SOCHI, Russia – The gold market got a rare boost at the Sochi Olympics on Wednesday in the women's downhill.
Tina Maze of Slovenia and Dominique Gisin of Switzerland were both declared winners when they finished with identical times. Lara Gut of Switzerland won the bronze.
On a day when temperatures approached 50 degrees (10 C), Maze and Gisin completed the 1.69-mile (2.7-kilometer) Rosa Khutor course in 1 minute, 41.57 seconds. Gut was 0.10 seconds back.
Two favorites, Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany and Julia Mancuso of the U.S., were out of contention. Hoefl-Riesch, eyeing a record-equaling fourth Olympic Alpine gold, finished 13th. Mancuso was eighth.
"It's actually crazy that it comes down to one-hundredths (of a second) and there is not one-thousandths as a tiebreaker," Mancsuo said.
The last tie in Olympic skiing happened in men's super-G at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Didier Cuche of Switzerland and Hans Knauss of Austria both got silver behind winner Hermann Maier. Twice, two women have tied for second in Olympic giant slaloms.
Four years ago in the Vancouver downhill, Gisin crashed off the final jump, took a long slide to the finish line, hit a bank of snow and flew in the air. This was Gisin's third downhill victory, but two have been in ties. Though Maze won two silvers in Vancouver, Gisin earned her first major medal on Wednesday.
"It's even more interesting because it's not a usual thing," Maze said. "It's something special."
Five other sports were awarding gold medals on Day 6 of the Olympics: figure skating pairs, luge, Nordic combined, snowboarding and speedskating.
In an early women's hockey game, Finland beat Switzerland 4-3, with Jenni Hiirikoski scoring her second goal of the game with 2:22 left in overtime. Switzerland was winless in group play. Both teams will play in the quarterfinals.
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