Walter Wallberg stuns favourite Mikael Kingsbury to win moguls gold at Winter Olympics

Hosts China open their account with short track speed skating mixed-team relay title

Sweden's Walter Wallberg won the Beijing Winter Olympics men's freestyle skiing moguls at the Zhangjiakou Genting Snow Park. EPA

Sweden's Walter Wallberg clinched gold in the men's freestyle moguls event at the Beijing Olympics on Saturday, defeating champion and favourite Mikael Kingsbury of Canada who took silver.

Wallberg, 21, was ecstatic as he landed a Cork 1080 in a lightning-fast run that lasted less than 24 seconds. The Swedish skier looked surprised when he saw that the score from his final run had put him on top of the podium ahead of Kingsbury.

"I knew I did a great run but I knew Mikael did a good run as well, I wasn't sure it would be the best run... I was super happy when I saw the scores," Wallberg said.

The performance earned him a final score of 83.23 as he edged his Canadian rival. Wallberg's win, four years after he finished 21st at Pyeongchang 2018, was a surprise as Kingsbury, the most decorated moguls skier in history, had been tipped to extend his winning streak. Kingsbury's gold in Pyeongchang followed a silver at the Sochi Games in 2014.

The Canadian congratulated Wallberg for getting to "sit on the throne today".

"He deserves it, I told him welcome to the club," said Kingsbury.

China kicked off their home Winter Olympics in style when they claimed the short track speed skating mixed-team relay title.

Ren Ziwei, Wu Dajing, Fan Kexin and Qu Chunyu clocked two minutes 37.348 seconds over 2,000 metres in the final to beat Italy and Hungary, second and third respectively, at the Capital Indoor Stadium.

Wu, who won China's only gold medal at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, beat Italy's Pietro Sighel to the finish line by 0.016 seconds, or half a skate blade, while Hungary took bronze.

"I have been through many ups and downs in the past four years. Thanks to my team for not giving up on me. I also want to thank myself for not giving up on myself," Wu said.

"I could feel being chased closely during the race. My team mates were cheering for me out loud and asked me to push my limits. The team really trust me to let me run the last few laps."

Meanwhile, three-time gold medalist Shaun White announced that not only will the Beijing Games be his last Olympics, they’ll mark his final contest, too.

During a reflective and emotional news conference Saturday, the 35-year-old said he will call it a day after the medal round next week.

“In my mind, I’ve decided this will be my last competition,” he said.

It’s a decision that’s been building since a rough-and-tumble training stop in Austria in November. He was dealing with nagging remnants from injuries to his knee, back, and ankle. He got lost on the mountain with the sun going down. It was one of those rare times when snowboarding didn’t feel fun anymore.

“A sad and surreal moment,” he called it. “But joyous, as well. I kind of reflected on things I’ve done and looked at the sun going down and went, ‘Wow, next time I’m here, I won’t be stressed about learning tricks or worried about some competition thing.’”