Winter Olympics live: Horror crash in bobsleigh before Team GB go for curling gold – UK Times

“Bit lost for words to be honest,” said Hall, who saw Team GB drop from third to seventh after a poor second run.

“We had a really good first run, third place and then the second run got away from us. Don’t really know where so we’re going to go have to go back and look at the videos and see what happened. It felt like a nice run to me but we lost some time.

“I could see some of the clocks on the way down the track and we were in the green at turn seven so it must have been something from that point onwards. I’m really not sure what happened there.”

It proved a cursed second heat in Cortina with two more crashes ensuing before the end of the day’s action.

The French team, who were 26th after their first run, were next to suffer a heavy crash before Trinidad & Tobago – the last team to go – also crashed out.

However, in both cases, all four athletes from the respective crews were able to walk back to the athlete area, including British-born Trinidad & Tobago athlete Axel Brown.

Austrian bobsleigh pilot Jakob Mandlbauer was taken away on stretcher after being involved in a horror crash earlier today in the Winter Olympics four-man final.

Team GB’s Greg Hackett spoke on the incident after their second run, which saw the Brits drop from third to seventh, and seemed to allay fears over the severity of the injuries suffered.

Hackett told BBC Sport: “It is a dangerous sport. Thankfully the boys came back up to the changing rooms so his crew are OK. Jakob I think is in hospital but it seems he can move, he’s alright.

“It’s a serious thing. We’re here to compete, that’s one thing, but we’re all mates, we all get along internationally so you never want to see anyone go down and their Olympic experience ending that way, no-one wants to see that either.

“Hopefully they’re all OK and ready to go tomorrow.”

Controversy has erupted in the curling at the Winter Olympics, with Great Britain dragged into the explosive fallout following cheating accusations against the Canadian team, who Team GB face in the final tonight.

Last Friday, Canada’s men’s side was accused by Sweden of breaking the rules by repeatedly double-touching the curling stone after release, leading to swear words being exchanged on the ice.

After Canada denied the claims, the team’s third, Marc Kennedy, responded by furiously insisting, “I haven’t done it once. You can f*** off”. Footage of Kennedy clearing touching the stone after release later went viral.

20 February: Norway 1-9 Switzerland

19 February: Switzerland 5-8 Great Britain

19 February: Canada 5-4 Norway

11 February: China 4-9 Great Britain

12 February: Great Britain 6-3 Sweden

13 February: Great Britain 7-9 Italy

14 February: Czech Republic 4-7 Great Britain

15 February: Germany 4-9 Great Britain

15 February: Great Britain 5-6 Switzerland

16 February: Great Britain 6-7 Norway

17 February: Canada 9-5 Great Britain

18 February: USA 2-9 Great Britain

Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo has won the 50km cross-country race to become first athlete to win six golds at a single Winter Games.

Martin Loewstroem Nyenget won silver and the bronze went to Emil Iversen in a sweep for Norway.

Team GB have been in four-man bobsleigh action this morning and pilot Brad Hall had put them in medal contention after the first run.

However, his second heat did not go to plan with GB losing a lot of time, dropping from third place to seventh.

The British coaches looked dejected as the sleigh crossed the line, with GB clocking in a sub-optimal time of 55.04.

They’ll need to pick themselves up going into day two if they want to salvage this.

Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo has hit the front in the men’s 50km cross country with just three kilometres to ski.

Klæbo won his tenth career Olympic gold medal and is now on course to win his sixth gold medal at a single Winter Olympics, sweeping the cross country events in an unprecedented feat.

However, he’s being challenged by compatriot Martin Loewstroem Nyenget, with the pair going cat and mouse at the front.

Andrew Musgrave of Great Britain is out of medal contention but is skiing an impressive race, finding himself in sixth.

Four years on from a frustrating debut Winter Olympics, and nearly two weeks from the start of Milano-Cortina, Britain’s Zoe Atkin arrives in Livigno as the hot favourite.

The 23-year-old was the top qualifier in the freeski halfpipe, with longtime rival and defending champion Eileen Gu of China down in fifth.

Atkin finished ninth in Beijing but is a very different prospect now: the Stanford student is reigning world champion and the X Games gold medallist, claiming the title only a couple of weeks before the Olympics began.

She is expecting a very different experience to the 2022 Games, held under the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic when she was just 19.