PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AFP) – Vicious winds caused a string of crashes as America’s Jamie Anderson survived the chaos to clinch her second straight slopestyle snowboarding Olympic gold in treacherous conditions on Monday.
Nearly all the athletes – including Anderson – tumbled at some point at Pyeongchang’s Phoenix Park, where strong
winds forced Sunday’s qualifiers to be scrapped and also delayed the final for more than an hour on Monday.
The numerous falls – though none of the athletes appeared to have been badly hurt – raised the question as to whether the event in Pyeongchang should have gone ahead.
Anderson, 27, became the first woman to win two Olympic snowboarding golds despite briefly falling in her final run, with Laurie Blouin of Canada earning silver and Finland’s Enni Rukajarvi taking bronze.
Britain’s Aimee Fuller, who finished down in 17th after crashing, called it some of the toughest conditions she had competed in and said she had ”no chance” of landing her last jump when she was caught by one strong gust.
Ice dance stars Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir inspired Canada to the figure skating team title to secure the Games heavyweights’ first gold.
The Russians, with their teenage ice starlets Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova, took their first silver of the Games. The USA team was third.
The Canadian, featuring dual 2014 silver medallist Patrick Chan, fulfilled their promise as favourites to beat Olympic Athletes from Russia, after coming second to the 2014 Games host nation in Sochi.
They took command on Friday, despite Chan tumbling in his men’s short program.
Competing in their third Olympics, Virtue and Moir earned a maximum 10 points for their short programme, and matched that in the concluding free with an exhilarating four-and-a-half minute performance to the music of Moulin Rouge.
Canada finished on 73 points, with OAR on 66 and the USA a further four points behind.
Three-time ex world champion Chan said “determination” was the added ingredient that had made the difference between Sochi silver and Korean gold.
Italy came in fourth with Japan last of the five that went through to the final five segments of the competition which was held over three days.
While Japan had to make do without defending men’s Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu, Canada went into battle with all their stars present.
And they didn’t let them down at the Gangneung Ice Arena.