Gu shoots for elusive gold as Klaebo makes Olympic history / Photo: © AFP
Gu shoots for elusive gold as Klaebo makes Olympic history
China's freestyle skiing superstar Eileen Gu aims for her elusive first title of the Winter Olympics as Norwegian Johannes Klaebo kicked off Saturday's action with his ground-breaking sixth gold of the Milan-Cortina Games.
Klaebo's victory in the men's 50km mass start event saw him clinch his 11th Winter Olympics gold medal, extending the record he set earlier in these Games.
It was 29-year-old Klaebo's sixth gold medal of these Games alone, meaning he became the first athlete in history to win all six cross-country skiing races in one Games.
The only athlete in Winter or Summer Games history with more Olympic titles is American swimmer Michael Phelps, who won 23 golds.
Looking to mirror Klaebo's success will be Gu, who has already won two silver medals in Italy.
Gu arrived at the Games targeting a clean sweep of golds in her three events after winning two golds and a silver at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, where she was the host nation's darling.
But she came up just short in the slopestyle and big air competitions in Livigno.
"Thank God this is my last event," the 22-year-old US-born athlete said. "I'm exhausted, I just want to go home to bed."
Gu added: "I'm the only one in this field competing in one other event, let alone two.
"But I still have to compete against the best of this event."
A host of other gold medals were up for grabs on the final full day of action of the Games.
Emily Harrop and Thibault Anselmet combined to win gold for France in the mixed relay event of ski mountaineering in Bormio.
Ski mountaineering is making its Olympic debut at the Milan-Cortina Games and while the 'skimo' sprints offered a condensed version of the sport, the mixed relay proved to be a true lung-busting race.
Harrop and Anselmet clocked a winning time of 26min 57.44sec in the relay, consisting of ascents on skis and sections on foot with skis attached to the backpack.
The Swiss duo of Marianne Fatton and Jon Kistler claimed silver, 11.86sec behind, with Spain's Ana Alonso Rodriguez and Oriol Cardona Coll rounding out the podium.
In Livigno, favourite Simone Deromedis delighted home fans by winning the freestyle skiing skicross event to take Italy's gold medal count at these Games to 10.
In men's curling later, Britain will seek to upgrade the silver medal they won four years ago in Beijing when they take on Canada in the final.
"It’s such a good opportunity to put our sport on a platform that we don't often get," said Britain's Bruce Mouat.
Canada coach Paul Webster called Britain the "best team in the world".
"We love the fact that they're there. We'd love to beat them in the final. That's our goal. We want to get to the gold-medal final and play the best teams," he said.
- Bobsleigh drama -
There was drama at the bobsleigh track when the Austrian four-man team overturned at high speed.
Pilot Jakob Mandlbauer was stretchered off after the bob hurtled down the track for a good 30 seconds on its side.
Tournament favourites Canada and the USA will face off for ice hockey gold at Milan's Santagiulia Arena on Sunday, while Finland and Slovakia will battle for bronze on Saturday.
Nathan MacKinnon scored Canada's winner in the final seconds to complete a thrilling comeback from two goals down in a 3-2 win against Finland on Friday, while the Americans breezed to a 6-2 victory over the Slovaks.
"It's everything. It's the gold medal at an Olympic Games," said MacKinnon, with Canada eyeing their record 10th Olympic title but the first since Sochi 2014.
The USA are targeting their first Olympic title since the 1980 "Miracle on Ice".
The ice hockey rosters at Milan-Cortina are packed with players from the National Hockey League (NHL), who are competing at the Olympic Games for the first time since 2014.
(O.Zhukova--DTZ)
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