Olympic report

Luge Germany’s Felix Loch easily won the Olympic gold medal in men’s luge, a sport still reeling from the death of a Georgian racer during a training run. The 20-year-old Loch finished in 3 minutes, 13.085 seconds, well ahead of teammate David Moeller in 3:13.764 and two-time Olympic champion Armin Zoeggeler, who finished in 3:14.375 and settled for bronze. Loch is the youngest luge gold medalist in history. He denied Zoeggeler’s bid to become the second luger to win three straight golds. Germany’s Georg Hackl won three in a row but had his streak stopped in 2002 by Zoeggeler.

Speedskating In the women’s 3,000 meters, Martina Sablikova won gold, the first of a two possible long-distance gold medals for the Czech speedskater. Germany’s Stephanie Beckert took silver ahead of Canada’s Kristina Groves. Sablikova finished in 4 minutes, 2.53 seconds for a margin of 2.09 seconds over the German Beckert. Groves had 4.04.84 and fell short of giving Canada its first gold medal on home soil. Sablikova also is favored to win the 5,000 meters later in the Olympics.

Biathlon France’s Vincent Jay won a gold medal in his Olympic debut, capturing the 10-kilometer sprint. Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway was 12.2 second back to win the silver medal. Jakov Fak of Croatia took the bronze, finishing another 1.8 seconds behind. Jay shot cleanly and took advantage of an early start number to finish in 24 minutes, 7.8 seconds. A flurry of wet snow fall made conditions tougher for many of the favorites who started later.

Hockey The United States opened the preliminary round of the women’s hockey tournament with a 12-1 romp over China. Jenny Potter scored three goals in the first 22 minutes while becoming the leading scorer in American Olympic history. Meghan Duggan scored twice for the Americans, who got the expected result when a seasoned power takes on a developing team. China allowed 11 straight goals before Jin Fengling scored on a power play with 2:21 left. Potter scored four points while notching her first Olympic hat trick, and Angela Ruggiero scored the first goal in the avalanche in front of a crowd including Vice President Joe Biden.

•Nina Tikkinen scored two goals, Marjo Voutilainen got the go-ahead score in the second period, and Finland rebounded from an early deficit for a 5-1 victory over Russia in women’s hockey. Saija Sirvio and Venla Hovi also scored for the Finns, a medal contender ranked third in the Olympic tournament.

Figure skating China’s Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo are sure to remember this Valentine’s Day. The married couple broke their own world record with a mesmerizing performance to open the pairs short program competition, and it took until the very last pair – about three hours later – for anyone to come close to topping the Chinese duo. With a score of 76.66, the pair lead two-time world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany by just .70 points. Americans Mark Ladwig and partner Amanda Evora, the runners-up at U.S. nationals, set a career best, earning them 10th place in, by far, the biggest competition of their career.