Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won the Olympic Games ice dancing gold on Monday to help rescue national pride which was so badly bruised by the country’s hockey team’s shock defeat to the US 24 hours earlier.
Virtue and Moir delivered Canada’s first title in the discipline, beating Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the US into second spot with world champions Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin of Russia winning bronze after the free dance final.
The result meant Russia failed to take the ice dance gold for just the third time since it was first introduced at the Games in 1976.
PHOTO: AFP
“It’s just perfect. You couldn’t write up a better story for the two of us,” Moir said.
Virtue added: “We couldn’t have asked for a better week for us in Vancouver. It’s been quite a journey — a bit rocky.”
Meanwhile, Austria, Germany and Norway added more gold to their treasure chests on Monday.
PHOTO: AFP
Austria’s invincible ski-jumpers soared to a convincing win in the team event for a record-tying fifth consecutive title at major competitions.
Such was their dominance that they scored 1107.9 points — the highest in Olympic team history — to Germany’s 1035.8 and Norway’s 1030.2.
Young gun Gregor Schlierenzauer just managed to stay on his skis in the final jump of the day to lead the “Eagles” to victory.
“For me, this has been a perfect first Olympics,” said the 20-year-old, had already picked up individual bronze on both the normal and the large hill.
Germany surged to the top of the medal table alongside the US with a seventh gold, courtesy of their women’s cross-country team who clinched the sprint title ahead of favorites Sweden and third placed Russia.
The winning pair of Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle and Claudia Nystad sneaked home in a time of 18 minutes 3.7 seconds, just 0.6 seconds ahead of the Swedes.
Norway’s Petter Northug pulled off a stunning final leg to lead his country to gold in the men’s team sprint, with Germany second and Russia third.
Canada’s Olympic plans have not panned out as expected but team bosses defended their controversial “Own the Podium” campaign.
Before the Games started, Canada vowed to dazzle the world and walk away with the most medals but with seven days to go they lag behind.
“I think we’d be living in a fool’s paradise to say we could catch the Americans and win. We’re not throwing in the towel. You never do that in a fight,” Canadian Olympic Committee chief executive Chris Rudge said.
Canadians needed something to cheer about after their star-studded ice hockey team crashed to a shock 5-3 loss to arch-rival the US on Sunday.
“A Super Sunday, except for Team Canada fans,” groaned the Vancouver Sun newspaper while the Globe and Mail called it “Black Sunday, on ice,” the Vancouver Province simply said “Damn Yankees.”
It was the US’ first Olympic victory over Canada in 50 years and condemned the hosts to a perilous future in the tournament.
The US, who lost the gold medal game at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics to their North American neighbors, received a bye into the quarter-finals while Canada were due to play in the eight-team qualifying round yesterday against Germany.
US hockey general manager Brian Burke warned his young team against complacency.
“They don’t hand out any medals for finishing first in preliminary round play,” he said. “If we don’t crank it up, this all goes for nothing.”
In the women’s hockey, it was business as usual with Canada and the US both cruising into the gold medal match.
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