Olympics Live: Eileen Gu qualifies for slopestyle finals

BEIJING (AP) — The Latest on the Beijing Winter Olympics:

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Eileen Gu has made it through to slopestyle finals in freestyle skiing. She overcame a number of bobbles in her first qualifying run to nail down a solid second trip down the mountain and secure her spot in the top 12.

The 18-year-old American-born freestyler is competing for her mother’s home country of China at the Beijing Games. She won the gold medal in big air last week, and will also compete in the halfpipe contest later this week.

While Gu awaited her score after the second run, she stood at the bottom and ate a dumpling. Then, she rushed off to the halfpipe, where practice had begun about an hour earlier.

The slopestyle final is set for Tuesday.

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Kaillie Humphries has captured a third Olympic gold medal, and her first for the U.S.

The former Canadian bobsledder was an easy winner of the inaugural women’s monobob event. It’s the first sliding medal for the U.S. in seven events so far — the others being four in luge and two in skeleton — at the Beijing Games.

Elana Meyers Taylor of the U.S. was second. It was the fourth medal of Meyers Taylor’s career, the most won by anyone in USA Bobsled history.

Humphries has four medals now as well, the first three of those for Canada. She began sliding for the U.S. in 2019 and got her citizenship in December. That allowed her to represent the U.S. in Beijing.

Christine de Bruin of Canada won bronze.

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Canadian forward Melodie Daoust has returned to the lineup for the women’s hockey semifinal game against Switzerland at the Beijing Olympics.

Daoust missed four games after being sidelined with an upper-body injury sustained in the second period of a 12-1 preliminary round-opening win over the Swiss. She is taking part in the semifinal pre-game skate and listed back at her familiar spot on Canada’s second line alongside center Sarah Fillier and winger Natalie Spooner.

Canada entered the playoffs as the Olympic tournament’s top seed and is seeking to make its seventh consecutive gold-medal game appearance on Thursday.

For Switzerland, forward Lisa Ruedi returns after missing a 4-2 quarterfinal win over the Russian team while spending two days in COVID-19 isolation. The Swiss team honored her during the game by hanging her No. 12 jersey behind their bench.

The defending Olympic champion United States faces Finland in the other semifinal later Monday.

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Slopestyle silver medalist Julia Marino of the United States has dropped out of the Olympic snowboard big air contest after a fall in practice.

The 24-year-old Marino was set to jump 23rd in the 30-snowboarder field during qualifying Monday, just ahead of 2018 gold medalist Anna Gasser of Austria. It was a surprise when she didn’t appear.

Team USA snowboarding said in a statement that Marino fell during practice a few days ago and is “prioritizing her health.”

Marino’s scratch appears to have been a late decision. The Connecticut resident shared video of herself practicing at Big Air Shougang on Instagram about 12 hours before qualifying began, encouraging followers to tune in.

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The embattled coach of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, whose future at the Olympics will be announced later Monday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, showed up to watch her daughter compete in the ice dance competition in Beijing.

Eteri Tutberidze stood against the wall in an inconspicuous corner of Capital Indoor Stadium to watch Diana Davis compete with partner Gleb Smolkin in the free dance. Davis and Smolkin finished well out of medal contention.

Tutberidze has come under fire after Valieva’s drug test from December was flagged last week for traces of a banned heart medication. The case was referred to CAS, which met for about 5 1/2 hours at a Beijing hotel late Sunday, to decide whether to allow the 15-year-old gold medal favorite to compete in the women’s competition beginning Tuesday night.

Their decision is expected Monday afternoon in Beijing, just when Valieva is next scheduled to practice.

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