Day 15 of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

By Jessie Yeung, Adam Renton, Adrienne Vogt and Fernando Alfonso III, CNN

Updated 0045 GMT (0845 HKT) February 20, 2022
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5:53 a.m. ET, February 19, 2022

Sweden defeats Great Britain to win men’s curling gold

From CNN's Wayne Sterling

Team Sweden celebrates their win in the men's curling final match between Britain and Sweden on Saturday.
Team Sweden celebrates their win in the men's curling final match between Britain and Sweden on Saturday. (Brynn Anderson/AP)

Sweden won gold in men’s curling after defeating Great Britain 5-4 in an extra end on Saturday -- as Niklas Edin and Sweden finally became Olympic champions. 

It has been a steady creep to the top for Sweden, who won silver at the 2018 PyeongChang Games, bronze at the 2014 Sochi Games and finished fourth at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

"It feels so crazy, I almost had to ask someone before I came here, 'We have won, right?'" Sweden's Niklas Edin said.

"Very tight games and a lot of emotions out there. We felt that we played good enough and that we’re worthy champions but it still felt completely insane and when it actually happens it is hard to understand."

Meanwhile, Team GB picked up a silver to claim the nation’s first medal of the 2022 Winter Games. On Friday, Canada beat the US 8-5 to earn the bronze.

5:39 a.m. ET, February 19, 2022

After Beijing 2022 glory, Eileen Gu is writing a book

From CNN Sports Staff

Gold medallist Eileen Gu after receiving her medal for the women's freeski halfpipe on Friday in Beijing.
Gold medallist Eileen Gu after receiving her medal for the women's freeski halfpipe on Friday in Beijing. (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Two-time Beijing gold-medalist, youngest ever freestyle skiing Olympic champion, national hero and now author.

After writing her name into the history books at Beijing 2022, China's Eileen Gu is looking to pen a work of her own.

At just 18-years-old, Gu became the first freestyler skier in history to win three medals at a Games, winning gold in both the halfpipe and big air events.

Born and raised in California, Gu chose to compete for China in 2019, where her mother was born.

Now, following her historic Games, Gu is looking to share her unique journey in written form.

"I’m writing a book," she told reporters during her final Beijing 2022 press conference.

"I've been writing diaries for years because I knew that the way I grew up was different, interesting and special, I’d like to share it with everyone in the future."

She was hailed as the "pride of China" after winning her first gold, and has since won more medals than anyone else for the country at the Games.

As records continue to tumble in her wake, Gu asserted that these accolades serve a greater representational purpose beyond pure personal achievement.

"Extreme sports, we all know, are heavily dominated by men and stereotypically it has not had the kind of representation and sporting equity that it should," Gu said.

"So I think that as a young biracial woman, it is super important to be able to reach those milestones and to be able to push boundaries -- not only my own boundaries but those of the sport and those of the record books because that's what paves the past for the next generation of girls.

"If you see yourself in the sport, it totally changes your perception of what you can do in it.

"So my biggest goal is one, to have fun for myself, but also to break the boundaries of the boxes that people get put in."

4:48 a.m. ET, February 19, 2022

Alexander Bolshunov wins third gold medal at Beijing 2022 in men's cross-country mass start

From CNN Sports Staff

Team ROC's Alexander Bolshunov celebrates during the flower ceremony for men's 30km cross-country skiing mass start race on Saturday.
Team ROC's Alexander Bolshunov celebrates during the flower ceremony for men's 30km cross-country skiing mass start race on Saturday. (Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS/Getty Images)

Russian Alexander Bolshunov won his third gold medal at Beijing 2022 after claiming victory in the men's cross-country skiing mass start.

The event is usually over 50-kilometers but it was shortened this year to 30-kilometers because of poor weather conditions and strong winds.

In total, Bolshunov has won five medals at this year's Winter Games -- three gold as well as a silver and a bronze.

