BOOMERS.
The two oldest riders in snowboardcross, Americans Nick Baumgartner (40) and Lindsey Jacobellis (36), won gold in the mixed team event on Saturday, making the former the Olympic champion oldest American since 1948 and the coronation of Francis Tyler (43) in the four-man bobsleigh.
"We're babies from the 1980s!", laughed Jacobellis, already titled in the individual event this week.
"He is twice my age," noted Eliot Grondin (20), bronze medalist, about Baumgartner.
"Ten years ago, I was cheering him on at the World Cup."
An experience that worked in his own favor, according to the forties, in the particular conditions of Zhangjiakou where, unusually, fresh snow fell.
"VS'
is the thing as veterans, we have done so many races that we can +ride+ close to others.
And in conditions like these, the suction is so important that you have to be able to stay in it until the last second." (AFP)
IN MEMORY.
The Dutch will live with a lot of emotion the 3000m short-track relay of which they are favorites on Sunday.
They promised each other to do so, thinking of their compatriot Lara van Ruijven, who suddenly died of an autoimmune disease during an internship in Perpignan in July 2020. "She left in a few days. We took her to the hospital, I visited her, she was happy to hear Dutch spoken in this strange hospital. A day and a half later, we received a message that they were going to operate on her and, after that, it was over", says the trainer of the short-trackers in Beijing, Jeroen Otter, with emotion.
The "panther", her nickname since she had gilded her feline helmet,
was a pillar of the bronze medalist relay at the 2018 Olympics.
"It's hard to describe what it feels like," he added.
The emotion and the tributes exceeded the only Dutch.
The Belgian Hanne Desmet planned to support them during the race in tribute to her missing training partner and the Russian Semen Elistratov wore an orange helmet during these Olympics, in the colors of the Netherlands, to honor his memory.
(AFP)
Lara van Ruijven of the Netherlands, during the 1000m short track at the Pyeongchang Games (South Korea), on February 20, 2018 on the Gangneung ice rink competes in the women's 1,000m short track speed skating heat event during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games, at the Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung on February 20, 2018. Mladen ANTONOV AFP/Archives
JERSEYS.
At the bottom of the giant track, between two passages of the "free ski" (a training without a door on the competition track), the Haitian skier Richardson Viano took advantage of a short break to propose an exchange of jackets to the star of the circuit, the Swiss Marco Odermatt, big favorite of the giant on Sunday.
In addition to bartering pins, the exchange of jackets is practiced at the Olympic Games, like jerseys in football.
"Odi" seemed to agree to a transfer after the next day's race, his long plain beige "swiss ski" parka against a colorful Haitian coat.
(AFP)
Haitian skier Richardson Viano, during the Beijing Olympics, February 2, 2022 at the National Alpine Ski Center in Yanqing Fabrice COFFRINI AFP / Archives
A QUESTION.
Event of the day on the Yanqing domain, the Italian Sofia Goggia returned to the slopes for the first downhill training on Saturday, three weeks after suffering a sprained knee in a heavy fall.
Theatrical character, "SuperSofia" chained long interviews with televisions and radios in the mixed zone.
When appearing before the press, his publicist asked "just one question", prompting a disapproving murmur.
The Italian ignored him and took the time to respond to half a dozen reminders.
Nothing is imposed on Sofia Goggia.
(AFP)
Italian Sofia Goggia, during the first training for the Olympic downhill in Yanqing, on February 12, 2022 during the Beijing Games Dimitar DILKOFF AFP
FLAG.
Sacred in the sprint on Saturday, Norwegian biathlete Johannes Boe revealed the source of his motivation.
"At the medal ceremony after the individual, I saw the French flag at the very top and I said to myself: + the next race, it will be the Norwegian flag +", he promised himself when he had took third place, leaving the gold to Frenchman Quentin Fillon Maillet.
(AFP)
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