Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games Day 1: Highlights

Day 1 brought us our first medals of Lausanne 2020 and so much more.

Scroll down to find highlights and how it all went down.

Lausanne 2020 Day 1 Highlights

Top Moment!

8:30pm - Bonsoir, Guet Nacht, Buona Notte and Buna saira

That's it from us, it's been fun.

Come back tomorrow where we'll have a fresh new live blog packed with stuff informing you, entertaining you, making you laugh until you cry. Or maybe just cry.

Come back anyway.

See you on Day 2!

Shots of the day.

8:01pm - Crunchtime curling

We're getting to the business end in these mixed curling round robin games, China have just conceded to the Swiss who win despite a courageous comeback from the Chinese stone-sliders.

It finished 5-3 to Switzerland.

Germany gave Brazil a lesson in curling winning 15-1, Japan overcame Sweden 7-4, and Hungary look good against Denmark, leading 6-2 - that's now a final result too.

The round robins will continue tomorrow with all of these teams in action again.

7:49pm - Hot tech

One of our fearless (and freezing) reporters spotted this while out and about on the St. Moritz frozen lake speed skating track today.

Think our man in St. Moritz was a bit jealous of these battery-powered warming gloves the Czech coaching team were using to stay snug and cozy in -9 degrees.

7:15pm - The future of Chinese curling?

We've seen some excellent shots already today, this was a great play by China.

Are we watching the future stars of the Beijing 2022 Winter Games here?

7:07pm - Twin peaks

And here come our Swiss identical twins who won gold and silver in the first ever WYOG skimo event.

The crowd is singing 'ole, ole ole ole ole...', but they stop as the Swiss anthem rings out.

Respect.

Relive that incredible moment at the finish line here, an historic hug.

Well done too to Nils Oberauer from Austria who claimed bronze behind the brothers.

7:01pm - Winter is Coming

And we have our first medal ceremony of Lausanne 2020!

It's packed! And no surprise really when you consider that the hosts won three of four gold medals on offer today.

And the opening song was a tune from Game of Thrones!

Plenty of ice and fire already in Lausanne.

Swiss skier Amelie Klopfenstein won the first gold medal of the Games in alpine skiing Super G, Caitlin McFarlane from France collects her silver and Israel's Noa Szollos looks chuffed with her bronze.

As she should.

Well done to all three!

6:35pm - Curling's back

We're back on the sheets with curling.

Switzerland currently locked 1-1 with China, Hungary lead Denmark 3-0, Brazil trail Germany by 3, and Japan are 2-1 up against Sweden.

6:26pm - Mozalev: "There is no special trick"

Andrei Mozalev finished first in the short program and we managed to get backstage and get a few words with him, after he patiently posed for all the photos and signed all the things.

“There is no special trick," he said after finishing in front of Kagiyama and Samsonov, "I have three quads coming up and I want to focus on that now.”

So what's it like at Lausanne 2020?

“The Youth Olympic Games is a very unforgettable experience. They are different from the other competitions because it’s Olympic. Of course, I dream to make it to Beijing2022 but time will show if I can.”

6:06pm - Andrei Mozalev takes the lead

The junior level duel in the Russian camp is always fascinating to watch.

At the Junior Grand Prix Final in Torino this past December Andrei Mozalev denied Daniil Samsonov a silver medal behind winner Shun Sato, and he's done it again here.

79.72 points put Mozalev 3 points ahead of Samsonov.

The top three after the short program must be favourites before the free skate.

They can bring the quads into play in the free and it's going to be fascinating.

6pm - Samsonov fights back

14-year-old Daniil Samsonov showed amazing strength of character there, he got his first element completely wrong then skated completely clean after that.

Composure beyond his years, and that triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination.

Wow.

Such power from the diminutive figure.

And he's handsomely rewarded.

76.62 puts him into first place.

5:59pm - Kagiyama highlights

5:55pm - Junhwan Cha

Another young skater impressed today, watch this speech:

5:51pm - Aleksa Rakic lights up Lausanne

Classy skating from Canada's 15-year-old Aleksa Rakic, he's coached by Kevin Reynolds and you can tell.

A nice clean double Axel starts things off, and that triple loop is immaculate.

Emotive, expressive skating from Rakic skating to 'Star Gazer', he's great to watch.

70.96

5:42pm - Kagiyama Yuma is up!

This 16-year-old Japanese star skates like a dream. don't miss it.

A triple loop to start, scraped it out with his free leg, a perfect triple Axel to follow, he's skating to piano concerto, a flowing elegant piece of music that really suits his style.

But ouch, he runs out of road and crashes into the pads, that should have been a triple Lutz-triple toe, luckily those pads are soft and he carries on.

He's got his head in his hands, he knows those are mistakes he never makes, Kagiyama didn't reach the heights we've grown used to seeing from him.

Still impressive, still full of energy and execution, that triple Axel was sublime.

He still scores 72.76 points and rockets into the lead, 1st place for Kagiyama.

5:26pm - Live show is Live!

5:24pm - Here come the heavies

Get ready, here come the final five, the top seeded skaters yet to perform in the men's short program.

The quad squad is here! But of course, quads are not allowed in the short program, you'll have to tune into the free skate for that.

Here's the order:

KAGIYAMA Yuma JPN

RAKIC Aleksa CAN

SAMSONOV Daniil RUS

MOZALEV Andrei RUS

CHA Younghyun KOR

5:04pm - Kokura claims the lead

Stunning short program from Ukraine's Andrey Kokura, that triple tho...

He's straight into the lead on 62.48 points.

The three favourites are still to come: Kagiyama Yuma and Russians Daniil Samsonov and Andrei Mozalev.

The Lausanne skating ring is packed to the rafters, and rocking!

4:45pm - "Yuzu really inspires me"

Noah Bodenstein's star is on the rise, the local Swiss skater brought the house down with his short program.

Here's what he said afterwards:

"My goal at this competition is to fight well and try to do it as clean as I can, if I do a couple of mistakes and I don't fight afterwards then I'll be disappointed.

"But if I manage to fight well and do the other elements, I'll be happy."

So what was it like to work with legendary Swiss skater Stephane Lambiel?

"It was inspiring."

Bodenstein trains at the Toronto Cricket Club and often watches double Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu train.

"Yuzuru inspires me a lot. It's really crazy to sit down and watch them skate because they're really champions, so you just sit back and look, and wow, it's really nice."

So does he speak to Hanyu?

"I spoke a couple of times to Yuzu, but he's really focused all the time, he comes to the rink and does his job and just goes."

4:38pm - Sky Brown had fun last night!

Sky Brown is a skateboarder and a surfer who may make it to Tokyo 2020 and she's just 11!

Look at all the fun she had at last night's Opening ceremony!

4:32pm - Yuma Kagiyama to make Lausanne 2020 his own?

Do you think having your Dad as your coach would be a good or a bad thing?

Yuma is following in his father's footsteps into the world of competitive figure skating, we sat down with Yuma in Lausanne, find out what he has to say here.

4:21pm - Big cheer for Noah Bodenstein

Lovely home welcome for this young Lausanne local.

He's trained by Tracy Wilson at the Toronto Cricket club alongside Brian Orser, Yuzuru Hanyu and Evgenia Medvedeva and he's so comfortable on the ice...

Nails a triple toe triple loop, great spin, the crowd love it!

60.56 for this home hero, another massive cheer for Noah, and he goes straight into first place.

Here's how it stands right now, and the running order list of the remaining skaters.

4:11pm - Men's singles short program starts!

Italy's Matteo Nalbone has just been on the ice scoring 53.01, and the USA's Liam Kapeikis is on the ice right now, he has nice technique, particularly on landings, but he looked a little nervous and errors crept in.

Kapeikis scores 49.57

3:37pm - Svindal: "Be fast"

Olympic champion Aksel Lund Svindal gave us a message for all the WYOG athletes.

3:09pm - Sweden bags Super G gold

Like the great hosts they are, Switzerland has finally let another country win a gold medal.

Swede Adam Hofstedt is fastest down the slope in the alpine ski Super G, here's how it finished:

1. Adam Hofstdedt SWE 54.56
2. Rok Aznoh SLO 54.62
3. Luc Roduit SUI 54.76

2:44pm - Swiss identical twins win gold and silver!

Thomas Bussard and his identical twin brother Robin bring home skimo gold and silver... Their hug at the finish line is priceless, check out the video below.

And another local gold comes in ski mountaineering for Switzerland!

Party time in the Bussard house tonight.

2:39pm - Russian 1-2 in short program

And that's the end of the short program, it's a Russian 1-2 at the top, with Georgia's pair in third.

