Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, day 13

SHOCKING details of the alleged fate of North Korea’s athletes, who failed their country at the Winter Olympics by severely underperforming, have emerged.

In this image made from video by North Korea's KRT, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, centre, attends a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea Thursday, Feb. 8, 2018. North Korea held the military parade and rally on Kim Il Sung Square on Thursday, just one day before South Korea hosts the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. (KRT via AP Video)

• Disturbing way N Korea treats athletes
• Why ‘rich as s***’ Norway is dominating
• Games get ‘absolutely ridiculous’
• Dad’s cruel sledge for Vonn

Live: Winter Olympics, day 13

Aussie skier Greta Small wrapped up her campaign as young gun Kailani Craine prepares to take on the biggest names in figure skating on Friday.

A disappointing DNF for Aussie skier Greta Small wrapped up her three-event trip to PyeongChang on Thursday as she tumbled out of her Alpine Skiing contest.

A thrilling finish to the women’s ice hockey saw the USA trump Canada in a heart-stopping shootout to win their first gold in the event in 20 years.

Australian figure skater Kailani Craine competes tomorrow at 12pm (AEDT) in a last-ditch effort for the green and gold to snag another Winter Olympic medal.

9:40pm

North Korea officially wraps up program

North Korea’s 22 athletes have wrapped up their competition at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics without a finish higher than 13th. And even that was in a field of only 16.

The sentimental highlight of the North’s participation in the games was the joint Korea ice hockey team, which featured players from the North and South together for the first time. Although it is ranked below the Olympic qualifying level, South Korea won a berth in the games because it is the host nation. President Moon Jae-in championed the effort to allow 12 North Korean players to join the team.

They lost all of their matches.

The North’s 13th-place finishers were pair skaters Ryom Tae Ok and Kim Ju Sik.

— with AP

6:30pm

USA wins heart-stopping shootout

The United States won Olympic women’s hockey gold for the first time in 20 years on Thursday, edging four-time defending champion Canada 3-2 in a dramatic penalties shootout in the PyeongChang Winter Games final.

The Americans snapped archrival Canada’s 24-match Olympic women’s hockey win streak to claim their first Olympic crown since the inaugural event in 1998 at Nagano.

4pm

Bizarre way athletes are shamed

It’s not going to be a fun homecoming.

It’s no secret that North Korean athletes have severely under performed in PyeongChang this year.

Dictator Kim Jong-un expressed a desire to build his country into a world-beating sporting superpower — but the North’s humiliating effort at the Winter Olympic Games has left a lot to be desired after scraping home zero medals.

As if the black sheep nation couldn’t have its campaign tarnished further, teenage short track skier Kwang Bom Jong did the unthinkable and attempted to trip up his opponent, much to the displeasure of the sporting world.

So, what happens to athletes who fail to produce the goods for North Korea?

Poorly-performing athletes are publicly shamed on return to their country in an effort to pressure them into improvement. They are forced to go through an extensive period of self-criticism and admit to their poor form before a group of onlookers ridicule them.

Asia Pacific expert and associate professor at Carleton University Jacob Kovalio sounded warning bells for the “poor souls” heading home to the opporesive regimen.

“Within a week we’ll know what if any repercussions these poor souls when they went back to North Korea suffered for not showing the world how wonderful the regimen is,” Asia-Pacific expert Jacob Kovalio told the Ottawa Citizen.

Public humiliations play a regular part in public life in North Korea. Everyone from factory workers to political figures cop the heat — but athletes find themselves in a particularly harsh environment on return from abroad after unsavoury performances.

“This is a routine part of DPRK life and applies to all members of the Workers’ Party of Korea — from factory employees to soldiers to top officials,” North Korea expert Michael Madden said.

Athletes, depending on the level of scorn they receive, are often forced into labourous tasks such as cleaning roads and digging ditches.

Koryo Tours general manager Simon Cockerell previously told news.com.au cars with yellow licence plates on the streets of Pyongyang can be gifts bestowed on those who have given “glory to the country” and Olympic gold winners are known by name.

