🥇 Matt Weston wins Gold in the Men’s Skeleton!
What a final run! Weston finishes with a faultless ride and actually increases the gap between himself and the rest of the field. It is there! He finishes in a time of 55.61 seconds which is a new course record to boot.
Weston falls to his knees on the ice. He then removes his helmet and his mouthguard and is visibly emotional, he punches the air and lets out a howl of joy. Well done that man, Great Britain have their first medal of this Winter Olympics and it is GOLD courtesy of Matt Weston.
Key events
James Wallace
Righto, what a night that was. I’m goosed and have barely moved off my sofa for the last four hours never mind trained every day for four years.
We’ll be back tomorrow for more Winter Olympic drama, there’s nothing like it. Congratulations to the medal winners and commiserations to those that missed out.
Goodnight.
Beau Dure
Men’s Figure Skating Final: Shaidorov’s win should be celebrated. He skated brilliantly. He may be Malinin’s rival for years to come.
But it’ll be impossible to remember this event as anything other than a catastrophe for the world’s best skater over the past three years by a wide margin.
The flip side is that Malinin came through in the team event, which means several US skaters will leave Italy with gold medals. That may be of little consolation at the moment.
No other sporting event has the drama of the Olympics. Not the World Cup, where the players all immediately turn around and return to lucrative and high-profile professional careers. Only here. When it goes well, it’s enthralling. In this case, it’s heartbreaking.
Ilia Malinin speaks in the moments after losing out on the Gold… and any medal at all:
Speaking to NBC he says he “felt ready”. “Maybe too confident” he says.
“I think it was definitely mental,” Malinin says when asked if it was physical or mental. He says the Olympics are just different.
What was his first thought when the music ended?
“I blew it!” Malinin says with a smile.
🥇Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov wins Gold in the men’s figure skating final
We’ve just seen the biggest shock of these Olympic Games.
There is pin drop silence in the arena as Ilia Malinin falls twice and effectively drops the Gold medal that everyone thought was a foregone conclusion. The commentators, the crowd… there’s surreal silence as everyone tries to compute what they have just seen with their own eyes. Malinin’s routine is so bad that he finishes in 8th position overall.
The beauty and cruelty of sport writ large.
Yuma Kagiyama and Shun Sato of Japan take the Silver and Bronze.
Beau Dure
The Malinin dilemma …
Malinin could play it safe and take the gold medal. Or he could go out and land a quad axel as one of seven quads.
Which would you do?
Men’s Figure Skating Final: Drama in the latter stages as France’s Adam Siao Him Fa and Italy’s Daniel Grassl both feel the pressure of a possible podium finish and make big mistakes, both men end up falling!
This is a wonderfully entertaining round up:
Phew. We’ve still got more action for you y’know – the Men’s Figure Skating Final is getting down to brass tacks and the business end.
Ilia Roman Malinin will skate for a second Gold of these games very shortly, Simone Biles and Jeff Goldblum are in the audience cheering on their fellow American.
We’ll keep an eye on it here but if you want all the details then do join Beau Dure and the dedicated live blog here:
Clad in a thick blue training coat underneath the stars. Matt Weston is given his gold medal and lets out a guttural roar into the Italian night sky.
Matt Weston’s medal ceremony is just beginning on a crisp Cortina night. What a moment for him personally and for the Great British team who have waited a week for a medal in these games.
He got faster with each run!
Run one: 56.21 seconds
Run two: 55.88
Run three: 55.63
Run four: 55.61
Time to crank this, I’m not saying it is better than the National Anthem… actually I definitely am.
Matt Weston is being interviewed on the BBC right now, he is absolutely elated and just about managing to hold it together.
He joins Amy Williams and Lizzy Yarnold as Skeleton Gold medallists and Yarnold is teetering on the brink of tears with Claire Balders in the BBC studio.
“Every single one of the four runs were absolute perfection. Incredibly impressive from Matt Weston. What stands out for me is each and every time Matt Weston stood at the start block he was looking down the track, he excelled, he accelerated, he was so focused. I really can’t find the words to describe how incredibly impressed I am with his performance.”
🥇 Matt Weston wins Gold in the Men’s Skeleton!
What a final run! Weston finishes with a faultless ride and actually increases the gap between himself and the rest of the field. It is there! He finishes in a time of 55.61 seconds which is a new course record to boot.
