Slovenia wins first mixed team gold

ZHANGJIAKOU - Slovenia's success streak in Ski Jumping at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing continues. After the success in the women's competition on Saturday with the places one and three, the Slovenian mixed team, with Nika Kriznar, Ursa Bogataj, Peter Prevc, and Timi Zajc, took the gold medal today. It was the first-ever mixed team competition at Olympic Winter Games. The teams of the Russian Olympic Committee and Canada came in second and third.
In the Slovenes had a clear lead of over 100 points at the end of a turbulent competition.

Many disqualifications
Members of four top teams were disqualified because their suits were not compliant with the rules: Sara Takanashi (JPN), Daniela Iraschko-Stolz (AUT), Katharina Althaus (GER), and the two Norwegians Anna Odine Stroem and Silje Opseth. These disqualifications then became the main topic of the day.

Nika Kriznar, third in the individual competition, said: "In the first round, I just remained focused and made a really good jump. In the second round, I was a bit nervous due to the many disqualifications, but fortunately, I could then focus on my jump and it was really good.
Peter Prevc added: "I really tried to focus on myself and my performance. I saw that there were some disqualifications, but honestly, this didn't bother me. I was just trying to remain focused on Ski Jumping."

The team of the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) celebrated the second place. Evgeniy Klimov said: "I want to thank the entire team for showing such good jumps today. All for of us, the women and men, were in the Top 10 of the individual competitions, so we really wanted that medal and we also deserve it."
Irina Avvakumova said: "The entire team showed a good performance today. Everyone made their best jumps. It's the first medal ever for Russian Ski Jumping, so we made history today and nobody can ever erase that."

When asked if it's a bitter-sweet medal after all the disqualifications of jumpers from other teams, Abigail Strate stated for the third-placed team of Canada: "I don't think the medal is bitter-sweet. I think it's as sweet as a medal can be. The equipment is very important in sports and disqualifications happen. In Ski Jumping it happens often and the fact that it now happened at Olympic Games shows that the rules are strictly enforced because it's sports at the highest level."

The disqualifications were met with incomprehension by the affected teams, first and forest Austria and Germany. Germany's Karl Geiger said: "I don't understand that three jumpers got disqualified. This is super weird."

The fourth place went to the team of Japan, followed by Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Norway. The team of Germany came in ninth and failed to qualify for the final round of the best eight teams. The hosting team of China was tenth.

The 2022 Olympic Games are now over for the women, the men will have two competitions on the large hill (individual on February 12; team on February 14).

Full results