Day 4, Part 4

:01:37. > :01:45.we are going to be seeing history in the women's ski jump. If you are

:01:46. > :01:53.curious about curling, you can ask any questions you want to. Let's see

:01:54. > :01:58.what is coming up. Superstar Shaun White is the one to watch. He is

:01:59. > :02:06.aiming for his third excessive halfpipe gold. We will witness

:02:07. > :02:12.Winter Olympic history for the first ever women's ski jump final. And we

:02:13. > :02:17.will be back in the ice cube as the British women continue their

:02:18. > :02:53.campaign for a curling medal. This is how the afternoon looks.

:02:54. > :03:02.You can ask any questions or make any observations on the social

:03:03. > :03:07.media. Use the hash tag. Also on the red button is figure skating and it

:03:08. > :03:15.is the pairs short programme. Stacey Kemp and David King go in that. The

:03:16. > :03:22.dancing is still going wild here. I have no news, I will watch. Today

:03:23. > :03:26.saw the debut of women's skiing slopestyle and it was a British

:03:27. > :03:32.representative we were keen on. Katie Summerhayes, who is only 18,

:03:33. > :03:37.one of the youngest members in Team GB. Let's find out what she did.

:03:38. > :03:50.The levels are ramping up in this commentary box. Devin Logan, one of

:03:51. > :03:58.the confident Americans. A safety grounds. A big 720 and hold onto it.

:03:59. > :04:06.First place. Now, Katie Summerhayes, here we go. Bring it

:04:07. > :04:13.home. She is going backwards. A switch 1260. Oh, she has dropped it.

:04:14. > :04:30.One skier left at the top. Dara Howell. Nice and solid. A switch

:04:31. > :04:47.720, very nice. Beautiful stuff. Into a big 540. You have got to say

:04:48. > :04:55.that is well deserved. This is Katie Summerhayes. She needs the run of

:04:56. > :05:18.life. She needs the switch 1260. Yes, she has put it down. It is nice

:05:19. > :05:28.and simple. There is that switch. It is third place. Your Olympic gold

:05:29. > :05:37.medallist, Dara Howell, takes the gold. A clean sweep for the North

:05:38. > :05:44.Americans. Katie Summerhayes ends up in seventh position. It was Canada,

:05:45. > :05:48.USA, Canada in the medals. Katie Summerhayes said afterwards she was

:05:49. > :05:55.gutted because she had qualified in third place. That gave her hope she

:05:56. > :05:59.could win a medal. She said she thought she could do it. We are

:06:00. > :06:10.going to go live to the Extreme Park. There was a very nasty fall.

:06:11. > :06:20.The skier who went be for Katie. Was she OK? There has been a statement

:06:21. > :06:24.from the Canadian team and she fractured her jaw and she hit her

:06:25. > :06:29.head on to her chin, and at least she was wearing her mouth guard. She

:06:30. > :06:36.is OK and her spirits are high and she is in hospital, but will make a

:06:37. > :06:42.full recovery. That demonstrated how dangerous this sport can be and the

:06:43. > :06:46.conditions are very difficult. It slowed everybody down. If you do not

:06:47. > :06:55.have speed, you do not get the hype for the jumps. There is an old

:06:56. > :07:00.phrase is snowboarding in that speed is your friend. You watch the

:07:01. > :07:03.halfpipe and you watch the women's ski slopes down this morning and

:07:04. > :07:09.these athletes make these boys look as effortless and as easy as they

:07:10. > :07:14.can. That is what style is. But you get reminded every now and then just

:07:15. > :07:20.how brutal the crashes can be when these riders get it wrong. That is

:07:21. > :07:27.what makes this spot so difficult. What did you make of Katie's effort

:07:28. > :07:34.in the final, or her effort to get to the final? That is it. The effort

:07:35. > :07:42.to get to the final. She was the only the girl to do 450 off that

:07:43. > :07:47.rail. She did it every time. She rode with so much confidence in the

:07:48. > :07:54.rail section and we knew she had to do something bigger on the jumps.

:07:55. > :07:58.She did the switch 1260 which was almost her Achilles' heel. She put

:07:59. > :08:03.it down clean. On the commentary I said, do something simple, but she

:08:04. > :08:11.went for the 900, and that is what cost her. But do you know what? She

:08:12. > :08:17.has come here and made a good account of herself. If those jobs

:08:18. > :08:22.had gone off, we could be talking about a medal. She is so young and

:08:23. > :08:27.she has got a couple of games left in her and this is valuable

:08:28. > :08:31.experience. She is only 18 and her younger sister Molly is only 16 and

:08:32. > :08:37.she wants to join her in four years time. Talking about the halfpipe.

:08:38. > :08:44.Conditions are very difficult again and we have seen some nasty falls

:08:45. > :08:49.off the top of the pipe. After the course last week and the slopestyle

:08:50. > :08:54.which was given so much stick, the real problem has been at the

:08:55. > :09:00.halfpipe with heavy, wet snow. It was raining yesterday, the pipe

:09:01. > :09:07.shape was all wrong and it is no soft and rutted and a lot of the

:09:08. > :09:12.riders are struggling. I heard the coaches asked for it to be called

:09:13. > :09:19.off they were that concern. One guy who has not had any trouble is Shaun

:09:20. > :09:26.White. He is defending his title and is going for a third gold. He looked

:09:27. > :09:33.pretty good. This is him in qualifying. He writes best when he

:09:34. > :09:43.is under pressure. Look at the height. He is above the trees

:09:44. > :09:46.almost. It is stratospheric. He is comfortable under pressure when he

:09:47. > :09:52.has to perform. He constantly does it. Yet again he has qualified with

:09:53. > :09:58.the highest scorer going into the final and he is running last. If he

:09:59. > :10:04.puts down a good run in the final, he will have won an Olympic gold

:10:05. > :10:09.with one run to spare. I cannot see him making a mistake, he was

:10:10. > :10:15.flawless in qualifying. He may be the old man of the sport, but may be

:10:16. > :10:29.his biggest danger is a 15-year-old from Japan. Ayumu Hirano. He can do

:10:30. > :10:35.to Sean exactly what Sean did in 2003 to the old guard. He is just 15

:10:36. > :10:40.years old and there is a good chance he will destroy the rest of the

:10:41. > :10:44.field. He has got a precocious air to him. He looks like he does not

:10:45. > :10:53.care and he can go as big as Shaun White. He has the triple. It is so

:10:54. > :10:58.audacious to try an incredibly difficult trick on your first trip.

:10:59. > :11:04.Whether or not he will do it, I do not know, but he has got no shortage

:11:05. > :11:11.of flair. When he takes his goggles off, he gives you a Clint Eastwood

:11:12. > :11:15.style spare. Nice stuff. Talking about Hollywood, Shaun White is so

:11:16. > :11:21.famous he has appeared in all sorts of films. I saw him in a Justin

:11:22. > :11:26.Timberlake film. He used to be known as the flying tomato but he has cut

:11:27. > :11:31.all his hair off and he does not like that name, so we will not

:11:32. > :11:39.mention it again. We will be back at the halfpipe final at 1720. But we

:11:40. > :11:43.are going to build up to a moment of history because women's ski jumping

:11:44. > :11:51.makes its debut at these Olympic Games. It has been a fight for them

:11:52. > :11:55.to get here. Not many people say they can fly over 100 metres in the

:11:56. > :12:05.air. I love that feeling, I love the adrenaline. This evening at the

:12:06. > :12:09.RusSki Gorki centre, they will be competing for the first time. The

:12:10. > :12:14.29-year-old American has never represented her country in the

:12:15. > :12:20.games, in fact no one has. That makes this evening special. I am

:12:21. > :12:25.very excited for our sport to be in the Olympics. We have waited a long

:12:26. > :12:30.time to be here. I cannot wait to show everybody our sport. She is a

:12:31. > :12:35.pioneer and has been spearheading the long battle to gain women's

:12:36. > :12:40.inclusion into the programme. But she did not do it alone. The US team

:12:41. > :12:48.were backed by a woman who did not take no for an answer. Prior to the

:12:49. > :12:55.Winter Olympics of 2002, the Mayor of Salt Lake City decided to pick a

:12:56. > :13:01.fight. I assumed in 2002 we had a gender equal Olympics. I was

:13:02. > :13:05.flabbergasted. I had no idea women could not jump. Women were barred

:13:06. > :13:09.from competing in the ancient Olympics and were only allowed to

:13:10. > :13:16.enter events in the summer Olympic Games. At the first Winter Olympic

:13:17. > :13:20.Games in Chamonix in 1934, there were only 12 female Olympic

:13:21. > :13:26.competitors. There were only two medals on offer for women, both in

:13:27. > :13:31.figure skating. 90 years on we finally welcomed ski jumping, but it

:13:32. > :13:35.was not straightforward. There were moments when I thought it was going

:13:36. > :13:41.nowhere, but there is a silver lining to everything. The media was

:13:42. > :13:56.all over it and we had editorials saying, let them job, it is

:13:57. > :14:05.discrimination. We have decided to introduce women's ski jumping. It

:14:06. > :14:10.was so emotional to finally make it. Finally, that long and emotional

:14:11. > :14:14.battle has been won and now it is part of the Olympic programme and

:14:15. > :14:18.women's ski jumping has a star. Standing under five feet tall and

:14:19. > :14:27.weighing less than seven stone, Saratoga gnashing of Japan is set to

:14:28. > :14:37.become one of the biggest names of the games. I had always hoped it

:14:38. > :14:41.would come to this. It is thanks to all of the female ski jumpers who

:14:42. > :14:50.have built up our sport in the past that I am able to find myself in

:14:51. > :14:54.such a happy position today. Saru Takahashi will not have it all her

:14:55. > :15:01.way because the American team is very strong and it includes the

:15:02. > :15:05.World Champion, Sarah Hendrickson. I have struggled with nerves in the

:15:06. > :15:09.past, but showing up and being the best is the best feeling in the

:15:10. > :15:16.world. You could be the best leading up to it, but you have to beat the

:15:17. > :15:22.best that day. How proud are you to be representing this board and how

:15:23. > :15:27.much of a statement do you think it makes for gender equality? I think

:15:28. > :15:32.it is huge, I am humbled and thrilled to be here and excited to

:15:33. > :15:38.be representing team USA, but I am also very excited to be representing

:15:39. > :15:43.women's ski jumping. There is huge interest from across the world's

:15:44. > :15:48.media. We have got journalists from Japan and America and from the UK,

:15:49. > :15:56.from Russia, from right around the world. This is a big story around

:15:57. > :16:04.ski jumping. With any new sport you are taking baby steps. I really

:16:05. > :16:08.appreciate we are here and we have our event and I really hope in the

:16:09. > :16:16.future we will have a big hill event and a team event. Three events

:16:17. > :16:19.surely is only a matter of time. The women who have campaigned

:16:20. > :16:25.passionately for so many years did so because it was the right thing to

:16:26. > :16:32.do. This is more than a story about ski jumping, it is a woman's right

:16:33. > :16:35.story. An inspiration to all women and two teenage girls like Saru

:16:36. > :16:41.Takahashi who has looked in imperious form. One of the spurious

:16:42. > :16:46.reasons for not including women was that their build was not up to it.

:16:47. > :16:56.Would it not be ironic if the gold medal was won by a featherweight

:16:57. > :17:00.teenager half the size of her skis? It should be wonderful to watch and

:17:01. > :17:08.Saru Takahashi is one of the favourites. We will be live for the

:17:09. > :17:13.final round later on on BBC Two. To watch the Winter Olympics we have

:17:14. > :17:22.got all angles covered and this is how you can access our new digital

:17:23. > :17:27.service. There is a comprehensive text commentary and summary page to

:17:28. > :17:34.keep you up to date. Catch up with a range of highlights and features

:17:35. > :17:40.OnDemand. I have played against a few sweepers back in the day. If I

:17:41. > :17:45.were a curler, I would be the one who does the brushing at the end.

:17:46. > :17:55.Let everyone else to all the legwork and have a little brush at the end.

:17:56. > :18:00.Take the glory. I love those. The curling is happening over there in

:18:01. > :18:06.the Ice Cube. We are going to be going there very shortly to catch

:18:07. > :18:10.up. First an update on what happened earlier to date with David Murdoch

:18:11. > :18:14.and the Great Britain men. It was a narrow victory for them over

:18:15. > :18:22.Germany. They were behind for most of the match and came right back.

:18:23. > :18:29.This was not terribly good stone from Felix Schulze which gave David

:18:30. > :18:37.murdered's men their second win. Sometimes a bit of luck is all you

:18:38. > :18:42.need. It is important in Britain get the win here. I know it is easy to

:18:43. > :18:51.start talking about. There are nine matches, let's not get too carried

:18:52. > :18:55.away. But they really want to beat an American team that is

:18:56. > :19:00.struggling. You would not want to give the match to them and everybody

:19:01. > :19:03.else beat them. You would hate for this game at the end of the week but

:19:04. > :19:10.this game to come back and haunt you. They have the strength on paper

:19:11. > :19:13.to beat this team. These girls have put in all the hard work and the

:19:14. > :19:23.preparation. If they believe in themselves, it will come through.

:19:24. > :19:30.You do not get to that position without luck and hard work and

:19:31. > :19:36.dedication. All the full-time curlers train every day on the ice

:19:37. > :20:05.and in the gym. They are changing the dynamics of the sport.

:20:06. > :20:21.The line is perfect. The weight is perfect. There is a curling club

:20:22. > :20:29.down near Lockerbie. Do you know every club? I think there are 22 ice

:20:30. > :20:36.rinks in Scotland and I will not name them all here or you will be

:20:37. > :20:41.bored to death! Some of the main ones are in Perth and Stirling.

