Felix Loch of Germany jumps onto the podium after he won the gold medal during the men's singles luge final at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Feb. 9, 2014, in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia.
Two Olympians Win Second Straight Gold Medals
Two athletes defended their Olympic titles Sunday as eight countries won gold medals at the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia captured the women's biathlon 7.5-kilometer sprint after winning four years ago at the Vancouver Games. German Felix Loch won his second straight men's luge title.
Host Russia won its first gold medal, with Evgeni Plushenko and Julia Lipnitskaia leading it to the new team figure skating title. Their countrymen, including President Vladimir Putin, cheered at the Iceberg arena.
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Sochi Olympics 2014
Athletes from Poland, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and the United States also won gold medals.
Poland's Kamil Stoch won the men's normal hill ski jump, while Dutch speedskater Ireen Wust won the women's 3,000-meter race.
Austrian Matthias Mayer took the top prize in the Alpine skiing downhill men's event.
Switzerland's Dario Cologna won the men's 30-kilometer cross country skiathlon.
And Jamie Anderson of the United States captured the inaugural women's snowboarding slopestyle competition ahead of athletes from Finland and Britain.
Norway leads the medal count with seven, and is tied with the U.S. and the Netherlands for the most gold medals with two.
There are 98 medal events at the Sochi Games, 12 more than in Vancouver.
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