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                    Two Swiss Athletes Ski to Gold in Sochi

   Two Swiss skiers captured gold medals in early medals events at the
   Sochi Winter Olympics Friday.
   Dario Cologna won the men`s cross-country 15-kilometer classic for his
   second gold at the Sochi Games. Sweden`s Johan Olsson took silver,
   while Swiss skier Daniel Richardson won the bronze.
   Switzerland`s Sandro Viletta pulled off a surprise first-place finish
   in the highly anticipated men`s supercombined, which consists of one
   downhill run and one slalom run.
   Croatia`s Ivica Kostelic earned the silver and Italy`s Christof
   Innerhofer took bronze.
   Two American skiing stars, reigning world champion Ted Ligety and
   defending Olympic champion Bodie Miller, failed to medal. French
   contender Alexis Pinturault did not finish his slalom leg.
   The wins Friday gave the Swiss five gold medals, two behind first-place
   Germany.
   Also Friday, Belarus earned gold and bronze in the women`s individual
   15-kilometer biathlon. Darya Domracheva finished first, Switzerland`s
   Selina Gasparin took silver and Nadezhda Skardino, also of Belarus, won
   the bronze. It was the second gold medal in Sochi for Domracheva, who
   won the women`s 10-kilometer biathlon pursuit on Tuesday, becoming the
   first female Belarusian to capture a Winter Olympic gold.
   Medals will also be awarded Friday in women`s freestyle skiing, women`s
   skeleton and men`s figure staking.
   The figure skating competition will take place without Russian skating
   star Yevgeny Plushenko, who withdrew after injuring his back in warmups
   Thursday. Japan`s Yuzuru Hanyu is currently in the lead after setting a
   new world record score in the short program Thursday. He leads
   three-time world champion Patrick Chan of Canada.
   In the women`s skeleton, Lizzy Yarnold of Britain and Noelle Pikus-Pace
   of the U.S. are first and second heading into the final two runs for
   gold.
   In men`s hockey Friday, shorthanded Sweden defeated Switzerland, 1-0,
   to remain undefeated at 2-0. Sweden`s Daniel Alfredsson scored with
   7:21 left and goalie Henrik Lundqvist had a 26-save shutout.
   Sweden announced before the game that captain Henrik Zetterberg will
   miss the rest of the tournament because of a herniated disk, taking a
   third key player off their roster.
   Norway leads the overall medal count with 13, followed by the United
   States and the Netherlands with 12. Russia has 11, and Canada and
   Germany have 10 apiece.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/two-swiss-athletes-ski-to-gold-in-sochi/1851469.html