PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) American Mikaela Shiffrin has won gold in the women’s giant slalom in her Pyeongchang Olympic debut.
She used a hard-charging final run to win her second career Olympic gold medal.
The 22-year-old American standout trailed by 0.20 seconds heading into the last run, but made up ground in no time by powering through ruts that had developed on the course.
Shiffrin finished 0.39 seconds ahead of Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel at Yongpyong Alpine Center. Federica Brignone of Italy captured bronze, 0.46 behind Shiffrin’s combined time of 2 minutes, 20.02 seconds. First-run leader Manuela Moelgg of Italy wound up eighth.
At the 2014 Sochi Games, Shiffrin won the slalom crown at age 18. She will defend that title Friday.
In other competition:
Sweden has opened the Pyeongchang Olympic men’s hockey tournament with a 4-0 win over neighbor Norway, even without playing highly rated young defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. Linus Omark finished Thursday with three assists, including a backhand no-look pass to set up Par Lindholm’s opening goal. Anton Lander then made it 2-0 as Sweden dominated the first period.
Michelle Karvinen scored two power-play goals and Finland beat the Olympic athletes from Russia 5-1 to finish third in the top group of women’s hockey behind Canada and the United States. Finland will play Sweden in the quarterfinals Saturday for a slot in the semifinal against Canada, the defending gold medalist. Still winless, the Russians will play Switzerland, with the winner advancing to a semifinal against the U.S.
Sweden’s Hanna Oeberg has pulled off a major upset in the women’s 15-kilometer biathlon at the Pyeongchang Olympics, beating out two-time gold medalist Laura Dahlmeier to capture the gold medal. Oeberg entered the race ranked 42nd in the World Cup standings in the individual event. Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina took home silver, and Germany’s Dahlmeier captured the bronze.
Ragnhild Haga of Norway has won her first gold medal in the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle at the Pyeongchang Olympics, dusting the field by more than 20 seconds. She finished in just over 25 minutes. Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla won her second medal of the Olympic Games by finishing in second, while Norway’s Mart Bjoergen and Finland’s Krista Parmakoski finished tied for third with identical times of 25 minutes, 32.4 seconds.
Aksel Lund Svindal has won the men’s downhill in Pyeongchang, making the 35-year-old Norwegian the oldest-ever Olympic gold medalist in Alpine skiing. Svindal was 0.12 seconds faster than Norwegian teammate Kjetil Jansrud down the 1 4/5-mile (2.9-kilometer) course at Jeongseon. Beat Feuz of Switzerland took bronze, 0.18 behind Svindal’s time of 1 minute, 40.25 seconds.
Ragnhild Haga of Norway has won her first gold medal in the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle at the Pyeongchang Olympics, dusting the field by more than 20 seconds. She finished in just over 25 minutes. Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla won her second medal of the Olympic Games by finishing in second, while Norway’s Mart Bjoergen and Finland’s Krista Parmakoski finished tied for third with identical times of 25 minutes, 32.4 seconds.
Pierre Vaultier of France has defended his title in men’s snowboardcross at the Pyeongchang Olympics. Vaultier barely qualified for the final after crashing during the semifinals but recovered to win his second Olympic gold medal with relative ease. Jarryd Hughes of Australia took silver, with Spain’s Regino Hernandez earning a rare Winter Games medal for his country by taking bronze.
Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot of Germany have won Olympic pairs figure skating gold with a flawless, record-setting free skate. Savchenko and Massot scored 159.31 points in their program set to music by Armand Amar on the final day of pairs skating at the Pyeongchang Games. That gave them 235.90 points, catapulting them from fourth place after a shaky short program. It’s Germany’s first pairs gold since 1952.
China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, who led after the short program, recovered from a slow start to their free skate to score 153.08 points. But their early bobbles proved costly they finished with 235.47 points, less than half a point off the top step of the podium.
Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford added a bronze medal after winning team gold with Canada.
