Sochi Olympics gold medal count: Russia gets first gold
The US, Norway, and The Netherlands lead the gold medal tally after the weekend of competition. Russia won its first gold in figure skating.
Rich Clabaugh
The US, Norway, and The Netherlands were tied for the most gold medals (two), as of Sunday.
But Norway still holds the lead in total medals (seven), picking up three bronze medals on Sunday. Martin Johnsrud Sundby got his bronze in the 30-kilometer cross-country skiathlon. He was a silver medalist in the 2010 Winter Olympics in the team relay. Anders Bardal placed third in ski jumping, and Kjetil Jansrud won a bronze medal in Alpine downhill skiing.
The US picked up its second gold medal Sunday, with a win by Jamie Anderson in the women's slopestyle snowboarding. On Saturday, Sage Kotsenburg won the same event in the men's snowboarding competition. Team USA also picked up a bronze in team figure skating.
Russia notched its first gold medal Sunday by winning the team figure skating competition. The Russians walked away with this event, and the Canadians took the silver. But the competition also brought to the viewing public's attention a 15-year-old Russian figure skater, Yulia Lipnitskaya. She put together a short program, as The Christian Science Monitor's Mark Sappenfield wrote, "of such breathtaking brilliance in the team competition that it left the Iceberg Skating Palace trembling and perhaps even South Korean ice queen Kim Yuna quaking in her sequins."
And then there was American Gracie Gold. "Yet perhaps no less significant was the apparent emergence of American Gracie Gold as a skater in command of her art. Though she finished well behind Lipnitskaya in the women's singles part of the program, her free skate was flawless," wrote Sappenfield.
The Russians began adding to their medal count Sunday with silver medals in the women's biathlon and the men's luge. They also got a bronze in the women's speed skating competition.
The Netherlands got another gold in speed skating Sunday, this time in the women's 3,000-meters. For Irene Wust, it was her third gold medal in three Winter Olympics.