:20:42. > :20:54.There is a lovely ice rink in Aberdeen where I live. It got some

:20:55. > :20:57.nice lottery funding. We raised the profile of the sport. A few ice

:20:58. > :20:59.rinks were given funding to help profile of the sport. A few ice

:21:00. > :21:10.rinks were build eight of the art ice rinks. -- state of the art. This

:21:11. > :21:15.is the one platform we have two really sell our sport. And what

:21:16. > :21:23.better place here, than at the Winter Olympics. A huge honour for

:21:24. > :21:26.these girls to be representing Great Britain. The chance of an Olympic

:21:27. > :21:44.medal. We were talking yesterday about the

:21:45. > :21:49.next Winter Olympics, the funding but into curling in South Korea as

:21:50. > :21:56.well, this week they have qualified to be here. But the emerging

:21:57. > :22:00.nations, how that might affect the traditional nations, including

:22:01. > :22:07.Scotland, Great Britain in the Olympics, and whether or not they

:22:08. > :22:10.can match that going forward. The traditional notions of this

:22:11. > :22:17.sport, they cannot rest on their laurels. -- nations. Other countries

:22:18. > :22:21.are piling money into the sport and they are performing just as well, if

:22:22. > :22:26.not better, than some of the nations we would expect to be playing well.

:22:27. > :22:33.As you say, there is a lot of money being put in the sport. A lot of the

:22:34. > :22:37.teams will travel to Canada. Canada is a huge curving nation. It is just

:22:38. > :22:41.because the numbers they have a cross there, and the amount of

:22:42. > :22:47.experienced players. If you go to a tournament in Canada you are playing

:22:48. > :22:52.high-level games. We struggle sometimes to get that in our

:22:53. > :22:58.country. Or in Europe. A lot of these teams have got houses in

:22:59. > :23:03.Canada and they send them over there to live for six months of the year.

:23:04. > :23:11.That is where they have increased their game.

:23:12. > :23:24.Nice shot there from Vicki Adams. She is happy enough with that.

:23:25. > :23:35.Any of you out there listening today and would like to ask us a question,

:23:36. > :23:39.you can send your question into us. We don't always get the questions

:23:40. > :23:42.quickly, but we will try at some point and answer them if you have

:23:43. > :23:48.got anything you would like to ask. We have had several questions

:23:49. > :23:54.earlier on. That was about the brushes. There are several kinds of

:23:55. > :24:02.brushes they can play with. The girls down have a pad, that is a

:24:03. > :24:10.synthetic pad. You can also see some of the teams playing with brushes,

:24:11. > :24:17.brooms, with actual horsehair. You will quite often find the teams

:24:18. > :24:23.slide with a brush and play with a pad, sweet with a pad. What we have

:24:24. > :24:28.to be very careful, if the horsehair breaks off, and if we have any hair

:24:29. > :24:35.left on the ice is it can cause debris and will take the stone away

:24:36. > :24:42.in the wrong direction. A huge part of stone management, looking after

:24:43. > :24:46.the line of the stone. This is a nice shot here, they don't want to

:24:47. > :24:51.take it too far but want to curl it in behind the centre yellow at the

:24:52. > :24:56.top of the house. The opportunity is being opened up by another poor shot

:24:57. > :25:02.from Jessica Schultz just before that. Nobody wants to see your

:25:03. > :25:06.opponent really struggle, you want to keep control of the game, you

:25:07. > :25:11.want to win, but the Americans seemed to be struggling all over

:25:12. > :25:17.now. I will say the same thing again,

:25:18. > :25:21.Erika has two know when there is a clear at the front to make life

:25:22. > :25:28.easier for herself but she is constantly still trying to play the

:25:29. > :25:32.perfect shot there. One is on the T-line, the other is behind, and

:25:33. > :25:38.that shouldn't be a danger if you have got a clear entry into it. Not

:25:39. > :25:57.sure she is tactically playing the right game at the moment.

:25:58. > :26:05.You explain to me, I am thinking Britain got the hammer here,

:26:06. > :26:10.obviously the way the stones are lying and the way Erika Brown has

:26:11. > :26:16.been playing, what is the strategy here?

:26:17. > :26:29.I am not really sure what she is playing, she is foxing me. Great

:26:30. > :26:40.Britain have got the hammer here. Is that right? We have got the hammer?

:26:41. > :26:52.Yes. Just not sure she is thinking this came through. Anna will want to

:26:53. > :27:00.catch this. On the nose if possible. A nice little rub of the top yellow

:27:01. > :27:15.there. And that really has secured that front. Hasn't left very much

:27:16. > :27:18.for Erika Brown. The Hop -- the two yellows we see at the top of the

:27:19. > :27:24.house, the only yellow she has got to promote as the left-hand side.

:27:25. > :27:28.She really has two clear this front up if she wants to even get the

:27:29. > :27:37.chance to remove these two roads in the centre of the house. Just a

:27:38. > :27:44.different atmosphere. Office Lee Erika Brown herself hasn't played

:27:45. > :27:49.very well -- obviously. If you want to start the skip's

:27:50. > :27:55.decision-making, she is not being challenged on too much, first time I

:27:56. > :28:04.have seen the four of them discussing the shot. By contrast,

:28:05. > :28:26.the British team tonight, all harmonious.

:28:27. > :28:37.Debbie is going to try and drive this centre red onto the back road,

:28:38. > :28:42.so at least split a couple of them. She appears worldwide at the moment.

:28:43. > :28:50.-- well wide. This team are not looking happy.

:28:51. > :29:08.That is a pretty poor shot. If they had been a bit quicker they

:29:09. > :29:11.could have possibly swept it back, caught an edge of the yellow that we

:29:12. > :29:21.see on the left-hand side, that would have just been enough. At

:29:22. > :29:24.least they would have had a chance. There is not much communication

:29:25. > :29:59.going on. And even is asking Anna to tap up

:30:00. > :30:11.her red stone here. She has asked her to play T wait. Really putting

:30:12. > :30:15.the pressure of this US team. I think Eve Muirhead is sensing what

:30:16. > :30:23.is going on. Play your game, make sure you get at least two here.

:30:24. > :30:36.Perfect, apparently. She has just got an edge of that red, to take a

:30:37. > :30:45.promotion of it. And a little curl in behind the yellow. That is a

:30:46. > :30:48.pretty good shot. The danger for the Americans, the weight they are

:30:49. > :30:59.playing here, they could be out of this in this end, lose three or four

:31:00. > :31:07.here. Erika Brown is now facing five British stones here.

:31:08. > :31:16.It is OK seeing the shot, they have seen a shot to play, Erika Brown has

:31:17. > :31:27.not been quite able to deliver the shot required.

:31:28. > :31:46.They are looking to play a really difficult draw here. Potentially

:31:47. > :31:50.come through. That is a narrow gap. She is looking to come down through

:31:51. > :31:57.here, a very difficult shot, not as easy as it looks. She has just

:31:58. > :32:05.watched Anna's shot come down the same path. She has seen two shots.

:32:06. > :32:15.Anna has ended up pretty well in the end. The shop before from McCormick

:32:16. > :32:36.-- shot. It is a difficult one. Look at the difference there. A huge

:32:37. > :32:48.difference in their statistics. There is no sweeping at all. It must

:32:49. > :32:59.be a little bit high. She really is leaving herself absolutely nothing

:33:00. > :33:05.here. And we have last stone. What do you do? When it is going as badly

:33:06. > :33:10.as this, you were a World Champion skip, you have had lots of

:33:11. > :33:17.experience, is that anything on a personal level you can do? She has

:33:18. > :33:21.put herself in this bad position and that pressure is starting to tell

:33:22. > :33:29.and she is not playing the shots. What do you do? You would have to

:33:30. > :33:35.reassess. The teams generally meet together after each end. They will

:33:36. > :33:41.have to say, let's go right back to the basics. Play the simple game.

:33:42. > :33:47.They need confidence to be brought back into this game. Eve Muirhead

:33:48. > :34:06.has been on her game here tonight. This end is building nicely.

:34:07. > :34:27.The only shot I see from where I am sitting at the moment. I think she

:34:28. > :34:36.has to go damage limitation and hit some of these reds. This could be a

:34:37. > :34:48.huge end for Great Britain. There is another call and it is a big call,

:34:49. > :34:54.and that would be a draw. She is going to have a draw for three or

:34:55. > :35:06.four. Stating the obvious. Damage limitation surely. I think so. She

:35:07. > :35:13.has got to start thinking that they have to come out of the end if they

:35:14. > :35:18.lose two, fair enough, if it is pre-order four it is a scenario

:35:19. > :35:23.which will be difficult to come back from. She has got to accept that.

:35:24. > :35:34.Choosing the right shot is one thing, but then playing it so far

:35:35. > :35:40.has proved to be more difficult. This is Erika Brown's last stone.

:35:41. > :35:55.But this is the sort of shot the skips have to play. Debbie is

:35:56. > :36:00.putting the pressure on her. She has to make the decision to throw some

:36:01. > :36:06.heavy granite at these stones to remove two or maybe three. There are

:36:07. > :36:10.a couple of options. Debbie is suggesting she comes down here and

:36:11. > :36:18.sit in here and makes it harder for her. The other option is you fire

:36:19. > :36:27.right in here and hopefully clear some of these. I would have thought

:36:28. > :36:34.the first of those options you at least put one in there. If she plays

:36:35. > :36:38.that shot with a lot of weight, she could end up with three or four

:36:39. > :36:46.stones sitting in there. Playing that draw at least puts one of

:36:47. > :36:51.theirs in there. If it gets into a position it can be taken out, it

:36:52. > :36:59.can. That on paper is the short a skip is going to have to pay. On

:37:00. > :37:09.paper she is 46%. He has played six and only scored on half of them.

:37:10. > :37:27.Tactically that maybe the shop to do -- the shot to do. But I am not sure

:37:28. > :37:45.she is confident. They are calling on the line is good. Now they need

:37:46. > :37:50.to sweep this to take it right in. That is not a good position to be

:37:51. > :37:58.in. That is sitting out there for Eve Muirhead. It is a tempting

:37:59. > :38:03.target. If she could sit in there that would be seven. That would be a

:38:04. > :38:14.huge score at this level in international curling. I have not

:38:15. > :38:20.got much experience, but seven? That is the kind of stuff you see in club

:38:21. > :38:23.curling. Erika Brown was not far away with that shot. This should be

:38:24. > :38:43.a simple shot for Eve Muirhead. You are not going to see that too

:38:44. > :38:52.often. Take a picture of that, people. Almost embarrassment for the

:38:53. > :38:58.USA. It means all smiles for Great Britain. It is and 9-1 lead after

:38:59. > :39:05.four ends. Surely there is no way back for the United States after

:39:06. > :39:10.that? That is a new Olympic record. The previous record was five in one

:39:11. > :39:16.end. Seven is absolutely extraordinary. We are going to

:39:17. > :39:21.rejoin the match at the start of the sixth end. Great Britain are now 9-3

:39:22. > :39:47.ahead. Ann Swisshelm gets underway. Six

:39:48. > :39:53.ends is the minimum. If Britain were to score here, it would be

:39:54. > :40:05.interesting to see whether the USA would carry this match on. The guard

:40:06. > :40:13.being placed at the front. Claire Hamilton has quietly gone about her

:40:14. > :40:18.business. You should never underestimate the importance of the

:40:19. > :40:27.lead putting in the right shots. Very much so. The position of the

:40:28. > :40:40.lead stones will dictate the game. It is crucial they play where they

:40:41. > :40:52.are asked. That was a bit heavier, but it is not a disaster. It shows

:40:53. > :40:57.you how easy it is, one little error, when you are so far up. You

:40:58. > :41:30.have to keep your concentration all the time.

:41:31. > :41:52.Just wait, the line is good. Seven. The line is real good. Clear

:41:53. > :42:05.delivering a lovely draw here. It is T high as we say, sitting above the

:42:06. > :42:17.T-line. That is a lovely draw. It is important the lead places the stones

:42:18. > :42:34.where she is asked to. The USA will want to follow this stone in. They

:42:35. > :42:41.will not want to bounce off it. Eight did not quite get there. Eve

:42:42. > :42:47.Muirhead will not take any heed of the stones in the house. The ones in

:42:48. > :43:00.the front will bother her, so she will want to clear up the front. I

:43:01. > :43:04.think potentially Eric -- Erika Brown was causing so much trouble

:43:05. > :43:18.upfront and she had to clear up so she had the way in. If I was

:43:19. > :43:28.analysing this game, early goes by the tactics of these girls have been

:43:29. > :43:36.playing too. Even in the first two ends when Britain had the hammer, it

:43:37. > :43:39.was a similar story. I know she did not set herself up in the penalty

:43:40. > :43:46.shot, but she got herself in that situation. Her stones were at the

:43:47. > :43:51.front and when you are playing really well, you can utilise those

:43:52. > :43:58.stones, that Erika Brown was not playing well enough to utilise the

:43:59. > :44:03.stones at the front. Keep it simple, keep it clean. It is the

:44:04. > :44:17.only way she was going to keep this game close. She will quite happily

:44:18. > :44:23.try to clear off his front guards. We saw a shrug of the shoulders from

:44:24. > :44:29.Debbie McCormick at the break between, after the fifth end. They

:44:30. > :44:33.have pretty much resigned themselves to a defeat here. Just a question of

:44:34. > :44:44.when they decide they have had enough. Do you stay out there, try

:44:45. > :44:48.and find your game a little bit? It is very difficult if you are in this

:44:49. > :44:51.situation because you are not really playing the end, the opposition

:44:52. > :44:58.isn't playing the end it would be if it was a close game. The girls still

:44:59. > :45:04.look like they are trying, out there doing their best, but there will be

:45:05. > :45:10.questions asked, if Eve Muirhead scores here, will they continue? I

:45:11. > :45:22.think she just feels lost at the moment. I am not sure she knows what

:45:23. > :45:29.to do. Anna coming down trying to peel out these to yellow stone 's,

:45:30. > :45:38.sitting outside the front of the house. That is a fantastic shot,

:45:39. > :45:42.clearing the house. That will make you feel a little better. In their

:45:43. > :45:48.previous end she played the one that went straight through. That is a

:45:49. > :45:52.double peel, a great shot. Cleared all of these stones out of the front

:45:53. > :45:55.of the rings. Leaves it open and simpler for Eve to try and score a

:45:56. > :46:15.two here. Just trying to replace the guard

:46:16. > :46:26.that was taken away, almost a full and hope -- forlorn hope. Just going

:46:27. > :46:40.through the motions. Same again. The same through.

:46:41. > :47:00.It is a great situation for Great Britain to be in, they have got this

:47:01. > :47:03.match in their pocket. Americans, nothing really they can do at the

:47:04. > :47:22.moment, to alter the destiny of this match. McCormick and Brown. They

:47:23. > :47:29.have just not been at the races. I think I would like to see the USA

:47:30. > :47:33.girls here are just sitting another yellow right on the face of the

:47:34. > :47:41.yellow they have got there. Eve will be wanting to move the granite.

