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Sasha Cohen, center, fell twice and got silver. Irina Slutskaya, right, fell once and won bronze. Shizuka Arakawa stayed vertical her entire program — guess what color her medal was.

It was a huge victory for the U.S. team, as the 30-year-old Fletcher and 22-year-old Michelle Gorgone were considered long shots to make it to the medal stand.

Gorgone never made it to the finals, getting spun around coming past a gate on her qualifying run, a mistake that cost her too much time.

Women's biathlon 4x6km Relay
Russia upset two-time defending Olympic champion Germany in the women’s 4x6km biathlon relay, and they did it without banished star Olga Pyleva.

Anna Bogaliy started in place of Pyleva, the only athlete caught so far in the tightest drug net in Winter Olympics history. Bogaliy gave her team a big lead at the first exchange and the Russians never trailed.

With target shooting so precise that the powerhouse Germans had no real chance to close the gap, Bogaliy, Svetlana Ishmouratova, Olga Zaitseva and Albina Akhatova covered the San Sicario course in 1 hour, 16 minutes, 12.5 seconds.

Germany’s star-studded team of Martina Glagow, Andrea Henkel, Katrin Apel and Kati Wilhelm — but which didn’t include Uschi Disl, second in the World Cup standings — finished 50.7 seconds behind for the silver, and France overtook Belarus for the bronze.

The Americans took 15th place, finishing more than 9 minutes off the pace in Rachel Steer’s final Olympic race. America’s best female biathlete, Steer is retiring at age 28 after the World Cup season concludes next month.

Bringing back three of the four biathletes from the gold-medal winning 2002 team, the Germans were the favorite to capture this event again, especially after Pyleva was throw out of the games and stripped of her silver medal last week for using a banned stimulant.

Women's curling
The Swedish women’s curling team rock ’n’ rolled its way to another heavy medal — this one Olympic gold.