A Few Sochi Records and Bests

  • Ole Einar Bjørndalen (NOR-BIA) won 2 medals to bring his Winter Olympic total to 13, a new all-time best, bettering the 12 won by his countryman, Bjørn Dæhlie (NOR-CCS). This also moved Bjørndalen to =4th all-time among all Olympians, =3rd all-time among male Olympians, trailing only – Michael Phelps (USA-SWI) (22); Larisa Latynina (URS-GYM) (18), and Nikolay Andrianov (URS-GYM) (15). Bjørndalen is tied with 13 with Borys Shakhlin (URS-GYM), Edoardo Mangiarrotti (ITA-FEN), and Takashi Ono (JPN-GYM).
  • Bjørndalen’s 2 medals in Sochi marked the 5th time he has won 2 or more medals at an Olympic Games (1998/2002/2006/2010/2014). He is only the second Olympian ever to do this, equalling the mark of German canoeing legend Birgit Fischer-Schmidt, who did it in 1988/1992/1996/2000/2004.
  • Marit Bjørgen (NOR-CCS) won 3 gold medals in Sochi, to bring her total for Olympic medals to 10, after 5 in Vancouver, and lone silvers in 2002 and 2006. Her 10 Winter Olympic medals ties her for first among women at the Winter Olympics, with Stefania Belmondo (ITA-CCS) and Raisa Smetanina (EUN/URS-CCS).
  • Victor Ahn won 4 medals in Sochi, making him only the 3rd Winter Olympian to win 4 medals at 2 or more Olympics (2006/14); the others were Lyubov Yegorova (1992-94) and Bjørn Dæhlie (1992-94-98). This has been done 26 times at the Summer Olympics, including 3 times by Larisa Latynina (1956-60-64) and Michael Phelps (2004-08-12). It has almost always been achieved by gymnasts (15) and swimmers (8), but once by an archer (Hubert Van Innis [1900/20]), once by a shooter (Carl Osburn [1912-20]), and once by an athlete (Paavo Nurmi [1920-24]). Ahn is only the second Olympian to have done this non-consecutively after Hubert Van Innis, as noted above.
  • Ahn’s 4 Olympic medals in short-track speed skating is only the 2nd time this has been accomplished at one Winter Olympics. The other time was also by Ahn, as An Hyeon-Su in 2006, representing Korea.
  • Sven Kramer (NED-SSK) won 3 medals in Sochi, after winning 2 in Torino and Vancouver, giving him a total of 7 Olympic medals in speed skating. This equals the all-time record for speed skating medals won by a male, held by Clas Thunberg (FIN) and Ivar Ballangrud (NOR), but its been a long-time as Thunberg finished his Olympic career in 1928 and Ballangrud in 1936.
  • The all-time Olympic speed skating record, male or female, is 9 by Germany’s Claudia Pechstein, who competed in Sochi but did not medal. Three women have now won 8 speed skating medals, including Ireen Wüst (NED), who won 5 medals in Sochi to bring her total to 8, and equal the marks of Karin Enke-Kania (GDR) and Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann-Kleemann (GER).
  • Jayna Hefford and Hayley Wickenheiser (CAN-ICH) played on the gold medal winning women’s ice hockey team for Canada. This was the 5th consecutive Olympics at which these two have helped Canada win a medal – with 4 golds from 2002-14, after a silver medal in 1998. Their 5 medals in a team sport equals the all-time Olympic record held by Teresa Edwards (USA-BAS) (5/401) and Dezső Gyarmati (HUN-WAP) (5/311).
  • Hefford and Wickenheiser were joined by Caroline Ouellette in Sochi, and the three have now won 4 gold medals in women’s ice hockey. This equals the all-time Olympic record for gold medals won in a team sport, held by USA basketball players Teresa Edwards and Lisa Leslie.
  • Ouellette became the first Winter Olympian to win 4 or more gold medals, while never losing an event (info courtesy Nick Zaccardi of NBCOlympicTalk). This has been done 19 times at the Summer Olympics, led by Ray Ewry (USA-ATH), with 10, or 8 if you elect not to count 1906 (which is wrong). Kristin Otto (GDR-SWI) won 6 gold medals with no losses. Two athletes won 5 golds while going undefeated – American shooter Bud Fisher and Russian synchro swimmer Anastasiya Davydova.
  • Bode Miller won a bronze medal in Sochi in Alpine skiing, giving him 6 all-time. This moves him to =2nd all-time among Olympic Alpine skiiers, trailing the 8 medals won by Norway’s Kjetil André Aamodt. Miller is tied with 2 women – Croatian Janica Kostelić and Swede Anja Pärson.
  • Three freestyle skiiers won their second Olympic medal in that sport, to move to =2nd all-time on the Olympic freestyle skiing lists – Alexandre Bilodeau (CAN), Lydia Ierodiaconu-Lassila (AUS), and Hannah Kearney (USA). They trail Norway’s Kari Traa, the only freestyler to win 3 medals in the sport at the Olympics.
  • With the addition of the team trophy, 11 figure skaters won 2 medals in Sochi, something that had only been done once before at the Winter Olympics, in 1936 by German Ernst Baier in singles and pairs. It was also done in 1908 by Britain’s Madge Syers in singles and pairs, when the sport was contested at the Summer Olympics. The 11 figure skaters were as follows: Tetiana Volosozhar (RUS), Maksim Trankov (RUS), Kseniya Stolbova (RUS), Fyodor Klimov (RUS), Yelena Ilyinykh (RUS), Nikita Katsalapov (RUS), Charlie White (USA), Meryl Davis (USA), Patrick Chan (CAN), Scott Moir (CAN), and Tessa Virtue (CAN).
  • Armin Zöggeler (ITA) won his sixth medal in Olympic luge, all in singles. He became the 1st Winter Olympian to win medals in 6 Olympics, and only the 6th person overall. The other Summer Olympians were: Birgit Fischer-Schmidt (GDR/GER-CAN), Aladár Gerevich (HUN-FEN), Anky van Grunsven (NED-EQU), Elisabeta Oleniuc-Lipă (ROU-ROW), and Hans Günter Winkler (FRG/GER-EQU). However, Zöggeler joined Gerevich and Winkler as the only Olympians to do this in the same event – Gerevich in team sabre, and Winkler in team show jumping. Zöggeler is the 1st Olympian, Winter or Summer, to win 6 medals in the same individual Olympic event.
  • Aleksandr Tretyakov (RUS) and Martins Dukurs (LAT) won medals in skeleton in Sochi, after also doing so in Vancouver. Their 2 medals in this sport equals the Olympic best for skeleton held by Jack Heaton (USA-1928/48) and Gregor Stähli (SUI-2002/06).
  • Kelly Clark (USA) won her third medal in snowboarding halfpipe, making her the first Olympic snowboarder to win 3 Olympic medals.
  • Vic Wild (RUS) and Žan Košir (SLO) won medals in parallel slalom and parallel giant slalom, with Wild winning gold medals in both events. This made them the first snowboarders to win 2 medals at one Winter Olympics and Wild the first to win 2 gold medals at one Winter Olympics.
  • In biathlon Darya Domracheva (BLR) won 3 gold medals in Sochi, the first female biathlete to win 3 gold medals at a single Winter Olympics. Tora Berger and Tiril Eckhoff, both Norwegian biathletes, won 3 medals, and with Domracheva, the three of them equalled the record for women with 3 biathlon medals at one Winter Olympics, held previously by 7 other women.
  • Russian bobsledders Aleksandr Zubkov and Aleksey Voyevoda won gold medals in both 2- and 4-man in Sochi. This is the best you can do in Olympic bobsledding at one Games, with Zubkov and Voyevoda becoming the 11th and 12th sliders to accomplish this.
