11 February 2006

Good start for Germany at the Winter Olypmics

BerlinBear avatarThe German team has had a dream start to the Winter Olympics, picking up two gold medals on the first day of competition. Needless to say, New Zealand has not yet troubled the scorers! In fact, no New Zealander has won a medal at the Winter Olympics since Annelise Coberger won a silver medal in the slalom. She was, at that time, the first person from the Southern Hemisphere ever to win a Winter Olympic medal. In other words, noone is holding their breath for New Zealand medals at this Olympics.

But anyway, back to the actual topic of this post: Germany had at its 'goldest' start to a Winter Olympics ever. First up, Michael Greis claimed gold in the men's 20km individual biathlon. Then, in a real turn-up for the books, outsider Georg Hettich picked up a gold medal in the men's Nordic combination (ski-jumping meets cross-country skiing). Not bad. And look at the size of the medals!

To say that the media in Germany are excited about this better-than-expected start to the games would be a serious understatement.


After the first day's competition, the medal table looks like this:


Medals Table

Gold
Silver
Bronze
Total
1. Germany
200
2
2. Canada1001
2. United States1001
4. Norway0224
5. Austria0101
5. Holland0101
7. France0011
7. Italy0011



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