Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 digest: Geisenberger wins ‘family gold’ in luge | DW | 08.02.2022

Natalie Geisenberger‘s domination of the women’s individual luge continued as she won gold for the third Games in a row, teammate Anna Berreiter finishing just half a second slower to win silver and make it a German one-two.

Geisenberger’s achievement was all the more remarkable coming as it did just six months after returning to the sport following the birth of her son, to whom she dedicated her medal.

“It feels great, it’s so amazing and I’m so thankful that I have another gold medal,” she told DW. “I think it’s a family gold medal now!”

Having already won team golds in Sochi and Pyeongchang, plus bronze in Vancouver back in 2010, the 34-year-old has now overtaken compatriots Tobias Arlt and Tobias Wendl to become the most successful luge athlete ever.

“It’s difficult to compare the gold medals,” she told DW. “In Sochi, it was my first Olympic medal. My dream came true. Then I had Pyeongchang, and repeating it is sometimes more difficult, so that was great, too. And now I’m an Olympic champion as a mother, what more can I say?”

‘Dreams destroyed’ in mixed team ski jumping chaos

Meanwhile, the fallout has continued from Monday’s chaotic mixed team ski jumping event, which saw five female athletes disqualified for suit violations – including Germany’s Katharina Althaus, who had won silver in the individual event on Saturday wearing the same suit.

Japan, Austria and Norway – twice – also fell foul of the complex rules which link suits and skis to bodyweight in order to remove any advantage that might be gained by athletes being lighter.

“I have no words for the decisions made today which have damaged our sport,” Althaus wrote on Instagram. “Athletes and their dreams have been destroyed. I have never been disqualified in 11 years. This was one of the most important competitions for us women, a first for the sport, and now this! I am floored, I can’t understand it.”

With the favorites disqualified, Slovenia won gold while the Russian Olympic Committee and Canada took advantage of the chaos to take silver and bronze respectively.

Nathan Chen on course for gold

There more positive news for USA’s Nathan Chen, who produced a sensational world record-breaking performance in the figure skating short program.

Four years after failing to complete any of his jumps and finishing fifth in Pyeongchang, the 22-year-old multiple world champion went some way to exorcising those demons.

The American opened with a perfect quad flip, nailed a triple axel that sometimes causes him problems, then completed his quad flip-triple toe loop combination to stun the crowd, set a mark of 113.97 points and beat the previous record set by longtime rival Yuzuru Hanyu.

Chen is now sitting nearly six points ahead of Yuma Kagiyama in second, and nearly 20 ahead of Hanyu, the two-time Olympic champion.

“I was just elated,” said Chen, who helped the U.S. win team silver earlier this week. “At the last Olympics, both of the short programs didn’t go the way I wanted. To finally get an opportunity to skate the programs I wanted feels really good.”

Now, all that’s left is a strong free skate on Thursday for the charismatic Chen to become an Olympic champion. “Every opportunity I get at competitions I should be grateful for, especially the Olympics,” he added.

Gold medals

Matthias Mayer became the first man to win an Alpine skiing gold medal at three consecutive Olympics after winning the super-G. The Austrian, who won gold in downhill in Sochi in 2014 and super-G in Pyeongchang, left nothing to chance.

“I tried to push hard, really hard,” he said. “I knew that I had to go all-in. I tried to push hard to the last gate, and it was good.”

Chinese tennis player Peng Shuaisat with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and watched American-born 18-year-old freeskier Eileen Gu, who now competes for China, win gold at the inaugural women’s big air event with a stunning jump she had never tried before.

Ester Ledecka made light work of the competition to take gold in the snowboard giant slalom, cruising to a final victory over Austria’s Daniela Ubling. In doing so, Ledecka became the most successful winter Olympian from the Czech Republic. She’ll now switch to skis to try and double up her gold tally, as she did in Pyeongchang.

There was more drama in the men’s final, where Benjamin Karl, of Austria, edged out Tim Mastnak after both men made significant errors with the lead changing hands several times. Karl has now won bronze, silver and gold at the Games.

There was gold for France in the men’s 20km biathlon, with Quentin Fillon Maillet taking gold ahead of Anton Smolski, of Belarus. Defending champion, Johannes Thinges Boe of Norway, takes bronze.: