Beijing Winter Olympics: Canadian freestyle skier Evan McEachran falls to ninth in men’s big air event

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Beijing Olympics: Latest updates

Olympic events for Feb. 8, 2022

• Freestyle skiing: Canadian freestyle skier Evan McEachran landed an impressive trick on his first run before falling to ninth in the men’s big air event at the Beijing Olympics. Earlier, Canada’s Megan Oldham finished fourth in the women’s freestyle skiing big air event. She was joined by 17-year-old Olivia Asselin, who finished eighth in the final. World champion skier Eileen Gu took home the gold medal. Gu is the gift America (unwillingly) gave China – a California born, raised and trained freestyle skier who arrives in China primed for multimedia stardom, writes Cathal Kelly.
• Snowboard: American Chloe Kim breezed through Wednesday’s qualifiers in the women’s snowboard halfpipe at the Beijing Games to advance to the final in first place, while Japanese teen boarder Mitsuki Ono followed in her Olympic debut.
• Alpine skiing: Lena Dürr is leading the women’s slalom after two-time Olympic U.S. champion Mikaela Shiffrin’s second race ended even more quickly than her first. She skidded out of control about five seconds into the opening run.
• Ice hockey: Canada faced off against the United States Monday night in a round robin game. The undefeated Canadian women’s team won 4-2 in a clash of unbeaten teams. The Globe’s Rachel Brady reports that Ann-Renee Desbiens made 51 saves, setting a record for most stops by a Canadian goaltender in an Olympic contest – male or female.
• Biathlon: Calgary’s Scott Gow finished fifth in the men’s 20-kilometre individual biathlon on Tuesday, marking Canada’s best performance in that event. Gow’s performance also tied Canada’s best Olympic result in a men’s biathlon event. France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet won the gold medal. Anton Smolski of Belarus took the silver and Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Boe bagging the bronze.
• Super-G: Toronto’s Jack Crawford was the fastest Canadian in men’s super-G at the 2022 Winter Games on Tuesday, finishing sixth. The event was Crawford’s second top-10 finish in as many days. Austria’s Matthias Mayer won gold in one minute 19.94 seconds to successfully defend his Olympic title. Ryan Cochran-Siegle of the United States earned silver in 1:19.98 and Norway’s Aamodt Aleksander Kilde took bronze in 1:20.36.
• Figure skating: Canada’s Keegan Messing finished ninth in the men’s short program at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday, just a day after arriving in China. The 30-year-old had been awaiting negative COVID-19 test results in Canada to allow him to travel. “I’m an optimistic guy, but this definitely took the cake for putting my optimism to a test,” Messing said of the period while he was waiting for clearance to travel to Beijing.
• Cross-Country Skiing: Canadian Dahria Beatty finished fifth in her quarterfinal heat of the women’s cross-country sprint event, falling short of her goal of making the semifinals. The skier from Whitehorse, Yukon, was the only member of Canada’s cross-country team to advance past the first round of the sprint events at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday.

Off the field

• Olympic mascot selling out: There were long queues outside stores in Beijing selling plush toy versions of Bing Dwen Dwen on Tuesday, while inside the Olympic bubble, the official store sold out before midday, as Chinese volunteers, journalists and staff flocked to snap them up. A manufacturing crunch caused by the Lunar New Year coincided with the opening of the Olympics, has led to shortages of the mascot, driving up the price of souvenirs on the secondary market.
• Belarusian skier flees country: A Belarusian cross-country skier has fled the country with her family because of fears of reprisals by authorities after she was barred from competition over the family’s political views, she and her father said.
• COVID cases: The Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee said that a total of five new COVID-19 cases were detected among games-related personnel.
• Cold welcome: Skiers and snowboarders often talk about carving up a slope. But in the mountain zone of the Beijing Olympics, the wind and snow are slicing back. Extreme cold and high winds in Zhangjiakou, a city 200 kilometres northwest of Beijing, have been a constant in the mountain hub, affecting the athletes’ ability to compete at peak performance.
• Russian women’s hockey player tests positive for COVID-19 after game with Canada: Another Russian women’s hockey player has tested positive for coronavirus after playing against Canada. Russian Olympic Committee team coach Evgeny Bobariko tells state news agency RIA Novosti that Polina Bolgareva tested positive.

