Beijing Olympics Day 1: Mikäel Kingsbury narrowly misses gold, takes silver in men’s moguls; Speedskater Isabelle Weidemann wins Canada’s first medal
Note: This story is no longer being updated. A new article page will be created for Day 2 events later Saturday evening.
The latest Olympics news from Beijing and around the world on Saturday. Web links to longer stories if available:
10 a.m.: Canada's mixed doubles curling team of John Morris and Rachel Homan bounced back from a loss to Sweden earlier to beat the U.S. team 7-2. They are now 4-2 at the tournament in round robin play.
9:38 a.m.: Germany's Johannes Ludwig, Austria's Wolfgang Kindl or Italy's Dominik Fischnaller will more than likely be the Olympic men's luge champion on Sunday.
Ludwig, Kindl and Fischnaller were the leaders after Saturday's first two runs at the Yanqing Sliding Center, and that's a very good omen for them. There have been 15 previous Olympic men's luge competitions; in all 15, the eventual gold medalist has been no worse than third after the first two heats.
Ludwig, this season's World Cup champion, finished his two runs in 1 minute, 54.501 seconds.
9:30 a.m.: Hockey player Blayre Turnbull and her fiance Ryan Sommer took to Instagram to celebrate their reunion after not meeting for three months.
The Star's Akrit Michael with more.
9:30 a.m.: It's bobsled time" for team Jamaica as the country qualified for bobsledding at the 2022 Beijing Olympics for the first time in 24 years.
Both the Jamaican team and their fans are hyped up for the three bobsled events they qualified for, as seen by multiple dancing videos posted that had many reacting on social media.
The Star's Erin LeBlanc has more.
8:39 a.m. (updated): A penalty for pushing cost Canada a medal in the mixed short-track speedskating relay final on Saturday at the Winter Olympics.
Host China claimed its first gold at the Games with a winning time of 2:37.34 ahead of Italy, which took silver in 2:37.36.
Canada looked to have finished third, ahead of Hungary, in the four-team final, but was later penalized following a review of a collision between skaters from the two countries.
Hungary was awarded bronze while the Canadian team of Florence Brunelle, Kim Boutin, Steven Dubois and Jordan Pierre-Gilles settled for fourth.
8:00 a.m.: Mikael Kingsbury will add another silver to his Olympic medal haul.
The Canadian moguls star looked to be headed for his second consecutive gold medal at the Winter Games, until Swedish skiier Walter Wallberg took over first place in the final run.
It's Kingsbury's third career Olympic medal and Team Canada's second of these Games.
7:35 p.m.: Reigning Olympics champion Mikael Kingsbury of Deux-Montagnes, Que. will ski for an Olympic gold medal at Beijing 2022.
His 79.59 score was second-best in the second run, meaning the the reigning Olympic champ will ski second last in the Super Final.
6:40 a.m.: Not enough food. Inedible meals. No training equipment. Some Olympic athletes unlucky enough to test positive for the coronavirus at the Beijing Olympics feel their quarantine conditions are making a bad situation much worse.
The quarantine hotels are increasingly the target of criticism from athletes and their teams, who are lobbying organizers for improvements.
There's a lack of transparency, too, with only some virus-positive athletes forced into quarantine hotels where their teams don't have access, while teammates in similar situations are allowed to isolate within the Olympic village.
6 a.m.: Quebec City's Laurent Dumais will not be in the men's moguls final at the Beijing Olympics.
Dumais placed 16th after scoring a 71.39 in the event's second qualifying round.
The top 10 skiers from the qualifying field of 20 advance to the final.
Reigning Olympics champion Mikael Kingsbury of Deux-Montagnes, Que., is now the only Canadian in the men's final which takes place later in the night (morning in Toronto).
4:52 a.m.: Canadian speedskater Isabelle Weidemann picked up Canada's first medal at the Beijing Olympics with bronze in the women's 3,000 metres.
The 26-year-old from Ottawa finished with a time of three minutes 58.64 seconds at the Ice Ribbon oval.
Weidemann knew she had a medal with the top time heading into the final pairing of Irene Schouten of the Netherlands and Italy's Francesca Lollobrigida. Schouten skated to the top of the podium in an Olympic-record time of 3:56.93, followed by Lollobrigida at 3:58.06.
