Olympics Day 5 Wrapup

The big story Tuesday was of course the start of Canada's two favorite sports, curling and hockey and another cancelled skiing event, this time it was the men's super combined. The big headline in the medal events was Germany asserting its presence by taking four medals Tuesday, the Germans rose above the United States in the medal table. Starting with Magdalena Neuner's gold in biathlon to the domination in luge, Germany set a path that could take them to the overall medal title.
In the biathlon 10 kilometer sprint, Neuner, who started second behind sprint gold medalist Anastazia Kuzmina took the lead and never turned back. Kuzmina held on second place and took the silver swapping spots with Neuner from the sprint on Sunday. France continued its surprise run in biathlon and cross-country with Marie Laure Bruner taking the bronze.
The men's pursuit, which is 2.5 kilometers longer than the women's, saw the top biathletes falter again including Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway and Michael Greis of Germany. Taking advantage of a combination of poor top performers and accuracy on the shooting range, Sweden's Bjorn Ferry sprinted past France's Vincent Jay after the last round of shooting and never looked back. Ferry took home a rare gold for Sweden, another rare medal for France taken by Jay was the bronze bringing the French medal total to seven. Austria's Christoph Sumann gave Austria a silver medal in the event.
Yet another German domination at the Whistler Sliding Center occurred when Tatjana Huefner took home the gold and Natalie Geisenberger took bronze making four total medals in luge for the Germans. This result was considered as being an off year in the Olympics due to the medal sweep in the women's singles in both 2002 and 2006 for the German women. Breaking up the streak was Nina Reithmayer from Austria.
Germany was supposed to take home the gold with World Cup leader Jenny Wolf in women's speed skating's 500 meter race. Upsetting Wolf's gold medal hopes was Lee Sang-Hwa from Korea. The Koreans can now boast three medals between short track and long track speed skating. The other top World Cup performer this season, Wang Beixing of China took home the bronze.
Snowboard cross was supposed to be a surefire gold with Lindsey Jacobellis getting redemption for her misfortune in Torino. That is how Hollywood would have made the event but the games are in Vancouver and Jacobellis did not even make the final race. Jacobellis went too inside on a turn in the semifinals and was disqualified from the competition. That opened the door for Vancouver native Maelle Ricker to capture the gold, the second for the Canadians. Giving France another medal was silver medalist Deborah Anthonioz and Olivia Nobs of Switzerland took the bronze medal.
In the first day of curling, the women had only one round robin session in which Japan, Sweden, Canada, and Germany prevailed with a win putting them atop the standings with two sessions ahead on Wednesday. The men had the two session day, and in the first session Sweden, Germany, Canada, and Switzerland deposited a win in the standings.
The start of men's hockey came with a Jarome Iginla hat trick in Canada's 8-0 romp of Norway. The United States won 3-1 over Switzerland with goals from Bobby Ryan, Ryan Malone, and David Backes. On the women's side the USA beat Russia 13-0.
Tuesday's Gold Medal Winners:
Magdalena Neuner (Germany- Biathlon)
Bjorn Ferry (Sweden-Biathlon)
Tatjana Heufner (Luge- Germany)
Maelle Ricker (Snowboarding- Canada)
Lee Sang-Hwa (Speed Skating- South Korea)
Medal Count after Day 5:
Germany: 9
USA: 8
France: 7
Canada: 5
Korea, Switzerland: 4
China, Austria, Norway, Italy- 3
Sweden, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Japan- 2
Netherlands, Australia, Estonia, Poland, Croatia, Russia- 1