Dead heat in 2-man bobsled: Canada, Germany co-champs
Justin Kripps and Alexander Kopacz were thoroughly confused when they crossed the finish line. They knew they had just won an Olympic gold medal for Canada and were puzzled why the rival Germans were celebrating. Eventually, it made sense. The closest Olympic sliding race in history had two sets of winners Monday. Canada and Germany will share gold from the two-man bobsled event after Kripps and Kopacz finished their four runs in the exact same time as the German duo of Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis.
The winning time: 3 minutes, 16.86 seconds.
“I managed to see the clock that said No. 1 on it,” Kripps said. “At first I thought that we won outright, and then these guys ... were super excited. And I was like, ‘These guys are really happy for us.’ ”
It was Canada’s second gold medal in two-man bobsled, both coming in ties. The Canadians shared gold with Italy in 1998.
“This is what makes the sport amazing,” U.S. bobsledder Nick Cunningham said. “Anyone can win on any given day.” Or on this day, two different anyones. Justin Olsen and brakeman Evan Weinstock were the top American sled, placing 14th.
The red handlebar mustache finally has a golden accoutrement. After winning two bronze medals, Robert Johansson helped Norway win the large hill team ski jumping title.
Johansson leaped 136 meters with the final jump as Norway overwhelmed 2014 champion Germany, which took silver.
It has been quite an Olympics for Johansson, the 27-year-old Lillehammer native with the distinctive red facial hair.
“This is way more than what I expected from my first Olympics,” Johansson said. “It’s a special situation to be in, and to top it off with gold in the team event is a dream come true.”
He also won bronze medals in normal and large hill individual finals. the
Havard Lorentzen of Norway won the 500-meter speedskating gold in an Olympic-record time. To make it even better, the Dutch were nowhere in sight, shut out in an event they swept four years ago.
“We don’t like it when the Dutch win that much,” Lorentzen said of their century-old rivalry for skating supremacy. “It is good to beat them. This is as a good as it gets.”
Lorentzen won in 34.41 seconds over Cha Min-Kyu of South Korea, who had equaled the Olympic record earlier, by 0.01 seconds. Twenty-year-old Gao Tingyu of China took bronze.
Lorentzen, 25, gave his country, best known for its Alpine and cross-country skiers, its 10th gold medal and 27th overall. He will go for a second gold medal in Friday’s 1,000-meter race.