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MEDAL COUNT
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/2006/medals/tracker/
COUNTRY Total Medals Gold Silver Bronze
Germany 29 11 12 6
United States 25 9 9 7
Canada 24 7 10 7
Austria 23 9 7 7
Russia 22 8 6 8
Norway 19 2 8 9
Switzerland 14 5 4 5
Sweden 13 6 2 5
South Korea 11 6 3 2
Italy 11 5 0 6
China 11 2 4 5
France 9 3 2 4
Netherlands 9 3 2 4
Finland 8 0 5 3
Czech Republic 4 1 2 1
Estonia 3 3 0 0
Croatia 3 1 2 0
Australia 2 1 0 1
Poland 2 0 1 1
Ukraine 2 0 0 2
Japan 1 1 0 0
Belarus 1 0 1 0
Bulgaria 1 0 1 0
Great Britain 1 0 1 0
Slovakia 1 0 1 0
Latvia 1 0 0 1
Quite a contrast between the "memorable performances" of those real olympians,
and others who gave it their ultimate best - - compared to jerk Bode!!!
The 50km "Ultimate Test" takes its toll on the participants....
Racers lay exhausted at the end of the Mens Cross Country Skiing 50km Mass Start Final on Day 16, February 26, 2006.
Bode could take a few lessons from a pro....
Hobbling off the ice, dazed and wounded, Jagr looked irritated by the entire Olympic experience. He could have hopped the first flight back to New York and the Rangers undoubtedly would have protected him.
Instead, Jagr returned for the next game against Italy, with a swollen left eyelid and nine stitches over his eyebrow.
That image may define this year's tournament. While the American superstar Mike Modano has bolstered stereotypes about millionaire professional athletes, Jagr has bucked them. Modano lambasted U.S.A. Hockey on Wednesday and skipped a voluntary team meeting Thursday that every American player attended.
Jagr, by contrast, has played hurt and put on a happy face. He is becoming an unlikely example of the Olympic spirit.
Asked about his accommodations at the Olympic village, Jagr said: "Don't forget, I was born in the Czech Republic. It was a lot worse than this when I was smaller."
Absolutely! And I hope Bode and his attitude are well remembered for future olympics.
American Olympic officials have to do a better job of illuminating the difference between a fun house and a frat house.
Skating's best and worstBy John Zimmerman, Yahoo! Sports | February 25, 2006
After two weeks in Turin, I can say the new judging system works. Well, maybe. But at least more people seem to be getting comfortable with it.
Some still question whether the old political jockeying has been eliminated or if it is just cleverly disguised within the program component marks. The component mark is where judges grade a skater's interpretation and choreography.
Judges regularly watch practices. There's nothing wrong with that as they get a sense of what to look for in a performance, but it seems that a lot of these marks are determined before a skater even competes. The marks should be based on the skaters performance that night. A skater who normally skates with passion and speed may get nervous and skate a flat and uninspired performance. But it seems like the reputation of each skater predetermines their component marks.
The judges also seem to be holding back the components scores of competitors who skate early on. I witnessed some great skating in the earlier groups, but the judges' marks were conservative, almost as if they were waiting to see if later skaters would turn in better performances. This holding back of marks was probelm under the old 6.0 system that was supposed to be addressed. I will be eagerly waiting to see if this system will continue to evolve in the future. The legitimacy of the sport depends on it.
One deficiency of the new judging system is that all the skating programs are starting to look alike. The new system rewards certain moves, like pulling your skate blade to your head. We saw it on the lifts in pairs and dance, and the spins and spirals in ladies. Even some of the men were copying that move. The creativity of the choreographer is lost when skater after skater does the same move. It might be easier to judge, but it is boring to watch.
Below are a few of the Olympic figure skating highlights:
The throw triple Axel: Rena Inoue and John Baldwin landed this incredibly difficult throw in their short program and in the process made Olympic history. I was surprised when John told me it was the first time they had ever put the throw triple Axel in their short program. It takes guts to try such a risky element in the short, where everything needs to be perfect. I have total respect for that.
Dan Zhang's courageous comeback: Dan took a wrenching fall on the throw quad Salchow – a jump only a few pairs even attempt. She came through with an amazing performance to win the silver medal. Credit should also go to her partner Hao Zhang, who composed himself and carried them to victory.
Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto's silver medal: I am so proud of these two. They have put ice dancing back on the map and have positioned themselves for the gold in 2010. They demonstrated what it means to be dedicated to a sport.
The Olympic spirit: What I love most about the Olympics is the solidarity and respect the athletes have for each other. When you come back to the village, the atmosphere of friendship and peace makes you understand what the Olympics are all about: achieving ones best in accordance to de Coubertine's values.
Here are a couple lowlights:
Low turnout for the pairs' event: I was shocked at the lack of attendance during the pairs short program – the first skating event. It was embarrassing to see so many empty seats at an Olympic event. Apparently, the sponsors were out sightseeing for the first couple of days. This coupled with the fact that the ticket prices for Palavela were too high. The organizers started to sell tickets for all practices at twenty euros. This was the most affordable way a family could see great skating and some behind the scenes action. This was great for both the athletes and the audience.
Irina Slutskaya's tantrum: After the ladies' free skate, word was going around that Irina Slutskaya was so angry about her placement that she ended up throwing her bronze medal in the trash. Later reports confirmed this to be true. I know Irina to be a sweet and jovial person with a sincere personality. She was under considerable pressure with her and her mother's personal health matters and was bitterly disappointed with not winning the gold. I know she wanted to win very much, and got caught up in the emotions of such a pressured-filled event.
Golden oldies take the plaudits
By Karolos Grohmann
TURIN (Reuters) - A handful of speedskaters aged thirtysomething and a smiling Italian stole the show at the Oval Lingotto with memorable performances during the Turin Winter Olympics.
While a feud between Americans Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis was raging off the ice, Italian Enrico Fabris became his country's most successful Olympian at one Games with three medals.
Svetlana Zhurova, who had been trying to win a big title for over 14 years but always came up a little short, was close to retiring two years before the Games.
In the women's 500 metres, the 34-year-old Russian mother was in spectacular form, capping a long career with a surprise gold medal.
"Me? Me?" she asked seconds after completing her race, still unable to believe she had struck gold.
Dutch skater Marianne Timmer, in the twilight of a glittering career, pulled off another surprise in the 1,000.
Having failed spectacularly in Salt Lake City four years ago after winning two golds in the 1998 Nagano Games, Timmer posted the fastest time to win gold.
Her countryman, 32-year-old Bob de Jong, a silver medallist in the 10,000 in Nagano, outpaced favorite Chad Hedrick to give the thousands of Dutch fans more reason to celebrate.
Hedrick was left clutching his only gold medal in the 5,000 metres, after raising eyebrows with his claim he would win five.
German Claudia Pechstein, 34, led her country's assault on the first Olympic team pursuit title but lost out to 33-year-old Canadian Clara Hughes in the 5,000.
Her compatriot Cindy Klassen got into the record books becoming the most successful Canadian female athlete in one Olympics, with one gold, two silver and two bronze medals.
Davis cruised to victory in the 1,000.
ITALIAN GOLD
But it was Italian Enrico Fabris who drew the most cheers in the stadium. After winning a bronze in the 5,000 metres, he pushed his team to a gold medal in the pursuit before winning another gold in the 1,500.
"Enrico you are part of Italian sports history now," Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told the 24-year-old after he won his third medal.
Italy had found its hero of the Games.
If there was a medal for fans at the Games, the Dutch would also win gold. They were the heart and soul in the stands with their "Little Beer" band setting the tone.
They cheered every competitor, gave standing ovations when needed, fired on their own skaters and when the competition was done they just kept on singing, knowing at the end of the day that speedskating is just good, pure fun.
Updated on Sunday, Feb 26, 2006 4:34 am EST
Italy's di Centa wins gold with thrilling finish in men's 50km skate
By JANIE McCAULEY, AP Sports Writer
PRAGELATO, Italy (AP) -- What a way for Italy to end its Olympics!
Giorgio di Centa thrilled the host country with a gold medal in the final cross country race of the Turin Games, using an impressive sprint through the final stretch to separate from a big pack of skiers.
Di Centa finished in 2 hours, 6 minutes, 11.8 seconds, only eight-tenths of a second ahead of silver medalist Eugeni Dementiev of Russia -- a wild ending to the longest and most grueling event in cross country skiing, the 50km skate race.
It was a second gold medal for Di Centa, who was also was a member of Italy's winning foursome in the 4x10 relay Feb. 19.
Austria's Mikhail Botwinov took the bronze, a positive ending for the embattled Austrian cross country skiers and biathletes who were subjects of a doping investigation by the Italian authorities and International Olympic Committee.
The Russian-born Botwinov was involved with banned Austrian coach Walter Mayer four years ago at the Salt Lake City Olympics, where Botwinov won silver in the 30km.
Dementiev won the 30km pursuit race on the first day of competition, then had another strong day of skiing that fell just short of di Centa's brilliant push through the stadium.
His fellow Italian, Pietro Piller Cottrer made a move with about 5 kilometers left, briefly leaving a pack that stayed together out front for most of the competition. But Cottrer was closely chased by Jiri Magal of the Czech Republic and Magal then took the top spot.
Cottrer wound up fifth and Magal eighth.
Sergei Dolidovich of Belarus, one of 12 skiers suspended for high hemoglobin levels the first week of the games, had the lead heading into the final 10 kilometers. He was cleared to compete Saturday after failing two tests for high hemoglobin, the part of the red blood cell that can increase endurance.
The top 20 skiers were within 7 seconds of each other heading into the final 10 kilometers. About 40 skiers in the 82-man field were part of the leading pack by the midway point in the mass-start race.
The last time the event was conducted using free technique -- or skating -- was in the 1998 Nagano Olympics. The event featured classic skiing four years ago in Salt Lake City and there hasn't been a 50km skate race so far this World Cup season.
Norway's Frode Estil won this event using classical technique last year in Oberstdorf, Germany, but the Norwegians weren't considered favorites and surprisingly leave these Olympics without a cross country gold medal.
Updated on Sunday, Feb 26, 2006 6:34 am EST
Men set for ultimate test
By Gideon Long
PRAGELATO, Italy (Reuters) - The men's 50-km cross-country skiing race is to the Winter Olympics what the marathon is to the summer Games -- the ultimate endurance test which can reduce elite athletes to exhausted rag dolls.
On Sunday the race returns to the Olympics and promises to be as epic as ever.
Several dozen men will spend over two hours plowing up and down wooded tracks in the Italian Alps, trying to outwit and outski each other, possibly in mist and driving snow and undoubtedly in pain.
