America golden at the Olympic Games

In two surprising moments at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, American athletes captured surprise medals early in the Games.

In women’s moguls, skier Hannah Kearney captured gold despite entering as an underdog to Canadian Jennifer Heil. After completing the qualifying jump, Kearney and Heil stood 1-2 on the leader board. In the final round, Kearney skied flawlessly and upset the Canadian crowd who was heavily cheering for Jennifer Heil.

On the speed skating track, a crash on the final corner of the men’s 1500m sprint sent two Korean skaters into the padding and allowed Americans JR Celski and Apolo Anton Ohno to cross the finish line for silver and bronze despite entering the final turn in 4th and 5th positions.

The American teams have looked strong in the first few events of the day leading the early medal count with 1 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze. Other countries that captured their first Gold of the games on Saturday include Switzerland, South Korea, Netherlands, and Slovakia.

Let the games begin.

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