BEIJING — KINGSBURY SETTLES FOR SILVER
Canadian freestyle skier Mikael Kingsbury has been dethroned. Kingsbury, the defending champion, settled for moguls silver with a score of 82.18 at the Beijing Olympics after being upset by Sweden's Walter Wallberg in Saturday's final. Wallberg posted a stellar score of 83.23 to win the gold. Japan's Ikuma Horishima claimed bronze with a score of 81.48. Kingsbury is the most decorated moguls skier of all time with nine overall titles and 71 World Cup victories. He won moguls gold at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and silver at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
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ISABELLE CONQUERS THE ICE RIBBON
Ottawa speedskater Isabelle Weidemann opened Canada's medal account earlier in the day with a bronze in the women's 3,000 metres. The event was the second to hand out hardware at the Beijing Games. Weidemann, the youngest competitor in the field, showed a veteran's poise at the venue known as the Ice Ribbon, biding her time before striking late to win her pairing with Norway's Ragne Wiklund in a time of three minutes 58.64 seconds. She ended up third behind the skaters in the final pairing, Olympic champion Irene Schouten of the Netherlands and silver medallist Francesca Lollobrigida of Italy.
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HATS OFF
Sarah Nurse and Brianne Jenner each had a hat trick in Canada's lopsided 11-1 win over Finland in women's hockey preliminary-round action. Nurse and Jenner weren't the only Canadians to stuff the stat sheet. Sarah Fillier, who is competing at her first Olympics, scored twice to give her four goals in two games. Laura Stacey also scored twice, and Natalie Spooner had four assists to give her nine points overall. Canada looks to improve to 3-0 in Beijing when it meets the Russians on Monday.
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LONG ROAD TO BEIJING
Canadian figure skater Keegan Messing is expected to finally arrive in China on Monday, a day before the men's short programs. The reigning Canadian champion has been stuck in Vancouver since testing positive for COVID-19 prior to the team's flight to Beijing. He needs four negative tests before getting the green light. Messing missed the start of the team figure skating competition, and his absence was felt. Roman Sadovsky struggled to fill in for Messing in the team men's short, and Canada was in danger of being eliminated after Sunday's team women's short.
CHINA GOLDEN AT BEIJING GAMES
The host country captured its first gold medal of the Beijing Games, emerging victorious Saturday in short-track speedskating's mixed team relay final. China edged Italy by half a skate blade to claim gold. Hungary earned bronze. The results were delayed while the referee reviewed the race. Canada was penalized for pushing from behind and causing contact with Hungary late in the race. The penalty knocked the Canadian squad of Florence Brunelle, Kim Boutin, Steven Dubois and Jordan Pierre-Gilles off the podium and into sixth place.Ìý
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 5, 2022.
The Canadian Press
