PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) - The Latest on the Pyeongchang Olympics (all times local):
12:25 a.m.
Marit Bjoergen is now the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time after her Norwegian team took bronze in the women’s cross-country skiing sprint relay, increasing her career tally to 14 Olympic medals.
Jessica Diggins and Kikkan Randall won the gold, the first ever for the United States in an Olympic cross-country skiing in one of the highlights on Day 12 at the Pyeongchang Winter Games.
U.S. Alpine star Lindsey Vonn turned in a bronze-medal performance in the last Olympic downhill of her career.
In figure skating, Russian Alina Zagitova performed a flawless “Black Swan” routine for a world-record score in the short program and a shot at gold after Friday’s free dance.
In the speedskating team pursuit event, Norway won for the men while Japan took gold for the women.
Germany’s Mariama Jamanka took the gold in women’s bobsledding despite never having won a World Cup race.
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11:30 p.m.
Germany has reached the men’s hockey semifinals at the Olympics for the first time after beating top-seeded Sweden, 4-3.
Patrick Reimer scored in overtime to send Germany to Friday’s semifinals against Canada, which shut out Finland 1-0.
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11:20 p.m.
Canada has advanced to the Olympic men’s hockey semifinals for the third consecutive time after shutting out Finland 1-0. Canada will face Germany on Friday.
The two-time defending gold medalists got a combined shutout from Ben Scrivens and Kevin Poulin and a goal from Maxim Noreau.
Poulin had to come in cold after Scrivens left with an upper-body injury early in the second period.
The team from Russia plays the Czech Republic in the other semifinal on Friday.
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10:50 p.m.
Mariama Jamanka has won the gold medal in women’s bobsledding, giving Germany its fifth gold in eight sliding events so far at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
She’s a surprise winner. Jamanka has never even won a World Cup race. To win Olympic gold, she had to beat the three drivers who combined to sweep the medals at the Sochi Games four years ago.
Jamanka’s time was 3 minutes, 22.45 seconds over four runs. Elana Meyers Taylor of the U.S. was second for her third consecutive Olympic medal, missing the gold by 0.07 seconds.
Kaillie Humphries of Canada, the two-time defending gold medalist, won bronze.
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10:30 p.m.
Norway has beaten South Korea to win the men’s team pursuit title in speedskating at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
The Netherlands took bronze, beating New Zealand in the B final on Wednesday.
In a thrilling seesaw battle, the Norwegian trio won in 3 minutes, 37.32 seconds, and held an edge of 1.20 seconds after eight laps.
It was the second gold medal for Norway in three days at the Oval. They’ve had their best performance on the ice since the 1994 Lillehammer Games.
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10:25 p.m.
The Netherlands has claimed a speedskating bronze medal in the men’s team pursuit at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
The Dutch team of Sven Kramer, Jan Blokhuijsen and Patrick Roest led all the way against the New Zealand threesome, steadily building its lead on every lap before crossing the line with a time of 3 minutes, 38.40 seconds on Wednesday.
Peter Michael, Shane Dobbin and Reyon Kay finished 5.14 seconds behind. New Zealand was denied what would have been only its second medal in Winter Olympics history.
The Dutch grabbed two medals on the night, also taking silver in the women’s team pursuit.
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10:20 p.m.
Canada’s starting goaltender has left its quarterfinal game against Finland at the Pyeongchang Games with injury.
Ben Scrivens left the game with the score tied 0-0 about four minutes into the second period Wednesday.
Canada forward Eric O’Dell checked Finland’s Veli-Matti Savinainen into Scrivens, and the former NHL goalie went into the goalpost.
Scrivens tried to skate it off. He spoke with a trainer and stayed in the game until the next whistle, when he was replaced by Kevin Poulin.
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10:10 p.m.
World-record holder Japan has beaten defending champion the Netherlands with an Olympic-record performance to take gold in the women’s team pursuit speedskating event.
The Dutch settled for silver, and the United States beat Canada in the North American battle for bronze at the Pyeongchang Games.
In a spectacular gold-medal race, Japan set out fastest, lost the middle part to the Dutch and hit back in the final two of six laps to win.
Miho and Nana Takagi and Ayano Sato set an Olympic record of 2 minutes, 53.89 seconds to beat the Dutch by 1.59 seconds.
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10:05 p.m.
The U.S. has finally won a long-track speedskating medal at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
The team of Heather Bergsma, Brittany Bowe and Mia Manganello earned bronze with a win over Canada in the women’s team pursuit B final.
