Beijing Olympics Day 2: Canadian Women’s Hockey Team Records Second 11-1 Victory in Two Days; Snowboarder Shaun White retires

The latest news from the Beijing Olympics and from around the world on Saturday. Web links to longer stories if available:

18:26: Canadians are making an impact at the Beijing Olympics, and not just the athletes. Behind the scenes, Canadians are vital to the smooth running of the Games.

Mark Messer, for example, is in charge of making the ice for long track speed skating, a sport that relies on a fast, consistent surface. He is the operations manager for the Calgary Olympic Oval and has been to Beijing a dozen times in the past two years, preparing the Games venue for the spotlight.

Read on from Kerry Gillespie: Beijing behind the scenes: Meet the Calgary icemaker keeping long track speed skating without a Zamboni

17:20: German luge star Felix Loch is a two-time Olympic champion in singles, but his bid for a third straight title came crashing down in shocking fashion when he hit a wall in the final race in 2018. He is back, though he faces stiff competition from his compatriot Johannes. Louis, among others.

17:18: American bobsled athlete Elana Meyers Taylor said on Saturday she was about to come out of isolation and could start preparing in earnest to compete at the Beijing Olympics.

Meyers Taylor revealed on Tuesday that she had tested positive for COVID-19. She had to give up her spot as flag bearer at the opening ceremony, but the bobsled doesn’t start until about a week after the Olympics.

17:15: Any faint hope that the rest of the world would close the gap on the Canadian and US women’s hockey teams is fading fast three days after the Beijing Games.

Canada outclassed its first two Group A opponents with a pair of 11-1 wins, starting with Switzerland on Thursday and the Finns on Saturday. And Finland, the defending world championship and Olympic bronze medalists, fared little better against the United States in a 5-2 loss on Thursday night.

Canada looks to improve to 3-0 in Beijing when it takes on the Russians on Monday.

13:50: Despite high expectations, Canadian freestyle ski champion Mikaël Kingsbury will take home a silver medal after finishing second behind Walter Wallberg, a 21-year-old Swede who has spent much of the past few years rehabbing from injury. in the knee, writes Star. columnist Dave Feschuk.

Dave Feschuk’s full column here: Mikaël Kingsbury ousted from the throne of Olympic moguls by the young Swede he used to train

12:40: But at the end of Saturday night’s chaotic inaugural mixed-team short track speed skating relay, Canada walked away with a zippo, writes Star columnist Rosie DiManno of Beijing.

Four teams reached a final that did not include the No. 2-ranked Netherlands and short-track gold winner South Korea. And yet the Canadians, with the fastest times in the quarters and semifinals, winning the prized inside lane, failed, the only medalless country left for the 18-lap event at Capital Indoor Stadium.

Rosie DiManno’s full column here: Costly mistake knocks Canada off podium in frantic finale of inaugural mixed team short track speed skating relay

12:00: China’s first gold medal drew cheers from city residents gathered in a downtown business district.

China won its first event of the 2022 Winter Olympics with a victory in the short track speed skating mixed team relay. Wu Dajing edged out Italy’s Pietro Sighel by 0.016 seconds, or half the blade of a skate, to claim gold.

11am: China didn’t move mountains to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. But it did flood a dry river bed, divert water from a key reservoir that supplies Beijing and relocate hundreds of farmers and their families, all to fuel one of the operations. of snow production in the history of the Games.

In the Beijing version of the Winter Games, the competitions that began this weekend will for the first time be held almost entirely on artificial snow, requiring an Olympic-sized snowmaking and water management operation. scale, and will herald the reality of snow sports everywhere. as the planet warms.

11am: As soon as a Uyghur athlete helped light the Olympic flame at the Beijing Olympics, the debate began: Was this a defiant signal from Chinese leaders or proof that protests around the world were having an impact?

Dinigeer Yilamujiang’s selection for the supreme honor of being the final Olympic torchbearer at the opening ceremony of the Winter Games in Beijing on Friday night came as a huge surprise.

10 a.m.: Three-time snowboarding gold medalist Shaun White made it clear on Saturday that the Beijing Games will not just be his last Olympics, the 35-year-old American plans to retire from the sport he put on the international map after the next round of medals. of halfpipe. week.

“In my mind, I have decided that this will be my last competition,” he said.

9:30 a.m.: Canadian women’s hockey star Blayre Turnbull and her fiancé, bobsled runner Ryan Sommer, are representing Canada at this year’s Games.

The engaged couple had an extra special reunion, meeting for the first time in three months at the opening ceremony in Beijing on Friday.

Previously: Canada claims a bronze medal in speed skating and a silver in men’s mogul skiing on Day 1 of the Winter Olympics; Canada beats Finland 11-1 in ice hockey; Jamaica’s bobsled team qualifies for the Olympics for the first time in 24 years; Olympic organizers report 45 new positive tests for COVID-19.

For a full review of what you missed yesterday at the Beijing Olympics, click here.

For complete coverage of the Beijing Olympics, click here.