Monday's Highlights at the Sochi Olympics
MONDAY'S HIGHLIGHTS AT THE SOCHI OLYMPICS:
LOST IN A FOG
Soup was the special on the Olympic menu. Thick, soupy fog in the mountains rolled in to Krasnaya Polyana on Sunday night, stuck around on Monday and knocked out a bunch of events. A men's biathlon race and a snowboard event were both postponed until Tuesday. "Mother Nature doesn't always cooperate," American snowboardcross rider Nate Holland said.
PROTEST & POLITICS
An Italian gay-rights activist says she was detained for several hours by police. The police say no such thing happened. Vladimir Luxuria, a former Italian parliament lawmaker who has become a prominent transgender rights crusader and television personality, told The Associated Press she was stopped while carrying a rainbow flag that read in Russian: "Gay is OK." She added that the issue was not the flag but the message. "They asked me not to show things like that anymore."
LET'S SHAKE IT
Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the first Olympic title in the ice dancing for the United States. The silver medalists from four years ago scored 116.63 points in the free dance to beat their Canadian training partners, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. Davis and White started skating together in 1997, and on the biggest day of their career, they were nearly flawless. "That in itself justified 17 years of hard work," White said.
AND IT'S GOT ME MOVING
Rivals compare her to a dancer because she skis with rhythm. She also wins plenty of gold. Darya Domracheva became the first female to win three gold medals in biathlon at the same Olympics when she won the 12.5-kilometer mass start race, missing only one target. Gabriela Soukalova of Czech Republic was second and Tiril Eckhoff of Norway finished third.
THE (NOR)WAY HOME
Norwegian skier Aksel Lund Svindal tells the AP he's skipping his last race at the Olympics because of allergies he thinks are "from the concrete that's in the air." Svindal failed to win a medal in three races and was to have raced in Wednesday's giant slalom. ... Cross-country skier Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen, whose brother died on the eve of the Olympics, has left Sochi and gone home. Norway was reprimanded by the IOC after its skiers wore black armbands in honor of Sten Anders Jacobsen.
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE
The U.S. women's team finished the Olympic curling tournament in last place for a second-straight Winter Games, this time with just one win in nine games. The U.S. men's team didn't fare much better, finishing next to last at 2-7. "I just wish I could start all over again," said U.S. player Debbie McCormick, the team's skip in 2010.
MEDALS
The United States and Russia each won two medals to improve their overall totals to 18, one more than the Netherlands. All three countries have five golds, three behind Germany with eight gold medals and 13 overall.
TUESDAY'S HIGHLIGHT
Seven medal events are on tap, including the women's giant slalom and the men's 10,000 meters in speedskating.
