Germany claimed the women’s cross country team sprint title on Monday with a battling performance as favourites Sweden took the silver while Russia claimed bronze at the Olympic Winter Games.
The winning pair of Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle and Claudia Nystad came home first in a time of 18mins 3.7sec with Sweden at 0.6sec back and the Russians at 4.0sec off the pace.
“It was a great race, Evi and I worked very well together,” Nystad said having skied an excellent final leg. “We did everything right and at the right time.”
Having timed her bid for gold perfectly, Nystad said she gave her all to win gold for Germany.
“I decided to just try everything, give it all I’ve got. I had no feelings, just a plan,” she said.
The race came down to a tight final leg with Nystad attacking hard after Anna Haag had seemed to have a decisive lead.
“We really went for gold, but we have to be satisfied with silver,” said Haag.
“At the beginning of the final straight, I thought ‘maybe I can take it’, but there wasn’t enough distance left.
“She was too strong, Claudia is one of the best sprinters in the sport.”
The German bided her time and then attacked coming into the stadium to earn her country’s sixth gold medal of these Games.
The Swedish team led after the first exchange and Charlotte Kalla, who won individual gold in the 10km, set a fast pace with Sachenbacher-Stehle pushing her all the way into the changeover.
Haag then kept Sweden in front with Nystad second on the second leg and although Germany stole the lead briefly after the next exchange, Kalla made sure it was the white suits of Sweden in front.
Haag seemed to have the race under control by the last exchange, but Sachenbacher-Stehle hung in and when she made her final move, her Swedish rival could not respond.
But having claimed her second medal of the Games, Kalla said the Swedish pair could afford to party.
“We have a rest day tomorrow, so we can have a small celebration, then we will be preparing for Thursday’s relay,” she said.
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Tag Archives: Winter Games
Luge: Huefner wins second luge gold for Germany
Germany’s Tatjana Huefner claimed gold in the women’s singles on Tuesday as the German team threaten to sweep all three luge titles at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
Huefner posted the fastest time of 2mins 46.524sec over the four runs while Austria’s Nina Reithmayer claimed second at 0.490sec behind with Germany’s Natalie Geisenberger third, 0.577sec off the pace.
With the body of Nodar Kumaritashvili flown home to Georgia on Monday, the mood was still sombre here for Tuesday’s women’s runs at the Whistler Sliding Centre, where the Georgian died in a training run accident last week.
After 20-year-old Felix Loch dominated the field to claim the men’s singles title on Sunday, Huefner claimed victory in the women’s with a flawless fourth run and only the doubles title remains to be decided.
Having held an overnight lead of 0.05sec over the field, Huefner turned the screw on Tuesday’s third run with an almost perfect slide to open a 0.268sec gap.
The margin between the German and Reithmayer in second looked decisive and so it proved as the German clocked a top speed of 134.1kph on the last run to take gold.
Germany’s women have dominated the luge in recent Winter Games.
Reithmayer has the distinction of being the only non-German to claim an Olympic medal in the women’s singles luge this century after Germans took gold, silver and bronze at both Salt Lake City in 2002 and Turin four years ago.
Since the country reunified in 1990, Germany has won the men’s, women’s and doubles titles at Nagano in 1998 and at Calgary in 1988.
In the doubles, Austria’s Linger brothers, Andreas and Wolfgang, are the defending Olympic champions from Turin and will be challenged by Germany’s Andre Florschuetz and Torsten Wustlich, who won silver in Turin.
source: www.vancouver2010.com
Female ski jumpers lose final bid to compete
Female ski jumpers set their sights on 2014 after losing their final bid to compete at the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear an appeal of two lower-court rulings that said Canada’s Charter of Rights cannot dictate which sports are included in the Winter Games.
The women contend that Vancouver organizers are breaking the charter by hosting only men’s ski jumping.
American jumper Lindsay Van, who won the first women’s world championship in February in the Czech Republic, said she was disappointed but not surprised by the court’s action.
“I feel totally opposed to everything the Olympics stand for,” Van said. “They’re not fulfilling their charter.”
Van said she has spent years training alongside men who will compete in February.
“It’s definitely going to be hard to watch,” she said.
The lower courts ruled that the charter does not apply to the International Olympic Committee, which decides which sports and events are included in each games.
“We are very disappointed the Supreme Court of Canada does not view this as matter of national importance,” said Ross Clark, attorney for the female jumpers.
The Supreme Court, as is its custom, gave no reasons for its decision.
The IOC has said it hopes that women’s ski jumping will meet the requirements for inclusion at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
Deedee Corradini, president of Women’s Ski Jumping USA, said the women will not give up in their fight to be in the Olympics.
“No qualified athlete should be denied the right to participate in the Olympics because of gender,” Corradini said. “We knew it was a long shot. This really has been a David versus Goliath story.”
Corradini said the group will continue to press the IOC to include women ski jumpers in the 2014 Olympics.
