South Korean Yun Sung-bin wins men's skeleton gold medal

Feb. 16 (UPI) -- South Korean Yun Sung-bin pleased the home crowd with his gold medal win in the men's skeleton on Friday at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games during the Lunar New Year holiday.

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," Sung-bin said. "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.

"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."

Britain's International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Adam Pengilly made headlines 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, was sent home 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," Adams added. "We take that very gravely. I haven't seen the video footage. I do know that we quickly summoned [Pengilly] to see the ethics and compliance officer where the incident was discussed. He admitted he made some errors, apologized and has left the country. You will appreciate that this is Games time so it has to be dealt with immediately."

Adams added that IOC President Thomas Bach had also apologized to POCOG.

In Alpine skiing, Swedish Alpine skier Frida Hansdotter was crowned in the women's slalom while defending champion Mikaela Shiffrin witnessed a disappointing afternoon with her fourth-place finish.

"I was just having a great feeling," Hansdotter said. "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.'"

Wendy Holdener of Switzerland was placed second, 0.05 seconds behind Hansdotter.

"I am really happy," Holdener added. "I was nervous, and my legs weren't that relaxed on the first few gates. But I fought until the end. It isn't too bad to get second. This gives me confidence for the combined and the team event."

The third position belonged to Austrian Katharina Gallhuber at 1:38.95.

Shiffrin, a 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," Shiffrin explained. "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 be worthy of a medal.

"It's a really big bummer because I know how I have been skiing all season long, it's so close. But I am really happy for the girls who did medal, and I can go back home and re-evaluate."

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 a win for Matthias Mayer of Austria, who claimed the gold medal in the men's super-G.

In freestyle skiing, Hanna Huskova of Belarus won the women's aerial. Italian Michela Moioli claimed the women's snowboard cross title.

After seven days of action, Germany leads the medals table with nine golds, followed by Norway and the Netherlands with six golds each.