Day 14 of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

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.

Chinese snowboard Olympic champion Su Yiming celebrated his 18th birthday on Friday, and while he might be taking a well-deserved day off, his coach doesn't want him to get too comfortable.

Su's coach Yasuhiro Sato wished the athlete happy birthday in a post on Instagram Friday, telling him he "can change the world," adding it "is an honor to ride towards the future together."

But Sato was quick to remind Su that he couldn't take too long of a rest.

Su's fans were quick to chime in on the fun, with the hashtag "Su Yiming still needs to train at 8 a.m." gaining more than 11 million views on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Su won gold at the men's big air event, adding to the silver he won in slopestyle.

Finland beat Slovakia 2-0 in the men's ice hockey semi-final on Friday, in a tight, occasionally nervy battle.

Sakari Manninen scored in the first period, with Harri Pesonen sealing the victory in the closing minute of the game.

Finland will now compete for gold against either Sweden or the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) on the final day of the Games, Sunday.

The other semi-final will be decided later today, with the loser taking on Slovakia for bronze tomorrow.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach said he had a “very fruitful” meeting with Team USA's figure skaters on Wednesday, as they await a resolution from Russian teen Kamila Valieva's doping scandal.

The US team — which includes Olympic champion Nathan Chen — missed the opportunity to collect their silver medals in the figure skating team event in Beijing due to the ongoing saga.

Bach said he and the chair of the IOC Athlete's Commission, Emma Terho, had reached out to the US and third-placed Japanese skaters that were impacted by Valieva's positive test.  

Bach added he offered an Olympic torch to the athletes as a “token of appreciation."

Bach said the athletes proposed ideas about how the issue could be addressed. He did not share further details of the meeting, citing a privacy agreement he made with the athletes. 

High winds caused a short delay to the men's ski cross today at the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou when a tower blew over the finish line.

The competition was briefly halted while a crew fixed things up.

Switzerland's Alex Fiva currently leads the field in the seeding round, with Japan's Ryo Sugai in second, and defending Olympic champion, Brady Leman of Canada, in third.