BEIJING (AP) — Eileen Gu has captured gold in the women’s ski halfpipe final to become the first action-sports athlete to earn three medals at the same Winter Olympics. Gu warmed up with a score of 93.25 on her first run, before going even higher and even bigger to post a 95.25 her second. The standout American-born freestyle skier who represents China already possessed a gold from big air and a silver from slopestyle. Defending Olympic champion Cassie Sharpe of Canada finished second and her teammate Rachael Karker earned the bronze.
Also at the Games:
— The last Alpine skiing race of the Beijing Olympics has been rescheduled for an hour earlier than planned because of strong wind in the forecast. The mixed team parallel event is now set to start at 10 a.m. on Saturday Beijing time, instead of 11 a.m. The wind is supposed to top 20 mph. The team event involves men and women from each participating country and is the last chance for American Mikaela Shiffrin to pick up a 2022 Winter Games medal. Austria’s Johannes Strolz is the only one of the 10 athletes who earned individual Alpine golds in Beijing who is listed on the team rosters.
— Sixteen years after he won the Olympic curling gold medal, Brad Gushue is going back to Canada with bronze. The Canadians capitalized on a missed final shot by American John Shuster in the second-to-last end that turned a one-point edge into an insurmountable 8-5 lead. Gushue won gold in Turin in 2006. Back then he shared a podium with bronze medalist Shuster. This time, the Canadian skip knocked his American counterpart off of it. Shuster has been back at every Winter Games since and won it all in Pyeongchang.
— Thomas Krol won the 1,000 meters, giving the Netherlands its third straight Olympic speedskating title in the event. Krol was timed in 1 minute, 7.92 seconds. Laurent Dubreuil of Canada took silver. Norway’s Haarvard Lorentzen, the 2018 silver medalist, earned bronze. The Netherlands claimed its fifth gold in 12 events in Beijing with one day of competition remaining. Krol extended the Dutch dominance in the event. In 2014, Stefan Groothuis won and Kjeld Nuis followed with a victory in 2018. It was Krol’s second medal in Beijing. He earned silver in the 1,500 behind Nuis.
