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Journalism of Courage
In a finish that 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 on Wednesday, in a thrilling start to the fifth full day of 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 sun-bathed Rosa Khutor descent.
Gisin, lost in amazement at the bottom of the piste, called it “crazy”. “I attacked hard from top to bottom,” added the 28-year-old. Alpine skiers have shared medals before at the Olympics, but never gold. It was the second time in two days that women athletes made history at the Olympics.
On Tuesday night, women ski jumpers finally had the chance to prove their mettle in one of the ultimate sporting tests of power, technique and daring, 90 years after the first men competed at a Winter Games. For years they were told the sport was too risky, that there were too few top-class women competitors, or even that the impact of landing could damage their fertility.
But ending a long battle for inclusion, all the frustration was consigned to the past at the hill at RusSki Gorki in the mountains above Sochi. The events, added to the shock failure of US snowboard king Shaun White to win a medal in the halfpipe on Tuesday, have grabbed the attention of the watching world and pushed a troubled buildup to the Sochi Games further into the background.
Russia win skate gold
Russia Russians Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov produced a stirring free skate to become the first figure skaters to grab two gold medals at the same Olympics by winning the pairs title at the Sochi Games on Wednesday.
Three days after triumphing in the team competition, Volosozhar and Trankov performance to ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ left the couple in tears and the home crowd roaring.
The world and European champions smashed the opposition with a total score of 236.86 to give Russia their 13th Olympic pairs title.
Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov made it a 1-2 finish for the Russians, while Germany’s Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy had to settle for bronze.
Also, American Kaitlyn Farrington beat three former champions to win the gold medal in the women’s snowboarding halfpipe on Wednesday.
The 24-year-old scored 91.75 on her second run to claim the title ahead of Australia’s defending champion Torah Bright, who scored 91.50, and 2002 champion Kelly Clark of the United States, who was awarded 90.75 for the final run.
Hannah Teter, who won the gold medal in 2006 and silver in 2010, led after the first run but fell on her second attempt and had to be satisfied with fourth place. World champion Arielle Gold of the United States did not even make it to qualifying.