Weston falls to his knees on the ice. He then removes his helmet and his mouthguard and is visibly emotional, he punches the air and lets out a howl of joy. Well done that man, Great Britain have their first medal of this Winter Olympics and it is GOLD courtesy of Matt Weston.
Men’s Skeleton Final Run: The camera lingers on Matt Weston. We are moments away from his run. Christopher Grotheer just guaranteed himself a medal with a fast final run, his German teammate Axel Jungk is on the ice now… and just clings on for silver!
Right. The time is now. Matt Weston pushes off…
Men’s Skeleton Final Run: Top final run from Great Britain’s Marcus Wyatt. He finishes with his best time of all of his runs – 56.24 and is guaranteed a top ten finish. He’ll be disappointed overall but pleased with that run to end with.
Men’s Skeleton Final Run: Tension mounting as seven competitors have gone and there are 17 to go. A reminder in case you didn’t know, Great Britain have only bagged 12 Gold medals in total since the Winter Olympics began in 1924.
That gives you a bit more of a flavour of the pressure resting on Matt Weston’s shoulders, notwithstanding the fact Great Britain have yet to win a medal of any colour at these games so far.
Scores on the Doors Ice:
Matt Weston (Great Britain) – 2:47.72
Axel Jungk (Germany) – 2:48.11 (+0.39)
Christopher Grotheer (Germany) – 2:48.47 (+0.75)
Wenhao Chen (China) – 2:48.64 (+0.92)
Amedeo Bagnis (Italy) – 2:48.67 (+0.95)
Men’s Skeleton Final Run: Right then, I don’t know if you’ve heard but Great Britain have not yet won a medal at these games. Matt Weston has the chance to change that in the next 45 minutes. Weston is in first position in the men’s skeleton after three runs and has a healthy lead over the chasing German pair of Axel Jungk and the defending Olympic champion Christopher Grotheer.
It is very much Weston’s to lose. He’s trained for years for this moment and will go last as the competitors go in reverse order for this final run, with the current fastest pushing off last.
The temperature has dropped meaning the course is even faster. Go and get the colander from the kitchen and don some lycra if you really must, whatever you do, don’t go anywhere.
🥇 Gold for Yuto Totsuka in the men’s snowboarding halfpipe!
Scotty James tumbles at the very last and he falls onto the snow with his head in his hands. If he landed the final trick the Gold was likely his but instead Japan’s Yuto Totsuka takes it! Incredible scenes on the halfpipe, The BBC’s Tim Yarwood says that the final has was “the best halfpipe final I’ve seen. The standard was absolutely through the roof.”
Snowboarding – Men’s halfpipe final: Drama! Japan’s Yuto Totsuka falls on the final trick of his run. His second score of 95 is still the one that Aussie Scotty James needs to beat to claim that elusive Olympic Gold medal. Can James – the ‘Boxing Kangaroo’ so named because of his red gloves – get the job done? Here we go…
Men’s Figure Skating Final: Emotional scenes as USA skater Maxim Naumov takes to the ice. He lost his parents – former world champion pairs skaters Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova in the tragic Washington DC plane crash less than a year ago.
Follow the dedicated blog right here:
Snowboarding -Men’s halfpipe final: The BBC’s Ed Leigh and Tim Warwood are losing their minds in the commentary box! I do enjoy these two, they are like an inverse Statler and Waldorf.
An example of the repartee:
“Watching the tricks that Yamada just did is the equivalent of putting The Shining on when home alone. The judges are absolutely terrified.”
and
“Get me a Yuto Totsuka beach towel immediately”
Scotty James has just done some wild stuff but it still isn’t enough to get him into the Gold position, he’s currently in silver and there is one run left. There are rumours he’s got a never before seen trick up his sleeve, he might well need to deploy it and nail it to take the Gold.
As they stand, with one attempt to go:
Gold: Yuto Totsuka (Japan) – 95.00
Silver: Scotty James (Australia) – 93.50
Bronze: Ryusei Yamada (Japan) – 92.00
Snowboarding: The Men’s halfpipe final is underway and as it stands Japan hold all the medal positions. Yamada Ryusei sits top on 92.00, Totsuka Yuto 91.00 and Hirano Ruka 90.00.
The legendary Aussie boarder Scotty James is chasing an elusive Gold in this event after winning Bronze and Silver in 2018 and 2022 respectively. The five time World Champion flunks his first run though, catching the lip and hitting the snow for just 48.75 points.
My US colleague Beau Dure is following the men’s figure skating final and you can follow him at the dedicated blog here:
Turns out it was a cover version of Eleanor Rigby! Sir Macca, sort it out mate.
