Norway’s Ruud wins Olympic gold year after father’s death

BEIJING — Birk Ruud of Norway spun away with a gold medal in the Olympics’ first men’s freestyle skiing big air event Wednesday, re-emerging as a leader in the extreme sport after losing his father to cancer and injuring his knee.

A day after Eileen Gu’s gold medal temporarily broke Chinese social media site Weibo, the men put on another impressive show at Big Air Shougang — a shuttered steel mill that now hosts the world’s only permanent big air jump.

Ruud has two Winter X Games big air gold medals and four World Cup wins, but only one since 2019. The 21-year-old’s father, Øivind, died of cancer last April, and Ruud has said the loss pulled his mind away from competitive skiing.

His efforts to ramp up for Beijing were interrupted by a knee injury nine weeks ago, and he skipped last month’s Winter X Games to play it safe amid the coronavirus.

The rust came off quickly.

Ruud carved out a commanding lead in his first two runs, coming in backward for a switch triple cork 1980 — three off-axis flips with 5½ rotations — then tumbling forward for a double cork bio 1800.

Alex Hall was Ruud’s toughest competitor — the American became the first to land a 2160 at the Winter X Games last month. Hall tried to spin out only the second-ever 2160 in the final round but crashed out for an eighth-place finish.

Ruud went last in the final round with his spot atop the podium already assured. He grabbed a Norwegian flag and held it in his left hand for his final trick, a no-pressure bio 1440. He unraveled the flag and waved it behind him after landing.

Ruud ripped off his gloves to display the nails he had painted by an artist in the Olympic Village. Flashy and funny, he’s a favorite among fans for his hijinks on social media, like the time he skateboarded around disguised as an old man, bewildering an unassuming crowd.

Ruud’s final score of 187.75 was well clear of American silver medalist Colby Stevenson’s 183. Swedish veteran Henrik Harlaut took bronze with 181, barking around the landing area after passing teammate Oliwer Magnusson on his final run.

The men have been rapidly pushing the boundaries in this high-flying sport. When Magnusson won X Games gold in 2021, his best trick was a switch triple cork 1800 — coming into the jump backward, making five full rotations while doing three off-axis flips.

A year later, five of the Olympics’ 12 finalists threw down a similar trick in the first round. Magnusson started with a double cork 1980 and ranked only fourth — Ruud led with 95.75 points after his 1980.

Magnusson momentarily put himself in medal position with a switch double cork 1800 in the final round before Harlaut bumped him out for bronze.

The 30-year-old Harlaut is a favorite among his younger rivals, a hero in the sport for his style, if not his technical skills. The six-time X Games big air gold medalist used the flex of his ski to pop off the jump for a Nosebutter triple cork 1620 on his final jump, then got a huge hug from the 21-year-old Magnusson.

The Latest from Beijing

Kim Cruises on first run

Defending Olympic champion snowboarder Chloe Kim cruised through the halfpipe on her first run.

She scored 87.75, good enough for the top spot in women’s qualifying Wednesday at Genting Snow Park.

The 21-year-old from California turned it up a notch in run No. 2, but fell on her switch backside 720. She raised her hand as if to say, “Oh well.” She playfully stuck out her tongue while waiting for her score.

Mitsuki Ono of Japan was second in qualifying. This a day after appearing to be bothered by a hip ailment in training and in some discomfort. Cai Xuetong of China had the third-best score in qualifying, with Queralt Castellet of Spain also in the mix.

The biggest surprise was the performance of American Maddie Mastro, who finished just outside of the top-12 that advanced to Thursday’s final. She was in the last spot but was bumped out by one of the final riders, Elizabeth Hosking of Canada.

Dürr leads women’s slalom

Lena Dürr is leading the women’s slalom at the Beijing Games after two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin saw another race end early.

Shiffrin skidded out of control about five seconds into the opening run of Wednesday’s slalom. The 26-year-old American also fell early in the first run of Monday’s giant slalom.

Dürr led from the start as she was first down the course know as the Ice River. The German skier posted a time of 52.17 seconds, 0.03 quicker than Michelle Gisin of Switzerland.

Giant slalom gold medalist Sara Hector of Sweden is 0.12 behind Dürr.

Dürr’s highest individual finish at a major championship is 11th at the worlds in 2019. She has never won a World Cup slalom race.

The 30-year-old is likely to head into the second run in the lead with only lower-ranked skiers remaining.

Shiffrin misses second run

Two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin has missed a gate early in the first run of the slalom at the Beijing Games and is out of the event.

Just like in her first event of these Olympics, the giant slalom, the American racer was done for the day within a matter of seconds.

After Wednesday’s mistake in the slalom, which she won at the 2014 Sochi Games, Shiffrin sat on the side of the hill and bowed her head.

The 26-year-old Shiffrin is trying to become the first Alpine ski racer from the United States to win three Olympic golds across a career.

She has said she hoped to enter all five individual events at Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center.

Goggia hits the slopes

Defending Olympic downhill champion Sofia Goggia is on the Beijing slopes and training after crashing and injuring her left knee and leg last month.

The Italian arrived late to China after she sprained her left knee, partially tore a cruciate ligament and had a “minor fracture” of the fibula bone in her leg. She also had some tendon damage after the crash in a World Cup super-G in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, on Jan. 23.

Goggia has won the last eight World Cup downhills that she completed.

Goggia arrived in China on Monday and was checked out by the Italian team’s medical staff. She then did three runs of giant slalom and three runs of super-G training on Tuesday and was doing more of the same on Wednesday.

The team says she has not decided yet if she will race the super-G on Friday but she is planning on taking part in the first of three downhill training sessions on Saturday. The downhill race is scheduled for Tuesday.

Vlhova wins gold

Petra Vlhova added an Olympic gold medal to her growing list of achievements, winning the women’s slalom at the Beijing Games.

It was Slovakia’s first Olympic medal in Alpine skiing. Mikaela Shiffrin again failed to finish the race.

Vlhova, who has already clinched the World Cup title in the discipline, was only eighth fastest after the first run down the Ice River course. But she made it up for an unofficial combined time of 1 minute, 44.98 seconds.

Katharina Liensberger of Austria was 0.08 seconds slower than Vlhova over the two legs for second. Wendy Holdener of Switzerland was third, 0.12 behind Vlhova.

White qualifies for finals

After falling on his first attempt, snowboarder Shaun White hammered down a pressure-packed halfpipe qualifying run to make it through to the medal round of his fifth and final Olympics.

The three-time gold medalist fell on his signature trick on his first run — the Double McTwist 1260 — and was mired in 19th place.

After a 50-minute wait following his fall, White returned to the top of the pipe and nailed the same run he’d tried before.

Each rider got two tries and only their best score counted. The top 12 advanced to Friday’s final. White ended up in fourth.

He stomped every landing and yell out a “Yeahhhh” at the bottom. He qualified behind two-time silver medalist Ayumu Hirano, 2018 bronze medalist Scotty James and Hirano’s Japanese teammate, Ruka Hirano.

Medal ceremony delayed

The medal ceremony for the team figure skating competition at the Beijing Olympics has been delayed because of an ongoing legal issue that could affect medalists, the IOC said.

The ceremony to award the Russian team the gold medals, the United States silver and Japan bronze was not held as scheduled Tuesday.

International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said the reason was a “legal consultation” required with the governing body of skating. Details of the case were not specified.

In a one-line statement, the International Skating Union also cited ongoing legal talks.

If any athlete and team were disqualified, an appeal would likely follow to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Canada placed fourth and would be in line to be upgraded.