MILAN, February 9. /TASS/. Russian athletes competed in three disciplines on the second medal day of the Olympic Games.

Skier Yulia Pleshkova became the first Russian to compete for medals on Sunday. She competed in the downhill, where she took 22nd place. The winner was American Breezy Johnson, who covered the distance in 1 minute 36.10 seconds. Germany's Emma Aicher won the silver medal (0.04 seconds behind), Italy's Sofia Goggia won the bronze (+0.59). Pleshkova was 3.59 seconds behind Johnson.

"She did the track well, a very decent result, given the pre-start situation," Leonid Melnikov, President of the Russian Ski Federation, told TASS. "As you know, the first two official training sessions were canceled over weather conditions, Yulia had one training session. Such things happen. Not to justify it, but it would certainly have been better to practice. And the fall of young woman number 26 right in front of her, the competition was stopped, and the athlete was evacuated by helicopter. Julia did well."

Pleshkova is 28, she is a two-time champion of Russia. In 2022, the athlete participated in the Olympics in Beijing, becoming the 10th in the combination.

One step away from the medal

Shortly after the award ceremony, the skiathlon was launched, in which the only representative of Russian ski racing in men's competitions, Savely Korostelev, took part. For the Russian, it was a debut race at such a high level, but none of this put any pressure on him. Korostelev was in the lead group from the first meters to the finish line and finished the race in a very high fourth place for himself. The award ceremony for the winners was postponed for half an hour because of the protracted proceedings over the violation of the rules by Frenchman Mathis Desloges, who finished second. The judges considered the protest filed by Korostelev, but rejected it.

"This is entirely on the conscience of the jury - I'm not the judge to talk about it. I do not know all the rules, let's wait for the finishing protocols," Korostelev told reporters before the judges issued their verdict.

The Russian skier was unhappy with the fourth place. "Disappointment, of course. I chose the wrong position before the last climb. They shouted at me not to be the last to sit down, and in the end I went after Martin [Nyenget], but Hugo [Lapalus] blocked the line for me a little bit, and I lost contact with them. I had to catch up, but they were very far away at the finish line," Korostelev said.

The decision of the judges to keep the silver medal for the Frenchman triggered a heated discussion in the Russian ski circles. Senior coach of the Russian national team Yury Borodavko believes the verdict was politically biased. But authoritative Russian ski referee Alexander Penevskoi told TASS that his colleagues at the Games in Italy acted in full accordance with the rules. The skiathlon was won by Norwegian Johannes Klaebo, who received his sixth Olympic gold medal.

Strong-minded Repilov

In the evening, luge skier Pavel Repilov made two final attempts, taking the final 14th place. "Pavel coped with the tasks set for this Olympics," Natalia Gart, president of the Russian Luge Federation, told TASS. "He ran clean races, each subsequent one was faster than the previous. I see his stable, smooth races without falls and serious mistakes as a good result. The main goal has been achieved - to return to international competitions and stable performance at significant competitions of the season. A season, where the very participation is already a victory."

Repilov competed with an injury. "Pavel's hand injury is serious for sports, where the starting jerk is an integral part of a successful race. But Pavel showed how strong his sporting spirit and desire to fight were already at the first starts in Germany after getting injured. If it were not for the super task and goal of getting to the Olympics, with the same injury in the conditions of training and competition in Sochi, the athlete would have been asked to take a break to recover," the head of the FSSR said.

The winner of the Games was German luge skier Max Langenhan, Austrian Jonas Muller took second place, and Italian Dominik Fischnaller third.

Russian Malinin brought the US team the second Olympic gold

A total of eight sets of medals were awarded on the second medal day of the 2026 Olympics. The French team took the lead in the biathlon mixed relay, the Italians were second at the finish, and the Germans were third. In men's 5,000-meter speed skating, Norwegian Sander Eitrem took the first place with an Olympic record, Czech Metodej Jilek showed the second result, and Italian Riccardo Lorello the third.

Czech athlete Zuzana Maderova had no equal in snowboarding in the women's parallel giant slalom, Austria's Sabine Payer won silver, and Italy's Lucia Dalmasso won bronze. Men's champion in the same discipline was Austrian snowboarder Benjamin Karl, who became the oldest winner of the Olympic Games in individual sports. On Sunday, Karl won gold at the age of 40 years and 115 days. The previous record was set by Norwegian Ole Einar Bjorndalen at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. He became the winner of the sprint, when he was 40 years and 12 days.

The last medals of Sunday were awarded in the figure skating team tournament. The US national team won it, the Japanese took the second place, and the Italians the third. The teams of Japan and the US had 59 points each before the final type of competition, the free skate in men's single skating. The victory was won by the representative of the US Ilia Malinin, who scored 200.03 points. Japanese Shun Sato took the second place (194.86). The Americans scored 69 points at the end of the tournament, the Japanese 68, the Italians 60.

After the second day, the first place in the team competition is taken by the Norwegian national team, which has three gold, one silver and two bronze awards. Athletes from the US are second (2-0-0), Italians are third (1-2-6).

On February 9, five sets of medals will be awarded. On Monday, the champions and prize-winners in alpine skiing (men, team combination), speed skating (women, 1,000 meters), ski jumping (men, normal springboard), snowboarding (women, big air) and freestyle skiing (women, slopestyle) will be determined. Of the Russian athletes, only luge skier Daria Olesik will compete on the first day of the week, who will perform the first two races.