Italy's Giorgio Di Centa, Lukas Bauer of the Czech Republic, France's Vincent Vittoz and Mathias Fredriksson of Sweden are among the favorites, but this is a difficult race to call, partly because it is staged so infrequently.
Sunday's race is freestyle, but for most of its Olympic life, the 50-km race has been raced in the classical style, in which the athletes cannot skate.
Only in 1988, when it was won by Sweden's Gunde Svan, and in 1992 and 1998, when Norway's great Winter Olympian Bjoern Daehlie took the gold, has it been raced in freestyle.
LONG HISTORY
One way or the other, the event has been on the Winter Olympic program since the inaugural Games in Chamonix in 1924, when Norway swept the podium.
Four years later in St Moritz, the Swedes took all three medals, with Per Erik Hedlund winning by nearly 13 and a half minutes -- a record that still stands.
In 1932 it was staged in a raging blizzard at Lake Placid while in Calgary in 1988, officials thought one of the athletes had got lost and dispatched a search party to find him.
Mexico's Roberto Alvarez was eventually traced, still plodding around the Olympic course on his own. He finished nearly an hour and 20 minutes behind the winner.
Daehlie's victory in 1998 gave him the eighth gold medal of his career but, after beating Sweden's Niklas Jonsson by just 8.1 seconds, he described the race as the toughest of his life.
Four years ago in Salt Lake City, the 50-km race reverted to classical and was won by Johann Muehlegg, a German who skied for Spain after falling out with the German ski federation.
Later, however, Muehlegg tested positive for the banned substance darbepoetin and was stripped of his medal, which went to Mikhail Ivanov of Russia.
Sunday's race at Pragelato starts at 10:00 a.m. (0900 GMT) and is the penultimate event on the Olympic program.
It also gives Norway, the most successful nation in the discipline, a final chance to win a cross-country gold medal to salvage something from a disappointing Games.
Updated on Saturday, Feb 25, 2006 10:34 pm EST
Cauldron keepers tend Olympic fire
By Nelson Graves
TURIN (Reuters) - The keepers of the flame live in a hole and survive on cold cereal, crackers and baked beans.
Federico Fiorini pressed the green button that ignited the Olympic cauldron at the start of the Turin Games. On Sunday he will pull the bright yellow lever to snuff out the flame.
He and two colleagues have lived 10 feet underground to make sure the fire stays alit over Turin's skyline and on television sets around the world.
From offstage they play main roles in the ceremonies that opened and will close the Games before billions of TV viewers.
"Even if we're in a hole," Fiorini quipped during a visit to his damp digs.
The Olympic flame -- representing the sacred fire that Prometheus stole from the gods and gave to man -- burns atop a 20-storey-tall tangle of tubes that looks more giant cigarette than cauldron.
It is a far cry from the 1996 structure in Atlanta which some likened to a serving of McDonald's french fries.
Designed by Pininfarina, the firm that also sketched the Olympic torch, Turin's tower will remain as a symbol of the 20th Winter Games. But after Sunday it will never again burn.
'PRETTY EASY SYSTEM'
Fiorini and two colleagues from Horizon Three Industries monitor the gas that arrives in four thick pipes from the city's supply. It is then fed into 12 ducts that feed the flame at the tips of five twisting tubes and a sixth straight one.
Two control panels, each as big as a country manor's cupboard, house switches and computers that regulate the flame.
"Just like NASA," said Matt Lenz, sitting near the base of the beige tower that resembles a missile shaft.
Although the automatic valve system cost some 600,000 euros ($715,000) and the tubes can handle up to 8,000 cubic meters of gas per hour, Fiorini and Lenz are unimpressed.
"It's not a very big project for us," said Lenz.
That is just as well -- so far Turin has been able to avoid the fate of Salt Lake City, where the flame went dead for several hours during the 2002 Games.
With a push of a button on February 10, Fiorini lit the flame about five seconds after Italian former cross country skier Stefania Belmondo set off a string of fireworks inside the adjacent Olympic stadium.
He took his cue from a show call piped into the cinderblock bunker over a speaker near a box of Special K cereal.
On Sunday he will close three of four gas tubes, wait five minutes, then on cue just after 10 p.m. (2100 GMT) slowly pull a fourth lever to extinguish the flame.
"It's a pretty easy system," said Fiorini, who dismisses any suggestion he might be a bit nervous.
Above ground, Turin residents mix with foreigners taking pictures of the cauldron. They shrug off environmentalists' charges the flame is a waste of gas and money.
"Before, Turin was known only for Fiat and was considered a little Detroit," said Dino Savioli, a 50-year-old engineering professor from Turin. "Now it is known throughout the world."
Updated on Saturday, Feb 25, 2006 10:14 pm EST
Tragedy-hit US short-track star disqualified
TURIN, Italy (AFP) - US Olympic short-track speedskater Kimberly Derrick was disqualified in an emotional 1,000m quarter-final a day after the death of her grandfather.
Darrel Edwards, 74, died of an apparent heart attack while in Italy to watch her compete.
(AFP)
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"This was the most emotional day of my life," Derrick said. "I'm proud to be at the Olympics and at the same time my heart hurts so much."
Derrick was fighting back tears as she took the ice.
"When I got on the ice I was overcome by emotion but I knew I had to race," she said.
"That's what my grandfather would want me to do. He was my biggest fan, the one who held my hand when I was chasing my dream. He was and forever will be my pillar of strength."
Derrick, 20, took part in the 3,000m relay on Wednesday where the Americans came in fourth.
"I can't imagine how she feels but she is a really strong person," said US teammate Kim Hyo-Jung.
According to the US Olympic Committee, Edwards' daughters Holly Derrick, who is Kimberly's mother, and Patty Edwards were present at the time of his death.
"All of us at US Speedskating were heartbroken to learn of the passing of Kimberly's grandfather," executive director Katie Marquard said.
"Kimberly is a spectacular young woman who is not only a talented skater, but also a wonderful person and teammate.
"We are glad that her family members and teammates are here in Turin to offer her comfort.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family."
Updated on Saturday, Feb 25, 2006 6:56 pm EST
Canada plans on spending $300M plus for 2010.
Yes, that is true. USA gives $25k and some countries over $100k
Hays says goodbye; Germany's Lange slides to history
By TOM WITHERS, AP Sports Writer
CESANA, Italy (AP) -- His final race finished, Todd Hays rose from the bobsled and slowly swung his legs over the side.
Looking down, the brawny Texan paused.
This was his moment, the one to savor -- his last as an Olympian.
Once again there would be no gold medal for Hays or the U.S. team, but that was fine.
"I came to compete," Hays said. "I came to represent the United States. I did all those things. The only thing you can ask for in life is a chance. I had that."
Hays retired Saturday after finishing a distant seventh in four-man, more than a second behind Germany's Andre Lange, who pulled off a rare gold-medal sliding sweep at the Turin Olympics.
Taming the wicked 19-turn Alpine course like he was on a weekend joy ride with three friends, Lange and teammates Rene Hoppe, Kevin Kuske and Martin Putze finished in 3 minutes, 40.42 seconds.
Lange defeated Russian's Alexander Zoubkov (3:40.55) and Switzerland's Martin Annen (3:40.83), who won his second bronze of the games after finishing third in two-man.
The 32-year-old Lange is only the fifth driver to win both events in the same Olympics, and the first since Germany's Wolfgang Hoppe in 1984 at Sarajevo. The defending gold medal winner in four-man at Salt Lake City in 2002, Lange joined German Meinhard Nehmer (1976, 1980) as the only men to win back-to-back titles.
"I think he's one of the greatest athletes who has ever walked the planet," American crewman Pavle Jovanovic said.
Four years ago, Lange's closest competitor was Hays. In his final games, Hays wasn't even close.
The 36-year-old finished behind six sleds, including USA-2 driver Steve Holcomb, and ended his brilliant career as one of the most decorated American drivers, and another who came up short in pursuit of Olympic gold. The U.S. hasn't won in four-man since Francis Tyler at St. Moritz in 1948.
Hays is giving up bobsled, a sport he only took up after his dreams of playing professional football were snuffed out by a shoulder injury. He's planning a football comeback -- this time, as a coach.
He has already taught other American sliders well. Holcomb, still a relative novice steering a high-tech sled, finished sixth by outdriving Hays and appears ready to assume his more famous teammate's front spot in USA-1.
"I'm ecstatic," Holcomb said. "We came out here hoping to do well. I thought if I drove well, had a great push and great equipment, we could be fast. We finished sixth. I'm pretty happy with that."
Although he will never pilot a sled for the U.S. again, Hays has left behind a legacy for the American program to build upon. Before his silver-medal finish in 2002, the U.S. had not won an Olympic bobsled medal in 46 years.
Not long ago, the Americans were considered clowns on ice by Europe's sliding elite.
Not anymore. Hays, the badder-than-bad former kickboxing champion, has brought American bobsleds up to speed.
Jovanovic, who finished seventh with Hays in two-man, said his teammate's surprising announcement Friday that he was moving on took a while to sink in.
"I wasn't sure that he would actually officially say that," he said. "Now, it's become a reality. I thought he'd stick around for at least one more season, but I understand where he's coming from."
After two subpar runs on Friday that he blamed on his poor driving, Hays and his sliding mates, Jovanovic, Steve Mesler and Brock Kreitzburg, began the third run in seventh place, 0.49 seconds behind Lange and 0.32 from bronze.
With the sun setting quickly behind the Italian Alps, Hays, wearing a calf-length USA jacket, fixed his eyes down the track while trying to figure out where he could possibly gain time on the field.
Unlike the first two runs, Hays kept his shiny, black sled steady and didn't allow it to fishtail. However, despite making it down in 55.04 seconds on his third run, he lost time to five teams and only passed Holcomb -- briefly.
Hays' final Olympic run started with a shiver when Mesler's right foot slipped as climbed in. Hays made it down the mountain in 55.41, and as he pulled into the finish area, he flipped up his visor to see a clock that didn't show good news.
Still, he walked away satisfied.
"I got to put on the red, white and blue," Hays said. "I got to represent the greatest nation on earth. That is a fantastic thing. And I happened to be able to win a medal along with it."
Although he's in terrific shape, Hays says he's too old to compete in the 2010 games at Vancouver. However, plenty of other great athletes have called it quits and later changed their minds.
"I just don't think I can win a gold medal at 40," he said. "If I thought I could, I'd go give it a try. It's just time for me to move on, find another challenge. I'm not Michael Jordan or one of those guys. Retire's a pretty strong word. I think it's more like I've got to find something else to do."
