Early surprises in Olympic results
Lake Placid, N.Y.
After the first full day of Winter Olympics competition, Leonhard Stock and Peter Wimsberger of Austria took the gold and silver medals in the men's downhill ski event. Steve Podborski of Canada took the bronze. Stock, who came to the Winter Olympics as a reserve and made his team only during practice runs, captured the gold medal in only his second downhill race of the year.
In a surprise show of strength, Annie Borckink and Ria Visser of the Netherlands took the gold and silver medals in the women's 1,500-meter speed-skating event. Third was Sabina Becker of East Germany.
Nikolai Zimyatov and Vasili Rochev of the Soviet Union took the gold and silver medals in the 30-kilometer cross-county skiing. The bronze went to Ivan Lebanov of Bulgaria.
American hopes for the day were dashed when speed skater Beth Heiden; cross-county skier Bill Koch, who won a silver medal in this event in 1976; and downhill racer Karl Anderson finished out of the running. The 1980 Olympic team is considered the best ever fielded by the United States, but ironically, it didn't start out so well as the US team at Innsbruck in 1976, which won two silver medals on opening day.