Cam Bolton fractures neck as training falls rule two Aussies out of Games

So that brings our coverage of day four of the Winter Olympics to an end.

It was a day that brought bad news, with the confirmation of two training crashes that forced snowboard-cross athlete Cam Bolton and snowboard halfpipe athlete Misaki Vaughan (concussion) out of the Games, and sent Bolton to hospital with two stable neck fractures.

We send our thoughts and best wishes to both for a speedy recovery.

On the plus side, Matt Graham and Jakara Anthony are through to their respective moguls finals – although Anthony looked slightly more impressive, topping the women’s qualifying.

We had a brilliant beginning to the men’s figure skating, with Ilia Malinin and Yuma Kagiyama laying down markers for what should be a compelling free dance later this week – while Maxim Naumov moved the Milano crowd and anyone watching with his routine of remembrance for his late parents.

We will be back for day five of competition this evening, but in the meantime this is Andrew McGarry, on behalf of myself, Luke Pentony and Simon Smale in Livigno, saying thank you for joining us and good morning.

The United States have beaten Canada 5-0 in their Group A women’s ice hockey match at Milano Santagiulia Arena.

The Americans were in control from the start, taking a 2-0 lead after one period and extending to 4-0 after the second.

A goal from Laila Edwards with eight and a half minutes on the clock completed the scoring.

Canada were outplayed and outmanoeuvred, and even though they were missing injured captain Marie-Philip Poulin, they will need to improve markedly if they are to get past their rivals in any knockout match later in the tournament. 

Well Yuma Kagiyama of Japan could not match Ilia Malinin, and the American has claimed victory in the short dance.

That of course is only one half of the program, and Kagiyama made clear that he is the biggest rival to the Quad God’s gold medal hopes.

Kagiyama produced a great routine with excellent jumps, except for an issue on his triple axel.

But his artistry and technique was there in spades.

His score of 103.07 means he will trail Malinin by 5.09 points, meaning that we are in for a barnstormer of a free skate later this week.

If there was any doubt whether Ilia Malinin would bring it for the Short Dance after his gold medal in the Teams event, he just dispelled them in 2 minutes 50 seconds on the Milano ice.

The man known as the Quad God did his routine to a mix of Dies Irae and The Lost Crown, a piece from the soundtrack of the Prince of Persia game.

If ever you needed an indication of how diverse the inspirations are for routines, there’s one there.

As expected, he threw in a quad flip and a quad lutz, but he got equal applause for a backflip and handstand.

Malinin was in supreme form, and much cleaner than his winning routine in the Teams event.

His score of 108.16 lays down a marker. Now it’s up to Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama. 

We’ve had a jump in the scores in the final group in the men’s figure skating.

French skater Adam Siao Him Fa has just nailed his routine inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, to the music La terre vue du ciel  by Armand Amar, arranged by Cedric Tour.

His beautiful routine had the crowd spellbound, as he hit the quad toeloop – triple toeloop combination, and a quad salchow among his seven elements.

The score was a mighty 102.55, nearly 10 points better than anything else seen today.

With three skaters left, the Frenchman holds the lead.

We’ve had 23 of the 29 competitors perform so far in the short dance of the men’s figure skating competition.

That means the biggest names are about to skate.

For now the leader is Italian Daniel Grassl, who delivered a score of 93.46 points.

His routine put him clear of South Korea’s Cha Junhwan (82.72).

The big question from here is: will it be Ilia Malinin of the US or Yuma Kagiyama who takes the lead – or will it be a surprise?

The rivalry game between the US and Canada in women’s ice hockey has been pretty one-sided so far.

The Americans continue to dominate the shot-count, and more importantly, the scoreboard.

They led 2-0 after one period of play, and the US has doubled its lead after two periods, with Hannah Bilka grabbing her second of the game with seven minutes left in the second.

With 20 minutes to go, the US leads 4-0, and we can’t see anything to suggest this one will get turned around.

Some good figure skating news away from the current competition.

