12.02 Norway Flexes Skiing Muscles as 'iPod' Shuffles to Gold on Day 4 at Sochi

SOCHI, February 11 (R-Sport) – Day four of competition at the Sochi Olympics saw an exhibition of Norwegian endurance skiing and a man nicknamed "iPod" shuffle to gold in the halfpipe, while snowboard king Shaun White lost his Olympic crown.

The list of Sochi female firsts extended too, with a German soaring to the inaugural women's ski jump title, 90 years after the men's event debuted at the Olympics, plus the first women's ski slopestyle gold going to Canada.

At the Laura biathlon complex, Norway won two cross-country sprint skiing gold medals in the space of 10 minutes as Ola Vigen Hattestad won a crash-marred men’s final after Maiken Caspersen Falla took women’s gold.

Hattestad took the gold by 1.22 seconds from Sweden’s Teodor Peterson. The two had been in a race of their own after the other four in the final were wiped out by fall and crashes.

Another Swede, Emil Joensson, eventually trailed over the line to claim the bronze medal, 19.74 seconds off the pace.

"I didn't realize there was a crash there, so I was at the top of the hill and I looked behind and I just saw Peterson. It was a weird feeling," Hattestad said.

There have been a higher than usual number of fallers in biathlon and cross-country races at the Laura complex after warm temperatures over the last three days made the snow soft.