Winter Olympics briefing: Benjamin Karl brings golden flex on day of high drama

Between the icy air and Olympic pressure, you might expect athletes to bundle up at the Milano Cortina Games – but not Benjamin Karl. The Austrian snowboarder, 40 years old and competing in his fifth Olympic Games, powered to victory in the men’s parallel giant slalom on Sunday, claiming his second consecutive gold medal.

And because no perfect Olympic moment is complete without a little flair, Karl’s celebration quickly became one of the standout images of the day. Moments after crossing the line, he ripped off his shirt, flexed to the cameras, dropped on to the snow face down and pumped his arms in triumph.

South Korea’s Kim Sang-kyum (left), Austria’s Benjamin Karl (centre) and Bulgaria’s Tervel Zamfirov savour their medals. Photograph: Hannah Peters/Getty Images

The move was not spontaneous, though. It was a long-planned tribute to the Austrian skiing legend Hermann Maier, Karl’s childhood hero, who once celebrated in much the same way. “He was one of the greatest skiers of all time in Austria and he once did this,” Karl said. “I always wanted to do the same. I lost the chance in Beijing because I was so overwhelmed from emotions, and today I took the chance. I needed to wait 25 years to make this pose like Hermann Maier. Now I did it and this is the crown of my career.”

The victory itself was classic Karl: composed, precise and just dramatic enough. He edged South Korea’s Kim Sang-kyum by 0.19sec to secure his fourth Olympic medal, adding to silver from Vancouver 2010, bronze from Sochi 2014 and gold from Beijing. Having already completed the full Olympic medal set, Karl admitted he felt unusually calm heading into the race, carrying less pressure than many of his rivals. With retirement confirmed after this season, the scene felt fitting: part triumph, part tribute and entirely unforgettable.

Elsewhere, Norway’s Sander Eitrem proved that sometimes the favourites really do deliver. The 23-year-old world-record holder skated to a commanding gold in the men’s 5,000m, setting an Olympic-record time of 6:03.95 and finishing more than two and a half seconds clear of the field. The Czech teenager Metodej Jilek surged to silver, while Italy’s Riccardo Lorello sent the home crowd into raptures with bronze.

Competing at his very first Olympics, Eitrem handled the pressure like a seasoned champion. Even an awful start could not slow him down; he quickly found his rhythm, and powered through the closing laps. His victory also added to Norway’s growing medal haul in Milano Cortina, making him the nation’s third gold medallist of the Games and delivering Norway’s 29th Olympic speed skating title overall.

‘I ‌put myself in a favourite position, so the pressure has been pretty high the last couple of days. I managed to ‌pull it off.’ Sander Eitrem had to wait for the final pair before knowing the gold was his. Photograph: Robert Ghement/EPA

The result hints at a changing of the guard in the 5,000m, with the traditionally dominant Dutch team missing the podium in a second straight speed skating distance at these Games. While the Netherlands still reign supreme in the sport’s all-time medal table, Milano Cortina is already showing that Olympic speed skating’s future may look a little different.

The Canadian figure skater Madeline Schizas spent part of her competition week balancing the pressures of the Games with a slightly more familiar challenge: a university assignment she suddenly realised was already overdue.

The 22-year-old discovered on Saturday that her sociology coursework had been due the day before – right as she was competing in the women’s short programme of the team event. Schizas emailed her professor to explain the mix-up, then shared the situation with her Instagram followers, which quickly went viral, posting a screenshot of her apology alongside the official announcement of her Olympic participation.

“Since it seems everyone was quite invested, I did get my extension lol,” she posted before competing in the final free programme.

As it stands

Norway lead the emoji table with three gold medals. Will they stay top for the whole of the Games?

1 🇳🇴 Norway 🥇 3 🥈 1 🥉 2 – Total: 6
2 🇺🇸 United States 🥇 2 🥈 0 🥉 0 – Total: 2
3 🇮🇹 Italy 🥇 1 🥈 2 🥉 6 – Total: 9
4 🇯🇵 Japan 🥇 1 🥈 2 🥉 1 – Total: 4
5 🇦🇹 Austria 🥇 1 🥈 2 🥉 0 – Total: 3
6 🇩🇪 Germany 🥇 1 🥈 1 🥉 1 – Total: 3
7 🇨🇿 Czech Republic 🥇 1 🥈 1 🥉 0 – Total: 2
7 🇫🇷 France 🥇 1 🥈 1 🥉 0 – Total: 2
7 🇸🇪 Sweden 🥇 1 🥈 1 🥉 0 – Total: 2
10 🇨🇭 Switzerland 🥇 1 🥈 0 🥉 0 – Total: 1

Picture of the day

American fans watch the big screen in shock as Lindsey Vonn crashes during the women’s downhill. The 41-year-old was airlifted off the course and had surgery on a broken leg in Treviso. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

Further reading from the Guardian

• Lindsey Vonn airlifted to hospital after crashing out of downhill race

• Vonn’s crash is violent but honest ending to unprecedented bid

• Breezy Johnson embraces the beauty and madness of downhill to win gold

• Ilia Malinin holds off resurgent Japan to seal repeat US team figure skating gold

• Team GB dreams of Magic Monday and a hat-trick of Olympic medals

• The world heard JD Vance being booed. Except for viewers in the US

• Trump calls Hunter Hess ‘a real loser’ for skier’s ambivalence about representing US

• Winter Olympics day two – in pictures

Full schedule | Results | Medal table

What to look out for today

Times are all in local time in Milan and Cortina. For Sydney it is +10 hours, for London it is -1 hour, for New York it is -6 hours and San Francisco it is -9 hours.

• Curling – 10.05am, 6.05pm: mixed doubles continue with the semi-finals during the late session: GB v Sweden and USA v Italy.

• Alpine skiing – 10.30am and 2pm🥇: two skiers race in one discipline each (downhill and slalom) in this event built for drama.

• Freestyle skiing – 12.30pm🥇: Kirsty Muir will compete in the women’s slopestyle final for a second consecutive Games.

• Speed skating – 5.30pm🥇: the women’s 1000m final takes place.

• Figure skating – 7.20pm: rhythm dance qualifiers begin with Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the USA as the favourites. Team GB’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson and Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez are also in action.

• Snowboard – 7.30pm🥇: Austria’s Anna Gasser will be aiming for her third consecutive gold in big air.

• Ski jumping – 7pm and 8.12pm🥇: two runs of the men’s normal hill individual.

The last word

From left to right: the silver medallist Jonas Müller of Austria, gold medallist Max Langenhan of Germany and bronze medallist Dominik Fischnaller of Italy after the men’s singles luge. Photograph: Daniel Dal Zennaro/EPA

I don’t care that my last run wasn’t perfect, I’m just super happy. I’m going to have a lot of beer. My family’s here, my best friend is here and it’s going to be a good party – Austria’s Jonas Müller after winning silver in the men’s luge singles. He was pipped by Max Langenhan, who broke ​the track record four times in a row to win gold. Germany have now won 12 of the 17 men’s singles golds available since luge joined the Olympics in 1964.

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