Olympics

Deutschland Uber Alles

It was another banner day at the Olympics for Germany as der Vaterland came away with five medals. The effort of its athletes extends the country’s lead in the medal totals, which stands at 29 so far.

The German four-man bobsled team, lead by Andre Lange, successfully defended their gold medal, beating out teams from Russia and Switzerland. Lange also won gold in the two-man event earlier in the games, so he joins a select group of Olympians to sweep in bobsled. For the Russians, though, taking the silver marked their first ever medal in the event. Texan Todd Hays, whose sled finished in seventh place, announced his retirement after the race.

In women’s speed skating, Claudia Pechstein won the silver in the 5,000 meter event, narrowly missing a chance to become the first Olympian to win the gold in the same event four times. Still, she becomes the most decorated woman athlete to compete in the Winter Games with nine medals. Canada’s Clara Hughes took the gold with teammate Cindy Klassen winning the bronze. Klassen becomes the only Olympian not named Eric Heiden to win five medals in one Olympiad, though we’d like to remind everyone that Heiden’s five medals in 1980 were all gold.

Finally, Germany won three other medals in biathlon today, with Michael Greis winning gold in the men’s 15 km mass start and Kati Wilhelm and Uschi Disl winning silver and bronze, respectively, in the women’s 12.5 km event. Just an idea here, but if we teach Dick Cheney to cross country ski we could do well in Vancouver.

Aside from the Germans, it was also a big day for the Austrian ski team, who swept the podium in the men’s slalom. Benjamin Raich won his second gold medal of the games, while unknown Reinfried Herbst took the silver and Rainer Schoenfelder earned a bronze. Everyone expected Austria to do well in the alpine events, but it was a bit of a surprise that they dominated the competition by winning a record 14 medals. American skiers Ted Ligety and Bode Miller were both disqualified in the event for missing gates, but where Ligety DQ’d because he was obviously trying to cut his turns tighter in an effort to win, Beer Breath Body looked as if he was sauntering down the run and just forgot which way to go.

As for your medal count heading into the final day of comeptition, the United States follows Germany in second place with 25, while Canada jumps into the third with 24 medals. Austria now as 22 and Russia is in fifth place with 21.

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