2014 Sochi results: Team USA sweeps Slopestyle on Thursday

There were six sets of medals available on Thursday, but fans of Team USA will turn their attention to the slopes to see a clean sweep in the Ski Slopestyle event.

Favorite Nicholas Goepper wasn’t able to continue his strong 2013-14 season with a win, but he did enough to take bronze -- the final of three medals won on the slopes in Day 8.

The slopes of the Rosa Khutor Extreme Center have been kind to Team USA in Sochi, and that continued with a 1-2-3 finish in the Men’s Slopestyle Finals.

Winning three medals propelled USA into third place in the medal tally, which was a reversal of fortunes after struggling in several key events. A total of three gold medals have come on the extreme slopes, with three of the four medals going to Team USA.

The Women’s 10 km Classic was settled on Thursday with Poland capturing its second gold medal of the Winter Olympics in impressive fashion.

Justyna Kowalczyk set a blistering time of 28:17.8, almost 20 seconds better than Charlotte Kalla of Sweden. USA wasn’t expected to medal in the event, and Sadie Bjornsen finished with the country’s best result in 18th place.

China won its first gold medal of the Olympics on the skates of Jianrou Li, who posted a time of 45.263 in the Women’s 500 m finals. The race wasn’t close when Elise Christie of Great Britain fell and took out several other skaters. It didn’t matter that she finished in second, Christie was demoted for her role in the crash, finishing in last place.

The best finish for Team USA came from Emily Scott back in 12th place.

France claimed its second gold medal of Sochi thanks to Martin Fourcade, who finished the Men’s Individual 20 km with a time of 49:31.7, 12 seconds ahead of the silver medal winner. It was an expected result for an athlete who has won the World Championship on five occasions in different distances.

Lowell Bailey for Team USA put forth a good time, but was outside of the medals in eighth place.

China captured another gold on the ice thanks to Hong Zhang, who kept the Netherlands from another gold medal performance in Speed Skating. The Dutch were forced to settle for silver and bronze, a momentous achievement for most nations, but the Netherlands have dominated almost every event in normal-track speed skating thus far.

Team USA finished outside of medal contention with Heather Richardson and Brittany Bowe finishing in seventh and eighth, respectively.

The final gold medal of Thursday went in the Team Relay Competition in luge, where Germany continued its domination of the sport.

The Germans set a time of 2:45.649, edging out Russia by just three-tenths of a second. Team USA finished in sixth place.

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