By Sportswriter Wang Jimin
PYEONGCHANG, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korean Yun Sungbin pleased home crowds with his gold medal of men's skeleton at the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games on Lunar New Year holiday on Friday.
Russian athlete Nikita Tregubov took the silver, while the bronze medal went to Dom Parsons of Britain.
"It is not my effort alone that got me this medal. I would like to thank all my team for helping me, encouraging me. It is still unbelievable that I got the gold medal. I would like to again thank everyone on my team for always encouraging me," said Yun.
"Getting the gold medal in any Olympics is a very great result but getting the gold here in my home country is a very great honor, much bigger than that," Yun added.
Britain's International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Adam Pengilly made headline by being expelled from the Games after getting involved in an incident with a security volunteer.
The 40-year-old, a two-time Olympian and vice president of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, has been sent home by IOC from the 2018 Winter Olympics with "immediate effect", IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.
"We had an incident here at the Games with a security volunteer. We take that very gravely. I haven't seen the video footage. I do know that we quickly summoned him (Pengilly) to see the ethics and compliance officer where the incident was discussed. He admitted he made some errors, apologised and has left the country. You will appreciate that this is Games time so has to be dealt with immediately," Adams said.
Adams added that IOC President Thomas Bach had also apologized to POCOG.
In Alpine skiing, Swedish Alpine skier Frida Hansdotter was crowned in women's slalom while defending champion Mikaela Shiffrin witnessed a disappointing afternoon with her fourth finish.
"I was just having a great feeling. To cross the finish line and seeing the green line, you know it's a medal, and a great chance to win a gold medal. I was screaming 'yes'," said Hansdotter.
Wendy Holdener of Switzerland was placed second, 0.05 seconds behind Hansdotter.
"I am really happy. I was nervous, and my legs weren't that relaxed on the first few gates. But I fight until the end. It isn't too bad to get second. This gives me confidence for the combined and the team event," commented Holdener.
The third position belonged to Austrian Katharina Gallhuber in 1:38.95.
Shiffrin, gold medalist of the event four years ago, was restrained to fourth, seeing her deficit against Gallhuber at 0.08 seconds.
"Disappointed for sure. I didn't really feel like myself today. I did a lot of training runs, a lot of free skiing, I was trying to get my really good feeling back but it just wasn't there today to ski the aggressive way I need to to be worthy of a medal."
"It's a really big bummer because I know how I have been skiing slalom all season long, it's so close. But I am really happy for the girls who did medal and I go back home and re-evaluate," she commented.
Earlier in the day, Dario Cologna of Switzerland became the first cross-country skier to win the same individual event three times in a row by winning the men's 15km cross country. There was also win for Matthias Mayer of Austria, who claimed the gold medal in men's super-G.
In freestyle skiing, Hanna Huskova of Belarus won women's aerial. Italian Michela Moioli claimed women's snowboard cross title.
After seven days' actions, Germany leads the medals table on nine golds, followed by Norway and the Netherlands both on six golds.
