Ski jumping (Team): Austrian
'Eagles' soar to success
Фото: vancouver2010.com
Austria's invincible ski-jumpers
soared to a convincing Olympic gold medal on Monday
in the team event for a record-tying fifth consecutive
title at major competitions.
Young gun Gregor Schlierenzauer just managed to
stay on his skis in the final jump of the day to
lead the 'Eagles' to victory over Germany and Norway.
They scored 1107.9 points - the highest in Olympic
team history - to Germany's 1035.8 and Norway's
1030.2.
"I feel so fantastic. It is a dream. And now
three, three gold medals (in his Olympic career),"
said Austrian jumper Thomas Morgansteen.
"I really can't believe this. We have all done
it together, such great friends, such a great team."
Schlierenzauer, 20, had already picked up individual
bronze on both the normal and the large hill.
"For me, this has been a perfect first Olympics,"
he said. "I won three medals. For myself, I
have to say individual medals are better, but it's
great to be Olympic champion with the team. We have
worked hard together all year."
Schlierenzauer was the star of the show, with his
two jumps of 140.5m and 146.5m so impressive that
his personal score of 290.1 points was more than
Simon Ammann's gold medal winning score of 283.6
in the large hill individual on Saturday.
Germany used team consistency to place second, as
its jumpers ranked in the top four in seven of the
eight groupings.
Michael Neumayer's final jump of 136.5m preserved
the medal and the emotional Germans celebrated as
if it was a gold.
"My dream come true," said Neumayer. "Today
was really perfect. The weather was really nice
and the jumps were very long."
For Austria, it was a record-tying fifth consecutive
team gold at major competitions after previous large
hill triumphs at Torino in 2006 and at the 2005,
2007 and 2009 world championships.