  • With the new event of luge mixed team relay, 7 luge sliders equalled the record with 2 Olympic medals at one Games. This had been performed 5 times previously, from 1968-76, always with a double in men’s singles and doubles. One woman, German Natalie Geisenberger, became the first female to accomplish this. Four German sliders became the first to win 2 gold medals at one Winter Olympics – Geisenberger, Felix Loch, Tobias Arlt, and Tobias Wendl. The other double medalists in luge in Sochi were Russian Albert Demchenko, and Latvians Andris Šics and Juris Šics.
  • Ireen Wüst (NED) became the 5th Winter Olympic speed skater, and 2nd female, to win 5 medals at one Olympics. This had previously been done by Clas Thunberg (FIN-1924), Roald Larsen (NOR-1924), Eric Heiden (USA-1980), and the one female, Cindy Klaasen (CAN-2006).
  • Albert Demchenko (EUN/RUS-LUG) and Noriaki Kasai (JPN-SKJ) both competed in their 7th Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, setting an all-time record for most appearances at the Winter Olympics. Both competed consecutively from 1992-2014.
  • Claudia Pechstein (GDR/GER-SSK) competed in her 6th Winter Olympics in Sochi, equalling the female record for Winter Olympic appearances, held now by Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemi-Hämäläinen (FIN-CCS) (1976-1994), Emese Nemeth-Hunyady (AUT/HUN-SSK) (1984-2002), Gerda Weissensteiner (ITA-BOB/LUG) (1988-2006), Anna Orlova (LAT-LUG) (1992-2010), and Pechstein (1992-2014). Of those, Pechstein is the only one whose appearances were not consecutive, as she did not compete in 2010 because of a doping controversy.
  • Nine men also competed in their 6th Winter Olympics in Sochi, equalling the previous record. They were: Hubertus von Fürstenberg-von Hohenlohe (MEX-ASK) (1984-2014), Teemu Selänne (FIN-ICH) (1992-2014), Janne Ahonen (FIN-SKJ) (1994-2014), Ole Einar Bjørndalen (NOR-BIA/CCS) (1994-2014), Sergey Dolidovich (BLR-CCS) (1994-2014), Lee Gyu-Hyeok (KOR-SSK) (1994-2014), Todd Lodwick (USA-NCO) (1994-2014), Mario Stecher (AUT-NCO) (1994-2014), and Armin Zöggeler (ITA-LUG) (1994-2014).
  • Hubertus von Fürstenberg-von Hohenlohe’s appearance in Alpine skiing in Sochi was 30 years after his first Winter Olympic appearance at Sarajevo in 1984. This set an all-time record for span of appearances at the Winter Olympics, breaking his own mark of 26 set in 2010, which he co-held with Costa Rican skiier Arturo Kinch (1980-2006).
  • Claudia Pechstein’s appearance in speed skating in Sochi came 22 years after her first Winter Olympic in Albertville in1992. This set an all-time record for span of appearances at the Winter Olympics by a woman, bettering the previous mark of 18, held by 7 women. The mark was also bettered in Sochi by Japanese speed skater Maki Tabata and French/Hungarian Alpine/freestyle skiier Ophélie David. Both first competed in 1994, making their span of appearances 20 years. David competed in Alpine skiing for Hungary in 1994 and returned in 2010-14 as a freestyler for France.
  • Ophélie David’s gap of 16 years between appearances (1994/2010) was the record for longest gap between appearances by a woman at the Winter Olympics. It was equalled at Sochi by American curler Erika Brown (1998/2014) and Japanese ice hockey player Yoko Kondo (1998/2014).
  • The Winter Olympic men’s record for largest gap between appearances was 20 by American Jack Heaton, bobsledder/skeleton slider, who competed in 1928 and then not again until 1948. This record was equalled in Sochi by Czech Republic ice hockey player Petr Nedvěd, who first competed in 1994, but then for his adopted country of Canada.

