Canada Wins First Olympic Medal

SALT LAKE CITY (voa) – Claudia Pechstein has won Germany’s first gold medal at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. Pechstein won the women’s speed skating three thousand meters race, ahead of silver medalist Renate Groenwold of the Netherlands, and bronze medalist Cindy Klassen of Canada.

Earlier Sunday, the United States earned its first gold medal when Kelly Clark won the women’s snowboard halfpipe. The 18-year-old Clark, the event’s 2000 world junior champion, finished more than four points ahead of silver medalist Doriane Vidal of France. Switzerland’s Fabienne Reuteler won the bronze medal.

Also Sunday, Austrian Fritz Strobl won the gold in men’s alpine downhill skiing; Simon Amman of Switzerland captured gold in the opening ski jumping competition; and Samppa Lajunen of Finland finished first in the 15-kilometer cross-country skiing race. Later Sunday, preliminary action takes place in men’s luge and ice hockey.

Athletes from European winter sports strongholds took the early lead in the race for gold on Saturday. Veteran Italian skier Stefania Belmondo claimed the first gold medal of the 19th Winter Games, winning the women’s 15-kilometer freestyle cross-country.

Belmondo held off her big rival Larissa Lazutina from Russia, who took silver. It was the 33-year-old Italian’s eighth Olympic medal, and these Games are expected to be her last.

In speed skating, Jochem Uytdehaage broke a world record as he won the men’s five-thousand meter event. American Derek Parra was more than four seconds behind in second place.

The first day of competition also saw Norway’s Kari Traa winning the gold medal in the women’s freestyle moguls. Her win was widely expected — Traa was last year’s world champion. American Shannon Bahrke got the silver – the first U.S. medal.

Native German skier Johann Muehlegg also won gold Saturday for his adopted country, Spain, in the men’s 30-kilometer cross-country freestyle. It was Spain’s first winter Olympic gold in three decades.