- Title: ITALY: Swedish teams win gold in both men's and ladies' cross country events.
- Date: 14th February 2006
- Summary: (BN12) PRAGELATO PLAN, ITALY (FEBRUARY 14, 2006) (REUTERS) VARIOUS VIEWS OVER PRAGELATO PLAN OLYMPIC VILLAGE SWEDISH GOLD MEDALLIST LINA ANDERSSON AND SWEDISH GOLD MEDALLIST BJOERN LIND STANDING SIDE-BY-SIDE WITH GOLD MEDALS (SOUNDBITE) (English) SWEDISH GOLD MEDALLIST LINA ANDERSSON SAYING: "The race was good all from the beginning and we had the tactic that we should use power in a good way so we had much power in the last laps." [REPORTER ASKS: "How did you feel when you found out that the men's cross country team from Sweden also won gold?"] "Yes, it was very tough. We had so much journalists around us but we wanted to see the guys also. It was very exciting to see Bjoern on his last laps." ANDERSSON AND LIND POSING WITH GOLD MEDALS (SOUNDBITE) (English) SWEDISH GOLD MEDALLIST BJOERN LIND SAYING: "Our plan was for Tobias at the first lap, he had to try to follow the best and he managed to do that quite well and then I had to try to stay focused and stay behind until the last 50 or 100 metres." [REPORTER ASKS: "How did you feel knowing that the ladies' team from Sweden had won the gold just minutes before you had to start your race? How did you remain focused?"] "We stayed there and waited for our start, me and Tobias and then we see Lina finished and made her move and took the victory for Sweden. We said: 'Yeah!', but then we had to focus on our own race, but it was quite special." [REPORTER ASKS: "What does your victory - both yours and the ladies' - mean for the Swedish team's performance in the rest of the Olympics?"] "I hope it means a lot and I hope it means that the rest of the cross-country team and the rest of the Swedes in the other sports will try to use this and maybe it will give a lot more medals for Sweden." ANDERSSON AND LIND LOOKING THROUGH HOLE IN CENTRE OF GOLD MEDALS ANDERSSON AND LIND POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPH ANDERSSON AND LIND WALKING AWAY
- Embargoed: 1st March 2006 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Italy
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Sports
- Reuters ID: LVA6UR8O9TAUHGTZZW2R4BD1XBT2
- Story Text: Sweden won their first and second gold medals of the Turin Winter Olympics on Tuesday (February 14) when their men and women triumphed in the cross-country skiing team sprint races.
Former world sprint champion Thobias Fredriksson and team mate Bjoern Lind surged to victory in the men's race less than half an hour after Anna Dahlberg and Lina Andersson had triumphed in the women's.
They were Sweden's first medals of any colour in the Turin Games and made up for the disappointment of Salt Lake City when, unusually for one of the traditional powers of winter sport, they failed to win a single gold.
"The race was good all from the beginning and we had the tactic that we should use power in a good way so we had much power in the last laps," Andersson said after her race.
"I hope it means a lot and I hope it means that the rest of the cross-country team and the rest of the Swedes in the other sports will try to use this and maybe it will give a lot more medals for Sweden," Lind added in a joint interview.
Norway's Jens Arne Svartedal had to settle for a silver medal on his 30th birthday, as did Canada's Sara Renner, whose ski pole broke on the third lap of the six-lap women's race.
A Norwegian at the side of the track handed her another one but it was too long, and it was not until the next change-over that Renner, wife of former Canadian Alpine skier Thomas Grandi, could pick up a proper replacement.
The young Russian pairing of Ivan Alypov and reigning sprint world champion Vassili Rotchev took bronze in the men's race while in the women's it went to Aino Kaisa Saarinen and Virpi Kuitunen of Finland.
The biggest upset of the day was the failure of Norway's Marit Bjoergen to make the podium.
She and team mate Ella Gjomle trailed in fourth, compounding a poor Olympics for the woman who has dominated the discipline since the last Games.
Bjoergen, winner of the sprint World Cup title for three years running from 2003 to 2005, had already had to pull out of the opening race of the Olympics, Sunday's 15-km pursuit, with stomach pains.
She had a bout of bronchitis on the eve of the Games and, while her team insists she has recovered, looks to be struggling for form ahead of the remaining four events.
Germany's Evi Sachenbacher Stehle, cleared to race after serving a five-day suspension for having an abnormally high red blood cell count, came fifth with team mate Viola Bauer.
In the team sprint, two athletes from each team each race three laps of the track in alternation, tagging each other at the end of each lap, as in a relay.
The skiers must race in the classical style, with skis parallel. The total distance raced in the men's event is 7.8 km and in the women's 6.6 km. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
