Russia’s husband-and-wife snowboarding duo of Vic Wild (pictured) and Alena Zavarzina claimed Olympic parallel giant slalom medals within mere minutes of each other today - with Wild defeating Switzerland’s Nevin Galmarini for the men’s gold in the Big Final.
Wild, who was born in America but has represented Russia since marrying Zavarzina in 2011, was down half a second after the first run of the Big Final against Galmarini but came back in the second run to win by 2.14 seconds.
Before Wild and Galmarini settled the gold on the men’s side, Zavarzina had taken the Small Final on the women’s side to grab the bronze after falling in her semifinal against Switzerland’s Patrizia Kummer.
VIDEO: Vic Wild, to Russia, with love
Following the event, Wild and Zavarzina embraced at the bottom of the course.
Men's gold medal winner Vic Wild embraces women's bronze medal winner and wife Alena Zavarzina in the corral. pic.twitter.com/zdt5DboKy6
— Shawn Smith (@ShawnSmithNBC) February 19, 2014
Husband-and-wife medalists are certainly a noteworthy story. But as Olympic historian Bill Mallon noted in a Twitter reply to NBCOlympics.com’s Nick Zaccardi, it isn’t an uncommon story.
@nzaccardi 137 times Husband/Wife same event medalists- that includes Art Contests. Its actually pretty common.
— Bill Mallon (@bambam1729) February 19, 2014
The Big Final for the women’s gold featured Kummer and Japan’s Tomoka Takeuchi, the top-ranked PGS riders on the World Cup circuit. Takeuchi put Kummer down three-tenths of a second after the first run, but fell on the second run to enable Kummer to take the win.
Only one American competed in PGS at Sochi. Justin Reiter was unable to advance out of men’s qualifying and is credited with a 24th place finish.
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MEN’S SNOWBOARDING - PARALLEL GIANT SLALOM
1. Vic Wild (RUS), won Big Final by 2.14 seconds
2. Nevin Galmarini (SUI)
3. Zan Kosir (SLO), won Small Final by 2.26 seconds
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24. Justin Reiter (USA), eliminated in Qualifying
WOMEN’S SNOWBOARDING - PARALLEL GIANT SLALOM
1. Patrizia Kummer (SUI), won Big Final by 7.32 seconds
2. Tomoka Takeuchi (JPN)
3. Alena Zavarzina (RUS), won Small Final by 0.82 seconds