Wednesday, February 19, 2014
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Russia goes Wild over giant slalom gold

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[February 19, 2014]  By Nick Mulvenney

ROSA KHUTOR, Russia (Reuters) — American-born Vic Wild won the men's parallel giant slalom gold medal for Russia on Wednesday just minutes after his wife Alena Zavarzina had won bronze in the women's event at the Sochi Olympics.

Switzerland's Patrizia Kummer beat Tomoka Takeuchi of Japan to win the women's final.

As "Good Vibrations" played over the tannoy, Wild wrapped himself in a Russian flag handed to him by Zavarzina after beating Swiss Nevin Galmarini to give the hosts, and the partisan crowd, a first snowboarding gold.

Wild, who was born in Washington State but changed allegiance to Russia in 2011 after marrying Zavarzina, trailed Galmarini after the first run of the final but edged ahead in the second when the Swiss slipped.

Zan Kosir of Slovenia won the bronze.

Kummer, the gold medal favorite, benefited from a more dramatic fall from Takeuchi in the second run of the women's final and celebrated a commanding victory by jumping into the crowd to embrace her coaches.


Zavarzina won the first medal of day, riding a wave of noise to a small final victory over Austria's Ina Meschik under picture-perfect blue skies at the Extreme Park.

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Kosir then recorded a convincing victory over German Patrick Bussler in the men's small final to claim a medal, and the stage was set for Wild to bring the event to a climax.

The 27-year-old had been in blistering form all day, scything through the snow and around the flags to win all of his races convincingly.

Galmarini, who beat Austrian favorite Karl Benjamin in the round of 16, had also been in good form and took advantage when Wild delivered his first ragged performance in the first run of the final.

Trailing by half a second, Wild slammed his fists into his chest before charging out of the gate on the second run, quickly making up the deficit before steaming to victory amid deafening noise when the Swiss made his mistake.

(Additional reporting by Philip O'Connor; editing by Peter Rutherford and Robert Woodward)

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