VANCOUVER, British Columbia – With the best ski jumper in the world on the sidelines, the Austrian team soared to the Olympic gold medal Monday at the Vancouver Games.
The Austrian team of Gregor Schlierenzauer, Thomas Morgenstern, Andreas Kofler and Wolfgang Loitzl defended their title from the 2006 Turin Games by earning 1,107.9 points to easily beat second-place Germany. Norway took bronze.
“We know we have the strongest team,” Loitzl said. “So we knew what to do.”
Simon Ammann, the Swiss ski jumper who won gold in both the normal hill and large hill individual jumps, didn’t compete in the team event because Switzerland didn’t have four jumpers.
Norway won the men’s team sprint in cross-country skiing, with Petter Northug racing past Axel Teichmann of Germany shortly before the finish. Northug and Oeystein Pettersen won in 19 minutes, 1 second, while Germany was second and Russia third.