Hays won't stray far from the track. He'll spend his time developing sleds, recruiting talent and fundraising for U.S. bobsled, a once foundering team that can now hold its own in the sliding world.
For that, Hays can take a bow.
"I love the sport," he said. "I had a great time."
Updated on Saturday, Feb 25, 2006 6:00 pm EST
With a Bronze, U.S. Team Sheds Obscurity
By REUTERS
PINEROLO, Italy, Feb. 25 (Reuters) — Once they were thought of as big, fat guys drinking beer. Now they are seen as winners.
The United States curlers came to the Winter Olympic Games as a strange breed.
They almost all came from the same small town in Minnesota. Their sport was almost never shown on television. Far from living off $1 million baseball contracts, they studied, worked in Home Depot or owned a pizzeria.
Over the last two weeks, they have won fame, huge television ratings, marriage proposals and their first Olympic medal, a bronze, after beating Britain, 8-6, on Friday.
"People thought curlers were big, fat guys, and we proved it takes an athlete to come out here and win," said Joe Polo, whose tight T-shirts have helped add sex appeal to curling's image.
"Bronze is like winning gold for us," the 23-year-old Polo said. "People now look at curlers as heroes."
Curling is probably the strangest sport in the Winter Games.
Competitors wearing slippery shoes slide up and down a carpet of ice, sweeping the surface smooth so rocks glide along to knock opponents' stones out of the target, called the house.
It is a popular pastime in the frozen climes of Canada, but one that is restricted to the more northern reaches of America.
"There's been lots of television coverage of the Olympics, which is great for curling," said Shawn Rojeski, 34, a member of the team. "We've had lots of e-mails — some wishing us luck, others offering marriage proposals and quite a few asking how to get into curling and where their nearest club is."
The sudden rise in interest in curling may have been fueled by a need for new stars after America's famous skiers and figure skaters fell short of expectations, or helped along by the good looks of the women's team. But for the men's team, it is recognition at last.
"Now people see that competitive curling of a high caliber is athletic, not just beer parties," said John Shuster, another curler. "It takes mental and physical strength."
The team has no athletic training program as such; the curlers just ride bikes, walk and try to eat well. They do not intend to change that after the Olympics and are just looking forward to getting home.
"A lot of people were at our curling clubs at 6 a.m. to watch this game," Polo said of the folks back home.
"I guess they got the grill going and did breakfast: bacon, eggs," he added, his voice trailing off and a homesick look in his eye.
Finland's Koivu Treasures This Moment, Win or Lose
By KAREN CROUSE
TURIN, Italy, Feb. 25 — Every stabbing pain, any dull ache, reminds Saku Koivu, the Finnish captain, that there is nothing as jarring as a reality check.
Koivu, who centers the top line for Finland, which plays Sweden on Sunday in the Olympic gold-medal game, was sidelined a few games last December with the stomach flu. "Scares you," he said on Saturday. "Scares you. That's when it hits you. That's when you kind of realize how lucky you are that you're still playing hockey, you're still living your life."
Koivu, 31, lost his ability to be cavalier about discomfort four years ago when he sought medical attention for what he surmised was a case of food poisoning. The diagnosis was stomach cancer.
He is now cancer-free, but not carefree. "Every time when you start getting little aches, a little pain, it's kind of funny how it never goes away," Koivu said, referring to his fear of a recurrence.
Once a year, Koivu submits to a battery of tests. Twice a year his blood is drawn. "For me, it's going to be five years in January," Koivu said. "So that's going to be the big one for me. Then, after that, I'm cancer-free in a way."
This has been a storybook Games for Finland, which has never won a World Cup championship or Olympic title in hockey and has lived for years — some might say centuries — in the shadow of Sweden, its more imposing, more populous neighbor.
Koivu, who is 5-foot-10 and 181 pounds, made his National Hockey League debut in 1995. Over the next few years he earned the respect, if not the reverence, of hard-to-please Canadiens fans. He earned the respect of his teammates, who voted him captain in 1999.
On Sept. 5, 2001, a few days before the opening of training camp, Koivu found out he had cancer. "It was terrifying to be diagnosed with a disease I knew little about," Koivu has said. He went through eight cycles of chemotherapy and lost his hair and virtually an entire season (he returned for the last three regular-season games and the Stanley Cup playoffs).
But he gained something, too. "I think before, the hockey was the biggest thing for him and nothing else," said his Finnish teammate, Teemu Selanne.
Koivu, the tournament leader with 11 points, agrees that he has changed.
"A lot of times people take life for granted and you don't have time and patience to really sit down and review your life," he said.
On Thursday, in a vote of 2,003 Olympians here, Koivu and Beckie Scott, a Canadian cross-country skier, were elected to the International Olympic Committee's Athlete's Commission. Koivu will not attend the induction ceremony on Sunday. He has a gold medal to chase.
"Who knows how it's going to go and if I'm going to enjoy it or not?" Koivu said. "But I'm very excited about it."
After the race, Hughes announced she was donating $10K to Right To Play. That's her own money as Canada does not reward their medalists.
Kick him off the Team!
Viewer's Guide: Today at the Games
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Events
ALL TIMES EASTERN
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
4 a.m. Men's 50K
HOCKEY
8 a.m. Men's gold medal
CLOSING CEREMONY
2 p.m. Start
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What to Look For
HOCKEY MEN'S FINAL
Finland is going for its first gold medal in men's hockey against Sweden, the team of its choice. "Obviously, if you were born in Finland, you want to play Sweden," Ville Nieminen, right, of Finland said. "That's the ultimate. The situation can't get any better, can't get more exciting." Sweden won the gold medal in 1994 at the Games in Lillehammer, Norway.
CLOSING CEREMONY
The traditional Italian carnival and circus are the themes, with more than 2,000 dancers, acrobats and clowns joining the opera singer Andrea Bocelli and the recording artists Ricky Martin and Avril Lavigne. Lavigne represents Canada, the host of the 2010 Vancouver Games. Mayor Sam Sullivan of Vancouver, who is quadriplegic, will use a modified electric wheelchair to unfurl the Olympic banner when it is presented to him.
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Today's Television
Prime-time and late-night sessions are E.S.T. and P.S.T.
8-11 a.m. NBC
MEN'S HOCKEY
Gold medal game, Sweden vs. Finland
4-6 p.m. NBC
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
Men's 50K Final
7-11 p.m. NBC
Closing ceremony
11:35-3:30 a.m. NBC
Prime-time replay
http://www.righttoplay.com/site/PageServer
USA has already raised $400,000
Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes in 5k m speed skating
I disagree with Scherr on Davis/Hedrick. So what if they argued a little. It didn't seem to hurt thier performance any. Plus the press tends to exaggerate everything. I like the competitive spirit they have shown at the Olympics.
Why Bode’s Been a Nobody - NEWSWEEK WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
America’s skiing cover boy Bode Miller has been a bust at these Olympics--and medals don’t have anything to do with it.
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Sections/Newsweek/Components/Photos/060221_060227/060223_bodemille...
Str / Reuters
Bode and the Bodacious Blond:
Miller attends a party with Playboy playmate Tina Jordan on Feb. 15
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Devin Gordon
Newsweek
Updated: 12:57 p.m. ET Feb. 23, 2006
Feb. 23, 2006 - Four months ago, Bode Miller sat across from me in the bar of a New York City hotel and shared his idea of what a perfect two weeks in Torino would look like. “For me,” he said, “the ideal Olympics would be to go in with all that pressure, all that attention and have performances that are literally tear-jerking, that make people put their heads down because they’re embarrassed at how emotional they’re getting, that make people want to try sports, talk to their kids, call their f---ing ex-wives—and come away with no medals. I think that would be epic. That would be the perfect thing.”
In one respect, at least, Miller might get his wish. He’ll very likely come away from these Olympics with no medals. He has one event remaining, Saturday’s slalom, and fortunately for his dream of going home medal-free, it’s the alpine discipline that has vexed him the most of late. He has finished a slalom race only twice in seven World Cup tries this season. As for the rest of Bode’s Olympic dream, his performance here, both on and off the mountain, has often been tear-jerking and occasionally embarrassing, but not for the reasons Miller had hoped.
He’s partied harder than he’s skied. He’s flipped off photographers and blown off reporters. He’s been disqualified from two races, once so clumsily that it was hard to believe he was even trying. Even when he’s skied well here, he’s looked winded at the end of races he used to blast through. And in the latest dose of bad news, he rolled an ankle during a Tuesday game of pick-up basketball with teammates, jeopardizing his attendance on Saturday. Miller’s coach and his agent both say he will race, but the injury, however minor, makes a medal for him even more unlikely. It was already unlikely enough.
One of the more admirable tenets in the Tao of Bode is that you never allow anyone else to define success for you. Miller has an unfortunate tendency to express this view with sneering condescension, but it’s still a refreshing notion: run your own race, set your own goals, decide for yourself if you deserve to take pride in your performance. The American sports landscape needs a lot more of that attitude. But even if Miller’s grade for himself really is the only one that matters, he should still give himself an ‘F’—and it has nothing to do with his failure so far to win any medals here.
Miller thinks the Olympics are a sham. Too much about the money, too much about the medals, not enough about the competition. Money, he said back in November, was the chief reason he was even coming to Torino: he had accepted dough from his sponsors and now he was obliged to return the favor by skiing. It was an “impure” reason, he said, “and that bothers me.” But he also offered another reason to come here and race. “I feel like I’ll have a unique platform to advocate some thought,” he told NEWSWEEK. “I’ll be able to say, ‘Watch this s---, but think about the Olympic oath while you’re doing it’.”
Miller wants the Olympics to be pure again, to be about the thrill and joy of competing at your highest level against the very best in the world. But where was Miller’s joy? The only time he’s looked happy in the past two weeks was in that snapshot of him circulating on the Web—the one where he’s got his arm around a Playboy model during a late-night party in Sestriere. The rest of the time, especially when he’s whizzing past the media without a word, he’s looked downright surly. How are we all supposed to learn about the thrill and joy of competition if we don’t see Miller having fun?
Then there’s the part about competing at your highest level. Reports have flurried all week that Bode’s poor results here in Torino can be traced back to last summer, when he didn’t train as hard for the coming season as he usually does. He arrived at the Olympics 10 pounds heavier than his usual racing weight and lacked the core fitness necessary to beat the world’s top racers. In other words, no matter how flawlessly he skied, he was simply too fat to win. (Remember him huffing and puffing as he crossed the finish line in the super G?) Miller uses slightly different language, but he freely concedes that his body has seen better days.