:47:42. > :47:55.Erika feels she wants to try and push the red out of play. There is

:47:56. > :47:58.the question. I think she is going to peel it, I am not sure if she is

:47:59. > :48:04.going to guard it. Eve Muirhead wants more than one shot here.

:48:05. > :48:10.Although she is potentially a lot of shots up. That is another thing

:48:11. > :48:17.about the strategy, each player is trying to guess what the opposition

:48:18. > :48:27.will do. Those are statistics you will not enjoy reading. It is more

:48:28. > :48:29.what has been going on in our head, rather than on the paper, on the

:48:30. > :48:55.computer screen. Not quite what you ordered. Eve is

:48:56. > :49:07.going to try the double takeout here. This is all a good situation

:49:08. > :49:12.for Eve Muirhead. She has to be very careful where she hits this. The

:49:13. > :49:21.yellow behind the front yellow could potentially force itself onto the

:49:22. > :49:24.back red. It is nice, she has still got to play her shots, be accurate,

:49:25. > :49:29.but she is a bit relaxed about the situation. Not too often she is

:49:30. > :49:34.going to get the chance to play this way at the Olympic Games here. Just

:49:35. > :49:48.giving her a chance to get in the groove, find her form.

:49:49. > :49:58.Girls sweeping hard to try and hold it. She has only removed the one.

:49:59. > :50:09.Difficult to tell here who is lying shot. It might be USA. Erika Brown

:50:10. > :50:17.having a close look. She has made the decision, adding she is right.

:50:18. > :50:28.-- I think she is right. It is very close. At the beginning of the game

:50:29. > :50:32.it was these decisions. She went down the other end of the ice, had

:50:33. > :50:43.an opportunity, didn't deliver the shot, gave up a couple of steels.

:50:44. > :50:50.They seem to be confident it is their shot. Just going to draw in

:50:51. > :51:07.for a second shot. The last stone for Erika Brown. The

:51:08. > :51:14.second end, trying to resurrect at least an opportunity for them. --

:51:15. > :51:28.six. Really is digging in. It is turning.

:51:29. > :51:43.It is just dying at the front of the house there.

:51:44. > :51:57.Eve is just checking, Anna is agreeing. She has left a bit of a

:51:58. > :52:04.planned on here. The red should hit the yellow behind it. If that red

:52:05. > :52:14.stays in and one at the back there, will pick up to. -- two.

:52:15. > :52:20.So far, so good. Very much in control, right from the very

:52:21. > :52:27.beginning. Eve Muirhead here with the last stone of this end to try

:52:28. > :52:37.and completely shut this came out. -- this game out. She has been right

:52:38. > :52:44.on the button all the way through this evening, another great shot.

:52:45. > :52:49.That is the handshake, game over. Total dominance for Great Britain

:52:50. > :52:57.over USA, right from the beginning. Admittedly the Americans didn't play

:52:58. > :53:01.well at all. Eve Muirhead and Vicki Adams, Claire Hamilton, Anna Sloan,

:53:02. > :53:04.they know they were much better tonight, they put the pressure on

:53:05. > :53:07.the Americans right from the beginning and they have been

:53:08. > :53:12.rewarded with an easy victory. And an early night. They have got their

:53:13. > :53:17.first victory here at the Olympic Games. That is just the start they

:53:18. > :53:21.were looking for. That will definitely give them the confidence

:53:22. > :53:24.to go into tomorrow's game against Canada because they were going to

:53:25. > :53:32.have to bring their a game to the can again -- Canada game. The great

:53:33. > :53:36.result for Eve Muirhead. She seems relaxed. That was just what the

:53:37. > :53:47.doctor ordered. Did you think it would go that

:53:48. > :53:54.easily? It was great to play like our usual selves and get the

:53:55. > :53:59.victory. Right from the very beginning the pressure was on, a

:54:00. > :54:05.couple of steels in the first two ends? We came out firing, but the

:54:06. > :54:13.pressure on, make them play the hard shots. We put the pressure on them

:54:14. > :54:19.to make them miss them, we were playing a lot better. I had Jackie

:54:20. > :54:24.Lockhart sitting next to me, she is not sure that she saw seven in a

:54:25. > :54:30.major competition. We were just told that might be an Olympic record.

:54:31. > :54:36.Again, it was good. We all came out firing, and that was the key end, we

:54:37. > :54:40.all made key shots in that end and set it up well to get there. It was

:54:41. > :54:45.a good stepping stone for us and builds us with a bit of confidence

:54:46. > :54:48.to go on for the next games. Was there anything said after yesterday?

:54:49. > :54:53.I note you were maybe a bit disappointed with the way things had

:54:54. > :54:59.gone, maybe for yourself personally? Did you just put that behind you?

:55:00. > :55:04.I think that is more like team your head out there today for stop a few

:55:05. > :55:10.areas we struggled on yesterday. We had a chat with our coach and nailed

:55:11. > :55:12.down what we didn't do well and today we change that, came out

:55:13. > :55:18.strong. Really firing from the start. Didn't give them much of a

:55:19. > :55:22.chance, to be honest. If we can keep that going, things still not

:55:23. > :55:27.perfect, as the week and hopefully we can get and better.

:55:28. > :55:31.It was interesting because the guys this afternoon were talking about

:55:32. > :55:35.keeping the pressure on. Theirs is a much tighter game. The pressure did

:55:36. > :55:40.tell towards the end. The pressure told from the beginning. That is

:55:41. > :55:44.key. If you thank you pressure on them constantly, they are not going

:55:45. > :55:51.to keep making all the big shots and saving themselves. If we can keep

:55:52. > :55:56.converting these shots, it was all was going to take a game or so to

:55:57. > :56:01.get in. We are feeling relaxed and looking forward to our big game

:56:02. > :56:07.tomorrow against Canada. And you go into that now as Olympic record

:56:08. > :56:14.holders. Steady extra measure map -- steady! CLARE BALDING: They have two

:56:15. > :56:18.Olympic records, the seven is a record all on its own, but the

:56:19. > :56:27.scoreline, 12 equals the current Olympic record. What a match.

:56:28. > :56:31.Jackie, you are a world champion, how much does that ripple around the

:56:32. > :56:36.other teams, because everybody is out there on the ice, they must have

:56:37. > :56:40.looked at the school called -- scoreboard, 12-3 X commission mark

:56:41. > :56:45.what is the mean in terms of confidence?

:56:46. > :56:49.It is a great confidence booster. They came out, played a solid

:56:50. > :56:56.performance, put a lot of pressure on USA. USA did not bring their game

:56:57. > :56:59.to that, but the girls should take every positive from it and move

:57:00. > :57:06.forward into what will be a tough game tomorrow against Canada. What a

:57:07. > :57:14.fantastic result. And that seven, that was just wonderful.

:57:15. > :57:19.It was amazing. I should think you were surprised to be commentating on

:57:20. > :57:25.that in a sense that you must have known that was something that is so

:57:26. > :57:32.rarely seen, and you think, what? Yes, and to be honest, I have got to

:57:33. > :57:37.follow Jackie 's guide little bit, but when that end was building, we

:57:38. > :57:41.have seen the stones at the top of the house, so many in, nearly all

:57:42. > :57:47.bread, given how poorly run had been playing, you felt as though she

:57:48. > :57:57.hadn't been giving herself too many options -- Erika Brown. It left a

:57:58. > :58:04.fairly easy straightforward take-out. They are bubbling down

:58:05. > :58:09.there. Everybody is very happy. They have all got an early night. The

:58:10. > :58:16.best thing is it is Canada tomorrow. Canada is a tough match. They have

:58:17. > :58:22.had two victories. Their confidence is sky high, they can find a better

:58:23. > :58:26.time to play Canada. Jackie, I was down there with you guys yesterday

:58:27. > :58:30.watching their opening match. Quite a lot of tension in that team, so

:58:31. > :58:34.different today, to see their shoulders relaxed, everybody smiling

:58:35. > :58:37.and laughing. The other thing is the reaction at home, certainly people

:58:38. > :58:43.watching that and really getting involved.

:58:44. > :58:48.You heard even in the interview saying they went back, analyse the

:58:49. > :58:53.game. They spoke to their coach, Rhona Martin, their fifth player,

:58:54. > :58:57.that is what the whole game is about. They have got to use the

:58:58. > :59:01.support staff, analyse the game. They have put years of hard work and

:59:02. > :59:03.practice in. They know they can perform well, they just have to

:59:04. > :59:07.believe in themselves and that is what they did today. They went out

:59:08. > :59:11.there and had the strongest performance I have seen. They can

:59:12. > :59:18.play a bit better than that but it was worth watching.

:59:19. > :59:22.Presumably, how does it work in terms of, is that the equivalent of

:59:23. > :59:29.goal difference? Does a score like that help?

:59:30. > :59:33.No, it is very straightforward, your match situation, if there are ties

:59:34. > :59:37.in terms of matches one versus matches lost which often is the

:59:38. > :59:42.case, if there are ties to get into that top four there is a day set

:59:43. > :59:48.next Tuesday for tie-break matches. If the records or equal in terms of

:59:49. > :59:53.setting this tie-break matches in place, we have been watching the

:59:54. > :59:57.last stone drawers, they come into play. They are what each skip gets

:59:58. > :00:00.to play between each match to determine who has the hammer so that

:00:01. > :00:04.record could be important for stop the so far both Eve and Dave Murdoch

:00:05. > :00:21.have been playing pretty well in the last stone floor as well so it is

:00:22. > :00:25.backing up their performances. They have played some fantastic draw

:00:26. > :00:31.shots, so that was down to them in good stead as well. Many thanks to

:00:32. > :00:37.Jackie and to Steve, for once they can get a relatively early and to

:00:38. > :00:41.their evening. It builds an aura around Team GB, and that always

:00:42. > :00:46.helps, whether it is tennis or golf or curling, the more people look at

:00:47. > :00:59.you and think, that is somebody who is difficult to beat. And Rhona

:01:00. > :01:06.Howie is part of our advising team, and she knows what it takes to be

:01:07. > :01:17.part of a winning team. Rhona Martin, one last delivery for

:01:18. > :01:23.Olympic gold. Is it on its way. So much depending on 1's stone. It

:01:24. > :01:31.needs to be absolutely perfect. And it is looking good.

:01:32. > :01:42.She's done it! Olympic gold for Great Britain. Curling is just a

:01:43. > :01:51.great social sport. In our club, Greenacres, the youngest is 14 or

:01:52. > :01:54.15, the oldest is in their 80s. You can have Olympic champions playing

:01:55. > :02:02.with your normal curlers, in one team. At school, I played the usual

:02:03. > :02:10.hockey, badminton. It was when I left school, I wanted to do

:02:11. > :02:16.something different. My brother did quite a bit of curling, and he said,

:02:17. > :02:21.give it a go. To be honest, the first time I did it, I kept falling,

:02:22. > :02:28.I was freezing, but he persuaded me to come back. It wasn't an Olympic

:02:29. > :02:33.medal sport when I started playing, so I couldn't see at that point that

:02:34. > :02:39.that was my dream. I was just playing for fun. As curling

:02:40. > :02:46.progressed and became an Olympic sport, I thought, this is what I

:02:47. > :02:52.want to do. The demands on your time became greater and greater. We never

:02:53. > :02:57.really got to see you. You came in, and it was like, hello, goodbye. I

:02:58. > :03:00.had to stop working and the children were young, so it was juggling

:03:01. > :03:06.children and training. Throughout the journey, it changed as to the

:03:07. > :03:10.amount of training you had to do, and I changed my lifestyle

:03:11. > :03:14.accordingly. Before I went away, I also had to make sure that

:03:15. > :03:18.everything for the children was left in an order that they knew what was

:03:19. > :03:24.happening, and there was always an itinerary on the fridge. But once

:03:25. > :03:28.you were away, your focus was on performance. We knew if we went and

:03:29. > :03:34.played well, we could beat any team that was there. I have never

:03:35. > :03:40.actually watched the whole final right through. Switzerland just

:03:41. > :03:45.wouldn't take a song. They were cagey the whole way through the

:03:46. > :03:49.final. Uncertainty from the Swiss about their tactics. We had that

:03:50. > :03:53.last stone advantage, so I thought it was coming down to me, if I don't

:03:54. > :04:03.make it, the team will never speak to me again.

:04:04. > :04:08.After all this, it has come down to such a close margin. We weren't

:04:09. > :04:13.aware of what was happening back home. It was only after the final

:04:14. > :04:15.that we understood what was happening back here. This is the

:04:16. > :04:31.stone for glory. It is on its way. She's done it! I just thought, oh my

:04:32. > :04:37.goodness, what have we done? The media were everywhere.

:04:38. > :04:47.In the history books now. A distant memory. But a fantastic experience.

:04:48. > :04:54.And the amazing thing is, that was 12 years ago. Nearly 6 million

:04:55. > :04:59.people stayed up late at night to watch, Steve Cram and I were

:05:00. > :05:03.presenting. Just a stunning success, and that is when curling really took

:05:04. > :05:07.off with the British public. And now you are all talking about it, and it

:05:08. > :05:11.looks as though Eve Muirhead and her British team have put down a

:05:12. > :05:16.marker, and they will be up there among the contenders tomorrow. They

:05:17. > :05:18.play Canada. Let's have a look now as we travel around the Olympic Park

:05:19. > :05:37.with my trusty trolley. GB's men made it two wins from three

:05:38. > :05:47.in Sochi, but only just. They sneaked a 7-6 win in the final end.

:05:48. > :05:55.Belarus only missed two targets in the biathlon ten kilometre pursuit.

:05:56. > :06:11.Finally, someone has won a speed skating gold who isn't wearing

:06:12. > :06:18.orange. Lee Cyrus bar, -- Lee Sang Hwa is well on the way to winning

:06:19. > :06:29.the first medal for career. -- South Korea. Norway are out in front with

:06:30. > :06:33.Canada, four gold medals each. Great Britain now down to 20th place, with

:06:34. > :06:39.just the one bronze medal from Jenny Jones, but hopefully more to come.