As I feared, that was a cover version of Eleanor Rigby. No McCartney tonight.
It’s a clean program for Li Yu-Hsiang, but the jumps certainly aren’t at the level of the other skaters’ routines. The most dazzling part of his routine is a closing spin in which he changes position several times and seems to hang on forever. He finishes with a smile, then lies down on the ice as if making a snow angel.
But it’s nearly five points off his season best – 141.92, for a total of 214.33. Malinin will be hoping to score somewhere in that vicinity in his free skate alone.”
Men’s skeleton: Matt Weston’s GB Teammate Marcus Wyatt has a disappointing third slide and drops from seventh to tenth. He’s +1.81 from the bronze and thus out of medal contention.
Men’s skeleton: Weston’s run was so good that he has put even more distance, well time*, between himself and the chasing German pair of Axel Jungk and the defending Olympic champion Christopher Grotheer. All shimmering ice roads lead to Matt Weston breaking Great Britain’s medal drought just after 8pm GMT.
*+0.46 and +0.75 seconds respectively.
Men’s skeleton: What a run from Matt Weston! A great start and a fast, smooth ride to the finish line. He’s down in sub 56 seconds. He dismounts and punches the air, fair to say he’s happy with it! The commentators on the BBC have just said the rest of the field “may as well pack up and go home”. Yikes!
Men’s skeleton: Matt Weston is going to be first out of the traps and down the track in the third heat. Stand by your Sleds!
Figure skating: The men’s singles final is underway with the 24 strong line-up vying for the three medal places. American Ilia Malinin, the blonde haired ‘Quad God’ is the overwhelming favourite with a 5.09-point lead already established.
Li Yu-hsiang of China is the first competitor and is performing to ‘Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles, one of the Fab Four’s more haunting numbers. Which Beatles song would I have gone for instead?! I thought you’d never ask!
I reckon a bit of Hey Bulldog or Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except For Me and My Monkey. Let’s make it Easy!
Ice Hockey: A shock over in the ice hockey arena as Sweden have knocked out Bronze medal hopefuls Czech Republic by two goals to nil in the women’s quarter finals. Sweden were outsiders coming into the games and have had to graft their way out of the unseeded group.
Hanna Olsson and Hilda Svensson got Sweden’s goals while goalie Ebba Svensson Traff starred with a 29-save shutout.
Men’s Skeleton: We’ve got just over half an hour before Matt Weston attempts his third of four runs in the men’s skeleton. He currently sits in first place and teammate Marcus Wyatt is in seventh. The fourth and final run will be at 20.05 GMT. Loins iced and girded for that.
Women’s Skeleton: Realistically Great Britain’s three sliders won’t be challenging for the medal positions tomorrow but they do have three competitors in the top nine.
The standings going into the tomorrow’s final medal slides:
Janine Flock (Austria)
Susanne Kreher (Germany)
Jacqueline Pfeifer (Germany)
Hannah Neise (Germany)
Tabby Stoecker (Great Britain)
Great Britain’s Freya Tarbit is sixth and Amelia Coltman is ninth.
Women’s Skeleton: Here comes Great Britain’s Tabby Stoeker who is in currently third place after the first run… gah a few mistakes from Stoeker on her nicknamed ‘Fred the Sled’ and that sees her drop down into fifth position.
Women’s Skeleton: What a run from Tarbit! Smooth as silk, no mistakes. She beats her first by 0.36 seconds and puts some serious heat on the competitors in front of her, she’s currently in sixth place!
Women’s Skeleton: Brazil’s Nicole Rocha Silveira has a fetching green parrot on her helmet and has just screeched her way down the track in a time of 1:55.78. which puts her in first place currently.
Reigning world champion Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands has a scruffy slide, hitting the corners at least twice which slows her right down and she’s out of the top ten after that.
Great Britain’s Amelia Coltman and Freya Tarbit are about to slide, Tarbit is from my home county of Derbyshire, the delightfully named Ockbrook and Borrowash I believe, I’m obviously journalistically neutr… go on my duck!
James Wallace
Tanya slides off into her Friday evening and I’ve taken the live blogging seat for the rest of today’s action. Plenty going on, will update from the women’s skeleton shortly. It is Friday 13th… can Great Britain break their hoodoo/medal drought in these games today?
