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Cross-country skiers Victoria Carl (right) and Katharina Hennig caused the sensation of the day
Photo:
LINDSEY WASSON / REUTERS
When it comes to medals at these Olympic Winter Games in German biathlon, Denise Herrmann is right at the front.
After her individual gold medal, the 33-year-old surprisingly led the women's relay to bronze.
As the last runner, Herrmann pushed the German team from fourth to third place behind the Russian selection and Sweden.
But it wasn't just Herrmann who ensured one of two German medals on the twelfth day of Beijing.
It was an outstanding team success, in which Franziska Preuss, Vanessa Voigt and Vanessa Hinz also played a major role.
The joy of the surprise of the biathletes was great, but the German sensation from Beijing happened about 30 minutes later: Katharina Hennig and Victoria Carl won the gold medal in cross-country skiing in the team sprint - out of nowhere.
It was a centimeter decision in the last few meters, which Carl brought about with a sensational final sprint.
Actually, Carl was not intended for the race at all.
Carl replaced Sauerbrey, who was actually intended as a partner for Hennig.
Sauerbrey does not feel 100% fit and made the difficult decision not to compete.
This is how Carl became a celebrated heroine, but simply by voluntarily renouncing it is also a victory for Sauerbrey.
The teams from Sweden and Russia followed in second and third place.
The German men were less successful in cross-country skiing.
In the semifinals Janosch Brugger and Albert Kuchler dropped out in twelfth place with a lot of bad luck.
Kuchler suffered a broken pole on the first loop, Brugger finally lost a ski and only crossed the finish line on the remaining one.
In the end, Norway won with cross-country superstar Johannes Klæbo.
After winning the individual sprint, it was the second gold medal in China for the 25-year-old.
With five gold medals, one silver and one bronze each, Klæbo is second only to Björn Dählie (8-4-0) and Ole Einar Bjørndalen (8-4-1) in the list of the most successful Norwegian athletes at the Winter Games.
Norway's Marit Björgen (8-4-3) is at the top of the all-gender ranking of all athletes who have ever competed at the Winter Games.
There was drama in the quarterfinals of ice hockey, with a surprise ending as Slovakia reached the semifinals of the men's Olympic ice hockey tournament thanks to a penalty shoot-out win over the USA, keeping a chance of winning the country's first Olympic medal in the sport.
The US team competed without their superstars from the NHL.
Slovakia had previously eliminated Germany.
Here you will find an overview of the Olympic ice hockey tournament.
The women's ice hockey tournament is a little further along.
In the duel for bronze, Finland prevailed against Switzerland.
Canada and the USA will face off in the gold match on Thursday (5:10 a.m. CET).
She had hoped for at least the semi-finals, but nothing came of it: for German short track hopeful Anna Seidel, 23, what might have been her last participation in the Olympics ended with a fall.
In her quarterfinals over 1500 meters she fell and was then eliminated.
Seidel had already made her debut in Sochi in 2014 as a 15-year-old, but she has struggled with injuries in the past and has had nothing to do with the world's best.
A fourth Olympic start in four years "is relatively impossible," said Seidel before the race.
China is not yet the big winter sports nation, especially in the classic Olympic program there is a lack of quality: in the ski jumping team competition, for example, the host country came last.
But when it comes to the newer event sports in the Olympic program, China is also a gold contender.
The seventh Chinese gold medal at these games was added on Wednesday. Ski freestyler Qi Guangpu won it with several spectacular jumps in the aerials competition.
Jan