:06:40. > :06:43.Norway's tally has been helped hugely by their skill in

:06:44. > :06:48.cross-country skiing. Commentary from Rob Walker and Patrick

:06:49. > :06:51.Winterton. They are under way, and it is the

:06:52. > :06:57.fourth time today that they will have completed this circuit. In just

:06:58. > :07:09.a few minutes, we will have a new champion. Falla leading at the

:07:10. > :07:16.moment, Fabjan on her inside. Three Norwegians, a Swede and an American.

:07:17. > :07:27.Half of them will get medals, but who will it be? Now we get to the

:07:28. > :07:36.crucial part of the race, a hairpin. Very carefully around there, and

:07:37. > :07:48.Falla still leads. Ostberg is in, can anyone else close the gap? She

:07:49. > :07:54.can't shake off Fabjan. Falla has been brilliant today. One more turn,

:07:55. > :08:00.one more straight, she has to keep it going. Fabjan is money aside, she

:08:01. > :08:06.wants to upgrade to gold. But she is not going to do it. They are trying

:08:07. > :08:08.to close her down, but it is glory for Norway once again. Very close

:08:09. > :08:21.between Ostberg and Fabjan. My goodness, there is a toenail in

:08:22. > :08:30.it, and Dominic aside, that was Ostberg of Norway. Falla is roaring

:08:31. > :08:39.with delight. She is the Winter Olympics sprint champion.

:08:40. > :08:42.We get away, and everyone using the Pellegrino start to try to

:08:43. > :08:50.accelerate themselves out of the blocks, but it is Hattestad who is

:08:51. > :08:55.into his stride. He switches the skate, a little loss of balance

:08:56. > :08:58.there. That is the first sign of weakness from him, and Peterson

:08:59. > :09:05.seizes the opportunity to lead into the first corner. Hattestad of

:09:06. > :09:09.Norway leads into the downhill. This is a right-hand turn as the speed

:09:10. > :09:21.builds, 40, 50, 60 kilometres per hour. And we have freefall is there,

:09:22. > :09:25.so it is a two-way race for the title here now. Teodor Peterson

:09:26. > :09:33.voided all the mayhem on that corner. Hattestad looking tired, but

:09:34. > :09:41.it is no wonder after four times round the course. It is not a day's

:09:42. > :09:46.work that most of us would opt for. Now we see the burst from him, and

:09:47. > :09:53.he winds up his frame, but Teodor Peterson is closing with 50 metres

:09:54. > :09:58.to go. That Hattestad is just too good on the way, and the gold medal

:09:59. > :10:08.goes to the world champion from way back in 2009, . And Joensson is

:10:09. > :10:12.going to get the easiest ride to a bronze medal but we have ever seen

:10:13. > :10:13.at the Olympic Games. What disappointment for Russia, but what

:10:14. > :10:31.a spectacle. What a spectacle indeed, for Norway

:10:32. > :10:35.in the end. We are now going over to the pairs programme for the figure

:10:36. > :10:39.skating. We will see the short programme, and Stacey Kemp and David

:10:40. > :10:54.King of British contenders. Next for Great Britain, Stacey Kemp

:10:55. > :10:59.and David King. Second appearance on the ice here in Sochi. They didn't

:11:00. > :11:08.start well in the short programme in the team event. They had a fall and

:11:09. > :11:15.finished 10th. They now have to put that behind them. They finished

:11:16. > :11:18.sixth at the world Championships. For Britain, Stacey Kemp and David

:11:19. > :11:51.King. The opening element is the triple

:11:52. > :11:54.twist. A little tight on the landing, but I think they made the

:11:55. > :12:11.rotation. No triple jumps in their arsenal,

:12:12. > :12:12.but they do have the double axels, and that is what they want to make

:12:13. > :12:20.happen now. David made his, but Stacey's will be

:12:21. > :14:24.downgraded. That must have felt like a very long

:14:25. > :14:29.2.45 minutes. They seemed to lose a little bit of speed towards the end,

:14:30. > :14:33.and that is when mistakes came in. Apart from the obvious ones we saw.

:14:34. > :14:38.You can tell from their reaction they are not happy with that. Yes, I

:14:39. > :14:43.could see the tension in Stacey right from the very beginning. I saw

:14:44. > :14:48.it was tight on the Exeter the triple twist, really tight for her

:14:49. > :14:52.missing the double axel, and it was building towards that third triple

:14:53. > :14:59.flip, which is really quite secure for them. She almost ran into him in

:15:00. > :15:11.the footwork sequence, so not the best performance for them.

:15:12. > :15:20.May be her confidence was dented after the short programme.

:15:21. > :15:35.Definitely not at their best. I have seen them skate better than that.

:15:36. > :15:41.That was good height of the twist. He caught her while she was still

:15:42. > :15:50.rotating. That could be a downgrade from triple to double. The

:15:51. > :16:01.side-by-side double axels. David's was good.

:16:02. > :16:08.And a bit around the corner on the throw, she started to rotate

:16:09. > :16:13.slightly early. Unfortunately, taking rather a long time to

:16:14. > :16:20.recover. Which maybe suggests that there was an injury. It was like

:16:21. > :16:25.with the Italian boy, you are not all the way down, not all the way up

:16:26. > :16:28.and it is difficult to control a fall like that and not put your

:16:29. > :16:34.hands down. She was trying not to put the whole body down. Where will

:16:35. > :16:39.the judges put them? They are looking to be in the top four to go

:16:40. > :16:46.through to the top 16 but it is doubtful they will have the marks,

:16:47. > :16:49.very disappointing. It is a long way below their season's best. I think

:16:50. > :16:56.they know it is not going to happen. They will not be through to

:16:57. > :17:02.the free programme of the Olympics. Last place at the moment. Not what

:17:03. > :17:12.they came here for. It is sad to see you.

:17:13. > :17:15.What a shame. If you want to carry on watching the figure skating, the

:17:16. > :17:24.pair 's programme continues on the red button. The Canadian celebrating

:17:25. > :17:29.a little more than our pair. These are the scenes at the ski jumping.

:17:30. > :17:36.The very first Olympic women's ski jumping takes place tonight and we

:17:37. > :17:41.will show it later. The spectators are getting in the mood. They know

:17:42. > :17:44.they are about to witness history. It should be a wonderful

:17:45. > :17:50.competition. We have good jumpers from America and also a young

:17:51. > :17:54.Japanese jumper. We are going to head to the halfpipe final very

:17:55. > :18:01.shortly. It features one of the biggest names in winter sport. It is

:18:02. > :18:09.this man. The wonder boy from California. Shaun White. The

:18:10. > :18:16.reigning gold medallist. He cannot be touched. This is the world's best

:18:17. > :18:31.snowboarder in the world, ladies and gentlemen. Has he got it? Yes. Such

:18:32. > :18:41.is his supremacy in halfpipe snowboarding. Shaun White, the best

:18:42. > :18:46.snowboarder on earth. That is what he is like on his snowboard. What is

:18:47. > :19:06.he like in person. Before Christmas, Ed went to talk with Shaun White.

:19:07. > :19:22.MUSIC: have you ever felt like it is lonely up at the top.

:19:23. > :19:27.I went professional at 13. I had sponsors since I was seven. All the

:19:28. > :19:33.competitors I had were ten years older. I was setting the bar pretty

:19:34. > :19:37.high, I happened to be better than the fully grown men, the

:19:38. > :19:43.professional riders. I love being out here, but I feel like I do other

:19:44. > :19:48.things. I live at the beach in California. I do not live in the

:19:49. > :19:54.mountains. I cannot be here too long. I kind of lose my mind. I like

:19:55. > :19:59.to see friends and family. I like distractions. When I get back to my

:20:00. > :20:08.sport, I am so happy to be there. It is refreshing. You seem to be one of

:20:09. > :20:13.the first people to come to the sport and say it is acceptable to

:20:14. > :20:18.want to win, is that fair? It is fair enough to say I want to win.

:20:19. > :20:24.When you get to the bottom, people ask how was it today? I am having a

:20:25. > :20:29.great time with my friends. I am so stoked to be here. If you enter a

:20:30. > :20:38.competition, you want to win. I started to speak the truth. His

:20:39. > :20:44.second gold medal, the best snowboarder on earth, right now. One

:20:45. > :20:52.of the hardest things is you have two access that losing is OK. Will

:20:53. > :20:58.you be able to? I wish I could truthfully say it would be OK. The

:20:59. > :21:03.only time I am OK with losing is if I put everything on the line. If

:21:04. > :21:06.somebody beats my best run, they deserved to win. They are usually

:21:07. > :21:11.the best moments in my career because what happens after is

:21:12. > :21:15.amazing. I wish I could tap into it all the time. I would be the most

:21:16. > :21:27.ridiculous snowboarder ever if I could harness that. Reality check,

:21:28. > :21:32.you are! It is so interesting listening to

:21:33. > :21:36.him. We are going to the Extreme Park where we find Ed and Graham

:21:37. > :21:43.Bell. Ed, you spent a lot of time with him. I bumped into our halfpipe

:21:44. > :21:49.athletes and talk to them about Shaun White and they think the

:21:50. > :21:54.American press and team are hard on him. They think he is great. I guess

:21:55. > :21:58.when you are so successful, you do not have friends all over the

:21:59. > :22:11.place. They feel he does not get the credit he should.

:22:12. > :22:15.Potentially not. He has isolated himself and that has not ingratiated

:22:16. > :22:22.himself with the community. And pulling out of the slopestyle after

:22:23. > :22:25.the training. The Olympics are about competing and not concentrating on

:22:26. > :22:32.the event you have a good chance of winning.

:22:33. > :22:40.What do you think of his chances this evening? He is clearly in the

:22:41. > :22:45.mood to create history. If I am right, he will be the first

:22:46. > :22:51.American, if not Olympian, to retain the same gold medal three times in a

:22:52. > :22:59.row and his chances look strong. There is a fly in the ointment, the

:23:00. > :23:02.15-year-old snowboarder who is so powerful, who is in a position to do

:23:03. > :23:08.what Shaun White did to the professionals when he arrived on the

:23:09. > :23:21.scene. Graham, what are conditions like? There have been complaints.

:23:22. > :23:26.How is it looking? It has got colder and the halfpipe is beginning to

:23:27. > :23:31.freeze. They have not been able to shape it and so the bumps they made

:23:32. > :23:35.in qualifying are still there. They have now frozen quite hard. As Ed

:23:36. > :23:41.will tell you, it is not the most pleasant thing. No, it is not

:23:42. > :23:48.running smoothly. The level of these riders, the calibre of the riders,

:23:49. > :23:54.they will plough through. There may be mistakes but the top five will

:23:55. > :24:00.land their runs, I think. The most dangerous thing is that if

:24:01. > :24:08.you have a fall on the flat section on the top of the pipe, that can be

:24:09. > :24:12.dangerous. The most dangerous part is landing

:24:13. > :24:17.on the edge. If you hit the platform, then you bounce in.

:24:18. > :24:22.Thankfully, most have landed on the platform. If you see someone hit the

:24:23. > :24:25.deck and bounds in, it gets nasty. You for three metres onto the

:24:26. > :24:34.platform and eight metres into the bottom of the halfpipe.

:24:35. > :24:39.We will let Ed make his way to the commentary box. If you have been

:24:40. > :24:46.watching the snowboarding, it is a new language. This is a guide which

:24:47. > :24:52.will hopefully help you. If you watch slopestyle, you most

:24:53. > :24:59.certainly would have heard this. Backside 180 with a melon grab.

:25:00. > :25:04.Switch 540. Backside 180, which ever way you want to look at it. If that

:25:05. > :25:12.let you be mused, do not panic, we will help. The halfpipe is going to

:25:13. > :25:20.be filled with plenty of terminology, but we will do our best

:25:21. > :25:24.to break it down for you. The halfpipe is called that because it

:25:25. > :25:30.is a pipe chopped in half. It has the platform on the top of the

:25:31. > :25:37.pipe, two curved walls, which are called transitions. They are

:25:38. > :25:41.separated by the flat bottom. On a snowboard, you stand sideways. The

:25:42. > :25:48.way you do your tricks, you approach the obstacle and show the front

:25:49. > :25:52.first, frontside, all, you can show your back, the backside. You have

:25:53. > :25:59.your frontside wall and your backside wall.

:26:00. > :26:03.Not every rider stands the same way, some have their left foot forward,

:26:04. > :26:10.regular, some stand naturally with the right foot forward. This is

:26:11. > :26:15.goofy. Named after the character when he was depicted surfing and

:26:16. > :26:22.standing with that foot forwards. We know riders have a preference,

:26:23. > :26:28.right or left legs forward. If they travel in the opposite direction, or

:26:29. > :26:32.backwards, this is riding switch. It is much harder. If you land a

:26:33. > :26:38.trick, switch, you instantly get more points.

:26:39. > :26:48.Spins a broken down into 180 degrees increments. You have the 180, the

:26:49. > :26:56.360, 540, 720, 1260, 1440, and may be even a 1620. For the half

:26:57. > :27:00.rotations. As well as spinning on a horizontal axis, riders can cork the

:27:01. > :27:06.spins and the clue is in the title, a cork 's spin is like a corkscrew.

:27:07. > :27:11.When the head goes under the board, they add a cork to the spin. Double

:27:12. > :27:22.corks are standard. But, the triple cork, that is something else.

:27:23. > :27:27.This is a taster and there are no hard and fast rules to the

:27:28. > :27:35.dictionary of tricks. But hopefully you know your 360 from your 1080 and

:27:36. > :27:45.your frontside from your backside. Shaun White, Conway to see him.

:27:46. > :27:55.They are the men in the commentary box as we joined the final.

