Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Sweden today won its first two Olympic gold medals since 1994 as the women's and men's teams took the cross-country relays in Turin, Italy. U.S. skier Bode Miller leads after the first stage of the men's combined.

Lina Andersson, second in the world cup standings, began the sweep by beating Canada's Beckie Scott by 0.60 seconds to share the gold with top-ranked Anna Dahlberg. About 20 minutes later, Bjorn Lind passed Norway's Tor Arne Hetland in the final 25 meters to share the title with Thobias Fredriksson.

``I never believed in the gold medal before I crossed the line,'' Dahlberg told reporters. ``I was tired in the last 50 meters.''

Germany won its second men's biathlon title when Sven Fischer, in his 14th season, got his first individual gold medal to dethrone Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. Norway tops the standings with 11 medals midway through the fourth day of competition, Russia has eight and the U.S. is another two back. The U.S. leads with four gold medals.

Sweden used the same tactic in both relay races, staying behind the pack before catching up in the last handoff. Finland took the bronze in the women's event, while Russia was third among the men.

``We had said to each other that we should ski with not so much power, so we would be as strong as possible in our last laps,'' Andersson said.

Setting the Pace

Miller bounced back from a fifth-place finish in the men's downhill two days ago by taking a 0.32 second over Switzerland's Didier Defago going into the evening's slalom runs. Italy's Peter Fill is third.

Second in the combined at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Miller is now the favorite to help the U.S. to its first men's alpine skiing gold medal since Tommy Moe won the downhill in 1994.

``I haven't really had a great slalom all year but I think it's ready to happen,'' Miller told reporters. ``My balance is better, my equipment is better and last time I was on this slalom hill here, I won by a second or so.''

Benjamin Raich, the 27-year-old world combined champion and pre-race favorite, finished more than two seconds back in 13th after the first stage. Italy's Giorgio Rocca, a slalom specialist, is three seconds behind Miller.

Defending champion Kjetil Andre Aamodt withdrew from the event with a knee injury and plans to focus on retaining his Super-G title next week.

Straight Aim

Fischer was perfect in his two rounds of shooting to beat Norwegian pair Halvard Hanevold and Frode Andresen in 26 minutes, 11.60 seconds. Fischer had won five previous Olympic medals, though none were individual gold.

Bjoerndalen, chasing his sixth Olympic gold, finished outside the top 10 as he missed three shots. He lost his 20- kilometer title three days ago to Germany's Michael Greis.

World champion Wang Li of China goes for the gold today in speedskating's 500 meters, and Germany looks for a sweep in the women's luge on a track that's left four athletes injured.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ravi Ubha at the Winter Olympics in Turin through the London office on at rubha@bloomberg.net