WINTER OLYMPIC DAILY UPDATES: #8 TEAM GB BAGS ITS FIRST OLYMPIC MEDAL!
Dominic Parsons wins Great Britain’s first Olympic medal of the 2018 Winter Olympics, clinching bronze in the men’s skeleton, but medal hopes are dashed for Muzzy and Gillings-Brier.
When Dom Parsons said yesterday that he had “a little bit more in the bag”, he clearly meant it. This morning’s final skeleton run (of four) was a true nail-biter with Parsons finishing 0.11 seconds ahead of the fourth-placed Latvian Martin Dukurs, who still had his last run to come. While we hate to celebrate somebody else’s loss, we punched the air big time when the World Champion made a couple of errors and handed Parsons the bronze medal. Parsons is keeping good company up on the podium – South Korea’s Yun Sung-bin won gold by a staggering margin of 1.63 seconds, the largest victory margin in Olympic skeleton history and the largest margin in any Olympic sliding event since 1972.
And it would seem that Parsons’ victory has spurred on our women’s skeleton athletes as well, with defending champion Lizzy Yarnold and Laura Deas finishing today’s first two heats in third and fourth place. Be sure to tune in for the final two heats tomorrow morning at 11.20 and 12.45 GMT.
Unfortunately Andrew “Muzzy” Musgrave didn’t enjoy similar success, finishing the Men’s Cross-Country 15km Free in 28th place. After steady start he was in the top 20 halfway round the course, but slipped back in the later stages. “I went out at an even pace, but it was shocking and I felt a bit heavy all the way round,” he said Musgrave.
“Some days you don’t go that fast, I just didn’t have a good day.”
It wasn’t Alex Tilley’s day either, as she crashed out of this morning’s first run of the Women’s Alpine Slalom. Her teammate Charlie Guest placed 30th in a compelling race that saw the mighty Mikaela Shiffrin miss out on a second gold to Sweden’s Frida Hansdotter. And Zoë Gillings-Brier just missed out on the first qualifying run of the Women’s Snowboard Cross.
All is by no means lost, however, particularly as tomorrow is Super Saturday, with a whopping nine medals up for grabs and Team GB out in force! Our skiers Izzy Atkin and Katie Summerhayes kick off the action in the Women’s Slopestyle finals (from 04.00 GMT); Elise Christie goes for gold in the 1500m Short Track Speed Skating event (from 10.00 GMT); and Amanda Lightfoot will start the 12.5km Women’s Biathlon at 11.15 GMT.
We’ll also be watching Lloyd Wallace make his Olympic debut at 11.00 GMT in the Men’s Aerials qualifying rounds. After sustaining a severe head injury last August, the 22-year-old was placed in an induced coma. Undeterred (and perhaps inspired by the idea of becoming the fifth Olympian in his family), he recovered from the accident, resumed training and is hoping to make his mark on the Games.