Their best bet will surely come from Matt Weston, he will attempt to become Britain’s first male Olympic skeleton champion (and as mentioned the first medallist of any kind in Milano Cortina thus far) with the final two runs of the skeleton competition happening this evening – at 18:30 and 20:05 GMT.
Weston is the reigning world champion and currently holds an advantage of 0.30 seconds over his next nearest rival, that sounds massive, right? Nailed on Gold. Right, right?
Skeleton: run two of the women’s skeleton starts, with three British sliders in the top ten. And time for me to hand over my bobble hat to Jim Wallace, who will guide you through to the close. Thanks for your company, bye!
Cas dismisses Vladyslav Heraskevych’s appeal for reinstatement
Full story below:
🥇 Teenager Metodej Jilek wins gold in the 10,000m speed skating
Hugs for a delighted Jilek, who adds gold to his silver from the 5000m, as both Loubineaud and Eitrem slip out of the medals.
Vladimir Semirunniy of Poland wins silver, and 40 year old Jorrit Bergsma takes bronze and the love of the crowd.
Speed skating: but now both men are slipping way behind the clock and Timothy Loubineaud draws level, then overtakes, Eitrem.
Speed skating: The tension ratchets up. Sander Eitrem, 5000m Olympic champion, covers the ice in long, loping strides. At half way he is ahead of the clock
Speed skating: The final pair know what they have to do. After 2000 metres both Norway’s Sander Eitrem and Timothy Loubineaud of France are ahead of the clock, but there are still 20 laps left.
Speed skating: teenage dreams! At the bell Jilek is over five seconds ahead, he looks in agony but holds on to raise his arms as he crosses the line in first place. He bends over in complete exhaustion, but with two skaters to go, Jilek is guaranteed a medal.
Blemen arrives some time behind and lies seventh.
Heraskevych’s appeal for reinstatement rejected
The Court of Arbitration dismisses Ukranian skeleton racer Heraskevych’s appeal for reinstatement to the Winter Olympics.
more to follow…
Do look at these fabulous photos collected by our picture desk.
Speed skating: The penultimate pairing of Ted-Jan Bloemen and Metodej Jilek take to the ice. Nineteen year old Jilek is like a sapling, Bloemen a tree-trunk – and the commentator says that young skaters coming through are build differently to the older men.
Speed skating: The orange-dominated crowd lift their flying Dutchman, who crosses the line in second place; a disappointed Ghiotto trails in behind and out of medal contention.
Bersma pulls off his hood, grins, and reveals a luxuriant squirrel tail mullet.
Speed skating: Bersma is closing on Ghiotto who is swaying like a Christmas Eve miscreant. And with four laps to go, Bersma takes the lead and streaks ahead.
Speed skating: at 5000m, neither Ghiotto or Bersma are ahead of the clock. Arms clasped behind their backs they bend and stride, left, right, left, right. Nine laps to go.
Speed skating: The first of the final three pairs are off: world champion Davide Ghiotto and former Olympic champion, 40-year old Jorrit Bergsma.
Fun fact – the skaters soak their suits in cold water before they start to keep themselves cool.
Ice hockey: It’s knockout time in the women’s ice hockey, with Czechia and Sweden currently goal less in the first half.
While in group A of the men’s competition, Czechia are 2-0 up against France, and are dominating shots on goal.
Speed skating: there’s a gold medal waiting for the fastest man to cover 10,000m of ice. It takes over 12 minutes to complete so a balm to those overstimulated by the scream of the sliding events.
Five athletes have already skated, seven to go, with Poland’s Vladimir Semirunniy currently in gold medal position. Three pairings are yet to lace their boots, including Italian Davide Ghiotto and 19 year old phenomenon Metodej Jilek. They’re polishing the ice over in the Milano rink, and will restart in 20 minutes.
Skeleton: name of the games, Mystique Ro, has just navigated the skeleton track, but doesn’t dominate as her name suggests and currently lies in 15th. With most of the top names done, the top three is still: Janine Flock, followed by Susanne Kreher, with GB’s Tabby Stoecker in third.
Oooof, Sujung Hong has a horrible run down, sliding into the walls, knocking all parts of her body, braking with her toes, skeleton squealing, fingernail down blackboard. It’s a relief to see her in one piece at the bottom.
Curling: GB duly lost to South Korea, 9-3, making it two losses from two for the British women, with an intimidating role-call of opponents to come.
The other three round-robin games are still going: Canada lead the USA 8-7, Switzerland are on top against China 7-3, and it’s a Scandi-thriller, with Denmark and Sweden currently drawing 5-5.
