After the 3rd day of competition, the top of the points table has closed up with only 12 points separating the top 4 nations. A good day for Canada sees them overtake the Netherlands and move into 3rd behind Norway and Russia. Korea debut on the table today.

The scoring table is as follows;
1st 8 points
2nd 7
3rd 6
4th 5
5th 4
6th 3
7th 2
8th 1
If countries are level on points their single best result is the tiebreak.

[table]
Rank, Nation,Points,Tie breaker
1, NOR, 74,
2, RUS, 66,
3, CAN, 64,
4, NED, 62,
5, USA, 48,
6, AUT, 39,
7, GER, 34,
8, ITA, 31,
9, FRA, 29,
10, CZE, 25,
11, SUI, 22,
12, SWE, 21,
13, JPN, 19,
14, POL, 15, 1st
15, FIN, 15, 2nd
16, CHN, 13,
17, SLO, 12,
18, GBR, 11,
19, SVK, 8, 1st
20, KOR, 8, 4th
21, AUS, 8, 5th
22, KAZ, 8, 5th
23, UKR, 6,
24, BEL, 5,
[/table]

Viktor Ahn won a bronze medal in men’s short-track speed skating 1,500 metres this morning. In 2006 Ahn won 3 golds and 4 medals at Torino, while skating for Korea – his name variously transliterated but Ahn Hyun-Soo is a commonly seen Latin spelling. So does that make Ahn the first person to win a medal for 2 different nations at the Winter Olympics? Not quite, but in a sense, he’s only the second one.

Actually 55 different athletes have won medals at the Winter Olympics while representing 2 different NOCs. Note that we said NOCs. In all, 54 of these occurred for politically related nations (PRNs), emerging from the break-up of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and the merger of the two Germanies.

Of these 12 were women, and 42 were men. Three athletes, 1 woman and 2 men, actually won medals for 3 NOCs – all representing the Soviet Union, the Unified Team in 1992, and Russia. These were Anfisa Reztsova in biathlon (1988-94), Sergey Chepikov in biathlon (1988-2006), and Igor Kravchuk in ice hockey (1988-2002).

Here’s the national breakdown:

[table]

NOCs,###

EUN/RUS,19

GDR/GER,10

EUN/URS,8

RUS/URS,6

CZE/TCH,4

EUN/RUS/URS,3

FRG/GER,2

BEL/NED,1

BLR/URS,1

KAZ/URS,1

Totals,55

[/table]

Now note that it happened one time for distinctly different nations (DDNs). That was done by Bart Veldkamp, who speed skated for the Netherlands in 1992-94, winning a gold medal in the 10K in 1992 and a bronze medal in that event in 1994. By 1998 Veldkamp had switched to representing Belgium and won a bronze medal in the 5K at Nagano.

So essentially, Viktor Ahn is the second athlete to win medals for distinctly different nations at the Winter Olympics.

Maria Höfl-Riesch won the women’s combined for her 3^rd Olympic Alpine skiing gold medal. She won the slalom and combined at Vancouver in 2010. Where does she stand now on the all-time lists?

She trails only Norway’s Kjetil André Aamodt and Slovenia’s Janica Kostelić, who both won 4 golds in Alpine.

Höfl-Riesch moves to =3^rd all-time, with 3 golds, along with 6 others. She is =4^th all-time among women, with 3 others. Here is the all-time list:

[table]

Golds,Name,Gdr,NOC

4,Kjetil André Aamodt,M,NOR

4,Janica Kostelić,F,CRO

3,Alberto Tomba,M,ITA

3,Vreni Schneider,F,SUI

3,Katja Seizinger,F,GER

3,Deborah Compagnoni,F,ITA

3,Jean-Claude Killy,M,FRA

3,Toni Sailer,M,AUT

3,Maria Höfl-Riesch,F,GER

[/table]

Höfl-Riesch also won this event in 2010, giving her consecutive wins. She becomes the 19^th woman to win the same event at the WOG consecutively, or more. Anastasia Kuzmina (SVK) did it yesterday in the biathlon women’s 7.5 km. Here is the full list:

