Records and surprise accompanied with happiness at Winter Olympics
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When the 21st Olympic Winter Games went into its sixth-day competitions after Opening Ceremony on Thursday, surprising victories and records were accompanied with happiness in skating rink and skiing piste.
After Yora Berger began the day with the 100th winter Olympic medal for Norway, Evan Lysacek won the men's singles figure skating for the first time in 22 years for the United States.
In women's 15km biathlon individual, Berger finished first in 39 minutes 52.8 seconds, 20.7 seconds faster than Elena Kaz Khrustaleva of Kazakhistan, who who the silver.
"It's so good. Really, I don't know what to say. It's really, really good. It's probably the biggest dream I've dreamed about," said Berger on her feelings about being an Olympic champion.
Berger's gold is the 100th medal for Norway in the history of Winter Olympics.
Hours after the victory, Emil Hegle Svendsen added the 101 medal for Norway when he beat his countryman Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, arguably the greatest biathlete, to win the men's 20-kilometer individual biathlon race.
Svendsen paid tribute to his mentor Bjoerndalen after finishing first in 48 minutes 22.5 seconds.
"I don’t think I would be here if it weren’t for Bjoerndalen. I train with him every day and I try to copy everything he does. I owe him a great deal of thanks. I'm very humble to be on the same team with him," he said.
Bjoerndalen reaffirmed his position as the greatest biathlete in history, becoming the first in the sport to win a medal in the same event at three consecutive Olympics. The 36-year-old veteran tied for the silver with Sergey Novikov of Belarus for his 10th Winter Games medal. Among men, he trails only the great Norwegian cross-country skier Bjorn Daehlie, who won 12.
In men's figure skating, Lysacek skated to gold in a nerve-racking men's free skating, becoming the first US man to take Olympic gold in this event since Brian Boitano in 1988.
With the victory, Lysacek also broke Russian's dominance in the event since 1992 winter Olympics.
Defending champion Evgeni Plushenko of Russia took the silver, his third Olympic Games. And Daisuke Takashi of Japan claimed Japan's first Olympic medal in men's figure skating with bronze.
Plushenko, who skated last, gave a dramatic performance of his "Tango Amore" routine, nailing a quad-triple toe loop combination and six triple jumps, but one spain got a level three and he was shaky on the landing of two jumps.
In speed skating, Christine Nesbitt of Canada won the women's 1,000m event, the first gold in the sport for Canada and she became the second women's speed skater to win a gold at a home Olympics.
Nesbitt started slowly but ended ni one minute 16.56 seconds for the gold medal, 0.02 seconds faster than silver medallist Annette Gerritsen of Netherlands, who skated in the pairing just before her. Laurine van Riessen of Netherlands got the bronze at 1:16.72.
While in women's snowboard halfpipe, Australia Torah Bright, against all odds, denied a medal sweep by the American favourites, winning the gold with 45 points/
Bright, who topped the qualification round but placed bottom in the first run of the final, came back strongly in the second run with her fancy performance at Cyress Mountain.
Bright edged two American contenders 2006 Olympic gold medallist Hannah Teter and 2002 Olympic champion Kelly Clark to a two-three finish in 42.4 and 42.2 points.
In women Alpine skiing super-combined, Maria Riesch of Germany took advantage of a mid-course crash by American Lindsey Vonn and an easy slalom run to win her first Olympic gold.
American Julia Mancuso had the silver, her second medal in as many days. Anja Paerson of Sweden finished third after a specular crash in the women's downhill.
Vonn, who made history Wednesday by winning the United States first ever Olympic gold in the women's downhill, straddled a gate midway through the slalom course.
In women's curling, China trounced Japan 9-5, Canada edged Germany 6-5, Britain beat Russia 10-3 and Denmark defeated United States 7-6.
In women's ice hockey, China lost to Russia 1-2 while the United States blanked Finland 6-0.
After six day competitions, the United States led the medal standings with six gold, ahead of Germany on four. South Korea, Switzerland, Norway and Canada each had three.
