Sweden’s Nils van der Poel broke his own record Friday as he won his second gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, this one in the men’s 10,000-meter speedskating race.
He finished in 12 minutes, 30.74 seconds, easily breaking the world record of 12:32.95 he set in February 2021. Patrick Roest of the Netherlands won the silver medal, while Davide Ghiotto of Italy won the bronze. Van der Poel earlier won the 5,000.
Norway's Marte Olsbu Roeiseland won the gold in the women's 7.5-kilometer biathlon sprint race by hitting a perfect 10 out of 10 shots. Elvira Oeberg of Sweden secured the silver by finishing 30.9 seconds behind Roeiseland. Dorothea Wierer of Italy claimed the bronze.
Friday’s win was Roeiseland’s second gold of the Games. She has three events left to compete for two more Olympic gold medals.
Germany's Cristopher Grotheer won gold in the men's skeleton in a peerless performance. He finished four runs along the 1,615-meter track of the National Sliding Center in Yanqing in 4:01.01, 0.66 of a second faster than countryman Axel Jungk, a wide gap by skeleton standards.
Germany has long dominated the luge, winning all four luge events at the games. But Grotheer is Germany’s first athlete to receive the highest honors in the skeleton, which returned to the Olympics in 2002.
Shaun White’s superb Olympic career ended Friday with a fall on his last run down the halfpipe.
Knowing this was his fifth and final Olympics, White pulled off his helmet and acknowledged onlookers as he rode the rest of the way down, finishing fourth in an attempt to win his fourth gold medal.
“I’m not sad,” White said, as he struggled to keep his composure in an interview with NBC.
“I’m proud of what I put down,” said White, who became a pop culture crossover during his 16-year Olympic career.
As Friday’s events were underway, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned from Australia that Russia could attack Ukraine at “any time,” including "during the Olympics.” The warning came as Russia continues to add to the more than 100,000 troops it has Ukraine’s border.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
