Defending Olympic champion Mikaël Kingsbury wins silver in men’s moguls, while Canadian speed skater Isabelle Weidemann raced to bronze in the women’s 3,000 metres
Compiled by Globe staff
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Speed skating: Speed skater Isabelle Weidemann raced to bronze in the women’s 3,000 metres on Saturday, wining Canada’s first medal of the Games. Meanwhile, Canada finished fourth in the mixed short-track speed skating relay final after a penalty for pushing. Canada looked to have finished third, ahead of Hungary, in the four-team final, but was later penalized following a review of a collision between skaters from the two countries.
Hockey: Canada’s women’s hockey team blasted Finland in an 11-1 win. Canada plays Russia on Monday and then caps the preliminary round Tuesday against the United States.
Short track speed skating: Canada didn’t make the podium after being disqualified in the final mixed-team relay round for pushing from the behind and causing contact with Hungary. China took home gold.
Snowboarding: Quebec City’s Laurie Blouin narrowly missed out on a second Olympic medal with a fourth-place finish in women’s snowboard slopestyle.
Off the field
The International Olympic Committee will proceed with a meeting with former world number one doubles tennis player Peng Shuai during the Beijing Winter Olympics, but details of the meeting will not be shared in advance. The well-being of Peng, a three-time Olympian, became a matter of concern in November when she appeared to disappear from the public eye after alleging on social media that a former Chinese vice premier, Zhang Gaoli, had sexually assaulted her in the past.
Snowboarder Sadowski Synnott gets New Zealand’s first-ever Winter Olympic gold medal
Zoi Sadowski Synnott captured New Zealand’s first gold medal in Winter Olympic history, stomping down a pressure-packed run on her last trip down the mountain Sunday to win the title in women’s slopestyle. The 20-year-old was one of the very few to put down a clean run on a supersized course, where hard-packed snow and bone-cold wind chills made things difficult on all 12 finalists, including two-time defending champion Jamie Anderson, who finished ninth.
Japanese Olympic skater Yuzuru Hanyu out to ‘complete’ himself with quadruple Axel jump
The weight on the shoulders of Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu must be immense. With figure skating fans holding their breath to see if Hanyu will deliver a performance at the Beijing Olympics that could earn him a third consecutive gold – a first for the sport in almost a century – the stakes are higher than ever. But perhaps the biggest pressure for the two-time world champion comes from within. Over a long-spanning career, the 27-year-old has amassed a trove of medals but it is the childhood dream of landing the quadruple Axel that has kept him pushing ahead.
U.S. snowboarder Shaun White plans to retire after Beijing
Three-time snowboarding gold medalist Shaun White made it clear Saturday that the Beijing Games won’t just be his final Olympics, the 35-year-old American plans to retire from the sport he put on the international map after the halfpipe medal round next week. “In my mind, I’ve decided this will be my last competition,” he said. White has been a transcendent force for snowboarding, and its most recognizable face for nearly two decades.
Tempers flare in U.S. vs. Russia women’s hockey game
A relentless United States crushed the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) 5-0 on Saturday in a hard-hitting clash that lent a little geopolitical tension to the Beijing Olympics women’s ice hockey tournament. The victory kept the unbeaten U.S. headed towards a gold medal showdown with North American rivals Canada, who earlier at the Wukesong Sports Centre produced another ruthless performance to pound third-ranked Finland 11-1.
The mix of Canada’s men’s hockey team
This is not the Olympic men’s hockey tournament that Canadians anticipated. The NHL opted out of the Winter Games six weeks ago and that caused a number of teams from 12 countries to engage in last-minute searches for athletes. Now, without NHL stars, Canada’s men’s hockey team is an inscrutable mix of youngsters and veterans.