:27:56. > :28:05.box as we joined Hello, welcome to the men's halfpipe

:28:06. > :28:10.final. This is the starting list. The two Chinese men starting, debut

:28:11. > :28:23.Olympics, they have made it to the finals. Kent Callister, a fantastic

:28:24. > :28:36.run. Greg Bretz, the American, Danny Davis, another American. Going last

:28:37. > :28:41.will be the reigning Olympic gold medallist, Shaun White. He is here

:28:42. > :28:56.to win an historic third consecutive medal. The second placed qualifier

:28:57. > :29:04.could spoil the party, Ayumu Hirano. Practice between the semifinal and

:29:05. > :29:14.final was ridiculous. Shaun White did the cab double 1440, into

:29:15. > :29:18.frontside, into double McTwist. It is safe to say that this man is out

:29:19. > :29:22.for the gold medal. That is what he wants and he has done the right

:29:23. > :29:36.thing by qualifying in first position. Number 19, sitting at the

:29:37. > :29:39.top. Tim Kevin Ravnjak. He had to qualify in the semifinals and hat to

:29:40. > :29:46.work hard to get here, but getting into this, the standard of pipe

:29:47. > :29:50.riding, I would say it is broader and higher than slopestyle. To make

:29:51. > :30:00.it to an Olympic halfpipe final, you have to say, these boys, they are

:30:01. > :30:05.the 12 best in the world. They have had powerful teams working with them

:30:06. > :30:08.for 16 years, Tim Kevin Ravnjak opening up the Olympic final for the

:30:09. > :30:27.halfpipe with a big backside air. They are looking for technical runs

:30:28. > :30:39.that are well executed. That was a beautiful backside 540. And what was

:30:40. > :30:44.that? Suite 720 to finish. Tim Kevin Ravnjak adopting the same approach

:30:45. > :30:50.he did in the qualifiers. The format here is two runs, and the highest

:30:51. > :30:56.will count. It is not combined. So on the first run, it is so important

:30:57. > :31:03.to lay down a solid marker. Let's look at this frontside 1080. It is

:31:04. > :31:09.as big as your house. No reversing the flat bottomed between the

:31:10. > :31:15.transitions. You need the mindset of a fighter pilot to react quickly and

:31:16. > :31:21.hit that next hit. The replay their showing some very smooth landings.

:31:22. > :31:25.Perhaps a couple of easy tricks down at the bottom, but he will be

:31:26. > :31:30.looking to fill those in with more technical tricks now that he has a

:31:31. > :31:38.decent score on the board. Absolutely. The Chinese started

:31:39. > :31:53.entering young riders, this is fascinating. 14-year-old. Now they

:31:54. > :32:06.have entered men into the halfpipe, and they have both entered the

:32:07. > :32:12.finals. This is a subjective sport, but in the history of snowboarding,

:32:13. > :32:20.they are not traditional grabs. Not at all. We described them as wearing

:32:21. > :32:27.socks with sandals. That was a beautiful frontside air there. His

:32:28. > :32:33.attitude straight back. And that was huge. He struggled to stop at the

:32:34. > :32:38.bottom, but he put it down on the bolts. We were able to watch

:32:39. > :32:45.training last night in that finish area, and it isn't big when you are

:32:46. > :32:51.coming into it at speed! You want to hope that the glass in the front of

:32:52. > :32:56.the judges Bruce is bullet-proof. You can see the adrenaline in his

:32:57. > :33:04.eyes there. You can see him grabbing in front of his route but not on the

:33:05. > :33:11.actual nose of the board. Backside stalefish. You want to try to grab

:33:12. > :33:15.between the feet or up on the nose and tail. The cameraman struggling

:33:16. > :33:24.to keep up with him because he went so high. He did so well not to drag

:33:25. > :33:34.his hands, great edge control there. 81! I thought that was going to be

:33:35. > :33:39.just a little bit higher. The judges want to make sure that these riders

:33:40. > :33:45.are landing at the tops of the transitions, and using them to

:33:46. > :33:50.generate speed into the next hit. But they know that they should leave

:33:51. > :34:02.a little space at the top of the scoreboard, as well. And now the

:34:03. > :34:21.second Chinese border, Zhang Yiwei. He unveils the backside air into the

:34:22. > :34:26.1080. He is riding switch, spins another 1087 years going forwards

:34:27. > :34:32.now. And right at the top of the transition on that. A double barrel

:34:33. > :34:44.roll, if you well, and 980. Goodness! Hang on, let's take stock.

:34:45. > :34:50.The Chinese have just turned it up to 11 in that one. If anyone was

:34:51. > :34:56.watching the qualifiers and the semis, we would have seen people

:34:57. > :35:07.struggling with this. It seems to have just ridden in, and they seem

:35:08. > :35:19.to be able to get higher. This pipe is 6.7m deep, so he is 10.1m off the

:35:20. > :35:22.ground. I had a really interesting conversation with Lesley McKenna at

:35:23. > :35:27.the last Olympics, when she said that when the Chinese riders started

:35:28. > :35:32.to turn up, they were coming from gymnastics background, but now

:35:33. > :35:37.snowboarding is rubbing off on them. And you realise that there is a lot

:35:38. > :36:03.of snowboard culture. So the score there, 87.25. Now, the

:36:04. > :36:12.single Australian, Nathan Johnstone. Kent Callister, we have enjoyed

:36:13. > :36:18.seeing his methods. A lot of grabs are very similar, it is like a

:36:19. > :36:23.fingerprint. The method everyone does it differently. You are going

:36:24. > :36:30.to see it on the first hit here, and this one is like a soaring eagle.

:36:31. > :36:38.This is a thing of pure beauty. Liquid snowboarding right here.

:36:39. > :36:50.Jurassic Park. The tale of that board is higher than his head.

:36:51. > :37:01.Oh no, he has gone too big. I have used my quota of Alan Partridge

:37:02. > :37:06.quotes on one run. That is like taking a body blow from Mike Tyson

:37:07. > :37:15.and getting up smiling. A couple of deep breaths there. Let's really of

:37:16. > :37:23.this. The frontside ten, and then he winds up to the switch should. When

:37:24. > :37:32.you call a spin, it is like a corkscrew. The head spins underneath

:37:33. > :37:35.the board. And here is that landing, two flats, too far into the

:37:36. > :37:45.transition, and his front leg buckled. I think no matter what

:37:46. > :37:56.happens, he is winning the style pointer at the moment. 40 points,

:37:57. > :38:07.but it is the best of two runs. Now it is the turn of Brett, -- Greg

:38:08. > :38:17.Bretz, the only man to beat Shaun White in Breckenridge.

:38:18. > :38:23.Shaun White had his best game that day, but he is even better today.

:38:24. > :38:30.There is a lot of riding still to go. A big 1080 to kick-off. He

:38:31. > :38:37.seemed to travel quite far down the pipe there. Halfpipe is all about

:38:38. > :38:41.board control. You have to be able to get onto your age and cut across

:38:42. > :38:43.the pipe as soon as you land your trick to generate speed into the

:38:44. > :38:55.next jump. And Greg Bretz looks like he might

:38:56. > :39:02.have injured himself there, he is just holding his knee and his hip.

:39:03. > :39:07.If you have ever slipped on ice and gone down hard, you will know what

:39:08. > :39:13.Greg Bretz is going through there. So he takes this one cleanly, and

:39:14. > :39:23.doesn't get his weight over the toe edge. You can see how much loose

:39:24. > :39:26.snow he is bringing up there. Chunks of ice on the face. That would have

:39:27. > :39:37.hurt. Just under rotating, landing on the

:39:38. > :39:49.back of the tail and sitting down into the transition. Do not adjust

:39:50. > :40:04.your set, his roots are slashing! -- flashing. Now, Iouri Podladtchikov.

:40:05. > :40:14.Aka iPod. Russian by birth. He is now a professor in zero and took

:40:15. > :40:21.Swiss citizenship. He has been the bridesmaid Shaun White's bride. Just

:40:22. > :40:26.trying to get rid of a little fog out of his lenses there. He seems to

:40:27. > :40:33.be one of these riders that is getting more and more comfortable

:40:34. > :40:43.with everyone. I double twist, a 1080, a cab

:40:44. > :40:59.double. That is a week run! He has only gone and done Shaun White's

:41:00. > :41:11.trick there, the double McTwist. That is how much it means to him.

:41:12. > :41:19.And remember he has the yolo Flippin there, he hasn't used it. And I have

:41:20. > :41:25.to say, he did that better than Shaun White does. And the

:41:26. > :41:32.truckdriver, and the switch double. It goes back under his order again

:41:33. > :41:39.here, his head. I hope those judges have got some Panadol in there,

:41:40. > :41:50.because they are going to have a headache sorting this out. It is

:41:51. > :41:55.night-time here, 9:30pm. 86.5! I was just about to say, he is wearing all

:41:56. > :42:00.black comedy looks like a ninja. It is going to be hard for the judges

:42:01. > :42:05.to pick out his double grabs because you can't differentiate the hands

:42:06. > :42:14.and where the grabs are. He has got the yolo flip to fall back on. Iouri

:42:15. > :42:23.Podladtchikov back-up at the top of the pipe. We are waiting for the

:42:24. > :42:26.Swiss rookie. I have never come across him before. Just 17 years

:42:27. > :42:46.old. David Hablutzel from zero. They have

:42:47. > :42:54.a lot of elite riders using the halfpipe. There are fewer big super

:42:55. > :42:59.pipes like this around the world now. But they have won, and if he is

:43:00. > :43:07.training every day, this is what he gets too. You can go to the top of

:43:08. > :43:40.your list, and a super pipe will be waiting for you. So he drops in now.

:43:41. > :43:50.Move out the way! Save yourselves! A good run from the youngster. This is

:43:51. > :43:56.going to be a good score to mark at Iouri Podladtchikov, because for me,

:43:57. > :44:01.the judges have been marking height out of the pipe, on slopestyle and

:44:02. > :44:10.here in halfpipe. And Iouri Podladtchikov's run was really high.

:44:11. > :44:22.That wasn't just the height on a straight air, straight air you don't

:44:23. > :44:27.spin. He is close on 11 metres in the air. That was the seat belt,

:44:28. > :44:33.where you grab across your body. You don't see many of those. You don't.

:44:34. > :44:43.It is like an alligator giving birth, very rare. They are reptiles,

:44:44. > :44:47.they lay eggs. David Hablutzel waiting patiently for his score. The

:44:48. > :44:56.17-year-old has a very bright future. 80.75. He has got somewhere

:44:57. > :45:01.to go there, as well. Still the front ten to finish, and he could

:45:02. > :45:13.perhaps be a little tidier at the top of the run, perhaps even fit in

:45:14. > :45:18.another hit. We talked about Sage Kotsenburg being the snowboarder's

:45:19. > :45:25.snowboarder. This is the halfpipe equivalent. Some really difficult

:45:26. > :45:33.technical tricks and Danny Davis is your man. He does not conform to

:45:34. > :45:44.everybody else. He is not pushing double corks. He stays true.

:45:45. > :45:54.Travelling backwards but going for the switch. Patrick is so difficult.

:45:55. > :46:09.The double crippler. And that was the biggest we have seen. That is

:46:10. > :46:16.the pipe that we have seen in qualifying and the semifinals. From

:46:17. > :46:22.nowhere, it takes him down. He falls victim of the snow snake. He will be

:46:23. > :46:33.gutted. The height on the twist was absolutely beautiful. It was such a

:46:34. > :46:43.good run. Weise -- we spoke about the trick method. The switch method.

:46:44. > :46:46.Most riders would rather try a double-cork 1080. Switches

:46:47. > :46:56.backwards. It is insanely difficult. The McTwist. They call it the big

:46:57. > :47:01.chicken wing. Stretches out. He landed perfectly on the transition.

:47:02. > :47:11.Tucking in nice and tightly. More weight on his front leg. He was

:47:12. > :47:22.fine, he was balanced. Look at the faces. If he does that again in the

:47:23. > :47:37.second run, he will still be smiling at the end of it.

:47:38. > :47:48.Christian Haller. I saw him getting second place behind Iouri

:47:49. > :47:52.Podladtchikov. And now he is in the Olympic final. He is a technical

:47:53. > :48:08.rider. He is so confident. Rotating backside, turning your back

:48:09. > :48:18.on the halfpipe. And a double-cork 1080, to switch 720.

:48:19. > :48:26.It was a huge backside air, but a little out of control. This is the

:48:27. > :48:39.most telling time, when they let the run go and they show what they can

:48:40. > :48:51.do when they are messing around. The football equivalent, Paul Scholes

:48:52. > :48:59.training. The double-cork 1080, he put that down nicely. And the

:49:00. > :49:04.backside air. We call it a dead sailor, when you falling off the end

:49:05. > :49:14.the plank. He did not go over the handlebars. And the frontside. You

:49:15. > :49:18.could see the kink. He had got to the complete point of calling the

:49:19. > :49:27.spring ready to wind into the rotation and then the edge, bucked

:49:28. > :49:36.when he ran through. As frustrated as he will be, he will know it was

:49:37. > :49:41.the conditions. I said this pipe was riding in but the last two, we have

:49:42. > :49:51.seen glimpses of the pipe, it is pushing riders a little bit. Taku

:49:52. > :50:00.Hiraoka from Japan. Prequalified for the finals very strong run. We have

:50:01. > :50:03.been concerned about having not read in the pipe regularly. It was a

:50:04. > :50:23.massive McTwist. He stalls the frontside 1080. He

:50:24. > :50:30.held onto it for a second. A 1080 degrees spin. Three rotations. Had

:50:31. > :50:35.been his head under his snowboard. You are rolling the dice in this

:50:36. > :50:42.pipe, it does not care who you are, what you have won, where you have

:50:43. > :50:52.come from. And look at that. 4.8 metres. He is almost 12 metres off

:50:53. > :50:58.the ground. That is ridiculous. You want to make sure your feet hit the

:50:59. > :51:01.floor first on that! They are high stakes, with the pipe in the

:51:02. > :51:08.condition it is in. They are not holding back. They cannot hold

:51:09. > :51:16.back. You have to get a score on the board. The other two riders, they

:51:17. > :51:22.will see what has happened to Danny Davis and Greg Bretz and to Taku

:51:23. > :51:26.Hiraoka, and they will be thinking, I hope that does not happen to be.

:51:27. > :51:33.This lad, 15, he does not show nerves. Imagine, at 15 years of age,

:51:34. > :51:41.riding on the biggest stage of Earth. Ayumu Hirano, the owner of a

:51:42. > :51:49.trick arsenal that could blow Shaun White's Olympic hopes out of the

:51:50. > :51:53.water. Think of the audacity at 15 years of age, knocking out a

:51:54. > :51:57.triple-cork. Rumours that we could see it on the first hit. Hold

:51:58. > :52:20.tight. No, just a backside air. How on earth did he land that?

