SALT LAKE CITY, Feb 17: Norwegians grabbed the Olympic spotlight Saturday when Kjetil Andre Aamodt and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen roared to historic gold medals, finally pushing the figure skating controversy that had consumed the Games into the background.

With the first week hijacked by the pairs judging scandal, the two soft-spoken Norwegians put the focus back on the competition with a pair of Olympic record performances.

On a brilliant sun-kissed morning at Soldiers Hollow, Bjoerndalen etched his name in the Olympic history books.

He became the first biathlete to capture three gold medals at a single Games when surged to victory in the 12.5 km pursuit.

Less than two hours later in Snowbasin, the evergreen Aamodt added to his credentials as one of the greatest Olympians of all-time when he took the super-G, collecting his second gold of the Games and a record seventh career Olympic Alpine skiing medal.

Aamodt also won the combined event on Wednesday and narrowly missed out on yet another medal when he finished fourth in last weekend’s downhill.

After Saturday’s victories, Norway top the medals table with seven golds.

It was another bitterly disappointing day on the mountain for the all-conquering Austrians.

Having dominated the World Cup ski circuit, the Austrians, led by Stephan Eberharter, were expected to mine plenty of gold from the Wasatch Mountains.

But once again the Austrians were left to settle for silver and bronze, Eberharter taking second and Andreas Schifferer third.

As the Games enter the middle weekend the Austrians can count just one gold in the medal standings, that by Fritz Strobl in the men’s downhill.

Despite missing two of his 20 targets in the shooting and taking the subsequent penalty loops, Bjoerndalen was never in trouble, capturing his third gold in 32 minutes 34.6 seconds, 43 seconds ahead of French World Cup leader Raphael Poiree who won the silver.

Each time Bjoerndalen hit one of his 20 targets the sell-out crowd, aware that his shooting can sometimes be erratic, cheered wildly and when he finished he kissed his skis, waved his poles at the grandstand and warmly hugged his two coaches.

Bjoerndalen was a heavy pre-race favourite given his victories in the 20 km on Monday and the 10 km sprint on Wednesday.

The performance of the two Norwegians helped inject some of the fun back into a Games that had been sidetracked for most of the opening week by a judging controversy sparked by a second place finish by Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier in the pairs competition behind Russia’s Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.

The scandal peaked Friday when the Canadians were awarded a second gold medal but the controversy refused to disappear completely.