USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin crashes out of bid to win her first gold of Beijing 2022

Mikaela Shiffrin crashed out of the women’s giant-slalom on Sunday as she made a stuttering start to her quest to win at least three gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.

The 26-year-old, winner of 73 career World Cup races, missed a gate 11 seconds into her run and failed to finish, with Sara Hector of Sweden going on to take the gold medal.

Shiffrin, who will now turn her attention to her next event, the women’s slalom, on Wednesday, said she was devastated by her inability to get her Games up and running.

“I won’t ever get over this,” said Shiffrin. “I’ve never got over any. I fell before the last Olympics and I remember thinking it was so heart-breaking. And that wasn’t even at an Olympics.”

Switzerland’s Beat Feuz won the men’s downhill, which had been held over from Sunday due to bad weather, by 0.10 seconds from 41-year-old Frenchman Johan Clarey.

Fifteen-year-old Kamila Valieva became the first female figure skater to land a quad jump at the Olympics as Russia cruised to the gold medal in the team event.

Valieva, who is the outstanding favourite for individual gold, landed two quads early in her routine and fell when attempting a third.

Canada’s Max Parrot claimed gold in the men’s snowboard slopestyle three years after being diagnosed with cancer.

Parrot, who was told he had Hodgkin Lymphoma in 2018, edged victory with a second run score of 90.96, edging out Chinese 17-year-old Su Yiming, with another Canadian, Mark McMorris, in bronze.

Canada initially refused to take to the ice for their women’s ice hockey match against Russia due to concerns over their opponents’ coronavirus clearance.

After the match was delayed by almost an hour, both sides agreed to play the match wearing face-masks, and the Canadians won 6-1 to stretch their unbeaten record in the tournament.