:52:21. > :52:26.Somebody give him a rescue boat. We need a lifeguard. Incredible. He

:52:27. > :52:32.rescued that trick from certain death. He is a cat dressed in human

:52:33. > :52:59.skin. Ayumu Hirano. The 1440 double-cork, the double

:53:00. > :53:12.McTwist, he has not laid those down. Potentially, this is a marker.

:53:13. > :53:18.Double grabs. He got a good solid grab on Matt. Searching for the

:53:19. > :53:25.landing as he opened up. He is a precocious talent. He has a stare

:53:26. > :53:36.that could pick all onions, in the words of Edgeley. -- Ed.

:53:37. > :53:46.Ayumu Hirano has taken the lead. Shaun White, the stage is now yours.

:53:47. > :53:51.Imagine the pressure on Shaun White. The man who gave up slopestyle for

:53:52. > :54:04.this gold medal. He is now standing at the top with everything to prove.

:54:05. > :54:10.Such a distinctive look. He has turned his American team pants into

:54:11. > :54:16.drainpipes. He has a 25 and a quarter inch stance, massively wide,

:54:17. > :54:23.but it gives him incredibly solid landings.

:54:24. > :54:37.You cannot fault him. A double-cork 1080. Cab 14. He dropped it. That is

:54:38. > :54:44.the first time he has dropped a trick in an Olympic final. He will

:54:45. > :54:54.be all right. Well, Shaun White is human after all. This is huge. Shaun

:54:55. > :54:58.White has won every other Olympic gold medal win his first run in the

:54:59. > :55:06.finals. Now, he is in unfamiliar territory. It comes down to the

:55:07. > :55:13.second run. The young pretender already has a score on the board.

:55:14. > :55:19.5.3 metres! The board control needed to go that high is insane. I saw the

:55:20. > :55:31.trick in practice. The Switch double 1440. He missed the grab, he looked

:55:32. > :55:35.for his boot with his hand. He was holding the shins to speed up the

:55:36. > :55:45.rotation. The core strength was not enough to hold him in that spin.

:55:46. > :55:52.That was the second slam, having let go of the run, he decided to come

:55:53. > :56:02.in, put the double-cork ten down. That will be a dead leg tomorrow.

:56:03. > :56:07.Shaun White, the pressure is on. All 12 riders in this final have dropped

:56:08. > :56:13.for the first run. He has a slight limp. If you can walk it off, you

:56:14. > :56:24.probably have bought yourself 20 minutes. My pulse is racing. This is

:56:25. > :56:25.drama. We have confirmation of the standings. The 15 year Japanese

:56:26. > :57:03.rider at the top. Over to you, Clare Balding.

:57:04. > :57:09.That was extraordinary to watch. We can cross over to Graham Bell and

:57:10. > :57:16.get his reaction, first of all, to the teenager, Ayumu Hirano, what a

:57:17. > :57:21.performance. What an incredible recovery for the

:57:22. > :57:27.15-year-old on that run. He used all of his snowboard skills to keep him

:57:28. > :57:32.on his feet. I thought he was going down. I think the crowd thought he

:57:33. > :57:36.was going down. He managed to keep the edge carving. Amazingly, he

:57:37. > :57:44.carried the speed through onto the next hit. The atmosphere in the

:57:45. > :57:51.stadium is actually electric. You have to give it to Shaun White, over

:57:52. > :57:54.the past eight years, he has made men's halfpipe snowboarding perhaps

:57:55. > :58:05.the new blue ribbon and event of snow sport. -- riband. Last time, it

:58:06. > :58:09.was the highest viewing figures worldwide of the Winter Games and it

:58:10. > :58:16.is probably going to be the case this time. Everybody is watching

:58:17. > :58:21.this halfpipe as it is incredible. Does Shaun White go for a run he

:58:22. > :58:25.knows he can land and make certain of a medal, or does he go for it and

:58:26. > :58:32.try to get gold and if it goes wrong, he leaves with nothing? Shaun

:58:33. > :58:37.White will go flat out to try to win. You saw the interview before,

:58:38. > :58:42.he will not ride within himself. The only way he will be happy with being

:58:43. > :58:49.beaten is if he commits acts and lately everything to the run. This

:58:50. > :58:54.run -- absolutely everything. This is the first time we have seen him

:58:55. > :59:02.go down in a competition in the Olympics. Every time he has written

:59:03. > :59:13.last in the final and won it on the first run. This time, he is going to

:59:14. > :59:20.have to work for that medal. It is amazing to watch the gymnastic

:59:21. > :59:26.ability. Ayumu Hirano, his recovery, he was so loose in his body, still.

:59:27. > :59:35.The action is commencing. We will head back to Ed and Tim.

:59:36. > :59:42.TK Ravnjak going down on the second hit. He managed to lay down a marker

:59:43. > :59:50.with the first run and gave himself the freedom to let go on the second

:59:51. > :59:58.run. 17 years of age, we will see you in South Korea. What a bright

:59:59. > :00:03.future. It was a mature ride throughout the contest. He is

:00:04. > :00:27.currently in sixth position. Just getting caught out. He went for the

:00:28. > :00:31.double grab and he got it. 72.25. That is the score from his first

:00:32. > :00:35.run, and that is the one that will count. Now, the first of the Chinese

:00:36. > :00:43.riders who have come in at their first Games and not so much upset

:00:44. > :00:56.the apple cart is stolen the wheels off it.

:00:57. > :01:05.He is going to be hitting the frontside wall first, and he starts

:01:06. > :01:11.things off with a big 1080. Three times round, landscaping forwards

:01:12. > :01:16.again now, but he has missed that grab and clipped the lip there. That

:01:17. > :01:25.is what we talked about. And the frustration! Who throws his arms up

:01:26. > :01:32.to the sky. So frustrated. He knows what he could have done there. Got

:01:33. > :01:39.away with what could have been a much nasty slam. If you land on the

:01:40. > :01:45.lip of the pipe and bounced six metres down to the bottom, you can

:01:46. > :01:51.do yourself some damage. I don't think it is the last we've seen of

:01:52. > :01:55.him. These boards are really quite stiff, and he got right on the tail

:01:56. > :02:05.of the board to power it off on take-off.

:02:06. > :02:12.When you are doing a straight air like that, you know almost from

:02:13. > :02:17.take-off that you were going to hit that lip. It is a really common

:02:18. > :02:32.injury to get your knee punched back up into your face, or your head into

:02:33. > :02:34.your chin. 25 for Shi. It is his first run score of 81 that will

:02:35. > :03:12.count. And now it is Zhang Yiwei. He just killed a bit of the speed

:03:13. > :03:17.there, went to vertical up the wall. He is having to work so much harder

:03:18. > :03:22.for these spin is now. He has read gained a bit there. The higher up

:03:23. > :03:28.the transition they land, that is perfectly landed. And that is exact

:03:29. > :03:43.way what we saw Shi do. As so many riders before him at

:03:44. > :03:51.these games have, Zhang Yiwei is going to have to sit it out and see

:03:52. > :03:55.if anyone can best his 87.25 score. He is currently set in the silver

:03:56. > :04:00.medal position, but there is so much talent left to drop. They have more

:04:01. > :04:06.than enough firepower to knock him off his perch. You can see they're

:04:07. > :04:12.just how big he was going further down the pipe. I double twist in

:04:13. > :04:19.there, and he does so well to hold that. This pipe is set on quite a

:04:20. > :04:25.steep incline here, probably about as steep as a red run you would find

:04:26. > :04:32.in most resorts. They point downhill all to generate more speed. And this

:04:33. > :04:38.is in the last we have seen of this boy, either.

:04:39. > :04:46.21 years old. 87.25 will be his final score. 58.5, the throw away

:04:47. > :04:49.there from the second run. So Zhang Yiwei has now got to sit there and

:04:50. > :04:54.wait for everybody else to do their run.

:04:55. > :05:04.And now we are back with the king of the method, Kent Callister. A great

:05:05. > :05:13.start to these Olympics. He is still a youngster, as well. We are

:05:14. > :05:16.definitely going to be seeing him. There was a chance we were going to

:05:17. > :05:21.see his team-mates Nathan Johnstone in the finals as well, but he just

:05:22. > :05:30.missed out. So all of Australia's hopes lie on Kent.

:05:31. > :05:39.Every time, this has been perfect. He lands down the pipe, opens up

:05:40. > :05:43.quite a lot, went really deep. A big double, and he landed so flat. A

:05:44. > :05:51.lesser man's legs would have popped from their hips there. I think he

:05:52. > :05:59.crossed the line now. The judges might let him cross that. If you

:06:00. > :06:04.initiate a trick above the line, you have to count it, but anything that

:06:05. > :06:14.happens after the last blue line there won't be counted.

:06:15. > :06:22.Incidentally, all of the other blue line is, they are just there to help

:06:23. > :06:24.the riders' vision. It is an indicator of whether you are out

:06:25. > :06:30.over the platform or have drifted back into the pipe. The transitions

:06:31. > :06:33.or the curved walls go almost to vertical at the top, and your margin

:06:34. > :06:39.for error if you float away from the wall, you will go to war three

:06:40. > :06:43.metres down. You only need to get it slightly wrong, and you will drop

:06:44. > :06:52.back and have to deal with an incredible impact. 68.50 for Kent

:06:53. > :06:55.Callister. He will be upset that he didn't manage to lay a whole

:06:56. > :07:01.rundown, but he can hold his head up high for the style on those methods.

:07:02. > :07:05.He can go home and changes e-mail signature to winner of the best

:07:06. > :07:14.method at the Olympics. Now, Greg Bretz. 12th in Vancouver.

:07:15. > :07:19.The confidence that comes with being one of only three men to ever beat

:07:20. > :07:30.Shaun White, which he did in the build-up to these Games.

:07:31. > :07:40.A double court 1080, very low there, and he is down. That is a real

:07:41. > :07:47.shame. This is getting very tense now. There are not many riders. We

:07:48. > :07:54.have only got six so far who've actually locked in a good solid

:07:55. > :08:02.score. Half the field. But varies an immense. Look at that, a beautiful

:08:03. > :08:06.handplant to finish there. They look so good and stylish, but they are

:08:07. > :08:19.actually so hard. Yes, and they actually score about 0.01 points.

:08:20. > :08:24.These riders work so hard. He was at Vancouver four years ago. He has

:08:25. > :08:30.trained for four years to do better than 12th place that he got there.

:08:31. > :08:36.It is hard, and he will get 12th place again here. It is a cruel

:08:37. > :08:43.world. He was in 12th when he started, and I don't think that run

:08:44. > :08:49.was any better. Absolutely gutted. 26.5 for the second run. If you

:08:50. > :08:55.could bottle disappointment, ladies and gentlemen, it is right there.

:08:56. > :09:02.Iouri Podladtchikov had a blinding first run, and he gave us the signal

:09:03. > :09:07.as he walked out of the finish area, he lifted his finger. Look at

:09:08. > :09:19.the focus in his eyes. He wants this. It is the yolo as he named it.

:09:20. > :09:47.The double cork 1440. He is gained to relish this chance.

:09:48. > :09:55.And he put it down so clean! What a run from the Swiss rider! Iouri

:09:56. > :10:02.Podladtchikov! He has created history! And look at the Swiss

:10:03. > :10:07.coaches up there. They are absolutely ecstatic, as is Iouri

:10:08. > :10:12.Podladtchikov in the finish area. He saw a chink in the armour of Shaun

:10:13. > :10:17.White, and he has attacked. He said before they started, you said there

:10:18. > :10:24.could be one man to best Shaun White, and this man could do it. And

:10:25. > :10:30.look at this. Shaun White, the pressure gauge has just gone through

:10:31. > :10:39.the roof. Let's break this down, backside air, four metres. This

:10:40. > :10:45.could be... The head goes under the board twice. There are the two

:10:46. > :10:53.corkscrews, and then you have 1440 degrees of rotation. There is so

:10:54. > :10:56.much going on in that trip. He gets the grab, manages even to add a

:10:57. > :11:01.little bit of style by pulling the board behind him. He absolutely

:11:02. > :11:09.can't believe it. That is the best he has ever done that trip. That is

:11:10. > :11:13.unbelievable. We know the judges want to see height. And if there is

:11:14. > :11:26.one thing may be that they will pick... He also only had a 540 in

:11:27. > :11:31.there. 94.75! That is first place. So Ayumu Hirano goes down to second,

:11:32. > :11:37.and Zhang Yiwei is down in bronze medal position. Iouri Podladtchikov

:11:38. > :11:44.has a glimpse of a medal here for the first time in his career. He is

:11:45. > :11:51.getting mobbed by volunteers. He has worked so hard, as well. It is not

:11:52. > :11:55.over yet. It is far from over, but you could say we are only just

:11:56. > :12:04.coming to the boil here in the halfpipe kitchen. What was Shaun

:12:05. > :12:14.White's qualifying bronze score. Let me double-check that. You take care

:12:15. > :12:22.of David Hablutzel while I look that up. Shaun White is capable of a

:12:23. > :12:29.94.75. We have seen it from him already today.

