Anna Odine Stroem wins her 2nd gold at Milan Cortina in Olympic debut of women's large hill ski jump

PREDAZZO, Italy — Anna Odine Stroem made the Olympic debut of women's large hill ski jumping a night to remember for Norway.

Stroem sailed to her second gold medal of the Milan Cortina Games as Norway took the top two spots, with Eirin Maria Kvandal winning silver. Slovenian favorite Nika Prevc settled for bronze.

Stroem said she hadn’t dared to believe she would leave the Olympics with two gold medals and a silver as she praised her team and Kvandal.

“It’s been an unbelievable championship for me. I don’t think much can top this,” Stroem said. “We’ve pushed each other all the way, and now we’ve pushed each other to the top of the podium.”

Women’s ski jumping on the normal hill was first included in the 2014 Sochi Games but until this year, the contest on the large hill had been limited in the Olympics to men.

“These girls — 10 or 15 years ago — had to fight against resistance in the ski jumping system just to be allowed to compete,” said Norway's Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, who watched the event. “And now they’re jumping like this. It’s impressive, and it’s exactly how it should be.”

Stroem won with a final jump of 132 meters (433 feet). Kvandal's jump was 133.5 meters (438 feet), but Stroem made up for it in style points from the judges and compensation points for wind.

The three jumpers on the podium have amassed a lot of hardware at the Predazzo Ski Jumping Stadium.

Stroem won gold on the normal hill, edging out Prevc, who comes from a famous ski jumping family.

They reversed positions on the podium in the mixed team event with Prevc and her brother, Domen, winning gold with Anze Lanisek and Nika Vodan. Stroem and Kvandal shared silver in the mixed team event with Marius Lindvik and Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal.

Prevc is the defending world champion on both hills, the world record holder for the longest jump by a woman and the defending World Cup champion. She holds a significant lead in this season's standings.

But she struggled to hit the big jumps she’s known for — a problem she also had on the normal hill.

After the first round on the large hill, Prevc was fifth behind four Norwegians.

Kvandal, a two-time world champion, led. Stroem was second and Silje Opseth was behind her.

Prevc was able to overcome the third- and fourth-place jumpers, but couldn't make up for the point deficit after her first jump to climb above third.

The two medals gave Norway 26 in these Games, four more than second-place Italy. Norway also leads in gold medals with 12 to Italy’s eight.

It was the first ski jumping competition in this Olympics without a Japanese athlete on the podium. Nozomi Maruyama, who won bronze in the normal hill and in mixed team, finished eighth.

As the Norwegians celebrated, a weeping Prevc got a bear hug from her father, a ski jumping referee.

Prevc will leave this Olympics with a gold, silver and bronze. She became the first sister to join a brother — two in her case — to have won Olympic medals in the sport.

She followed in the footsteps of her brothers, Peter, a four-time Olympic medalist who won gold in the mixed team jump four years ago in Beijing, and Cene, who shared a team silver with his brother in that Olympics.

She and Domen then became the first brother and sister to win a ski jumping medal at the same Olympics when they won the mixed team event.

Domen won the men's large hill on Saturday and will jump in the debut of the men's super team event Monday.