The Team ROC athlete was already Olympic champion in the skiathlon and the men's 4x10km relay. His silver medal came in the men's 15km classic and the bronze in the team sprint classic.

"Five medals, three gold. It is something unbelievable because before the season I set the goal of two gold medals and now I have three," Bolshunov said.

"I'm just unbelievably happy. The emotions overfill me. This is above all praise to win these medals here. It's very cool, and in every race that I took part in."

The silver medal on Saturday went to his teammate Ivan Yakimushin with Norway's Simen Hegstad Krueger winning bronze.

4:38 a.m. ET, February 19, 2022

With hard work -- and an egg -- Jamaica's bobsledders want to put the country back on the Olympic map

It's 34 years since the four-man Jamaican bobsled team made its Olympic debut. It's one of the most evocative Winter Olympic stories -- immortalized in the "Cool Runnings" film -- as Jamaica's bobsled team at Beijing 2022 acknowledged.

“We’re absolutely honored that we were the ones to have brought Jamaica (4-man) bobsleigh back at the Olympics after 24 years," said Shanwayne Stephens on Saturday, referring to the last time Jamaica competed in the bobsled at a Winter Games at Nagano.

"And it’s fantastic to just represent Jamaica, Jamaica bobsledders and every single 'Cool Runnings' fan out there," Shanwayne Stephens said on Saturday.

The team made a nod to the legendary Disney movie -- in the form of an egg reference.

“I do have a lucky egg. It is a tribute to the film," Matthew Wekpe said, referencing the fictional "Cool Runnings" brakeman Sanka, who did the same.

"I only started to do bobsleigh 14 months ago. Before my first race, me and Shan (Stephens) came up with the idea that it would be quite cool to bring back a lucky egg.

"We left the apartment at my first race in Austria and found this, so we declared that the egg."

Movie references aside, the team want people to know they are dead serious about the sport.

Although they finished last after two heats on Saturday, the completed their runs and will race again on Sunday as they set their sights on building up Jamaica's bobsled program.

“A big part of us being here is just to show people that you can achieve anything that you want to achieve if you just put your mind to it and go out there and do it," Stephens added.

Winning a medal isn’t there for us, not yet, not right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s not going to be. Our plan is to build on this program moving forward, getting more and more Jamaican athletes involved in the sport," he said.

“If we can qualify for this Games having met for the first time in September last year, imagine what we can do the next four years with a proper program and proper funding."

For the first time in Olympic history, the island nation qualified in three bobsled events -- the two-man bobsled, the women's monobob and the four-man bobsled.

Read more:

4:59 a.m. ET, February 19, 2022

Belgium wins first gold medal at a Winter Olympics in 74 years

From CNN Sports Staff

Belgium's Bart Swings celebrates after winning gold in speed skating on Saturday, finishing first in the men's mass start final.
Belgium's Bart Swings celebrates after winning gold in speed skating on Saturday, finishing first in the men's mass start final. ( Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

Before Saturday, it had been 74 years since Belgium had won a gold medal at a Winter Olympics.

That changed when Bart Swings won gold in speed skating on Saturday, finishing first in the men's mass start final.

“It is unbelievable. I have been dreaming of this a long time. I have worked very hard, and it all came together," Swings said following his win.
“It has been very nervous days, the last few days, but I managed to pull it together, and it all came through today," he added.

It was a photo finish for silver and bronze, with South Koreans Chung Jae-won and Lee Seung-hoon coming second and third respectively.

Speed skating legend Sven Kramer of the Netherlands finished 16th and did not medal in any of his events at the Beijing 2022 Games.

In his career, he won nine Olympic medals, four of them gold.

Before Beijing 2022, Belgium’s lone gold medal at a Winter Olympics was in pairs figure skating by Micheline Lannoy and Pierre Baugniet.

1:45 a.m. ET, February 19, 2022

At least 2 billion people have watched the Beijing Olympics, Chinese official says 

Two billion viewers worldwide have tuned into the Beijing 2022 Olympics, making it the most-watched Winter Games ever, a Chinese official said on Saturday.

