AP Feb 7, 2022 2 hours ago
Mikaela Shiffrin of United States looks down after skiing off course during the first run of the women’s giant slalom at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, in the Yanqing district of Beijing. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
FILE – In this Sept. 5, 2019, file photo, NBC sportscaster Mike Tirico works the sidelines during an NFL football game between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears in Chicago. Tirico is about to give new meaning to double duty when NBC broadcasts the Olympics and Super Bowl next month. Tirico will anchor the network’s primetime coverage of the Beijing Games, but will also host the Super Bowl pregame show from Los Angeles on Feb. 13 2022. (AP Photo/Jeff Haynes, File)
Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov, of the Russian Olympic Committee, compete in the pairs team free skate program during the figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
FILE – China’s Peng Shuai serves to Japan’s Nao Hibino during their first round singles match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, on Jan. 21, 2020. The whereabout of Peng remains a pressing question at the Beijing Olympics. Peng’s accusations of sexual assault months ago against former vice premier Zhang Gaoli, once a member of the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, were scrubbed almost immediately from the internet in China. (AP Photo/Andy Brownbill, File)
Madison Chock and Evan Bates, of the United States, compete in the team ice dance program during the figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
BEIJING (AP) — The Latest on the Beijing Winter Olympics:
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The American ice dance team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates delivered the best free skate of their career during the team competition at the Beijing Games, almost assuring Team USA of its first silver medal in the event.
Russia continues to lead the Americans by a wide margin with only the women’s free skate left, but Chock and Bates were able to edge their world champions, Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, with a score of 129.07 points.
The Russian duo was next with 128.17 while Japan, which was tied with the Americans after the pairs competition, were last among the five ice dance teams. That left the Americans six points behind Russia with 58 but, more importantly, four ahead of the Japanese team entering the final discipline.
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Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai has met with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach in Beijing.
The IOC says the meeting took place over dinner Saturday and IOC member Kirsty Coventry also attended. Coventry and Peng attended the China-Norway mixed curling match that night.
Peng briefly disappeared from public view in November after she accused a Chinese official of sexual assault on her verified Weibo social media. The post was swiftly removed.
Peng told a French newspaper in an interview published Monday that international concern over her well-being is based on “an enormous misunderstanding.” She denied having accused the Chinese official of sexual assault.
L’Equipe, which specializes in sports news, published the interview Monday. The publication said it spoke to the tennis player a day earlier in a Beijing hotel in an hour-long interview organized through China’s Olympic committee.
The newspaper said it had to submit questions in advance and that a Chinese Olympic committee official sat in on the discussion and translated her comments from Chinese.
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The Russians have solidified their hold on the team figure skating gold medal, despite an unexpected fall by their pairs duo of Anastasia Mishina and Aleksander Galliamov, with two disciplines remaining at Capital Indoor Arena.
Mishina and Galliamov’s score of 145.20 points gave their team the maximum 10 points, while a disappointing program by the American duo of Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier left a dead heat for the silver medal.
Knierim did a single toe loop instead of the planned double during their opening combination, then put her hand down on a triple salchow and stepped out on their throw triple flip. That was enough to give the Americans just six points, while Japan got a strong program from Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara to pull even with Team USA in second place.
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Up later Monday are the free dance, followed by the concluding women’s free skate.
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NBC primetime Olympics host Mike Tirico will have a shorter stay in Beijing than originally planned.
Tirico’s final show from Beijing will be Monday night. He will fly from China to NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, to host on Wednesday and Thursday before heading to Los Angeles Friday to anchor Olympics and Super Bowl coverage through Sunday.
Tirico will then head back to Stamford for the final week of Olympics coverage. The Games end on Feb. 20.
Maria Taylor, who signed with NBC on the eve of last July’s Tokyo Olympics, will host Tuesday night’s show while Tirico is flying back.
Tirico was originally slated to stay in Beijing through Thursday before going to Los Angeles. NBC officials though have reiterated that Tirico’s schedule was subject to change based on COVID-19 and other factors.
NBC said in January that it would not send its announcers and most hosts to the Beijing Olympics due to continued concerns about rising COVID-19 cases worldwide and China’s strict policy about those who test positive.
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Defending Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin has missed a gate early in the first run of the giant slalom at the Beijing Games on Monday and been disqualified from the event.
Coming around a left-turn gate, she lost control, slid and fell on her side.
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 arrived in China as one of the most-watched athletes in any sport at the Winter Olympics, a superstar who has dominated ski racing for long stretches in recent years. She has said she hoped to enter all five individual events at Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center.
Her next race is the slalom on Wednesday. Shiffrin won that at age 18 at the 2014 Sochi Games.
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More AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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