Day 6 of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

By Aditi Sangal, Patrick Sung, Ben Morse, Jessie Yeung, Adam Renton and Jack Bantock, CNN

Updated 8:02 p.m. ET, February 10, 2022

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7:08 p.m. ET, February 9, 2022

Lindsey Jacobellis wins Team USA's first gold medal at Beijing Games

From CNN's Aleks Klosok and Ben Morse

Lindsey Jacobellis secured Team USA's first gold medal at the Beijing Olympics with victory in the women's snowboard cross big final on Wednesday.

After near misses at previous Games, the 36-year-old finally topped the podium at her fifth Winter Olympics.

"This feels incredible because this level that all the women are riding at is a lot higher than it was 16 years ago," Jacobellis told reporters.
"So I felt like I was a winner just that I made it into finals, because that's been a challenge every time.
"All these ladies out here have the potential to win and today it just worked out for me that my starts were good, that my gliding was great, and everything just worked for me today."

Jacobellis infamously won silver in Turin at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

The American, who was 20 at the time, looked set to win gold in snowboard cross' Olympic debut after racing into a huge lead with the finish line in sight.

But with victory seeming inevitable, Jacobellis appeared to showboat on the penultimate jump by grabbing her board.

The result was catastrophic. She fell to the ground and watched on in horror as Switzerland's Tanja Frieden sped past to win gold and leave Jacobellis in second.

Despite the disastrous outcome in 2006, Jacobellis said after becoming an Olympic gold medalist that she doesn't feel a sense of redemption.

"I never thought of it that way. That was not in my mind. I wanted to just come here and compete.
"It would have been a nice, sweet thing, but I think if I had tried to spend (time on) the thought of redemption, then it's taking away focus on the task at hand, and that's not why I race."

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Lindsey Jacobellis wins Team USA's first gold medal at Beijing Games with victory in women's snowboard cross

7:06 p.m. ET, February 9, 2022

"A really big let down," says Mikaela Shiffrin after she crashes out for the second time at Beijing 2022

From CNN's Matias Grez

Mikaela Shiffrin sat at the side of the slope, her arms on her knees and her head bowed.

The American, who is so accustomed to success as one of the greatest to ever put on a pair of skis, has now suffered two bitter disappointments in the space of three days in Beijing.

Just two days after she crashed out of her first run in Monday's giant slalom, Shiffrin also failed to make it past five gates in Wednesday's slalom after skiing off line just seconds into her opening attempt.

"It's probably a culmination of the other day and today," she replied when asked what she thinking while sat at the side of the course. "It feels like a really big let down.
"I was trying to look back and think about the last days and what I've been trying to do, what I've been doing with my skiing that would suggest that on the fifth gate I would push myself a little bit too hard to actually be able to stay in the course.
"[But] my skiing has been really solid. My entire career has taught me to trust in my skiing if it's good skiing, and that's all that I have to rely on on these race days.
"And when the pressure is high — and of course the pressure is high, but that didn't feel like the biggest issue today — and there are some nerves and the feeling that I want to do well, I always just go back to that fundamental idea that good skiing will be there for me.
"It's not the end of the world and it's so stupid to care this much, but I feel I have to question a lot now."

Shiffrin had come into these Games with high hopes of making history as the first US alpine skier to win three medals at a single Winter Olympics. Those hopes are now appear to be all but over.

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'A really big let down': Mikaela Shiffrin crashes out for the second time at Beijing 2022

6:53 p.m. ET, February 9, 2022

Figure skating medal ceremony delayed after positive drug test, reports say

From CNN's Nathan Hodge, Mitch McCluskey, AnneClaire Stapleton and Gawon Bae

International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams speaks at a news briefing on Wednesday.

Skaters have not yet received their medals in the figure skating team event at Beijing 2022 after one athlete on the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) tested positive for a prohibited substance, Russian newspaper RBC and CNN Sports analyst Christine Brennan reported Wednesday.

The ROC team won the gold medal, followed by the US team which took silver. Bronze went to Japan and Canada came in fourth place.

RBC Sport reports that a sample taken in December from one of the six Russian team members tested positive for trimetazidine, according to a source familiar with the situation, and a source in the Russian Figure Skating Federation.

Brennan, who is also a USA Today sports columnist, attributed the positive test to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Trimetazidine is a drug used to treat people with a heart condition known as angina. It is on the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) banned list.

Read more here.

6:27 p.m. ET, February 9, 2022

Here's who won gold medals at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on Wednesday

From CNN's Ben Morse

There were six gold medals up for grabs on Wednesday at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Here's a breakdown of who is taking home gold for their delegations on Day 5 of the Games.

Alpine Skiing

Women's Slalom: Petra Vlhova, Slovakia

Freestyle Skiing

Men's Freeski Big Air: Birk Ruud, Norway

Luge

Doubles: Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, Germany

Nordic Combined

Individual Gundersen Normal Hill/10km, Cross-Country: Vinzenz Geiger, Germany

Short Track Speed Skating

Men's 1,500m: Hwang Dae-heon, Republic of Korea

Snowboard

Women's Snowboard Cross: Lindsey Jacobellis, USA