PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — On Sunday, Chris Mazdzer added another medal for Team USA and the first men’s luge medal for the US when he took silver behind Austria’s David Gleirscher at the winter Olympic Games.
The 23-year-old Gleirscher, who hadn’t even won a World Cup event before the Games, claimed Austria’s first luge gold in 50 years after the leader and last man down, defending champion Felix Loch of Germany, made a big mistake on his final run to finish fifth. Germany’s Johannes Ludwig took the bronze.
Meanwhile, Perrine Laffont became the first Frenchwoman to win the Olympic moguls title with victory in Pyeongchang.
The 19-year-old beat defending champion Justine Dufour-Lapointe of Canada, with Yulia Galysheva of Kazakhstan in third.
Dutch speed skater Sven Kramer set a new world record to clinch a third consecutive 5,000m gold.
The 31-year-old beat Canada’s Ted-Jan Bloemen into second, with Norway’s Sverre Lunde Pedersen in third.
In the cross-country arena, Simen Hegstad Krueger led a Norwegian cleansweep in the men’s 15km + 15km skiathlon, while Germany’s Arnd Peiffer won the men’s biathlon 10km sprint.
An emotional Evgenia Medvedeva smashed her own world record of 80.85 with a score of 81.06 in her opening performance in the figure skating short program.
The 18-year-old, who has never been beaten in competition, scored 10 points for the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) team and was well ahead of the next best performer, Italy’s Carolina Kostner who scored 75.10.
