Norwegians thrilled wildly cheering home crowds today by capturing gold medals in their premier Olympic sport and one they're new at, men's speedskating and women's freestyle moguls.
Johann Olav Koss, star of the Winter Games so far, smashed his second world record in four days and outskated previous 1,500-meter record-holder Rintje Ritsma of the rival Dutch in a frenzied Viking Ship arena. Ritsma took the silver, seven-tenths of a second behind Koss' 1:51.29, and countryman Falko Zandstra got the bronze.Stine Lise Hattestad won the women's moguls gold, a first for Norway in the relatively new event, ending the Americans' surprising early dominance on the ski slopes.
But Liz McIntyre of Winter Park, Colo., followed Alpine champions Tommy Moe and Diann Roffe-Steinrotter to the medals stand with the silver, picking up the slack from favorite Donna Weinbrecht who was a disappointing seventh.
A Canadian, Jean-Luc Brassard, took the gold in the men's moguls. Defending champion Edgar Grospiron of France was third.
Russia, after extending its reign in figure skating pairs with a sensational 1-2 finish the night before, got two moguls medals today - a silver from Sergei Shoupletsov and a bronze from Elizaveta Kojevnikova. The Russians lead the medals race with 10.
Meanwhile, in a preview of coming distractions, Tonya Harding arrived in Norway. "I'm very excited to be here," the embattled skater said.
Hattestad pumped her fists and turned slowly in a circle to salute the 12,000 roaring spectators ringing the Kanthaugen moguls course after the final result was announced. She blinked away tears as the crowd celebrated another Norwegian gold medal; the hosts have four golds and seven overall.
The "Star-Spangled Banner" had a chance for its own third airing today. But McIntyre, the leader after Tuesday's qualifying and the final skier down the course today, couldn't match Hattestad's point total.
Weinbrecht, the defending champion from West Milford, N.J., who was coming back from a crippling knee injury, had won six straight World Cup races. But she was more than a second slower than Hattestad, and the final five skiers to run the course eclipsed her on style points in the event scored on speed, style and jumps.
"It's just one of those things, you're off," she said. "But I'm still very happy. I've' been in the lead for the whole year for the (World Cup) title."
Gerda Weissensteiner of Italy won the women's luge today ahead of Susi Erdmann of Germany and Andrea Tagwerker of Austria. Cammy Myler of Lake Placid, N.Y., finished only 11th, leaving the United States still without ever having won a luge medal.
Competing for Russia at an Olympics for the first time, the country's pairs and cross-country skiers are behaving the same way they did under Khrushchev, Gorbachev and everyone in between: winning.
Who needs the 14 former republics?
"I feel really good when competing for the Russian Federation," said skier Lyubov Egorova, serenaded Tuesday by the anthem by 19th-century composer Mikhail Glinka.
And the federation feels good about her: two medals in two Olympic races at Lillehammer, with a chance for three more.
Egorova, 27, won five medals in 1992 competing for the Unified Team, an awkward byproduct of the Soviet collapse. Under Russia's blue, white and red flag this time, she has a silver in 15-kilometer cross-country to go with her gold in the 5-kilometer classical-style race.
National pride aside, though, the shy education student from St. Petersburg has a confession to make: The dreaded hammer and sickle gave her a competitive edge.
"It's still not the same as competing for the old Soviet Union," she said. "The excitement standing at the starting line was even greater then."
A skating controversy on a smaller scale than that of Harding-Nancy Kerrigan was in evidence Tuesday night at the pairs final, in which Gordeeva and Grinkov waged the most memorable duel in Olympic history with defending champions Natalia Mishkutienok and Artur Dmitriev.
World champions Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler of Canada, still sore about the 1992 rules change that allowed professionals to compete, weren't entirely thrilled with their second straight bronze medal.
"If the pros aren't here, we're Olympic champions," Eisler said. "In our minds, this is a gold-medal performance."
On the ice, though, there was nothing but harmony.
Gordeeva and Grinkov, dressed in black, skated with elegance, fluidity and precision. Mishkutienok and Dmitriev skated powerfully, passionately.
Even Eisler couldn't deny that the Russians were magnificent.
"It was really a very hard gold medal," Gordeeva said after she and her husband earned eight 5.9s for artistic impression and a 6.0 - from the Russian judge. "Everyone has been pushing on us, saying, `You will have no problems, you will win the gold medal.' But tonight, everyone skated so well."
Russia's top-seeded hockey team had been unimpressive until today, when it took out its frustration from Monday's embarrassing 5-0 loss to Finland by routing Austria 9-1.
The U.S. hockey team has more to worry about than Russia. Winless in its first two games for the first time since 1984, it had the day off today to prepare for Canada on Thursday.
The Americans' medal hopes were nearly buried in a cave in the Norwegian countryside Tuesday night.
As George Steinbrenner looked on at Gjovik Olympic Cavern Hall - the Olympic booster and New York Yankees owner alternately scowling and banging a cowbell - the Americans scored twice in the last six minutes to salvage a 3-3 tie against Slovakia.
It was their second straight tie against a lower-seeded team, not a good sign looking ahead to next week's medal round - if they make it.