[table]

###,Athlete (NOC-Sport/Event; Years)

3,Sonja Henie (NOR-FSK/Singles; 1928-36)

3,Bonnie Blair (USA-SSK/500 m; 1988-94)

3,Claudia Pechstein (GER-SSK/5000 m; 1994-2002)

2,Lidiya Skoblikova (URS-SSK/1500 m; 1960-64)

2,Lidiya Skoblikova (URS-SSK/3000 m; 1960-64)

2,Steffi Walter-Martin (GDR-LUG/Singles; 1984-88)

2,Katarina Witt (GDR-FSK/Singles; 1984-88)

2,Bonnie Blair (USA-SSK/1000 m; 1992-94)

2,Cathy Turner (USA-STK SSK/500 m; 1992-94)

2,Lyubov Yegorova (RUS-CCS/Pursuit/Skiathlon; 1992-94)

2,Jeon I-Gyeong (KOR-STK SSK/1000 m; 1994-98)

2,Deborah Compagnoni (ITA-ASK/Giant Slalom; 1994-98)

2,Katja Seizinger (GER-ASK/Downhill; 1994-98)

2,Catriona Le May Doan (CAN-SSK/500 m; 1998-2002)

2,Sylke Otto (GER-LUG/Singles; 2002-2006)

2,Janica Kostelić (CRO-ASK/Combined; 2002-06)

2,Wang Meng (CHN-STK SSK/500 m; 2006-10)

2,Anastasia Kuzmina (SVK-BIA/7.5 km sprint; 2010-14)

2,Maria Höfl-Riesch (GER-ASK/Combined; 2010-14)

 

[/table]

 

Has any nation ever won a medal on every day at the Winter Olympics – at least on the days medals were awarded? You oughta know us by now – of course they have.

Its been done 7 times, including Germany in 2010 at Vancouver. Here is the full list:

[table]

NOC,Year,Days Medaled,Medal Days,Missing

GER,2010,16,16,0

URS,1964,12,12,0

GDR,1980,11,11,0

URS,1980,11,11,0

URS,1984,11,11,0

URS,1960,10,10,0

URS,1972,10,10,0

[/table]

For USA fans, here is how close they have come over the years:

[table]

NOC,Year,Days Medaled,Medal Days,Missing

USA,2010,15,16,1

USA,1932,8,9,1

USA,2002,14,16,2

USA,1980,9,11,2

USA,2006,13,16,3

USA,1976,8,11,3

USA,1972,7,10,3

USA,1960,6,10,4

USA,1924,4,8,4

USA,1928,3,7,4

USA,1994,10,15,5

USA,1952,7,12,5

USA,1948,4,9,5

USA,1964,6,12,6

USA,1968,5,11,6

USA,1984,5,11,6

USA,1936,3,9,6

USA,1998,8,15,7

USA,1956,3,10,7

USA,1992,7,15,8

USA,1988,5,15,10

[/table]

Mancuso – 5^th USA female to win 4 WOG medals (Cathy Turner, Dianne Holum, Angelo Ruggiero, Jenny Schmidgall-Potter) – trails only Bonnie Blair with 6

Most ever by USA woman in Alpine skiing – next best is 2

Trails only Bode Miller’s 5 among USA men/women in Alpine skiing

Moves her to =5^th all-time Alpine skiing for women

Moves her to =9^th all-time Alpine skiing for men/women

Mancuso 4^th female to win full set of medals (G/S/B) in Alpine skiing

12^th men/women to win full set of medals (G/S/B) in Alpine skiing

9^th USA women to win full set of medals (G/S/B) in WOG

13^th USA men/women to win full set of medals (G/S/B) in WOG

• Cross-Country Skiing – Men’s Sprint – Event Factsheets

• Speed Skating – Women’s 500 metres – Event Factsheets

• Snowboarding – Men’s Halfpipe – Event Factsheets

• Luge – Women’s Singles – Event Factsheets