Maybe we all should’ve seen this coming. Miller was on top of his sport in early 2005 when he won the World Cup overall title, becoming the first American to accomplish the feat in more than two decades. By the end of 2005, he was already dropping hints that his reign at the top wouldn’t last long. “You basically have to trick yourself into incredible intensity to do this stuff,” he told me in November, “and I do a good job of pretending that I’m racing to save my mom from getting killed or my sister from being raped—some horrible thing that causes me to dig deep, like old-school ‘Braveheart’ s---. If you come into battle with that in your head, you’re gonna be a different person than if you think you’re just going out for a little swordfight.” Then Miller paused and his tone changed. “But when you do that for 10 years straight, it wears you’re a-- out. It’s like crying wolf to yourself a million times. And at some point, you start to say, ‘Why am I doing this?’”
For Miller, it seems like that point may have already come and gone.
Nevertheless, he decided to come to Torino. And before he got on the plane, he told anyone who would listen that he was going to show us something about sports and sportsmanship. Instead, we saw a perfect embodiment of the tarnished Olympics that he claims to despise. Most people who have watched these Olympics will come away from them thinking much as they always have about sports, and thinking much less of Bode Miller. Which means that, by Bode’s own standard, he blew it.
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11522274/site/newsweek/
Unrepentant Bode: 'Man, I Rocked Here'
By JIM LITKE
The Associated Press
Saturday, February 25, 2006; 4:57 PM
SESTRIERE, Italy -- Unbent, unbowed and ultimately unsuccessful, Bode Miller said in an interview Saturday he is skiing away from these Olympics on his own terms _ content without any medals and impressed by the local nightlife.
"I just did it my way. I'm not a martyr, and I'm not a do-gooder. I just want to go out and rock. And man, I rocked here," Miller said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press soon after he skidded off the slalom course in his fifth and final race, completing an 0-for-the-Olympics.
Miller came to the Italian Alps cresting on a wave of expectations and was considered a medal threat in every Alpine event. But he failed to finish three of them and his best showing was fifth in the downhill _ part of a games with few highlights for the U.S. Ski Team.
"The expectations were other people's," Miller said. "I'm comfortable with what I've accomplished, including at the Olympics. I came in here to race as hard as I could. That was my obligation to myself."
As for his obligation to prepare, Miller said he was less ready for these games than the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, where he won two silver medals.
"I've been living my life as if I might have died two weeks before the Olympics started," he said. "That left me the opportunity to dig deep, to go down that other route, to make more sacrifices and get back to where I was."
Miller said that while he might have prepared differently, he isn't one to second guess and he started each race fully focused and determined to win.
He called his Olympic experience "awesome" and cited the gold medals by teammates Julia Mancuso and Ted Ligety as one reason. Another, he said, was Sestriere's bar scene.
"My quality of life is the priority. I wanted to have fun here, to enjoy the Olympic experience, not be holed up in a closet and not ever leave your room," he said. "People said, 'Why can't you stay in for the two weeks, three weeks? You've got the rest of your life to experience the games the way everybody else does.' But I like the whole package. I always have."
He compared his Olympic experience to fellow American Daron Rahlves, who was a favorite in the downhill and a contender in the super-G but didn't come close to the podium.
"Look at what happened to Rahlves. He was holed up in his RV, he's probably the fittest guy out here and he made a point of talking about how important the Olympics were to him," Miller said. "And then look _ a little bad luck and he's got nothing to show for the whole thing.
"Me, it's been an awesome two weeks," Miller said. "I got to party and socialize at an Olympic level."
Ohno solid gold in 500, finishes with 3 medals
American finally beats South Korean, adds bronze in men's relay
Apolo Anton Ohno of the United States reacts after he crosses the finish line with the gold medal in the men's 500 meters Saturday.
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 5:50 p.m. ET Feb. 25, 2006
TURIN, Italy - Apolo Anton Ohno made this another Olympics to remember at the short track.
Leading from start to finish, Ohno upset favored South Korean Ahn Hyun-soo to win gold in the 500 meters Saturday. And before the final night was done, he skated to his third medal of these Winter Games.
With a burst at the end, Ohno passed an Italian skater to grab bronze for the Americans in the 5,000 relay.
So much for being a bust. For the second Olympics in a row, Ohno is a star.
“I’ve never been a 500 specialist. I’ve never shined consistently in this race,” he said. “To lead from start to finish doesn’t happen very often. For me, it was the perfect race.”
After two false starts by other skaters, Ohno anticipated the gun perfectly and broke away from the line clear of the other four finalists. He led the entire way and didn’t have to worry about Ahn, who got caught up behind two Canadians, Francois-Louis Tremblay and Eric Bedard.
Ohno looked back once, threw up his arms and let out a scream when he crossed the line first. He jumped into the arms of a U.S. coach and grabbed an American flag for the victory lap.
“So much emotion, so much passion, everything was moving through my body,” he said. “It’s crazy.”
Showing there were no hard feelings from Salt Lake City, Ahn came over to shake Ohno’s hand in the middle of the rink.
Tremblay held on for second while Ahn passed Bedard to claim the bronze. The South Korean became the first skater to win three individual medals in short track, but he fell short of three golds after winning the 1,000 and 1,500.
“I was waiting for (Ohno) to make a mistake, but he didn’t make one,” Tremblay said. “Everything he did was perfect.”
Ahn and his South Korean teammates came back to win gold in the 5,000 relay, holding off Canada. Trailing a half-lap behind were the Americans and the Italians, basically staging their own race for third.
Ohno closed it out for the U.S., blowing past Nicola Rodigari and gliding across the line; it was the fifth Olympic medal of his career.
The soul-patched American was one of the most feted athletes at the Salt Lake City Games, where he won a gold and a silver in thrilling races.
CONTINUED: No controversy this time
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Finland vs. Sweden final is Nordic version of the Super Bowl
Posted: Saturday Feb 25, 2006 3:31 PM
TURIN, Italy (AP) - This is their game of a lifetime, and they know it. This is a Stanley Cup finals Game 7 magnified, a once unimaginable gold medal matchup of tiny bordering countries come true.
In a tournament where the big countries and traditional powers have been eliminated, Nordic rivals Finland and Sweden play for the Olympic men's hockey gold medal on Sunday.
Really.
No Canada, no Russia, no United States, no Czech Republic. No, the favorites couldn't stand up to two teams from countries that have a combined population less than that of Florida, but more than their share of the world's hockey talent.
"I think it will be the biggest game ever,'' Finland forward Saku Koivu said. "We all know the importance of it. There will be a lot of emotion involved.''
For good reason, too - nearly two centuries ago, the two countries were one. But after Russia overran part of the country in 1809, Sweden ceded Finland to the Russians, and Finland didn't gain autonomy until 108 years later.
This is a friendly rivalry; some players on opposing sides Sunday will go back to being NHL teammates Monday. But neither country wants to lose this game, especially since there is no guarantee a first Olympic final will be followed by a second.
The trash-talking - of a decidedly, low-key Nordic variety - was under way Saturday. A Swedish newspaper headlined its story about Finland's 4-0 semifinal win over Russia: "Congratulations on your silver medal game.''
When told of a comment by Finland general manager Jari Kurri that the game was like a little brother playing a big brother, Finland coach Erkka Westerlund asked, "Who is the little brother? Our lovely neighbor?''
"It's pretty similar to when Canada and Soviet Union used to play the Summit Series'' in the 1970s, Finland's Olli Jokinen said. "That was a battle every time. For our country, we have a lot of bad memories of playing Sweden. We have to change this.''
One of those memories is of blowing a 5-1 lead over Sweden in a 6-5 loss during the 2003 world championships. A year later, Finland couldn't hold a 3-1 lead over the Swedes in a World Cup game that ended in a 4-all tie, though the Finns came back to claim second place.
It's not a total surprise these teams are here. Sweden won the 1994 Olympics on Peter Forsberg's shootout goal against Canada; Finland won the silver in 1988 and has been a world championship contender for years. The teams' two rosters also boast a combined 36 NHL players coming into the games.
Both teams have gotten outstanding goaltending from a pair of NHL rookies, Finland's Antero Niittymaki (1.00 goals against average) of the Flyers and Sweden's Henrik Lundqvist (2.40 goals against average) of the Rangers.
"There are a lot of players all over the world and the so-called lower countries are getting closer and closer all the time,'' Sweden coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson said.
Finland has been near perfect in Turin, winning all seven games by a combined score of 27-5, with five shutouts. The Finns have played with a commitment to defense and detail rarely seen from a team that has been together for less than two weeks.
"Guys have accepted the roles given to them and they do not complain,'' said Teemu Selanne, who is tied with Jokinen for the tournament lead with six goals. "They are not playing as much as they would in the NHL, but they are not complaining.''
After all, how could anybody in Sweden or Finland complain about this?
"It is a dream final for us,'' Jokinen said. "There are five million at home, and everyone will watch this game.''
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/olympics/ice_hockey/wires/02/25/2090.ap.oly.hkm.men.s.preview....
Czechs go bronze in bloody shutout over Russia
Zidlicy scores revenge goal after flagrant foul, Kovalchuk's ejection
Despite being outshot 28-15, the Czech Republic captured their first medal since 1998.
AP
Updated: 5:30 p.m. ET Feb. 25, 2006
TURIN, Italy - The Czech Republic shut out Russia in a matchup worthy of a gold medal. Too bad they were only playing for the bronze.
Tomas Vokoun, filling in for Dominik Hasek, made 12 of his 28 saves in the third period and the Czech Republic skated off with a 3-0 victory over Russia in men’s hockey on Saturday night.
Both teams had gold-medal hopes but had to settle for a bronze game after dropping semifinals a night earlier to Nordic countries. Sweden knocked out the Czechs, and Finland topped Russia — which didn’t score in the medal round.
Russia, which lost 4-0 on Friday after winning five straight, had its offense bolstered by the return of teenager Evgeni Malkin, who had to sit out against Finland because of an infraction against Canada in the quarters.
But the Russians lost Ilya Kovalchuk — its second-leading scorer — after he was ejected for an elbow to the face of Pavel Kubina behind the Czech net in the second period that left the Tampa Bay defenseman bloodied.
Marek Zidlicky made Russia pay when he ripped a shot in from the blue line off a pass from NHL-leading scorer Jaromir Jagr at 6:36. Martin Straka sealed it with 8 seconds left with an empty-net goal on the Czech’s 15th and final shot.
Jagr was injured in the second period and went to the locker room. He returned to the bench in the third period but didn’t play.
Kubina received his bronze medal after the game while wearing street clothes.
