Birthday gold medalists at the Winter Olympics? Was asked yesterday if this has ever occurred. It has, in fact 6 times. Overall, a birthday boy/girl has won a medal 22 times, as follows:

[table]

Name,X,NOC,Year,Sport,Event,Med,DOB

Madeleine Chamot-Berthod,F,SUI,1956,ASK,Downhill,G,1 Feb 1931

Viktor Kosichkin,M,URS,1960,SSK,5000 m,G,25 Feb 1938

Jan Egil Storholt,M,NOR,1976,SSK,1500 m,G,13 Feb 1949

Per-Johan Axelsson,M,SWE,2006,ICH,Ice Hockey,G,26 Feb 1975

Cathrine Lindahl,F,SWE,2010,CUR,Curling,G,26 Feb 1970

Tae-Beom Mo,M,KOR,2010,SSK,500 m,G,15 Feb 1989

John Garrison,M,USA,1932,ICH,Ice Hockey,S,13 Feb 1909

Eugenio Monti,M,ITA,1956,BOB,Two,S,28 Jan 1928

Manfred Schumann,M,FRG,1976,BOB,Two,S,7 Feb 1951

Tommy Moe,M,USA,1994,ASK,Super G,S,17 Feb 1970

Sergey Tarasov,M,RUS,1994,BIA,Relay,S,15 Feb 1965

Margit Pörtner,F,DEN,1998,CUR,Curling,S,15 Feb 1972

George Karrys,M,CAN,1998,CUR,Curling,S,15 Feb 1967

Kateřina Neumannová,F,CZE,2002,CCS,Pursuit,S,15 Feb 1973

Irina Lobacheva,F,RUS,2002,FSK,Ice Dancing,S,18 Feb 1973

Jens Arne Svartedal,M,NOR,2006,CCS,Sprint,S,14 Feb 1976

Marianne St-Gelais,F,CAN,2010,STK,500 m,S,17 Feb 1990

Freddie McEvoy,M,GBR,1936,BOB,Four,B,12 Feb 1907

Henry Glaß,M,GDR,1976,SKJ,Large Hill,B,15 Feb 1953

Pertti Teurajärvi,M,FIN,1980,CCS,Relay,B,20 Feb 1951

Aleksey Kovalyov,M,RUS,2002,ICH,Ice Hockey,B,24 Feb 1973

[/table]

We were also asked if this has occurred or will occur in Sochi. So far, no, but Dutchman Jan Smeekens just missed it with his silver medal in the 500 metres. He turned 27 the next day, 11 February. Hard to predict if it will happen in Sochi. There are 96 entered Winter Olympians in Sochi with a birthday occurring between today and 23 February. We didn’t see any obvious medal contenders on their birthdays, but one never knows.