Winter Olympics 2022 officially wraps up: LIVE UPDATES
The Winter Olympics are taking place in Beijing with competitions running through Feb. 20.
Coverage for this event has ended.
IOC chief closes Winter Games
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach has officially closed the Winter Games.
The 2026 Games will be held in Italy in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Final medals awarded at closing ceremony
Via AP
The winners of the men's and women's 30-kilometer mass start cross-country ski races have received their medals at the closing ceremony for the Beijing Olympics.
Alexander Bolshunov of the Russian Olympic Committee earned his third gold medal of the Beijing Olympics on Saturday. The race was supposed to be 50 kilometers, but it was delayed by an hour and shortened to 30 kilometers because of frigid temperatures and strong wind.
Russian teammate Ivan Yakimushkin won silver and Simen Hegstad Krueger of Norway took bronze.In the women's race on Sunday, Norwegian great Therese Johaug won her third gold medal of the Beijing Olympics. Jessie Diggins took silver for the best result by an American in an individual cross-country skiing event since 1976. Kerttu Niskanen of Finland won bronze.
The women also had to battle fierce winds and frigid temperatures.
Team USA joins the fray
Team USA joined the parade in Beijing.
The Americans finished with eight gold, 10 silver and seven bronze medals.
Closing ceremony begins in Beijing
The closing ceremony has begun in Beijing with dancers performing and athletes parading one more time.
Francesco Friedrich gets 4th bobsled gold as Germans dominate
Via AP
Double gold in Pyeongchang, double gold in Beijing.
Francesco Friedrich won everything the Olympics had to offer once again.
The world’s best bobsledder finished off a dominating Olympics by the world’s sliding superpower, winning the four-man race at the Beijing Games on Sunday. He won the two- and four-man events at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, then repeated the feat in Beijing -- the first double-double in Olympic bobsled history.
Olympics Closing Ceremony starts at 7 a.m. ET
After the last medal is awarded Sunday, organizers and athletes will turn to the Closing Ceremony to officially finish the Beijing Games.
Bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor will be the flagbearer for Team USA after the athlete was unable to carry the American flag at the Opening Ceremony when she tested positive for the coronavirus.
She is the first U.S. Winter Olympic athlete to be selected as the flagbearer for both the Opening and Closing ceremonies, according to NPR.
"I was so honored to be named the Opening Ceremony flag bearer, but after not being able to carry the flag, it's even more humbling to lead the United States at the Closing Ceremony," she said.
The Closing Ceremony, which starts Sunday at 7 a.m. ET, will feature all of the athletes walking together in the "Parade of Flags" and some kind of performance similar to the ones in the Opening Ceremony before the Olympic flame is extinguished. The Olympic flag will then be passed to Italy, host of the 2026 Games.
Skier Jessie Diggins wins final US medal of Beijing Games despite food poisoning
US Skier Jessie Diggins captured the silver in the 30-kilometer mass start cross-country race Sunday, despite spending most of Saturday in bed with food poisoning.
"That might have been the best race of my entire life, I'm not going to lie,” Diggins said at the finish line. “It was also maybe the hardest race of my whole life."
Diggins medal was the 25th and last for Team USA of the Games and her effort was the best for an American in an individual cross-country skiing event since 1976.
She is also the first American woman to win a medal in distance cross-country skiing, according to NBC.
“I was feeling pretty bad 24 hours ago,” she admitted. "I was talking to my parents and my mom said, ‘Don’t decide how you feel right now. Just go out there and ski because you love to race.’ And she was right."
She said “every last drop of energy" went into her race and with "nothing left" she managed to push through to place second.
Therese Johaug of Norway won the gold.
Finland beats Russian team earning country's first-ever gold in men's hockey
Finland beat the Russian Olympic Committee team in the men's hockey final to capture the country's first gold ever in the event Sunday.
The final score was 2-1 in the final competitive event of the Beijing Games.
Despite the Russians taking an early lead with the only goal after the first period, Finnish player Ville Pokka tied the game up in the second and Hannes Bjorninen scored the winning goal 31 seconds into the third period.
The Finns’ best finishes in 17 previous Olympic appearances were silver medals at the 1988 Calgary Games and 2006 Torino Games.
The Russians won the silver and Slovakia, who beat Sweden in an earlier game, won the bronze.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Russians, Finns playing for gold in men’s hockey
The gold medal men’s ice hockey game of the 2022 Winter Olympics gets underway Sunday in Beijing with the team from the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) facing off against Finland.
The losing team will receive the silver medal.
The ROC reached the final by defeating Sweden 2-1 in a shootout in Friday’s semifinal. The ROC outscored Finland 3-2 in the penalty shots that decided the game.
Finland reached the final by defeating Slovakia 2-0 in their semifinal, also on Friday.
Quarterfinal action earlier in the week included Slovakia eliminating the United States 3-2 and Sweden ousting Canada 2-0.
On Saturday, Slovakia captured the bronze medal, defeating Sweden 4-0.
Final day of Winter Olympics begins
Sunday, Feb. 20 is the final day of the Winter Olympics.
Alpine skiing, bobsleigh, cross-country skiing, curling and ice hockey are some of the events left on the schedule.
The closing ceremony is set for 7 a.m. ET.