:12:30. > :12:34.But first, the 17-year-old David Hablutzel from Switzerland. He has

:12:35. > :12:50.nothing to lose here. Well, that's not a bad start. He is

:12:51. > :13:03.travelling a long way down the pipe each time. Three doubles. And again,

:13:04. > :13:11.huge height there. That could be a podium. That was huge, look at the

:13:12. > :13:17.Swiss! Could we have a Swiss lock-out on the podium? It is a big

:13:18. > :13:23.ask. But certainly at the moment, you have got to say, the Americans

:13:24. > :13:29.are not looking healthy. Shaun White is in 11th and Danny Davis in

:13:30. > :13:34.eighth. That is ridiculous. The biggest names in the game have been

:13:35. > :13:43.rocked. The American stranglehold on the halfpipe podium looks in serious

:13:44. > :13:51.danger here. And there we see that beautiful there, pulling the front

:13:52. > :13:56.leg. Good style. It is easier to add style to smaller rotations, but on a

:13:57. > :13:59.big 900, two and a half spins like that, to have the time and presents

:14:00. > :14:09.to be able to think about styling that trick out. He has a lot to be

:14:10. > :14:19.happy about. 88.5, a podium place! He makes it into the podium

:14:20. > :14:21.position. Let's not forget you have still got Ayumu Hirano, Christian

:14:22. > :14:28.Haller, Danny Davis and Shaun White to go. Whatever happens, he can feel

:14:29. > :14:38.very proud of the way he has ridden tonight. Look at that. Switzerland,

:14:39. > :14:44.we have talked about how they have created some good pipe riders. There

:14:45. > :14:50.is the proof. Now, Danny Davis, his stunning first run marred by a fall

:14:51. > :15:10.in the flat bottom. Just before his last trip. He is such a relaxed

:15:11. > :15:15.rider. Stylish and creative. He is such a favourite within the

:15:16. > :15:20.snowboard community. He broke his back in the run-up to the 2010

:15:21. > :15:22.Olympics having beaten Shaun White in late 2009. And look at the

:15:23. > :15:51.height! That trick bit him. Oh, and he has

:15:52. > :15:55.done it again! Danny Davis, 25 years old, it is unlikely he will get

:15:56. > :16:02.another chance. Injury stole the Vancouver games from him and now two

:16:03. > :16:07.falls here. That sees him finish out of the medals. Such a shame. There

:16:08. > :16:15.has been so much focus about snowboarding, riders hooking triples

:16:16. > :16:24.and doubles and having no soul, but when you talk about soul, that is

:16:25. > :16:34.phenomenal. And the Switch 1080 with free spins. -- three. And the double

:16:35. > :16:39.ten. He comes over the front foot. He straightened his leg to get

:16:40. > :16:50.himself into the back seat and right through the compression. It was

:16:51. > :16:55.almost like his back leg gave way. You have to wonder whether there was

:16:56. > :17:00.an element of not having ridden the pipe in the semifinals, which

:17:01. > :17:08.both... Which Iouri Podladtchikov did definitely. And the third Swiss

:17:09. > :17:11.rider. There cannot be a Swiss lock-out because we have the

:17:12. > :17:26.Japanese sandwich around Ayumu Hirano. But Christian Haller is

:17:27. > :17:43.capable. His sister will be riding in the ladies' .

:17:44. > :17:57.He held onto that nicely and generated Speedwell. -- speed well.

:17:58. > :18:05.He sits down on the front nine at the end. I was holding my breath. I

:18:06. > :18:11.was. He was running right on the edge of control. Right from the top

:18:12. > :18:19.of the run, because of that, I do not think he would get a bigger

:18:20. > :18:25.score. We can take a look. The tail grab, grabbing on the end of the

:18:26. > :18:32.board. I did not think he would let go, he held onto that so long,

:18:33. > :18:41.landing on his fingers. The front hand between the legs on the toe

:18:42. > :18:47.edge. And that is his coach. Never far from a smile and there it is.

:18:48. > :18:53.The Swiss coaches will be disappointed for him. But, at the

:18:54. > :18:58.same time, at the moment they have a little bit of Swiss gold, whether

:18:59. > :19:15.they can keep it, remains to be seen. Iouri Podladtchikov at the top

:19:16. > :19:26.of the standings. And now for Japan. The pressure is on. 18 years old.

:19:27. > :19:28.Taku Hiraoka. Unbelievably he is one of the senior riders of the Japanese

:19:29. > :19:38.team at 18! Backside 900 with a frontside 1080.

:19:39. > :20:07.He waited a second. The front double ten. Back-to-back

:20:08. > :20:15.doubles. He has laid down a storming run. When you look at what has gone

:20:16. > :20:20.before, with a trick that has only been pulled a couple of times before

:20:21. > :20:25.from Iouri Podladtchikov, and a run that, quite frankly, from the

:20:26. > :20:32.15-year-old Japanese rider was in the stratosphere, I recommend is a

:20:33. > :20:38.good chance we will see Ayumu Hirano coming out with an oxygen tank for

:20:39. > :20:45.the second run! This is building to the most perfect crescendo. Shaun

:20:46. > :20:50.White is in unfamiliar territory, having not landed his first run. He

:20:51. > :20:56.has to try to jump from 11th place into the medals. We know he can do

:20:57. > :21:01.it. Can he handle the pressure? Shaun White has been training on the

:21:02. > :21:05.new tricks and he wants to unveil them. The run he put down in the

:21:06. > :21:11.semifinals did not have the new tricks, it had big tricks. In the

:21:12. > :21:21.qualifying semifinals. It was good enough. Will he play safe, but down

:21:22. > :21:24.the run he did? Oh, my goodness. Ben Kilner thought that was a fourth,

:21:25. > :21:33.and I did not think it was that high. But, second place! You have to

:21:34. > :21:38.feel heartbreak the David. David Hablutzel is not doubt of the

:21:39. > :21:43.medals. He does look heartbroken. I do not think he thought it was good

:21:44. > :21:49.enough. He is looking back at the scoreboard again and again, as if it

:21:50. > :21:54.is a mistake. He has been knocked into the bronze medal position. If

:21:55. > :22:01.that is not an incentive to lay down an incredible run, nothing is. Ayumu

:22:02. > :22:07.Hirano. We know he has been working. The gestures of the

:22:08. > :22:12.coaches, looked as if they might be... If the coaches are starting to

:22:13. > :22:36.pray, he is going to go for it! It will be massive. Look at the

:22:37. > :22:38.power he generates. The frontside 1080 was very nice. And that huge

:22:39. > :22:58.double was absolutely perfect. That was a massive finish. I am

:22:59. > :23:03.standing up. It was huge. There was a front nine that lost height on the

:23:04. > :23:13.frontside wall, but, the rest of them were huge. You have to say that

:23:14. > :23:18.is bigger than the 92.5 of Taku Hiraoka. That is where the judges

:23:19. > :23:24.want to see the tricks landed. I think the judges might have made a

:23:25. > :23:31.mistake. I am not trying to put words in your mouth. I think the

:23:32. > :23:37.judges have over scored and not left themselves anywhere to go. This has

:23:38. > :23:42.to be 96, 90 sevens will stop look where he landed on the transition.

:23:43. > :23:53.That was the one mistake he made. Everything else. The double grab

:23:54. > :23:59.landed so cleanly. There was no switching between their hits. They

:24:00. > :24:11.know it was a really good run. He is staring again! 15 years of age, a

:24:12. > :24:18.stare that could curdle ice cream. Iouri Podladtchikov came up with a

:24:19. > :24:25.trick that only a couple of people can do. Will the judges go with the

:24:26. > :24:37.new trick, all with the amplitude? Oh, my goodness. They have gone with

:24:38. > :24:42.the YOLO flip. 93.5. Iouri Podladtchikov is still in gold medal

:24:43. > :24:51.position and his arch nemesis of the last two Olympics cycles is the only

:24:52. > :24:54.man left to drop. This is ridiculous. Everybody in the

:24:55. > :25:02.grandstand are on their feet and all eyes, all eyes of the world are on

:25:03. > :25:05.this man. I think you might be premature in booking an aeroplane to

:25:06. > :25:15.take him straight to New York as soon as this is finished. The king

:25:16. > :25:26.of snowboarding. Under threat. Shaun White. He gets encouragement from

:25:27. > :25:29.the man who has stood by his side through every Olympic cycle. Can he

:25:30. > :25:51.handle the pressure? He has gone down. It was good, it

:25:52. > :26:01.was really high. He has landed the double McTwist. Enormous backside

:26:02. > :26:06.rodeo. How did he land Mac? That is against the laws of physics. --

:26:07. > :26:13.lands that? The replay is key, because it is not clear-cut. The

:26:14. > :26:19.judges do not get a chance. They do not have the luxury of the replays.

:26:20. > :26:23.Shaun White is claiming this. He deserves to claim the fact he

:26:24. > :26:30.survived the run. I do not think it was clear-cut. It is not a clear-cut

:26:31. > :26:36.decision. I think that was his attempt at swaying the decision of

:26:37. > :26:47.the judges. He looked into the judges' booth. How badly did he sit

:26:48. > :26:53.down? He got the grab. The strength required in his legs to pick that

:26:54. > :27:00.up. It is undeniable how talented he is. This was more like magic and

:27:01. > :27:10.snowboarding. How he got away with this I have no idea. There are a lot

:27:11. > :27:12.of boot grabs. It was not a clean landing. In my opinion, it is not

:27:13. > :27:28.enough. 92.5. Shaun White has missed out on

:27:29. > :27:32.a medal. Not just a gold medal, he has missed out on a medal and he has

:27:33. > :27:38.been magnanimous in defeat. He walks over to congratulate Iouri

:27:39. > :27:46.Podladtchikov. The man who fake years has stood in his shadow. --

:27:47. > :27:50.eight years has stood in his shadow. Shaun White is the consummate

:27:51. > :27:55.competitor. That would have stunned him. As he said in the interview we

:27:56. > :28:02.showed, if I lay my best down and it is not good enough, I will access to

:28:03. > :28:11.defeat. The podium, in bronze medal position, Taku Hiraoka. Ayumu

:28:12. > :28:20.Hirano, the 15-year-old Japanese rider in silver, but, with the gold

:28:21. > :28:29.medal, Iouri Podladtchikov. He makes history in Sochi. What an incredible

:28:30. > :28:37.performance. It has not sunk in yet for him. He is speechless. An

:28:38. > :28:42.incredible competition. The script has been written and followed for

:28:43. > :28:48.two Olympics cycles. And now, on the very first runs, the script was torn

:28:49. > :28:57.up and thrown out of the window. He cannot believe it. The Japanese

:28:58. > :29:01.riders, as well. For that exact reason, Shaun White, by

:29:02. > :29:06.determination and willpower has won these events, no matter how bad it

:29:07. > :29:15.has seemed, he has always managed to pull it out of the bag, and

:29:16. > :29:21.suddenly, in Sochi... We can see him on his own on the side of the pipe

:29:22. > :29:31.and he will be hurting. He dropped his head. He risked so much on the

:29:32. > :29:41.halfpipe contest. He has lost. He pulled out of the slopestyle.

:29:42. > :29:55.The first of the Chinese riders in sixth place and so much more to come

:29:56. > :30:04.from them, I guarantee. In seventh position... TK Ravnjak had a fairy

:30:05. > :30:22.tale day. What are final. Ladies and

:30:23. > :30:29.gentlemen, you have witnessed history. And we have a new champion,

:30:30. > :30:34.Iouri Podladtchikov, the man they call iPod.

:30:35. > :30:39.Unbelievable that Shaun White comes away without a medal. We will

:30:40. > :30:42.reflect more on that later today when we bring you our highlights

:30:43. > :30:48.programme at seven o'clock. But now we are moving on to winter Olympics

:30:49. > :30:51.history with the awarding of the first ever medals in women's ski

:30:52. > :31:08.jumping. Daniela ever Roscoe Stoltz has

:31:09. > :31:10.jumped higher in training, and we will see the two rounds now with

:31:11. > :31:40.highlights from Rob Walker. Yes, that was good. A big smile.

:31:41. > :31:46.98.5. That is the best we have seen so far. We are in the theory moving

:31:47. > :31:55.up the World Cup rankings as we go through the leaderboard.

:31:56. > :31:58.Evelyn Insam continuing her birthday celebrations from yesterday. She is

:31:59. > :32:13.into the lead. Colene Mattel was world junior

:32:14. > :32:38.champion. 99.5. She is closing in on three

:32:39. > :32:46.figures. She has jumped 100 metres in the training round. Her uncle,

:32:47. > :32:53.Bruno, was the French junior champion. She is another one in this

:32:54. > :33:02.field who has winter Olympic history in her family. She has moved into

:33:03. > :33:03.the lead. The 18-year-old Frenchwoman has laid down a

:33:04. > :33:38.brilliant platform. Iraschko-Stolz is not 100% happy

:33:39. > :33:43.with that. The margins between first and fifth are tiny, just as they are

:33:44. > :33:56.in the men's ski jumping. Trying to pull those skis together

:33:57. > :34:13.to maintain symmetry on landing. She has moved up to third.

:34:14. > :34:23.Carina Vogt from Germany has had eight podium finishes this season.

:34:24. > :34:28.Can she keep that going? Yes, the index fingers are raised to the

:34:29. > :34:39.skies. She is delighted with that. 103 metres. She jumped 100 in

:34:40. > :34:48.training just a roundabout and hour or so ago.

:34:49. > :35:00.What sort of marker has she laid down here? Ahead of seeing the

:35:01. > :35:03.favourite, Takahashi. Carina Vogt Has more than played her role so far

:35:04. > :35:08.at the halfway stage of the competition.

:35:09. > :35:20.She has gone into the lead. Fifth in the world Championships last year,

:35:21. > :35:29.but she has given herself an amazing opportunity. The tiny figure of Sara

:35:30. > :35:35.Takahashi with the weight of a nation on those little shoulders.

:35:36. > :35:48.Can she deliver? Where will that place her in relation to Vogt? It is

:35:49. > :35:53.three figures, but the German who we have just seen taking the lead will

:35:54. > :36:10.not be intimidated, having seen this job from Takahashi. She has won ten

:36:11. > :36:13.events this season. Such is the extent of her dominance around the

:36:14. > :36:20.world this year. She is in third place. It is good, but she has got

:36:21. > :36:22.to produce more, you suspect, if it is to be the gold the Japanese are

:36:23. > :36:39.so desperately hoping for. So that was the first round. Sara

:36:40. > :36:46.Tucker now she in -- Takahashi in third. They go in reverse order now

:36:47. > :36:54.in the second round. After many years of battling to get women's ski

:36:55. > :37:00.jumping into the Olympics, it is finally happening, and the medals

:37:01. > :37:06.will be awarded after these jumps. Rob Walker commentating. We have a

:37:07. > :37:09.tremendous atmosphere here in the Gorky jumping Centre.

:37:10. > :37:21.Such a sense of anticipation. And such a sense that history is rightly

:37:22. > :37:27.being made here. Julia Clair Lying in 18th place after the first round.

