Sport

Winter Olympics round-up: 17-year-old US snowboarder takes gold

Redmond Gerard became the first Winter Olympics gold medallist born this millennium

Gold medallist Redmond Gerard of the US, silver medallist Max Parrot of Canada and bronze medallist Mark McMorris of Canada on the podium. Photo: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters

Sun Feb 11 2018 - 15:04

United States’ Redmond Gerard became the first Winter Olympics gold medallist born this millennium with a surprise snowboard slopestyle gold medal on day two of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

At 17 years and 227 days, Gerard became the second youngest male athlete to win an individual gold medal at a Winter Games, after Finnish ski jumper Toni Nieminen in 1992.

He scored 87.16 on his third of three runs to claim America’s first medal of the Games

“Just to land a run would have been funny to me and to get on the podium, but to get first is crazy,” Gerard said.

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“After I landed the second jump I was like, ‘Come on, don’t blow it on the last jump, let’s just make it through’. It feels awesome.”

Gerard competes in the men’s snowboard slopestyle finals. Photo: Bedel Saget/The New York Times

Max Parrot was second with 86.00 and fellow Canadian Mark McMorris third with 85.20 in an event which did not feature any Britons in the final after Jamie Nicholls, Billy Morgan and Rowan Coultas failed to advance on Saturday.

The women’s snowboard slopestyle competition was due to feature qualifying on Sunday, with the final on Monday, but the heats were cancelled due to high winds at Phoenix Snow Park on Sunday.

Now all 26 competitors, including Britain’s Aimee Fuller, will take part in a straight final on Monday.

Andrew Musgrave secured the best Winter Olympics result by a British cross-country skier with seventh as Norway claimed a clean sweep of the 30-kilometres skiathlon podium on day two in Pyeongchang.

Simen Hegstad Kruger led the Norwegian 1-2-3 ahead of Martin Johnsrud (silver) and Hans Christer Holund (bronze).

The 27-year-old Scot, at his third Olympics, was behind only Kruger, who had a clear lead, as the skiers entered the stadium for the final time, with 3.75km remaining.

Musgrave finished 25.7 seconds behind Kruger.

“It’s a decent result but I’m not at the Olympics to come seventh. I’m here to fight for a win,” Musgrave said.

The blue riband men’s downhill event was also rescheduled due to 45mph gusts at Jeongseon Alpine Centre and will now take place on Thursday.

Dutch speed skater Sven Kramer secured a hat-trick of Olympic titles in the men’s 5000m.

Kramer, 31, set a new Olympic record as he took the gold ahead of Canada’s Ted-Jan Bloemen with Norway’s Sverre Lunde Pedersen taking the bronze.

AJ Rosen was 22nd and Rupert Staudinger 33rd as both Britons failed to advance to the fourth and decisive run of the men’s luge. David Gleirscher of Austria took gold.

Collated day two results from the 2018 Winter Olympics, Pyeongchang, South Korea:

BIATHLON

Men’s 10km Sprint Final: 1 Arnd Peiffer (Ger) 23mins 38.8secs, 2 Michal Krcmar (Cze) 23:43.2,3 Dominik Windisch (Ita) 23:46.5, 4 Julian Eberhard (Aut) 23:47.2, 5 Erlend Bjoentegaard (Nor) 23:56.2, 6 Benedikt Doll (Ger) 23:56.4, 7 Simon Schempp (Ger) 24:00.2, 8 Martin Fourcade (Fra) 24:00.9, 9 Serafin Wiestner (Swi) 24:02.3, 10 Lukas Hofer (Ita) 24:09.8

CROSS COUNTRY SKIING

Men’s 15km + 15km Skiathlon: 1 Simen Hegstad Krueger (Nor) 1hr 16mins 20secs, 2 Martin Johnsrud Sundby (Nor) 01:16:28.0, 3 Hans Christer Holund (Nor) 01:16:29.9, 4 Denis Spitsov (Oar) 01:16:32.7, 5 Maurice Manificat (Fra) 01:16:34.2, 6 Dario Cologna (Swi) 01:16:45.1, 7 Andrew Musgrave (Gbr) 01:16:45.7, 8 Alex Harvey (Can) 01:16:53.4, 9 Martin Jaks (Cze) 01:16:53.8, 10 Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (Nor) 01:17:03.4

Selected Others: 57 Callums Smith (Gbr) 1hr 23mins 49.9secs

CURLING

Mixed Doubles Round Robin: Canada 7 South Korea 3, Switzerland 9 OAR 8, Norway 3 China 9, Finland 7 USA 5, Norway 9 China 7

FREESTYLE SKIING

Ladies’ Moguls Final: 1 Perrine Laffont (Fra) 78.65pts, 2 Justine Dufour-lapointe (Can) 78.56, 3 Yulia Galysheva (Kaz) 77.4, 4 Jakara Anthony (Aus) 75.35, 5 Britteny Cox (Aus) 75.08, 6 Andi Naude (Can) DNF

ICE HOCKEY

Women’s Prelim. Round — Group A, Game 3: Finland 1-3 USA

Women’s Prelim. Round — Group A, Game 4: Canada 5-0 Olympic Athletes of Russia

LUGE

Men’s Singles Run 3: 1 Felix Loch (Ger) 2mins 22.86secs, 2 Chris Mazdzer (USA) 2:23.05, 3 David Gleirscher (Aut) 2:23.07, 4 Kevin Fischnaller (Ita) 2:23.24,5 Johannes Ludwig (Ger) 2:23.33 , 6 Sam Edney (Can) 2:23.38, 7 Dominik Fischnaller (Ita) 2:23.46, 8 Roman Repilov (OAR) 2:23.46, 9 Kristers Aparjods (Lat) 2:23.51, 10 Andi Langenhan (Ger) 2:23.56

Selected Others: 22 Adam Rosen (Gbr) 2:25.167, 33 Robert Staudinger (Gbr) 2:27.842

SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING

Men’s 5,000m Final: 1 Sven Kramer (Ned) 6mins 09.76secs (OR), 2 Ted-jan Bloemen (Can) 6:11.62, 3 Sverre Lunde Pedersen (Nor) 6:11.62, 4 Peter Michael (Nzl) 6:14.07, 5 Seung-hoon Lee (Kor) 6:14.15, 6 Bart Swings (Bel) 6:14.57, 7 Jan Blokhuijsen (Ned) 6:14.75, 8 Nicola Tumolero (Ita) 6:15.48, 9 Seitaro Ichinohe (Jpn) 6:16.55, 10 Patrick Beckert (Ger) 6:17.91

SNOWBOARDING

Men’s Slopestyle Final

1 Redmond Gerard 87.16 USA, 2 Max Parrot 86.00 Can, 3 Mark McMorris 85.20 Can, 4 Staale Sandbech 81.01 Nor, 5 Carlos Garcia Knight 78.60 Nzl, 6 Marcus Kleveland 77.76 Nor, 7 Tyler Nicholson 76.41 Can, 8 Torgeir Bergrem 75.80 Nor, 9 Niklas Mattsson 74.71 Swe, 10 Seppe Smits 69.03 Bel, 11 Sebastien Toutant 61.08 Can,12 Mons Roisland DNS Nor