Tied Gold Medal for Women’s Alpine at Sochi

With the 2014 Winter Olympics well underway, the excitement and competitive levels are running high as countries start to count their medals. Officially known as the XXII Olympic Winter Games, and most often referred to as Sochi 2014, the games feature a total of 98 events in 15 winter sport disciplines. Sochi 2014 is the debut for a number of events, including women’s ski jumping, biathlon mixed relay, mixed-team figure skating, half-pipe skiing, mixed-team luge, snowboard parallel slalom, and ski and snowboard slopestyle. The events are taking place at two groups of new purpose-built venues – the Olympic Park in Imeretinsky Valley on the Black Sea coast, and the resort of Krasnaya Polyana.

The Women’s Alpine Skiing event today saw a tie for first place with Tina Maze of Slovenia and Dominique Gisin of Switzerland both covering the 2.7 km stretch in 1:41.57. This is Gisin’s third downhill victory, two of which were ties, the other being a World Cup victory in January 2009 which she shared with Anja Paerson from Sweden. Maze, wearing bib number 21, took to the starting line 30 minutes after Gisin in the number 8 bib. As temperatures rose, Maze appeared to be hindered by softening snow on the final slope, but crossed the finish line with the exact same time as Gisin – and was clearly pleased with the result. Lara Gut of Switzerland took the Bronze Medal, with Daniela Merighetti coming in fourth and Fabienne Suter in sixth place.

Yesterday’s events included the Women’s Pursuit Biathlon, with the Gold Medal going to Darya Domracheva of Belarus, Silver going to Tora Berger of Norway and Bronze to Teja Gregorin of Slovenia. The Short Program Figure Skating Pairs event saw Russia in first and third place, with Germany in second, China in fourth and Canada in fifth place. The Free Skating event will take place tomorrow, with the points earned being added to the Short Program Figure Skating Pairs to determine final score and medal awards.

Highlights of tomorrow’s program include the Ladies’ Classic Cross-Country, Men’s Figure Skating, Team Relay Luge, and Men’s Individual Biathlon. Sochi 2014 continues until Sunday 23 February.