Winter Olympics 2026: Jutta Leerdam takes speed skating gold but GB medal wait goes on – live
What a finale.The last pair of the day, facing a new Olympic record having just been set, only to see it last just a few minutes.Leerdam is powerful on her start, clocks one lap in just over 26 seconds, and finishes with her height and her long strides 1:12:31.Her teammate, Femke Kok, looks on, not knowing what to think by the looks of it, some poignancy to her expression seeing her own possible gold medal become silver but seeing her national team take the top two spots in this race.Leerdam can’t believe she’s done it.
Last race, last chance, the perfect performance.She pulls off her racing hood, shakes her long hair loose, and glides around the track for a little longer, then eventually pulls up at one of the soft barriers and collapses across it, eyeliner leaving tracks across her cheeks as she weeps and weeps.Her opponent in that race, the gold medallist last time, Tigaki Miho finishes with brozne this time for Japan, a much more reserved expression on her face as she slows down.Phew.A couple of big finals happening simultaneously there, with the distance jumping of the skiers and the trick tumbling on the snowboards.
The ice dancing is still going, while USA have started playing Switzerland in the hockey, the women’s group stage.Back to that curling bout earlier, as expected the Swedes pressed home their advantage to beat the British team heavily in the mixed doubles semis, after that one disastrous end opened up the game, while USA snuck past Italy 9-8.Talk about leaving your run late… Phillip Raimund roars on a teammate’s shoulders after winning the gold with the final jump of the night.He scores 138.5 on that jump, the highest mark of the day, and one that takes his combined score to 274.
1.He goes past Kacper Tomasiak of Poland, who takes silver, and there is a dead heat for bronze between Japan’s Nikaido Ren and Switzerland’s Gregor Deschwanden.Yu Seungeun has the final jump, tries for the same frontside 14 that she nailed with her second jump, looking to improve that score, but loses it in the air and lands falling back.It won’t get her into the gold spot, but she already knew before she jumped that she at least had a bronze for Korea.Zoi Sadowski Synnott has a second silver medal in this event, recovering remarkably after a first-jump fall, silver for New Zealand.
But Murase Kokomo is the only rider who nailed all three jumps, including a pair of 89s with her first and third.For that reason alone she deserves to win, and she takes home gold for Japan.Snowboard: The podium is set, now it’s just the order on it.Murase Kokomo into the gold medal spot with a frontside 14, perfect landing, she knew it was good as soon as she landed, and the judges boost her up… one rider to go.Snowboard: Mia Brookes! So close! She tries a backside 16 melon, that’s four and a half rotations, gets them all done but jars the wrong way on the landing.
Stays up but it’s not quite right.I don’t know why that’s classed as DNI by the judges, but either way it wouldn’t have got the points to challenge the podium, but that was a huge trick attempt.Massively ambitious.She’s laid down a marker.Snowboard: The DNIs are coming thick and fast, Suzuki Momo another, so no podium for her with three riders to go.
Snowboard: Not quite the landing for Meila Stalker, missed the grab again on her first attempt, got it a second time but it throws off the landing.The jump is marked as DNI, not sure what happened there.“Oh well,” she says to somebody.“Get it next time.”And it’s a similar story for Tess Coady.
Doesn’t get the grab, and something doesn’t feel right with her jump, she bails out of the trick essentially.Didn’t have the right positioning in the air to get around for the jump she’d nominated, so she concentrates on landing and not wiping herself out for no reason.DNI.So an anti-climactic ending for both Australians.Snowboard: Iwabuchi Reira lands hard, loses balance and hits her chest hard, but she’s ok and smiling as she walks down and hugs a couple of her competitors.
Big score on her first jump but didn’t land her second right, and DNI on her third,So she’s out,Ski jumping: Austria in front here, Stephan Embacher,Then Vilho Palasaari for Finland is second, or was, but the German Felix Hoffman just bumped him to third,Snowboard: Switch backside 1260 and lands it! Zoi Sadowski Synnott, gold in the slopestyle in Beijing and silver in this event, plus bronze in 2018.
Fell on her first jump, nailed her second… anticipation on her face as the judges take their time…She’s in gold medal position.Some big riders yet to come, but what a comeback.Scores 83.50, she’s up to 172.25 combined.
Snowboard: So a change in the jump order now, with the lowest scoring riders jumping first so that the leaders will know what they have to do at the end.The Austrians are out of contention: Gasser lands a 76 but doesn’t have enough early points, and Karrer falls again.So does Fukada Mari (also Mari Fukada when not using Japanese naming order, if you’re confused) who can’t rescue her final despite that huge second-jump score.Zhang is good in the air on her last jump, not perfect on the landing, she comes through with a score of 70.25 which won’t get her on the podium, but a good night.
Bows to the judges as she leaves the course.Figure skating: The Australians are up! Holly Harris and Jason Chan, and they do not do Ricky Martin, they of course use Kylie Minogue.Big score, 67.75, second so far out of five, and they’re through to the next round.Ski jumping: The men’s normal hill jump final is happening too.
