The 10th day of competition at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games was once again spectacular. It was another fierce battle for medals. The most coveted medals, the gold medals, were once again evenly distributed with six different winners: Sweden, Italy, Canada, Korea, Finland and Austria. 

It was the turn of the seductive cross-country skiing. Sweden's Elsa Taenglander and Kajsa Johansson dominated the women's competition, taking gold and silver respectively. With 3:33.98 for Elsa and 3:34.24 for her compatriot Kajsa, the times were very close. The bronze medal went to another Nordic skier, Finland's Nelli-Lotta Kerppelin in 3.34.46.

In the men's race, Italy's Federico Pozzi continued the dominance of the Central European and Nordic countries. He secured another gold for his nation, which continues to lead the medal table, in 3:16.27, ahead of Jakob Elias Moch (Germany) with 3:16.60. The bronze went to Tabor Greenberg (USA) in 3:17.33.

At the Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympic Games (YOG), Federico Pozzi (Italy) and Elsa Taenglander (Sweden) triumphed in the freestyle sprint cross-country skiing events on Monday (29 January). The competitions were held at the Alpensia Biathlon Centre. 

Taenglander started the day with the fastest time in the women's qualification and went on to win her quarter-final and semi-final. "It's really special to win gold. It's been a tough race, the competition was there and I didn't have a clue. It was tough to race, tough to compete, and the track suited me," Taenglander told Olympics.com.

The course suited me very well because there was a climb at the beginning. It feels really good to win. In the men's race, Pozzi finished second in qualifying, the quarter-finals and the semi-finals. He crossed the line first in the final sprint of the day. "I changed my tactics from the quarter-finals onwards," said Pozzi after his victory. 

"I decided to stay back and then try to go for the sprint. And let's say it worked. I had no expectations going into the race. The main goal was just to go fast. My father, who was also a cross-country skier, told me before the race: 'Do well and give it all you have,'" she said. Cross-country skiing continues on Tuesday (30 January) with the men's and women's 7.5 km races in the classic style.

Figure skating was one of the most eagerly awaited events in Korea, as the hosts' chances were high. Their athletes did not disappoint, with Kim Hyungyeom winning gold in the men's singles. He scored 147.45 points in the free skate and finished with 216.73, just half a point better than Slovakia's Adam Hagara (216.23). New Zealand's Yanhao Li took bronze (208.84) and Jacob Sanchez of the USA, who was leading after the short programme, finished fourth (200.28).

The pairs competition also took place on Monday (29 January). Canada's Annika Benjke and Kole Sauve took gold with a score of 113.63. They dominated convincingly ahead of the USA's pair Cayla Smith and Jared Mcpikoe, who took silver with 98.00. Spain's Carolina Shan Capillo and Pau Viella (96.03) made history by winning Spain's first medal at Gangwon 2024 and the second in the country's Winter Olympic history after Javier Fernández at Pyeonchang 2018.

The Nordic Combined medals were also awarded on Monday. The gold medal in the women's 4 km went to Minja Korhonen (Finland) with a time of 10:02.7. She beat the two Slovenians, Teja Pavec (10:49.9) and Tia Malourh (11:14.0). 

The event was a true spectacle for Minja, who controlled the competition, pushing when she needed to and managing her lead and advantage well. In the men's race, Andreas Gfrerer (Austria) narrowly beat the Italian Manuel Senoner, who pushed him until the end of the race. It was a very attractive battle for the spectators. The gold time was 13:23.1, the silver 13:47.4 and the bronze went to Jonatan Graebert (Germany) in 14:08.2.

There were also round-robin games in ice hockey and curling on Monday.

Curling (mixed doubles):

Group A: Nigeria - Canada (0-14), Great Britain - Czech Republic (8-3) and Hungary - Korea (7-4). 

Group B: Sweden - Ukraine (9-0), Norway - USA (3-8) and Qatar - Slovenia (4-12). 

Group D: Germany - Italy (8-2), Switzerland - Kazakhstan (9-1) and Austria - Denmark (4-11). 

Group C: Turkey - Japan (5-9), New Zealand - Latvia (4-9) and Brazil - China (3-10).

Ice hockey 6-team: 

Men:

Group A: USA - Czech Republic (5-6).   

Group B: Canada - Finland (4-1). 

Women:

Group A: Sweden - Japan (2-1).

Group B: Switzerland - Germany (2-1)

Medal table:

1. Italy: 11 golds (17 medals in total). 

2. Germany: 7 golds (16). 

3. France: 6 golds (13).

4. China: 5 golds (16).

 5. Austria: 5 golds (16).