Comeback figure skating stars Shen Xue/Zhao Hongbo made history for China in the Pacific Coliseum with victory in pair skating while Didier Defago kept Swiss' expectations to win the men's downhill event at Whistler Creekside on Monday.

In free skating Monday evening, Shen/Zhao, two time Olympic bronze medalists, scored a personal best of 139.91 points to take the title with a total of 216.57, thus becoming the first ever non-European couple to be crowned in Olympic pairs free skating history.

The wife and husband's gold was China's first from figure skating in Winter Olympics and it is also the first time in 46 years that the Olympic top podium of pairs missed Russian skaters.

"This is our fourth Olympics. We made a come-back to give it our last shot at gold. Words cannot describe how I feel right now. I just want to cry. It is a dream," said Shen Xue.

But the best performance of the night came from their teammates Pang Qing/Tong Jian, who made it one-two for China.

Skating to The Impossible Dream from The Man of La Mancha, Pang/Tong proved there is no such thing as an impossible dream. They nailed the double Axel-double Axel sequence, the triple toe, the throw triple jumps, loop and Salchow, and produced difficult lifts.

The couple gained confidence as the routine progressed and at the end they had won over the crowd of 11,350, which gave them a standing ovation.

Pang/Tong scored a personal-best 213.31 to jump from fourth after the short program to second place, fulfilling their quest for an Olympic medal in their third and most probably final games.

German pair Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy finished third in the pair skating.

In men's downhill which was re-scheduled from Saturday to Monday due to the mix of warm temperatures, heavy snowfall, rain and fog that have wreaked havoc with the Alpine schedule, Defago had an error-free run on the Dave Murray course to win in one minute, 54.31 seconds--becoming the first Swiss skier to win the event since Pirmin Zurbriggen claimed gold at the 1988 Calgary Games.

Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway took silver at 1:54.38 and Bode Miller of the United States had the bronze with a time of 1:54.40.

Swiss favourites Didier Cuche, leading the World Cup downhill standings with two wins this season, and Carlo Janka, also from Switzerland, second in the standings with two wins as well, finished 6th and 11th.

Defago has just one World Cup downhill podium this season and had to battle in training just to make the Swiss Olympic Game downhill team.

In men's 500m speedskating race, mal-functioning of ice re-surfacing machine delayed the start of the race. After the first 10 pairs skated the opening race, there was a long delay while officials tried to repair the machines. After it finally went ahead, South Korean skater Mo Tae-bum won the gold in one minute 9.82 seconds.

Mo posted the second-best time of the opening race, then blazed around the track in 34.90 seconds in the second heat for the title, the only gold for South Korea out of short track speed skating in winter Olympics.

Japanese skaters Keiichiro Naga Shima and Joji Kato finished second and third respectively.

In men's snowboard cross event, Seth Westcott of the United States defended his Olympic title, overtaking Mike Robertson of Canada to win the gold medal.

He is the second person to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in snow board after Philipp Schoch of Switzerland took the title in the Parallel Giant Slalom in 2002 and 2006.

Other two gold medals of the day were decided in cross country skiing, with Charlotte Kalla taking the women's 10km free and Dario Cologna from Switzerland winning the men's 15km free.

In women's ice hockey on Monday, Canada beat Switzerland 10-1 and Sweden thwarted Slovakia 6-2.

(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2010)