PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Chloe Kim’s coronation is complete.
The 17-year-old from Torrance, California, dominated the Olympic women’s halfpipe snowboarding final on Tuesday, soaring to a gold medal four years in the making.
Kim put up a score of 93.75 on the first of her three finals runs and then bettered it with a near-perfect 98.75 on her final run with the gold already well in hand. With members of her family in the stands, including her South Korean grandmother, Kim put on a show that delivered on her considerable pre-Olympic hype.
Liu Jiayu took silver with an 89.75 to become the first Chinese snowboarder to medal at the Olympics.
American Arielle Gold, who pondered retirement last summer, edged teammate and three-time Olympic medalist Kelly Clark for bronze.
Speedskater Ireen Wust won the women’s 1,500 meters Monday in Gangneung, South Korea.
SPEEDSKATING: American John-Henry Krueger has advanced to the quarterfinals of the men’s 1,000 meters in short-track speedskating.
Krueger won his heat, avoiding a collision that knocked down two other skaters.
His teammate, J.R. Celski, wasn’t so lucky. The three-time Olympian was taken down in a three-man crash that caused him to need work on his right skate.
Pavel Sitnikov, the Olympic Athlete from Russia who caused the pileup, was penalized for impeding.
That left Celski and two other skaters to compete in the re-start. Celski was in contention early before finishing third, one spot out of advancing to the next round on Saturday.
Another American, teenager Maame Biney, eliminated from the 500 meters in short-track speedskating.
Biney landed in a tough quarterfinal that included former world champion Fan Kexin of China. The 18-year-old from Virginia trailed throughout after trying to go for the lead early and getting crowded out by Fan and Sofia Prosvirnova of the Olympic Athletes from Russia.
Only the top two in each heat advance to the semifinals later Tuesday.
Tough luck also befell medal contender Marianne St-Gelais of Canada, who was penalized for impeding shortly after the start of her heat and left the ice.
Among those moving on are Arianna Fontana of Italy, Elise Christie of Britain, Kim Boutin of Canada and crowd favorite Choi Min-jeong of South Korea. Choi survived a three-way photo finish for second and the crowd cheered wildly when she advanced.
SKI JUMPING: After dominating the ski jumping World Cup this season, Maren Lundby wasn’t about to be denied on the sport’s biggest stage.
The 23-year-old Norwegian overcame frigid temperatures to win the women’s ski jumping normal hill gold medal.
Lundby, who has won 7 of 10 events this season, nailed a jump of 110 meters for 264.6 points.
BIATHLON: It didn’t take long for Martin Fourcade to return to the top of the biathlon world.
The Frenchman bounced back from a disappointing eighth-place finish in the sprint race to win the gold medal in the 12.5-kilometer pursuit. Sweden’s Sebastian Samuelsson took home the silver medal, and Germany’s Benedikt Doll earned bronze.
Fourcade has won six career medals, three of them gold.
He hit 19 of 20 targets and overcame a 24-second deficit to start the race. After taking the lead on the third shoot, Fourcade hit his final five shots and turned and pumped his fist at the crowd, knowing the victory was in hand.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY: Sweden scored four goals in the first period and routed Korea 8-0 in a preliminary round game.
• Sara Benz scored two power-play goals, and Switzerland smothered Japan’s quest for its first Olympic victory with a 3-1 win.
This is the third Olympics for the Japanese, who went winless in 1998 in Nagano and 2014 in Sochi.
Forward Rui Ukita sat out, suspended for kicking at an opponent in Japan’s 2-1 opening loss to Sweden.
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