writing them down for people who do. She went around and around a bunch of times and didn’t fall over.) She’s into third spot.
Reminder that each boarder gets three jumps and keeps their best two scores combined to decide the medals.
Snowboard: Fukada Mari falls on landing, now score for the Japanese rider. But it’s a huge trick nailed first attempt for Yu Seungeun, who stomps a backside 1440 easy as pie. Huge score, 87.75 to go top for Korea.
Snowboard: The second Australian in the comp, Leila Stalker, also goes the backside 1080, this with a mute grab, and she nails the landing too! Good solid foundation for the two Aussies early in this comp. She’s pumped, big smile as she leaves the course high-fiving, scored a 72.50 and she’s currently third. Iwabuchi Reira for Japan went top before Stalker’s jump, Zhang Xiaonan for China jumped second and is second.
Snowboard: Hanna Karrer skews the landing on her trick, stays up but with a big curve out of the landing, and Anna Gasser stacks hers, falling onto her butt, so despite big moves in the air the two Austrians score low. Suzuki Momo for Japan doesn’t nail the landing either.
Ice dancing: I think there’s a 1990s theme to this round. We talked about school discos before, now we’re right in it. The Spanish pair do a delightfully cheesy Ricky Martin montage number, before the Chinese pair come out dressed like West Side Story. What a sport.
Snowboard: The women’s big air is underway. We love this one. And it’s Australia’s Tess Coady who starts us off, perfectly landing a backside 1080 with melon grab. (I think.) She banks a solid 70.00 to begin.
What’s coming up? Plenty! The men’s ski jumping 1st round is about halfway through, with home team Giovanni Bresadola currently leading. The ice dance is about to start, this is the rhythm dance section where the top teams qualify for the free dance round, where the medals are decided, with points carrying over. And the women’s big air snowboard final is about to begin, with the first of three runs!
Ice hockey: Germany beat France 2-1 in overtime in the women’s group match.
Sweden beat GB in mixed curling semis
Curling: Massive turnaround in the match, and not in Great Britain’s favour. Sweden call their power play (once per match, a team can pre-place a stone before beginning play in an end). That plus some errors from GB open up Sweden for a five-shot advantage, perfectly placing their stones on each shot. They’re leading 8-3 with two ends to play, very unlikely to cough up that kind of lead. And the match is over very shortly after.
USA are leading Italy 7-5 in the sixth end.
Curling: Both semi-finals have levelled up, GB stealing one stone to go 3-3 against Sweden, Italy and USA are 5-5. Sweden though with a great chance to score big in the sixth end after a couple of British errors.
Speed skating: Jutta Leerdam looks very serious waiting to step onto the podium, holding back more tears, then erupts into a beaming smile as she is called up and jumps up and down. A harder to read expression on Femke Kok’s face, seemingly still conflicted which is of course understandable, perhaps just exhausted as well. The emotional expenditure of spending four years leading up to this must be immense. Tagaki Miho is much more composed, allowing herself a small smile as she snaps a selfie with the other two at the end, in remarkably her third successive Olympic podium in this event: bronze in 2018, gold in 2022, and bronze again here, a far more slight and diminutive figure than the powerful Dutch skaters.
Ice hockey: Germany and France at 1-1 in the third in their women’s prelim round match.
Curling: I’m pleased to announce that I’ve found a channel with the home Italian feed, and watching curling in Italian is my new favourite thing. Especially while they’re playing the USA. Spicy. The Americans are leading 5-4 in the mixed doubles semi final.
Over in the other game, Great Britain are 2-3 down to Sweden. Lots of chat between the British pair as Bruce Mouat sweeps like a demon, then says “Sorry” about his shot because it tapped the other stone slightly harder than his aim. We’re seeing the 5th end.
Jutta Leerdam gold, Netherlands one-two in women’s 1000m speed skating
What a finale. The last pair of the day, facing a new Olympic record having just been set, only to see it last just a few minutes. Leerdam is powerful on her start, clocks one lap in just over 26 seconds, and finishes with her height and her long strides 1:12:31. Her teammate, Femke Kok, looks on, not knowing what to think by the looks of it, some poignancy to her expression seeing her own possible gold medal become silver but seeing her national team take the top two spots in this race. Leerdam can’t believe she’s done it. Last race, last chance, the perfect performance. She pulls off her racing hood, shakes her long hair loose, and glides around the track for a little longer, then eventually pulls up at one of the soft barriers and collapses across it, eyeliner leaving tracks across her cheeks as she weeps and weeps.
Her opponent in that race, the gold medallist last time, Tigaki Miho finishes with brozne this time for Japan, a much more reserved expression on her face as she slows down.
