Key events
Giant Slalom: Giant slalom specialist and hometown boy Luca De Aliprandini sets off with high hopes, but loses a ski and ends up in an undignified slide down the mountain on his back.
Men’s Giant Slalom: a huge surprise unfolding on the slopes as Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro still leads the pack . If Pinheiro does go on to win, he would wear the first Brazilian Winter Olympic medal. The soft snow seems to be hampering the other competitors.
Now Sam Maes roars in frustration after his left ski flies up in the air and he swerves off the course.
Heraskevych presents helmet to Ukrainian President Zelensky
After being disqualified from the Winter Olympics, Vladyslav Heraskevych presented his ‘helmet of memory’ to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
In return, Zelensky gave Heraskevych a medal.
Men’s Giant Slalom: real Ski Sunday stuff this – precipitous slopes, zig-zagging turns. Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen is the fastest of the seven skiers to set off so far this morning. The competitors get two runs and the skier with the fastest total time is the winner.
All that glitters…
The medals table:
1 🇳🇴 Norway 🥇 8 🥈 3 🥉 7 – Total: 18
2 🇮🇹 Italy 🥇 6 🥈 3 🥉 9 – Total: 18
3 🇺🇸 United States 🥇 4 🥈 7 🥉 3 – Total: 14
4 🇫🇷 France 🥇 4 🥈 5 🥉 1 – Total: 10
5 🇩🇪 Germany 🥇 4 🥈 4 🥉 3 – Total: 11
Preamble
Hello! A golden morning for Team GB at last after Matt Skelton hurtled down the skeleton track last night to become the first British man to win individual gold since Robin Cousins at Lake Placid in 1980. It’s all about the proprioception, you see.
As the sun rises above the rooftops in Manchester (yes really) we can look forward to another haul of sparkling metal. Eight golds are on offer today across the slopes, the sliding centre and the ice .
The morning starts with a new event, the women’s dual moguls, where skiers race side by side to the bottom of the hill.
At midday the women’s 4 x 7.5km cross-country skiing relay kicks off. This promises two skiers racing along the tracks, while two race the free technique. Not quite sure how that is going to work, but looking forward to finding out.
There are two more finals on the slopes: the Men’s giant slalom, where Swiss super skier Marco Odermatt has his eye on gold for the second successive Olympics, followed by the women’s 7.5km sprint biathlon where the light-fingered Julia Simon goes again.
The women’s quarter finals continue in the ice hockey, where Canada play Germany, and Finland play Switzerland’; while the men’s teams are still in the preliminary stages. Qualifying also continues in the curlingwith Team GB’s men and women both busy with the brushes – the women hope for their first win, against Canada, shortly, while the men take on Czechia at 13.05 GMT.
More aerodynamic speed skating follows at 5pm GMT, but after yesterday’s exhausting 10000m, this is a 500m sprint. Jordan Stolz of the USA starts favourite. Then short track speed skating to close the evening in the men’s 1500m.
I offer you also the large hill individual ski jumping final and the start of the women’s skeleton competition.
Cappuccino ready? Let’s go!
