The Italian skier won the women’s downhill Wednesday, holding off Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway by 0.09 seconds and Vonn by 0.47 seconds.

“I was really focused — I moved like a samurai,” Goggia said. “Usually, I’m really chaotic, but I wanted to take in every little detail, every particular in the morning. I believed in myself. And then what counts, counts.”

Speaking of counting, Marit Bjoergen has had to do plenty of it during her Olympic career. She became the most-decorated Winter Olympian of all time with 14 career medals, getting the latest when Norway won the bronze in the women’s team sprint in cross-country skiing.

“When you’re still an athlete you just have focus on other races,” Bjoergen said. “I think I’ll need to have time to myself and look behind me and look how I’ve been able to do this. It’s still hard to understand it when I’m standing here.”

Lindsey Vonn competes in the women’s downhill Wednesday in Jeongseon, South Korea. (AP photo — Luca Bruno)

While Bjoergen’s milestone was the highlight, the United States’ victory in the event was its first Olympic gold in women’s cross-country skiing.

Norway won the men’s sprint, giving the country its 13th cross-country medal at the games to tie an Olympic record.

Meanwhile, the Russian athletes at the Pyeongchang Games are still sitting at zero in the gold medals column. But that number could change soon.

Teen figure skaters Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva were in first and second place, respectively, in the women’s short program after earning the highest scores ever. That leaves them both in good position to come up with gold heading into the free skate Friday.

“I was very happy when I saw the score, but I did not expect it,” said the 15-year-old Zagitova, who had 82.92 points. “Now my name will be connected to that record.”

Brady Leman of Canada won the men’s skicross, beating Marc Bischofberger of Switzerland in a wild final — after some scary elimination rounds during which a handful of crashes forced several men to leave the course on medical sleds.

Other events in which medals were scheduled to be awarded included: women’s bobsled and men’s and women’s team pursuit speedskating.

Finland won the bronze in women’s hockey with a 3-2 victory over the Russian team. The gold-medal game between the United States and Canada is Thursday.

At Jeongseon Alpine Center, Goggia was behind on the leaderboard at the top, but sped up near the bottom of the hill. It was enough to keep Vonn just out of reach when she raced two spots later.

“I gave it all today, skied a great race,” Vonn said. “Sofia just skied better than I did.”

Goggia had never won gold at an Olympics or a world championship, but has four World Cup wins — including two at this venue.

Meanwhile, the 33-year-old Vonn likely completed her final Olympic downhill race. She will compete Thursday in the combined, along with American teammate Mikaela Shiffrin, and that will be her last race in Pyeongchang.

“It’s sad,” Vonn said. “It’s my last downhill. I wish I could keep going. I’m having so much fun and I love what I do, but my body just can’t take another four years. But I’m proud to be competing for my country, giving it all and proud to come away with a medal.”

GOOD POSITION

Unless another Russian athlete beats them to it, Zagitova and Medvedeva have the first gold for the team in their sights.

The 18-year-old Medvedeva posted a short-lived record score of 81.61 — despite not being completely happy.

“I’m satisfied with my performance today. It was not my best, but it was OK,” she said. “All the battle is still ahead.”

And, three skaters later, Zagitova broke the mark by completing a difficult program that included a triple lutz-triple loop combination.

“I didn’t even really think that I would be here competing at the Olympic Games,” Zagitova said. “If someone had told me that two or three years ago or even one year ago, I would have been very surprised.”

Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada was third with 78.87 points.

LOOK OUT!

At Phoenix Snow Park, Leman took an early lead during the last round, but then needed to hold off Bischofberger in what became a two-man competition when Kevin Drury of Canada and Russian athlete Sergey Ridzik collided early.

“I knew I had it just over the last jump,” Leman said. “I really tried to keep my feet on the gas all the way down.”

In the worst crash of the day, Canadian skier Chris Del Bosco lost control in midair late in the run and the right side of his body slammed hard into the snow. He lay motionless for several minutes before emergency personnel carefully placed him on the sled. There was no immediate update on the extent of the 35-year-old Del Bosco’s injuries.

ON THE ICE

Noora Raty made 20 saves, and Petra Nieminen, Susanna Tapani and Linda Valimaki scored in Finland’s victory over the Russians.

In men’s quarterfinal action, Pavel Francouz stopped all five shooters and Petr Kouka scored the shootout winner as the Czech Republic eliminated the United States with a 3-2 victory.

Dutch DETHRONED

Japan and Norway dethroned the Netherlands in the team pursuit Wednesday and restored a semblance of balance in Olympic speedskating at the Gangneung Oval.

World-record holder Japan won the women’s event in a stirring race, edging the defending champion Dutch with an Olympic-record performance.

Norway first beat the Dutch men’s team in the semifinals and followed it up with a victory over host nation South Korea in the final.

After a start in which the Dutch won the first five speedskating events and seemed poised to emulate their dominance from the 2014 Sochi Games, the second week has been a setback. They have taken only one of the last five gold medals, with Norway and Japan emerging as major challengers.

And nowhere was the surprise bigger on Wednesday than in the men’s event, where multiple Olympic champion Sven Kramer was supposed to lead the team to an easy gold.

Norway was considered to be a stepping stone, but the Dutch team’s age-old rival skated an Olympic-record race to rob the Netherlands of a place in the final.

The Norwegians took an early lead to put the Dutch under pressure, and it paid off. Kramer brought the Dutch almost level but when everything seemed to point toward a win for the Netherlands, the Norwegians picked up their speed again. Over eight laps, the trio won by 1.38 seconds and finished in an Olympic record time of 3 minutes, 37.08 seconds.

Nehterlands coach Geert Kuiper said skater Jan Blokhuijsen’s clapskate broke a spring at the start.

It didn’t matter to the Norwegians, and their time proved the Dutch might not have caught them even at their best.

In the final, too, Norway had to fight throughout before the team from South Korea, which included two teenagers, succumbed in the final two laps.

“They twice had a great time,” Kramer said of the Norwegians.

In the women’s gold-medal race, Japan set out fastest, lost the middle part to the Dutch and hit back over the final two laps to win.

Miho Takagi, Nana Takagi and Ayano Sato set an Olympic record of 2:53.89 to beat the Dutch by 1.59 seconds.

“This is too crazy,” said Johan de Wit, a Dutchman who coaches the Japan team. “It was coming. I didn’t doubt it but it was tight.”

Ireen Wust was seeking to become the most successful speedskater of all time with a sixth gold medal, but silver meant the Dutchwoman fell short of Lidia Skoblikova of the Soviet Union, who dominated in the early 1960s.

“I think this is my last Olympic race,” Wust told Dutch broadcaster NOS. “Coming for gold and walking away for silver, it is tough.”

The Dutch still lead with six speedskating gold medals and 13 overall, but it will never get close to the 23-of-36 total from the 2014 Sochi Games. Now, Japan is in second place with two gold and five overall, while Norway also has two gold but only three overall.

Also, the United States clinched its first long-track speedskating medal since the 2010 Vancouver Olympics when the women’s pursuit team beat Canada for bronze.

——

More AP Olympic coverage: https://wintergames.ap.org

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press.

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