Sochi Roundup: First gold goes to Team USA

Sage Kotsenburg gets a lift from his fellow medalists after capturing the first gold medal in Sochi. (GEPA/Daniel Goetzhaber)

What a start! The first gold medal of the 2014 Sochi Olympics went to an American, snowboard competitor Sage Kotsenburg. The Park City, Utah, rider won the men’s snowboard slopestyle at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park on Saturday afternoon, using a nearly flawless performance to engineer an upset of the strong Canadian slopestyle team.

In an event making its Olympic debut, for most of the run-up to the Games the only American mentioned was the one who, it turned out, would not be competing. Shaun White, twice gold medalist in the halfpipe, decided at the last minute to skip the slopestyle and concentrate on defending his Olympic title.

But Kotsenburg will be the name everyone remembers now. Despite failing to qualify for finals in the first round on Thursday, he got there with a strong performance in Saturday morning’s semis, and then laid down a first-run score in the finals of 93.50. As it happened, no one could match it. Norway’s Staale Sandbech got the silver with a score of 91.75, while pre-Olympic favorite Mark McMorris of Canada took the bronze with 88.75; both of their scores came in their second runs.

Team USA’s Ryan Stassel and Chas Guldemond placed 14th and 15th, respectively, after being eliminated in the semifinals.

Marit Bjoergen of Norway holds off Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla to win her fourth career gold medal.(GEPA/Ross Burton)

Diggins, Stephen strong for U.S. team. Marit Bjoergen of Norway won her fourth career gold medal in the women’s cross-country skiathlon on Saturday, outskating Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla to win by just over a second. Heidi Weng of Norway got the bronze medal.

Not far behind was Team USA’s first-time Olympian Jessie Diggins, who finished eighth, the top spot for the U.S. in the skiathlon (which combines a 7.5km classic race and a 7.5km freestyle competition). And not far behind her was Liz Stephen, who had her best-ever Olympic result in 12th. Also for the U.S., Sadie Bjornsen was 31st in her first Olympic race and Holly Brooks was 47th.

“I’m on cloud nine right now,” said Diggins. “Thanks to an awesome peaking plan from the coaches and fantastic skis, I was able to keep up in the classic part. Usually I lose way too much time in the classic half because I’m a stronger skater, so my plan was to just relax, try to get as much glide as I could, stay out of trouble, stay out of falls or tangles and stay in contact with the group. I came into the exchange zone in the mid-twenties and then from there, I said, ‘Okay now I’m going to ramp it up and try to pick people off.’ Luckily, I was able to have just enough energy to really kick it in at the finish.”

Said Liz Stephen, “It’s great to be here on these tracks. They’re in perfect condition. The sun has been amazing the last few days. The classic was a bit tough for me today but the skate went well and it was fun to ski with Jessie for a little while. The fans were amazing. I couldn’t even hear my coach yelling something at me at one point. It reminded me of the world championships from Oslo a few years ago. People had white boards out to tell their athletes what they wanted! So, yeah the fans and everyone in Russia has been really great and it’s just fun to get the Olympics started again.”

Jumping draws a crowd. The first official event at the RusSki Gorki Jumping Center is in the books. In the qualifying round of the men’s normal hill jumping, 40 skiers moved on to Sunday’s two-jump finals. In addition, a group of 10 jumpers had pre-qualified based on World Cup results, including Switzerland’s Simon Amman, who won both normal and large hill golds at Salt Lake City in 2002 and again at Vancouver four years ago.

Tops among those who qualified Saturday night were Michael Hayboeck of Austria, who jumped 101 meters and scored 128.6 points; Andreas Wank of Germany (102.5; 127.9) and Japan’s Reruhi Shimizu (101.5; 126.2).

Advancing for the the U.S. team were Anders Johnson in 26th, Peter Frenette in 35th and Nicholas Alexander, who grabbed the last qualifying spot in 40th. Canadian qualifiers were Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes in 21st and Dusty Korek in 28th.

A large crowd took up most the bleachers on a cold night, and kept warm by cheering on their favorites, and moving to the music that blared across the facility for the entire event. The wind cooperated with the jumpers for the most part, with just a few holds during the two-hour competition.

Coming up on Sunday:

Alpine. The men’s downhill, one of the centerpieces of any Winter Olympics, starts at 11 a.m. at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Center. The women will have a fourth training run on their course at 10 a.m.

Cross-country. The men’s skiathlon (15km classical, 15km freestyle) takes place at 2 p.m. at the Laura Cross-Country and Biathlon Center.

Snowboard. The women’s slopestyle competition concludes at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, with the finals at 1:15 p.m.