However he has seen no evidence of athletes punished for poor performance despite unconfirmed reports they can be threatened with a move to lower quality housing, reduced rations or coal mines. A 7-0 drubbing of the North Korean football team by Portugal in a live broadcast was said to have earned the team a six-hour public shaming from the Sports Minister.

Mr Cockerell said North Koreans don’t have unrealistic expectations about what they can achieve but expects the pair will feel pressure like anyone on the world stage.

“Everybody wants to do well. They don’t want to show themselves up representing their country,” he said.

“They’re not a winter sports powerhouse so there’ll be no expectation. They don’t have a sports channel that will dedicate itself to that. It’s not the World Cup or the Summer Olympics — those are much bigger — but it’s still very positive.”

— with Vic Craw

2.55pm

Men’s ski half-pipe medallists decided

American David Wise won gold in the men’s ski half-pipe as he came from the clouds to record the highest score of the day.

Registering 17 and 6.40 in his first two runs, Wise pulled every trick out of the bag to score 97.20 on his third and final effort down the pipe.

Countryman Alex Ferreira (96.40) won the silver medal and New Zealand’s Nico Porteous claimed bronze with a best score of 94.80.

It’s been a momentous day for the Kiwis as 16-year-old Porteous won his country’s third ever Winter Olympics. His podium finish came hot on the heels of another 16-year-old from across the ditch Zoi Sadowski Synnott winning bronze in the ladies’ big air snowboard final.

2pm

Vonn crushes combined course

There’s life in Lindsey Vonn yet.

The American won bronze in the women’s downhill program on Wednesday in what she said will be her last Olympics and was in action in the combined downhill event on Thursday.

Not expected to do much damage, Vonn stunned everyone by laying down the fastest time of the downhill section of the course to take top spot.

Lindsey Vonn crushed that! #Olympics

— Tyler Mauldin (@TyTheWeatherGuy) February 22, 2018

1.30pm

Aussie’s humiliating shocker

Dom Demschar took less than two seconds to disqualify himself from the men’s slalom today.

Inexplicably, he failed to go around the first gate correctly, running straight over the top of it. Realising his mistake, he cruised over to the side of the course, unable to comprehend how he’d made such a rookie error that brought an end to his Winter Olympics.

“The hand went to the head and, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing?’” One commentator said.

“Dominic knows it (is an automatic disqualification) and can’t believe it happened.”

1.20pm

‘I had a bad feeling about the whole situation’

In an Olympic stunner, Marcel Hirscher’s quest for a third gold medal at the PyeongChang Games ended quickly on Thursday.

The 28-year-old Austrian star was the big favourite in slalom, his specialty, but he skied out early in the opening run.

Hirscher looked uneasy on a course where the gates were set by an Austrian team coach. He already lost speed at one combination of gates and trailed by more than a half-second at the midway time split before going off the course.

“I had already really a bad feeling about the whole situation,” Hirscher said, acknowledging he had some “really bad training days here”.

Still, he smiled for the television cameras as he dressed in the finish area before talking to reporters.

“Hopefully there are still tickets available for a plane right now,” Hirscher said, describing his Olympics as “amazing and really perfect”.

Hirscher already won the giant slalom and Alpine combined titles, and a slalom duel with Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway was one of the most anticipated events on the Olympic Alpine program.

Hirscher was seeking to become just the fourth Alpine skier to win three golds at a single Winter Games, and the first man since Jean-Claude Killy 50 years ago.

— AP

1pm

Gasser gets gold

Anna Gasser was pleased as punch.

Austria’s Anna Gasser claimed gold in the ladies’ big air snowboard final, her best two scores accumulating a total of 185.

America’s Jamie Anderson was second and 16-year-old Kiwi Zoi Sadowski Synnott picked up bronze to give New Zealand just its second ever Winter Olympics medal and first in 26 years.

Gasser saved her best until last, scoring a whopping 96 on her final jump — which was also the final jump of the program — to leapfrog Anderson into top spot.

Every competitor had three runs with only their best two counting towards their final score.