Sui Wenjing, Han Cong earn gold at last in pairs figure skating
Via AP
Sui Wenjing and Han Cong exploded from their seats in the kiss-and-cry area, and a small and carefully chosen crowd of Chinese fans in the stands did the same, the moment their scores were read in the pairs event at the Beijing Olympics.
Four years after a crushing disappointment at the Pyeongchang Games, when they lost the gold medal by the thinnest of margins, Sui and Han had flipped the script: They were the ones walking away as champions by a razor-thin margin.
Sui and Han scored a world-record 239.88 points with a flawless free skate set to a rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water," beating Russian rivals Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov by just 63 hundredths of a point.
Slovakia men's hockey takes home bronze
Via AP
Slovakia won its first Olympic hockey medal in the nation’s history, defeating Sweden 4-0 to win the bronze.
Juraj Slafovsky scored two goals for Slovakia. Slafkovsky at 17 is the youngest player in the tournament and leads all scorers with seven goals.
Slovakia is coached by Canada-born Craig Ramsay. Ramsay played 14 NHL seasons and was an assistant in the league for two decades.
CAS rules US will not receive public medal ceremony before Games end
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected the request of Team USA figure skaters to public medals ceremony before the Games are over as the investigation into Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva’s failed drug test is ongoing.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) determined it would not have an awards ceremony for any event in which Valieva finished in the top three following the revelation she failed a drug test in December. Attorneys said in a letter to the IOC they would ask the CAS to make a ruling before Sunday’s closing ceremony.
“The Ad hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled earlier today on an application filed by the US figure skaters Evan Bates, Karen Chen, Nathan Chen, Madison Chock, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim and Vincent Zhou against the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The USOPC was not a party to the CAS proceedings,” the CAS said in a statement.
“The athletes were seeking a ruling from the CAS Ad Hoc Division that the IOC be ordered to present to them the silver medals earned in the Figure Skating Team Event in a public medal ceremony to be held prior to the close of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games Beijing 2022.”
Elana Meyers Taylor makes history
Elana Meyers Taylor picked up the fifth medal of her Winter Olympic career when she finished in third place in the women’s bobsled on Saturday.
The fifth medal is more than any Black athlete in Winter Olympic history and the most by any women’s bobsledder at the Olympics and two more than any other Olympic bobsledder has won for the U.S. – male or female.
The Germans finished 1 and 2 in the event. Laura Nolte picked up gold and Mariama Jamnka picked up a silver.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Irene Schouten wins 3rd gold on final day of speedskating
Via AP
Irene Schouten of the Netherlands captured her third gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, chasing down Canada’s Ivanie Blondin to win the women’s mass start on Saturday.
In the final speedskating event of the Winter Games, Schouten established herself as the biggest star at the Ice Ribbon with a furious push to overtake Blondin.
Blondin grabbed the lead on the backstraight, but Schouten roared back with an all-out sprint to the finish to win by 0.06 seconds.
US figure skaters reportedly trying to get medals
Via AP
Attorneys for the U.S. figure skaters whose Olympic silver medals are being withheld have notified the IOC that they have filed an appeal to have them awarded before the end of the Beijing Games, The Associated Press has learned.
In a letter sent to IOC president Thomas Bach on Saturday in China, a copy of which was obtained by the AP, attorneys said they would ask the Court of Arbitration for Sport for a ruling before Sunday's closing ceremony.
Kamila Valieva led the Russian team to a victory in last week’s team event, and the U.S. finished second. Soon after, a positive doping test for the 15-year-old skater was disclosed. CAS allowed her to continue skating at the women's event, but the International Olympic Committee said it would not award medals in any events in which she finished among the top three.
Niklas Edin skips Sweden to curling gold, Britain 2nd
Via AP
Five-time world champion. Olympic bronze medalist. Olympic silver medalist.
And now, finally, Niklas Edin of Sweden has claimed the only major title missing from a career in which he’s established himself as the most decorated skip in curling history.
Four years after losing in the final at the Pyeongchang Games to American upstart John Shuster, Edin led Sweden to the gold medal on Saturday, beating Britain 5-4 in the first extra-end men's final in Olympic history.
Russian Alexander Bolshunov wins 3rd gold in 30K race
Via AP
Alexander Bolshunov sprinted to his third Olympic gold medal on Saturday in a 30-kilometer mass start cross-country ski race that was rescheduled and shortened because of strong wind and frigid temperatures.
The Russian was part of a five-man breakaway in the final kilometer. He pushed ahead on the final climb into the stadium, taking the title in 1 hour, 11 minutes, 32.7 seconds.
Russian teammate Ivan Yakimushkin crossed the line 5.5 seconds behind for silver, and Simen Hegstad Krueger of Norway took bronze, 7 seconds behind.
US skiers David Wise, Alex Ferreira take silver, bronze in halfpipe
Two-time defending ski halfpipe champion David Wise and Alex Ferreira took silver and bronze in the event Saturday morning after being bested by Nico Porteous of New Zealand.
The competitors had to fight bitterly cold weather and swirling winds.
Wise previously won the gold in the event's 2014 Olympic debt and again in 2018.
Shaun White retires from Olympic competition
Legendary snowboarder Shaun White has decided to retire from Olympic competition after his run at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.
White released a lengthy statement Friday, saying he had "slid down the halfpipe at the Olympics for the final time."