Felix Trunz leading for Switzerland after eight competitors.Snowboard: That doesn’t last long! Murase lands a 72 to go second overall, then the possible favourite Sadowski Synnott lands a huge trick for an 88.75 to give herself a shot after her first fall.That’s the second round.Snowboard: Mia Brookes into second place! Backside 1260, slight stutter on landing but it’s good enough to get her a 78 and take into second overall.
A long way to go, but silver medal position for GB at the moment…Snowboard: Hell of a jump from Fukada, cleanest landing of the night after four rotations, and she scores an 85 after her first-round fall.Nodding in appreciation as she watches back her replay on the big screen.Yu Seungeun is more animated! Triple cork frontside 1440, lands a little back-heavy but stays up, and she hurls her board away in celebration at having stuck that trick… scores an 83.25, and she’s top of the pops on combined scores now, not many have landed two tricks.Coady is still third overall for that reason.
Snowboard: Iwabuchi also butt-plants on the landing, after her big first round score, so she’ll need her third trick.Stalker, the Australian, drops in goofy foot, good in the air but just drops her hands on the landing… oh, she missed the grab in mid air on that one.Couldn’t get compact in shape, that threw off her aerodynamics and her spin, and in the end she did well to land that fairly cleanly without hitting the ice.Scores a 35.Snowboard: Karrer and Zhang both crash on landing for their second jumps.
Same jumping order as before.Gasser doesn’t fall but bounces out on the landing and gets flipped around to face the wrong way, looking super annoyed about that, big points loss, scoring 45 on it.She stacked her first score, so that’s her out of the medals.The previous two who fell both had a decent first round, so they’re still in it.Suzuki Momo does land her frontside 1440, arms aloft as she comes down to the flat.
Scored 54 in the first round, but 81.5 here and that takes her above Coady for combined scores.Snowboard: So you have to get one score with both stances, apparently.The Australian Tess Coady goes strategically simple, a switch backside 900 scoring 61 with a nice clean landing again, so that means she has two solid scores banked and can go more ambitious on the third jump.Snowboard: Zoi Synnot Sadowski for NZ crashes out as the last jumper, right after Murase Kokomo goes top of the board with a backside 1440.
Onto round two.Figure skating: I’ll be honest, you think ice dancing and you don’t think Great Britain.But Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez have charisma, they have chemistry, and they go top of the table early.There are 23 pairs, so don’t get carried away by the third one, but it’s a good routine, using George Michael as their backing musician.Importantly they didn’t go for Ricky Martin again, because the Swedes did, La Vida Loca.
That’s two Ricky Martins in four pairs.I’m getting Sparky Polastri vibes here, is he selling his wares around the circuit?Snowboard: Mia Brookes for GB now, going with her opposite stance, cab 14 with a stalefish grab.(No, I don’t know what these mean, I’m just writing them down for people who do.She went around and around a bunch of times and didn’t fall over.) She’s into third spot.
Reminder that each boarder gets three jumps and keeps their best two scores combined to decide the medals,Snowboard: Fukada Mari falls on landing, now score for the Japanese rider,But it’s a huge trick nailed first attempt for Yu Seungeun, who stomps a backside 1440 easy as pie,Huge score, 87,75 to go top for Korea.
Snowboard: The second Australian in the comp, Leila Stalker, also goes the backside 1080, this with a mute grab, and she nails the landing too! Good solid foundation for the two Aussies early in this comp.She’s pumped, big smile as she leaves the course high-fiving, scored a 72.50 and she’s currently third.Iwabuchi Reira for Japan went top before Stalker’s jump, Zhang Xiaonan for China jumped second and is second.Snowboard: Hanna Karrer skews the landing on her trick, stays up but with a big curve out of the landing, and Anna Gasser stacks hers, falling onto her butt, so despite big moves in the air the two Austrians score low.
Suzuki Momo for Japan doesn’t nail the landing either.Ice dancing: I think there’s a 1990s theme to this round.We talked about school discos before, now we’re right in it.The Spanish pair do a delightfully cheesy Ricky Martin montage number, before the Chinese pair come out dressed like West Side Story.What a sport.
Snowboard: The women’s big air is underway.We love this one.And it’s Australia’s Tess Coady who starts us off, perfectly landing a backside 1080 with melon grab.(I think.) She banks a solid 70.
00 to begin.What’s coming up? Plenty! The men’s ski jumping 1st round is about halfway through, with home team Giovanni Bresadola currently leading.The ice dance is about to start, this is the rhythm dance section where the top teams qualify for the free dance round, where the medals are decided, with points carrying over.And the women’s big air snowboard final is about to begin, with the first of three runs!Ice hockey: Germany beat France 2-1 in overtime in the women’s group match.Curling: Massive turnaround in the match, and not in Great Britain’s favour
The Guide #229: How an indie movie distributed by a lone gamer broke the US box office
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