Former world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada will compete in the individual pairs event at the Milan Cortina Olympics after Stellato-Dudek’s head injury forced them to withdraw from last weekend’s figure skating team event.

“I want to thank everyone for their concern and support. I’ve been working closely with the medical team, and feel ready and excited to compete,” Stellato-Dudek said in a statement on Tuesday night. “My priority right now is skating my best.”

Stellato-Dudek was hurt when her head hit the ice during a training session in Quebec on January 30, exactly one week before the opening ceremony of the Winter Games.

They withdrew from the team event three days later, and Skate Canada said the U.S.-born Stellato-Dudek had been closely monitored and completed all of the required medical evaluations.

“Athlete health and safety remain our top priority,” Skate Canada said in a statement, “and the decision to compete was made under the guidance of medical professionals. Stellato-Dudek is feeling well and is looking forward to taking the ice.”

The Canadians won the pairs world title in 2024 and are considered podium contenders in their first Olympics together.

Stellato-Dudek will now become the oldest pairs skater at the Winter Games in more than a century.

With reporting from AP

At Milano Santogiulia Arena, things are going from bad to worse for Canada.

They have struggled to make headway against a strong US attack and have been put under constant pressure in their Group A game.

They trailed 2-0 after one period, and have made another break through early in the second stanza.

After a scramble in the Canadian goalmouth, Kirsten Simms bundled the puck home. It took a while and a few video replays to confirm the goal which was originally ruled a no-goal because of alleged interference.

But the check cleared the US, and the score went to 3-0.

That remains the score, and the shot-count is up to 17-6 in the US’ favour. 

It’s always good when a team gets off the mark with a gold medal at the Games, and we can now add Slovenia to the list.

The Slovenians have won the Mixed Team event in ski jumping at Predazzo, beating Norway and Japan.

The Slovenian team includes Nika Vodan, Anze Lanisek and brother and sister Nika and Domen Prevc (the latter carrying the flag in the opening ceremony).

Domen Prevc’s final jump of 141.5 points (a distance of 102 metres) clinched the gold, with Slovenia finishing on 1069.2, clear of the Norwegians on 1038.3, and Japan on 1034.0.

Germany just missed out on the medals, finishing on 1032.8.

We are more than halfway through the short dance which opens the competition in the men’s singles figure skating in Milano.

There have been a range of routines, from the fun to the serious and the emotional performance of American Maxim Naumov near the start of the competition.

Naumov is lying seventh of the 17 skaters so far with his routine to a Chopin nocturne.

The leader so far is South Korea’s Cha Junhwan, who came fifth in this event in Beijing. His routine, to Rain and In Your Black Eyes by Ezio Rosso, scored 92.72.

But there are plenty of big names still to come, particularly American Ilia Malinin (to skate second-last) and Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama.

At the women’s ice hockey, it’s been a struggle for Team Canada against the US, as the Americans have dominated in attack in the first period which has just ended.

The US took the lead from Caroline Harvey in the opening four minutes, and they continued to dominate the shots.

Goalkeeper Ann-Renee Desbiens was keeping her side in it, but she could not deny Hannah Bilka late in the period when Abbey Murphy flicked a brilliant back pass into Bilka’s arc for her to fire home for 2-0.

The Americans took 11 shots to four for Canada.

The Canadians will need to improve on that if they want to get back in this one.

It didn’t take long for the US to take the lead against Canada.

Less than four minutes into the first period, Caroline Harvey picked up the puck on the left wing, stepped inside and dragged it past a Canadian defender. She then fired a shot towards the right corner that deflected off the legs of Canadian goalkeeper Ann-Renee Desbiens into the opposite corner of the net.

The US still leads 1-0 with 8:35 minutes left in the first period with Canada managing to kill an early power play, and Desbien keeping her team in it with a few big saves.

We’re just underway in Milano for one of the biggest rivalries in Olympic sport.

It’s the women’s ice hockey, with US facing Canada.

Both teams are unbeaten, and they have faced each other in five of the seven women’s gold medal Games at the Winter Olympics, including the last four deciders.

Unfortunately for Canada, they will be missing skipper Marie-Philip Poulin, who was injured against Czechia yesterday.

