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© St. Petersburg Times, published February 11, 2002
PARK CITY, Utah -- Snowboarder Kelly Clark won America's first gold medal on Sunday with a high-flying, dominating performance on the halfpipe.
With the song Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N' Roses blaring in the background, Clark, an 18-year-old junior world champion, put in a run to remember. She flew higher and landed more dangerous jumps than anyone in the field.
Clark's score of 47.9 easily beat Doriane Vidal of France, who scored a 43.0. Fabienne Reuteler of Switzerland won the bronze. American Shannon Dunn, the bronze medalist in Nagano, finished fifth and teammate Tricia Byrnes was sixth.
But the day belonged to Clark, and to snowboarders who have tried to buck their widely perceived image as slacker rebels and have battled among themselves, trying to decide whether competing in the Olympics stays true to the individualistic nature of the sport.
On Sunday, the Olympics seemed like just the right place for this sport.
In the packed stands, in the subfreezing cold, young men painted USA on their bare chests. Before the event, break dancers boogied in the parking lot. A rock band played during intermission.
It was all part of an X-treme day that belonged to Clark, the Vermont resident who won medals in three of her first four World Cup events this season.
Before her second run -- the one that gave her the gold -- she stood at the top of the halfpipe, and pumped a fist before beginning. She won the event with a maneuver called a McTwist, a 540-degree inverted spin, then followed with a 720-degree jump at the bottom.
Before that, she jumped higher above the lip of the halfpipe than any of her competitors. It's called amplitude, which carries extra weight in the world of Olympic judging.
After her score was announced, Clark jumped into the arms of her coach, then scaled one of the restraining fences to celebrate with the crowd.
MEN'S LUGE: Germany's Georg Hackl came here determined to make history. After one day on the luge track, he found out it won't be easy.
Hackl, seeking an unprecedented fourth straight gold medal, trailed Armin Zoeggeler of Italy by 41 hundredths of a second after the first two heats of what became a riveting duel.
It was Zoeggeler's night right from the start. With about 13,000 fans lining the 17-turn track and screaming encouragement at all the sliders, he broke his track record twice and finished with an aggregate time of 1 minute, 29.067 seconds.
Trailing by 68 hundredths after the first heat, Hackl quickly proved why he is the greatest luger in history and still a threat at age 35.
With his black-and-white booties cutting through the icy air like a pair of lobster claws, the German stunned everybody with a run of 44.494 seconds, the fastest of the day.
A gold medal would place Hackl on yet another pedestal. No Winter Olympian has won the same event four straight times.
Four athletes -- Carl Lewis in the long jump, Al Oerter in the discus and Paul Elvstrom in sailing -- have accomplished the feat in the Summer Games. With any medal, Hackl will become the first winter athlete to make the podium in five consecutive Olympics.
Markus Prock of Austria, who has finished second twice to Hackl in the Olympics, was in third at 1:29.108.
The crowd might have provided the biggest boost to Adam Heidt of Northport, N.Y., who was fourth and in medal contention heading into today's final two runs. No American slider has won a medal in singles competition since luge became an Olympic sport in 1964.
Tony Benshoof of White Bear Lake, Minn., was in seventh after a first run of 44.776 seconds but lost control of his sled and slammed a wall at the top of the track on the second to fall out of contention.
SPEED SKATING: Claudia Pechstein set another world record at the Utah Olympic Oval, winning the 3,000 meters to upstage German rival Anni Friesinger.
The flamboyant Friesinger had won every 3,000 race during the World Cup season and hoped to get started on capturing three gold medals.
Instead, she didn't win a medal. Pechstein shattered her own world record, crossing the line in 3 minutes, 57.70 seconds -- more than 11/2 seconds ahead of the mark of 3:59.26.
It was the second world record in as many speed-skating races in Salt Lake City.
Renate Groenewold of the Netherlands (3:58.94) and Canada's Cindy Klassen (3:58.97) also went under the record to claim silver and bronze, respectively.
Friesinger wound up fourth, fading badly on her final lap to finish in 3:59.39.
Miami's Jennifer Rodriguez finished seventh in 4:04.99, breaking her national record but winding up seventh -- a drop from her fourth place at Nagano four years ago.
NORDIC COMBINED: Waving a Finnish flag and slowing as he approached the finish line, Samppa Lajunen relished the moments as he skied to the gold medal -- his country's first individual gold in the discipline since 1948.
Teammate Jaakko Talluse won the silver. Felix Gottwald of Austria won the bronze.
U.S. medal hopeful Todd Lodwick wound up seventh, the highest finish for an American in the sport's Olympic history. Americans Matt Dayton and Bill Demong were 18th and 19th, respectively. Rolf Monsen's ninth-place showing in 1932 was the best finish for a U.S. athlete.
MEN'S HOCKEY: Andreas Loth scored late in the third period to give Germany a 3-2 victory against Austria in preliminary round play.
Late Saturday, France pulled off a surprising 3-3 tie against Switzerland and Latvia won its first Olympic hockey game since 1936, 4-2 over Austria.