PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – A blustery morning wind had just about everyone scrambling in the men’s slopestyle event. Except for Red Gerard, who kept his footing all the way to the podium.

Kicking off the second day of full events at the Pyeongchang Olympics, the 17-year-old snowboarder won the United States’ first gold medal of the games.

“Everyone in the contest was worried about the wind and stuff,” said Kyle Mack, Gerard’s friend and Olympic roommate. “I kept telling him, ‘Don’t think about it. Do the run you know you have to do.’

“He went out and put it down flawlessly.”

Also Sunday, Dutch speedskater Sven Kramer broke his own Olympic record in the men’s 5,000 meters to win his third straight medal in the event, Felix Loch missed his shot at a third straight luge title with a wobble on the last run and, in a biathlon stunner, Martin Fourcade and Johannes Thingnes Boe missed their targets and both missed out on medals.

Earlier, Simen Hegstad Krueger led a Norwegian sweep and won the men’s 30-kilometer cross-country skiathlon – despite crashing on the first lap.

The men’s downhill was postponed until Thursday because of strong winds.

Swirling winds blew from the bottom of the mountain during the slopestyle, and the 5-foot-5, 116-pound Gerard took advantage of the quick reflexes he honed while growing up just outside of Breckenridge. He took a risk on the second-to-last jump by trying a 1080-degree jump off the quarterpipe side of the kicker instead of going straight through the jump and flying higher. Gerard then closed with a backside triple-cork 1440.

It all added up to a first-place score of 87.16 – and a gold medal. “Just having fun snowboarding,” Gerard said.

Canadian teammates Max Parrot (86.00) and Marc McMorris (85.20) took bronze and silver, respectively.

Jamie Anderson defended her title in Olympic women’s slopestyle snowboarding, surviving blustery and treacherous conditions at Phoenix Snow Park to give the United States its second gold medal at the Pyeongchang Games.

Anderson was one of the few riders in the final to navigate the tricky series of rails and jumps safely as the wind wreaked havoc on the field.

Anderson posted a score of 83.00 in the first of her two runs, then watched it hold up as rider after rider either crashed or bailed. Even Anderson wasn’t immune. She washed out in her second run with the gold medal already wrapped up.

Laurie Blouin of Canada finished second, with Finland’s Enni Rukajarvi third. Anderson is the first woman to win multiple gold medals in women’s snowboarding at the Olympics.

Kramer won the 5,000 in 6:09.76, besting the mark of 6:10.76, which he set in 2014 in Sochi.

He also became the first man to win three golds in the event, using a late kick to beat Canada’s Ted-Jan Bloemen.

Kramer has a chance at winning two more golds in other events: the 10,000 next Thursday and the team pursuit.

The United States earned the bronze medal in team figure skating. It clinched third even before its ice dancers took the ice.

Canada already was assured of the gold and the Russians had taken silver heading into the final discipline. The Americans led Italy by four points, and when the Italian ice dancers, Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte, did not score well enough to win the free dance, the U.S. had replicated its third-place finish in the event at Sochi.

That pretty much left Maia and Alex Shibutani’s program as an exhibition.

Loch’s reign came to a sudden and shocking end, with David Gleirscher a surprise men’s luge gold medalist and Chris Mazdzer giving USA Luge its first men’s singles medal. Germany’s Johannes Ludwig took third.

Gleirscher, who had never medaled in a World Cup singles race, finished his four runs in 3:10.702 for the gold, Austria’s first in men’s luge in 50 years.

Loch struggled in the final run and slipped all the way to fifth, ending his bid to become the second slider to win the event three consecutive times.

The 10-kilometer biathlon, expected to be a two-man race between Martin Fourcade and Johannes Thingnes Boe, sent shockwaves through the biathlon world. Arnd Peiffer of Germany connected on all 10 of his targets to win gold, ahead of Michal Krcmar of the Czech Republic and Dominik Windisch of Italy.

The top-ranked Fourcade missed three of five shots from the prone position, forcing him to do three penalty laps. The Frenchman finished eighth overall. Thingnes Boe, a Norwegian ranked No. 2, missed three from the prone position and one from the standing position to finish a distant 31st.

Perrine Laffont gave France its first women’s gold medal in the moguls in the 26-year history of the event, landing both her jumps without a bobble in the snow and cold.

The 19-year-old Laffont’s score of 79.72 was more than two points better than 2014 gold medalist Justine Dufour-Lapointe of Canada, who had to settle for silver. Yulia Galysheva of Kazakhstan won bronze.

An early crash couldn’t keep Krueger from gold. His Norwegian teammates then helped complete a sweep in the cross-country ski race.

Krueger slipped when the mass start began and his right ski came out from under him, causing him to fall. Russian athletes Andrey Larkov and Denis Spitsov toppled over Krueger and the three ended up at the rear of the field by the time they untangled.

Krueger stormed back, though, and took the lead with 5 kilometers remaining and powered his way to gold. Norwegian teammates Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Hans Christer Holund completed the 1-2-3 finish.

The men’s downhill was supposed to be the first race of the 11-event Alpine program, and it had been scheduled for Sunday. But race organizers ruled that it needed to be rescheduled three hours before it was supposed to start because the gondola lift used to carry teams and officials up the mountains couldn’t operate.

The first race of the Alpine program will now be the women’s giant slalom on Monday.

What to watch from Pyeongchang-Day 3

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – Don’t let the Monday blues get you down – the Olympic Games are going strong in Pyeongchang. Here are some things to watch for to take your mind off the weekday grind. All times Mountain:

Snowboarding

The women will hit the halfpipe at 6 p.m. with the gold medal final run scheduled for 7 p.m. U.S. women have never swept a Winter Games event, but they sure look strong in this one. The heavy favorite is Korean-American Chloe Kim, who couldn’t compete in Sochi because she was too young. Just 17, she is the only X Games athlete to win three gold medals before the age of 16. Teammate Maddie Mastro also is only 17. They will be joined by veteran Kelly Clark, who is the most decorated Olympic snowboarder ever. At 34, she is competing in her fifth games. Watch for the way the riders execute tricks, including rotations and grabs, while they propel themselves up off the 22-foot-high halfpipe wall. Judging is subjective, based on height, technique and degree of difficulty. There are six judges and the highest and lowest scores are dropped. Ranking is based on the highest score after two rides.

Freestyle skiing

The men will hit the mogul hill looking for gold starting at 6:10 a.m. Mogul skiing is judged on style and skill as well as speed. Skiers use the bumps to make sharp turns while keeping to a fall line. Watch for flips, grabs or rotations in their two jumps off the “air bumps” on the slope. Current world No. 1, Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury, finished first in qualifiers. American Troy Murphy is in the medal hunt, coming in fourth in qualifying.

Speedskating

The women’s 1,500-meter race is at 5:30 a.m. The dominant Dutch painted the podium orange and swept the 3,000 on Sunday, but there are other contenders at the shorter distances, especially Japan’s Miho Takagi. Watch for the way the skaters kick their skates out at the finish. Times are marked when their skates, not their bodies, cross the line, so they push their feet forward instead of their chests like a sprinter would.

Ski jumping

Women will take to the normal hill with the final round starting at 6:45 a.m. Jumpers are scored on two rounds and going the farthest isn’t enough – there are also points awarded for style. Women’s ski jumping became an Olympic sport four years ago in Sochi when American Sarah Hendrickson fought back from injury to get up onto the hill. She has endured four knee surgeries since then but still hopes to contend.

In windy Pyeongchang, watch for points being added or deducted based on the wind. It is so windy on the ski jump hill that organizers put up giant netting at the back and side of the venue to cut it down. Ski jumpers want wind velocity below three meters per second, but the winds here are often three times that.

Biathlon

Both the men and women will race for medals in the pursuits. The women race at 3:10 a.m. and the men at 5 a.m. Pursuit begins with staggered start times, which are based on the results from earlier sprint races. After stunning upsets in the men’s race on Sunday, overall gold medal favorite Martin Fourcade will start the race 24 seconds behind the sprint winner. Johannes Boe, who is ranked No. 2 in the world, had a terrible night so he will start the race 1 minute, 24 seconds back, essentially putting him out of medal contention. Racers shoot four times during the race, twice from the ground and twice standing. They take five shots per round. Watch for skiers to hit the 150-meter penalty loop if they miss a shot.

Curling

The first-ever medal in mixed doubles will be awarded after the 5 p.m. bronze medal match.

Alpine skiing

Alpine fans may finally get a taste of Olympic racing when the men hit the hill for the downhill portion of the combined starting at 7:30 p.m. Medals in that event will be awarded after the slalom portion, which is set to start at 1 a.m. Tuesday.

Unfortunately for U.S. fans, star Mikaela Shiffrin and the rest of the women were prevented from racing Monday because of high winds. The giant slalom has been rescheduled for Thursday. Shiffrin will now make her Pyeongchang debut on Wednesday in the slalom, in which she is the defending Olympic champion.