It’s the first long-track speedskating medal for the U.S. since the 2010 Vancouver Games. The Americans were shut out four years ago in Sochi.
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10 p.m.
A Russian curler who failed a drug test at the Pyeongchang Olympics will have his case heard Thursday.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport’s anti-doping division says it will hear the case of mixed doubles bronze medalist Alexander Krushelnitsky at 2 p.m. local time.
Krushelnitsky’s case has taken on extra importance since the International Olympic Committee is due to decide on whether to formally reinstate Russia for Sunday’s closing ceremony following a suspension for a doping scheme at Sochi.
That decision would allow athletes to march under the Russian, rather than the Olympic, flag.
Russian curling officials have suggested that Krushelnitsky could have been dosed with the banned substance meldonium without his knowledge. They suggested the culprit could be Russia’s political enemies or a jealous athlete who didn’t make the Olympic team.
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8:30 p.m.
The spokesman for the International Olympic Committee is hinting that its longest-serving member should think about stepping down for criticizing fellow members and calling some of them “old farts.”
Canadian Dick Pound has harshly criticized the IOC for not banning Russian athletes from the Pyeongchang Olympics despite a massive doping scandal.
Pound referred to some fellow members as “old farts” in a British newspaper interview. Pound suggested athletes could stay away from the Olympics if the IOC didn’t get tougher on doping.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams says, “In the end, if you don’t like the coffee that’s served at a coffee shop, if you don’t like the decor, if you don’t like the prices, then you maybe go to another coffee shop.”
Pound couldn’t be immediately reached for comment Wednesday.
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8:05 p.m.
Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo and Martin Johnsrud have captured gold in the men’s team sprint, giving Norway a 13th medal in cross-country at the Pyeongchang Games to tie an Olympic record.
A team of Russians took silver Wednesday, and France edged out Sweden for bronze.
It was the third gold medal for Klaebo, tying him with French biathlete Martin Fourcade for the most at the Pyeongchang Games.
The 21-year Klaebo became the fourth male athlete to win three gold medals at the Winter Games before turning 22. He joins American speedskater Eric Heiden, Austrian Alpine skier Toni Sailer and KoreaN short-track speedskater Ano Victor.
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7:55 p.m.
Ester Ledecka’s quest for the second half of the rarest of Olympic doubles will start two days later than expected.
Olympic officials juggled scheduling at the action park because of heavy winds that are expected on Friday.
Ledecka, the Czech skier and snowboarder who won the super-G in Alpine in a shocker, is also entered in snowboarding’s parallel giant slalom, where she is top-ranked. Qualifying runs were originally set for Thursday but have now been moved to Saturday and will be run the same day as the final rounds.
Women’s skicross qualifying was moved up a day to Thursday. The elimination rounds for that event were moved from Friday afternoon to the morning, before the winds are expected to hit.
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7:25 p.m.
The United States has won its first Olympic gold medal in women’s cross-country skiing, and Norwegian skier Marit Bjoergen has become the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time by taking bronze at the Pyeongchang Games.
The Americans posted the fastest time in the semifinals to start on the front row in the finals Wednesday. Jessica Diggins passed the Swedes and the Norwegians on the final lap to make history in a major upset.
Sweden took silver.
Bjoergen and teammate Maiken Caspersen Falla won the bronze medal.
Bjoergen now has won 14 career medals at the Winter Olympic Games, passing Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjourndalen for the most ever. The 37-year-old previously took gold in the women’s 4x5-kilometer relay, silver in the 15-kilometer skiathlon and bronze in the 10-kilometer freestyle at Pyeongchang.
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7:15 p.m.
K-pop band EXO will play at the closing ceremony of the Pyeongchang Olympics.
Organizers on Wednesday announced the performance by the South Korean-Chinese group, which has a vast following among teenagers.
Among them is Russian figure skater Evgenia Medvedeva, who is in second place in the women’s figure skating competition heading into the free skate Friday.
Medvedeva, 18, said she listened to Exo before her stunning short program in the team figure skating event last week. Russia won silver and she set a record, though she surpassed it in Wednesday’s individual competition before teammate Alina Zagitova surpassed her.
She said after the team competition that she has autographs and letters from the members of EXO and they provided inspiration.
Organizers also said K-pop artist CL will perform at the ceremony, which is Sunday.
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7 p.m.
Noora Raty has stopped 20 shots to lead Finland to a 3-2 victory over the Russians in the women’s hockey bronze medal game at the Olympics.
