NOTES | The best slip, and the others celebrate

The shock wasn't only about who won the Olympic gold medal in the men's slalom. It was also about who failed to finish the race.

Andre Myhrer, a 35-year-old Swede who took bronze in the event eight years ago, was the unlikely champion on Thursday. But Marcel Hirscher and Henrik Kristoffersen — the best slalom skiers on the World Cup circuit — couldn't complete two runs to give themselves a chance at the title.

"To be able to do this after the season they have had is, of course, amazing for me," Myhrer said.

Hirscher skied off course in the opening run, while Kristoffersen set the fastest time. But the Norwegian couldn't make it all the way down the piste on the second run, leaving Myhrer at the top of the podium.

Both Hirscher and Kristoffersen won Olympic medals in this event in Sochi. They also combined for 1-2 finishes in four of the eight World Cup slaloms this season.

Kristoffersen's mistake allowed Ramon Zenhaeusern of Switzerland to take an unexpected silver medal. The bronze medalist was Michael Matt of Austria.

Thousands of South Koreans are calling for two speedskaters to be expelled from the Olympics after they left their slower teammate behind in a race defined by teamwork and walked away as she sobbed after the race.

As of Thursday afternoon, nearly 570,000 signatures had been gathered on an online petition to South Korea's presidential office calling for skaters Kim Bo-Reum and Park Ji Woo to be expelled.

During the women's team pursuit quarterfinals on Monday, Kim and Park skated ahead as teammate Noh Seon-yeong fell behind the pack. Noh finished the race nearly 4 seconds after her teammates. Cameras showed Kim and Park walking away after the race as Noh cried in the infield.

"It's clearly a disgrace to our national image that these individuals of bad character are representing this country at the Olympics," the petition says.

On Wednesday night, Noh skated with Kim and Park again in a two-team race to determine seventh place. As the stadium's announcer called out their names, the crowd quietly acknowledged Kim and Park, but gave a thunderous cheer for Noh.

The Dutch set up a short-track speedskating program from scratch a dozen years ago in the hope it would succeed in that country like long-track speedskating.

Until now it hadn't. Suzanne Schulting helped change that.

Schulting won the 1,000 meters Thursday, the last day of the short-track program, leaving the Netherlands with her gold, two silver medals and a bronze medal. Only the host nation did better.

"A 12-year investment now pays off," Dutch technical director Arie Koops said.

Darya Domracheva grabbed the Belarusian flag and headed to the finish line to celebrate her team's gold-winning performance in the 4x6-kilometer biathlon relay. The wind pulled it from her hands. Fitting enough.

Snow and wind had created havoc on the shooting range and generally made life miserable on skis, too.

"It was very high pressure and a lot of challenges from the first day of the Olympic Games," Domracheva said. "All these caused this gold medal. I think this is big, big, big for us."

Within hours of curler Alexander Krushelnitsky being stripped of a bronze medal for a doping violation, the Russian Olympic Committee said it had paid a $15 million fee that was part of the criteria to have its team reinstated at the Pyeongchang Games.

The IOC is due to decide Saturday whether to formally reinstate the Russian team for the Closing Ceremony the following day.

• Hungary was the surprise winner of the men's 5,000. Liu Shaolin Sandor took the lead with one lap to go and finished in an Olympic-record time of 6 minutes, 31.971 seconds.

• Wu Dajing of China won the men's 500 meters, lowering his own world record for the second time in the final, winning in 39.584 seconds.

• Germany won the gold medal in the Nordic combined team event, adding to its dominance of the sport. Germany was second after the ski jumping stage and started the 4x5-kilometer cross-country relay race just six seconds behind Austria. That was made up on the first leg.