2014 Olympic skiing results: Norway goes hard in the snow

If skis are your thing, and how could they not be, today was a good day; four of the day’s nine events were on skis, and to the surprise of virtually nobody, Scandinavia showed up big.

In women’s skiathlon (7.5 km classic, 7.5 km free), Marit Bjoergen of Norway eked out the gold medal with a time of 38 minutes, 33.6 seconds—just 1.8 ticks faster than silver medalist Charlotte Kalla of Sweden. Norway’s Heidi Weng came in third. Think about that: more than 38 minutes of insanely grueling endurance activity (see photo below), and the margin of victory comes down to less than two seconds.

Norway claimed another gold in guns n’ skiin’ (officially known as the biathlon, which is not as good a name as guns n’ skiin’), as (the very Norwegian-named) Ole Einar Bjoerndalen bested all foes with a time of 24:33.5. Biathlon remains the second-best needlessly-violent sport behind, of course, chessboxing.

Qualifying began in the men’s normal hill round, and fifty jumpers are ready to move on to the next round. Of the 10 pre-qualifiers, six landed a jump of more than 100 meters, led by German Severin Freund and Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer at 104 meters. Among today’s qualifiers, four more hit 100 meters, topped by Andreas Wank of Germany at 102.5 meters. There’s more that goes into a jump than just raw distance—form is judged, wind is factored in—but going long is generally the path to victory here. Round 1 of jumps will be Sunday.

In women’s moguls action, American Hannah Kearney won the gold medal in Vancouver, but a poor final run cost her a chance to defend her title. She finished with the bronze medal while Canadian siblings stole the show. Sisters Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe went 1-2 on the podium, locking down two more medals for Canada.

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