SOCHI, Russia (AP) ― Through 17 years of grueling practices, of defeats and victories, Meryl Davis and Charlie White insist they’ve never considered parting ways.

A perfect pairing, they were nearly flawless at the Sochi Olympics, and on Monday they became the first Americans to win an ice dance gold medal.

“The closest we came to breaking up, I can’t pinpoint one because there hasn’t been one,” Davis, 27, said. “Certainly there have been struggles. It hasn’t been easy to get where we are. ... It’s a partnership which I couldn’t have asked for more.

“Charlie and I are very different. We used those difference to balance it out. There has never been a moment of doubt.”

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada, the 2010 champions, took silver, while bronze went to Russia’s Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov.

Davis and White won silver in Vancouver, but in the four years since they have overtaken the Canadians, their training partners in Detroit under Russian coach Marina Zoueva.

The reigning world champs scored 116.63 points in the free dance to finish with 195.52, 4.53 ahead of Virtue and Moir.

“No athletes like it to sit in this position,” Moir said. “We came here to win the competition. But it’s easier when we see them and know how hard these guys work.”

When their program to “Sheherazade” ended with White on a knee, Davis rested her head on his back in exhausted elation. The two started skating together in 1997 in Michigan, and on the biggest day of their career, they performed just as they had visualized it.

Domracheva takes biathlon gold

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia (AP) ― Darya Domracheva is so light-footed on her skis, her rivals have started comparing her with a dancer.

Without losing rhythm, the Belarussian eased to her third victory at the Sochi Games by winning the 12.5-kilometer mass start race on Monday, completing an unprecedented haul of three gold medals in women’s biathlon at one Olympics.

“Maybe it’s strange, but I don’t feel like I’ve done something special,” Domracheva said. “I just tried to enjoy myself and I did my race with a laugh. But for sure, it’s amazing.”

Domracheva is also expected to compete in the mixed and the women’s team relays, but Belarus is not among the favorites for gold in either race. High on confidence after wins in the pursuit and individual races last week, Domracheva took the lead after four minutes in Monday’s race and stayed ahead of the field after the first shooting. She missed one target before finishing in 35 minutes, 25.6 seconds.

Germany bags ski-jumping gold

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia (AP) ― With the gold medal on the line, Severin Freund made his final jump, then hoped it would be enough to give Germany victory in the team large hill ski jumping competition Monday at the Sochi Olympics.

Flying off the hill was the easy part.

“I thought only about what I had to do,” Freund said. “The worst part of it was to wait. It seemed to me that the waiting (for the final score) was very, very long.”

When the result flashed up on the scoreboard at the RusSki Gorki Jumping Center, Germany had edged Austria by 2.7 points. That ended Austria’s lengthy winning streak in the event ― it had won gold in the last two Olympics and hadn’t lost a team large hill competition since the 2005 world championships.