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The Latest: Krueger reaches semis in Olympic speedskating

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) The Latest on the Pyeongchang Olympics (all times local):

8:25 p.m.

American John-Henry Krueger has advanced to the semifinals of the men’s 1,000 meters in short-track speedskating at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

Krueger finished fourth in his heat Saturday, but Sjinkie Knegt of the Netherlands was penalized for impeding. That allowed Krueger to move on, along with Russian Semen Elistratov and Japanese Ryosuke Sakazume.

The Korean fans cheered loudly for Lim Hyo-jun and current world champion Seo Yira, who skated in the same heat. Their teammate, Hwang Dae-heon, fell at the finish and was penalized for impeding.

Lim already won the men’s 1,500.

Canada’s Charles Hamelin got carried wide after contact in his heat but rallied to finish second and move on.

8:10 p.m.

South Korea women’s hockey coach Sarah Murray has agreed to stay with the program for another two years.

The Canadian signed up four years ago for her first coaching job to guide the team through its Olympic debut.

The task got more complicated when political negotiations allowed North Korea to add 12 players to her roster only days before the games. Murray says she wants to help as much as she can.

Next up is a classification game Sunday against Switzerland, which beat the Koreans 8-0 in the preliminary round. The Koreans still are looking for their first Olympic win.

8 p.m.

American Maame Biney has been eliminated in short-track speedskating at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

The 18-year-old, who was born in Ghana, finished last in her heat of the 1,500 meters on Saturday. The top three skaters advanced to the semifinals.

Biney briefly led the pack before gradually falling back in her second Olympic event. She was also eliminated in the early rounds of the 500 meters last weekend.

Also out is American Jessica Kooreman, who finished fourth in her heat before being penalized for contact with a German skater.

The third U.S. skater, Lana Gehring, was fifth in her heat and failed to move on.

7:35 p.m.

Norway’s Marit Bjoergen has moved into a tie for the most career Winter Olympics medals after helping the Norwegian women to a first-place finish in the 4×5-kilometer relay.

Sweden finished second while the Olympic athletes from Russia were third.

Bjoergen has now has 13 medals, which ties male biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, also from Norway.

Bjoergen can become the most decorated Winter Olympian ever with a medal in either one of the final two women’s events – the women’s team sprint relay Wednesday or the 50-kilometer mass start.

Bjoergen was 3.4 second behind and the Norwegians in third place entering the final leg of the race. But Bjoergen quickly took the lead and never let it go, holding off Stina Nilsson for the gold.

7:20 p.m.

Korea has picked up its first win in the men’s curling round robin at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

The Koreans beat Great Britain 11-5 on Saturday. The Brits conceded the game one end, or period, early after falling too far behind. The victory sent the Korean fans in the crowd into a frenzy, with many leaping to their feet and screaming with joy.

The Canadian men’s team, meanwhile, suffered its first loss of the curling round robin. A dominant Swedish team beat them 5-2. Sweden now leads the men’s standings with a 5-0 record.

In other men’s curling action on Saturday, Italy beat Japan 6-5, and Switzerland secured a 7-5 victory over Norway.

7:10 p.m.

Pius Suter had a hat trick and former NHL goaltender Jonas Hiller made 25 saves as Switzerland shut out host South Korea 8-0 at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

Dennis Hollenstein, Felicien du Bois, Thomas Rufenacht, Reto Schaeppi and Tristan Scherwey each scored a goal for the Swiss, which rebounded from a 5-1 loss to Canada in its Olympic opener.

Switzerland faces the Czech Republic in each team’s preliminary-round finale.

Switzerland outshot South Korea 34-25. Matt Dalton allowed five goals on 27 shots before coach Jim Paek replaced him with Korea-born goalie Sungjie Park. In its second-ever Olympic men’s hockey game, South Korea elicited cheers from the home crowd every time it rushed up the ice with a puck and roars when any player got a shot on net.

7 p.m.

Finland will be playing the United States in the semifinals after routing Sweden 7-2 in the quarterfinals of women’s hockey.

Sweden beat Finland in this same game 4-2 in 2014 at Sochi. This time, the Finns came in ranked third in the world last year with an upset of Canada in the preliminary round of the 2017 world championships last spring.

Finland jumped on Sweden, scoring three goals in the first Saturday.

Riikka Valila led six scorers with two goals, including one that deflected in off her mask.

The semifinal will be a rematch of the opener between Finland and the United States. The Americans won that 3-1.

The Olympic athletes from Russia will play Canada in the other women’s semifinal.

6:15 p.m.