Martin Erat gave the Czechs the lead just 4:48 in after taking a pass from David Vyborny, who just moments earlier knocked him down in a center-ice collision.
The Russians put the pressure on late and outshot the Czechs 12-2 in the final period. They had a goal by Pavel Datsyuk of Detroit waved off because he was ruled to have struck the puck with a high stick.
It was the second Olympic medal for the Czech Republic in the three times NHL players have been featured in the games. They captured gold in 1998 with Hasek in the net.
Russia, the bronze medalists four years ago in Salt Lake City, left the Olympics without a men’s hockey medal for just the second time since joining the competition as the Soviet Union for the 1956 Games.
For the fourth straight tournament, Russia has failed to win the gold after taking it home six times in seven tries. These teams met in the medal round for the third straight Olympics. Russia won the quarterfinal matchup in 2002 after losing the title match to the Hasek and the Czechs in Nagano.
The Russians didn’t have to worry about Hasek this time since he was knocked out in the opening contest of this tournament. But Vokoun and the Czech penalty killers were more than up to the task.
Vokoun, who helped lead the Czechs to the hockey world championship last spring, regained his starting job from Milan Hnilicka, who got the opening nod in the quarterfinal win over Slovakia and in the semifinal defeat against Sweden.
Hnilicka was replaced by Vokoun in Friday night’s 7-3 loss after allowing five goals in just over a period and a half.
Things didn’t look good for the Czechs in the opening minutes. They gave Russia the first of seven power plays just 49 seconds in and then started running into each other about a minute after returning to full strength.
Erat carried the puck near the red line when Vyborny rammed into him and knocked the puck away and onto the stick of Russian captain Alex Kovalev.
It didn’t hurt the Czechs, and shortly after they had the goal that would give them the bronze.
Vyborny sent a pass from the goal line out to Erat in the left circle for a one-timed shot that clanked in off the post.
Sweden will face Finland for the gold medal on Sunday, the final day of Olympic competition.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11562038/
U.S. vows to crackdown on wayward athletes
No more dueling speedskaters, partying downhillers, fighting freestylers
AP
Updated: 12:48 p.m. ET Feb. 25, 2006
TURIN, Italy - U.S. Olympic bosses promised to crack down on wayward athletes after a freestyle skier got into a fight at the Winter Olympics, an Alpine champion was seen out late in a bar the night before a big race and two speedskaters openly feuded.
“This team has a taken a hit in terms of its comportment here in Italy because of a couple of incidents involving some high-profile athletes,” Jim Scherr, chief executive officer of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), said.
Scherr cited freestyle skier Jeret Peterson, who was ordered to return home early after getting into a fight.
He also pointed to speed skaters Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick, whose public spat made headlines throughout the Games.
Privately U.S. officials noted that Bode Miller, one of Alpine skiing’s most high-profile figures but without a medal at the Turin Games, had been twice spotted socializing late, once on the night before the prestigious downhill race.
“It’s unfortunate that a few colored the rest of the delegation,” Scherr told a news conference. “We will be making some significant adjustments going into Beijing and Vancouver.”
Pressed to elaborate, he said the USOC would make sure athletes understand they must prepare themselves physically and understand that at the Olympics, they represent not only themselves but also their countries.
“Coming out of these Games we will do a better job as an Olympic Committee to monitor those situations and make sure that both of those edicts are followed to a higher degree,” he said.
Peterson, who finished seventh in the freestyle skiing aerials on Thursday despite completing one of the most difficult jumps, was sent home early after “an altercation with an acquaintance from the United States”, the USOC said.
Scherr and USOC chef de mission Jim McCarthy attributed the bickering between Davis and Hedrick in part to the individual nature of speed skating.
“They are both very competitive individuals and it’s hard in an individual sport,” McCarthy said.
Rocca, Ligety, Miller knocked out in first run of slalom that Raich leads
By BOB BAUM, AP Sports Writer
SESTRIERE, Italy (AP) -- Favorite Giorgio Rocca of Italy crashed and top American hopes Ted Ligety and Bode Miller also were eliminated in a brutal first of two runs of the Olympic men's slalom Saturday.
With defending Olympic champion Jean-Pierre Vidal of France sidelined with an arm he broke Friday while skiing for pleasure, the final Alpine race of the Turin Games was a wide-open affair.
Benjamin Raich of Austria, gold medalist in the giant slalom, was fastest with a first-run time of 53.37 seconds, only 0.01 seconds ahead of Kalle Palander of Finland. Kentaro Minagawa of Japan was third, 0.07 out of the lead.
Miller, the World Cup overall champion a year ago, will leave the Italian Alps without a medal. He finished his lackluster Olympics by straddling a gate just a few seconds into his run, then skied off the course and raised his arms in mock excitement.
Miller, who has been a local nightlife fixture throughout the games, told The Associated Press he was content with his experience.
"As far as my own personal involvement, I would not change anything. I had an awesome Olympics," Miller told AP sports columnist Jim Litke in an interview. "My preparation certainly could have been different, but I'm not a guy who looks back."
Earlier Friday, Bill Marolt, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, said he would have "a heart-to-heart" talk with Miller at the end of this season regarding his declining performances.
"I don't believe we should have conversations like this in the media," said Marolt after praising what Miller had done for the sport in past years. "But clearly it will be something we will address at the year's end, and I don't know where that will go right now."
Nine of the top 29 skiers in the competition could not even finish the first run because they either crashed or straddled a gate.
And that didn't include Ligety, who won a surprise gold medal in the Olympic combined with two blazing slalom runs.
"I thought today would be my day to shine," he said, "but it didn't work out that way."
He made it to the bottom in what would have been a medal-contending time -- but for his disqualification for straddling a gate early on the course.
"Part of it was the snow was slicker than we expected and part of it was Olympic jitters -- guys are going for it," Ligety said. "I still have one gold, so I'm not mad."
The stands at the edge of Sestriere were filled and the mountain village had a festive pre-race atmosphere as Italians crowded to cheer on their last and best hope for an Alpine medal.
(AP)
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But their hopes were dashed less than a minute after the event began when Rocca, the first down the hill and the world's No. 1-ranked slalom skier, got his skis crossed and crashed face-first into the soft snow outside the course.
"The snow was a little bit soft and when you want to go fast, mistakes happen," he said. "It's a shame because it's my last time in Italy in the Olympics. It's sports, you win or lose."
He lay there for several moments, in apparent disbelief, before climbing to his feet.
"I did my best so I'm calm," Rocca said later. As for all the Italians who showed up to support him: "I feel sorry for them, but they still love me and I feel close to them."
Ligety heard the crowd roar when Rocca started -- and then when he fell.
"I definitely feel for him," the American said.
Skies had cleared in early afternoon after a storm that dropped 13 inches of snow, and it looked like it would be a beautiful day for skiing. But clouds and fog moved in and conditions deteriorated.
"I was surprised that it was not perfect conditions," said Raich, the leader. "It was not very icy in the warmup, but then it was slippery in the run and I had to try hard to find good rhythm."
Updated on Saturday, Feb 25, 2006 12:19 pm EST
MENS HOCKEY - It's a European Dream Come True
Rivals Finland, Sweden to Meet In Hockey Final
Men's Hockey Semifinals Finland 4, Russia 0 --
Sweden 7, Czech Republic 3
Today's Bronze Medal ~ Czech Republic vs. Russia (NBC, 1-6 p.m.)
Tomorrow's Gold Medal ~ Sweden vs. Finland (NBC, 8-11 a.m.)
By Barry Svrluga
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 25, 2006
TURIN, Italy, Feb. 24 -- The records don't show it, but it happened. Teemu Selanne believes it. He was a boy, skating outside in his native Finland, and the image is still crystal clear in his mind at age 35. That day, Finland played neighboring Sweden, a rivalry that trickles across each of the 380 miles that make up the nations' borders. The matchup was for nothing less than Olympic gold. Think Duke vs. North Carolina, Red Sox vs. Yankees, Red vs. Blue, and the highest prize at stake. Selanne played the game in his mind's eye, skating away as the hero.
"That time," Selanne said, "we won. Hopefully, it will be the same this time."
Finland will get to live out that dream Sunday at the Olympic Sports Center, the first time the two Scandinavian nations will play for the gold medal in the 20 Olympic tournaments. The Finns, underdogs who were dismissed in pre-tournament hype yet have won each of their seven games, advanced with their most impressive effort yet, a 4-0 victory over Russia in one semifinal Friday. That followed the offensive explosion of the Swedes, who pummeled the Czech Republic, 7-3, setting up a matchup that could have each of the just more than 14 million people in the two countries -- less than the population of New York -- tuned to a television set somewhere.
"That's probably the most hated team we face in hockey," Finland captain Saku Koivu said. "Talk about having an Olympic gold medal game against Sweden? Nothing would be better."
This isn't just about hockey. It is about ancestry and history and old wars long since past. Finland was, in fact, a province of Sweden until the 19th century, when it fell under Russian rule. Geopolitics seem a bit heavy for a hockey game.
"It's not like my parents talked about it," said Finland forward Jarkko Ruutu. "But we knew."
The Finns reached just their second gold medal game, and first since 1988, with what Selanne called "our best game so far." They bottled up high-powered Russia, boasting perhaps the tournament's most potent offense. Alex Ovechkin, the electrifying rookie forward for the Washington Capitals, made a few stunning moves in the first period, and the Russians had a five-on-three in the second. But each time, they were stifled by the disciplined Finns and their 25-year-old goalie Antero Niittymaki.
Niittymaki, a rookie for the Philadelphia Flyers who became the starter only after Miikka Kiprusoff and Kari Lehtonen missed the tournament with injuries, foiled all of Russia's stud scorers at one time or another, from Ovechkin to Ilya Kovalchuk to Pavel Datsyuk. Another, 19-year-old Evgeni Malkin, was suspended for the semifinal game after he kicked a Canadian player late in Russia's quarterfinal victory.
"I think we showed that they probably had the better individuals," Finnish defenseman Kimmo Timonen said, "but we were far, far away the better team."
Ovechkin's Olympics, spectacular to this point, will end in Saturday's bronze medal game against the Czechs, not at all where he wanted to be. After Koivu put the Finns up 3-0 nearly 14 minutes into the second period, and Olli Jokinen added another goal early in the third, there was little the Russians could do but grow more frustrated. As the Finns celebrated their victory, Ovechkin stood at his own blue line, leaning on his stick, and looked down. Dejected, he uncharacteristically brushed by reporters afterward.
Just as Finland shut down Russia's most dangerous offensive players, Sweden was effective against Czech star Jaromir Jagr, the former Capital who is now having a brilliant season with the New York Rangers. But as important as that effort was -- Jagr managed only a single shot -- the Swedes won with a balance of skill that was frightening.
