Ole Einar Bjoerndalen on Wednesday helped Norway win the biathlon mixed relay title and fulfilled his own dream to become the most-medaled winter Olympian in history.

It was Bjoerndalen's 13th medal, one over his compatriot and previous record holder Bjoern Daehlie.

Watched by Norwegian King Harald V and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, the 40-year-old veteran teamed up with Tora Berger, Tiril Eckhoff and Emil Hegle Svendsen to dominate the mixed team's debut at the Olympics, beating the Czech Republic and Italy.

Norway also won the women's cross-country team sprint with Finland on second place and Sweden third.

With nine golds, four silver and seven bronzes to its belt, Norway tops the gold tally with Germany second on eight golds and the United States third on seven.

Day 12 also witnessed US world champion Ted Ligety win the men's giant slalom and beat two Frenchmen into second and third place.

"This is the event I wanted the most," said Ligety.

The Netherlands, which has had four clean sweeps of medals in speed skating, was beaten in the women's 5,000m as world record holder Martina Sablikova kept her title for the Czech Republic, avenging her 3,000m defeat by Ireen Wust of the Netherlands, who had to settle for silver.

Dutch Carien Kleibeuker took the bronze.

Finland ended its gold drought in Sochi on Wednesday, thanks to Livo Niskanen and Sami Jauhojaervi, who took the women's cross-country team sprint gold.

Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse from Canada defended their women's bobsled title, beating Elana Meyers and Lauryn Williams from the United States into second place.

Another American Jamie Greubel and Aja Evans won the bronze.

Williams, 100m sprint silver medalist in the 2004 Olympics and part of the US team which won the 4x100m relay gold in the 2012 Olympics, is the first woman to medal in both summer and winter Olympics.

She is only the second person in history to medal in summer and winter Games, after American Eddie Eagan, who won a boxing medal at the 1920 Summer Games and a four-man bobsled medal at the 1932 Winter Games.

Russian Vic Wild won the men's snowboard parallel giant slalom while the women's gold went to Switzerland's Patrizia Kummer.

To Russia's great disappointment, the host team crashed out of the Olympic hockey tournament, losing 3-1 to Finland in a quarter-final.

Finland will take on Sweden, a 5-0 winner over Slovenia on Wednesday, for a spot in the gold-medal game.