Skiing, Speedskating, Nordic Combined Reap Olympic Feats in Salt Lake

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, February 24, 2002

Skiing, Speedskating, Nordic Combined Reap Olympic Feats in Salt Lake

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With two more days to go for the 19th Winter Olympics, the Salt Lake Games achieved historic feats three times on Friday with a first man to skate under 13 minutes in 10,000 meters, first skier to win four medals in a singles Winter Olympics and first triple gold medalistin nordic combined.

Dutchman Jochem Uytdehaage was the first to skate under 13 minutes as he won the men's 10,000m speed skating title in a worldrecord of 12:58.92. Croatian Janica Kostelic was honored as the first skier to win four medals in a single Winter Olympics after her victory in giant slalom and Samppa Lajunen of Finland became nordic combined's first triple Olympic gold medalist after winningthe Winter Olympic debut of the K120 and 7.5km sprint.

By winning the day's last title from the men's curling gold match where Norway outscored Canada 6-5, Norway regained its top spot in the gold tally with 11 golds, seven silvers and four bronzes.

Closely behind Norway in the tally are Germany on 10-16-7 and the United States with 10-11-9. Russia is in a distant fourth place with five golds, six silvers and three bronzes.

Skater Uytdehaage won his third medal of the Games in the men's10,000 meters in 12:58.92, which broke the original world record by 3.48 seconds. The Dutchman thus became the first to skate under 13 minutes in the event. Defending champion Gianni Romme ofthe Netherlands had the silver in 13:10.03 and Lasse Saetre of Norway got the bronze.

Uytdehaage, competing in his first Winter Olympics, also won the gold medal in the 5,000m and silver in the 1,500m as seven world records and nine Olympic marks have fallen with only one dayof speed skating competition remaining.

"Now I really dare to say that I am one of the most technical skaters in the world," said Uytdehaage, "In that near 13 minutes, there were so many thoughts in my head. Stay alert, stay in the right rhythm, keep your breath under control."

However, Hytdehaage was still one step away from Johann-Olav Koss of Norway who had triple gold medals in the 1994 Winter Olympics.

Kostelic, who won the gold medals in the combined and slalom earlier and a silver in super-G, scored her fourth medal by dominating the giant slalom field with a time of two minutes and 30.01 seconds.

After tying Jean-Claude Killy of France and Toni Sailer of Austria as the only alpine skier to win three gold medals in an Olympics, the Croatian woman also became the first alpine skier towin four medals in one Olympics, although not the first to achievethe feat.

The silver medal of the women's giant slalom went to Anja Paerson of Sweden in 2:31.33, with Son Nef of Switzerland taking the bronze in 2:31.67.

"It's great, but someone is going to break that record soon," said Kostelic, "I didn't have pressure and I felt really relaxed, especially after my first gold. Maybe that was it."

Hanni Wenzel of Liechtenstein in 1980 and Rosi Mittermaier of Germany in 1976, both won four medals in one singles Olympics, buttheir medals in the combined event were count as International SkiFederation (FIS) World Championship medal instead.

Meanwhile, Finland's Lajunen became nordic combined's first triple Olympic gold medalist after he triumphed in the Winter Olympic debut of the K120 and 7.5km sprint, following his victories in the individual event and team relay.

Lajunen held off German Ronny Ackermann in the intense sprint to win his third gold of the Games in 16 minutes 40.1 seconds, becoming the second triple gold medalist of the Games behind Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway, who took four golds in biathlon.

"I wasn't really thinking about a medal. I was concentrating on a good race," said Lajunen.

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