“Without this fight, I don’t think the women would have a chance at 2014,” Corradini said.
The women first launched a lawsuit against local organizers in May 2008, 18 months after the IOC decided against the inclusion of women’s ski jumping.
They dropped a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission when the federal government agreed to lobby the IOC. When that failed, they pursued a court case.
The women wanted the courts to force Vancouver organizers to either add a women’s event or cancel the men’s competition. Organizers said they could do neither.
The IOC voted not to include women’s ski jumping at the 2010 Winter Olympics because the sport didn’t meet the necessary criteria for inclusion. The IOC requires that a sport must have contested at least two world championships before it can become an Olympic event. There are also rules dictating how far in advance a sport can be added to the Olympic program.
The IOC has decided to include women’s ski jumping at the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2012 at Innsbruck, Austria, and will consider adding the event to the 2014 games.
source: sports.yahoo.com/olympics
Female ski jumpers renew call for Olympic inclusion
Female ski jumpers continue to fight an uphill battle in their quest to compete in the Winter Olympic Games.
In an attempt to advance their cause, two elite jumpers — Katie Willis of Calgary and 2009 world champion Lindsey Van of Park City, Utah — appeared at a Wednesday media conference in Denver to urge International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge to meet with them.
“It was definitely frustrating,” Van said. “We didn’t get to meet with Rogge, but we got our idea across to the media that we want to meet and don’t really want to go ahead with a lawsuit, but that’s where we’re headed.”
Van and Willis are among 15 plaintiffs in a lawsuit that is to be heard April 20 in B.C. Supreme Court. The lawsuit was filed in May by female ski jumpers who maintain that they should be able to compete at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Male ski jumpers have been in the Olympics since the inaugural winter Games in 1924.
Rogge is in Denver for IOC executive board meetings, which began Wednesday and are to continue until Friday. The plaintiffs sent Rogge a registered letter last week, but he did not respond to their request for a meeting.
“That’s just how they work,” Van said. “The top guy in IOC is not going to make an appearance for some athletes that he doesn’t want to be in his Games, anyway.”
The International Ski Federation gave a resounding endorsement of female ski jumpers in 2006, voting 114-1 in favor of their inclusion in the 2010 Olympics. The IOC was not swayed, however, maintaining that ski jumping at the women’s level had not developed to the point where it was of Olympic caliber.
The lawsuit has been filed against the Vancouver Olympic Games Organizing Committee. The suit contends that the exclusion of women is discriminatory and in opposition to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“The reason it’s not (filed against) the IOC is very simple: Nobody has any authority over the IOC,” Women’s Ski Jumping USA president Deedee Corradini said Wednesday. “They can do whatever they want, so we had to look for another way to get this done.
“As our lawyers took a look at what our options were, VANOC, we feel, is the right place.
Our belief is VANOC can control whether the women jump or not. If this goes our way, VANOC is just going to have to tell the IOC, ‘The women have to jump. You can’t break the laws of Canada and we are subject to those laws.’ ”
Vancouver organizing officials contend they should not be the defendant because the IOC dictates the composition of the Winter Olympics. The IOC has not budged.
“If you have three medals, with 80 athletes competing on a regular basis internationally, the percentage of medal winners is extremely high,” Rogge told reporters on Feb. 28, 2008. “In any other sport, you are speaking about hundreds of thousands, if not tens of millions, of athletes at a very high level, competing for one single medal.
“We do not want the medals to be diluted and watered down. That is the bottom line.”
Corradini said there are close to 100 women from 18 countries competing at the elite level. A total of 166 women are registered as active jumpers with the International Ski Federation.
Since 1991 the IOC has demanded gender equity from any sport it adds.
However, ski jumping has been grandfathered, or “grandmothered” in this case. Ski jumping and Nordic combined (which includes ski jumping and cross-country skiing) are the only male-exclusive sports in the Winter Olympics.
“It doesn’t make sense,” said Willis, 17. “We’re doing whatever we can. We’ve gone through all the steps. This is the last step so hopefully this will be the thing we want.”
The first women’s ski jumping world championship was held Feb. 20 in Liberec, Czech Republic, with Van winning the gold medal.
The IOC has said it is amenable to adding women’s ski jumping for the 2014 Winter Olympics, earmarked for Sochi, Russia, providing its criteria can be met. Van is not prepared to wait that long.
“I need to get out and move on with my life if this isn’t going to happen,” the 24-year-old Van said. “I’m not going to wait for a bunch of old guys to decide my future when I can take it into my own hands and move on from ski jumping if it doesn’t happen now.”
For 2010, the women are asking for one event to be held on the normal hill in Whistler, B.C. The men’s event includes competition on the normal hill and large hill, as well as a team event.
Corradini — a former mayor of Salt Lake City — cannot understand why the IOC members are not open to that request.
“They would be heroes,” she said. “Everybody would shine. The lawsuit goes away. Why don’t they do something so simple?”
source: vancouversun.com
