海角大神

Canada rose in the Sochi Olympics medal count Monday, adding two first-place finishes to tie the Netherlands for the most gold medals (three).

The Netherlands 鈥� led by a dominant speed skating squad 鈥� and perennial Winter Games powerhouse Norway are tied with Canada in the overall medal count at seven each. Russia follows with six overall medals, and the United States stands at five.

Canada鈥檚 Charles Hamelin won the country鈥檚 first gold of the day with a victory in the men鈥檚 short track 1,500-meter, while his countrymen Alex Bilodaeu and Mikael Kingsbury matched the Canadian women鈥檚 feat in the freestyle moguls by finishing one-two in the men鈥檚 event.

Speed skaters from the Netherlands continued their Sochi dominance by sweeping the 500-meter event Monday, two days after a sweep of the 5,000-meter event. Dutch twins Michel Mulder and Ronald Mulder placed first and third in Monday鈥檚 sweep, becoming the first twins to win medals in the same Olympic event since 1984.聽

The United States posted its sole medal Monday in the women鈥檚 downhill super combined, where American Julia Mancuso snuck in for a surprise bronze. Mancuso, the most decorated woman skier in US Olympic history, now has four Olympic medals under her belt. The Monitor's Sochi correspondent, Mark Sappenfield, notes that Mancuso 鈥渆xcels in bad conditions. Most top racers crave consistency on courses so they know how far to push themselves,鈥� but Mancuso is a different breed of elite skier,聽Sappenfield writes:

France and China won their first Olympic medals of the Games today: France took gold and bronze in the men鈥檚 biathlon pursuit, and 17-year-old Tianyu Han, skating in his first Olympics for China, took home silver in the short track 1,500-meter event. 聽