Sweden's seven goals were scored by seven different players, and 10 players registered an assist. The tournament's second seed -- trailing only Canada, ousted by the Russians in the quarterfinals -- they showed why they have long been considered medal contenders, skating nimbly past the Czechs, using the space provided by the larger European ice to their advantage.
We just feel a little more comfortable," defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said.
They are never more comfortable than when Lidstrom is on the ice. Three times with the Detroit Red Wings, he has won the Norris Trophy as the NHL's best defenseman. Friday, he showed his value to his national team with a remarkable display of hockey artistry that demonstrates the high level of play in the semifinals.
In the first period, when the Czechs were still in it and the score was tied 1-1, Lidstrom skated to the left point and took a pass from defenseman Niklas Kronwall. In an instant, Lidstrom analyzed the situation in front of the net. Milan Hnilicka -- the overwhelmed Czech goalie who served as a replacement for star Dominik Hasek, injured in the team's first game here -- ventured out of the crease a bit, cutting down the angle. A shot on goal would have been ill-advised. But Lidstrom noticed forward P.J. Axelsson cutting in from the right circle, his stick on the ice.
"So I just tried to shoot it at his stick," Lidstrom said. And he did it, unleashing a slap shot in which he played the angle like a pool shark. Axelsson had to do nothing but allow the puck -- blazing across the ice -- to hit his stick, and the Swedes had a 2-1 lead that, before long, would be 5-1.
Jagr, like Ovechkin, declined to talk to reporters afterward, and the two men who have been the most recent faces of hockey in Washington -- the petulant star of the past and the ebullient star of the present -- will meet for bronze.
No doubt, much of the juice in this tournament was sucked out for North Americans when the United States and Canada were dismissed in the quarterfinals. On Friday night, that mattered not at all to the smiling Scandinavians who talked about the prospect of playing each other, the matchup made long ago in Selanne's vision. Ask many of the players about the first time they played against their rival, and they call up the memory quickly. "Christmas '98," said Ruutu. "Moscow tournament."
The matchup everyone in the world wanted? Unlikely. But head north toward the Arctic Circle on Sunday afternoon, and you just might be able to warm yourself by the glow of the televisions.
"This is what I dreamed of," Selanne said.
Men's Hockey Semifinals Finland 4, Russia 0 Sweden 7, Czech Republic 3 Today's Bronze Medal Czech Republic vs. Russia (NBC, 1-6 p.m.) Tomorrow's Gold Medal Sweden vs. Finland (NBC, 8-11 a.m.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/24/AR2006022402135.html?nav=rss_sports/....
MEDAL COUNT
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/2006/medals/tracker/
COUNTRY Total Medals Gold Silver Bronze
Germany 27 10 11 6
United States 23 8 9 6
Russia 20 8 4 8
Canada 20 6 8 6
Austria 19 8 6 5
Norway 19 2 8 9
Sweden 13 6 2 5
Switzerland 13 5 4 4
Italy 10 4 0 6
France 9 3 2 4
Netherlands 9 3 2 4
China 9 2 3 4
South Korea 8 4 3 1
Finland 8 0 5 3
Estonia 3 3 0 0
Croatia 3 1 2 0
Czech Republic 3 1 2 0
Australia 2 1 0 1
Poland 2 0 1 1
Ukraine 2 0 0 2
Japan 1 1 0 0
Belarus 1 0 1 0
Bulgaria 1 0 1 0
Great Britain 1 0 1 0
Slovakia 1 0 1 0
Latvia 1 0 0 1
How Ligety gets around a gate...
With One Gold in Hand, Ligety Isn't Content to Suddenly Play It Safe
By NATHANIEL VINTON
SESTRIERE, Italy, Feb. 24 — On Saturday, Ted Ligety will attack the final Alpine skiing event of the Winter Games, the men's slalom, with his habitual desperation. He says he will not discover conservatism just because he won a gold medal in the men's combined last week.
"It's more fun the way I ski, where you're always on the verge of going out," said Ligety, a 21-year-old from Utah. "You get down to the bottom and you're fast, and you know why. It's definitely more of an adrenaline rush getting in the start gate."
A frequent complaint about ski racing is the conformity — the regimented technique that makes skiers difficult to differentiate from one another. But Ligety has a risky, improvisational style all his own. He frequently drags his hand on the snow for balance, something he has likened to having a third ski or outrigger.
"If you have your hand on the snow, you can push yourself back up pretty easily," said Ligety, sitting in the lobby of the Olympic Village with a gold medal somewhere inside his jacket. "It's definitely saved me a lot of times this year."
Earlier this week, after a few days of television interviews and endorsement offers, Ligety isolated himself. His coaches set up some private training for him in Frais, an hour away from here.
Ligety had heard rumors of a parade in his honor in Park City, Utah, but it will be at least a month before he returns to his hometown. In the meantime, he will have races in South Korea, Japan, Sweden and Maine, followed by a trip back to Europe to test skis.
Equipment companies are courting Ligety, and the 50-square-centimeter advertising space on the front of his helmet will soon be open to the highest bidder. It is the only place World Cup skiers are allowed to rent out to nonindustry sponsors. Top athletes can earn close to a million dollars that way.
At the start of the year, Ligety scribbled "Mom and Dad" in that space. As his star began to rise in November, Park City Mountain Resort paid to place its logo there. But soon, it will have competition.
"It changed overnight," said Ken Sowles, a sports agent in Burlington, Vt., who represents several skiers, including Ligety, Bode Miller and Julia Mancuso, who won a gold medal in the giant slalom Friday. "Within 24 hours, I had two different companies talking about endorsement opportunities."
Before all that comes the Olympic slalom, Ligety's specialty and a discipline that he said deserved the respect bestowed upon the sexier, speedier disciplines, in which the powerful American team struggled.
"From the speed aspect, we're not going nearly as fast as we are in downhill or super-G," Ligety said of the slalom. "But we're hitting a gate a little bit more than every half second." He added that because of "the speed at which things come at you, it's a lot quicker than downhill."
On the World Cup circuit this season, slalom has basically been a three-man competition among Giorgio Rocca of Italy, Benjamin Raich of Austria and Ligety.
Rocca won the first five World Cup races of the season. He skis with an almost robotic precision, his upper body traveling straight down the slope without moving while his legs swing back and forth underneath him.
Ligety is wilder, taking an almost presumptuously straight line through the gates. "I don't ski with a lot of tactics," he said earlier in the year, almost apologetic despite his No. 3 world ranking.
He rarely catches the tip of his ski on slalom gates — as his colleague Miller often does — because when he passes by them, his skis are still pointed straight downhill, rather than beginning to go back across the hill.
Many times in the course of one of his risky runs, Ligety gets himself into a position where he must push all of his 170 pounds onto his skis and grip them into the ice. Many times, his tactic is successful, rebounding him across the hill.
Ligety can gamble like this and win, in part because of the environment he grew up in. In Park City, the Utah town that played host to some of the 2002 Olympic races, Ligety developed a special feel for different kinds of snow.
The junior ski team there is a central part of the community, and it has placed dozens of Alpine racers on the United States ski team.
Because the mountain played host to annual World Cup races throughout Ligety's childhood, and because so many top racers train there, part of the mountain is always coated with a glassy surface of ice that demands a disciplined racing technique. Meanwhile, the surrounding Wasatch Mountains are a skier's paradise of rocky outcroppings, aspen glades and powdery snowstorms.
"We were always jumping cliffs and straight-lining stuff and even straight-lining mogul fields sometimes," said Ligety, referring to his childhood friends, some of whom booked plane tickets to Turin hours after he won the combined. "You're not going to get much better as a skier if you're 10 years old and you're skiing gates all the time."
Ligety was such an avid skier that he once broke his hand and did not tell his parents, worried they would keep him off the snow for a few weeks.
"He was a long ways off from a prodigy, but he loved it and he had a great work ethic," said Aaron Atkins, who coached the 14-year-old Ligety. Atkins confirmed that Ligety would indeed "straight-line" mogul fields.
"I distinctly remember seeing him make six turns down Thaynes," said Atkins, referring to a notorious run of moguls that Atkins said takes most skiers as many as 100 turns to get through.
Ligety said the feat was accomplished by leaping off one bump, clearing two or three more, and proceeding like that down the entire hill. It demanded quick reflexes and courage. The motivation was to impress those watching from the top and bottom of the slope.
Those tactics have secured him one gold medal, and he said he thought they could get him one more on Saturday.
"I'm definitely racing to win another," Ligety said. "I'm not going to be taking more risk or less risk than I normally would. I'm going to approach this the same way I would if I had nothing now."
With the Bronze, Drought Is Over for U.S. Curlers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 25, 2006
PINEROLO, Italy, Feb. 24 (AP) — Pete Fenson wanted the curling bronze medal to come down to the final shot, and he was ready to take it.
Fenson, the United States skip, or captain, bent his rock into the target area, where it came to rest inside of Britain's best hope and clinched the Americans' first Olympic curling medal. Only then did Fenson, a Minnesota pizzeria owner, raise his broom in victory.
"Our job's done here," he said Friday after the United States team won, 8-6, for its first curling medal in a major men's competition since 1978.
The United States, which had been shut out since the sport was promoted to full Olympic status in 1998, will share the podium with two more traditional curling powers: Canada later beat Finland, 10-4, to win its first Olympic men's curling gold medal.
"It's massively disappointing," said the British skip, David Murdoch, whose team is from Scotland, the birthplace of curling.
Gold Spangled, Cheek Is Now Star Spangled
By KAREN CROUSE
TURIN, Italy, Feb. 24 — Joey Cheek was chosen to carry the American flag in the closing ceremony Sunday after rising above his fellow United States athletes, many of whom struggled in these Winter Games.
Cheek set himself apart on the long-track speedskating oval, winning a gold medal in the 500 meters and a silver in the 1,000. After winning his second medal, Cheek, who grew up in Greensboro, N.C., said, "I guarantee there's somebody from my middle school saying, 'I should have been in the Olympics, because if that kid can win a gold medal, anybody can.' "
Cheek's generosity and gee-whiz demeanor away from the oval set him apart from more famous teammates.
Cheek, 26, pledged the money he earned from the United States Olympic Committee for his first- and second-place finishes to Right to Play, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of children in impoverished countries through sports. The bonus money added up to $40,000, which is roughly the amount that Cheek, the world sprint champion, said he could expect to earn from his sport in a good year.