Sweden has sealed its third gold of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, after Isabella and Rasmus Wranaa took out the Olympic title in mixed doubles curling.

The Stockholm-born siblings beat American pair Cory Thiesse and Corey Dropkin 6-5 in the gold medal game.

The Americans led early after picking up a shot in the first end.

However a double in the second end and a single in the fourth saw the Swedes take a 3-2 lead, which they made 4-3 in the sixth end as the scoring went back and forth.

The Americans took the lead 5-4 after a double in the seventh and penultimate end, but the Swedish team had the last say.

Isabella Wranaa did the clearing of an American stone with the final delivery, sealing two shots and the win.

Earlier, Italy beat Great Britain 5-3 to win the bronze medal.

Julia Taubitz of Germany has confirmed her place at the top of women’s luge with a dominant win at the Cortina Sliding Centre.

Taubitz led almost all the way, and finished nearly a second clear of her nearest challenger.

The 29-year-old finished seventh in Beijing four years ago, but she won three world titles last year – women’s singles, team relay and mixed singles.

Her final run of 52.707 was the fastest time of the final round.

Latvia’s Elina Bota took silver, 0.922 seconds behind Taubitz.

And American Ashley Farquharson claimed the bronze medal a further 0.039 seconds back.

Italy’s Verena Hofer and Sandra Robatscher were fourth and fifth respectively.

Well we thought it would be an emotional performance by American Maxim Naumov at the men’s figure skating – and we weren’t disappointed.

Naumov, whose parents were both killed in a plane crash coming home from last year’s US Nationals, has said his goal in Milano Cortina is not for people to see him, rather the hard work that his parents did in getting him to his first Olympics.

Naumov received a warm reception from the crowd when he went out on the ice, before skating to a beautiful Chopin nocturne in a routine he has been calling a remembrance.

He landed his opening quad salchow well, bringing applause, and his artistic, heartfelt routine featured graceful spins as the violin and piano piece tugged at the heartstrings.

He held his finishing pose and then the emotions came along with the applause. Naumov looked up and smiled, then put his hands over his face.

He took the applause and began to turn to each corner of the arena to acknowledge the crowd as he began to show joy as the scope of his routine registered.

You couldn’t help but be affected by that performance.

Sitting in the ‘kiss and cry’ area waiting for his marks, he held up a picture of his parents, Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova (who were 1994 world champions in pairs for Russia).

His marks were a season’s best in 85.65, but it wasn’t really the point.

After Germany’s Philipp Raimund took gold in the men’s normal hill ski jumping event on day three, it’s now the turn of the teams for the Mixed event at Predazzo.

In Beijing, it was Slovenia who took the title, ahead of the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) in silver and Canada in bronze. There is no Russian team this time round, so it will be interesting to see who steps up.

This event has teams of four – two men, two women. There are two rounds of jumps, the top eight teams from the first jump qualify for the final.

The Slovenian team includes the brother and sister pair of Nika Prevc and Domen Prevc, who carried the flag at the opening ceremony.

Domen was out of the medals yesterday on the same normal hill where today’s event takes place. If he gets back to his best, they will be a big chance.

Australian chef de mission Alisa Camplin-Warner has spoken to the media in Livigno after the news that Cam Bolton and Misaki Vaughan have been ruled out of the Games after bad training falls.

“Unfortunately, with winter sport, injuries happen along the way,” Camplin-Warner said.

“In 53 athletes doing relatively high risk sports, it’s not something that’s unusual, I’m afraid to say.”

The Australian team has had a string of injuries to athletes like aerialist Laura Peel, freeski slopestyler Daisy Thomas, capped by the latest news of Games-ending injuries to Bolton and Vaughan.

Bolton sustained what was described as a serious injury during a fall on course at training on Monday, and CT scans later confirmed two neck fractures.

“Cam wanted to make sure his teammates understood what was happening and that he was he was fine, doing well and being looked after well,” Camplin-Warner said.

You can read more about it, in Simon Smale’s analysis piece below: