Sochi Olympics snowboarding results: Vic Wild takes another gold

The final day of snowboarding of the 2014 Sochi Olympics is in the books, and nobody stands taller than Russian hero Vic Wild. Wild won his second gold medal of the games, beating Slovenian Zan Kosir by 0.11 seconds in the men’s parallel slalom final. Taking the bronze in the small final was Benjamin Karl of Austria.

If you’re thinking “hey, ‘Vic Wild’ doesn’t sound very Russian at all,” very astute; Wild’s birth name is Victor Ivan, but for as Russian as that sounds, Wild is a born-and-raised American from White Salmon, Washington. Wild was riding for the USA as late as 2011, but was frustrated with a lack of support from the US Snowboarding Association. He moved to Moscow in 2011, married his longtime Russian girlfriend Alena Zavarzina (herself a bronze medalist in the parallel giant slalom this year) in July of that year, and affiliated himself with Russia. And that was that.

In the women’s parallel slalom, Austrian Julia Dujmovits finished off a miracle run through the preliminary races and took the gold medal over Anke Karstens of Germany. Dujmovits trailed Karstens by .72 seconds after the first of the two races in the finals before prevailing on a wild final run. Zavarzina was in 12th place after qualification and did not make it to the quarterfinals in this one, for the record.

The only official American participating in either race was Justin Reiter. He disqualified in qualification.