Milan: South Korea did not get on the board at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Saturday, the first day of the medal race across northern Italy following the opening ceremony. In figure skating, South Korea failed to progress to the final phase of free programs, as it finished the first round of short programs and rhythm dance in seventh place with 14 points. Only the top five teams of this 10-team competition will get to skate in the next round.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Cha Jun-hwan finished eighth in the short program of the men's singles on Saturday with 83.53 points, delivering three ranking points to South Korea. The ice dance team of Hannah Lim and Quan Ye had scored four points while Shin Ji-a had netted seven points in the women's singles on Friday. South Korea was at a disadvantage from the start because it did not have a team in the pairs and did not win any point in that discipline. And Cha's wobbly performance that included a missed double axel sealed South Korea's fate.
In the mixed doubles curling tournament, Kim Seon-yeong and Jeong Yeong-seok earned their first Olympic victory by beating the American team of Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin by 6-5 in an extra end at Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium in Cortina d'Ampezzo, about 400 kilometers northeast of Milan. Kim and Jeong lost to Julie Zelingrova and Vit Chabicovsky of the Czech Republic by 9-4 earlier Saturday, as their losing streak reached five. Against the U.S., South Korea blew a 5-2 lead in the eighth end, before Kim delivered the clinching point in the extra end.
The very first gold medal of these Olympic Games came from alpine skiing, where Franjo von Allmen of Switzerland captured the men's downhill title at Stelvio Ski Centre in Bormio, about 200 kilometers north of Milan. Italian speed skater Francesca Lollobrigida delivered the host country its first gold medal by winning the women's 3,000-meter title on her 35th birthday. Lollobrigida also did so with an Olympic-record time of 3:54.28.