Olympics Live: Downhill champ Goggia back on the slopes

BEIJING (AP) — The Latest on the Beijing Winter Olympics:

___

After falling on his first attempt, snowboarder Shaun White hammered down a pressure-packed halfpipe qualifying run to make it through to the medal round of his fifth and final Olympics.

The three-time gold medalist fell on his signature trick on his first run -- the Double McTwist 1260 -- and was mired in 19th place.

After a 50-minute wait following his fall, White returned to the top of the pipe and nailed the same run he’d tried before.

Each rider got two tries and only their best score counted. The top 12 advanced to Friday’s final. White ended up in fourth.

He stomped every landing and yell out a “Yeahhhh” at the bottom. He qualified behind two-time silver medalist Ayumu Hirano, 2018 bronze medalist Scotty James and Hirano’s Japanese teammate, Ruka Hirano.

___

The medal ceremony for the team figure skating competition at the Beijing Olympics has been delayed because of an ongoing legal issue that could affect medalists, the IOC said.

The ceremony to award the Russian team the gold medals, the United States silver and Japan bronze was not held as scheduled Tuesday.

International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said the reason was a “legal consultation” required with the governing body of skating. Details of the case were not specified.

In a one-line statement, the International Skating Union also cited ongoing legal talks.

If any athlete and team were disqualified, an appeal would likely follow to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Canada placed fourth and would be in line to be upgraded.

___

Norway’s Birk Ruud won gold in the Olympics’ first men’s freestyle skiing big air event, re-emerging as a leader in the extreme sport after losing his father to cancer and injuring his knee.

A day after Eileen Gu’s gold medal temporarily broke Chinese social media site Weibo, the men put on another impressive show at Big Air Shougang — a shuttered steel mill that now hosts the world’s only permanent big air jump.

Ruud has two Winter X Games big air gold medals and four world cup wins, but only one since 2019. The 21-year-old’s father, Øivind, died of cancer last April, and Ruud has said the loss pulled his mind away from competitive skiing.

Ruud’s final score of 187.75 was well clear of American silver medalist Colby Stevenson’s 183. Swedish veteran Henrik Harlaut took bronze at 181.

___

Defending Olympic champion snowboarder Chloe Kim cruised through the halfpipe on her first run.

She scored 87.75, good enough for the top spot in women’s qualifying Wednesday at Genting Snow Park.

The 21-year-old from California turned it up a notch in run No. 2, but fell on her switch backside 720. She raised her hand as if to say, “Oh well.” She playfully stuck out her tongue while waiting for her score.

Mitsuki Ono of Japan was second in qualifying. This a day after appearing to be bothered by a hip ailment in training and in some discomfort. Cai Xuetong of China had the third-best score in qualifying, with Queralt Castellet of Spain also in the mix.

The biggest surprise was the performance of American Maddie Mastro, who finished just outside of the top-12 that advanced to Thursday’s final. She was in the last spot but was bumped out by one of the final riders, Elizabeth Hosking of Canada.

___

Lena Dürr is leading the women’s slalom at the Beijing Games after two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin saw another race end early.

Shiffrin skidded out of control about five seconds into the opening run of Wednesday’s slalom. The 26-year-old American also fell early in the first run of Monday’s giant slalom.

Dürr led from the start as she was first down the course know as the Ice River. The German skier posted a time of 52.17 seconds, 0.03 quicker than Michelle Gisin of Switzerland.

Giant slalom gold medalist Sara Hector of Sweden is 0.12 behind Dürr.

Dürr’s highest individual finish at a major championship is 11th at the worlds in 2019. She has never won a World Cup slalom race.

The 30-year-old is likely to head into the second run in the lead with only lower-ranked skiers remaining.

___

Two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin has missed a gate early in the first run of the slalom at the Beijing Games and is out of the event.

Just like in her first event of these Olympics, the giant slalom, the American racer was done for the day within a matter of seconds.

After Wednesday’s mistake in the slalom, which she won at the 2014 Sochi Games, Shiffrin sat on the side of the hill and bowed her head.

The 26-year-old Shiffrin is trying to become the first Alpine ski racer from the United States to win three Olympic golds across a career.

She has said she hoped to enter all five individual events at Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center.

___

Defending Olympic downhill champion Sofia Goggia is on the Beijing slopes and training after crashing and injuring her left knee and leg last month.

The Italian arrived late to China after she sprained her left knee, partially tore a cruciate ligament and had a “minor fracture” of the fibula bone in her leg. She also had some tendon damage after the crash in a World Cup super-G in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, on Jan. 23.

Goggia has won the last eight World Cup downhills that she completed.

Goggia arrived in China on Monday and was checked out by the Italian team’s medical staff. She then did three runs of giant slalom and three runs of super-G training on Tuesday and was doing more of the same on Wednesday.

The team says she has not decided yet if she will race the super-G on Friday but she is planning on taking part in the first of three downhill training sessions on Saturday. The downhill race is scheduled for Tuesday.

___

More AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports