Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games Day 2: Highlights
Highlights and all the results from Day 2 at the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games.
Day 2 of Lausanne 2020 brought four medals in alpine ski combined and biathlon, a sparkling short program from You Young, and so much more.
Scroll down to find highlights and how it all went down.
Day 2 Highlights
Top Moments
8:05pm - Tschüss!
And that's it from us, Day 2 has been a blast, come back tomorrow for more live blog magic.
All the updates, all the time.
7:57pm - Italy freeze out Sweden
Italian skip Francesco de Zanna stays cool, clears out the Swedish stone and it's all over.
That's another victory for Italy, it finishes 7-3, their second 7-3 victory in two days after they downed the USA by the same score yesterday.
The Italians looking very strong in Lausanne.
The mixed team round robins continue at 10am tomorrow morning, catch it live on our stream and follow along right here on the blog.
7:46pm - Italy with a double steal!
More cracking curling from Italy, that play left two yellow stones in the house meaning a double steal at the top of the 7th end.
It's Italy 7-3 Sweden, the Swedes have to score 4 in the 8th and final end to send it to a 9th deciding end.
They'll have to work some magic here.
Sweden need to score with all three remaining stones now, they need some serious mistakes from Italy.
7:26pm - Curling continues
Back at the Champery Curling Arena it's all action, Sweden-Italy is a quality contest, currently 5-3 to Italy but Sweden have the hammer and a couple of stones rocking the house.
The other matches look like this:
Japan 6-1 Czech Republic
Sweden 3-4 Italy
USA 6-0 Latvia
Russia 8-2 South Korea
6:31pm - You Young wins Lausanne 2020 short program
And another top skate from our final performer Alina Urushadze, she's delighted with her 63.10 and goes into 5th place.
But the night belongs to You Young, the Korean skater has delivered on all that promise.
Our onsite reporter just spoke to the Korean starlet:
“I didn’t do a triple Axel today because it’s junior and it’s more comfortable this way. I will try to do it maybe in my free skate.”
The free skate is on Monday 13th January, live on Olympic Channel, don't miss it!
6:24pm - You Young lights up Lausanne
An epic skate to epic music from this superstar skater, what a performance.
Sparkling with quality and talent, fizzing with belief, that's how you execute a program so perfectly crafted.
A fine triple toe-triple toe combination, effortless double axel, fast, centred level 4 spins, and the best triple loop we've seen at Lausanne 2020.
Sensational.
And after all that she falls on the bow!
Haha, and she can laugh at herself, lovely human moment for this superhuman skater.
Performing to O Verona, Slow Movement, and Morning from "Romeo and Juliet" soundtrack) by Craig Armstrong, You Young has lived up to expectation here.
And she's topped the charts, 73.51 is the leading score, and surely one that will win this short program.
6:16pm - Take a bow Alessia Tornaghi
That's a stunning skate from Italian skater Alessia Tornaghi, who performed to the gorgeous sounds of Sergey Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 and No. 1.
And she did justice to the famous Rach 3 landing a triple toe triple toe combination, she stepped out of her next jump then landed a double Axel.
62.19 for Tornaghi.
You Young up next.
5:58pm - Sinitsyna sets the standard
Russian skater Kseniia Sinitsyna sails into the lead scoring 71.77, below her personal best.
Pure elegance on the ice, she made those technical elements look easy:
Triple loop, double Axel, and a triple Lutz-triple toe combination, so impressive the way she lost speed completely and somehow conjured the triple toe out of absolutely nothing.
That's a mark of a top skater when they can solve problems on the spot.
Beat that!
5:55pm - Excited coach alert!
5:36pm - Short program Final group running order
Here come the top seeds, and while we won't see any quads or triple Axels (Not allowed under junior rules) there will be a dizzying array of triple toes, triple loops, triple Lutzes and triple triples.
Here's the order:
- SINITSYNA Kseniia RUS
- KIIBUS Eva-Lotta EST
- RYABOVA Ekaterina AZE
- TORNAGHI Alessia ITA
- YOU Young KOR
- URUSHADZE Alina GEO
Russia's Ana Frolova leads the standings right now on 69.07 points, we caught up with her backstage:
“I didn’t skate the way I wanted and I want get better. I wasn’t nervous for this competition because I feel the enormous support."
Not the first time we've heard a Russian skater say they want more from their own performances, such a hungry squad, perfectionists to the last.
5:30pm - LIVE!
5:22pm - You too Young to be Yuna?
Can Korean starlet You Young live up to the hype?
Really looking forward to seeing her skate here.
Young went one better than her idol Yuna Kim by winning Korean nationals aged 11, but she still gets nervous around her hero.
5:15pm - Vai Brasil!
It's been a tough run for Brazil's curlers at Lausanne 2020 so far but this was a top moment as the crowd gave a massive cheer for the Brazilian's first point.
Can't imagine there are too many curling sheets to practice on down the Copacabana.
Vai Brasil!!
5:07pm - Kawabe Mana into the lead!
The quality at junior level really is astonishingly good.
Now the Japanese junior champion has taken the lead after an electrifying skate that the crowd really got into.
The elevation on that triple loop was enormous, and some spectacular spins, but a performance popping with energy and enthusiasm.
Kawabe came 13th in the senior nationals and there's so much more to come from this star in the making.
65.84 sees her rocket to the top of the standings.
4:58 - Over the rainbow
And it's 14-year-old Kate Wang from the USA who starts off the second group skating to 'Somewhere over the Rainbow'.
Another wonderful skate, so natural, she looks like she enjoyed that, Wang is coached by Jeff Crandel in San Francisco
Technically Wang nailed a triple toe-triple toe opening combination and completed a triple loop and a double Axel too.
Very good transitions, summons real power despite that slight frame.
54.75 the score. Everyone expected higher, including Kate by the look on her face in the kiss and cry but that puts her into second.
It's a U.S. 1-2 for now, Audrey Shin still in the lead.
4:54pm - Short program: Group 2 coming up
Expect the skating to step up a level in this next group, we have skaters on the ice spinning triples around like it's nothing.
This is going to be good.
U.S. skater leads after the first group of five skaters.
4:52pm - Today's podcast drops
Olympic gold medallist Aksel Lund Svindal and a Pakistani skier who made history yesterday feature on today's podcast.
Click below to listen!
4:44pm - Curling results
Our second session of curling is done for the day, here's all the results so far, one more sesh to come later from 6-8.15pm.
New Zealand 6-4 France
Slovenia 6-5 Norway
Turkey 5-1 GBR (Big surprise this one!)
Spain 9 - 3 Estonia
Germany 8-4 Denmark
China 14-1 Brazil
Switzerland 8-2 Hungary
Canada 6-4 Poland
4:30pm - Great skate from USA's Audrey Shin
Another really impressive skate from U.S. skater Audrey Shin who's coached by Rafael Artunian.
She opens with a triple Lutz-triple toeloop, sensational!
A little hesitation on the double Axel there, but Shin has so much potential, she looks weightless across the ice, skates hardly touching the surface.
She scores 60.36 points - a personal best!
A big step for Audrey Shin, she goes into first and looks delighted.
4:20pm - Short program: Canada opens affairs
Catherine Carle is our first skater and opens with a perfectly executed triple toe, triple toe, so promising.
Oh, what a shame, she pops out of the triple loop, looks like she hit a rut in the ice.
And that's costly, 49.57 for the Canadian, she looks disappointed after such a good start.
4:16pm - Swiss crowd gets behind Lausanne 2020
There's another packed house at the Lausanne Skating Arena, the local support here has been amazing for this event.
Such great support.
To prove it, here's the crowd reaction for local Swiss ice dance pair Gina Zehnder and Beda Leon Sieber as they took to the ice.
4:07pm - Women's short program up next
Time for the women's short program, here's the running order:
3:49pm - Daily podcast: listen now!
We have a daily podcast coming to you from the heart of Lausanne, they're about 12 minutes long and are packed with stars and great interviews.
In this episode storied Olympian Stephane Lambiel talks up Shoma Uno's future saying there are 'no limits'.
Listen in!
3:45pm - Ice hockey flash mob
And St. Moritz has seen a ice hockey rink pop up on the edges of the frozen lake where the speed skating is set to take place.
Got skates? Grab a stick and get involved!
3:41pm - Cast in ice
Gotta love these ice sculptures outside where the athletes are staying in St. Moritz.
3:19pm - Ice dance: Russia 1,2 Canada 3,4
At the end of the ice dance pairs Russians Irina Khavronina and Dario Cirisano lead on 63.52 points, just ahead of fellow Russian duo Sofya Tyutyunina and Alexander Shustitskiy who put in a stunning skate and could easily have gone top.
The two Canadian pairs are in 3rd and 4th place, Natalie D'Alessandro / Bruce Waddell (59.61) and Katarina Wolfkostin / Jeffrey Chen (57.02), both still well in contention.
Don't miss the free dance on Monday morning starting at 11:30am.
3:12pm - Russia on the double in biathlon
It's official!
Russia's Oleg Domichek wins the men's 12.5km biathlon, following Alena Mokhova who won the women's 10k earlier.
Austria's Lukas Haslinger wins silver and it's bronze for France's Mathieu Garcia.
2:36pm - Utana and Shingo into second
The Japanese star skaters Utana Yoshida and Shingo Nishiyama are on the ice, great chemistry and character, but oh no, that fall will cost them, that's a shame.
Lovely unison on the twizzles, a beautiful rotational lift.
And... 56.38, that puts them into second place behind the Russian pair.
2:23pm - Russia leads Biathlon
Austria's Lukas Haslinger leads the 12.5km biathlon with a time of 34:23.0, overtaking Germany's Elias Asal who finished in 35:05.8 but wait...
That's fast, Russia's Oleg Domichek is into the lead clocking 34:09.4.
This was a staggered start, not a mass start, and the final competitor has just started so it'll be a little while before we confirm a winner on this one.
2:05pm - Ice dance full house
The second group of skaters have just completed their warm-up, look out for Japan national champs Utana Yoshida and Shingo Nishiyama, the Russian pair looked seriously fast in the warm-up too.
There's a great atmosphere inside the stadium, another sell-out at the Lausanne Skating Arena.
They're first on the ice, the Russians Irina Khavronina and Dario Cirisano...
Great speed, slightly out of sync on the twizzles but overall these two are confident and accomplished skaters and that is a superb spin!
63.52 puts them into the lead!
Their technical score is way ahead, that'll be hard to beat.
1:40pm - Brother and sister duo take the ice
Giulia Tuba and Andrea Tuba from Rome get us started in the best possible way, a swinging treat as they dance to Foxtrot: 42nd Street and set the standard at 47.79 points.
And the second pair put on the performance of their career so far, Czech skaters Denisa Cimlova and Vilem Hlavsa score 50.06, 9 points better than they've ever scored before.
The music and dancing is really entertaining at these rhythm dances, we just saw a tea-time foxtrot, great personality.
Singing in the rain is the next song to be performed by the Ukraine pair.
1:29pm - Ice dancers ready
Sparkly dresses, undone bow ties, waistcoats tastefully garnished with blue handkerchiefs, must be the ice dance is ready!
Here's the start list:
1:05pm - Her mum's an Olympian, her dad's an Olympian...
Amanda Salzgeber is currently top of the combined... and she's won!
Gold for Austria's Salzgeber!
The daughter of Olympic gold medallist Anita Wachter and former world slalom silver medallist Rainer Salzgeber has claimed Winter Youth Olympic gold!
And Noa Szollos has doubled Israel's delight by winning their second ever Winter Games medal!
Silver for Szollos.
It's another medal for Swiss skier Amelie Kloppfestein too who stunned the world by winning Super G gold yesterday, she adds bronze to her tally.
Here's how it finished and final combined times:
- Amanda Salzgeber 1:33.74
- Noa Szollos 1:34.69
- Amelie Kloppfestein 1:34.85
12:50pm Women's Figure skating short program
The women's figure skating short program is up today starting at 4:10pm CET, and before that we have the ice dance rhythm, coming up in just over half an hour.
Here's some sneak phone footage we took at the Lausanne skating arena last night:
12:36pm - Crazy views
A luge athlete walks down to the start line at practise today in St. Moritz. Hard not to be inspired by that.
12:23pm - Slovenia turn it around!
Another unpredictable curling match ends in a Slovenian victory after a remarkable comeback, Slovenia came back from 3-0 down against Norway to win 6-5 after the match went into a 9th sudden death end.
The Slovenian skip Bine Sever came up with a couple of big plays including the winning point.
12:09pm - History for Israel
Well done to Israel's Noa Szollos who won Israel's first ever Winter Games medal in alpine ski Super G yesterday.
Clapping emojis...
11:57am - Russia open account
And our second medal event is in, Russia's Alena Mokhova wins the women's 10km biathlon.
She broke away at the third checkpoint and had a clear lead approaching the finish line, taking gold in 32:26.7.
France's Jeanne Richard claims silver in 33:30.5, and Belarus are on the board too, Yuliya Kavaleuskaya clocking 33:59.5 to bag bronze.
11:53am - Luge lightning
Luge athletes reach up to 120 kph on what is a very fast, hand-built track at St. Moritz.
We slowed this one down just a bit.
11:31am - Double gold in alpine ski combined!
The men's combined is finished and we have a tie at the top, that means two gold medals!
Auguste Aulnette from France and Norway's Mikkel Remsoey have a combined time of: 1:28.41 - exactly the same!
That is incredible.
Swede Adam Hofstedt claims bronze (No silver medal as there are two golds), that's his second medal after winning Super G gold yesterday.
Super effort from Adam.
11:27am - Norway-Slovenia hots up
Slovenia have fought their way back into this one, it's 4-2.
Wait.. wait...
Two superb draws into the middle of the house gives Slovenia 2 points, an it's all even!
4-4 going into end 7, Norway with the hammer.
Top class curling.
11:18am - Snowman alert!
Never let it be said that there's a cold welcome in Swtizerland.
This friendly face greets sliders at the daunting “Horse shoe” bend of the Olympia Bob Run, St. Moritz.
11:07am - Preps
Skiers mentally ‘visualize’ the course before a race here’s Sophie Matthieu from Italy getting in the zone.
10:53am - Speed skating on a frozen lake
1948 was the last time Lausanne hosted a Winter Olympic event, the speed skating was held on the iconic St. Moritz lake.
Now in 2020 the lake will once again be used as the venue for speed skating in a nod to history and Olympic legacy.
But how do you prepare a frozen lake for Olympic-level competition?
Watch here.
10:51am - Emma Resnick shufflin' to the top
Skiing is like dancing says the USA's latest ski prodigy, word is she skis even better than she dances...
10:35pm - Norway in da house
Noway go 3 up against Slovenia, amazing to watch these stones that way nearly 20 kilos glide across the ice, Norway have a crowded house now, three yellow stones in the zone.
10:15am - Morning!
It's a pleasant morning here in Lausanne, the sun competing with the clouds and the Lausanne 2020 action is already underway!
Not too far now from the start of the first medal events in alpine skiing and biathlon.
Curling is already underway, Norway vs. Slovenia is live on Olympic Channel, good start for Norway who are leading 2-0.
We also have the ice hockey mixed NOC 3-on-3 competition which started at 9am this morning, it's a totally new concept and format.
Day 2 Preview
Day 1 brought us an memorable day as three of four gold medals went to the hosts, and identical twins ended up on the podium!
And we're expecting no less fun and fantastic sport on Day 2.
There are four more medals up for grabs today: two in alpine skiing and two in biathlon.
We'll also see figure skating, ice hockey, curling, and training runs in luge and skeleton.
Alpine skiing combined
The male alpine skiing combined slalom race will see the 30 best ranked of yesterday Super G face off in slalom at Les Diablerets.
The best aggregated time of yesterday's Super G and today's slalom will win the combined event.
Innsbruck 2012 gold medallist Marco Schwarz from Austria won a silver medal at PyeongChang 2018.
Ones to watch: Swiss skier Luc Roduit leads the FIS YOG points list in alpine combined, Fin Jaako Tapanainen is 3rd on that list, and Rok Aznoh from Slovakia impressed at the junior worlds last year among much older skiers.
Keep an eye on Austrian Vincent Wieser and Italian Marco Abbruzzese too.
And of course, these Super G podiumers (No, that's not a word) who take that advantage to the slalom slope.
- Adam Hofstdedt SWE 54.56
- Rok Aznoh SLO 54.62
- Luc Roduit SUI 54.76
On the girl's side no non-European skier has won a medal and there's a strong European contingent that wants to keep it that way.
Amelie Klopfenstein, sprung the surprise of the day yesterday when she won gold Super G yesterday.
She made the Swiss team as a reserve and the day before the race she was sick and missed the training run.
These three take this time advantage into the combined today, but as we saw yesterday, anything can happen.
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Amelie Klopfenstein 56.27
-
Caitlin McFarlane 56.35
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Noa Szollos 56.36
Only Sweden, France, Netherlands, Switzerland x2, Germany have medalled in this event.
Ones to watch: Delia Durrer is the 2019 Junior Swiss championships silver medallist, Sweden's Hanna Aronsson Elfman is fast, Italy's Sophie Mathiou and Alice Calaba are tipped to do some damage, Swede Wilma Marklund is quietly confident, and don't be surprised to see France's Caitlin McFarlane perform some alchemy and turn yesterda's silver into today's gold.
Biathlon women’s individual 10km and men's 12.5km
This will be the first time that the biathlon individual 10km and 12.5km events are staged at the Winter YOG.
10k Ones to watch: Sweden's Sara Andersson and Kaja Zorc from Slovakia finished in the top 25 at the youth world champs in 2019 competing against older athletes.
And these are all contenders too: Lisbeth Liiv (EST), Anastasiia Zenova (RUS), Johanna Puff (GER), Yara Burkhalter (SUI), Gabriela Masarikova (CZE), Ema Kapustova (SVK), Lena Repinc (SLO), Jenna Sherrington (CAN), Anna Nedza-Kubiniec (POL).
In the men's 12.5km event keep a look out for: Stepan Kinash (UKR), Marcin Zawol (POL), Mathieu Garcia (FRA), Kasper Rutkowski (POL), Lukas Weissbacher (AUT), Stian Fedreheim (NOR), Markus Epner (GER), Tuudor Palm (EST), Campbell Wright (NZL).
Figure Skating: Ice dance
Look out for Utana Yoshida and Shingo Nishiyama in the ice dance rhythm dance tomorrow.
This edgy pair are Japan National champions 2019 and look ready to rock Lausanne 2020.
You Young: Must watch in women's short program
At 11 years of age most of us were drawing around our hands and trying to work out what three times 17 is.
At eleven You Young was winning her first senior Korean figure skating championship.
Yes, eleven.
She was younger than even national icon Yuna Kim who took that title when she was just 12, and since then Young has proved her talent over and over again, winning the national title four times.
The 15-year-old jumps triple Axels, finished above PyeongChang silver medallist Evgenia Medvedeva at Skate Canada 2019 and is one of the strong favourites to win the Lausanne 2020 girls' singles gold medal.
She's in action between 4.10pm and 6.35pm live on Olympic Channel.
Lausanne 2020 Day 2 Schedule
January 11th
Alpine Skiing
10:30 - 11:30 Men’s Alpine Combined Slaom
12:30 - 13:30 Women’s Alpine Combined Slalom
Biathlon
10:30 - 12:05 Women’s Individual 10km
13:30 - 15:15 Men’s Individual 12.5km
Ice Hockey Mixed NOC 3-on-3 tournament
09:00 - 12:00 Men’s Round 2
12:00 - 15:00 Women’s Round 2
16:00 - 19:00 Men’s Round 3
19:00 - 22:00 Women’s Round 3
Figure Skating
13:30 - 15:10 Ice Dance Rhythm Dance
16:10 - 18:35 Women’s Singles 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!