SOCHI, February 16 (R-Sport) - A tearful Bode Miller won a Sochi bronze medal on Sunday, the Swedish cross country team completed a golden double and the Dutch locked down all three medals in the speedskating for the third time at the Winter Olympics on an emotionally charged day nine.
Elsewhere, the Russian hockey team limped into the playoffs of its home tournament, and Alexander Zubkov gave his country a healthy lead in the two-man bob.
The day began in the mountains with the medals decided in the Super G, where Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud defeated a tough Rosa Khutor to win gold, Andrew Weibrecht of the US took silver and veteran Miller claimed one of two bronze medals. The bronze medal was shared as the 36-year-old Miller and Canadian skier Jan Hudec both finished 0.53 seconds off Jansrud’s time.
Miller cried when he learnt he had won his sixth career Olympic medal after narrowly missing out in two previous events in Sochi. He has endured repeated injuries over the last two years, as well as the death of his brother Chelone, aged 29, from a seizure in 2012.
"It's a really big day for me emotionally. It's been such a tough two years, with my brother passing away and all the injuries," he said. "With how close everything has been, it's just I'm just finally getting a little luck and a break today."
Sweden completed a golden double in the Sochi Olympic cross-country ski relays Sunday as the men’s team charged to victory in the 4x10km.
Marcus Hellner raced a fast final leg to preserve Sweden’s lead and win by 27.3 seconds, one day after the country’s women’s team won their 4x5km relay.
The silver went to Russia, whose last-leg skier Maxim Vylegzhanin held off a challenge from France's Ivan Perrillat Boiteux to take second place by four seconds. The Frenchman hunted down Vylegzhanin rapidly, but tired and proved unable to challenge the Russian on the final sprint, settling for bronze.
Sochi disappointment continued for traditional cross-country skiing powerhouse Norway, which again missed the medals.
Before Sweden, the last country to win both men’s and women’s relays at the same Olympics was the Soviet Union in 1972.
Down on a cloudy Black Sea coastal cluster, Jorein ter Mors ripped up an increasingly orange-infused Adler Arena to set a new Olympic record and claim the gold medal in the women's 1,500m speedskating, leading yet another Dutch podium sweep at the Sochi Games.
World silver medalist Ter Mors, who also competes in short track, won her first Olympic medal of any kind in a time of 1:53.510.
"I never imagined I would win a gold here on long track. It's crazy," she said. "It's going really well and I can easily jump up and down between tracks."
Further back, Ireen Wust claimed was second in 1:54.09 for her second silver and third medal of the Games after winning the 3,000m and the silver in the 1,000m.
"My race was 90% and I needed 100% to win the gold," Wust conceded. "I didn't skate badly but it wasn't very good, either. I was looking too much for a good time, pushing too hard. I didn't really get into a flow."
Bronze went to Lotte van Beek in 1:54.54, pushing her compatiot Marrit Leenstra off the podium and into fourth.
"I can't believe it," said van Beek. "These are my first Olympic Games and I don't only mean my medal but all the girls, we are No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 and that's awesome."
It is a record third podium sweep for the Netherlands in speedskating and the first in the women's category. The men claimed all three medals in the 5,000m and the 500m, and only Denny Morrison of Canada, who won the silver, got in the way of a sweep in the men's 1,000m.
The Dutch now have 16 medals of an available 24 on offer so far in speedskating.
Meanwhile, the Russian hockey team continued a worringly mediocre start to the Sochi Games for its boisterous home fans.
The team of NHL and KHL superstars needed a shootout winner from Ilya Kovalchuk to scrape by the Slovakians at the Bolshoi Ice Dome and secure second place in Group A, meaning Zinetula Bilyaletdinov's squad will need to beat Norway in a playoff on Tuesday if they want a crack at Finland in the quarterfinals.
It continues a string of underwhelming showings by the host team, with Russian President Vladimir Putin looking on for the second game running. The narrow win over Slovakia followed a 3-2 shootout loss to the U.S. on Saturday and before that a 5-2 win over outsider Slovenia that was also harder than expected.
Russia is searching for a first Olympic title since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Aside from Finland, the other teams directly through to Wendesday's quarterfinals are Sweden, the United States and Canada, which needed overtime to beat Finland 2-1 earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, away from the action, it emerged that the Russian skicross racer who fractured a vertebrae in a horrific practice fall had been flown to Munich for a second operation.
Russian doctors operated immediately when Maria Komissarova was admitted with the severe injury on Saturday, and the 23-year-old was considered stable enough to travel a day later, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told R-Sport.
Sunday's medal table sees Germany, Norway and the Netherlands on top, with Switzerland and Russian in fourth and fifth, respectively. Russia, Canada and the US have four gold medals apiece, while Germany is out front with seven.
Monday's action sees the end of the ice dance figure skating, currently led by Vancouver silver medalists Charlie White and Meryl Davis, with other medals on offer in snowboardcross, biathlon, bobsled, freestyle and ski jump.
