Two men became double gold medallists while a South Korean set a new world record in women's short-track speed skating at the Winter Olympics.
South Korea's Choi Eun-Kyung set a new world record in the semifinals of the women's 1,500 meters short-track speed skating event at the Salt Lake Ice Center. Choi finished the race in 2:21.069, more than three-quarters of one second (0.775) faster than the old record set by compatriot Kim Moon-Yung in 1999.
However, Choi was not as fast in the final and had to settle for the silver medal. The gold medal went to her 15-year-old countrywoman Ko Gi Hyun, the youngest gold medallist in Olympic short-track history. Evgenia Radanova of Bulgaria won the bronze. The medals were the first of these Games for both nations.
Meanwhile at Utah Olympic Park, Swiss ski jumper Simon Ammann won the large hill (K-120) ski jumping gold medal. Ammann had also captured the normal hill gold medal Monday. Ammann had ended the first round tied with German Sven Hannewald, but Hannewald fell on his second jump and the Swiss skier captured the title. Through a translator Amman said that he was glad he was not the last man to jump. "If you have this good starting position and you know that it is not really your jump that counts, but the last jump always counts, this takes a lot of tension away from you," he said. "Because being the last is particularly hard and difficult." The silver medal went to World Cup standings leader Adam Malysz of Poland and Finland's Matti Hautemaki took the bronze.
Also at Utah Olympic Park, German women swept the singles luge medals with Sylke Otto taking the gold (in a combined time of 2:52.46). Barbara Niedernhuber won the silver (2:52.785) and Silke Kraushaar won the bronze (2:52.865).
At the men's biathlon, Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen captured his second gold medal of the Games by winning the men's 10-kilometer sprint event. He did not miss a single target in the shooting portion. The silver went to Sven Fischer of Germany and Austrian Wolfgang Perner took the bronze.
In the women's 7.5 kilometer sprint biathlon, Kati Wilhelm of Germany took the gold. Teammate Uschi Disl won the silver and Magdalena Forsberg of Sweden won the bronze.
In the men's combined Alpine skiing event, Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt held off a challenge from American Bode Miller to win the gold medal. Miller earned the silver just .028 behind the Norwegian while Austrian Benjamin Raich took the bronze. After finishing the downhill portion in eighth position, Miller said he succeeded in the slalom by relaxing and skiing the only way he knew how. "You know I had been trying to ski the way I needed to ski all day and it was not working so I decided to ski the way I wanted to ski," he said. "I had a 100-percent chance to show that I am willing to race hard and I had a lot of speed. And that's what I went into the second round thinking and I wanted to show it and I did."
Germany leads the medals total after 25 of 78 events with 12 medals, four of them gold. The United States has 10 medals three gold and Austria has nine medals, but only one gold. Norway leads the gold medal standings with five.
Four medals are up for grabs Thursday in men's cross-country, the women's combined event, men's figure skating and women's speed skating.