Sochi Olympics gold medal count: US clings to fourth place overall
American Kaitlyn Farrington triumphs in the women's snowboarding halfpipe, while Russia re-takes its historic position as the dominant force in pairs figure skating.
American Kaitlyn Farrington triumphs in the women's snowboarding halfpipe, while Russia re-takes its historic position as the dominant force in pairs figure skating.
Wednesday brought the US long-awaited relief from its medal drought with a resounding snowboarding victory while Russia triumphed at the figure-skating rink.
Team USA added two medals to its medal table at the halfpipe: the gold for Kaitlyn Farrington and the bronze for Kelly Clark. Australian Torah Bright聽won the silver, and another American teammate Hannah Teter placed fourth, narrowly missing the podium by a score of just 0.25.
And with that, writes the Monitor鈥檚 Olympic correspondent Mark Sappenfield, 鈥渨e can breathe a little sigh of relief" after a chain of disappointments over the previous couple of days. "Out went the women's halfpipe team, released into the Caucasus night like Valkyries with earbuds and sick tricks to bring justice back to the Olympics, American-style. God bless mom, apple pie, and double corks.鈥澛�
Meanwhile, Russia notched the top two spots in pairs figure skating, with a victory by Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, who led the competition after a flawless short program, and a silver medal for another Russian duo, Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov. Germany's Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy took the bronze following a couple of stumbles during their free skate.聽
The Trankov-Volosozhar win聽returns Russia to the top of the Olympic podium in pairs figure skating, after Vancouver 2010 snapped the country's winning streak that went back a half century, to 1964.
In the women's hockey tournament, Canada defeated the United States to finish as leaders of Group A. Both teams now head for the semifinals and are universally expected to meet again in the event鈥檚 final. Mark Sappenfield explains why:聽
The women's downhill event ended in a gold-medal tie between Tina Maze of Slovenia and Dominique Gisin of Switzerland. Their times were equivalent to the hundredth of a second (stirring questions of why even more accurate measurements aren't posted to determine a winner, despite being available). Lara Gut of Switzerland won the bronze.聽
Stefan Groothuis of The Netherlands won the men鈥檚 1,000-meter speedskating race, clenching his fourth gold medal in five speedskating events at these Games. The silver went to Canada's Denny Morrison, who wasn鈥檛 initially scheduled to compete in the event but came in when a teammate gave up his spot. But it was a disappointing night for American skater Shani Davis, who had won this event at the two previous Winter Games but today finished eighth.
Germany continued to dominate the luge track, with a victory in doubles for Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, a pair known as 鈥淭he two Tobis.鈥澛�
As the day came to a close, here is how Mark Sappenfield summarized Team USA's progress and prospects:聽