Gottwald lifts Austria's spirits

Still breathing hard and red-faced, Felix Gottwald took a big gulp of water, grinned, and described how much another gold medal means to him and his fellow Austrians.

Gottwald used a powerful sprint to rally for victory in the Nordic combined sprint yesterday at Pragelato, giving Austria its record eighth gold medal of the Turin Olympics -- a bright spot for a country enmeshed in a doping scandal.

''It's unbelievable," Gottwald said. ''When I saw the medal count and we had seven golds and we were one behind the Germans, it was amazing. Now we have one more. It's an unbelievable Games."

Gottwald won his second gold of these Games by making up a 54-second deficit from the morning's jump, skating to a total winning time of 18 minutes 29 seconds -- 5.4 seconds ahead of silver medalist Magnus Moan of Norway. Germany's Georg Hettich took the bronze after having the best jump.

American Todd Lodwick finished ninth and teammate Johnny Spillane 10th.

Gottwald was a member of Austria's winning foursome in the large hill team event Thursday.

Biathlon
Ole Einar Bjoerndalen's brilliant finish wasn't enough to keep Germany from winning the men's 4-by-7.5-kilometer biathlon relay at Cesana.

Bjoerndalen gave the Norwegians a fifth-place finish by skiing a dazzling final leg for the pre-race favorites, but could not make up for his teammates' poor performances.

The Americans took ninth.

The Germans -- Ricco Gross, Michael Roesch, Sven Fischer, and Michael Greis -- covered the San Sicario course in 1 hour 21 minutes 51.5 seconds for their fourth Olympic gold in the event to go with wins in 1992, '94, and '98.

Russia was 20.9 seconds back, and France edged Sweden for the bronze.