Bjoerndalen equals medal record
Print Edition
Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen made a mockery of his 40 years yesterday to equal the record for Winter Olympic medals when victory in the sprint in Sochi took him to 12 for his career.
The veteran went level with compatriot Bjorn Daehlie, who also gathered 12 medals in his Olympic cross country career, and he also became the oldest gold medalist in an individual event in Games history.
Bjoerndalen finished in 24min 33.5sec ahead of Austria’s Dominik Landertinger in 24:34.8sec, and Jaroslav Soukup of the Czech Republic, who clocked 24:39.2.
It was Bjoerndalen’s seventh Olympic gold to add to his four silver and one bronze and was achieved in his sixth Olympic Games. The man nicknamed “The Cannibal” has also devoured 19 world championship titles and his performance yesterday put his critics firmly in their place after he was written off four years ago.
Earlier, Sage Kotsenburg tamed the treacherous slopestyle course at the Extreme Park, grabbing the first gold medal of the Sochi Olympics. And he did it with a run that left the 20-year-old American who talks like a surfer and rides like a purist momentarily stunned in disbelief.
Kotsenburg’s soulful first run in the finals ended with a score of 93.50 that held up over the next 30 minutes as the rest of the field’s dozen riders failed to catch the laid-back Couer d’Alene, Idaho, native, who peppers his interviews with “whoas” and “gnarly” and often refers to himself as “your boy.”
Staale Sandbech of Norway grabbed silver while Canadian Mark McMorris, who nearly missed the finals because of a broken rib, surged to bronze as slopestyle provided an electric Olympic debut.
Sven Kramer of the Netherlands set an Olympic record and defended his title in the men’s 5,000 meters, winning gold with a time of 6 minutes, 10.76 seconds.
With the king, queen and prime minister of his country cheering him on, the 27-year-old Dutchman flew around the big oval with amazingly consistent laps, all falling within a range of eight-tenths of a second. He easily beat the Olympic mark of 6:14.60 he set while winning gold at Vancouver four years ago.
The powerful Dutch team swept the medals. Jan Blokhuijsen took the silver and Jorrit Bergsma claimed the bronze.
Kramer is determined to sweep the two longest speedskating races and make up for a series of Olympic flops that have marred his otherwise brilliant career — most notably at the Vancouver Games, where he made an inexplicable error in the 10,000. Directed into the wrong lane by his coach, he was disqualified in a race he should have won easily.
Marit Bjoergen won the women’s 15-kilometer skiathlon in the opening cross-country event to earn her fourth career gold on an emotional day for the close-knit Norwegian team. It was dealing with the news that Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen’s brother had died a day earlier.
Bjoergen and her three teammates, who also finished third and fourth, broke down in tears as they embraced immediately after the race, and she dedicated the victory to Jacobsen’s family.
“Astrid and her family wanted us to race for her brother, and we really did a good race for him today,” Bjoergen said. “Of course it is emotional. We did it for her, her family and her brother.”
The Norwegian Olympic team said Jacobsen’s brother died “suddenly and unexpectedly” on Friday, but did not provide any details.
Heidi Weng won the bronze medal with teammate Therese Johaug in fourth.
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