SOCHI, Russia - Julia Lipnitskaia found the perfect way to cap what her singles performance meant Sunday.
She put on the Russia baseball hat someone had thrown onto the ice after she finished.
It was not apparel figure skaters are accustomed to wearing. It was a fitting way to symbolize the idea of team at the first team competition in the sport’s Olympic history.
With Russian President Vladimir Putin among the spectators at the Iceberg arena, Lipnitskaia’s free skate victory meant Russia had clinched the gold medal even before the ice dancers completed the four-discipline event.
It was the home team’s first gold medal of these 2014 Winter Olympics.
Russia had 75 points, to 65 for runner-up Canada and 60 for the third place United States. Ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White led the way for Team USA with convincing victories in both the short and free dances.
“This gold medal is important because it is shows the individual quality of the athletes and the teamwork of the federation and the skaters and coaches,” Russian pairs coach Tamara Moskvina said. “It shows if you work together, you can achieve something.”
Russia won both singles, using the same skater - Lipnitskaia and Evgeny Plushenko - in the short and long programs. It won the pairs with a different entry in each phase.
It was the fourth Olympic medal for Plushenko, tying him with Sweden’s Gillis Grafstrom for the most in figure skating history.
SLOPESTYLE Anderson caps U.S. sweep
Jamie Anderson gave the United States a sweep in slopestyle snowboarding at the Sochi Olympics.
Anderson soared her way to gold medal in a near flawless run in the women’s final on Sunday, a day after Sage Kotsenburg captured in the men’s gold medal.
Enni Rukajarvi of Finland took silver and Jenny Jones delivered a long-awaited medal for Britain with her bronze.
Anderson, who expressed concern about the difficulty of the course during training, posted a score of 95.25 on her second run fueled by big air after big air at tricky Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. She flipped her right mitten into the air after landing her final jump and clasped her hands over her face when realizing she’d won.
SKIATHLON
Big return for Cologna
Dario Cologna had the strongest finish to win the men’s 30-kilometer skiathlon, showing he’s back to full fitness after a season disrupted by an ankle injury.
The Swiss cross-country skier pulled away from a quartet of skiers at the top of the final uphill section and then held off defending champion Marcus Hellner of Sweden on the final straight.
Cologna finished in 1 hour, 8 minutes, 15.4 seconds for his second Olympic gold medal. Hellner was 0.4 seconds behind to win silver, with Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway taking bronze.
Cologna is a three-time overall World Cup winner. He needed surgery to repair an ankle ligament in November and only returned to competition last month.
SPEEDSKATING Dutch golden again
Ireen Wust gave the Netherlands its second consecutive gold medal at the Olympic speedskating oval by winning the women’s 3,000 meters Sunday.
Skating in the next-to-last pairing, Wust turned in a time of 4 minutes, 0.34 seconds to knock off defending Olympic champion Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic.
Sablikova settled for the silver in 4:01.95, clapping for her rival after Wust crossed the line.
The bronze went to Olga Graf, who gave Russia its first medal of the Winter Games in 4:03.47 and sent the crowd at Adler Arena into a frenzy.
Six-time Olympian Claudia Pechstein was looking to win her 10th Olympic medal, but the 41-year-old German faded badly over the final laps and didn’t even make the podium. She was fourth in 4:05.26.
The Dutch have now won 29 Olympic golds, pulling even with the United States for the most victories in the sport.
Jilleanne Rookard of Woodhaven, Mich., who skated in a pairing with Graf, was the highest-finishing American. She took 10th out of 28 skaters in 4:10.02.
DOWNHILL Favorites falter
Matthias Mayer of Austria won the Olympic downhill Sunday as the big favorites struggled in Alpine skiing’s signature race.
Mayer completed the Rosa Khutor course in 2 minutes, 6.23 seconds. Christof Innerhofer of Italy took silver, 0.06 seconds behind, and Kjetil Jansrud of Norway earned bronze, 0.10 behind.
Pre-race favorites Aksel Lund Svindal and Bode Miller finished fourth and eighth, respectively.
Mayer was one of the first contenders to come down, with the No. 11 bib, and he hardly celebrated when he reached the finish. But his smile grew wider as all the favorites failed to catch him then he began jumping up and down before he went out for the flower ceremony.
HOCKEY
Schaus to start in goal
The United States women’s hockey team will have a new goaltender for its second game of the Olympics.
Coach Katey Stone said Molly Schaus will start for the United States against Switzerland. Jesse Vetter started the first game, a 3-1 victory over Finland.
Stone said all of her goalies are good enough to start. She said she hadn’t decided how the rotation will work for the rest of the tournament. The third game is against Canada, the three-time defending champion.
Vetter was the goaltender when the U.S. and Canada met in the final of the 2010 Olympics. Schaus made one appearance in a first round blowout in Vancouver. At Boston College, she was a two-time finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award given to the top player in college hockey.
Sports, Pages 18 on 02/10/2014