Friday February 18 – Day 12
The French on the menu
Quentin Fillon Maillet is 15 km and 20 targets away from entering Olympic history through the very large door. In the event of a podium on Friday’s mass-start in Beijing (10 a.m.), he would become the first athlete at the Winter Games to amass six medals in one edition, since the failure of the Norwegian women’s relay on Wednesday dashed the hopes of Marte Olsbu Roeiseland to do as well, even if the latter also remains the female mass star, run two hours earlier on Friday. We will also follow men’s ski cross, where France has become accustomed to shining, in particular with a fantastic hat-trick in 2014. Jean-Frédéric Chapuis, Olympic champion at the time, is still in the game, with Bastien Midol and Terence Chiknavorian.
The star of the night
In a country that still has few winter sports stars with such international recognition, skaters Sui Wenjing and Han Cong are ubiquitous, in the streets and on a daily basis, in advertisements for insurance, cars or cookies. The double world champions (2017, 2019) and Olympic vice-champions (2018) seduce, with their image of fighters, in a China hungry for heroes. Because, before reaping the medals, Sui Wenjing (26 years old) and Han Cong (29 years old) chained in fifteen years of association disillusions and resurrections. The whole country will watch their short program on Friday.
The reform that inspires
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) wants to get 3-on-3 hockey included on the Olympic program by the 2030 Winter Games, its president Luc Tardif said at a press conference Thursday in Beijing. . “It’s important for hockey to bring a new format [de compétition]it is easier for some countries to find 12-13 players to make a team [de 3 contre 3]rather than 22 players” for a normal hockey team, explained the president of the IIHF.
“It’s a very important development tool, other sports have done it,” explained Luc Tardif in reference to rugby, with sevens rugby, volleyball, with beach volleyball, and basketball. , with 3-on-3 basketball. “It’s also a format that is better suited to young people today who don’t have the patience to follow like us two or two and a half hour matches “, he remarked. Absolutely, we easily admit not having watched a minute of hockey (deprived of its NHL stars) during these Olympics. But with a tricolor team in 3 against 3, why not.