:37:28. > :37:32.The story unfolding here is that the overwhelming favourite Takahashi,

:37:33. > :37:36.the 17-year-old from Japan, is under pressure to produce something

:37:37. > :37:40.massive here to try and secure the gold that everyone back home in

:37:41. > :37:46.Japan is hoping and expecting that she will do. There has been a

:37:47. > :37:50.tremendous atmosphere here over the last couple of hours, and it has

:37:51. > :37:53.been great to see that some of the women who have campaigned so hard

:37:54. > :38:00.for this event to be included have come out of retirement and hung on

:38:01. > :38:01.through injury to try and enjoy the occasion they have worked so hard to

:38:02. > :38:21.produce. We are going in reverse order, as

:38:22. > :38:28.Claire said, so as we get closer to the end, the drama will start to

:38:29. > :38:33.crank up another notch. It really has taken such a long time for this

:38:34. > :38:36.event to be included. There have been three additions at the world

:38:37. > :38:40.championship. The World Cup circuit is now up and running and very

:38:41. > :38:46.competitive. This was the last piece of the jigsaw missing. And tonight,

:38:47. > :38:50.here in this state-of-the-art facility in the mountains above

:38:51. > :38:58.Sochi, the missing link is completed. And Pozun is into the

:38:59. > :39:01.lead, but that will probably be temporary, no disrespect to her,

:39:02. > :39:09.because there are plenty of quality girls at the top of the John Still

:39:10. > :39:16.waiting to go. -- at the top of the jump waiting to go. Traditionally

:39:17. > :39:25.regarded as a masculine event. The crowd are really enjoying this.

:39:26. > :39:34.Well, that wasn't quite as good as we know she can produce. She has

:39:35. > :39:43.beaten Takahashi this year. She was ragged on the outrun, and they are

:39:44. > :39:47.judged on the inn run, the take-off, the symmetry and smoothness of the

:39:48. > :39:53.flight, the coordination of the landing and the outrun. It is not

:39:54. > :40:00.purely about the distance. And that cost the Russian in the first round.

:40:01. > :40:06.Second place at the moment, but there are still quite a few girls to

:40:07. > :40:34.go. And Pozun leading for Slovakia. She came out of retirement because

:40:35. > :40:37.she wanted to have a go tonight. The allure of the Winter Olympics

:40:38. > :40:42.brought her back when lack of funding had driven her out of the

:40:43. > :40:47.sport. 98 metres, consistent with what you produced in the first

:40:48. > :40:53.round. She said she knew so many talented female ski jumpers who quit

:40:54. > :40:56.because they just couldn't face the uncertainty and the lack of

:40:57. > :41:00.financial security, and more importantly than all of that, the

:41:01. > :41:07.lack of opportunity. She has come back. At the moment, she is into

:41:08. > :41:09.second place. It is unlikely to be a medal for her. Hopefully she has

:41:10. > :41:35.enjoyed her comeback. Watch Kykkaenen's unusual style.

:41:36. > :41:37.Both her brothers jump, and she joined because she was old waiting

:41:38. > :41:43.for them. Almost as strong a love affair is

:41:44. > :42:06.the Japanese enjoy with this sport. Tents at the world Championships

:42:07. > :42:07.last year, Kykkaenen. A little bit of a wry smile there from the

:42:08. > :42:38.19-year-old. Lunby war jacket number one -- she

:42:39. > :42:41.wore the jacket with number one on it in the world Championships. She

:42:42. > :42:51.jumped 97 metres in the first round. This looks better. It is about

:42:52. > :42:53.leaning into the jump and maintaining almost a straight line

:42:54. > :42:55.down the back and through the calves. Look at the focus on the

:42:56. > :43:12.face. That looked big. That was definitely

:43:13. > :43:18.better. Looking up. She hit three figures, 100 metres. That was three

:43:19. > :43:24.metres better than her first round, and the Norwegian moves into the

:43:25. > :43:29.lead. Next ago, Jessica Jerome, one of the

:43:30. > :43:36.key figures in fighting so hard for this sport's inclusion. She

:43:37. > :43:43.sacrificed a lot for this sport, lacerated spleen knee surgery.

:43:44. > :43:48.And that is another great one for distance, but you can see they're

:43:49. > :43:52.how difficult it is when they get a big score on the distance, it is

:43:53. > :44:03.hard to maintain the smoothness and the technique coming out. 99

:44:04. > :44:06.metres. She was part of a group of women who sued the Vancouver

:44:07. > :44:11.organisation because the IOC approved women's ski jumping in

:44:12. > :44:15.2009, but it was claimed that wasn't enough time to turn it round in the

:44:16. > :44:22.short number of months they had between the decision and Vancouver

:44:23. > :44:27.beginning. Well, she really has been on such a huge journey, Jessica

:44:28. > :44:37.Jerome. She should be delighted with her contribution tonight, and how

:44:38. > :44:45.the sport will grow. Lumby is in the winners enclosure at the moment.

:44:46. > :44:51.Lindsey Van, the sport's first world champion in 2009. She has undergone

:44:52. > :44:57.so much in Nice surgery just to stay in the sport. Arguably passed her

:44:58. > :45:01.best, but she wanted and deserved to be part of this occasion. She is

:45:02. > :45:03.contributed admirably there, just a little way short of what you

:45:04. > :45:13.produced in the first round. She had surgery in 2000 and eight --

:45:14. > :45:39.2008 and 2012. A little stumble as she comes to a

:45:40. > :45:43.stop. Maren Lundby is leading at the moment and Jessica Jerome in second

:45:44. > :45:44.place. As we go along the competitors, in theory, we get

:45:45. > :46:04.better and better. The Slovenians have had a great day

:46:05. > :46:11.in the mountains, actually, some good medals for them, in the

:46:12. > :46:17.cross-country. Sarah Hendrickson is the reigning world champion and by

:46:18. > :46:22.rights she should not be because she had a horrendous crash last year.

:46:23. > :46:25.Her knee is still sore, but she decided to do everything to take

:46:26. > :46:35.part. It is good to see her competing. Maren Lundby, in yellow,

:46:36. > :46:43.she is leading at the moment. Look at those eyes. It has to be pointed

:46:44. > :46:49.out the amount of bravery required for this event. Anybody who has ever

:46:50. > :46:56.stood at the top of a ski jump, it is a knee warbling moment, even if

:46:57. > :47:00.you know you are going back down the stairs -- wobbling. The heavyweights

:47:01. > :47:19.are still to come. Yuki Ito is in 10th place after the

:47:20. > :47:26.first round and started ski jumping at the age of four.

:47:27. > :47:36.She sailed past the blue line, which indicates the furthest jump so far

:47:37. > :47:43.in terms of distance. 101 metres. The second of the three Japanese

:47:44. > :47:49.athletes taking part tonight. She produced her best jump in terms of

:47:50. > :47:55.distance. 98 metres in the training ground and 97.5 in the first round.

:47:56. > :48:01.A world junior bronze medallist. 19 years of age. There is some

:48:02. > :48:07.incredible composure being shown by the competitors. 14 of the 30 are

:48:08. > :48:19.teenagers. The Japanese coaches like that. Yuki Ito has moved into the

:48:20. > :48:29.lead. This sport has a massive following in Japan. They will be

:48:30. > :48:30.getting excited because Sara Takanashi has yet to jump her second

:48:31. > :48:45.effort. Her brother dragged her down to a

:48:46. > :48:48.ski jump and told her to have a go. And here she is, contesting the

:48:49. > :49:03.first Winter Olympic Games. She has had one top eight on the

:49:04. > :49:07.world circuit this season. It is becoming a very competitive event.

:49:08. > :49:11.That was an issue with the International Olympic Committee,

:49:12. > :49:15.that the sport has to be competitive on a worldwide level. They felt you

:49:16. > :49:22.cannot have the event if there's five, ten around the world. Up into

:49:23. > :49:26.the medal positions at the moment. For those who follow the World Cup

:49:27. > :49:27.circuit, they will testify to the fact there are some high-quality

:49:28. > :49:34.meetings. Atsuko Tanaka. Raised in Canada. She

:49:35. > :49:51.has Japanese parents. She has been pretty good in

:49:52. > :49:57.training. 15th in the world championship, last year. She is on

:49:58. > :50:10.course to improve on that here. Went over and competed in Japan, she

:50:11. > :50:17.felt she owed that to her parents, but then returned to Canada, saying

:50:18. > :50:24.she felt more like a North American. Rather than a Japanese competitor. A

:50:25. > :50:27.big part of the scene over there in Canada. She says hello to Canada.

:50:28. > :50:43.Sixth place for her. Taylor Henrich goes next. Also

:50:44. > :50:49.flying the flag for Canada. She started at the age of seven after

:50:50. > :50:55.going on a summer camp. And look where that journey has taken her.

:50:56. > :51:03.She works hard to control the out run. Massive pressure on the knees.

:51:04. > :51:14.Not quite as far as she produced in the first round. She was fifth in

:51:15. > :51:19.the youth Olympics two years ago. The 18-year-old is continuing to

:51:20. > :51:28.improve. She will only be 22 at the next Winter Games.

:51:29. > :51:34.No medal for her, but what a set of memories to take into her next

:51:35. > :51:46.four-year block of training. She has been third and fourth in two

:51:47. > :52:08.world cups, matter they take. -- Maja Vtic. It is hard to get the

:52:09. > :52:12.old, stubborn coaches to smile. But they produced a big smile. She

:52:13. > :52:24.jumped 100 metres in the first round.

:52:25. > :52:38.At 26, she is one of the oldest in the competition. It is incredible to

:52:39. > :52:48.seem so many youngsters here. -- see so many youngsters. She has gone

:52:49. > :53:05.into the lead. Both jumps. Over 100 metres. Superb consistency.

:53:06. > :53:17.She has beaten Sara Takanashi this year. Can she produce it now? Yes.

:53:18. > :53:34.It looked good distance. She struggled to it on the out run. The

:53:35. > :53:41.world champion in 2011. The 30-year-old Austrian, desperate to

:53:42. > :53:46.get herself in X. She is certainly capable and has produced that form

:53:47. > :53:59.on the World Cup circuit. What will she lose in style? She has gone into

:54:00. > :54:28.the lead. 104 metres. She has given herself every opportunity.

:54:29. > :54:44.Iraschko-Stolz Full. She said she loved the sport enough

:54:45. > :54:48.she has decided to go to coach the next generation when her career

:54:49. > :54:58.comes to an end. The Austrian has given herself a massive chance. But,

:54:59. > :55:20.there are three more women still left to jump.

:55:21. > :55:30.Iraschko-Stolz Iraschko-Stolz, she can only wait and what. Sara

:55:31. > :55:33.Takanashi, can she produce what everybody in Japan knows she is

:55:34. > :55:48.capable of? She is so young with so much potential, but so much

:55:49. > :55:53.pressure. Will that be good enough? Will it but Carina Vogt under

:55:54. > :56:05.pressure? She has been better than this. I just wonder whether, come

:56:06. > :56:11.the massive moment, the weight of expectation has just been a little

:56:12. > :56:18.too much. She was in third place after the first round. We have seen

:56:19. > :56:25.her win competitions after an average first round before. But the

:56:26. > :56:33.great form she has brought here has inspired the rest of the field to

:56:34. > :56:37.raise their game. It may not necessarily have been the outcome

:56:38. > :56:43.she was looking for. She is in second place. It has been a good

:56:44. > :56:51.effort. But the Japanese will be disappointed with that. They have

:56:52. > :56:57.not won a gold medal since 2006 and Iraschko-Stolz, she knew that was

:56:58. > :57:07.one of her big rivals gone. Coline Mattel is a French woman.

:57:08. > :57:18.She is not sure. Iraschko-Stolz, leading. Sara Takanashi is in second

:57:19. > :57:24.place at the moment. That was not as good as she produced in the first

:57:25. > :57:29.round. Can she get in the mix in the medals? Her uncle Bruno was a junior

:57:30. > :57:34.French champion. This sport runs in her blood. The platform was there

:57:35. > :57:53.with the first round. Well, she loves it. Coline Mattel is

:57:54. > :57:54.in second place. That means she will finish on the podium. The only

:57:55. > :58:13.question is, which colour? Carina Vogt, to be a champion is

:58:14. > :58:22.fantastic, to be the first champion is Olympic immortality. Does it

:58:23. > :58:26.beckon for the German? Anxious moments. She does not know.

:58:27. > :58:47.Iraschko-Stolz, she leads. She can barely look. The tension is

:58:48. > :58:54.tangible. It is a gold medal that women's sport has waited for a long

:58:55. > :59:00.time to see. Around whose neck will it hang? Everybody has finished. It

:59:01. > :59:07.is simply a question of the judges' marks. It is not going to be the

:59:08. > :59:21.pre-event favourite, Sara Takanashi. But will it be Iraschko-Stolz? Or

:59:22. > :59:26.will it be Carina Vogt of Germany? The drama has gone down to the end.

:59:27. > :59:33.It has been a fitting occasion, for all the work that has gone in, to

:59:34. > :59:41.get the event here. Unbelievable. Carina Vogt has done it. What a

:59:42. > :59:46.moment. Germany celebrates. It is a piece of history that will never,

:59:47. > :59:52.ever be forgotten. She has to be helped up from the ground. Under the

:59:53. > :00:02.most extraordinary pressure, Carina Vogt has done it. Iraschko-Stolz,

:00:03. > :00:05.she gets the silver. Coline Mattel get the bronze. Sara Takanashi, who

:00:06. > :00:12.everybody picked for the gold medal, has finished off the podium.

:00:13. > :00:18.Carina Vogt's name will go down in history. I wonder, in years to come,

:00:19. > :00:24.when she has retired, will the true grab attacks of this performance,

:00:25. > :00:30.will the legacy she leaves behind -- gravitas. Will it not be about the

:00:31. > :00:35.gold, but the thousands of young women around the world, watching

:00:36. > :00:39.this, being inspired to join these fantastic women at the next edition

:00:40. > :00:44.of the Winter Games? It has taken decades of work to get it here.

:00:45. > :00:50.Surely, with the quality of drama produced a, this will be a permanent

:00:51. > :01:07.fixture of the Winter Games in the future. Carina Vogt is the first

:01:08. > :01:16.champion. What a night to remember. A privileged to be here, witnessing

:01:17. > :01:21.this history in the making. Just as Nicola Adams became the

:01:22. > :01:23.first female to hold up a model -- medal at the boxing Olympics in the

:01:24. > :01:28.summary. We will be back with the highlights

:01:29. > :01:45.in a moment. # ..Fast as lightning... #

:01:46. > :01:48.Hurgh!