Cheek's philanthropy inspired corporations and individuals in the United States to open their wallets. Since Cheek's victory in the 500 meters on Feb. 13, Right to Play has received more than $300,000 in donations.
The charity is the pet project of Johann Olav Koss, the Norwegian speedskater who won four gold medals in 1994. Koss has been Cheek's inspiration on and off the ice.
"I'm fairly idealistic," Cheek said.
The long-track speedskater Chris Witty was the United States flag bearer in the opening ceremony. Witty, a five-time Olympian, is happy to pass the flag, as it were, to Cheek, whom she described recently as "just a normal everyday American."
A normal everyday American who will carry the flag Sunday along with two Olympic medals.
In Blinding Snow, Unsung U.S. Skier Finds Gold
By BILL PENNINGTON
SESTRIERE, Italy, Feb. 24 — Julia Mancuso stood in the start gate staring into a blinding snowstorm. Somewhere, several hundred feet below, through 42 gates and countless blowing snowflakes, was the finish line.
From a grandstand she could not see, she heard cowbells. At the periphery of the slope, she heard the course maintenance workers calling her name — Italians rooting for an Italian-American they had adopted as their own.
She was the last elite skier to try the gnarly Sises giant slalom racecourse in a near white-out Friday. As the first run's surprise leader, she was the last one with a chance to win, or to lose — and she won.
Who was 21-year-old Julia Mancuso to think she could beat the world's best skiers? She had never won a World Cup race. She had never even led one at the halfway mark. Her Turin Olympics so far had been forgettable, another American racer with pedestrian results. In Friday's giant slalom, the last women's race of the 2006 Games, Mancuso was trying to end an Olympic medal drought for American women in Alpine skiing that dated to 1998.
Suddenly, standing in the start gate, Mancuso found herself smiling.
"I thought that all I had to do was ski fast to the bottom," she said later. "I wouldn't make it any more complicated than that."
Mancuso pushed through the gate and roared down the course on an aggressive, but smart, line. She set up each turn early, the better to keep her skis pointing in the direction of the finish-line crowd she could hear but not see. She chased after the sound as it got closer and closer, until she knifed across the finish line and heard the crowd in full throat.
She never looked at the scoreboard; the noise told her the gold medal was hers.
She threw her arms in the air and fell onto the snow. Her teammate Stacey Cook was there, and Mancuso shouted, "I just won the Olympics."
Nearly an hour later, Mancuso pondered her first public words as Olympic champion.
"You can't imagine how weird it is to say that out loud," she said.
Mancuso's time for the two runs was 2 minutes 9.19 seconds, which was 67-hundredths of a second faster than the silver medalist, Tanja Poutiainen of Finland. Anna Ottosson of Sweden took the bronze. The defending Olympic champion, Janica Kostelic of Croatia, did not race, withdrawing because of illness.
With one race to go in the 2006 Olympic Alpine competition, the men's slalom on Saturday, Mancuso salvaged some dignity for the Americans. With Ted Ligety's gold medal in the combined 10 long days ago, the United States ski team has won two Alpine gold medals in one Olympics for the first time since the 1998 Nagano Games. Mancuso was also the first United States woman to win the Olympic giant slalom since Debbie Armstrong in 1984 — a month before Mancuso was born.
Two medals is a far cry from the eight Alpine medals the United States ski team said it expected to win here, and two medals will not renew talk of an American-Austrian ski rivalry (the Austrians have won 11 Alpine medals so far), but the American ski coaches could at least approach the finish area in something other than a backpedal.
"It gives us great momentum," Jesse Hunt, the team's Alpine director, said. "One more race to go. We expected the veterans to lead us here, but it's been the young kids. Still, we'll take it. And I never count Bode Miller out of any race."
Miller chases his last chance at a 2006 Olympic medal in the slalom Saturday.
Mancuso's ascent to Olympic champion might have been predicted, except she skied so indifferently early this season. Mancuso, of Olympic Valley, Calif., is one of the most decorated American junior skiers ever, having won eight junior world championship titles. She was in the Salt Lake Games at 17 years old and has steadily moved up the world rankings.
Last year, Mancuso seemed to make a statement about her chances in the 2006 Games with two third-place finishes, in the giant slalom and super-G, at the world championships. She was a popular story for the worldwide news media heading into this season's races. Glib and funny, she was also dating a United States men's team skier, Steven Nyman. Asked what would be the best perk about winning an Olympic gold medal, Mancuso said she might get to host "Saturday Night Live."
Her family background was newsworthy as well. Her father, Ciro, was jailed for marijuana smuggling when Julia was in kindergarten and went to prison when she was in high school.
The 2005-6 ski season started badly for Mancuso when she left her ski boots in Lake Louise, Alberta, after the World Cup circuit's first race in early December. Ski boots are a highly customized piece of equipment for ski racers, molded, fitted and finessed, in some cases, over several seasons. Mancuso struggled to perform without her favorite boots, which were not reunited with her until Jan. 1.
Slowly, Mancuso worked her way back into contention, then she had two second-place finishes in late January.
"Maybe no one else was noticing, but I was starting to feel good, like I could get to the podium or maybe even win at the Olympics," Mancuso said Friday.
But the Olympics began with the focus on Mancuso's teammate Lindsey Kildow, who crashed in downhill training. For days, the attention remained on Kildow's fearless comeback, and Mancuso, who has been a rival of Kildow's since they were young teens, seemed to shrink from it. Mancuso was seventh in the Olympic downhill, ninth in the combined and 11th in the super-G.
But Kildow's story eventually became less prominent, and Friday, Kildow withdrew to rest her injuries. Mancuso remained under the radar.
She misplaced her Olympic athlete's credential before arriving at the racecourse Friday morning and had to talk her way into the race area. The night before, she lost sleep because she stayed up to watch the end of the women's figure skating competition on television.
"It wasn't the best prerace diet, either," Mancuso said. "I was sitting there eating Pop Tarts as the figure skating went past my scheduled bedtime."
But as the snow swirled here Friday afternoon, Mancuso grew more confident.
"It reminded me of home, another powder day skiing at Squaw Valley," she said. "I like snow like this."
Thrusting herself out of the start gate, Mancuso said she felt a bit slow at first.
"You think your Olympic race is going to be perfect, but then I realized it was not a perfect day — it was snowing hard and you couldn't see," she said. "It was a race just to get down."
Mancuso got there first.
"I skied the fastest to the bottom," she said. "Sometimes that's all it takes. Sometimes, everything else takes care of itself."
Viewer's Guide: Today at the Games
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Events
ALL TIMES EASTERN
Alpine Skiing
9 a.m. Men's slalom (first run)
12:30 p.m. Men's slalom (second run)
Biathlon
4 a.m. Women's 12.5K (mass start)
6 a.m. Men's 15K (mass start)
Bobsled
11:30 a.m. Four-man (run 3)
1:20 p.m. Four-man (run 4)
Hockey
2:30 p.m. Men's bronze medal game, Czech Republic vs. Russia
Short-Track Speedskating
1:30 p.m. Men's 500M final, Women's 1,000M final, Men's 5,000M relay final
Speedskating
10:30 a.m. Women's 5,000M final
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What to Look For
ALPINE SKIING MEN'S SLALOM
Bode Miller, below, has one last chance to win a medal at the Turin Games, and the Italians have one last chance to win an Alpine medal. Giorgio Rocca has a chance to deliver for the host nation.
Ted Ligety, who won the gold in the combined, could become the first United States man to take two Alpine titles at a Winter Games. The defending Olympic slalom champion, Jean-Pierre Vidal of France, injured his left arm while skiing yesterday, and his status for today's race was uncertain.
BOBSLED FOUR-MAN
The two American sleds seem to be out of contention for a gold. Todd Hays and his crew were in seventh place after the first two runs yesterday. Andre Lange of Germany, the gold medalist in two-man, was in the lead. Lange may become the fifth driver to win the two- and four-man events in the same Olympics.
SHORT-TRACK SPEEDSKATING MEN'S 500 METERS
Ahn Hyun Soo of South Korea could become the first short-track speedskater to sweep all four events by winning the 500 and the 5,000 relay. His teammate Lee Ho Suk, who won the silver behind Ahn at 1,000 and 1,500, is also a contender. They may be challenged by Apolo Anton Ohno in the 500.
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Today's Television
ALL TIMES EASTERN
1-6 p.m. NBC
Men's Hockey - Bronze medal game, Czech Republic vs. Russia
Women's Speedskating 5,000M final
Women's Biathlon 12.5K final
8-11:30 p.m. NBC
Men's Alpine Skiing
Slalom final
Short-Track Speedskating
Men's 500M final
Women's 1,000M final
Men's 5,000M relay final
Bobsled Four-man final
Men's Biathlon 15K final
Midnight-1 a.m. NBC
Medals plaza award ceremonies
1-4:30 a.m. NBC
Prime-time replay
Last-chance Saturday for Bode and Apoloto to chase gold
Saturday offers final chance for U.S. to beef up overall medal count
Updated: 5:30 p.m. ET Feb. 24, 2006
SAUZE d’OULX, Italy - Welcome to last-chance Saturday for the U.S. Olympians, one final opportunity to grab a medal before heading home. Few are more aware of the fast-closing window in Turin than Bode Miller and Apolo Anton Ohno.
Miller, once considered the possible king of the Alpine events, stumbled and tumbled through his first four races without hitting the medal platform once. He’s taking one more shot in the slalom.
The goateed Ohno gets two more chances: as a solo act in the men’s 500 meters, and again in the rugby-scrum-on-skates excitement of the men’s 5,000-meter relay. He’s already won a bronze in the 1,000 meters but has yet to match his gold medal of 2002 ..................
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11541632/
Live Vote - Which country will win the gold medal in men's hockey?
* 609 responses
Finland 70%
Sweden 30%
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11428305/
Finland shuts out Russia
Koivu, Peltonen lead 4-0 rout to set up gold medal showdown with Sweden
Teppo Numminen #27 of Finland celebrates in front of Goalkeeper Evgeny Nabokov #20 of Russia after his teammate Saku Koivu #11 of Finland scored the third goal during the semi final of the men's ice hockey match between Finland and Russia, February 24, 2006.
Finland won 4-0 to reach the final with Sweden.
(Photo by Vladimir Rys/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Updated: 7:58 p.m. ET Feb. 24, 2006
TURIN, Italy - They are playing as a team, not as selfish stars. No grumbling about hotels or playing time. No roster filled with big-name talent struggling to mesh.
The Finns put on yet another dynamic display of team play Friday in dismantling a talented Russian team in the Olympic hockey semifinals, winning 4-0 to set up an all-Nordic title game with neighboring Sweden. The Swedes eliminated the world champion Czech Republic 7-3 in the other semifinal.
