Hoefl-Riesch wins 2nd gold in super-combined
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| Women's supercombined gold medal winner Germany's Maria Hoefl-Riesch and bronze medal winner United States' Julia Mancuso celebrate after a flower ceremony at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 10, 2014, in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. |
SOCHI, Russia
(AP) -- Different American, same result for Maria Hoefl-Riesch -
another Olympic gold in the super-combined.
Just
as she did four years ago at the Vancouver Games, Hoefl-Riesch found
herself trailing an American after the downhill leg before using her
slalom skills to vault into first place and successfully defend her
Olympic title in the dual-run event.
The
German finished less than a second ahead of both silver medalist Nicole
Hosp of Austria and Julia Mancuso of the United States, who won the
bronze. Mancuso won silver in the event in Vancouver.
Lindsey
Vonn had the fastest downhill time in Vancouver, but when Vonn skied
out on the slalom, Hoefl-Riesch roared back to claim gold. This time,
Vonn is out with an injury, and Mancuso replaced her at the top the
standings after the downhill.
Also on Day 4 of
the Sochi Olympics, Charles Hamelin of Canada raced to the 1,500-meter
short track speedskating gold, and Viktor Ahn earned the bronze to give
Russia its first-ever short track medal; Michel Mulder of the
Netherlands earned the 500-meter speedskating gold; Martin Fourcade won
the 12.5-kilometer biathlon pursuit; and Alex Bilodeau won his second
consecutive gold medal in men's moguls.
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ALPINE
SKIING: Hoefl-Riesch was fifth fastest in the opening downhill leg,
trailing Mancuso by 1.04 seconds. The German's two-run time of 2
minutes, 34.62 seconds was 0.40 seconds faster than Hosp.
Mancuso, who
finished 0.53 behind Hoefl-Riesch, won her fourth career Olympic medal
in Alpine skiing. No other American woman has won more than two.
---
SHORT
TRACK SPEEDSKATING: At 29, Hamelin was the oldest skater in the first
final of the short track competition. The wily veteran maintained a
top-three position throughout most of the 14-lap race, leaving enough at
the end to defeat a loaded field, including Ahn and silver medalist Han
Tianyu of China. Ahn was a three-time gold medalist for his native
South Korea, but after missing the Vancouver Games he changed his name
and became a Russian citizen. When he stepped on the medals podium, the
mostly Russian crowd erupted in wild cheers.
---
SPEEDSKATING:
Mulder's 500-meter speedskating victory earned him the title of fastest
man on skates. Teammate Jan Smeekens was 0.01 seconds behind for
silver, and twin Ronald Mulder took bronze in a Dutch sweep.
---
BIATHLON:
Fourcade's win earned France its first medal. Ondrej Moravec of Czech
Republic took the silver, and Jean Guillaume Beatrix of France earned
bronze. Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway finished fourth, missing out on a
record 13th Winter Olympic medal.
---
MEN'S
MOGULS: Bilodeau became the Olympics' first repeat winner in men's
moguls. Canadian teammate Mikael Kingsbury won the silver, giving the
Canadians a 1-2 finish in both men's and women's moguls.
---
CURLING:
The Norwegian men, curling's fashion kings of cool, made their Sochi
debut with another snazzy pattern on their pants -- a mixture of red,
white, blue and gray squares and rectangles. Norway dazzled the U.S.
7-4, but the surprise of opening day was Switzerland's upset of
defending champion Canada. On the women's side, Sweden defeated Britain
6-4 in a matchup of two favorites for the women's curling gold.
---
ICE
HOCKEY: The United States romped to a 9-0 victory over Switzerland to
all-but clinch a spot in the Olympic women's hockey semifinals. Canada
topped Finland 3-0 to ensure its spot in the semifinals.