The 2008 Beijing Summer Games saw the largest TV audience for an Olympics on record, with 4.7 billion viewers, according to Guinness World Records.

Speaking in Beijing Saturday, Zhang Jiandong, a deputy to China's National People's Congress, also said that 90,000 spectators attended the Winter Games this year.

Ahead of the Games, organizers said the event would not be open to the general public due to coronavirus concerns, and that a select group of spectators would receive invitations to attend.

Some 150,000 spectators were invited from outside the Olympic bubble, including international residents in China, diplomatic personnel, marketing partners, winter sports enthusiasts, residents, and local students.

The closing ceremony takes place tomorrow.

1:49 a.m. ET, February 19, 2022

Great Britain's sprint team stripped of medals won at Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics

As we head into the final weekend of the Winter Olympics, Great Britain has been handed unwelcome news from the Tokyo 2020 Games — with its 4x100 meter relay team stripped of the silver medals they won last summer due to a doping violation.

British sprinter Chijindu Ujah tested positive for a pair of banned substances after the race, the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) Anti-Doping Division ruled on Friday. Apart from the team's stripped medals, Ujah's results in that relay and the 100m sprint have been disqualified.

In a statement released through UK Athletics, Ujah said he accepted the CAS decision, adding he never knowingly took a banned substance. He blamed his positive test on a “contaminated supplement.”

“I sincerely regret that this has inadvertently led to the forfeiture of the men’s 4 x 100m relay team’s Olympic silver medals at the Tokyo Olympic Games,” Ujah said.

“I would like to apologise to my team mates, their families and support teams for the impact which this has had on them. I’m sorry that this situation has cost my teammates the medals they worked so hard and so long for, and which they richly deserved. That is something I will regret for the rest of my life.”

The silver now goes to Canada and China takes bronze. Italy won the gold.

1:00 a.m. ET, February 19, 2022

Alpine skiing mixed team event moved to Sunday

A course worker removes gate flags after the alpine skiing mixed team event was postponed due to poor weather conditions on Saturday.
A course worker removes gate flags after the alpine skiing mixed team event was postponed due to poor weather conditions on Saturday. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

Today's windy weather has forced a number of events to be rescheduled, including:

  • The alpine skiing mixed team event, which will now take place tomorrow at 9 a.m. local time.
  • The cross-country skiing men's 50km race, which will start an hour late at 3 p.m. and has been shortened to 30km.

The wind caused disruptions in the men's freeski halfpipe final earlier today, with many skiers falling and pointing out the tough conditions.

"I woke up in the morning and I saw the wind," said bronze medal winner Alex Ferreira afterward in a news conference. "We get to the halfpipe, see the wind, and it’s obviously very windy — but not as windy as what we’ve competed in previously this year. And I think that’s the line. I think everyone was safe enough.”
11:50 p.m. ET, February 18, 2022

Athletes are "people first," says top Australian Olympic team official

Australia's chef de mission Geoff Lipshut attends a press conference in Beijing on Feb. 2.
Australia's chef de mission Geoff Lipshut attends a press conference in Beijing on Feb. 2.

Australia's chef de mission Geoff Lipshut, the head of the national team, commented on the treatment of 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva at a closing news conference today, saying athletes were "people first."

"I am aware of it because I took special note because the way that we've consoled our athletes who haven't met their performance expectations is a very different experience to that of the young figure skater," he said.

Valieva had a disappointing free skate on Thursday, falling several times before leaving the ice in tears. She was met with what the International Olympic Committee president described as "tremendous coldness" from her coach and entourage.

"Athletes are very much people first and they are sportspeople second," Lipshut said. "So when a young person, especially an underage person, hasn't met their own expectations, hasn't met what they perceive to be the expectations of others … I mean, anybody involved in sport really needs to look after those people."