Swiss Alpine skier Lara Gut is among the unluckiest at major championships, missing a super-G medal by 0.01 seconds at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

Wearing ski goggles to hide her tears Saturday, Gut said: ”You have the feeling that everything is for nothing and your entire world is disappearing.”

It’s not the first time she’s finished in fourth place at the Olympics.

She was also fourth in the 2014 Sochi Olympic super-G, 0.07 off the podium. In Russia, Gut’s tears flowed when she got only bronze in downhill.

Gut was widely touted to get gold this time. She looked set for bronze in a tight race, 0.01 behind Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein.

Then Czech snowboarder-turned-skier Ester Ledecka stunned everybody by racing down 0.01 faster than then-leader Anna Veith of Austria.

5:50 p.m.

Yuzuru Hanyu’s latest victory has an extra-special place in Olympics history.

The Japanese figure skater won the 1,000th gold medal since the Winter Games began in 1924, defending his title in the men’s individual competition on Saturday. Hanyu was also the first man to win consecutive golds in the event since American Dick Button did it in 1948 and 1952.

Hanyu called it ”the best day” of his skating life.

He held off countryman Shoma Uno and Spain’s Javier Fernandez to win in Pyeongchang.

The first Winter Olympics was held in Chamonix, France. American speedskater Charles Jewtraw won the first gold medal there in the men’s 500 meters.

Earlier this week, snowboarder Shaun White won the men’s halfpipe to give the United States its 100th winter gold.

5:30 p.m.

Swiss freestyle skiers Fabian Boesch and Elias Ambuehl have returned to training after being diagnosed with norovirus and are expected to compete in the men’s slopestyle competition at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

Team doctor German Clenin said Saturday that both skiers were quarantined to fend off spread of the highly contagious virus that’s affected more than 200 people at the Olympics.

Boesch drew a bit of fame earlier in the games when a video was released of him hanging by one arm from the railing of an elevator before eventually climbing over and reaching the top.

The men’s slopestyle competition is Sunday.

5:05 p.m.

Swiss tennis star Roger Federer has given a big shout-out on Twitter to countryman Dario Cologna after learning Cologna had won his third straight Olympic gold medal in the 15-kilometer freestyle race at the Winter Games.

Federer simply typed ”woooooow” with a gold medal emoji and the Swiss flag after learning how Cologna dominated the field.

Cologna was asked after the win on Friday who was the famous athlete from Switzerland now that he has tied the country’s record for most career gold medals with four.

Cologna said with a laugh, ”Uh, Federer is bigger than me, sir.”

It’s been a big weekend for the Swiss as Federer reclaimed the No. 1 ranking in the world.

4:15 p.m.

Lindsey Vonn’s first Olympic race in eight years included one obvious, late mistake that she was sure cost her a medal – maybe even the gold.

Truth is, the American generally considered the greatest female ski racer in history botched things in the upper half of the super-G course Saturday, too. She wound up tied for sixth place.

Vonn’s take on her run? ”Really good. Really good. Really good. Baaaad.”

The four-time overall World Cup champion focused after Saturday’s race on a particular miscue when she allowed one of her skis to lift off the snow too much and swept several feet wide of the proper path.

Vonn also lost quite a bit of time earlier: She reached the halfway point of the race with only the 16th-best time.

4 p.m.

Speedskater Marrit Leenstra is pulling out of Sunday’s 500-meter sprint finals at the Pyeongchang Olympics to concentrate on the Dutch team pursuit.

Leenstra is the bronze medalist in the 1,500 meters. She is only 18th in the season’s standing in the sprint and would have been an outside shot at best over the distance.

The Dutch team said Saturday, ”It doesn’t fit into her ideal preparations for the first qualifier in the team pursuit.”

Her replacement is Lotte van Beek, who won bronze in the 1,500 meters four years ago.

Leenstra took third place in the 1,500 meters on Monday, as her teammate Ireen Wust won gold.

The Dutch are seen as the main challengers of Japan in the team pursuit and won the gold medal in Sochi.

3:30 p.m.

Canada has lost a men’s hockey game at the Olympics for the first time since 2010.

Maxim Noreau hit the post in the fifth round of the shootout and Canada lost to the Czech Republic on Saturday in a preliminary round.

That ends its Olympic winning streak at 11.

Canada’s last loss came to the United States in group play in Vancouver.

3:15 p.m.

Marit Bjoergen looks to grab a share of history when the Norwegian women’s cross-country team takes to the slopes in the 4×5-kilometer relay at the Pyeongchang Games.

The 37-year-old Bjoergen is seeking her 13th career Olympic medal, which would move her into a tie for the all-time lead with Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen.

