Lindsey Jacobellis' naughty grab, France's mesmerising ice dance at Winter Olympics – Best of Beijing

ByBen Snowball

Updated 29/03/2022 at 12:51 GMT

Lindsey Jacobellis is the hero we don’t deserve after she risked it all (again) for no reason except entertainment – and for that we salute her. French duo Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron delivered a world record display in the first half of the ice dance competition – with GB duo Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson set to turn heads to the lion king on Thursday.

BEST MOMENTS OF DAY 8

If at first you don't succeed...

Lindsey!

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You have to admire the guts. Sixteen years after she dropped one of the most infamous errors in Olympics history, Lindsey Jacobellis brain chimed in – “do it again”.

Leading into the final jump of the snowboard cross mixed team relay, the American couldn’t resist. While her grab wasn’t quite as audacious as the trick that saw her dreams unravel at Turin 2006 – a trick that left her sprawled in the snow as gold turned to silver – it was still something we would file under ‘unnecessary’. But also under ‘more of that please’.

Jacobellis has firmly lifted her Olympic curse with two golds in Beijing. Now when she watches that clip from Turin she can simply smile and know it laid the foundations for one of the great Winter Games comeback tales.

She hasn’t committed to defending her titles at Milan-Cortina 2026, but nor has she quite ruled it out – all too aware of the optics if she quits aged 36 but her 40-year-old relay team-mate Nick Baumgartner goes on. “If I don’t quit, she’s not quitting!” boomed Baumgartner at the finish.

Lindsey, if you do continue, let’s go for a front flip next time, yeah?

Olympic redemption: Jacobellis follows Turin 2006 gaffe with Beijing 2022 gold

Please don't stop the music

If you take to the ice in see-through tops, you better be good. But Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron weren’t just good… they were mesmerising.

The French sweethearts dropped a moving rhythm dance to a John Legend mixtape as they set a world record and established themselves as the clear favourite for ice dance gold.

Perhaps the greatest thing about figure skating is the juxtaposition of songs, with our ears lurched from Kiss to Britney, via Tina Turner and Usher. All in all, a great few hours of entertainment.

Good news: the British pairing of Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson are safely though to the final. We don’t want to get you too excited but they are dancing to the Lion King in the final, which is basically a guaranteed medal. They might be 10th at the halfway point but don’t rule them out just yet.

Lindvik denies Kobayashi double

Ryoyu Kobayashi was denied a ski jumping double but still added a silver medal to his collection in the large hill. He had to settle for a minor medal after Norway’s Marius Lindvik put down a huge second jump.

Lindvik could hardly believe it as his triumph was confirmed as he became the first Norwegian since 1964 to win the Olympic large hill title.

But it was bad news for Poland’s three-time champion Kamil Stoch, who was emotional during an interview with Eurosport.

“Apparently, I didn’t deserve this medal. It’s basically isn’t my season, isn’t my time. It’s really hard to deal with it for me but I can say I did my best,” he said.

He added: "It’s really hard to deal with it. I know that fourth is a really good place, a lot of guys would take it anyway.

"But I really sacrificed a lot lately and I wanted so badly a better prize. But it has to be that way. I take it that way. I have to figure it out in a while, take a deep breath, have a rest and be ready in few days."

'Good enough' - Lindvik takes shock ski jumping gold ahead of Kobayashi

IN OTHER NEWS

Want to be an Olympic champion? Well wipe those crumbs off your chest, get up off the sofa and follow the best speed skating guide in the business. You can’t go wrong: it was penned by Nils van der Poel, who is set to retire in March after winning the distance double in Beijing. The Swede released his 62-page programme to inspire the next generation to break the records he acknowledged he never would.

Advance warning though: you’ll have to compete against us in Italy in four years’ time…

COME ON GB…

Spare a thought for the Eurosport UK team, who are coming under fire from our German colleagues each day with bolder and bolder memes. Here’s today’s monstrosity:

If Team GB don’t win a medal in China, we have all vowed to take up a winter sport and go for gold in Italy. Suggestions welcome.

THREE TO WATCH ON SUNDAY

• Bobsleigh: Women’s monobob heats one and two (1:30 GMT)

Those familiar with Cool Runnings (which is everyone, right?!) will know there’s usually a pilot, a brakeman and two super strong fast guys to help get it moving. But in the case of the monobob, that no longer applies – with one person in a smaller bobsled having to do the whole lot.

The monobob makes its debut on the Olympic programme and is exclusively for women.

• Alpine skiing – Men’s giant slalom (2:15 GMT and 5:45 GMT)

Can the men match the drama of the women’s giant slalom? Sara Hector took a brilliant gold for Sweden earlier in the Games in a competition that saw defending champion Mikaela Shiffrin crash out by the fifth turn.

Alexis Pinturault and Marco Odermatt are among the favourites for gold in the men’s event.

• Short track speed skating – Men’s 500m QF/SF/Final and women’s 3000m relay (from 11:00 GMT)

Dutch superstar Suzanne Schulting goes for her third medal, and second gold, in the women’s 3000m relay. Schulting swept the medals at the 2021 World Championships and is on for another haul in China after winning the 1000m and taking silver over 500m.

BRIT WATCH

Will Sunday be the day Team GB finally end their drought? We hate to be party poopers but it’s not going to happen. Still, there is plenty to sink our teeth into.

Bruce Mouat skips his men’s curlers – currently with a 2-1 record in the round robin – in a double header against China (01:05 GMT) and Denmark (12:05). Eve Muirhead’s rink are also in action against the Danes (06:05 GMT).

Katie Summerhayes is GB’s sole competitor in the women’s freeski slopestyle qualification (02:00 GMT) after Izzy Atkins’ withdrawal.

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