Heather Bergsma wins World Cup race after rival crashes

Aksel Lund Svindal wins first race in nearly 2 years (video)U.S. speed skater Heather Bergsma won her first World Cup race of the Olympic season, but it came after the top skater this fall crashed in Calgary on Saturday.

Bergsma, the reigning world 1000m and 1500 champion, clocked 1:13:37 to prevail by .33 of a second over Russian Yekaterina Shikhova.

After posting her leading time, the two-time Olympian Bergsma watched as Japanese favorite Nao Kodaira hit the ice and slid into padding in the final pair (video here).

Kodaira, who had won all six World Cup 500m and 1000m races this season, eventually got up and finished her race. She was a half-second faster than Bergsma after the first 200m…