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Drama in mountains with first downhill tie
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In a finish a Hollywood scriptwriter would struggle to match, the women’s downhill at Russia’s Winter Olympics produced a tie for gold for the first time yesterday, in a thrilling start to the fifth full day of competition.
Despite clear skies and mild temperatures, complaints about slushy snow conditions in the Caucasus mountains melted away, while on the Black Sea coast excitement grew with the first puck set to drop in the men’s ice hockey competition.
History was made when Switzerland’s Dominique Gisin and Tina Maze of Slovenia shared the women’s Olympic Alpine skiing downhill gold medal after clocking exactly the same time down the gleaming Rosa Khutor descent.
“It’s better to be two on top than one to be 1/100th behind. Two happy faces,” said Maze, Slovenia’s first Winter Games gold medalist. Few had given much of a chance to 28-year-old Gisin, a pilot in the Swiss Air Force.
“I have had a lot of injuries in my life, I had nine knee surgeries. I was close to the podium a lot. I never medaled on a big event, so what comes around, goes around,” she said.
The pair sped down the Rosa Khutor course in 1 minute, 41.57 seconds. Lara Gut of Switzerland was 0.10 behind in third.
Alpine skiers have shared medals before at the Olympics, but never gold.
It was the second time in two days that women athletes set a precedent at the Olympics.
On Tuesday night, women ski jumpers finally had the chance to prove their mettle, 90 years after the first men competed at a Winter Games and following a long battle for inclusion.
Added to the shock failure of United States snowboard king Shaun White to win a medal in the halfpipe on Tuesday, sport has grabbed the attention of the world and pushed a troubled buildup to the Sochi Games further into the background.
The more the action and excitement take hold, the happier Russia will be and later the host nation could be celebrating pairs figure skating gold when world and European champions Maxim Trankov and Tatiana Volosozhar take to the ice.
Russia lingers in seventh place in the medals table, with Germany ahead of Norway and Canada at the top.
German favorite Eric Frenzel won the Nordic Combined normal hill, landing the longest jump of the day and then mastering a slushy cross-country course to beat Japan’s Akito Watabe by 4.2 seconds. Magnus Krog of Norway earned the bronze, denying Alessandro Pittin of Italy.
Australian Torah Bright defends her snowboarding halfpipe title against rivals who include America’s Kelly Clark — the 2002 winner is appearing at her fourth Winter Games — and China’s Cai Xuetong.
The puck drops for the start of action in the eagerly anticipated men’s ice hockey tournament, in which Czech Republic plays Sweden and Latvia meets Switzerland in the opening group games.
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