Italian luge maestro Armin Zoeggeler did it again and repeated his 2002 Olympic victory in Salt Lake City, beating his Russian opponent Albert Demtschenko. With luge's minimal margins, in the fourth and final run, Demtschenko was actually 0.124 seconds adrift but ended up with the silver. Another happy Italian was cross country skier Pietro Piller Cottrer, who took a bronze medal in the men's 30 km pursuit. In alpine the Italian skiers had a poor day, with Kristian Ghedina and his teammates a long way behind the medallists, all beaten by the French surprise winner Antione Deneriaz.