No Canadian woman had won a long track medal since the 2010 Olympics.
Kristina Groves was the last Canadian to win a medal in the 3,000, racing to bronze in 2010. Cindy Klassen also captured bronze in both 2002 and 06.
Read Bruce Arthur's column from Beijing: Isabelle Weidemann finds another gear to win bronze, Canada's first Beijing Olympics medal
4:30 a.m.: Therese Johaug won the first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics on Saturday, finishing first in the women's 15-kilometre cross-country skiathlon.
Russian athlete Natalia Nepryaeva, the current overall World Cup leader, pulled away from the group on the last climb to take silver. Teresa Stadlober of Austria followed just behind for the bronze medal.
The skiathlon is a mass-start race that began with 7.5 kilometers of classic skiing. After two laps around the 3.75-kilometer course, racers came through the stadium and quickly switched to skate skis before heading out for another two laps.
Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a skier from China's Uyghur community who helped light the Olympic cauldron at Friday's opening ceremony, finished in 43rd place.
3:50 a.m.: Canada has three competitors in the 3,000-metre women's long-track speedskating that's underway. Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin and Valerie Maltais are Canada's medal hopes.
3:30 a.m.: Eric Staal didn't march in the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Olympics.
Canada's star-studded team of NHLers skipped the pomp and circumstance 12 years ago, preferring to focus on final preparations ahead of that pressure-packed tournament on home soil.
When the NHL backed out of the Beijing Games, however, the door once again swung open.
And Staal wasn't going to miss out on what's surely his final chance.
Read more on Staal in Canada's Olympic men's hockey team hits the ice in Beijing: A dream come true' "
2:35 a.m.: Canada's John Morris and Rachel Homan lost 6-2 to Sweden in mixed curling.
Canada's record falls to 3-2.
2:20 a.m.: The teacher will square off against his students in mixed doubles curling Sunday night at the Ice Cube.
Canada's John Morris, who has coached the Australian duo of Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt, will face them in round-robin play at the Beijing Games with partner Rachel Homan.
Gill and Hewitt relocated to Canmore, Alta., last September and the teams played practice games there in preparation for the Games.
1:30 a.m. (updated): Sarah Nurse and Brianne Jenner each scored hat tricks for Canada in an 11-1 win over Finland in Olympic women's hockey Saturday.
Sarah Fillier and Laura Stacey each scored twice for Canada, which improved to 2-0 in Pool A. Jamie Lee Rattray also scored in the victory and Natalie Spooner had four assists.
Minnimari Tuominen scored Finland's lone goal. Meeri Raisanen stopped 28 of 35 shots over two periods.
Canada meets Russia on Monday and caps the preliminary round Tuesday against the United States.
12:56 a.m.: Beijing reported a pickup in new COVID-19 cases among those in China for the Winter Olympics on the day the games kicked off, highlighting challenges to contain the virus as more participants arrive.
Official data showed 45 new cases were identified on Feb. 4, more than double the previous day's tally and compared to an average of 40 for the latest three days. The latest daily infections included 26 new arrivals who tested positive at the airport, and 19 who were already in the closed loop" that's cut off from the broader population, the Chinese committee organizing the event said in a statement.
11:31 p.m.: Olympic downhill favourite Aleksander Aamodt Kilde was one of only three skiers to get a third run on the course after the final training session for the men's race at the Beijing Games was halted on Saturday.
Kilde, two-time Olympic champion Matthias Mayer and Christof Innerhofer completed their runs before organizers stopped the third training session because of high winds. The men's race is scheduled for Sunday.
11:30 p.m.: During the last Winter Games, North Korea basked in the global limelight in South Korea, with hundreds of athletes, cheerleaders and officials pushing hard to woo their South Korean and U.S. rivals in a bid for diplomacy that has since stalled.
Four years later, as the 2022 Winter Olympics come to its main ally and neighbour China, North Korea isn't sending any athletes and officials - ignoring the International Olympic Committee's suggestion that individual athletes could potentially compete despite a ban on the country.
11:18 p.m.: Gold is never a sure thing at the Winter Olympics: For every big-name athlete or team at the Beijing Games, there is someone standing in the way of victory.
