Walter Wallberg wins Men’s Freestyle Moguls while Irene Schouten of the Netherlands wins Women’s 3000m gold in Speed Skating in Olympic record time in Beijing Winter Olympics.
Cross-country skier Therese Johaug of Norway won the first gold medal of the Beijing Winter Games. Johaug fought wind and frigid temperatures to win the Women’s 15-meter Skiathlon. Russian athlete Natalia Nepryaeva, the current overall World Cup leader, won the silver and Teresa Stadlober of Austria followed just behind for the bronze medal.
Walter Wallberg dethroned the ‘King of Moguls’ in the Winter Olympics to win the Men’s gold in Freestyle Mogul. Wallberg edged past defending Olympic champion Mikael Kingbury of Canada by scoring 83.23. Ikuma Hiroshima of Japan took the bronze.
With Wallberg’s victory Canada lost its dominance after having won the gold medal in the last three events. This is Wallberg’s first major win as the Swede has not won a World Cup event yet.
Dutch speed skater, Irene Schouten, set a new Olympic record to win gold in Women’s 3000m Speed Skating event. Schouten set a new Olympic record time of 3:56.93 by winning against Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida in a thrilling race. Canadian Isabelle Weidemann took bronze that eventually turned out to be Canada’s 200th Winter Olympics medal.
Slovenia’s Ursa Bogataj won gold in Women’s Ski Jumping floating 100 m with 121 points on the final jump. Katharina Althaus of Germany won silver for the second straight time and Slovenia’s Nika Kriznar won the bronze.
Norway won gold in the Biathlon Mixed Relay, beating France and the Russian team in the first biathlon event of the Beijing Olympics.
