BEIJING – The latest Winter Olympics in Beijing:

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Cross-country skiers Victoria Carl and Katharina Henning from Germany won gold in the women’s team sprint at the Olympics in Beijing.

Their time was 22 minutes, 9.85 seconds. Carl surpassed the Swedish sprint champion Jonna Sundling, who took silver with Maja Dhalqvist .17 seconds back.

Natalia Nepryaeva from Russia crossed the line just behind Sundling in 0.71 seconds. She and Yulia Stupak took the bronze medal.

Finland finished fourth and the American women, the reigning Olympic sprint team champions, were fifth.

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Elvira Oeberg anchored the Swedish team to Olympic gold in the relay for four people in biathlon, go fast and shoot clean to win her third medal in the Beijing Games.

Oeberg, who also took silver in the sprint and hunting races in his Olympic debut, put the Swedes over the line in 1 hour, 11 minutes, 3.9 seconds.

The Russian biathlete Uliana Nigmatullina followed Oeberg by about 24 seconds after the last shooting range and finished 12 seconds behind for silver. Denise Herrmann finished third and gave Germany bronze, 37.4 seconds behind Oeberg. Herrmann also won gold in the individual race.

Germany, Sweden and Italy went out early in the 4×6-kilometer race and the teams shuffled placements several times, but the Swedes had the most consistent shooting.

Norway finished fourth, 50.7 seconds behind.

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American figure skater Vincent Zhou is out in quarantine after testing positive for covid-19 at the Games in Beijing, and he plans to perform at the exhibition gala that traditionally concludes the Olympic program on Sunday.

Zhou had just helped the United States win the team’s silver on February 7 when he received a phone call that he had tested positive. The timing of the result, the day before the men’s short program, left him with no choice but to withdraw from the event.

Zhou said he did not see it because “it was too emotionally difficult”, but he kept track of the results and was happy to see teammate Nathan Chen win the gold medal. He spent his time instead “watching Netflix for the first time” at an isolation hotel about 30 minutes from Olympic Village.

Among those who reached out to Zhou was singer Josh Groban, whose music is used in his short programs. Zhou said it made him feel “appreciated and supported” while he spent the long days locked in his room.

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French skier Clement Noel put down a flashy second run to win the slalom at the Beijing Olympics by a large margin on Wednesday.

Noel rose from sixth after the first leg to beat leader Johannes Strolz of Austria in the first run by 0.61 seconds after doing the fastest second run.

World champion Sebastian Foss-Solevaag from Norway held his position and took the bronze and finished 0.70 behind.

Noel finished fourth in the slalom at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

Strolz also took the gold medal in combined last week.

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The USA is out of the men’s hockey tournament at the Olympics in a fantastic way after blowing a late lead.

Marek Hrivik scored with 43.7 seconds left in the regulation, Peter Cehlarik had the winner and Slovakia beat the USA 3-2 in a penalty shootout on Wednesday to beat the top-seeded Americans in the quarterfinals. The USA led almost half of the match before the equalizer when Slovakia pulled their goalkeeper for an extra striker to play 6-on-5.

The United States had become accustomed to playing close matches in the tournament and beat Canada by two goals and Germany by one. But blown cover in front allowed Hrivik to hit a loose puck past goalkeeper Strauss Mann, who was impressive until then.

Coming up empty on four power plays, including three in the third period, came back to bite the Americans. Matty Beniers hit the post on one of the best goal chances the USA had in the third, but the team could not crack Patrik Rybar, who played a second day in a row in the net for Slovakia.

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American bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor is considering retiring after 15 years in the sport.

She has competed on at least 15 different bobsleigh courses in 11 countries. She has had no less than 41 different teammates in her sledges.

She has more Olympic medals than any bobsledder in US history, with a chance at one more this weekend. She has become an advocate who fights for equality for women in sports. And she became a wife and mother along the way.

Meyer’s Taylor has not said for sure what her plans are, but she is considering retiring and suggested that the women’s race at the Beijing Olympics – which starts on Friday and ends on Saturday – could represent her last official time in a sleigh.

“There’s a good chance it’s my last,” said Meyer Taylor.

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Mikaela Shiffrin was fastest in a downhill training session ahead of Thursday’s alpine combined race at the Beijing Olympics.

The American skier finished 0.93 seconds ahead of Wendy Holdener from Switzerland and 0.94 ahead of Ester Ledecka, who is trying to win a second round at a second straight Olympics after managing to defend her gold in the snowboard’s parallel giant slalom.

Shiffrin was second in the combination at the Olympics in Pyeongchang 2018 and won the competition at the world championships last year.

Defending Olympic champion Michelle Gisin was one second slower than Shiffrin.

The 26-year-old Shiffrin is still looking for his first medal at the Beijing Games. The two-time Olympic champion did not finish giant slalom or slalom, was ninth in super-G and 18th in Tuesday’s downhill race.

Only 14 skiers trained on Wednesday, of which 12 of those on the starting list opted out.

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Canada beat the United States 7-6 in the women’s Olympic curling tournament and went ahead of the Americans in the race for the four-team playoffs.

Jennifer Jones’ Canadian foursome (4-3) took the lead with a two-point finish in second and third. The Americans equalized with two in the eighth and a steal of one in the ninth when Jones missed a takeout with the last stone and slammed his broom against the ice in frustration.

Canada, however, retained the last cut advantage in the 10th and final end, delivering an easy draw to win it.

The Americans (4-4) can still qualify for the semifinals with five victories, if they beat Japan on Wednesday night and get some help.

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Johannes Strolz from Austria leads the first race in the men’s slalom with only lower ranked skiers left when he offers a second gold medal at the Games in Beijing.

Strolz will take an advantage of 0.02 seconds against Henrik Kristoffersen from Norway into the second run. World champion Sebastian Foss-Solevaag from Norway is third, 0.06 behind.

The 29-year-old Strolz won alpine combined on Thursday in his first ever Olympic race. Before a win in Adelboden, Switzerland, last month, he had the best placement of his career in 10th place in more than eight years of world cup racing and got rid of the powerful Austrian team at the end of last season.

There have been six different winners in six World Cup slalom this season.

Lucas Braathen leads the discipline attitude but he went over a gate and is out of the race. Another favorite before the race, Manuel Feller, did the same.

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Freestyle skier Alex Hall led an American finish 1-2 in the men’s Olympic slopestyle competition with a trick on his first run where he completely stopped his rotation in the air and went in the other direction.

Hall’s opening race got a score of 90.01 and it stood throughout the competition. His teammate Nick Goepper did a creative race on his second pass to earn silver. Jesper Tjader from Sweden took home bronze.

The Americans have now won six of nine Olympic medals since the event debuted in 2014. Goepper has three of them, including silver from the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and bronze from the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

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