Olympic cover girl Lindsey Vonn crashed out of the super combined Thursday to hand victory to Germany's Maria Riesch as Evan Lysacek upset Yevgeny Plushenko to win figure skating gold. Games organisers, meanwhile, came under fresh criticism over the Whistler Sliding Track.
Vonn was hot favourite to win a second gold medal after claiming the downhill title on Wednesday but a fall in the slalom leg ended her dream run, with Riesch ecstatic at coming out on top. "That was incredible," said Riesch after the race that combines downhill and slalom. "I was much more calm and had more confidence today. I was really nervous yesterday. I knew it was a course to attack. It was attack and nothing else."
American Julia Mancuso won the silver and Anja Paerson of Sweden took the bronze. Reigning American world champion Lysacek dethroned defending Olympic champion Plushenko on the ice rink, with Daisuke Takahashi giving Japan their first ever Olympic men's podium finish by taking bronze.
Lysacek finished just 1.31 points ahead of Plushenko to break an 18-year Russian domination in the event. With the Vancouver Games in their seventh day, there was more grief for organisers with the head of the Georgian Olympic Committee claiming inadequate safety measures were to blame for the death of luger Nodar Kumaritashvili.
Giorgi Natsvlishvili made the comments ahead of the funeral on Saturday of the 21-year-old, who was killed in a training run on the eve of the opening ceremony. The International Luge Federation announced a major inquiry into the track once the Olympics end, as International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams again defended it. In other medal events, Canada's world champion Christine Nesbitt took gold in the women's 1,000-metres speedskating, holding off a powerful Dutch challenge from Annette Gerritsen and Laurine van Riessen.
Torah Bright won Australia's first gold of the Games in women's halfpipe, ending long-standing US domination of the sport with Hannah Teter and Kelly Clark having to settle for the minor medals. The United States tops the medal table with six gold, ahead of Germany on four, with South Korea, Switzerland, Norway and Canada each having three.
Ice hockey continued with Canada's team of superstar National Hockey League players given a big wake-up call by Switzerland with only a Sidney Crosby shootout winner saving their blushes in a 3-2 win. Fellow gold medal favourites Russia lost 2-1 to Slovakia in another shootout while the United States ripped Norway 6-1.
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