Day 14 of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

Any pretenses of Johannes Thingnes Bø slowing down towards the end of Beijing 2022 were smashed to pieces on Friday at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre.

The 28-year-old finished over 40 seconds clear of second-placed Martin Ponsiluoma of Sweden to claim gold in the men's mass start.

Bø did incur four shooting penalties, but was able to make up for those mistakes with his speed on his skis.

"I've been really tired actually, the last two days after the relay. It was all about not accepting holiday thoughts, not accepting bad thoughts about not so high energy. I maintained the head, focused for another race and pushed quite hard for this," Bø said after the race.

It looked at one point as if France's Quentin Fillon Maillet might have been in position to make a late charge for his top spot, but some poor shooting from Fillon Maillet meant he slipped down to fourth place.

It Bø's fourth gold medal of Beijing 2022, and his fifth overall, after winning the sprint, relay and mixed relay as well as winning bronze in the individual.

His compatriot Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen finished in the bronze medal spot.

Bø added: "[In] my mind I thought, five medals in six races, four golds. Also the 15th gold medal for Norway during this Olympic Games. No one has ever done that before, so big day for the nation as well."

As Bø stated, his gold medal was Norway's 15th of Beijing 2022, a record for a single nation at a Winter Games.

Norway and Canada had previously won 14 gold medals at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang and the 2010 Games in Vancouver, respectively.

Dutchman Thomas Krol won gold in the men's 1,000m at Beijing 2022, handing the Netherlands its 11th medal in speed skating overall at this year's Games.

The 29-year-old’s victory also makes the Netherlands the first country to win three consecutive gold medals in this discipline.

Krol made up for his earlier disappointment when he had to settle for silver in the men’s 1,500m after finishing behind compatriot Kjeld Nuis.

"This is just fantastic. I'm crazy happy with this gold medal," Krol said afterwards.

"In comparison to the 1,500m, I didn't expect it to happen. When I saw my time, I wasn't really sure it would be enough. The one time (like in the 1,500m) you think it's enough, and it isn't, the other time you think it's not enough and then it is.

"This is really a dream coming true. I don't have proper words for it. Well, I do have words, of course, otherwise the interview would be pretty boring (laughs). This is something you hope for for so long."

Canada’s Laurent Dubreuil won silver with Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen of Norway taking bronze in Friday's final.

Team USA ice dancers Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue have told CNN they have their “empty medal box waiting in our room,” as they wait to receive their figure skating team event medal which has been postponed without a date in light of Kamila Valieva’s ongoing doping case.

Speaking to CNN’s Coy Wire, Hubbell said they were “disappointed” at being informed at the last minute on February 8 that the medal ceremony would be delayed. The US had finished second behind the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).

“We were really looking forward to sharing that Olympic moment together. It’s an incredibly difficult situation for everyone involved, but certainly I don’t think that it’s fair to any of the athletes who medal that we have to forego that Olympic moment … it’s hard to go home empty-handed,” Hubbell said.

Donohue added that he hopes the situation would be solved “as quickly as possible,” both for the athletes and for the integrity of sport.

“We have a whole team of athletes that have finished competing and are staring looking at an empty box and the unknown of the future and missing out on that Olympics moment,” Donohue said.

Valieva finished fourth in the women’s individual skating competition while her teammates Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova won the gold and silver respectively. Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto took the bronze.

“It’s really sad to see a group of athletes working under the same coach that obviously do not have that same respect for each other,” Hubbell said.

She added: “I felt very bad to see the Japanese athlete celebrating and being excited about her victory next to two people that didn't seem like they were able to enjoy their moment."

Speaking about 15-year-old Valieva, Donohue said it was awful that everything she had done to this point would be put into question as a result of her ongoing doping case.

“The story isn’t about a young Olympian. It’s about a scandal. And she’s getting swallowed up in that. I think that’s terrible,” he said.

The two ice dancers were among the US skaters that met with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach on Wednesday, which Bach described on Friday as “very fruitful.”

Both Hubbell and Donohue said they appreciated meeting the president to share their perspectives on the Valieva situation.

“We didn’t leave the meeting feeling, I don’t think any better about this situation, but at least you know, we had our chance to kind of say what it feels like to be an athlete in our shoes,” Hubbell said.

Donohue confirmed that they have received Olympic torches from the IOC, which Bach earlier clarified was a “token of appreciation” for an honest meeting, not a consolation for an Olympic medal.

Finland's ice hockey team defeated Slovakia 2-0 on Friday to advance to the men's gold medal game at Beijing 2022, where it will face either Sweden or the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).

"We are excited. It was our goal to get there and we feel very happy about that," Finland's head coach Jukka Jalonen said.

"If you want to win, you have to defend well and that is what I think we did really well. There was not much room for the Slovak forwards. It is one of our strengths."

For Finland forward Marko Anttila, the semifinal win was an emotional moment given he had spent time in quarantine after a positive Covid-19 test while at this year's Games.

"It wasn't an easy time then and I had a lot of time to think all kind of thoughts. But this was one of them, to play in an Olympic final. Now, it's possible," he said.

"Everybody has been a bit scared of those tests and it's been nervous, but I'm proud of the guys and how they've handled all the pressure."

France's Justine Braisaz-Bouchet had built up such a commanding lead in the women's 12.5km mass start that she was able to grab a French flag and wave it as she crossed the finish line in a time of 40:18.0, 15.3 seconds ahead of her closest competitor.

