History for Hanyu as snowboarder pulls off ski shock

Ice Prince Yuzuru Hanyu clinched the first back-to-back men’s Olympicfigure skating titles in 66 years yesterday as snowboarder Ester Ledeckapulled off an unbelievable shock by skiing to women’s super-G gold.Hanyu, back from injury, lost his balance twice in his free skate but atotal score of 317.85 gave the peerless Japanese gold with room to spareover compatriot Shoma Uno and Spain’s Javier Fernandez. America’s Nathan Chen had earlier become the first skater to land sixquads in competition but despite his Olympic free-skate record of215.08, it was only enough for fifth.Hanyu, greeted by a shower of Winnie the Pooh stuffed toys, his mascot,air-kissed Uno and theatrically leapt onto the podium at the awardceremony.The 23-year-old becomes the first man since America’s Dick Button in1952 to take the title twice in a row – and into the bargain, wins thelandmark 1,000th gold medal in Winter Olympics history.“I’m not fully healed, I really pushed it hard and there were some jumpsand elements that I could not perform, but I forced myself to do so,”said Hanyu, who damaged ankle ligaments in November.“My injuries were more severe than I thought, but I’ve been fortunate tomake it to the Olympics, and that I’m able to smile now explains whatI’m feeling.”While Hanyu was favourite for gold, Ledecka produced one of the greatWinter Games shocks when she won the super-G, with American star LindseyVonn sixth. The Czech, favourite in the snowboard parallel giant slalom in a week’stime, clocked 1min 21.11sec to edge defending champion Anna Veith ofAustria by one-hundredth of a second. Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirathertook ronze.‘Definitely shocking’Not only did Ledecka deprive Veith of what looked like a rare double,she pushed Vonn further down the leaderboard as the American paid theprice for an error at the bottom of the course.“All the other girls didn’t risk a lot. There must be a lot of pressureon them. I was just trying to do my best run,” said Ledecka, whoappeared stunned by her achievement.“I am so surprised about all of it. I’m really trying to win and do agood run every time, but I didn’t really realise that this really canhappen.”Vonn said the outcome was “definitely shocking”.“I feel like in the Olympics a lot of things can happen, it’s not thatshe didn’t deserve it, but there’s a lot of pressure on the favourites,”Vonn said.Also yesterday’s, Marit Bjoergen equalled her compatriot Ole EinarBjoerndalen as the most decorated athlete in Winter Games history as sheanchored Norway to victory in the 4x5km cross country relay, claimingher 13th medal.Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina won the women’s biathlon 12.5km massstart, while Switzerland’s Sarah Hoefflin won the women’s skislopestyle.South Korea’s world record-holder Choi Min-jeong seized a convincingvictory in the women’s 1,500m short track, and Canada’s Sam Girard wonthe men’s 1,000m after a mid-race pile-up cost home hope Lim Hyo-jun ashot at a second gold. Lizzy Yarnold became the first two-time Olympic skeleton champion whenshe successfully defended her women’s title, securing Britain’s firstgold of the Games.And Poland’s Kamil Stoch produced a mighty leap under pressure to winhis second straight gold medal in the men’s large hill ski jumping.