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Watch Canadian snowboarders go for Olympic gold in mixed team cross event | CBC Sports

Watch Canadian snowboarders go for Olympic gold in mixed team cross event | CBC Sports

Click on the video player above to watch live coverage of the inaugural Olympic mixed team snowboard cross event at the Beijing Games, featuring two Canadian teams.

Live action from Genting Snow Park begins on Friday with the quarter-finals at 9 p.m. ET, followed by the semifinals at 9:30 p.m. ET. The medal final will get underway after the conclusion of the small final (9:50 p.m. ET).

Fifteen mixed teams of two will compete for a spot on the podium. Beijing medallists Meryeta O’Dine and Éliot Grondin are riding as one of the Canadian teams, while returning Olympian Tess Critchlow and Olympic rookie Liam Moffatt will form the other.

O’Dine and Grondin are aiming to return to the podium after each won medals in their respective individual snowboard cross events earlier this week. Grondin won silver in a photo finish, while O’Dine claimed bronze after overcoming major adversity on her Olympic journey.

WATCH | O’Dine’s path to Olympic bronze far from easy:

‘With a lot of vengeance’: Meryeta O’Dine’s path to Olympic bronze far from easy

Meryeta O’Dine has been tested mentally, emotionally and physically—but her perseverance took her all the way to the Olympic podium, winning snowboard cross bronze. 1:28

Critchlow finished ninth in snowboard cross as the top Canadian woman four years ago in Pyeongchang, while Moffatt is competing at his first Olympics after finishing seventh at the world championships. 

Critchlow finished sixth in the women’s snowboard cross event in Beijing (second in the small final), while Moffatt failed to qualify for the quarter-finals in the men’s event.

WATCH | Grondin captures Olympic silver in photo finish:

Quebec’s Éliot Grondin settles for silver in Olympic snowboard cross photo finish

Éliot Grondin of Sainte-Marie, Que., finished in second place, just behind Austria’s Alessandro Haemmerle in the Beijing 2022 Olympic men’s snowboard cross big final. 4:56

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More Gold for Eileen Gu? Skiing Phenom Has 2 More Events at Winter Olympics

More Gold for Eileen Gu? Skiing Phenom Has 2 More Events at Winter Olympics

One of the biggest athletes to emerge from these Winter Games has two more changes to add to her medal count before the Olympics come to a close.

After earning a gold medal for China in women’s freeski big air, Eileen Gu will compete in the slopestyle and halfpipe competitions.

The San Francisco native is coming off two gold medals at the 2021 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships in Aspen — one in the halfpipe and one in the slopestyle.

The women’s slopestyle qualification runs begin Sunday, Feb. 13 with the finals taking place the next night. The halfpipe begins on Thursday, Feb. 17 and will conclude the following night.

Freeskiier Eileen Gu was born in San Francisco but represents China when competing internationally. Here’s five things to know about the freeskiing star.

Here’s a breakdown of the skier’s schedule for her final two events:

  • Women’s freeski slopestyle qualification: Saturday, Feb. 12, 9 p.m. ET
  • Women’s freeski slopestyle final: Sunday, Feb. 13, 8:30 p.m. ET
  • Women’s freeski halfpipe qualification: Wednesday, Feb. 16, 8:30 p.m. ET
  • Women’s freeski halfpipe final: Thursday, Feb. 17, 8:30 p.m. ET

Gu earned the first of what she and her many fans in Beijing hope could be three gold medals for China by cranking out the first 1620 of her career in the Olympic debut of women’s freestyle skiing big air.

Her trick in her final turn stunned Tess Ledeux of France, the only other woman to ever land a 1620 in competition. Ledeux finished second.

Nicknamed the “Snow Princess,” Gu has already reached hero status in China. Even star tennis player Peng Shuai, who has rarely appeared publicly since accusing a Chinese official of sexual assault, was in the stands.

What are Gu’s plans for after the 2022 Winter Olympics?

The Olympian graduated high school in two years, so her next step is college.

She has been accepted to her mother’s alma mater, Stanford University, and plans on attending classes in the fall of 2022.

But she is also a fashion model, already appearing on the cover of Elle and Vogue China. She is currently signed to the IMG Models agency.

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Germany sweeps Olympic luge events as relay team takes gold

Germany sweeps Olympic luge events as relay team takes gold

The German luge relay team celebrates after winning gold at the Beijing Olympics, on Feb. 10.THOMAS PETER/Reuters

The giants of German luge combined their immense talents to take gold in the team relay on Thursday night, in a performance that underlined their mastery of the sport and means they will take home all the luge gold this Olympics had to offer.

It was a closely fought battle as the Germans made the last run of the night. Austria put in an outstanding collective effort, and Germany’s lugers fell a thousandth of a second behind their pace, only to catch up again, at least four times.

Natalie Geisenberger and Johannes Ludwig riding solo, followed by doubles duo Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, rocketed down one after the other with the flair of athletes with nothing left to prove, finishing with a track record time of 3:03.406.

In the end the Austrian team of Madeleine Egle, Wolfgang Kindl and the pairing of Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller were 0.08 seconds slower than their neighbours, taking silver.

The Latvians, a constant force in the luge event, finally secured their country’s first Olympic medal in the sport, taking bronze with a time 0.948 seconds behind the leaders.

Germany’s Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt celebrate after their run in the team relay event.THOMAS PETER/Reuters

It was the third Olympic team relay since its introduction in Sochi eight years ago. Germany has won all of them.

The relay features one woman, one man and one doubles team from each nation sliding in back-to-back-to-back runs. At the finish each athlete makes contact with a touch pad, which automatically opens the start gate for the next team member.

With lugers having just one run each to get it right, and with major actors from previous luge dramas making their return, the relay has a gala-feel for some of the teams, and a last chance-saloon for others.

Curve 13, a tricky twisting section at the conclusion of the Snow Dragon’s 1,615-metre track, wreaked almost as much havoc on the teams as it had with the women’s singles event on Tuesday.

After a promising first two runs, Slovakia were unable to finish after Tomas Vavercak and Matej Zmij skidded and crashed in that section.

South Korea’s Lim Namkyu flipped face down and skidded across the finishing line. Ukraine’s Yulianna Tunytska also had to right herself after a tip.

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