From curling to hockey to bobsled, here are some of the rivalries to watch over the next two weeks.
11 p.m.: Chinese leader Xi Jinping will meet with his counterparts from Egypt and Serbia on the sidelines of the Beijing Winter Olympics, state broadcaster CCTV said.
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Serbia's Aleksandar Vucic are among more than a dozen world leaders who attended the opening ceremony Friday night.
10:43 p.m.: Canadian figure skater Keegan Messing is expected to arrive at the Beijing Olympics on Monday, a day before the men's short programs.
The reigning Canadian champion has been stuck in Vancouver since testing positive for COVID-19 prior to the team's flight to Beijing. Messing's positive test cost him competing in the team event.
10:30 p.m.: American skater Nathan Chen's impressive performance on Friday lifted the U.S.A. into first place in the team event, where they have taken bronze at the last two Olympics.
10 p.m.: Canadian forward Melodie Daoust was scratched from Saturday's Olympic women's hockey game against Finland due to an injury.
The status of the 30-year-old from Valleyfield, Que., was day-to-day" according to Hockey Canada, and Daoust is expected to return to the lineup at some point" during the tournament.
8:48 p.m.: Ski jumping captivates viewers every four years, when they fearlessly fly the length of an American football field plus the end zones. Casual fans, though, probably have no clue about the scoring system, or the skills and techniques necessary to win gold.
Click here for a beginner's guide to Olympic ski jumping from the Associated Press.
8:50 p.m.: Brittany Bowe is having quite an Olympics - before she even hit the ice. First, she claimed another speedskating race in Beijing - or, more appropriately, reclaimed it - when a third spot opened up for the Americans in the 500 meters.
Then, Bowe was selected to be one of the U.S. flag bearers in Friday night's opening ceremony at the Bird's Nest stadium after the original choice, bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, was forced into isolation by a positive COVID-19 test.
8:20 p.m.: Italian alpine ski racer Sofia Goggia is back on snow and preparing to fly to China to defend her Olympic downhill title two weeks after crashing and injuring her left knee and leg.
Goggia could race the super-G next Friday. The women's downhill is scheduled for Feb. 15.
5:40 p.m.: As Olympic rookies, Abigail Strate, 20, and Alexandria Loutitt, 18, are well aware of all-too-recent struggle that won them the chance to be Olympians. Still, there's opportunity and then there's parity - and ski jumping at the 2022 Olympics isn't exactly the definition of the latter, writes Star columnist Dave Feschuk in Beijing.
Full column from Dave Feschuk here: Women keep pushing for parity in ski jumping. It's been a tough hill to climb
5:12 p.m.: American gymnast Nathan Chen's winning short program set the tone for Team USA on Friday. Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue won the rhythm dance with a season-best score, and Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier capped the first of three days of team competition with a personal-best short program.
That left the Americans with 28 points, two ahead of the Russians and seven ahead of third-place China.
4:23 p.m.: Most of the world's best hockey players are spending this weekend in opulent hotel suites in one of the planet's top party towns instead of being confined to modest Olympic accommodations in freezing-cold Beijing.
The NHL All-Stars still aren't happy about missing their chance to compete for gold medals, but nobody was complaining Friday morning about the consolation prize of a sunny weekend in Vegas.
2 p.m.: As Canada prepares to send 215 athletes to compete - the third-largest contingent the country has ever sent to a Winter Games - and looked to improve on its 29 medal total from Pyeongchang four years ago, the Star has brought together a special panel to break it all down.
The panel includes Star columnist Dave Feschuk in Beijing, journalists Kerry Gillespie and Joanna Chiu, former world champion and Olympic figure skater Elvis Stojko and veteran sports broadcaster Rod Black, who hosted and moderated the discussion.
Watch here: Beijing 2022 live panel: Former figure skater Elvis Stojko, Star journalists discuss Olympic Games
2 p.m.: Snowboarder Laurie Blouin and speedskaters Ted-Jan Bloeman and Graeme Fish lead a smaller Canadian contingent of medal threats on Sunday at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Additionally, round-robin play in mixed doubles curling and figure skating team competitions will continue.
Here are five things to watch at the Beijing Games on Sunday, Feb. 6.
