Norway wins first Winter Olympics gold; see highlights

The first medals of the Winter Olympics were distributed this Saturday (5), on the fourth day of competitions of the Beijing 2022 Games. Norway was featured and appears, momentarily, in the lead of the medal table with two golds.

The first gold medal of the Games went to the Norwegian Therese Johaug. She won the women’s 15 km skiathlon and won her first individual Olympic gold. Russian Natalia Nepryaeva and Austrian Teresa Stadlober took silver and bronze, respectively.

The Norwegian took the lead ten minutes into the race and shot ahead. Afterwards, the athlete knew how to manage the position. The skiathlon race has half the course in classic skiing and the other half with freestyle technique.

Johaug is a three-time skiathlon world champion (2015, 2019 and 2021). She missed the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics for doping.

Afterwards, Norway climbed back to the top of the podium in the mixed biathlon relay. Teams from France and Russia took silver and bronze, respectively. The modality mixes in the same test ski race and sport shooting rounds.

In the 3,000 m speed skating, Dutch Irene Schouten took gold and set the Olympic record. She completed the race with a time of 3min56s93. The Italian Francesca Lollobrigida and the Canadian Isabelle Wiedemann were in second and third place, respectively.

Slovenia, China and Sweden were other countries that won gold medals. No Brazilian athlete competed this Saturday.

Away from the competition venues, three-time Olympic champion Shaun White, 35, one of the biggest names in snowboarding history, said the Beijing Games will be his last Olympic contest in his career.

At the Olympics, the American won a gold medal at the Games in Turin-2006, Vancouver-2010 and PyeongChang-2018. He contests the Games for the fifth time.

“I gave it my all. There were some ups and downs on the way to get here, so I feel like I’ve become stronger and better,” White told the Olympics’ official website.