Oldest Alpine champion
February 22, 2014
Matt’s Austrian teammate, Marcel Hirschler had entered the men’s slalom as the heavy favorite, but it was "Super Mario" as he is known by his fans, who would prevail.
Matt struck gold, completing the event with a combined time of 1 minute, 41.84, while Hirscher finished 0.28 seconds behind to take the silver. Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway captured the bronze.
At the age of 34 years and 319 days, Matt became the oldest winner of an Alpine Olympic event, taking the title from the previous oldest winner, from Norwegian legend Kjetil Andre Aamodt, who was just 34 years and 169 days old when he won gold in the super-G in Turin in 2006.
There was, however much criticism of the tricky course, with many of the pre-race favorites, including Germany’s Felix Neureuther crashing out.
Dutch domination
The Dutch set a new Olympic record on Saturday, beating the South Koreans in Final A of the men's team pursuit, with a time of 3 minutes, 37.71 seconds. The South Koreans took silver with a time of 3:40.85.
Poland beat Canada in Final B to win the bronze medal.
Not to be outdone, shortly afterwards, the Dutch women set their own Olympic record, beating their Polish counterparts in Final A with a time of 2 minutes 58.05 seconds.
In Final B, the Russian women beat the Japanese to win the bronze medal.
Snowboarding silver, bronze for Germany
In snowboarding on Saturday, Austria's Julia Dujmovits pulled off a surprise win, taking gold in the parallel slalom.
The 26-year-old Austrian more than made up for a 0.72-second deficit following the first run to beat Germany's Anke Karstens by just 0.12 of a second in the combined tally. Another German, Amelie Kober took bronze. These were Germany's first medals in women's snowboarding since the 2006 Winter Games in Turin.
On the men's side, Russia's Vic Wild claimed his second gold at Sochi storming to victory in the men's parallel slalom. Slovenia's Zan Kosir took the silver, followed by Benjamin Karl of Austria who won the bronze medal.
In the biathlon, the Germans claimed the silver medal in the 4 x 7.5 kilometer men's relay, falling short of the hosts, Russia, who took the gold medal. Austria claimed bronze.
Record equaled
In cross-country skiing, Norway's Marit Bjoergen won the 30-kilometer freestyle race, taking her sixth career gold medal.
Bjoergen was supreme in the final sprint crossing the finish line after 1 hour, 11 minutes and 05.2 seconds. Therese Johaug who took silver and Kristin Stoermer Steira who earned the bronze medal, completed a Norwegian sweep of the podium.
Bjoergen's gold equaled a record for the number of gold medals by a woman athlete at the Winter Olympics, also held by Soviet speed skater Lidia Skoblikova and Russian cross country skier Lyubov Yegorova.
With that medal, Bjoergen also equaled the women's record of 10 medals overall held by cross country skiers Stefania Belmondo of Italy and Raisa Smetanina of the former Soviet Union.
Ageless wonder wins bronze
In men's ice hockey, Teemu Selanne scored two goals and netminder Tuukk Rask made 26 saves on his way to the shutout as Finland beat the United States 5-0 to win the bronze medal. The 43-year-old Selanne was appearing in his sixth Olympics. Sweden is to face Canada in the gold-medal match on Sunday.
Third doping case
Also on Saturday, the Sochi Games got their third doping case as the Ukrainian Olympic Committee announced that cross-country skier Marina Lisogor had failed a doping test. This followed positive tests for Germany's Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle and Italy's William Frullani.
pfd/rc ( AFP, AP, Reuters)