Norwegians shine as scandal fades
As the Winter Olympics reached their halfway point, two history-making Norwegians and one record-breaking Dutch speedskater proved on Saturday that age was no barrier to a gold medal.
Kjetil Andre Aamodt won his second gold of the Games in the super-G, Norway's seventh in Salt Lake City. A champion as far back as 1992 in Albertville, the 30-year-old now has seven Olympic medals, a record for Alpine skiing.
Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, 28, is proving to be as dominant as his rivals feared on the biathlon course in Soldiers Hollow and he became the first to capture three golds in the discipline at a single Games when he won the 12.5 km pursuit.
At 30, Gerard van Velde probably feared his best days were behind him when he came to the Games but he produced the race of his life to win the 1,000 metres speedskating.
Van Velde broke down in tears of joy after he realised he had also broken the world record. "The Olympic title, such a fabulous world record, this is really unbelievable," he said.
The figure skating scandal, which dominated the first week of the 17-day Games, rumbled on ahead of Monday's key meeting of the International Skating Union (ISU) to discuss the judging of the pairs competition.
The International Olympic Committee, whose pressure forced the ISU to suspend a French judge in the competition, said Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier would receive their duplicate gold medals on Sunday.
Both skaters, who were originally awarded silver medals behind Russians Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze on Monday, want the Canadian flag raised at the ceremony.
But details are sketchy and it is unclear whether the Russian team - who are still angry about the IOC decision - will take part. On Saturday, Russia's Olympic chief accused American and Canadian media of a smear campaign causing "moral damage" to Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze.
If "O Canada" does ring out, it will be the first time since 1960 that an anthem other than the Soviet or Russian one has been played after the Olympic pairs competition.
UNHAPPY AUSTRIANS
The gold medal exploits of Aamodt and Bjoerndalen pushed Norway back to the top of the medals table and underlined Austria's disappointing start to the Games.
Aamodt also won the combined event on Wednesday and narrowly missed out on another medal when he finished fourth in last weekend's downhill.
Norway have two more golds than Germany with Russia third - the same three nations that topped the table at the end of the Nagano Games in 1998.
Austria have just one gold - Fritz Strobl's in the downhill - after a week on the slopes they were expected to dominate just as they have the World Cup circuit.
But Stephan Eberharter, their number one, was forced to settle for silver behind Aamodt on Saturday and compatriot Andreas Schifferer took bronze.
Schifferer, 27, the 1998 World Cup downhill champion, asked to compare the two feats, told reporters: "I don't want to say that one is more beautiful than the other. It's the same as having sex. Every time is beautiful."
