U.S. Strikes First In Gold Medal Count

SOCHI, Russia (AP) — The U.S. has won two medals on the first day of medal competition at the Winter Olympics.

Idaho's Sage Kotsenburg won the first gold medal of the 2014 Games, taking first in the men's snowboarding slopestyle. Kotsenburg had a score of 93.50 to edge Staale Sandbech of Norway. Mark McMorris of Canada, who barely made the finals, took bronze.

Kotsenburg won the gold with one trick he'd never tried before and another that included a self-invented grab of the board he named the "Holy Crail." The 20-year-old jetted off the first big jump of the slopestyle course and whirled around for 3 1/2 rotations while flipping twice. All the while, he was grabbing the front of his board with one hand and the nose of the board with the other. At the bottom, he helicoptered through 4 1/2 rotations, while grabbing his board and flexing it behind his back.

In women's moguls Hannah Kearney won the bronze. She finished with a score of 21.49, placing her behind Canadian sisters Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe. Justine, at 19 the younger of the two, claimed the gold with a score of 22.44, while 22-year old Chloe earned the silver with a 21.66.