The triumph of skiers in the relay, the evil rock of Tsvetkov and the record-breaking performance of Sinitsina and Katsalapov: what the eighth day of the Games will be remembered for

The youngest Olympic champion among skiers

The relay four of skiers, consisting of Yulia Stupak, Natalia Nepryaeva, Tatiana Sorina and Veronika Stepanova, finally interrupted the protracted series of days without gold medals in the Russian team.

Our athletes have not won victories in Beijing since Monday, February 7, and this last won gold - in the figure skaters' team tournament - for well-known reasons, has not yet been awarded to the Russians.

Against this background, the Saturday victory of the skiers is like a breath of fresh air.

Leaving on the track with a 5-second delay from the German Sophie Kroel, Stepanova wisely spread her strength over the distance, bypassed her rival and crossed the finish line in splendid isolation.

And she became the youngest Olympic champion in the history of cross-country skiing, having taken this title from her compatriot Yulia Chepalova.

The three-time Olympic champion won her first Games in Nagano in 1998 at the age of 21 years 60 days, and Stepanova took her gold at 21 years and 39 days.

Chepalova admitted that she was pleased with the achievement of a native of Kamchatka, and wished her a successful career in the future.

“Finally, I passed the baton.

Very happy.

What would you wish for her?

Good career, continuation of the same results.

If such a star was born, then it must continue what was before.

I want to wish all the girls that the courage remains and lasts for many years, ”quotes the famous skier Metaratings.

The 21-year-old Russian woman showed incredible composure at a distance, which is not characteristic of young athletes without extensive experience in major competitions.

However, the debutant of the Games herself spoke about the lack of excitement the day before, considering this her advantage.

“Saturday is the biggest race of my modest career so far.

As always, I will give everything I have on the ski track.

What I don't have is anxiety.

I hope this will give me some, albeit a small, advantage.

Sorry, advice, even the best, I don’t need - refrain, ”she wrote on her Instagram.

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Posted by Veronika Stepanova (@stepanova_nika01)

This audacity is also a distinctive feature of Stepanova.

In her social networks, she can be quite sharp and categorical, sometimes sarcastic.

Not everyone likes it.

We all remember how the president of the Russian Ski Racing Federation, Elena Vyalbe, urged the athlete to be more modest, and journalists not to make her a star, because "she is still nobody."

Well, on Saturday, the 21-year-old skier forever wrote her name in the history of the sport in golden letters.

And now, in a new status, he continues to “troll” on Instagram.

After the finish, for example, she wrote, referring to the two-time Olympic champion from Norway:

“Oh, I forgot Petter Northug's lessons on how to behave at the finish line!

Now we have to finish first again!”

To do this, the new Russian star and her no less talented teammates will have two more opportunities - in the team sprint and the 30 km race from the general start.

Fatal bad luck of Tsvetkov and skaters

After the stunning victory of the skiers, the fans expected no less success from the domestic biathletes, who started at the National Ski Center in Zhangjiakou after them.

On Saturday, awards were played in the men's sprint, and the main hopes were placed on the 2020 world champion in this discipline, Alexander Loginov, as well as on Eduard Latypov, who climbed the podium at the World Cup stages of this season.

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But neither of them had a successful race from the very beginning - two misses at the first firing line practically deprived them of the chance to fight for awards.

Another Russian, Maxim Tsvetkov, did well with shooting, but he lost a lot to his opponents.

Norwegian Johannes Boe and Frenchman Quentin Fillon Maillet, having made one miss each, got to the finish line much faster than the Russian who shot cleanly.

For some time, Tsvetkov occupied the third intermediate place, and it seemed that the national team’s piggy bank would be replenished with a medal, but veteran Tarja Boe, who pushed at the finish line, managed to shift Maxim to fourth place.

They were separated by only 1.7 seconds.

The result of Saturday: the most offensive “wooden” medal for Tsvetkov in the second race in a row and lasting a whole week, from the mixed relay on February 5, a medalless drought for the biathlon team.

And if the biathletes have at least one bronze medal, then the skaters cannot “soak” the medal score at all.

And the reasons, apparently, are similar - a strong excitement associated with the Games, which prevents you from fully realizing your physical form.

Biathlon coaches talk about this, explaining the many misses at the shooting range, the same was said by speed skater Artyom Arefiev, who took seventh place on Saturday at a distance of 500 meters.

“The race went horribly.

The time is terrible.

Despite the fact that we have a lot of experienced athletes in the team, all of them are debutants of the Olympic Games.

Let the world record holders and world champions, but the Olympics is completely different.

Nobody was ready for this, apparently.

I may speak for everyone, but we all have the same situation.

We all ran disgustingly, but showed crazy seconds in training, ”Arefyev told TASS.

The record of the French and the underestimation of the Russians in ice dancing

On Saturday, figure skating competitions continued with rhythm dance.

European champions Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov set a personal best of 88.85 points and took a solid second place behind French multiple world champions Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron, who performed flawlessly and broke their own world record (90.83).

What is important here is that the Russians outperformed both American pairs.

They were ahead of Madison Hubbel and Zachary Donahue by 1.72 points, and Madison Chock and Evan Bates - by 4.71.

The second Russian pair, Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin, is still fifth, with a microscopic gap of 0.05 points behind Chalk and Bates.

Moreover, in the evaluation for the technique, they bypassed the Americans, who made a gross mistake at the box office, but the points for the components of the judge were clearly held by the Russians.

Despite this, they also have chances for a medal, given the phenomenal free program.

Famed coach Tatyana Tarasova is sure that Katsalapov and Sinitsina have every chance to compete for gold with the French.

“They have a great free program.

A couple of Bukin and Stepanova showed themselves great, they didn’t get enough.

The French couple, of course, were great.

As if one person is riding.

But, I repeat, our first pair in the free program has all the chances, ”the Championship quotes the specialist.

The skaters will present their free program on Monday, February 14.

The first defeat of hockey players and the departure of hockey players

The men's hockey team suffered its first defeat at the Games, losing in overtime to the Czech team 5:6.

This is the most productive match at this Olympics so far. 

And even though Saturday's match had no effect on the standings, because the Russians have already guaranteed themselves access to the quarterfinals, he left behind a number of questions about the quality of the game.

First of all, with regard to special brigades - both in the majority and in the minority.

“There are three full-fledged training days before the quarterfinals, let’s hope that during this time the team headquarters will be able to make adjustments and work on improving the game in the majority and minority,” said Vladislav Tretyak, President of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, after the match.

And the ex-head coach of the Russian national team Vyacheslav Bykov advised to carefully analyze the completed group stage, "to take the best of the first two matches in terms of defense, and from the last - the best that was in attack."

As for the women's team, its defeat did not come as a surprise, although the Swiss team became the offenders of the Russians - the only team that Yevgeny Bobariko's wards were able to beat in the group stage.

Throughout the tournament, the Russians experienced serious problems both in attack and in defense, which was due, among other things, to a large number of positive tests for COVID-19.

The quarterfinal match, which the Russians lost 2:4, was no exception.

At the end of the game, the head coach complained that his team used too few of their scoring chances and conceded goals very easily, not working out fully in defense.

But in general, he positively assessed the performance of the team.

“We played with dignity, despite the whole situation.

I have no complaints about them.

But it’s worth playing systematically, it’s still not the WHL - here every mistake is punished very quickly.

If we didn’t have this difficult situation, when 10-11 people were eliminated, they probably would have shown a different kind of hockey.

In four years, this team will fight for medals,” Bobariko said.