The 44-year-old Bjoerndalen participated in six Olympics for Norway but did not make the team this year.

Norway is expected to compete with Sweden for the gold medal in the relay.

Bjoergen still has a few events to go, so she can emerge from Pyeongchang as the most decorated Winter Olympic athlete of all time.

The United States has never won a medal in women’s cross-country skiing, but this could be its best chance.

2:55 p.m.

Pyeongchang Olympics organizers say the total number of norovirus cases has increased to 261 with the detection of 17 more.

Of those, 44 people are still in quarantine and 217 have been released, including two Swiss athletes who planned on competing at the games.

Organizing committee spokesman Sung Baik-you on Saturday said the two Swiss athletes who were confirmed with norovirus had been staying privately near Phoenix Snow Park, not in an Olympic athletes village.

Authorities haven’t identified them so it’s not clear if they have competed or will compete.

2:45 p.m.

Switzerland’s Sarah Hoefflin is the Olympic champion in women’s slopestyle skiing.

The 27-year-old put together an electric final run down the demanding course at Phoenix Snow Park on Saturday, posting a score of 91.20 to edge teammate Mathilde Gremaud for gold. Gremaud scored 88.00 on the first of her three runs in the finals but couldn’t top Hoefflin.

Hoefflin is a latecomer to freestyle skiing. She didn’t get serious about the sport until her early 20s after she failed to get into medical school.

Isabel Atkin of Great Britain took bronze with a score of 84.60 in her final run.

Defending Olympic champion Dara Howell crashed twice during qualifying and didn’t advance. American Devin Logan, a silver medalist in Sochi, reached the finals but wasn’t a factor after crashing or having execution problems in each of her last three runs.

2:30 p.m.

Anna Shokhina scored two goals and two assists as the Olympic athletes from Russia advanced to the semifinals against defending gold medalist Canada by beating Switzerland 6-2.

They upset Switzerland, the 2014 bronze medalist who came into the quarterfinals undefeated in winning Group B. The Swiss also had given up only two goals in three games.

With Russia banned from these games for revelations of a massive doping operation, these women are competing under the Olympic flag. The International Olympic Committee cleared 168 competitors, but the women were missing six players from this team.

Yelena Dergachyova had a goal and two assists Saturday. Viktoria Kulishova, Liana Ganeyeva and Olga Sosina had a goal apiece to set up a rematch with Canada on Monday. Canada beat the Russians 5-0 in its Olympic opener.

2:15 p.m.

Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu has become the first man to successfully defend his Olympic figure skating title since Dick Button in 1952. He held off countryman Shoma Uno, who won silver, and Spain’s Javier Fernandez, who took bronze, in Saturday’s free skate in Pyeongchang.

Fernandez and Hanyu share the same coach, Brian Orser.

American Nathan Chen surged from a fiasco of a short program, where he was 17th. He won the free skate to wind up fifth overall.

2 p.m.

Pyeongchang Olympics organizers say they’ve sold almost 93 percent of tickets for the games and aren’t entirely sure why there are so many empty seats visible on television broadcasts from some venues.

Organizing committee spokesman Sung Baik-you says around 991,000 tickets have been sold, for a total sale rate of 92.8 percent. Sung says that figure is much higher than expected.

Sung says organizers are investigating reports that some tickets are being sold by scalpers, which is illegal in South Korea, and attributed apparently vacant seats in some venues to possible transport issues and ticketholders just deciding to skip some sessions and delaying their arrivals in the expectation of medals later in the day.

1:25 p.m.

Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic has made a stunning run from back in the pack to take the Olympic super-G title, with a mistake costing Lindsey Vonn a spot on the podium.

Ledecka was the 26th racer to take the course. The 22-year-old blazed through the course in a time of 1 minute, 21.11 seconds. Defending champion Anna Veith of Austria earned the silver, finishing 0.01 seconds back, and Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein captured bronze.

Ledecka’s run shocked everyone, including her. She turned to someone and said, ”How did that happen?”

Vonn had a fast run before going too wide on a turn near the bottom.

This story has been corrected to show that Ledecka, not Veith, said, ”How did that happen?”

1:15 p.m.

Pyeongchang Olympics organizers say a Korean man in his 50s has died in one of the media villages at the games.

Organizing committee spokesman Sung Baik-you says the manwas working for a consortium of Japanese broadcasters during the games. The man was not responsive when he was found in his room by a co-worker.

Sung says police were called and the Korean man was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

An investigation into the cause of death has begun. Sung says out of respect for the man’s family, organizers would not release the man’s name.

More AP Olympic coverage: https://wintergames.ap.org