Speed skating: A blazing run from Erin Jackson of the USA finishes in 1 minute 15 on the nose! She’s gone top of the pops. Looks a little overwhelmed as she sits down to wait for the rest of the races. Ellia Smeding for Great Britain puts up a strong race against Lee Na-Hyun of Korea, who clocks the third-fastest time for a monent. But all of that is overturned by an incredible pair in Femke Kok and Brittany Bowe, Dutch vs American in that bout, the 2025 World Champ v the 2022 bronze medallist, but they push each other to greater heights.
Kok has almost the perfect race, very aggressive on the last couple of turns, and gets home in a new Olympic record! Bowe finishes with the second fastest time, but looks metres adrift by the close. They’re one and two now.
The new Olympic record is 1:12:59.
Speed skating: Han Mei of China races herself into the bronze spot for now, the third skater today to go sun-1:16, just ahead of Nadezhda Morozova of Kazakhstan. But Yin Qi of China takes that spot from her compatriot in the next race, blowing away Natalia Czerwonka of Poland who is now sixth on time.
Good day! Thanks for your company. A bit of quiet at the speed skating, where we are having some “ice treatment”, I’m told. That means there’s a bit of a Blue Lighr Disco feeling to the arena, with dimmed lights and yacht rock classics on the PA, all designed to keep those skating fans from tearing the place apart while they wait for the machines to smooth over the rink. What are those machines called in ice hockey rinks? My mind says jabroni machine, but that’s from the Sopranos. Zamboni machines? The name is Italian adjacent. Anyway, I guess this is a version of that. I am not the maintenance expert.
Righto, that’s it from me for now. Here’s Geoff Lemon to croon you through the next bit of the day – and under way in four minutes is the mixed doubles curling semi, in which Great Britain meet Sweden.
At 5.05, so in just 11 minutes from now, we’ll all be frantically polishing our carpets, as GB go against Sweden in the semis of the mixed doubles curling. But back to the speed skating, Zdrahalova of Czechia is flying and Schulting’s leading time is under threat. She tears around the last corner … and finishes second, 0.37s slower.
Czerwonka of Poland is out in race six and she looks decent in slotting herself into second place. Meanwhile in the women’s luge, the first run is over and the first three is as was, Fraebel of Germany leading by 0.048s from Taubitz, also of Germany, with Hofer of Italy a further 0.271 behind.
Herzog of Austria is a lovely mover but she runs out of steam to finish up fourth overall. The big favourite for gold is Leerdam of the Netherlands; she goes in the final race against one of the only competitors with a chance of beating her, Takagi of Japan, while the third likely contender, Kok also of the Netherlands, goes in heat 13.
The more racers we see, the more Schulting’s time looks nails. McGregor of Switzerland is flying, but she’s still not especially close, finishing 0.70s off the lead and going second; Silaeva of Kazakhstan goes seventh.
Rosner of Austria and Lalibete-Roy of Canada are way off the leader in heat three of the speed skating, going fifth and sixth respectively.
Back with the luge, Fraebel still leads from Taubitz while, in the women’s ice hockey, Germany are still 1-0 up on France.
It’s Vanhoute of Belgium and Hiller-Donnelly of Canada out next, Hiller-Donnelly in front but a second down on Schulting. But Vanhoute comes on strong at the end to take second – for now – with Italy’s Maybritt, who was in the first heat, third.
We’re under way in the speed skating, two-and-a-half laps of the track. Schulting of the Netherlands is away quickly on the fresh ice, setting a benchmark time of 1:15.46, well outside the Olympic record.
“For a classic of the Italian anthem genre,” begins William Mata, “there is a whole Giorgio Chiellini section of YouTube of him loudly, badly, belting it out.”
I shall investigate.
Our speed skaters are warming up so, given there’re medals at stake, let’s focus on that for the next bit.
Back to the women’s luge, the two Germans are 0.048s apart; in third, Hofer of Italy is a further 0.288 back, which is to say that, by the looks of things, there’s a race for gold and silver, then another for bronze.
Coming up in 11 minutes, we have the final of the women’s 1000m speed skating. There are 15 heats, each with two racers involved, and the fastest time wins.
A terrific goal from Germany sees them lead against France in the women’s ice hockey. It looks like it’s Japan v Italy for the final knockout spot.
But what’s this? Merle Malou Fraebel, just 22 and also German, is absolutely rinsing it, and Taubitz’s time is under threat … Taubitz’s time is dealt with! Sahe goes first in 52.590, and might this be our battle for gold under way?
Germany have dominated this event at recent Games, but Natalie Geisenberger, the three-time reigning champion, has called it a career, meaning a chance for others; Julie Taubitz, also of Germany, is favourite and world champion; she’s out first and sets a solid time of 52.638. The format is two runs today, then two more medal runs tomorrow.
Righto, it’s time for some luge. “The Cortina Sliding Centre” sounds a lot more fun than luge looks.
It’s all Germany on the ice, five shots to one, but with 12 minutes left in the first, the score remains goalless