But it wasn't a straightforward race, having to mount a huge comeback to claim gold.

After the second shooting station 5km into the race, Braisaz-Bouchet was way down in 14th position, a minute and 14 seconds behind the leader after two misses in the opening prone shoot.

Before the final shooting station 7.4km into the race, Braisaz-Bouchet was in seventh, over a minute behind leader Marte Olsbu Røiseland of Norway.

However, after poor visits to the two standing shoots by both Røiseland and compatriot Tiril Eckhoff — both women missed two shots in each of their last two range visits — Braisaz-Bouchet surged into the lead.

And the 25-year-old Frenchwoman accrued a lead of over half a minute with about a kilometer to go, so was able to enjoy the final straight as she claimed her first Olympic gold medal, having won bronze in the women's 4×6 km relay at PyeongChang 2018.

Braisaz-Bouchet attempted to put her emotions into words after the race and said focusing on herself was her only plan.

"I was so shocked I had won. I'm really happy to say that I'm Olympic champion," she said. "It's quite amazing. It's a really big feeling and I want to thank my family, my husband, especially for him. A big thank you to all the team and the people who support."

She added: "Today, I was just really calm and happy, even during the race. I really wanted to take part in this race and felt really, really calm during the race. I didn't think about results or anything or the girls around me. I was just racing my own biathlon and in the moment."

Eckhoff and Røiseland won silver and bronze — Røiseland's fifth medal of the Games.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has responded to the Court of Arbitration for Sport's (CAS) decision to reject the appeal to the decision to allow Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva from competing in the 2022 Beijing Games, saying "it is surprising and of serious concern."

On Thursday, CAS published a 41-page document explaining the reasons for rejecting the appeal filed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), WADA and the International Skating Union (ISU) to lift 15-year-old Valieva’s doping suspension.

In the report issued by CAS on Thursday explaining its decision, the organization laid blame on WADA as to how the situation unfolded. 

WADA has responded with the following statement Friday, saying CAS "decided to ignore the clear and unambiguous terms of the 2021 World Anti-Doping Code (Code) regarding the criteria for lifting a mandatory provisional suspension."

"In effect, by making this award, the CAS Panel has re-written the Code to say that mandatory provisional suspensions for 'protected persons' shall now be considered as optional provisional suspensions. This is not what the Code says, not what the Code drafters intended and was never proposed by any of WADA’s stakeholders during the three rounds of Code consultation.

"This re-writing of the Code, which would apparently allow 'protected persons' to continue competing after testing positive for non-specified substances without any clarification of the circumstances, risks undermining the integrity of sporting competition and the confidence of athletes that they are competing on a level playing field."

"The Panel also takes into account that if the athlete’s case had been heard before the CAS Appeals Division rather than the CAS Ad Hoc Division, she could have sought provisional relief (based on different criteria) and therefore competed. WADA does not accept this argument for two fundamental reasons.

"First, the criteria for lifting a mandatory provisional suspension, under the Code, simply do not include the criteria for the grant of provisional relief. Second, in a scenario where WADA (and/or others) had appealed against the decision of the RUSADA Disciplinary Committee to the CAS Appeals Division, the athlete would have had no need to seek provisional relief given the provisional suspension would have been already lifted. Furthermore, if the RUSADA Disciplinary Committee had decided not to lift the mandatory provisional suspension, that decision would not have been appealable under the Code at all."

The statement continued to say that is "surprising and of serious concern to WADA that a CAS Panel would see fit to depart from the clear terms of the Code, which was subject to three consultation phases involving all anti-doping stakeholders, including athletes, over a period of two years before being unanimously adopted in November 2019.

"This sets a dangerous precedent, which WADA hopes and expects will be corrected by future CAS Panels.

"In relation to the delay between the sample being collected and the anti-doping laboratory in Stockholm reporting the positive test result, as stated on 14 February, WADA reiterates that it is the clear responsibility of the Anti-Doping Organization that initiated the test, in this case RUSADA, to communicate effectively with the laboratory to ensure the timely analysis of samples, especially in the lead-up to a major event. Unfortunately, RUSADA did not flag the high-priority nature of the sample despite being informed by the laboratory of delays being caused by a COVID-19 outbreak among its staff."

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach criticized teen Russian skater Kamila Valieva's entourage Friday, saying those responsible for her doping scandal will face "very strong measures."

Bach said he was "very concerned" for the teenager's wellbeing after her performance in the women's single skating event in Beijing on Thursday.

Valieva was tipped for gold in the event but fell numerous times during her free skate routine and placed fourth.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said on Sunday they will investigate Valieva's entourage.

Switzerland’s Ryan Regez won gold and his teammate Alex Fiva took silver in the men’s freestyle skiing cross final on Friday.

It's a first Olympic medals for both Swiss skiers.

Sergey Ridzik of the ROC wins bronze in this event for the second consecutive Winter Olympics.

As the Beijing Games draws closer to a final weekend of winter sports action, hundreds of people have joined long queues to buy official Olympics merchandise.

A long line formed outside the souvenir shop in the Main Media Center of the Olympic bubble on Friday.

Volunteers and staff inside the "closed loop" lined up to buy souvenirs from the official Beijing 2022 store, before moving to the pop-up post office next door to send the items to their families.

The store sells items including branded bags, scarves and replicas of the hugely popular mascot, Bing Dwen Dwen.