Germany won gold in the women’s cross country team sprint to go level with the high-flying Americans at seven gold medals apiece in 10 days of Olympic competition.
Norway, a far smaller population that punches above its weight at Winter Games, moved to outright third by winning a sixth gold in the men’s cross country team sprint.
Both the Americans and Germans are on track to garner more gold before the Games end on Feb. 28.
The U.S. women’s ice hockey team earned a place in Thursday’s gold medal final by crushing Sweden 9-1 in a ruthless revenge for their 2006 Turin defeat to the Swedes in the semi-finals. They will face either Canada or Finland.
The American men are through to the quarter-finals after their 5-3 defeat of hockey-crazed Canada on Sunday, in a game that was the most watched sports programme in Canadian history with 10.6 million viewers.
The Canadians’ Olympic-size hockey hangover came on a day in which sports officials faced a barrage of questions about results of the “own the podium” programme, a multi-million dollar investment to win medals during their Games.
With some wry Canadian humour, locals have begun to call it “blown the podium” or “flown the podium,” even though Canada sit in a respectable fifth place in the medals table with four golds and has hopes for one more in ice dancing on Monday.
The host-nation have failed to win a medal in the Alpine skiing events at Whistler mountain, where the Americans have won eight, and their dream of claiming gold in the ice hockey was in danger of melting fast.
