The U.S. leads after the opening day of the team figure skating event at the Beijing Games, with winning performances from Nathan Chen and ice dancers Madison Hub bell and Zachary Donahue helping them edge the heavily favored Russians.
U.S. women’s hockey star Brianna Decker will miss the rest of the Olympics after injuring her left leg in the Americans’ tournament-opening victory against Finland.
Decker is expected to remain in Beijing rather than fly back to the U.S. immediately.
The forward was hurt when she was tripped from behind by Havoline midway through the first period Thursday night. Decker was unable to put any weight on her left leg. She was taken off the ice on a stretcher.
Decker’s injury was the second to a key player on the first day of women’s hockey in Beijing. Canadian forward Melodic Daoist was injured after being checked hard into the boards by Switzerland’s Sarah Foster.
The third round of training for women's ski jumpers at the Beijing Olympics has been cancelled due to windy conditions.
Wind gusts were measured at 7 meters per second (16 mph.) To make the conditions even more brutal, it was minus 9 degrees Celsius (16 degrees Fahrenheit) on the sunny afternoon. The 40 women in the field had two jumps each, a day after having three rounds of training.
Practice for the men's ski jumpers later in the day started on time.
Defending Olympic champion Lundy of Norway and top-ranked Marita Kramer of Austria will not vie for medals on Saturday, creating a wide-open competition.
Lundy is taking the season off after gaining weight and refusing to stress her body and mind enough to jump in a sport plagued by eating disorders. Kramer tested positive for COVID-19, knocking her out of the Beijing Games.
Germany’s Katharina Althaus and Japan’s Sara Takanashi are among the contenders to win gold after finishing second and third behind Lundy at the 2018 Olympics.
High winds delayed the start of men's downhill training earlier in the day and about 100 kilometers (60 miles) away.
The U.S. men’s hockey team has held its first pre-Olympic practice in Beijing without two top defencemen and a veteran forward because they tested positive for the coronavirus.
Defencemen Jake Sanderson remains in Los Angeles. Defencemen Steven Camper and forward Andy Miele are isolating in the Olympic Village in Beijing.
USA Hockey hopes all three players will be available for the tournament, which begins Wednesday. The U.S. opens against host China on Thursday.
Players and coaches arrived just after midnight. Three goaltenders and 23 skaters were on the ice for practice with coach David Quinn and his assistants.
Canada canceled practice for a second consecutive day. No reason was given.
Madison Hub bell and Zachary Donahue have delivered a season-best performance in rhythm dance at the Beijing Olympics, giving Team USA a second straight win on the opening day of figure skating.
Nathan Chen won the men’s short program with a dynamic, high-flying program that featured a pair of quads. Hub bell and Donahue followed up with a near-flawless performance to music from Janet Jackson at Capital Indoor Stadium.
In the team event, 10 points are awarded to first place in each discipline, which means the Americans have a perfect 20 so far. The Russian Olympic Committee is second with 17 after Mark Kondratiuk’s third-place finish and a shaky second-place performance by ice dance world champions Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov.
Italy is in third place with 14 points heading into the pairs discipline later Friday.
The second men's downhill ski training session is underway at the Beijing Olympics after a delay due to strong winds.
Overall World Cup leader Marco Zermatt of Switzerland was first to set off down the slope an hour after originally scheduled Friday.
The world’s best skiers only got the chance to see the Rock course up close for the first time on Thursday. There is a third training session scheduled Saturday before the men’s downhill opens the Alpine competition the following day.
Three-time men's figure skating world champion Nathan Chen has delivered a strong short program to open the team competition at the Beijing Games. That gets the Americans off to a good start in their pursuit of a third straight medal in the event.
Chen, who struggled in the team event in Pyongyang, opened with a big quad flip and hit his difficult quad lutz-triple toe loop combination to deliver the highest score among the men Friday and give the U.S. the maximum 10 points.
Reigning Olympic silver medalist Stoma UNO was second to give Japan nine points. Eighteen-year-old Mark Kondratiuk was third for the Russian Olympic Committee, which is favored to win the team event.
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