Here's how it stands:

1. Apollinariia Panfilova / Dmitry Rylov 71.74
2. Diana Mukhametzianova / Ilya Mironov 60.45
3. Alina Butaeva / Luka Berulava 59.14
4. Cate Fleming and Jedidah Isbell 49.87

2:27pm - Nerves? What nerves?

We caught Russian pair Apollinariia Panfilova and Dmitry Rylov after that incredible skate, a personal best and a real statement for their future in Lausanne.

Here's what Panfilova had to say: “We are happy with the skate but it wasn’t ideal. Here there are a lot of kids on the tribunes and I didn’t feel nervous at all. I was more nervous at the practice.”

2:11pm - Russian pair lay down gauntlet

Big skate from Georgia's Alina Butaeva and Luka Berulava who go straight to number 1 on 59.14 points, the crowd loved it but the two Russian pairs are in the next group and look spectacular even in the warm-up.

But watch out, here come Russian pair Apollinariia Panfilova and Dmitry Rylov, they've been unbeatable this season.

Wow, that split triple twist was some opener, the side-by-side double Axels are impressive and the throw triple Lutz is spectacular as Panfilova soars into the air.

71.74!

A new personal best for these stars of the future, that was sensational.

The remaining pairs will have to do something very special to top that.

1:59pm - Catch our live show!

Just 3.5 hours until the start of our the first Olympic Channel Live Show from Lausanne 2020.

Host Ash is getting ready to welcome some special guests (Last night skater Sky Brown was here!) to our Game Changers Hub studio inside the athletes village, also known as the Vortex.

We'll be live on the Olympic Channel Facebook and YouTube, and here on the website and across our apps.

Don't miss our digital-only pre-show from 17:23 CET, to give you an exclusive look before the full Live Show starts on all platforms at 17:30 CET.

1:51pm - Fly me to the moon!

Next up is Chinese pair Wang Yuchen and Huang Yihang dancing to that Frank Sinatra classic.

Some really lovely elements in there, the swiftness over the ice on the triple twist and the height so impressive, then they tried a daring triple toe throw, huge height - too much really - leading to a fall, but these two look like they could have a big future in pairs.

46.96 their score, they go into second behind the U.S. duo.

1:34pm - Figure skating pairs on the ice

The six minute warm-up is over and we have our first pair on the ice, the German national champions Letizia Roscher and Luis Schuster.

They score 42.80, a few errors and under rotations, but a fluent skate overall, a good start.

Cate Fleming and Jedidah Isbell of the USA are up next, they're dancing to 'Singing in the Rain'.

Another great performance skating their international debut, fine speed and ice coverage, nice lasso lift, good sync on the side-by-side double Axels.

49.87!

That's a great start for these two.

1:28pm - BFFs!

Finding friends is easy at Lausanne 2020, what a great experience for eveyone involved.

1:07pm - And the 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games host is...

Gangwon, South Korea!

That's the same province that hosted PyeongChang 2018, the legacy of the Games continues.

We had a lovely speech from Olympian and former Youth Olympian Jun Hwan Cha, who speaks excellent English, heard a lot about potatoes, and now we have our host for the next WYOGs in four years.

See you in Korea!

You can read more here.

1:04pm - Figure skating

Read our full preview of figure skating as the most promising young stars take to the ice.

12:49pm - Next up figure skating pairs, biathlon, super G...

The boy's ski mountaineering started about half an hour ago, the boy's Super G lets loose at 1:30, the pair's figure skating short program starts in a half an hour, we'll have mixed NOC ice hockey from four, and more curling at 2.

Keep up!

12:39 - Curling results

Here are all the results from the first round of the mixed teams round robin curling from this morning:

Canada 7 - 4 Russia

South Korea 15 - 3 Estonia

Poland 9 - 6 Spain

Italy 7 - 3 USA

The next session will start at 2pm CET.

12:33 - Curling: Canada comeback!

Wow, back on the curling sheets Canada have completed a remarkable comeback.

4-1 down and in trouble the Canucks have drawn level and may have just won it with that rocking shot from Nathan Young!

Superb hit leaving three Canadian stones in the house.

Russia can't make a difficult final shot and Canada pull that one out of the fire.

Final score: Russia 4 - 7 Canada

12:12pm - More to life than medals

Of course the Olympics are about much more than medals, in the Super G we saw our first ever Pakistani skier take on the slopes.

Well done to Mia Nuriah Freidweiler from Pakistan for making history here at Lausanne 2020!