Petra Nieminen, Susanna Tapani and Linda Valimaki scored for Finland, which can claim to be the best of the rest in a sport dominated by North Americans.
Following up their bronze medals in 1998 and 2010, the Finns beat Russia 5-1 in pool play but had a tougher go in the medal round. The teams were even in shots - 22-22 - but the Russians never led after falling behind 2-0 off the opening faceoff of the second period.
Canada and the U.S. will play for the gold medal on Thursday.
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6:45 p.m.
The Russian men’s hockey team has swept aside Norway 6-1 to set up a semifinal against the Czech Republic.
Russia charged to a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period, outshooting Norway 19-2, and remained in control throughout the game as chants of “Red Machine” and “Russia” echoed around the half-empty Gangneung Hockey Center.
Nikita Gusev finished with a goal and two assists, while Slava Voynov had a goal and an assist.
After the disappointment of losing in the quarterfinals at home in Sochi four years ago, the “Olympic Athletes from Russia” - as they’re called due to International Olympic Committee sanctions over doping - are now guaranteed to play for a medal.
No Russian hockey team has won a medal since 2002.
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5 p.m.
If there was a positive that the Americans took away from the two-man bobsled competition at the Pyeongchang Olympics, it’s that they now know what not to do.
But knowing what to do is still a work in progress. The U.S. men returned to the ice Wednesday for the first day of official training for the four-man competition. They’re desperate to figure out a course that has largely befuddled them to this point.
Four-man is the final sliding event in Pyeongchang, with two runs on Saturday and two more before the cauldron gets extinguished on Sunday.
U.S. pilot Codie Bascue says they had two really solid runs that will give them confidence for the rest of the week.
Any confidence boost would be helpful. The U.S. placed 14th, 21st and 25th in the two-man competition.
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3:05 p.m.
Brady Leman has earned gold for Canada in men’s skicross, beating Switzerland’s Marc Bischofberger in a wild final at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
Leman took the lead early during Wednesday’s last round and then held off Bischofberger in a two-man duel after Canada’s Kevin Drury and Russian athlete Sergey Ridzik collided early on.
Ridzik picked himself up and raced down for bronze.
The elimination rounds included a handful of frightening crashes that forced several men to leave the course wrapped up in a medical sled.
The worst came when 2011 world champion Chris Del Bosco lost control late in the run. The right side of the Canadian’s body slammed hard into the snow and he lay motionless for several minutes before emergency personnel carefully placed him on the sled.
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2:50 p.m.
Pavel Francouz stopped all five shooters and Petr Kouka scored the shootout winner as the Czech Republic eliminated the United States men’s hockey team with a 3-2 victory in the quarterfinals at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
Jan Kovar and Tomas Kundratek scored in regulation Wednesday for the Czech Republic, which was fresher after winning its group and getting a bye into the quarterfinals. The U.S. looked fatigued after facing Slovakia in the qualification round and was outshot 29-20.
Ryan Donato and Jim Slater scored for the U.S, which again was led by its youngest players, including speedster Troy Terry. U.S. goaltender Ryan Zapolski allowed three goals on 29 shots and one in the shootout. The Czech Republic’s Pavel Francouz stopped 18 in regulation and overtime.
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2:30 p.m.
Alina Zagitova’s record-setting short program has given the 15-year-old Russian the lead over her friend, training partner and two-time world champion Evgenia Medvedeva heading into Friday’s free skate.
Zagitova scored 82.92 points, breaking the mark of 81.61 that Medvedeva had set about 15 minutes earlier. Both scores topped the short program record Medvedeva set earlier in the Pyeongchang Games.
Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada was third with 78.87 points.
The American trio of Mirai Nagasu, Karen Chen and Bradie Tennell struggled with early mistakes in each of their programs. Nagasu was ninth with Chen and Tennell right behind her.
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2:15 p.m.
The injuries are starting to pile up in men’s skicross at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
Three skiers left the course on medical sleds during the first round of eliminations following scary wrecks Wednesday.
Canadian Chris Del Bosco’s right side slammed violently into the ground at Phoenix Snow Park after he lost control in the air over one of the final jumps in the race that sends skiers side-by-side down the mountain.
France’s Terence Tchiknavorian landed awkwardly after a jump and appeared to injure his right leg. Austria’s Christoph Wahrstoetter became tangled up in the fence after colliding with Sweden’s Erik Mobaerg.
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