Here are the top individual medal winners from Sochi, listing all those with 3 or more medals, females listed first:

[table]

Name,G,S,B,TM

Ireen Wüst (NED-SSK),2,3,-,5

Marit Bjørgen (NOR-CCS),3,-,-,3

Darya Domracheva (BLR-BIA),3,-,-,3

Park Seung-Hui (KOR-STK),2,-,1,3

Charlotte Kalla (SWE-CCS),1,2,-,3

Tora Berger (NOR-BIA),1,1,1,3

Shim Seok-Hui (KOR-STK),1,1,1,3

Tiril Eckhoff (NOR-BIA),1,-,2,3

Arianna Fontana (ITA-STK),-,1,2,3

Victor Ahn (RUS-STK),3,-,1,4

Sven Kramer (NED-SSK),2,1,-,3

Martin Fourcade (FRA-BIA),2,1,-,3

Maksim Vylegzhanin (RUS-CCS),-,3,-,3

Ondřej Moravec (CZE-BIA),-,2,1,3

[/table]

And here are all those who won 2 or more gold medals in Sochi:

[table]

Name,Golds

Victor Ahn (RUS-STK),3

Marit Bjørgen (NOR-CCS),3

Darya Domracheva (BLR-BIA),3

Ireen Wüst (NED-SSK),2

Sven Kramer (NED-SSK),2

Martin Fourcade (FRA-BIA),2

Park Seung-Hui (KOR-STK),2

Ole Einar Bjørndalen (NOR-BIA),2

Aleksandr Zubkov (RUS-BOB),2

Tina Maze (SLO-ASK),2

Kamil Stoch (POL-SKJ),2

Tetiana Volosozhar (RUS-FSK),2

Aleksey Voyevoda (RUS-BOB),2

Emil Hegle Svendsen (NOR-BIA),2

Dario Cologna (SUI-CCS),2

Maksim Trankov (RUS-FSK),2

Felix Loch (GER-LUG),2

Natalie Geisenberger (GER-LUG),2

Jorien ter Mors (NED-SSK),2

Tobias Arlt (GER-LUG),2

Tobias Wendl (GER-LUG),2

Jørgen Graabak (NOR-NCO),2

Vic Wild (RUS-SNB),2

[/table]

And here are all those who won 2 or more medals in individual events, led by Dutch speedskater Ireen Wüst. Again, women given first, followed by the men:

[table]

Name,IG,IS,IB,ITM

Ireen Wüst (NED-SSK),1,3,-,4

Darya Domracheva (BLR-BIA),3,-,-,3

Marit Bjørgen (NOR-CCS),2,-,-,2

Tina Maze (SLO-ASK),2,-,-,2

Park Seung-Hui (KOR-STK),1,-,1,2

Martina Sáblíková (CZE-SSK),1,1,-,2

Anna Fenninger (AUT-ASK),1,1,-,2

Maria Riesch (GER-ASK),1,1,-,2

Charlotte Kalla (SWE-CCS),-,2,-,2

Shim Seok-Hui (KOR-STK),-,1,1,2

Arianna Fontana (ITA-STK),-,1,1,2

Nicole Hosp (AUT-ASK),-,1,1,2

Therese Johaug (NOR-CCS),-,1,1,2

Margot Boer (NED-SSK),-,-,2,2

Victor Ahn (RUS-STK),2,-,1,3

Martin Fourcade (FRA-BIA),2,1,-,3

Kamil Stoch (POL-SKJ),2,-,-,2

Dario Cologna (SUI-CCS),2,-,-,2

Vic Wild (RUS-SNB),2,-,-,2

Sven Kramer (NED-SSK),1,1,-,2

Kjetil Jansrud (NOR-ASK),1,-,1,2

Jorrit Bergsma (NED-SSK),1,-,1,2

Michel Mulder (NED-SSK),1,-,1,2

Ondřej Moravec (CZE-BIA),-,1,1,2

Denny Morrison (CAN-SSK),-,1,1,2

Christof Innerhofer (ITA-ASK),-,1,1,2

Peter Prevc (SLO-SKJ),-,1,1,2

Žan Košir (SLO-SNB),-,1,1,2

[/table]