South Korean Lee Sang Hwa won Asia's first gold medal at the Sochi Olympic Games as she retained the women's 500m speed skating title, while Norway topped the medal table after sweeping the Nordic skiing sprints.
Lee, 24, the world record holder, totaled 74.70 seconds from two runs, beating Russian Olga Fatkulina into second place by 0.36. Margot Boer from the Netherlands took the bronze in 75.48, 0.1 ahead of fourth-placed Chinese Zhang Hong.
China's top sprinter Wang Beixing, bronze medalist at the Vancouver Games, only managed a seventh finish.
Lee is only the third woman to become a repeat Olympic speed skating champion in the 500m, after Bonnie Blair of the United States and Catriona Le May Doan of Canada.
Norway's Maiken Caspersen Falla clocked 2:35.49 to win the Nordic skiing women's sprint free final and Norway's 100th cross-country medal, beating her teammate Ingvild Flugstad and Oestberg Slovenia's Vesna Fabjan.
The men's sprint was won by Norway's Ola Vigen Hattestad, who clocked three minutes 38.39 seconds, beating Sweden's Teodor Petersen and Emil Joensson.
Tora Berger was close to winning one more gold for Norway in the women's 10km biathlon pursuit. She was beaten by Darya Domracheva of Belarus.
Teja Gregorin of Slovenia finished third.
Shaun White's hope of winning a third men's snowboard half pipe was dashed as he finished fourth with 90.25 points.
The American won at Turin and Vancouver but fell twice during his first run. He could not pull out the clutch performance he needed even though he finished the qualification round with the highest score.
Switzerland's Iouri Podladtchikov, who competed for Russia in Turin, scored 94.75 points for the gold. Two young Japanese riders, Ayumu Hirano and Taku Hiraoka finished second and third respectively.
"It's hard to be consistent," White said. "Tonight was just not my time."
Dara Howell won Canada's fourth gold from the women's slopestyle, scoring a spectacular 94.20 on her first run.
Germany also took two golds, through Natalie Geisenberger in the women's luge singles and Garina Vogt from the women's ski jump.
Another German, Tatjana Huefner, who came to Sochi as reigning champion in the women's luge, was second, while Erin Hamlin of the United States placed third.
It was a dream come true for the 26-year-old Geisenberger, who had already won the world championship three times.
Vogt's victory was special since the women's ski jump was debuting in the Olympics. She scored 247.4 points, 1.2 points ahead of Daniela Iraschko-Stolz of Austria. France's Coline Mattel took the bronze.
After four days competition, Norway topped the medal standings with four gold, three silver and four bronze, followed by Canada on 4-3-2 and Germany on 4-1-0.
