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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GB in medal contention in men’s bobsleigh
Brad Hall has steered his four-man Great Britain bobsleigh team within 0.31 seconds of an Olympic medal after the first two runs of the competition at Yanqing Sliding Centre.
Hall, Greg Cackett, Nick Gleeson and Taylor Lawrence sit in sixth position at the halfway stage, with two German crews and Canada’s Justin Kripps making up the medal positions ahead of the event’s conclusion on Sunday.
It marks an impressive response from Hall, a three-time four-man World Cup medallist this season, after overturning his sled in the two-man competition last Tuesday.
“We’re feeling pretty good,” said Hall, who was forced to essentially self-fund his route to the Games after UK Sport funding for the bobsleigh programme was ended after the Pyeongchang Games four years ago.
But while the £6.5million British skeleton programme has floundered, Hall has worked hard to put his team in contention for what would be a first four-man medal since John Jackson was awarded retrospective bronze from Sochi in 2014.
“There were a couple of mistakes on the first run but it wasn’t a bad performance. I’m quite content with sixth place,” added Hall.
“The Germans have got three sleds, three times the amount of runs to test everything and find the best way down the track, and make sure the equipment works.
“We’re against it, we’ve got less resources to pull upon, so we’ve just gone with what we know and we’ll see how it turns out.”
Men’s curling final: GB vs Sweden (1st end)
Great Britain have the hammer because they finished top of the round robin rankings. If you have know idea what the hammer is, I have your back:
What does having the hammer mean in curling and how do you get it?
Ten nations are competing in each of curling’s three disciplines at the 2022 Winter Olympics
Men’s curling final: GB vs Sweden
Here we go, then. Great Britain’s men are taking on Sweden in the curling final as they bid to finally secure a medal for Team GB at these Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Bruce Mouat’s team have been impressive throughout the competition but face the experience and knowhow of Swedish skip Niklas Edin, whose team beat Britain to gold in 2014.
David Murdoch was the British captain then but he believes Mouat and co have nothing to fear. “Niklas is very experienced, I’ve played him loads and so has Bruce. We don’t have anything to fear and our recent record against them is really good, we beat them in the round robins here and twice at the European Championships, including the final.”
Winter Olympics 2022: Alpine team event postponed because of wind
The final Alpine skiing race of the Beijing Olympics has been moved to Sunday because of too-strong wind on Saturday.
The windy conditions made Mikaela Shiffrin wait to get one last chance to bring home a medal from China.
Following more than one-hour delay for the mixed team parallel event and gusts upto 40 mph (65 kph) the International Ski Federation postponed the competition.
Winter Olympics 2022: GB women cruise to women’s curling final
Team GB’s curling women team defeated Sweden 12-11 to cruise to the final gold medal match on Sunday.
“I’m pretty speechless right now but what a moment,” said British skip Eve Muirhead said after the close match. She is competing at her fourth Olympics.
“It sounds amazing to say we’re in an Olympic final. It is third time lucky. I’ve lost two semi-finals before and I was desperate for it. These moments and opportunities don’t come around very often,” she said adding she is proud of her team.
Team GB is up against Japan on Sunday at 01:05 GMT.
Winter Olympics 2022: Team GB’s Kenworthy finishes final Olympic run
With Nico Porteous’s victory, Gus Kenworthy’s career comes to an end after he finished 8th in the halfpipe final.
He sustained a huge hit on his second run but came back for one final display.
“Not my best,” he admitted after scoring 71.25 points. “Thank you for everything, skiing. Love you, mum,” he signs off.
The Chelmsford-born two-time US Olympian won slopestyle silver in 2014 and started to represent Great Britain since 2019.
Winter Olympics 2022: Gold for Nico Porteous in halfpipe
New Zealand’s Nico Porteous, 20, has won the gold medal in Men’s freeski halfpipe, beating Team USA’s David Wise, who was vying for third gold medal.
Porteous was the country’s youngest-ever Olympic medallist in Pyeongchang in 2018 when he was just 16 years and 91 days old.
Wise claimed silver, finishing second and fellow American Alex Ferreira took bronze.
Jackie Lockhart on Team GB women
Jackie Lockhart: “Vicky Wright is so calm, she does it from her nursing background, she holds the team together.
“Jennifer Dodds is the bubbly character.
“Little Hailey [Duff] does as she’s told. She’s fitted well into the team.”
Johannes Thingnes Boe claims historic gold
Johannes Thingnes Boe used a little lane discipline to deliver Norway a record 15th gold medal at a single Winter Olympics when he triumphed in the men’s biathlon 15km mass start on Friday, grabbing his fourth title in Beijing.
Boe’s mastery in the sport was clear for all to see as he became the first biathlete to win four gold medals at a single Games since countryman Ole Einar Bjoerndalen in Salt Lake City, with the 28-year-old saying it came down to getting the right lane on the range in Friday’s race.
“Yeah, it was difficult (conditions) but on the second prone (shooting) I managed to get lane one, there’s less wind there,” Boe told Reuters.
Boe managed to get his preferred lane for the remaining two visits to the range.
“For my standing shooting I had less wind, so today I was quite lucky with the conditions compared to the pursuit (race) when I was unlucky,” he said.
Despite four misses from his 20 shots, Boe was able to use his powerful skiing to stay ahead of the field and claim the gold.
Mistake costs Verbij dear in speed skating
Dutchman Kai Verbij had to give up on a podium finish on Friday as an awkward lane change with his skating pair in the men’s 1,000 metres at the Beijing Olympics meant he had to give way, costing him any chance of a medal.
Paired with Canadian Laurent Dubreuil in the last race, Verbij found himself in an awkward position at a crossover. The world champion stuck to the rules and held back to let his opponent race ahead.
“I didn’t have enough speed to go before him at the lane change. I just had to quit, because otherwise I would have been disqualified and probably messed up his race,” a dejected Verbij said after finishing last.
“It’s pretty sad and I’m pretty disappointed that it happened at the Olympics, but yeah. Someone has to lose I guess,” the 27-year-old said.
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