Sochi Olympics roundup: Skating wipeouts and ski-jumping sweep

SOCHI, Russia — Short-track speedskater Emily Scott was knocked down in the women’s 1,500-meter final Saturday as U.S. skaters again fell short of the podium.

Scott, 24, took an early lead, but about halfway through the race Korea’s Kim Alang wiped out and sent the Springfield, Mo., native into the pads at Iceberg Skating Palace. Scott finished in fifth.

“I saw her out of the corner of my eye going down so there was nothing I could do at that point,” Scott said.

Scott had advanced to the final after Korea’s Cho Ha-Ri was penalized in the semifinal. Cho had appeared to push away against Scott, who was trying to move in for position.

Jessica Smith finished second in the B Final. Alyson Dudek did not advance past the quarterfinals.

China’s Zhou Yang took gold, followed by Korea’s Shim Suk Hee and Arianna Fontana of Italy.

No U.S. man advanced past the 1,000 quarterfinals.

J.R. Celski, the top U.S. male skater, was second when he hit a block and crashed. Eddy Alvarez tripped because Canada’s Charles Hamelin fell in front of him. Chris Creveling finished third in his heat, one position short of moving to the semifinal.

Cross Country: Charlotte Kalla became a three-time medalist when she made up more than 25 seconds on the anchor leg to give Sweden the gold in the women’s 4x5-kilometer cross-country relay. Days earlier she took silvers in the skiathlon and 10-K classic race.

Finland took the silver and Germany the bronze in the relay. It was the first time since 2009 that Norway did not win a women’s relay race. Norway finished fifth.

The U.S. team of Kikkan Randall, Sadie Bjornsen, Liz Stephen and Jessica Diggins finished ninth.

Curling: The Canadian women’s team qualified for the semifinals with a 5-3 win over Russia. Canada is 7-0 in pool play. Things kept going south for the U.S. team, which has already been eliminated from medal contention. The Americans gave up two points in the final end to lose to Sweden, 7-6. If it is any consolation, it required a measuring to determine the last point.

Ski Jumping: Kamil Stoch of Poland pulled off a sweep of the individual jumping golds when he won the large hill. Last Sunday he took the gold on the normal hill. Noriaki Kasai of Japan won the silver and Peter Prevc of Slovenia took the bronze.

No U.S. jumper advanced to the final. Nick Fairall placed 35th, Nick Alexander was 48th and Anders Johnson was disqualified.

The competition was delayed because of swirling winds; snow at the bottom of the course was paper thin because of the warm temperatures.