12.40pm

‘Rich as s***’ Norway absolutely dominating

Norway’s Marit Bjorgen has won four medals these Games.

Norway has a population of just over five million. In the grand scheme of things that’s not that many more people than what Sydney houses.

But despite being smaller than most, Norway is absolutely crushing the Winter Olympics. It sits clear atop the medal tally with 13 golds, 11 silvers and nine bronzes, giving it a total of 33 medals — nine more than second placed Germany.

It represents a new national record for medals at a Winter Games, improving on Sochi four years ago when Norway tied for first in terms of gold medals won and came in third on the medal tally.

American website The Ringer quotes the authors of 2009 book Soccernomics, Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski, as saying Norway is by far the most successful sporting nation in the world on a per capita basis.

“The main thing the top of our rankings demonstrates is wealth,” Kuper and Szymanski wrote.

Norway is the No. 1 country on the planet on the Human Development Index, which ranks countries according to factors like life expectancy, income per capita and mean years of schooling.

As The Ringer’s Michael Baumann wrote: “Norway is rich as s*** ... It’s the key to Norway’s success.

“Richer countries tend to produce better athletes for several reasons, ranging from government and corporate investment in sports, to the fact you need leisure time to get good at sports, to childhood nutrition (kids who eat better grow up to be bigger adults).

“Wealth provides another advantage when it comes specifically to winter sports ... Almost every sport contested in the Winter Olympics requires expensive equipment, or more crucially, specialised facilities that might exist in only a handful of places in the world: ice rinks, curling sheets, ski resorts, ski jumps, and so forth.”

Baumann points out government policy means sporting facilities are accessible for everyone, and the wealth is shared around in a country with low levels of income inequality so the majority of the population benefits.

12.30pm

Aussie warms up

Anna Gasser was on fire.

Sami Kennedy-Sim used her seeding run in the ladies’ ski cross to tune up for the finals — which all 32 athletes automatically qualify for.

She crossed the line in 1:14.97 — the ninth fastest time of the day.

“I was trying to use today’s training run this morning and this as another training opportunity,” Kennedy-Sim told Channel Seven.

“I’m still pretty devo, made a couple of big mistakes, but if I didn’t have anything to work on it would be pretty boring. There is some really good elements there, so you know, the real race is tomorrow.”

12.20pm

Snowboarding is ‘absolutely ridiculous’

We’ve seen plenty of hangtime in the ladies’ big air snowboard program.

American Jamie Anderson took the lead after first run with a score of 90 then backed it up with an impressive 87.25 on her second effort on the slopes.

Austrian Anna Gasser — the gold medal favourite — was in second place after everyone completed their first runs, scoring 85.50, then bettered it with 89 when she got her second chance.

“That was outrageous again,” one commentator said.

“Far out — the backside double 10 stomped to perfection,” added another.

That put her in second place, ahead of Kiwi Zoi Sadowski Synnott who had earlier jumped up the leaderboard when she recorded the highest score of the day — 92 — on her second run following an underwhelming 65.50 first up.

“The standard is just absolutely ridiculous,” Channel Seven’s Mel McLaughlin said. “Anything you can do, I can do better, apparently.”

9am

Dad’s cruel sledge for Vonn

Lindsey Vonn (right) couldn’t please everyone.

To most families, a bronze medal at age 33 — the oldest ever for an alpine skier — would be considered a proud accomplishment, but apparently not to Lindsey Vonn’s father.

In an emotional third-place finish in her likely final women’s downhill on Wednesday, Vonn fought tears while explaining just how special this medal was to her after finishing behind Italy’s Sofia Goggia and Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel.

“I wanted to win so much for him,” Vonn, referring to her late grandfather Don Kildow, said after the race. “But I still think I made him proud. Our family never gives up, and I kept working hard and I’m really proud of this medal. I know he is, too.”

Her pride in the event wasn’t replicated by her father, Alan Kildow, who recently reconciled with Vonn after more than a decade of tension and little communication.

“It’s great skiing, but it reminds me of something that (American skier) Buddy Werner used to say,” Kildow told USA Today Sports, referring to a US skier from the 1950s. “He said there’s two places in the race, first and last, and I only want one of them.”