2 p.m.: Canada's mixed curling team of Rachel Homan and John Morris will conclude its round robin with a match against Italy on Sunday. Rachel Homan of Beaumont, Alta., and John Morris, Canmore, Alta., improved their record to 3-1 with a 7-5 victory over Switzerland and an 8-6 decision over China. There's an expectation that the pair will be competing in one of the semifinal matches that will be held on Monday.
On Friday, after splitting its opening two mixed doubles matches, Morris and Homan picked up a pair of wins to move into a tie with Britain for second place in the round-robin standings at 3-1.
1:12 p.m.: Courtney Sarault is an anomaly. A freak, frankly, the only non-Quebec skater on Canada's Olympic short-track squad, Star columnist Rosie DiManno from Beijing.
The 21-year-old often doesn't get the media love she deserves. In a province rightly, if chauvinistically, puff-chested about its short-track luminaries, an apparently bottomless font of torquers, the focus gets blurred even when Sarault collects medals.
Full column from Rosie DiManno here: Courtney Sarault isn't from Quebec. She's still a short-track medal contender
1 p.m.: These Games are already isolated, largely joyless, and even if saved by the athletes, will be a trial, writes Star columnist Bruce Arthur in Beijing. This 2022 opening ceremony was so much different than 2008, and maybe it was this: China still endured little protests around the Games in 2008 when it was not yet dominant but was on the way and needed to be heard, insistently, martially. It needed the world to know.
Now, 14 years later, China doesn't need any of that, because it has mushroomed and grown and is what it said it was, and barely needs to pretend. This ceremony qualified as pretend, for the most part, but not entirely, not all. China has opened its Games.
Full column from Bruce Arthur here: In a pretend opening ceremony at a divisive Olympic Games, China flexes. And hard
1 p.m.: The leaders of Russia and China pushed back against U.S. pressure on Friday, declaring their opposition to any expansion of NATO and affirming that the island of Taiwan is a part of China, as they met hours before the Winter Olympics kicked off in Beijing.
Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping issued a joint statement highlighting what they called interference in the internal affairs" of other states, as both leaders face criticism from Washington over their foreign and domestic policies.
11:50 a.m.: In mixed team figure skating, Roman Sadovsky of Vaughan, Ont., placed eighth in his short program with 71.06 points; Piper Gilles, Toronto, and Paul Poirier, Unionville, Ont., were fourth in the rhythm dance (82.72); Kirsten Moore-Towers, St. Catharines, Ont., and Michael Marinaro, Sarnia, Ont., were fifth with their short program (67.34).
After three disciplines, Canada is ranked sixth overall in qualifying and needs Madeline Schizas of Oakville, Ont., to elevate them on Sunday into the top five positions in order to defend the gold-medal won in South Korea.
11:44 a.m.: Canadian women's hockey captain Marie-Philip Poulin and short-track speedskater Charles Hamelin waved the Maple Leaf together as Beijing opened its second Olympics in 14 years at the lattice-encased National Stadium on Friday.
Canada didn't send any official representatives to the Games as part of a diplomatic boycott over China's record of human rights abuses.
Click here to see a collection of photos from the Opening Ceremony.
8:30 a.m.: Canadian men's figure skating champion Keegan Messing, caught COVID before the rest of Team Canada boarded their charter flight to China for the Winter Olympics last week, writes Rosie DiManno from Beijing.
It was quite obvious on Day 0 that the figure skating platoon missed Messing's presence in the team event, which got rolling hours before the opening ceremony Friday and will unspool over two more days, Sunday and Monday.
Full column here from Rosie DiManno in Beijing: With Keegan Messing missing, rebuilding Canadians on outside looking in after team figure skating openers
6 a.m.: To hear tell it, none but the brave dare venture into Beijing for the XXIV Winter Olympics, writes Star columnist Rosie DiManno. Pandemic, surveillance, hacked phones and computers, slave labour, egregious human rights violations, officialdom obduracy, diplomatic siege, gag orders for athletes, too cold, too warm, too Chinese.
To which the organizing committee and The People's Republic of China have said: Stuff it.
More from Rosie DiManno in Beijing: What China wants, China gets, right down to the Winter Olympics
For a full write-up of what you missed yesterday at the Beijing Olympics, click here.