U.S. bags 3 golds, Japanese star Hanyu stumbles at Beijing 2022

The United States won three golds on Thursday to storm to fourth place at the Beijing 2022 medal standings while figure skating star and two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan failed to make the podium after falls on his quadruple axel attempt, reported Xinhua.

In one of the most absorbing events on the day, the U.S. team stunned host China to grab the freestyle skiing mixed team aerials title.

Thanks to a brilliant performance by Christopher Lillis who got 135.00 points for his back double full-full-double full, a trick boasting a difficulty degree of 5.000, the U.S. overtook China for the leading position.

Finally, the U.S. collected 338.34 points to win the gold. China finished second with 324.22 points, followed by Canada with 290.98 points.

Chinese veteran Jia Zongyang, competing in his fourth Winter Olympics, followed Lillis to come out but did not change the difficulty degree of 4.425. However, his landing was a waterloo-like collapse and was awarded only 96.02 points.

"I made few mistakes on that trick in training. I don't know what happened during that landing. Anyway, it was my fault to make the whole team miss the gold medal on home soil," Jia said with tears.

Earlier in the day, reigning champion Chloe Kim of the U.S. successfully defended the women's snowboard halfpipe title while U.S. world champion Nathan Chen claimed the figure skating men's singles title.

An almost-perfect 94.00-point performance in the first run, where she managed to complete a frontside and backside 1080, was good enough for Kim to win the gold medal although she failed in the following two runs when trying to upgrade the difficulty to 1260.

"It was worth it for sure, 1000 percent. That's what keeps me going. I wish I'd landed it, but next time," Kim said about her unsuccessful attempts.

In figure skating, "ice prince" Hanyu performed an under-rotated 4A and tumbled at the following quad Salchow, which led to a two-point direct deduction and less than 10 points after two opening jumps in the men's singles free skate.

Stepping off the rink after saluting to the umpires and audience, Hanyu gently touched the ice before he murmured with his fingers sweeping over his own face.

"I said to myself, thank you," the figure skating icon told reporters later in the mixed zone.

"I had a few mistakes but I showed my story. I think the mistakes make up a part of my program. I'm happy with it," he added.

Despite his season-best score of 179.45 points for free skate, Chinese number one Jin Boyang finished ninth overall with 270.43 points.

Dutch speed skater Irene Schouten snatched her second gold medal at the Beijing Games with a new Olympic record in the women's 5,000m.

The Dutchwoman, who has already won the women's 3,000m, clocked a winning time of six minutes and 43.51 seconds, lowering the Olympic record of 6:46.91 set by German Claudia Pechstein 20 years ago.

This is the fifth Olympic record shattered in as many events at the National Speed Skating Oval, or known as the Ice Ribbon, and the fourth gold medal for the Netherlands, all of which came from speed skating competitions.

In cross-country skiing, Norwegian Therese Johaug won the women's 10km classic for her second Olympic gold at Beijing 2022. The Norwegian also won the women's skiathlon gold.

Austria was another big winner on the day, with Johannes Strolz and Alessandro Haemmerle claiming men's Alpine combined gold and men's snowboard cross gold apiece.

Elsewhere, Germany claimed its third consecutive Olympic gold medal in the luge team relay, leading the medal standings on six golds.