Winter Olympics closing ceremony LIVE: Team GB women win first gold medal in curling as Beijing Games end
Follow latest updates from Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 as Team GB chase their first medal of the Games
Great Britain’s women, led by Eve Muirhead, went one better than the men in their gold medal match against Japan at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
The men’s team fell short yesterday when Sweden claimed gold to deny Bruce Mouat and his team. Swedish skip Niklas Edin proved too good and repeated their victory over Great Britain in a 2014 semi-final. Muirhead overcame almost impossible odds to steer her women’s curling team into the Olympic final where she completed an incredible journey to finally fulfil an ambition that appeared beyond her after a decade at the top of her sport. Team coach Murdoch put her chances of salvaging victory at “less than 10 per cent” after shipping four shots in a disastrous opening end to defending Olympic champions Sweden, but they clawed back to clinch a thrilling 12-11 victory in an extra end.
In the final, Muirhead guided Great Britain to their first and only gold of the Games, beating Japan 10-3 to claim the joint-biggest margin of victory in a final since the sport was reintroduced in ‘98. With all events now closed and the medals handed out, it only remains for the closing ceremony to take place and the baton to be passed on to Italy.
Follow live coverage from the Winter Olympics below:
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Organisers scramble to reorganise skiing events after winds
Organisers scrambled to reorganise the Alpine mixed team parallel race for the final day of the Beijing Olympics after high winds on Saturday forced the competition to be postponed.
Team officials and organisers have agreed to hold the event, which is only its second edition, on Sunday at 9 a.m. (0100 GMT) despite several teams being originally scheduled to fly home.
The decision meant some teams had to rearrange their flights and accommodation bookings, but all the 15 nations entered in the competition confirmed they will participate on Sunday.
Olympics and International Ski Federation (FIS) officials said they were keen to complete the event and expected the weather to be “a little better” especially in the earlier part of the day.
A spokeswoman for the U.S ski team said that most of their squad and support staff were due to leave early on Sunday morning but that changes were being made to allow them to stay.
Juan Antonio Samaranch, the head of the International Olympic Committee’s coordination commission for Beijing, told an IOC session that these issues were to be expected at a Winter Games.
“We had weather issues but this is Winter Games. We are coping with the difficulties still left but this is winter and we are here to celebrate exactly that: winter,” he said.
The closing ceremony for the Beijing Games is on Sunday at 8 p.m. The weather forecast for Sunday is for slightly better wind conditions earlier in the day.
Taiwan premier orders probe into skater who wore Chinese uniform
Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang has ordered an investigation into a Taiwanese speed skater who posted a video of herself wearing a Chinese uniform shortly before the Beijing Winter Olympics began.
Huang Yu-ting put the video on her Instagram page but removed it after attracting fierce online criticism in Taiwan, where many people view China, which claims the island as its own territory, as a grave threat to their freedom and way of life.
Huang, one of only four Taiwanese athletes at the Winter Games, later defended herself on Facebook saying “sports is sports” and when competing everyone is “good friends”. Those comments prompted further anger towards her in Taiwan.
In a Saturday statement, Su’s office said the premier believed Huang’s actions were “extremely inappropriate” and has asked the Education Ministry and the Sports Administration under it to investigate her and give an “appropriate punishment”.
Taiwan’s Presidential Office added in a separate statement that it supported the “necessary” investigation and punishment.
“Members of the national team represent the country in competitions, and there should not be any controversial words or deeds that damage the nation’s honour,” President Tsai Ing-wen’s spokesperson Xavier Chang said.Picture 716174628
Speedskating results
The mass start races marked the Olympic farewells for two speedskating greats.
Sven Kramer of the Netherlands ranked last in the men’s final, pushing the pace early on but dropping back when the contenders turned on the speed at the end of the 16-lap race.
The 35-year-old Dutch star finished his Olympic career with a total of nine medals, including four golds.
Claudia Pechstein of Germany made the women’s final just three days before her 50th birthday. She took points in one of the interval sprints and finished ninth.
Pechstein was competing in her eighth Olympics, the most ever by a female Winter Olympic athlete. She won five golds and nine medals in a career that also included a doping ban she continues to dispute.
Team captain Bruce Mouat
“I’m just trying to think about how good our week was and really proud about how we went about it,” Mouat told BBC Sport after men’s curling final defeat by Sweden. “It’s still pretty raw. I think that’s going to be the case for quite a while.”
Speedskating results
Bart Swings of Belgium won the men’s mass start on a frustrating final day at the oval for the American team.
Joey Mantia was edged out by the tip of a blade for the bronze medal in the men’s race. The 36-year-old Floridian complained that he was grabbed by another skater, costing him his second medal of the Beijing Games.
Mia Manganello Kilburg matched Mantia with a fourth-place showing in the women’s race, though she was a bit farther back.
Blondin settled for the silver, adding to the gold she won as part of team pursuit. The bronze went to Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida, her second medal of the Olympics after claiming a silver in the 3,000.
Swings improved on the silver he won at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games in the frenetic event — the only individual speedskating race with head-to-head competition instead of racing against the clock.
South Korea grabbed the other men’s medals. Chung Jae Won took the silver and defending Olympic champion Lee Seung Hoon settled for bronze this time.
Mantia, a three-time world champion, initially posted the same time as Lee. But the replay showed the tip of the South Korean’s skate crossed the line just ahead of Mantia’s blade, giving him the bronze by 0.001 seconds.
The Netherlands again topped the speedskating medal table, finishing with six golds and 12 medals overall. The United States finished with three medals, its best showing since 2010.
speedskating results
Irene Schouten of the Netherlands captured her third gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, chasing down Canada’s Ivanie Blondin to win the women’s mass start on Saturday.
In the final speedskating event of the Winter Games, Schouten established herself as the biggest star at the Ice Ribbon with a furious push to line to overtake Blondin.
Blondin grabbed the lead on the backstraight, but Schouten roared back with an all-out sprint to the finish line to win by 0.06 seconds.
Schouten let out a scream as she crossed the stripe, celebrating another gold after her victories in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters. In a nifty bookend, she won the first and last speedskating events in Beijing, two weeks apart.
Team GB react to Olympic curling defeat
An emotional Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan speak after that final defeat.
“Personally I wasn’t at my best today and it showed,” says Lammie. “Right now it hurts.”
McMillan adds: “We’ve had a good week but it’s not how we wanted to end it, right now it sucks. They started strong, they didn’t give us an inch, we weren’t at our best at the beginning but had a good second half to give ourselves a chance. That 10th end, they played it well.”
Sweden beat GB in men’s Olympic curling final
Bruce Mouat just misses his mark, and Sweden are the Olympic champions! A valiant effort from Team GB but it wasn’t to be, up against a brilliant Swedish performance. After bronze and silver, Niklas Edin finally gets his hands on Olympic gold.
Men’s curling final: GB 4-4 Sweden (extra end)
A mistake from Swedish skip Niklas Edin who leaves his penultimate stone a touch short. Can Britain get around and knock out the centre stone to give themselves a shot at an unlikely win? Here comes Bruce Mouat...
Men’s curling final: GB 4-4 Sweden (extra end)
Grant Hardie places the guard well and Oskar Eriksson clears it out. Hardie goes again, and he puts another guard in place. This is very tense. Sweden respond with Eriksson’s final stone and it just clips Hardie’s guard to successfully clear it. Two stones remaining each, which will come from the captains. Britain use their timeout to discuss tactics.
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