PYEONGCHANG, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Laura Dahlmeier of Germany became the first double gold medalist by winning the women's biathlon 10 km pursuit while strong wind delayed the women's giant slalom event in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Monday.
The 10km pursuit title was Dahlmeier's second after she previously bagged women's 7.5km sprint gold. The German biathlete clocked 30 minutes and 35.3 seconds to win the third biathlon gold for Germany, beating Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia to second place in 31:04.7.
Dahlmeier said: "It feels really great, it's amazing. I don't know what to say because I felt really, really tired before the race and also during the race in the first laps. I just tried to stay focused and now I'm here again."
The 24-year-old Dahlmeier became the first biathlete to win both the women's sprint and pursuit in a single Winter Olympics.
"It's so great because one year before I was also here and I won the classic race and I was also racing the last loop because there was nobody close," Dahlmeier added.
Anais Bescond of France got the bronze in 31:04.9.
High wind continued to hit the mountainous region of South Korea as the women's giant slalom event was delayed after the men's downhill had been postponed in the previous day. Both will be contested Thursday but on different hills.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it would never "take a decision that would put into jeopardy the safety of athletes", and that the frigid temperatures and gusty winds will moderate later in the week.
In figure skating, Canada grabbed its first gold medal at the Olympics in the team event with strong and balanced performances from all disciplines.
Canada took the lead in the team standings since the opening day on Friday and scored 73 points for the title. The defending champions, Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR), won the silver medal with 66 points and the United States took home their second bronze medal in the event with 62 points. Italy settled for fourth and Japan fifth.
Rebounding from a tumbling short program, the Sochi silver medalist Patrick Chan earned his first-ever Olympic gold medal by helping Canada to secure the lead in the team standings with a season best 179.75 points in men's free skating.
"We saw the potential we had in Sochi and didn't capitalize on it. This time we really want to nail it into the coffin and win this thing. It's such an exhilarating feeling because we're such a tight-knit team," Chan said.
In the women's ice hockey tournament, the unified Korea team was crushed by Sweden 8-0. With two straight losses, the prospect for the unified Korean team, the first of its kind in the Olympic history, to reach the playoffs has become murkier.
On the same day, IOC President Thomas Bach said he will visit DPR Korea after the PyeongChang Games. Bach will make the visit on the DPR Korea's invitation as part of an agreement between the IOC, DPR Korea and South Korea.
In the Gangneung Oval, speed skater Ireen Wust made history and became the first Dutch athlete to win five gold medals with the women's 1,500m victory.
Elsewhere, Mikael Kingsbury of Canada won the freestyle skiing men's moguls, Maren Lundby of Norway claimed women's ski jumping normal hill individual gold, while American Jamie Anderson defended her title in a delayed women's snowboard slopestyle final.
Germany now leads the medals table with four golds, followed by the Netherlands on three.