We'll speak to Mia later for tomorrow's podcast, check out our Day 1 episode that features Stephane Lambiel speak about coaching Shoma Uno and a preview of today's action.

We also spoke to some Thai skiers who have caught the skiing bug.

11:54am - Swiss Skimo 1-2

And there's more joy for the hosts as they win the second gold medal of the day too!

Ski mountaineering gold goes to Caroline Ulrich, and silver to Thibe Deseyn, the Swiss flag bearer from last night's ceremony.

Bronze belongs to France's Margot Ravinel.

Here's the moment when Ulrich crossed the finish line to become the first ever ski mountaineering gold medallist at a Winter Youth Olympics.

Sound on to hear the skibells and cowbells blaring!

11:40am - First medal of the Games!

Swiss skier Amelie Klopfenstein wins the first gold medal of the Games in apline skiing Super G.

Caitlin McFarlane wins silver and Israel's Noa Szollos wins bronze.

Look at how close it was:

1. Amelie Klopfenstein 56.27
2. Caitlin McFarlane 56.35
3. Noa Szollos 56.36

That was incredible from Klopfenstein, she wasn’t even supposed to be here, on the team as a reserve, yesterday she was sick and missed the training run.

Today she's won gold!

11:39am - No filter!

The speed skaters are out on the St. Moritz ice to practice this morning, what a stunning setting.

11:29am - Russia take control

Back at Champery Russia have really turned things around, they're 3-1 up with two stones on the button and with the hammer in hand, Canada up against it now.

Make that 4-1 after another steal!

Russia revelling in this contest against one of the big favourites.

11:08am - Women's Super G

Flying down the slopes at Les Diablerets are the next generation of Super G stars, Amanda Salzgeber, daughter of Austria’s Olympic champion Anita Wachter, went straight into the lead with her run but has since been displaced.

There were big cheers as Swiss skier Amelie Klopfenstein twisted her way into the lead, France's Caitlin McFarlane is second and Israel's Noa Szollos in the bronze medal position.

10:53am - Figure Skating: Yuma Kagiyama talks to us!

One of the most highly anticipated performers in one of the most highly anticipated events at Lausanne 2020.

Find out what Yuma has to say.

10:45am - Russia even it up

And it's 1-1!

Things warming up in this encounter, Russia even it up, Canada 1-1 Russia.

Meanwhile on the other sheets Korea are putting on a bit of a show winning 8-2 against Estonia, Korea scored five in one end, that's impressive - a bit like the USA did against Sweden at PyeongChang 2018.

Poland are 3-1 up against Spain and Italy are 5-1 up vs. the USA.

10:25am - Canada take the lead

Canada have the hammer right now, and we have our first point!

1-0 to the maple leafers, great piee of play from Canada's Nathan Young, he's been excellent already this morning.

Lauren Rajala, from the Greater Sudbury, Ontario, is leading here, she was Canada's flag-bearer at last night's Opening Ceremony.

10:05am - Lausanne is on!

Good morning from Lausanne where things are already underway and it's all sheets, stones, hammers, houses and furious sweeping.

Yes, the curling is on!

It's Russia v Canada in action and it's still 0-0 in End 2.

Watch it live right now:

Day 1 Preview:

Yesterday the party got started at the sensational Opening Ceremony, but don't worry if you missed it, you can find all the highlights here from yesterday's live blog.

The sporting action begins in earnest today with four gold medals up for grabs: two in alpine skiing and two in ski mountaineering.

We'll see four sports in total today: alpine skiing Super-G, ski-mountaineering - or 'skimo' as the cool kids call it - figure skating, ice hockey, and curling.

Alpine skiing Super-G

European girls have dominated this event since 2012, Austria is the only nation to made the podium at both Innsbruck 2012 and Lillehammer 2016.

Look out for Swiss skier Delia Durrer, U.S. speedster Lauren Macuga, Sweden's Hanna Aronsson Elfman (SWE), and Dzenifera Germane from Latvia.

Austrian Amanda Salzgeber is also heavily favoured.

That's no big surprise when you learn that that she is the daughter of two alpine skiing Olympians, her father Rainer Salzgerber competed at two Olympic Games and her mother Anita Wachter who won a gold medal at Calgary 1988, and two silver medals at Albertville 1992.

Alpine skiing Men’s Super-G

In the men's event the names to look out for are Marco Abbruzzesse (ITA), Vincent Wieser (AUT), Daniel Gillis (USA), David Kubes (CZE).