The day in pictures

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Coming up at the Beijing Olympics

All dates and times (ET)

What to watch tomorrow, Feb. 9

• Alpine skiing, women’s slalom 12:45 a.m. ET
• Snowboard, women’s snowboard cross finals 🥇2:45 a.m. ET
• Nordic combined, men’s Gundersen Normal Hill/10km, ski jumping 3 a.m. ET
• Ice hockey, Men Group B 3:40 a.m. ET
• Nordic combined, men’s Gundersen Normal Hill/10km, cross country 🥇 6 a.m. ET
• Short track, men’s 1500m, quarterfinal 6 a.m. ET
• Short Track, women’s 1000m, heats 6:44 a.m. ET
• Curling, men round robin 🍁 7:05 a.m. ET
• Luge, double, run 1 7:20 a.m. ET
• Short Track, men’s 1500m, semifinal 7:29 a.m. ET
• Short track, women’s 3000m relay, semifinal 7:45 a.m. ET
• Ice hockey, Men Group B 8:10 a.m. ET
• Short track, men’s 1500m, finals 8:13 a.m. ET
• Luge, double, run 2 🥇8:35 a.m. ET
• Curling, women, round robin 8:05 p.m. ET
• Figure skating, men’s singles, free program 🥇 8:30 p.m. ET
• Skeleton, men’s individual, run 1 8:30 p.m. ET
• Snowboard, women’s halfpipe, final 🥇 8:30 p.m. ET
• Alpine skiing, men’s alpine combined downhill 9:30 p.m. ET
• Skeleton, men’s individual run 2 10 p.m. ET
• Snowboard, men’s snowboard cross, seeding 10:15 p.m. ET
• Ice hockey, men Group C 11:10 p.m. ET

What time is it in Beijing right now?

Olympic highlights and medal count for Feb. 8

Latest Olympic medal count

Canada’s short-track speed skating team adapts to new race routines: Charles Hamelin and his Canadian short-track speed skating teammates are adapting to new routines in Beijing, thanks to a unique schedule that stretches the competition out over 12 days instead of the more usual four. Seven of the 10 members of Canada’s short-track team are competing at their first Olympics, where they depend on veterans like Hamelin for advice on how to adapt their preparation to compete at their best.

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Norway’s first Gold in Men’s freeski: Norway’s Birk Ruud claimed the first men’s freeski Big Air Olympic gold medal with a dominant display as his main rival, American Alex Hall, faltered at the Beijing Games on Wednesday.

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Gold for Italy in mixed doubles curling: Italy won the gold medal in the mixed doubles curling event after beating Norway 8-5 at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday. Norway claimed silver, while Sweden took bronze after a 9-3 victory over Britain earlier in the day.

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Chen scores world record for massive lead over shocked Hanyu: In a reversal of fortunes from the last Olympic Games, American Nathan Chen scored a world record in the figure skating short program in Beijing on Tuesday, giving him a massive lead over a shocked Yuzuru Hanyu in their quest for the gold medal. At the Pyeongchang Games in 2018, Chen – also a gold-medal favourite then – had finished the short program at 17th place after a disastrous performance, while Japan’s Hanyu went on to win his second consecutive Olympic gold.

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Medals run in the family for U.S. skier: As Ryan Cochran-Siegle set off at around noon Tuesday for a super-G run that would earn a silver at the Beijing Games – the first Olympic Alpine medal for a U.S. man since 2014 – it was around 11 p.m. Monday night back home in Starksboro, Vermont. So his mother, Barbara Ann Cochran, grabbed a laptop and settled into bed in her pyjamas to keep tabs. Mom, you see, came from the “Skiing Cochrans” family of Olympians, and was the slalom champion at the 1972 Sapporo Games. She knows all about what it takes to succeed on this stage.

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Olympic fever hits China’s stock market: Olympic fever has unleashed a buying frenzy on China’s stock exchange this week, with investors pouncing on shares linked to the ongoing 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, including some whose connection to the games was purely speculative.

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Essential reads on the Beijing Olympics

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Sports columnist Cathal Kelly

That’s it, that’s all, the Peng Shuai saga is over. Right?

Eileen Gu is golden in first Beijing Olympic event – and right on cue

Complaining at the Olympics? That’s nothing new. What’s changed is our perspective

Mikaël Kingsbury settles for silver as moguls skiing sees a shift on the throne

There hasn’t been a fun Olympics for a decade, but at least Beijing is honest about what we’re getting instead

On the politics

Beijing’s Olympic plans are mired in politics and threatened by COVID-19. Will it all be worth it?

As world’s media descend on Beijing for Winter Olympics, journalists in China warn of unprecedented hurdles

Megan Walsh: The Olympics as metaphor for how the Chinese Communist Party writes its narratives

On Team Canada

Catriona Le May Doan is living the chef de mission dream

Ski cross team is ready for anything as they fight for a place at the Games

NHL veteran Eric Staal leads Canada’s hockey team into Beijing Olympics