Italy tops the podium after another day at the Winter Youth Olympic Games. Great Britain's Carrick-Smith misses out on a second gold medal in alpine slalom, while Korea falls in curling but secures a place in the women's ice hockey final.
Day five of the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games was another thrilling day. Parity was the dominant theme. Italy, France and Germany continued to battle it out at the top of the medals table. Italy won gold in the biathlon, mixed relay 4x6 km and freestyle. The French triumphed in the Alpine Slalom with Huut Marchand, while Germany failed to secure any of the coveted medals.
Huut Marchand (France) won the Alpine Slalom with a time of 1:34.37. Zak Carrick-Smith, who is coached by his mother, the four-time Olympic champion Emma Carrick, was the British winner. Carrick-Smith couldn't repeat his outstanding performance of the previous days.
He had to settle for the silver medal with a time of 1:35.30. Bronze went to Austria's Florian Neumayer in 1:35.37. The battle for the medals kept the excitement high until the very end of the event.
French skier Nash Huot-Marchand made history at the age of 17. He won the giant slalom for France for the first time and secured the country's first ever Alpine gold medal at the Winter Youth Olympic Games. Huot-Marchand got off to a good start in the first race. He posted the second fastest time of all the competitors, just 0.34 seconds behind Sweden's Liam Liljenborg. The Swede crashed out of the race. I'm very happy. I was a bit frustrated with my previous results (8th in the combined, 33rd in the Super G), so I'm relieved now," said Huot-Marchand, as quoted by Olympics.com.
The next event was the biathlon with the 4x6 km mixed relay. Gold went to the Italian team (Nayeli Mariotti Cavagnet, Carlotta Gautero, Hannes Bacher and Michel Deval). Their time was 1:15:12.4 (3+11 failures). Silver went to France (Alice Dusserre, Louise Roguet, Flavio Guy and Antonin Guy) with a time of 1:16:25.4 (2+13) and bronze to the Czech Republic (Heda Mikolasova, Ilona Plechacova, Jakub Neuhauser, Lukas Kulhanek) with a time of 1:18:23.4 (5+16).
The competition continued with the Mixed Team Ski Cross Grand Final. This took place at the Welli Hilli Park ski resort. Sweden 2 (William Young Shing and Alexandra Nilsson) won the gold medal with a flawless performance. Their time was 0:00. Silver went to USA 1 (Walker Robinson and Morgan Shute) in 1:35. Bronze went to Switzerland 2 (Lorenzo Rosset and Valentine Lagger) in 5:44.
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) January 24, 2024Congratulations, Sweden! 🇸🇪
They have just won the first-ever #Gold medal in Mixed Team Ski Cross, a new event at the Winter Youth Olympic Games!@FISfreestyle | @SWEOlympic | #Gangwon2024pic.twitter.com/e0H2eA8rDn
Sweden won their second gold medal. They were led by William Young Shing and Alexandra Nilsson. They also won the mixed team ski cross. Nilsson's impressive comeback on the final run captivated the crowd.
The women's freeski slopestyle final at the same venue continued the excitement. Flora Tabanelli secured the gold medal for Italy with an impressive score of 90.50 points. Silver went to Lishan Han (China) with a score of 81.50. Bronze went to Germany's Muriel Mohr with 78.75 points.
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) January 24, 2024Congratulations, Flora Tabanelli!
On the last run of the competition, the Italian delivers a brilliant performance, winning #Gold in Women's Slopestyle Freestyle Skiing!@FISfreestyle | @coninews | @milanocortina26 | #Gangwon2024pic.twitter.com/HXWO111aUi
The Short Track Speed Skating Mixed Relay Team event took place at the Gangneung Ice Arena. The gold medal went to the Chinese team (Jinzi Li, Jingru Yang, Bohao Zhang and Xinzhe Zhang). They showed superiority in all their athletes, but won the race by only a few seconds: China (2:46.516).
The competition remained fierce: The United States took silver (Kyung Eun Jang, Eliza Rhodehamel, Julius Kazanecki and Sean Boxiong Shuai) in 2:47.124. The bronze went to Japan. Nonomi Inoue, Aoi Yoshizawa, Yuta Fuchigami and Raito Kida clocked 2:47.412.
Day 5 concluded with the Women's Snowboard Slopestyle event once again at the Welli Hilli Park Ski Resort. Austria won the gold medal of the day thanks to Hanna Karrer. She had a best score of 89.00.
The silver medal went to Lucia Georgalli of New Zealand, who was close behind with 88.25 points, and the bronze went to Vanessa Volopichova of the Czech Republic with 87.00 points.
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) January 24, 2024Hanna Karrer takes #Gold in Women's Slopestyle Snowboard! 🥇
This is Austria's first-ever medal in the event since it debuted in the first Youth Winter Olympics at Innsbruck 2012.@fissnowboard | #Gangwon2024pic.twitter.com/6gdkO04Ehb
In ice hockey, the Welli Hilli Park Ski Resort hosted the semi-finals:
Men's semi-finals:
Latvia - Kazakhstan (19-5).
Austria - Denmark (3-5).
Women's semi-finals:
Hungary - Italy (14-4).
China - Korea (4-6).
Medal tally:
Italy: 7 golds, 11 total medals.
Germany: 6 golds, 10 total medals.
France: 5 golds, 9 total medals.
China: 4 golds, 11 total medals.
Korea: 2 golds, 8 total medals.
