Olympics Day 4 Wrapup

As the fourth day of competition at the 21st Winter Olympics wrapup, the Americans are surprisingly still atop the medal count. This can be attributed to the 12 different nations that won a medal today. From Estonia to Japan, most of the winter powerhouses took home a medal in competition today.
The first medal event to conclude today was the ladies' 10 k sprint in cross-country. Sweden's Charlotte Kalla took home the first gold of the day and the first gold for the Swedes in Vancouver. Finishing with silver was defending gold medalist Kristina Smigun of Estonia, followed by Norway's Marit Bjoergen who took homr bronze. All three of these women have a chance to medal more times with three more sets of medals to be given away in cross-country.
In the men's sprint on the cross-country track, perennial power Norway failed to place a skier in the top twenty. Favorite Petter Northug finished in the forties and the highest ranked skier at 28th. Norway's disappointment became Switzerland's joy. Dario Cologna took home the first of two golds for the Swiss on Monday defeating silver medalist Pietro Piller Cottrer of Italy by almost 25 seconds and bronze medalist Lukas Bauer of the Czech Republic by 35 seconds. The upcoming days in cross-country will need to see at least a couple medals from Norway to redeem today's horrible performance at Whistler.
The men's downhill was finally given a go to proceed on Monday with the Swiss taking their second gold of the day thanks to Didier Defago. The big story for the Americans was the surprise bronze from Bode Miller, who was one of the biggest disappointment of the Torino Games, who is out who redemption this year. Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal won the silver giving the Norwegians something to cheer for after their miserable openers in cross-country and biathlon, two sports they normally dominate.
American domination should have the story coming out of the Men's Snowboard Cross finals but in one of the most unpredictable sports in the Winter games, only defending gold medalist Seth Wescott medaled for the USA, winning a second gold. Fellow American Nate Holland crashed during the final and finished fourth. Canada received another medal thanks to Mike Robertson who took silver and Tony Ramoin gave the French another medal by winning bronze.
At the Richmond Olympic Oval, Korea and Japan took home the medals as expected in the men's 500 meter race. The short distances are the Asian nations' speciality and they proved it as Mo Tae-Bum of Korea took gold and Keiichiro Nagashima and Joji Kato of Japan gave their country the first two medals in Vancouver with silver and bronze respectively.
The big focus at night was on the pairs' free skate in figure skating. After setting a record score last night, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo of China added to their score and won by over three points, even after finishing second in the free skate to silver medalists Pang Qing and Tong Tian of China. Germany's Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy dropped to the bronze medal after finishing second in the short program last night.
Gold Medal Winners:
Charlotte Kalla (Cross-Country- Sweden)
Dario Cologna (Cross-Country- Switzerland)
Didier Defago (Men's Downhill- Switzerland)
Seth Wescott (Snowboard Cross- USA)
Mo Tae-Bum (Speed Skating- Korea)
Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo (Pairs' Figure Skating- China)
Medal Count after Day 4:
USA- 8
Germany- 5
France, Canada- 4
Switzerland, Korea, Norway, Italy- 3
China, Czech Republic, Japan- 2
Netherlands, Slovakia, Sweden, Australia, Estonia, Poland, Austria, Croatia, Russia- 1