PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – On the heels of his Olympic gold medal-winning run Wednesday, snowboarder Shaun White was asked to contend with sexual harassment allegations that were leveled against him in 2016, immediately casting a shadow on the celebration.

White, 31, at first tried to minimize the claims when he was pressed by an ABC News reporter during a news conference after his victory on the men's halfpipe.

"I'm here to talk about the Olympics, not gossip," he said.

When asked if the claims could damage his reputation, White said: "I don't think so. I am who I am, and I'm proud of who I am."

"My friends, you know, love me and vouch for me, and I think that stands on its own," he added.

The reporter tried to push the issue, but the event director, Nick Alexakos, put a stop to the questioning.

german pair win gold Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot of Germany won Germany’s first gold in pairs figure skating since 1952. Savchenko and Massot’s score of 159.31 points in the free skate catapulted them from fourth place after a shaky short program. China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, who led after the short program, won silver, and Canada’s Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford took bronze. This was Savchenko’s fifth Olympics.

Shortly after, White made a guest appearance on the "Today" show and apologized for his word choice during the news conference.

"I'm truly sorry that I used the word 'gossip,' " he said. "It was a poor choice of words to describe such a sensitive subject in the world today."

In 2016, Lena Zawaideh, the former drummer of White's rock band Bad Things, filed a lawsuit against him claiming that he had sexually harassed her and tried for years to "impose a strict regime" over her, asking her to cut her hair and to wear revealing clothing and underwear.

The lawsuit was settled in May 2017 for an undisclosed amount.

Dutch continue to dominate

It has been all orange on the long-track speedskating oval so far.

Jorien ter Mors won the gold medal in the women's 1,000 meters with a record performance, keeping the Netherlands perfect with five wins in five races.

Ter Mors' time of 1:13.56 held up with eight skaters yet to compete. Nao Kodaira and Miho Takagi, expecting to finish 1-2 for Japan, had to settle for silver and bronze.

American Brittany Bowe finished fourth — just 0.38 seconds off the bronze medal-winning time,

"Had a great start, had a great first lap," said the 29-year-old Bowe, a former inline skater and college basketball player who is competing in her second Olympics. "Just didn't have the legs there at the end."

The Americans haven't won a speedskating medal since the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Repeat in Nordic combined

Fifth after the ski jumping stage of the Nordic combined, German Eric Frenzel started 38 seconds off the leader and surged ahead of Akito Watabe on the last uphill of the 10-kilometer cross-country race to defend his title in the normal hill event.

With just over 1 kilometer remaining, it looked like Watabe might give Japan its first gold of the games. But Frenzel powered ahead of the World Cup leader on the hill.

German lugers win again

Germans Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt won their second consecutive Olympic doubles luge gold medal.

Wendl and Arlt finished their two runs in 1 minute, 31.697 seconds. They're the first German team to win two straight doubles golds since Hans Rinn and Norbert Hahn in 1976 and 1980.

The Austrian team of Peter Penz and Georg Fischler was second, less than one-tenth of a second off the winning time.

Russians lose in hockey

The Russians scored two goals in the first five minutes — one by Wild prospect Kirill Kaprizov — but were shut out the rest of the way, losing to Slovakia 3-2 in their men's hockey tournament opener. Before the tournament, the Russians were considered to be the gold-medal favorites. Russian teams have played Slovakia in four consecutive Olympic tournaments, losing three of those and winning in 2014 in a shootout.

• Eeli Tolvanen, the Nashville Predators' top prospect, had a goal and three assists and as Finland beat Germany 5-2.

Marissa Brandt gets assist

Minnesotan Marissa Brandt assisted on the first Olympic goal in Korean women's hockey history.

On Korea's 33rd shot over three games, Randi Heesoo Griffin's shot from the right circle crossed the line at 9:31 of the second period against Japan.

Brandt is the sister of Hannah Brandt of Vadnais Heights, who plays for the U.S. team. She played at Hill-Murray and then Gustavus Adolphus. She was born in South Korea and adopted when she was 4 ½ months old.

Griffin, a Duke doctoral student from Cary, N.C., is also an American recruited to help South Korea field its first Olympic team.

The Japanese won 4-1, giving them their first victory in their third Olympic berth.

Shootings impact skaters

Alexa Scimeca-Knierim and Chris Knierim became the first Americans to land a quad twist in an Olympic competition when they hit the four-revolution element in the pairs free skate.

The rest of their program didn't go nearly as well.

Scimeca-Knierim broke down in tears afterward, saying Wednesday's fatal shootings at a Florida high school had her "emotionally drained."

"We are so privileged and lucky to be doing what we are doing," she said, "and it's so sad that 17 people died in the United States. I told Chris today he'd need to be so much stronger than me.

"I am disappointed with the way we performed today, but so many people at home are hurting because their children have died."

History in the making

South Korea never has been close to an Olympic medal in any sliding sport, but Yun Sungbin emerged from the first two runs of the men's skeleton competition with a huge lead. Yun's margin over Russian Nikita Tregubov is 0.74 seconds — that's a lifetime in sliding. Thousands of countrymen turned out to watch Yun.

Jacobellis back at it

Lindsey Jacobellis, the most accomplished snowboardcross rider in history, will make a fourth bid for Olympic gold in women's snowboardcross on Thursday night.

Jacobellis was 20 years old in Turin in 2006 when gold morphed into silver when her attempt to add a little bit of sauce to her winning run ended up with her ever-so-briefly sitting down in the Italian Alps.

She failed to reach the finals in either Vancouver or Sochi.