Dark night for our Tricolores…
French night
The nightmare continues for Alexis Pinturault. The star of French alpine skiing definitely does not succeed. After an 11th place on the descent, he fell in the combined slalom. Still no Olympic title for the Frenchman. Worse, he could be injured in the shoulder.
Like Wednesday, we still vibrated on the snowboardcross with the Bozzolo/Le Blé Jacques/Surget trio. The latter finished 5th in the event after his elimination in the semi-finals. No medal this time for our Blues, after Chloé Trespeuch’s silver. Finally, Kévin Aymoz and Adam Siao Him Fa finally finish 12th and 14th in figure skating after the free program.
It’s over for Alexis Pinturault on the handset!! 😩 11th at the end of the descent, the Frenchman 🇫🇷 rode during the slalom! There will be no medal today for the Courchevel skier… #Beijing2022 pic.twitter.com/JOoRRlxYXZ
— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) February 10, 2022
The star of the night
This is the American skater Nathan Chen. At 22, the reigning triple world champion was crowned Olympic figure skating champion for the first time with a once again breathtaking performance in the free programme. On the music of Rocket Manthe film dedicated to Elton John, Nathan Chen made five quadruple jumps (218.63 points on the free, 332.60 in total).
He wins in front of the Japanese armada with Yuma Kagiyama, in silver, Shoma Una, in bronze, and especially the star Yuzuru Hanyu. The latter notably fell during his first two jumps with a quadruple axel attempt, a jump that no one has ever succeeded in competition.
The scandal of the night
You don’t get used to it, even if you had to suspect it. These are the first two cases of doping: the Iranian skier Hossein Saveh Shemshaki and especially the Russian skater Kamila Valieva. The first was tested out of competition to an anabolic steroid. The second could trigger a real scandal, because she won the Olympic team skating event with her country in recent days. His positive doping control dates from before the Games.