Kildow’s criticism of Vonn’s bronze run was centred on her needing to be more aggressive.

“Just little, little spots,” he added. “Just not quite risking enough. Not straightening the line out, just the ski was a little … not quite carving in some places like it should have. But a great result. A great result.”

Speaking after her race, Vonn, who was favoured to win the event, expressed how grateful she was to have her father and family get to see her compete in PyeongChang. Kildow introduced Vonn to the sport at a young age, but the two grew distant after a 22-year-old Vonn married Thomas Vonn in 2007, as outlined in a Sports Illustrated feature. She kept his last name after the couple divorced four years later and, in between then, Vonn won gold in the downhill at the Vancouver Games in 2010 while Kildow watched from his office in the States.

The death of Kildow’s father and Vonn’s grandfather, Don, brought the two emotionally back together last year.

It was Kildow’s last chance to watch his daughter in the downhill on the Olympic stage. Vonn admitted the event would, in all likelihood, be the last time she competed in it at the Olympics.

“It’s been a fun ride and I hope tomorrow I can pull something out of the hat,” Vonn said, referring to the alpine combined, in which she’s scheduled to compete but not contend.

“It’s sad, it’s my last downhill. I wish I could keep going, you know. I have so much fun and I love what I do, but my body probably can’t take another four years,” she said.

— Kyle Schnitzer, New York Post

8.45am

Games’ biggest mystery deepens

Is love in the air?

All fans want to know is are Canadian figure skating pair Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir dating?

Social media has exploded with conspiracies over their relationship status such is their chemistry on the ice — which saw them win gold in the ice dance on Tuesday night — but they’ve continued to skirt around the issue.

The mystery deepened when Moir said the PyeongChang Games would be their last Olympics together, leading to further questions about their relationship.

As per usual he gave a cryptic response, but did allude to the possibility retiring from skating would allow them to continue their partnership on a deeper level.

“We love working together. We’ll have to find just in which we want to do that,” Moir said. “Our relationship status is none of your business.

“But I can say that the last two years we’ve been in a very committed relationship with our sport. And we’re the type of athletes that dive head first into the whole process, and I just honestly don’t know where you would find time for that (being in a relationship).

“And part of the reason maybe why we wouldn’t continue (skating) was to open up that side of our life, maybe, and see where that goes. That’s as personal as I’ll get, but let’s see what happens.”

9am

Russian accepts doping consequences

Aleksandr Krushelnitckii has accepted his fate.

The Russian curler who failed a doping test at the Winter Olympics has pulled out of a hearing about his case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the RIA Novosti state news agency reported.

It quoted the head of the Russian delegation at the Games, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, as saying that Alexander Krushelnitsky had withdrawn from the CAS hearing.

Krushelnitsky, who failed two tests after winning a bronze medal with his wife Anastasia Bryzgalova in the mixed doubles curling, sent a message to RIA Novosti saying: “I confirm this.” The CAS hearing is set for Thursday, according to the court’s website.

RIA Novosti also published a statement from Krushelnitsky in which he said that it was “stupid to deny” the fact of doping when the A and B tests had shown the presence of a banned substance, meldonium.

“I am ready for the appropriate verdict, which in such cases is predictably identical,” he said.

“Due to this, having weighed all the pros and cons, I decided to pull out of the holding of the CAS hearing over my situation. I consider that under the current rules it is useless and pointless.”

The athlete has said that the positive tests were a shock, while Russia’s sports minister Pavel Kolobkov said that there was no point for him in taking the endurance-boosting drug as it was “pointless” for curling.

Krushelnitsky was one of 168 athletes passed as “clean” and allowed to compete as neutrals after a targeted testing program stretching back over several months.

A source close to the case told AFP that Russia has paid the $15 million it was fined in December when it was suspended by the International Olympic Committee for mass doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

The payment of the fine is one of the IOC’s key criteria in deciding whether to lift Russia’s suspension before the PyeongChang Winter Olympics closing ceremony on Sunday.

— AFP