Europe has yet to win gold in this one with Morocco and USA taking one each in the last two WYOGs.

Alpine Skiing Schedule

10:15 - 11:30 Women’s Super-G

13:30 - 15:00 Men’s Super-G

Ski mountaineering

'Skimo' makes its WYOG debut at Lausanne 2020.

What is it?

Ski mountaineering is a combination sport where athletes race through (and over!) snow-covered mountains using ski skills, mountaineering abilities, and cold hard running to get to the finishing line first.

On the women's side home favourite Caroline Ulrich, the Swiss flagbearer Thibe Deseyn and Margot Ravinel (FRA), look strong - they are the three medallists from the 2019 cadet world champs in Villars.

On the men's side there's double trouble from Swiss twin brothers Robin and Thomas Bussard.

These two bros won silver and gold respectively at the age group world championships individual race in 2019.

Italian Rocco Baldini (ITA), took bronze after the two brothers and is definitely in with a shout.

Look out for Oriol Olm Rouppert from Andorra and Spaniard Ot Ferrer too.

Ski Mountaineering Schedule

10:30 - 12:30 Women’s Individual

12:30 - 14:30 Men’s Individual

Figure Skating

Figure skating starts today with men's and women's round 1, the pair's short program and the men's single short program.

Former Youth Olympic medallists include PyeongChang 2018 silver medallist Shoma Uno and rising star Sota Yamamoto, it'll be fascinating to see who captures the imagination in the Olympic Capital.

Look out for a strong Russian contingent.

Daniil Samsonov and Andrei Mozalev are two Russians on the rise, Canada's Stephen Gogolev is another medal contender in the boy's singles - he shares coach Rafael Arutunian with double world champ Nathan Chen.

And don't forget quad-jumping Japanese prodigy Yuma Kagiyama.

You Young stands out in the ladies' singles, the 15-year-old Korean lands triple Axels and has already won four Korean national titles.

Many call her 'the next Yuna Kim', she looked ready on the practice ice yesterday.

Figure Skating Schedule

13:30 - 14:40 Pairs Short Programme

16:00 - 18:25 Men’s Single Short Programme

Lausanne 2020 Day 1 Schedule

January 10th

Alpine Skiing

10:15 - 11:30 Women’s Super-G

13:30 - 15:00 Men’s Super-G

Ski Mountaineering

10:30 - 12:30 Women’s Individual

12:30 - 14:30 Men’s Individual

Ice Hockey Mixed NOC 3-on-3 tournament

16:00 - 19:00 Men’s Round 1

19:00 - 22:00 Women’s Round 1

Figure Skating

13:30 - 14:40 Pairs Short Programme

16:00 - 18:25 Men’s Single Short Programme

Curling

10:00 - 12:15 Mixed Team Round Robin

14:00 - 16:15 Mixed Team Round Robin

18:00 - 20:15 Mixed Team Round Robin

What is Lausanne 2020?

Lausanne 2020 is the third edition of the Winter Youth Olympic Games following on from Innsbruck 2012 and Lillehammer 2016.

YOGs bring together the most promising young athletes on the planet, giving the next generation of Olympic stars a stage to shine.

Lausanne 2020 will be the biggest Winter Youth Games ever with over 1870 athletes (A 40% rise on 2016) 79 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) taking part, 12 of those taking part in the WYOGs for the first time ever

Albania, Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Haiti, Hong Kong (China), Kosovo, Pakistan, Qatar, Singapore, Thailand, Turkmenistan and Trinidad & Tobago.

The Games in Lausanne in the mountains of Switzerland and France will be the first Winter Youth Olympics with equal numbers of female and male athletes.

See a list of athletes to watch here, and who to follow on social media here.

Where to watch Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games

Olympic Channel will stream 300 hours of action from the 13 days of competition in Lausanne 2020 with a dedicated Winter YOG channel available on olympicchannel.com, YouTube and connected devices such as Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Android TV and Roku.

There will be an action-packed daily live show featuring news, highlights, trending stories and interviews in a fun and interactive format streamed on Facebook, Twitter and olympicchannel.com, plus a daily Olympic Channel Podcast featuring insightful interviews with personalities from across the Olympic world.

Fans can also follow Olympic Channel's coverage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to learn more about the event, and a full Lausanne 2020 schedule can be found here.

Enjoy!