Germany joins US at the top VANCOUVER – A young pair of ice dancers lifted the host country out of its Winter Olympic gloom with a golden performance Monday just as Canadians were questioning their team's medal-winning capability. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who began skating together as children, brought home Canada's first Olympic gold in ice dancing to lift a host nation struggling to cope with a demoralizing ice hockey defeat and diminishing medal hopes. The win capped a day on which Germany clinched gold in the women's cross country team sprint to go level with the high-flying Americans on seven gold medals apiece in 10 days of Olympic competition. Norway, a country with a far smaller population which usually punches above its weight at Winter Games, moved to outright third by winning a sixth gold in the men's cross country team sprint. Canada is now right behind Norway with five golds and Virtue and Moir are set to become the sweethearts of the Games. Wearing classic white and skating to Mahler's Symphony No. 5, Virtue and Moir concluded their mesmerizing routine with him on his knees and her face in his hands – bringing the home crowd to its feet to the chant of “Canada, Canada, Canada.” “This is for Canada and Canada is with us,” said Virtue, aged 20 to Moir's 22. Their American training partners Meryl Davis and Charlie White took silver and relegated the Russian favorites Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin to bronze. It was the first time in 34 years that Europeans did not win the ice dance gold medal. That was not the only novelty, though. British siblings Sinead and John Kerr mixed things up a little as the sister lifted the brother in a rare case of ice dance role reversal. Canada's women will get another chance at gold Thursday when their ice hockey team square off against the United States in the final. Both teams dispatched their semifinal rivals with ease Monday, the Americans crushing Sweden 9-1 and Canada blanking Finland 5-0. In the fifth-place game, Switzerland beat Russia 2-1 in a shootout. China beat Slovakia 3-1 for seventh place. Canada did partially avenge its southern neighbors Monday, by eliminating the US men's curling team following a 7-2 victory. Meanwhile, Austria, Germany and Norway added more gold to their treasure chests Monday. Austria's invincible ski-jumpers soared to a convincing win in the team event for a record-tying fifth consecutive title at major competitions. Such was their dominance that they scored 1107.9 points – the highest in Olympic team history – to Germany's 1035.8 and Norway's 1030.2. Young gun Gregor Schlierenzauer just managed to stay on his skis in the final jump of the day to lead the ‘Eagles' to victory. Germany clinched its seventh gold, courtesy of its women's cross-country team which clinched the sprint title ahead of favorites Sweden and third placed Russia. The winning pair of Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle and Claudia Nystad sneaked home in a time of 18min 3.7sec, just 0.6sec ahead of the Swedes. Norway's Petter Northug pulled off a stunning final leg to lead his country to gold in the men's team sprint, with Germany second and Russia third.
