Olympic 2018 Results: Wednesday's Early Medal Winners, Scores and Top Performers
The United States ended its six-day gold-medal drought at the 2018 Winter Olympics in an event it has never recorded a medal in before Thursday.
The women's cross-country sprint team of Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins scored an unlikely gold, as they beat out Sweden by 19-hundredths of a second in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Randall and Diggins' cross-country triumph was one of three successful stories for the Americans during Wednesday's competition, as a silver was earned in bobsled and a bronze in speedskating broke an eight-year dry spell of medals in the sport.
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The trio of medals came after Lindsey Vonn earned bronze for the United States Tuesday night in the women's downhill.
Five nations secured gold in six medal events Wednesday, with Norway being the only nation earning multiple Olympic titles.
Medal Count
Wednesday's Medal Winners
Women's Bobsled
Gold: Germany (Jamanka/Buckwitz) 3:22.45
Silver: United States (Meyers-Taylor/Gibbs) 3:22.52
Bronze: Canada (Humphries/George) 3:22.99
Cross-Country Skiing
Women's Team Sprint Free
Gold: United States (Randall/Diggins) 15:56.47
Silver: Sweden (Kalla/Nilsson) 15:56.66
Bronze: Norway (Bjoergen/Falla) 15:59.44
Men's Team Sprint Free
Gold: Norway (Sundby/Klaebo) 15:56.26
Silver: Olympic Athletes from Russia (Spitsov/Bolshunov) 15:57.97
Bronze: France (Manificat/Jouve) 15:58.28
Freestyle Skiing
Men's Ski Cross
Gold: Brady Leman (Canada)
Silver: Marc Bischofberger (Switzerland)
Bronze: Sergey Ridzik (Olympic Athletes from Russia)
Speedskating
Men's Team Pursuit
Gold: Norway (Bokko/Nilsen/Pedersen) 3:37.32
Silver: South Korea (Lee, Chung, Kim) 3:38.52
Bronze: Netherlands (Roest, Kramer, Blokhuijsen) 3:38.40
Women's Team Pursuit
Gold: Japan (Takagi, Sato, Takagi) 2:53.89
Silver: Netherlands (Leenstra, Wust, De Jong) 2:55.48
Bronze: United States (Bergsma, Bowe, Manganello) 2:59.27
Top Performers
Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins
Randall and Diggins defeated a star-studded field in the women's cross-country team sprint, including Sweden's Charlotte Kalla and Stina Nilsson and Norway's Marit Bjoergen.
Diggins used her final boost of adrenaline to beat Nilsson on the last lap to claim a historic gold for the United States.
The gold from Randall and Diggins was the first-ever cross-country medal for the American women, per the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team on Twitter:
The win was even sweeter for the duo after looking back on all the individual disappointments they've suffered at the Olympics.
Randall was still in disbelief when she talked to reporters after the race, per Beth Bragg of the Anchorage Daily News.
"Hearing it out loud, it still doesn't feel real," Randall said. "It's what I've been working on for 20 years and with this team for the last five years and wow, it's just so fun to put it together tonight, finally."
The gold was the first for the United States since Mikaela Shiffrin won the women's giant slalom early Thursday morning.
Brady Leman
Canada's Brady Leman also earned redemption in his event early Wednesday morning in the men's ski cross.
Leman, who placed fourth behind a French medal sweep in 2014, beat gold-medal favorite Marc Bischofberger of Switzerland in the four-man final to claim Canada's ninth Olympic gold.
The 31-year-old struggled to put the moment into words, per BBC's Nick Hope:
Leman's experienced plenty of adversity in his career after he suffered an injury before the competition on home soil in Vancouver and the heartbreak of a fourth-place finish in Sochi.
The skier's triumph pushed Canada over the 20-medal threshold, and it sits third in the medal count beneath Norway and the Netherlands after Wednesday's early events.
Japan's Women's Team Pursuit
Japan's trio of Ayano Sato, Miho Takagi and Nana Takagi set an Olympic record while beating the Netherlands in the women's team pursuit speedskating final.
The record-setting time of two minutes, 53.89 seconds shattered the previous mark set by the Dutch in the quarterfinals that stood at two minutes, 55.61 seconds.
Japan bested the Dutch by just under two seconds in the head-to-head final at the Gangneung Oval.
The victory continued a successful Olympic program for the Japanese women, who have five medals in speedskating with one women's event remaining.
Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90.
Statistics obtained from Olympic.org.
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