Olympics roundup: Norway earns Beijing Games’ first gold medal
BEIJING – Norway is sailing toward a second straight turn atop the Winter Games medal count after a golden start.
Cross-country skier Therese Johaug won the first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics in the women’s 15-kilometer skiathlon, and Johannes Thingnes Boe moved ahead of his French and Russian rivals in the final meters of the mixed relay to give Norway gold in the first biathlon race.
Johaug fought wind and frigid temperatures to ski away from a chase group of four. She has 10 world championship titles but had never before won an individual Olympic gold medal.
Boe, Quentin Fillon Maillet of France and Eduard Latypov of the Russian team left the range close together after the last round of shooting and raced for position until the final stretch, when Boe sprinted for the win.
Norway, which came into the relay as the World Cup leader, also got strong performances from Marte Olsbu Roeiseland and Tarjei Boe. But they trailed early in the race when Tiril Eckhoff struggled on the range.
On the board
China earned its first gold medal of the Beijing Games in the short track speedskating mixed team relay in the event’s Olympic debut.
Wu Dajing edged Pietro Sighel of Italy by 0.016 seconds – or half a skate blade – to claim gold. Hungary earned bronze.
Qu Chunyu, Fan Kexin and Ren Ziwei joined Wu for the historic victory. The small number of Chinese fans at Capital Indoor Arena cheered and waved tiny flags.
China was the gold-medal favorite coming in, having led the World Cup standings this season.
Record on ice
Irene Schouten gave the mighty Dutch a gold medal in the first speedskating event of the Beijing Games, breaking a 20-year-old Olympic record in the women’s 3,000 meters.
Skating in the last of 10 pairs, Schouten turned in a blazing final lap to post a winning time of 3 minutes, 56.93 seconds. That broke the previous Olympic mark of 3:57.70, set by Germany’s Claudia Pechstein at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
In a fitting bookend to the event, Pechstein skated in the opening pair to become the oldest female athlete in Olympic history at 49. The German finished last, more than 20 seconds behind the winner.
New king of the hill
Walter Wallberg of Sweden upset “The King” to take home the gold medal in the men’s moguls.
Wallberg looked almost in shock when his score of 83.23 flashed on the board, edging defending Olympic champion Mikael Kingsbury of Canada on a bitterly cold night. Wallberg picked up points for his speed over the smooth and technical skiing style of Kingsbury, whose nickname is the “King of Moguls.”
This was Wallberg’s first major win. The 21-year-old Swede has never won a World Cup event.