Olympics Day 6 Wrapup

USA, USA, USA. That chant could be heard all around the Olympic venues today. Topping their total of four medals from Saturday, five medals were won by American athletes putting them four ahead of Germany in the total medal count.
The successful day started in the women's downhill with Julia Mancuso and then Lindsey Vonn got the fastest time early and could not be caught. Top skiers like Maria Riesch of Germany and Anja Paerson of Sweden did not even make the top five. That let Austria's Elisabeth Goergl sneak in and the bronze finishing behind Vonn, who took gold, and Mancuso, who won the silver. American fans should not be too concerned about a certain right shin anymore now that Vonn has gone 1-for-1 in the Olympics so far with four events to go.
In the cross-country events for today, the men's and women's sprint, a surprise win from the Russians in the men's sprint was the only big shock. Nikita Kriukov and Alexander Panzhinskiy won the gold and silver for Russia in the men's sprint downing the hopes of Petter Northug getting gold. Northug, the World Cup leader, from perennial powerhouse Norway could not muster enough strength to take the medal he wanted, gold, and ended settling for bronze. However, Norway fared better in the women's sprint with Marit Bjoergen won gold adding to her bronze she won from the free start event on Monday. Behind Bjoergen was World Cup leader Justyna Kowalcyzk of Poland and Petra Majdic of Slovenia finished third.
On the sliding course at Whistler, the German dominant of doubles luge that was supposed to happen resulted in only a bronze medal. Instead, it was a family affair for the Lingers of Austria and Sics of Latvia. Defending gold medalists Andreas and Wolfgana Linger took home their second gold and the first gold of the Olympics for Austria. Finishing with silver medal were Andris and Juris Sics of Latvia, giving their home country its first medal of the games. Germany's top team of Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch were only able to win a bronze medal for the country that took home five of the nine total medals in luge competition.
In the two speed skating events, one short track and one long track, both defending gold medalists repeated. Shani Davis took home the USA's second gold of the day beating Korean rival Mo Tae-Bum by eighteen seconds to defend his gold in the 1000 meters. Adding the American medal count on Wednesday was Chad Hedrick, who has been somewhat overshadowed by Davis in the USA program, who took the bronze.
The short track medal event on Wednesday was the women's 500 meters which was won by Wang Meng of China who beat Canadian silver medalist Marianne St. Gelais, bronze medalist Arianna Fontana of Italy and Jessica Gregg of Canada in the final race.
Continuing the trend of repeat gold medalists on Wednesday was one of the most popular winter olympians in Shaun White.
The Flying Tomato had the halfpipe event won after Finland's Peetu Piiroinen and fellow American Scotty Lago failed to reach his first round score of 46.4 but decided to one up himself. White's second run scored a point and a half higher than his first run, which won the event, thanks to his Double McTwist 1260 at the end of his run. Piiroinen took the silver and Lago gave the Americans another bronze on the day.
In hockey action, the Finnish men took care of Belarus and the Canadian women ended round robin play with another dominant win, this time a 13-0 rout of Sweden.
Curling saw its first upset with the Swedish men upsetting world champs Great Britain, putting them on top of the standings at 2-0 with Canada and Switzerland. The women's standings feature Sweden, Canada, and Germany are on top.
Today's Gold Medalists:
Lindsey Vonn (Skiing- USA)
Marit Bjoergen (Cross-Country- Norway)
Nikita Kriukov (Cross-Country- Russia)
Andreas Linger/Wolfgang Linger (Luge- Austria)
Wang Meng (Short Track- China)
Shani Davis (Speed Skating- USA)
Shaun White (Snowboarding- USA)
Medal Count after Wednesday:
USA- 14
Germany- 10
France- 7
Canada- 6
Korea, Austria, Norway- 5
Switzerland, China, Italy- 4
Russia- 3
Sweden, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Japan, Poland- 2
Netherlands, Australia, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Croatia, Slovenia- 1