Wednesday's quirkiest story from the Sochi games also made Olympics history. Slovenia's Tina Maze and Switzerland's Dominique Gisin finished the women's downhill skiing course with identical times of 1 minute, 41.57 seconds.
So what happened? They each got a gold medal, no one got a silver and a third skier got a bronze. Dual Olympic golds had never before been awarded in women's downhill.
The last Olympic skiing tie happened back in 1998 at the Nagano games, when two male skiers each got silver medals. The last gold medal tie came in 2002 when two Norwegian men split first place in the 30-kilometer skiathlon, according to Bloomberg. Suffice it to say, this is uncommon. So Maze and Gisin's historic split leads to many bizarre little factoids and follow up questions, which we'll unpack here.
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The downhill tie set up a seriously bizarre photo situation at the medal podium. In the image below, we see both Maze and Gisin atop the podium in the gold-medal-winners' spot, while bronze medal winner Lara Gut of Switzerland (who lost by just a tenth of a second) looks on from the lowered tier to their left. The silver spot to Maze and Gisin's right is noticeably empty. This is a podium arrangement we likely won't see again for a long, long time so really make sure to drink that image in, folks. Just drink. It. In.

Gold medalists Dominique Gisin of Switzerland (left) and Tina Maze of Slovenia celebrate after the women's downhill skiing competition at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, on Feb. 12. Bronze medalist Lara Gut of Switzerland looks on
Image: Adam Pretty/Getty Images
The plot thickens, too — it's possible Maze and Gisin would not have even "tied" in the first place if the Olympics relied on a more precise system of measuring time. The Olympics has a contract with a company called Swiss Time, which keeps official time for the games' many timed events. Swiss Timing Vice President Daniel Baumat told The New York Times that, if required, they could probably determine a winner between Maze and Gisin.
“There is a more precise number, to the 10,000th," Baumat said. "But the rule is to report to the hundredths. We follow the rule."
Making the gold medals sweeter for both Maze and Gisin was the fact that the two skiers have been friends for years, even holding hands as they took the podium together.
"I'm sure glad I'm going to share this gold with Tina," Gisin said. "She's such a great woman and one of the greatest athletes of our sport."
Both also have borderline-supernatural histories with ties in their careers — especially considering Wednesday's was an Olympics first. According to ESPN, Wednesday was just the third major downhill victory of Gisin's career, but two of those have now been ties. She also split a World Cup win in 2009, which was the last time a women's downhill race ended in a tie. Maze, meanwhile, was one-third of a three-way tie at a World Cup event in 2002.

Switzerland's Dominique Gisin reacts after the Women's Alpine Skiing Downhill at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Center during the Sochi Winter Olympics on February 12, 2014.
Image: Alexander Klein/AFP/Getty Images
Fear not — Maze and Gisin won't have to physically share their shared gold medal. Each gets one of their very own. But since all Olympic medals come with an event-specific inscription, where does that extra medal come from?
The Wall Street Journal did some digging early Wednesday to find out. The full story is well worth a read, but here are some of the major takeaways. Olympic organizers plan ahead by stocking up on extra medals; this year, there are 46 extras. Engraving, washing, coating and varnishing the second gold with its unique event information will take at least 15 hours. And that silver medal no one claimed? It'll find a happy home at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Tina Maze of Slovenia kisses the ground after her run during the Alpine Skiing Women's Downhill on day 5 of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at Rosa Khutor Alpine Center on February 12, 2014 in Sochi, Russia.
Image: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images