2ND LEAD White and Germany triumph but wind causes havoc elsewhere By Barry Whelan, dpa

Pyeongchang, South Korea (dpa) - American Shaun White soared to his third Olympic gold in the snowboard halfpipe Wednesday, but strong winds in Pyeongchang scuppered the women‘s alpine skiing slalom and the women‘s biathlon 15-kilometres race.German biathlon wonder Laura Dahlmeier and US slalom queen Mikaela Shiffrin - vying with White to be the face of this Winter Olympics - will now have to wait until Thursday and Friday respectively, with Dahlmeier going for a third gold in South Korea.It was still another impressive day for Germany though, with Eric Frenzel the first Nordic combined skier in 38 years to win back-to-back Olympic golds in the normal hill event.German duo Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt became only the third pair to win the doubles luge at consecutive Olympics and helped put Germany well on top in the medals table on seven golds, with the Netherlands on five and the US on four. The wind and freezing temperatures have been the major talking point of the Olympics so far with a raft of events postponed. The Olympic Park in the coastal city of Gangneung was even closed on Wednesday amid the high winds, with spectators encouraged to stay indoors and media centres in temporary structures evacuated. White, who also snatched gold at Turin 2006 and Vancouver 2010, came from behind to win the men‘s halfpipe in front of the biggest crowd so far at the Phoenix Snow Park.White, nicknamed the Flying Tomato thanks to his shock of red hair, started with a strong run of 94.25 before being passed by Japan‘s Ayumu Hirano. But he then earned a stunning score of 97.75 in his final effort."I knew I did a great ride and I was proud of that and I could walk away with my head high, but when they announced my score and I‘d won, it crippled me."The win means the US have won gold in all four freestyle snowboard events completed in South Korea.Dutch domination in the Pyeongchang speed skating continued with women‘s 1,000 metres winner Jorien ter Mors making it five golds out of five so far for the Netherlands.The joint Korean women‘s ice-hockey team finally scored a goal when they lost 4-1 to Japan, as the South Korean government confirmed it was paying more than 2.5 million dollars for the visit of hundreds of North Korean cheerleaders and others.The men‘s and women‘s curling tournament got under way while love was in the air in the figure skating on Valentine‘s Day, when US married couple Alexa and Chris Knierim finished 14th on February 14 in the pairs short programme."Well, we were soaking it in and we knew that today was going to be a special day for us," Alexa Knierim said.US ski star Shiffrin is yet to compete in an event at the Games, after the women‘s giant slalom was also affected by winds on Monday and put back to Thursday, when the rescheduled men‘s downhill will also be held.