Beijing Olympics Day 6: Canada’s D’hondt, Hosking seek gold in halfpipe; Canada could win bronze after ROC figure skater fails drug test

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

8:20 p.m.: The medal ceremony for the Olympic figure skating team competition has been delayed by a positive drug test among the gold-medal-winning Russian team.

7:47 p.m.: Olympic favorite Kamila Valieva, 15, tested positive for a banned heart medication before her arrival at the Beijing Olympics, the Russian newspaper RBC reported, putting in jeopardy the team gold medal that she helped win earlier this week.

Canada placed fourth and could be in line to win a bronze medal if Russia is disqualified.

6:41 p.m.: In the women’s snowboard halfpipe finals, Canadians Brooke D’hondt and Elizabeth Hosking will compete for the gold at 8:30 pm ET.

Figure skater Keegan Messing, who was delayed by COVID-19 protocols, will compete in the men’s single free period beginning at 8:30 pm ET.

The Canadian men’s speed team — Broderick Thompson, Jack Crawford, Trevor Philp and Brodie Seger — will ski for the podium in the alpine combined at 9:30 ET.

Meanwhile, Eliot Grondin, Liam Moffatt and Kevin Hill will compete in the seeding runs of men’s snowboard cross at 2 am ET.

5:30 pm: Five female competitors were disqualified from the mixed team ski jump final in the Beijing Winter Olympics because of uniform violations. Their jumpsuits were allegedly deemed too large, which could give a skier an unfair advantage during the event, according to multiple reports.

The skiers disqualified from the Monday competition include Sara Takanashi of Japan, Daniela Iraschko-Stolz of Austria, Katharina Althaus of Germany and Anna Odine Stroem and Silje Opseth of Norway.

3:39 p.m.: As the days pass and we all remain hermetically confined inside our COVID-proof cocoon — the closed loop holds some 3,000 journalists hostage — it’s become increasingly frustrating to be so severely detached from the thrum of the city, the rattle and hum of a vibrant metropolis , the normal lives of its citizenry, writes Star columnist Rosie DiManno.

Read Rosie DiManno’s full column: Are the Beijing Olympics going well? It’s hard to tell from inside the media bubble

3:30 pm: Charles Hamelin — five-time Olympian and five-time medalist — is spinning his Winter Games swan song her, writes Star columnist Rosie DiManno from Beijing.

That tune hit a sour note, however, on Wednesday evening in what was the 37-year-old’s final individual short-track speedskating event: the men’s 1,500 meters. Hamelin got a penalty heave-ho from his semifinal on a chaotic evening at Capital Indoor Stadium.

Read Rosie DiManno’s full column: One bump ends Canadian short-track legend Charles Hamelin’s last shot at an individual medal. There’s still the relay

2 pm: The last time Jennifer Jones and her Winnipeg-based rink were at an Olympics, they came home with the gold medal. That’d be 2014 in Sochi, from her with her teammates Kaitlyn Lawes, Jocelyn Peterman and Dawn McEwen.

Jones and her teammates will need to play their best against the likes of defending gold medalist Anna Hasselborg of Sweden and defending world champion Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland.

Canada will play in tonight’s first round robin event against Norway at 1 am ET.

Read Dave Feschuk’s full column here: Jennifer Jones and her rink are reliving a fairy-tale at Beijing Olympics

1:48 p.m.: Meryeta O’Dine, from Prince George, BC, won three consecutive races to clinch a spot in the big final, where she came in third to win Canada’s third snowboard medal of Beijing 2022 and seventh overall.

In the big final, Lindsey Jacobellis of the US crossed the finish line in front while Chloe Trespeuch of France took silver. O’Dine’s medal was Canada’s fifth in snowboard cross, and first since Dominique Maltais’ silver in 2014.

1:30pm: They never saw him coming. Not the ridiculously packed field for the Olympic 1,500-metre short-track speedskating final — 10 contestants in the field, so many that the race had to be started with a double-bank of skaters, six in the front, four in the back. Steven Dubois was in the back, writes Star columnist Rosie DiManno from Beijing.

Yet it was Dubois who snatched glory from what had been unfolding as a most miserable night for Canada at the Capital Indoor Stadium.

Read Rosie DiManno’s full column: Canada’s Steven Dubois wins short-track silver in Beijing. And no one saw it coming

1:30pm: When the figure skating competition ended Monday, Russia had overtaken the United States — leading after the first day, way back on Friday, held hours before the opening ceremonies at Bird’s Nest stadium — with a score of 74 points. The US took silver with 65 points and Japan edged Canada with 63 points for bronze, writes Rosie DiManno in Beijing.

A couple of hours later, USA Today’s Christine Brennan, quoting an anonymous source, reported on a positive drug test by a member of the Russian squad — which means a doping shakeup in the medal bracket could vault Team Canada onto a podium.

Read Rosie DiManno’s full column here: Skating sensation Kamila Valieva and the Russians find themselves at the crux of another Olympics mess

1 pm: Olympic gold medalist Nils van der Poel accused the Netherlands speedskating program of “corruption” over a report that its officials try to influence the ice makers to set up conditions that benefit Dutch athletes.

12pm: At a time of crisis in Canadian curling, maybe Brad Gushue is the right man for the job. The skip from Newfoundland knows a little something about quieting such noise.

When he arrived at the Turin Olympics way back in 2006, then a 25-year-old construction worker from Newfoundland who’d shocked the curling world by winning Canada’s Olympic trials weeks earlier, there was, then as now, considerable consternation around Canada’s performance at the five-ringed festival.

Read the full column from Dave Feschuk here: Canada’s Brad Gushue returns to Olympics 16 years later — with more than a gold medal on his mind

Previously: Speedskater Steven Dubois wins silver in 1,500-meter short track; Russian gold medal figure skater reportedly fails drug test;

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

For full coverage of the Beijing Olympics, click here.