After 11 days of Olympics, Russian team is coming fourth

By now, Russia has 4 Gold, 5 Silver, and 3 Bronze medals.

Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat earned France their first Olympic gold medal in ice dancing on Monday, winning a split decision over the Russian team by a closely scruntinised judging panel.

The judging panel split five-four in the French duo's favour, with Russia's Irina Lobacheva celebrating her 29th birthday in style by winning silver with husband Ilia Averbukh.

In Women`s figure skating, coach Alexei Mishin believes the women's competition is one

of the strongest ever.

Assessing the field, he rated Kwan as the most polished, Sasha Cohen the most exciting and Sarah Hughes the most steady. Turning from the Americans to the Russians, Mishin said Irina

Slutskaya was the most powerful and Maria Butyrskaya the most sexy and sophisticated.

"Whoever shows their best quality and makes no mistakes will win," Mishin said.

The Russians captured the other four first place votes for their freedance, designed as a remembrance of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

In women's biathlon, Germany held on to their 30-kilometre team relay title with a winning time of 1hr 27min 55sec. Norway were second, 30.6sec back with Russia third 1:24.7 behind.

Russia have sent a letter of protest to the head of the International Ski Federation (FIS), claiming that biased judging denied freestyle skier Olga Koroleva an Olympic gold medal in the women's aerials event on Monday.

Koroleva was leading after the first jump of the final, but had a low score in the second and was edged out of the medals, finishing fourth.