BEIJING, China — The first weekend of the 2022 Winter Olympics wrapped up Sunday with a history-making jump by a teenage figure skater and a surprising exit by America’s top alpine skier. And while the U.S. picked up a couple more medals, it’s still looking for its first gold of these Games.
Mikaela Shiffrin’s Beijing debut ends quickly
Defending Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin missed a gate early in the first run of the giant slalom at the Beijing Games and was disqualified from the event. Coming around a left-turn gate, she lost control, slid and fell on her side.
The 26-year-old Shiffrin still could have a handful of chances over the next two weeks to become the first Alpine ski racer from the United States to win three Olympic golds across a career.
15-year-old figure skater makes history
Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva became the first woman to complete a successful quad jump at the Olympics, helping the Russian Olympic Committee to the gold medal in team figure skating.
“We will be talking about this moment for the next 100 years,” NBC Olympics commentator Tara Lipinski remarked.
The 15-year-old Valieva opened with a huge quad salchow and followed with the difficult triple axel before landing another quad, this time a toe loop in combination with a triple toe loop.
Thanks to a stellar performance by the ice dancing team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates in the free dance and a strong outing by Karen Chen in the women’s portion Sunday, the United States won the silver in team figure skating. Japan took the bronze.
While he’s now silver medalist as part of Team USA, skater Vincent Zhou is waiting to find out if he’ll have a chance at another medal. He tested positive for COVID-19 as part of regular screening and will be tested again. The men’s short program is set for Monday night, U.S. time.
Cancer survivor Parrot unseats American Gerard in slopestyle
Canadian snowboarder Max Parrot took home the Olympic gold medal in men’s slopestyle just over three years removed from being diagnosed with cancer.
Technically superior on his second of three runs, Parrot scored a 90.96 to hold off the field. He tossed his snowboard in delight after the final score was revealed.
Su Yiming of China earned the silver and Mark McMorris of Canada used a strong final run to bump himself into bronze — his third straight one — and knock defending champion Red Gerard of the United States off the podium.
Team USA returns to the podium in women’s moguls
The United States scored its second medal of the Beijing Olympics when Jaelin Kauf won silver in the women’s moguls final. She became the first American woman to make it on the podium for freestyle skiing moguls at the Olympics since 2014.
RELATED: How did the US do in women’s moguls?
US women’s hockey blows out Switzerland
The United States routed Switzerland 8-0 at the Beijing Olympics on Sunday in its final tune-up before facing arch-rival Canada Monday in what is an expected gold medal game preview.
American luge star Chris Mazdzer, who won silver in that event in 2018, finished eighth at these Olympics.
The U.S. team of Chris Plys and Vicky Persinger finished mixed doubles curling with a record of 3-6 and did not advance to the semifinals. But Plys will play again as part of the U.S. men’s team.
The Associated Press, Andrew Weil and Travis Pittman contributed to this report.