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Veteran sportswriter Richard Deitsch takes an international view of the Olympics.
She skis with a tiger on her helmet, a nod to her ferocious nickname, Tigre delle Nevi, Snow Tiger. Italian skier Federica Brignone, a senior citizen in her sport at age 35, could not have expected to land atop any podium last April after suffering fractures to the tibia and fibula in her left leg following a crash during a giant slalom race at the Italian Alpine Ski Championships in Val di Fassa. But here she was, the Italian flag-bearer, showing age is just a number.
On Sunday, she became the true Queen of the Dolomites, winning her second gold medal in four days with a pulsating victory in the women’s giant slalom with a two-run time of two minutes 13.50 seconds. It followed her win in the women’s downhill, which made her the oldest female gold medallist in women’s alpine. Brignone’s four career Olympic medals ties Deborah Compagnoni for most by an Italian women’s skier. Brava, La Tigre.
Italy is rolling at these home Olympics behind athletes such as Brignone. They have won 22 medals so far, topping the country’s Winter previous best of 20 set at the Lillehammer Games in 1994. We still have seven days of competition left.
There was all-time greatness in Tesero too, with Johannes Høsflot Klæbo clinching Norway’s win in the men’s 4×7.5km cross-country relay. Klæbo has now won nine career Olympic gold medals, the most ever for any Winter Olympic athlete with two more events still to come (the men’s team sprint on Wednesday and 50km classic race on Saturday).
“Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is commanding not simply because he wins but because he wins with such precision and control,” said race caller Duane Dell’Oca. “There’s a clinical clarity to the way he races. He reads the field with the patience of a chess player, but he strikes with the sharpness of a sprinter. He has an astonishing ability to test the very limits of human capability.”
Keep this in mind: No athlete has ever won six golds at a single Winter Games.
The Milano Speed Skating Stadium in Rho, a suburb of Milan, also delivered greatness. Femke Kok, the three-time world champion and record-holder in the 500, skated the race of her life when it mattered most. She set an Olympic record with a time of 36.49 seconds, topping countrywoman Jutta Leerdam and Japan’s Miho Takagi. Kok’s margin of victory (0.66) was the largest margin in this race since 1972. It was the reverse of the women’s 1,000 metres where Leerdam in an Olympic-record skate topped Kok to win gold. Both will leave Italy as Dutch speedskating icons.
Federica Brignone finishes first in the women’s giant slalom for the fifth Olympic medal of her career, the most by an Italian women’s skier.
Who Will Star on Monday
The women’s monobob final is a battle of the ages with a pair of American 40-something mothers attempting to chase down the 27-year-old German world champion. Laura Nolte of Germany is the leader after the first two runs, with a 0.22 seconds lead over Elana Meyers Taylor and 0.31 seconds over Kaillie Humphries Armbruster. The third heat is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET; the fourth and final run comes at 3:06 p.m. ET. Humphries Armbruster won monobob gold when the sport debuted at the Olympics four years ago in Beijing. Meyers Taylor won silver in that race.
Eileen Gu has drawn plenty of attention in the United States — not all of it positive. Last week The Wall Street Journal, under the headline of “The Hidden Government Funding of China’s American-Born Olympic Star” examined the payments China makes to Gu, who the sports business publication Sportico estimated earned $23 million US last year, nearly all from endorsements. (Only tennis players Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka, and Iga Swiatek ranked higher on the list among female athletes.)
Gu was born in San Francisco but competes for China, where her mother was born. She won gold in big air and halfpipe, as well as silver in slopestyle, at age 18 at the Beijing Games four years ago. There are plenty in the United States who take issue with Gu competing for China and other American athletes have been brought into the story (not by choice). The women’s big air final starts at 1:30 p.m. ET putting Gu in the global spotlight. Canada’s Megan Oldham had the best score in qualifying with 171.75 points. Gu had 170.75, with Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud was third with 169.
Olympic imagery
Last July Brignone posted on her Instagram account: “A temporary step back (back on crutches) to take many steps forward soon. Back to work!”
Numbers to know
284.8 – Points for Norway ski jumper Anna Odine Stoem, who won the women’s large hill individual gold on Sunday, the first time the women’s large hill event had been contested at the Olympics. Stoem also won gold on the normal hill title and was part of Norway’s mixed team silver medal.
9 – Career Olympic gold medals for Caeleb Dressel, Larisa Latynina, Katie Ledecky, Carl Lewis, Paavo Nurmi, and Mark Spitz, putting Klæbo in select company. (Hat tip: Nick Zaccardi of NBC Sports)
3 – Olympic medals at the Milano-Cortina Games for Norwegian biathlete Sturla Holm Laegreid, who picked up a silver in the 12.5-km pursuit biathlon race on Sunday behind winner Martin Ponsiluoma of Sweden. Laegreid made global news when he told Norwegian network NRK after winning a bronze in the men’s 20-km individual race that he had been unfaithful “to the love of my life” in an apparent attempt to win her back.
3 – Gold medals for Great Britain, the first time it has won three gold medals at a single Winter Olympics.
What we’re reading around the web
► Russian figure skater Adeliia Petrosian is an Olympic mystery with big jumps and fitness concerns. By James Elllingsworth of the Associated Press’
► Ilia Malinin’s road to 2030 begins with owning what went wrong at the Milan Olympics. By Steve Buckley of The Athletic
► Under Olympic pressure, Shiffrin, Stolz and Malinin remind us that the scoreboard always has the final say. By Tim Layden of NBC Sports.
► Lucas Pinheiro Braathen makes Olympic history with gold for Brazil: ‘This was written for me’ By Zak Keefer of The Athletic
► You’d be surprised where many Olympians keep their medals. By Andrew Keh of The New York Times.
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