It was a record setting day for Norway at Whistler Olympic Park.
Biathlon: Norway Becomes First Country To Grab 100 (And 101) Winter Games Golds With Two Triumphs
Tora Berger claimed the country’s 100th Winter Olympic gold medal in the women’s 15-kilometer biathlon race Thursday. Berger, who started second out of 87 skiers, finished 20.7 seconds ahead of the silver medalist, Kazakhstan’s Elena Khrustaleva, and 28.2 seconds before bronze winner Darya Domracheva from Belarus.
Berger won despite missing one shot, which resulted in a 1 minute penalty.
“I thought that (miss) was losing the medal, and my chance of winning was gone,” Berger said. “But I heard that many of the other athletes were also missing.”
The Norwegian all-time haul grew to 101 when Emil Hegle Svendsen won the men’s 20-kilometer race just a few hours later. Svendsen’s victory meant that Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, one of Norway’s cross-country legends, was unable to claim his sixth gold medal.
Bjoerndalen finished in a tie for silver with Belarus’ Sergey Novikov after missing two shots.
More: SSB Nation’s full coverage of the Winter Olympicss and the 22010 Winter Olympics Medal Count Tracker.
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