Germany win gold in women's team cross-country ski sprint

Victoria Carl stepped in on short notice to clich an improbable Olympic cross country team sprint gold for Germany together with Katharina Hennig on Wednesday.

Carl, who had replaced Katherine Sauerbrey who had not felt 100% shortly before the semifinal, wore down sprint gold medallist Jonna Sundling of Sweden on the home stretch for a stunning victory in the 6x1.5-kilometers race.

World champions Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist got silver two-tenths back and the Russian relay gold medallists Natalia Nepryaeva and Yulia Stupak earned bronze, another five-tenths back.

China’s Qi claims gold in Men’s Aerials 

Qi Guangpu of China finally flipped his way onto an Olympic podium in the men's freestyle aerials, winning a gold medal after near misses in Sochi and Pyeongchang.

Qi cleanly landed a quintuple-twisting triple back flip in the medal round to earn 129 points, easily beating defending champion Oleksandr Abramenko of Ukraine, who scored 116.5.

Ilia Burov of the Russian team downgraded to a quad-twisting triple as the event's last competitor, knowing that a clean back full-full-double full would be enough for the podium. He earned bronze at the second straight Olympics.

Norway win men's team sprint

The Norwegian pairing of Johannes Klaebo and Erik Valnes executed a perfect tactical plan, taking down their rivals from Finland and the Russian Olympic Committee to sweep to the gold medal in the men's team sprint.

Valnes was given the task of reining in Iivo Niskanen of Finland and Russia's Alexander Bolshunov, teeing up Klaebo for the thunderous finish on Wednesday that saw Norway claim their 13th gold of the 2022 Olympics.

Oeberg sisters lead Sweden to first-ever biathlon relay gold

Hanna Oeberg gave Sweden the lead at the final exchange and her sister Elvira kept her cool on the anchor leg to give the Swedish women a first-ever Olympic biathlon relay gold medal on Wednesday.

Linn Persson, Mona Brorsson and the Oeberg sisters won the 4x6-kilometers race in 1 hour 11 minutes 3.9 seconds after getting silver behind Norway four years ago. It was the third Beijing Games medal for Elvira Oeberg after sprint and pursuit silvers. Germany won bronze, a first medal in Biathlon since 2010 while Russia took silver.

USA eliminated by Slovakia in men's ice hockey

The United States is out of the men's ice hockey tournament in the quarterfinals after blowing a late lead. Marek Hrivik scored with 43.7 seconds left in the third period to force overtime. The game went to a shootout and Peter Cehlarik was the only player to score as Slovakia beat the U.S. 3-2. Slovakia had knocked out the silver medalists of 2018, whitewashing Germany 4-0.

The Russian Olympic Committee, the 2018 gold medallists beat Denmark 3-1 win to reach the semifinals, while Finland outclassed Switzerland 5-1 and Sweden beat Canada 2-0.

France's Noel wins gold in men's slalom

Clement Noel claimed France's first alpine skiing gold medal of the Beijing Olympics when he won the men's slalom on Wednesday.

Noel, sixth fastest after the first run, laid down the quickest second run to clock a combined total of 1 minute, 44.09 seconds.

Austrian Johannes Strolz, already a gold medallist in the alpine combined at these Games, took silver, while Norwegian Sebastian Foss-Solevaag claimed bronze.

Germany's Linus Strasser finished in seventh place.

"That was one of the most important races in my career. It's not often that you are able to win a medal in the Olympic Games," said the 24-year-old Noel. "It's one shot – one minute and 40 seconds every four years.

"I knew that I was in shape. My races in January were not good but training here was really good, I was fast.

"This is the best I can do. I have no words to describe it. Olympic champion ... wooh!"

Noel's gold completed a full house for the French men's ski team after veteran Johan Clarey bagged downhill silver and Mathieu Faivre took a bronze medal in the giant slalom.

Slopestyle: Two Americans on podium

There was an American double victory in the freestyle category: Alexander Hall won the slopestyle ahead of compatriot Nicholas Goepper. Third place went to Jesper Tjader from Sweden.

The Swiss Andri Ragettli, still the best athlete in the qualification, was only fourth. The Norwegian Birk Ruud, who had secured the Olympic victory in the Big Air, also went home empty-handed in fifth place.

Hall put in a strong run with impressive tricks and clean landings right in the first round earning him over 90 points and the lead. This ensured that his challengers were left to figh for the other podium spots. 

"That last jump was definitely maybe my hardest trick," the 23-year-old said, adding that he was "stoked" for landing it.

"Lot of us (in the sport) are what we call spin to win and are spinning as much as we can, so to take a new approach and do a trick that has almost no rotation that's still really hard was really sweet," he told reporters after the final with the American flag draped around his shoulders.

la/pfd (Reuters, dpa, AFP, AP)