“Obviously, if you were born in Finland, you want to play Sweden. That’s the ultimate,” Ville Nieminen of Finland said. “The situation can’t get any better, can’t get any more exciting.”
How good is this for the two Scandinavian countries, where the long winters naturally lead many of their best athletes to the ice?
The combined population of Sweden (9 million) and Finland (5 million) is less than metropolitan New York City, yet they will play for the gold while the big boys — Canada, the United States, Russia and the Czechs — all sit out. Finland has beaten all of those teams in the tournament.
And they’re doing it by following the most basic of concepts in team play: Togetherness can win out over superior talent.
While U.S. star Mike Modano was complaining about playing time, and Canada coach Pat Quinn said his roster-full of big stars never meshed, the Finns have played like they have been together for 10 years, not 10 days.
“I’ve never been on a team that’s so tight and together,” Kimmo Timonen said. “Everybody’s doing their job and working very hard and now this is a big thing we’ve done as a group for our country.”
The day before the semifinals, Czech star Jaromir Jagr said the Russians were the best team remaining — but only if they played as a team, a common problem for them in recent years. They didn’t on Friday, and are now back in the bronze medal game for a second consecutive Olympics.
“We got what we deserved,” goalie Evgeni Nabokov said. “I think the score pretty much sums it up. We did not play well and we did not deserve to win. They were hungrier than we were and I don’t know why.”
Maybe it’s because Finland has played that way from the start, winning all seven games in Turin. Five of their seven victories have been shutouts.
Finland seized the momentum early in the game with Ville Peltonen’s goal at 6:13 of the first and never let go. With a trapping-style defense, they didn’t allow Russia’s fleet forwards to create the numerous odd-man rushes they enjoyed in beating Canada 2-0 in the quarterfinals.
The Finns visibly frustrated Russia’s top playmakers — Alexander Ovechkin and Ilya Kovalchuk — with their defensive persistence, always seeming to have a defender within a stick’s length of them no matter where they were on the ice.
“We couldn’t break their defense,” coach Vladimir Krikunov said.
The Russians, winners of five in a row heading into the semifinals, may have had a natural letdown after eliminating Canada. Or maybe they missed 19-year-old forward Evgeni Malkin, who was barred from playing Friday because he was ejected against Canada for kicking Vincent Lecavalier.
Or maybe it was Philadelphia Flyers rookie Antero Niittymaki, supposedly only the third-best goalie on Finland’s roster but one of the surprise stars of these Winter Games.
Niittymaki made 21 saves in outplaying fellow rookie Nabokov, who had previously allowed only two goals in five games. Niittymaki became the starter only because goalies Miikka Kiprusoff and Kari Lehtonen pulled out with injuries.
Whatever the reason, the Finns so discouraged the Russians that Kovalchuk and defenseman Darius Kasparaitis each took 4-minute penalties late in the game, the outcome long since decided.
Long before that, Finland got its first goal on a power play with Russia’s Sergei Gonchar off for interference, as point man Timonen’s shot from the blue line deflected off Peltonen’s stick and past Nabokov. Both Peltonen and Teemu Selanne were in front of the net and in position to tip it in.
It was a familiar start for Finland, which has trailed only once in the tournament.
Toni Lydman made it 2-0 midway through the second, with a left-handed one-timer from the high slot off Saku Koivu’s backhand pass. Right about then, their inability to solve Finland’s tight defense was beginning to show on the discouraged Russians’ faces.
“They didn’t give us any opportunities to create any scoring chances,” Alexei Yashin said.
Russia, which has gotten a medal in all but one Olympic men’s tournament since 1956, now must beat the Czechs to match the bronze they won in Salt Lake City.
Finland and Sweden last played in the medal round in 1998, a 2-1 victory by Finland in the quarterfinals of the first Olympics with mostly NHL players. Finland has never won a gold — Sweden did in 1994 — but did get the bronze in 1988.
Information from the Associated Press used in this report.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11540912/
Sweden scores early, often in win over Czechs 7-3
Seven different Swedes score, will face Finland in all-Nordic gold final
Sweden's Per Johan Axelsson (22) celebrates scoring his team's second goal of the game as teammate Daniel Alfredsson (11) and the Czech Republic's Tomas Kaberle (15) and goalie Milan Hnilicka look on during the first period of a 2006 Winter Olympics men's ice hockey semifinal game Friday, Feb. 24, 2006, in Turin, Italy.
(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) Gene J. Puskar / AP
Updated: 12:26 p.m. ET February 24, 2006
Updated: 6:29 p.m. ET Feb. 24, 2006
TURIN, Italy - Tell the Swedish post office to dust off that old Peter Forsberg stamp. The hockey team is one win from another gold medal.
Forsberg set up a goal 34 seconds into the game and Sweden scored four times in the second period to rout the Czech Republic 7-3 in an Olympic semifinal Friday night. The victory sends Sweden into Sunday’s title game against neighbor and longtime rival Finland.
The Swedes are guaranteed an Olympic medal for the first time since 1994, when Forsberg scored the winning goal to beat Canada in a gold-medal shootout and the country put his image on a postage stamp to commemorate the occasion.
Daniel Alfredsson, who had a goal and assist Friday, remembers watching Forsberg on TV as he clinched the gold medal for Sweden back in 1994.
Greatest moment in Swedish hockey history, perhaps?
“Yeah, especially the way it ended,” he said. “They made a stamp of it for a reason.”
Forsberg, who sat out three games of this tournament because of a sore groin, set the tone early against the Czech Republic. His cross-ice pass landed softly on the stick of Fredrik Modin, who quickly turned it into a goal.
Suddenly, the Swedes were flying high, venting two Olympics’ worth of pent-up frustration on the world champions.
“It was just good luck on the first puck of the game, and we never came back from that,” Czech forward Martin Straka said. “I guess we ran out of gas. We were very tired with so many games, but everybody is in the same boat.”
Sweden, surprising quarterfinal losers the past two Olympics, ran over the Dominik Hasek-less Czechs — scoring four straight times after falling into a 1-1 tie.
“From the beginning, we showed we wanted this game, and I think the Czechs felt that,” Alfredsson said.
One goal on one shot, and three more scores in the first 7:54 of the middle period drove shaky goalie Milan Hnilicka to the bench and put Sweden in position for another chance at gold.
Earning at least a silver medal will help the Swedes erase the bitter memories of the 2002 Olympics when they were upset by Belarus. The lightning-quick start took the Czechs, the world titleholders in four of seven years, right out of the game.
“A lot of us learned from Salt Lake, and we learned that if you’re not ready, anything can happen,” Alfredsson said.
The Swedes charged from all angles and used brilliant passing that sliced the offensive zone from end to end and side to side. Even though both rosters are full of NHL stars, the European style shone through on the large Olympic playing surface.
“We came out hard on the ice and showed them we wanted to win,” Forsberg said.
Henrik Sedin, Christian Backman, Jorgen Jonsson, and Alfredsson scored in the second period for Sweden.
The Czechs’ defense was almost nonexistent, and Hnilicka wasn’t sharp enough to bail out his teammates.
“It was not a goalie’s game for sure,” said Sweden’s Henrik Lundqvist, who made 21 saves. “The last 5 minutes I was just smiling out there to look at the score.”
CONTINUED: Lundqvist not challenged by New York mates
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Mancuso - delivering on a lifetime of expectations in 1 minute, 8.30 seconds
By JIM LITKE, AP Sports Columnist
Updated on Friday, Feb 24, 2006 4:09 pm EST
SESTRIERE, Italy (AP) -- One run.
All the while she was growing up, everybody was sure Julia Mancuso would win, and all of a sudden it was down to just that.
One run.
Mancuso began competing as a 3-year-old on the Mighty Mites team in Squaw Valley, Calif., and even then it was apparent how much she ached to get down the hill ahead of the other kids.
She was 7 by the time she was beating the boys consistently, and when the cold drove them off the slope, she became determined to beat that, too.
"It would be freezing, she had holes in her gloves and nobody to race against," Mancuso's mother, Andrea, recalled Friday, tears streaming down her face.
"But do you think that stopped her?" she added, without waiting for an answer. "Uh-uh."
April Mancuso, older by three years and a member of the U.S. ski team ahead of Julia, knew that about her little sister, too. Still, she beat Julia down the hill just about every time they raced, until that fateful day a half-dozen years ago.
April was 18 then. Julia had just turned 15 and was already thinking about testing her skills on the World Cup circuit. They faced off in a race sponsored by the international ski federation on a tough course in Colorado.
"She beat me pretty good, too," April remembered. "That was hard to take until I realized she beat everybody else pretty good, too."
As Mancuso settled into the starting gate Friday for the second of two runs in the Olympic giant slalom and stared into the blinding snow, the challenge was clearly laid out in front of her. Down at the bottom, the times of every one of her rivals had already been posted.
Somewhere off in the opaque distance, in the front row of the grandstand, her family sat on the edge of their seats, Her maternal grandfather, Denny Tuffanelli, stared intently at the giant video board. He had skied for Stanford back in the day, when being on the college team meant competing in every discipline -- Alpine, cross country, even ski-jumping. And the way he leaned forward on his two canes, he seemed to be willing her down the hill.
On the side of the hill, about a third of the way down, U.S. Alpine director Jesse Hunt looked back up at the start gate, and even though Mancuso had never led a race anywhere near this magnitude, thought to himself, "She's proven that she can handle the pressure over and over again at big events."
And now it was all down to one run to prove it.
"I was thinking podium," Mancuso revealed afterward, "not so much gold, but definitely I would have loved gold."
Who knows what happens in that singular moment when a competitor digs deep down and discovers the heart of a champion is beating inside her chest?
Mancuso did it over the span of 1 minute, 8.30 seconds, launching herself into the face of all those expectations and down the hill. Skiing last among the 30 contenders in the second run, she carefully picked her way down a slope so blanketed by fresh snow that workers lining the hill had to repaint the blue course lines between each skier.
Mancuso's first run was aggressive enough to build a .18-second lead over Anja Paerson of Sweden. This time, though, she had to decide on the fly where to take the risks and where to play it safe.
"I just knew I couldn't make any mistakes," Mancuso said, "because there were so many big turns on the bottom."
Barely 10 minutes after Mancuso had locked up the gold, her family, friends and coaches milled about, all of them offering a different theory on when they had seen this coming. Mancuso's father, Ciro, talked about catching up to his daughter a day earlier and finding her angry that U.S. women had failed to climb even one podium in four previous Alpine events.
"She knew today she had to do it," Ciro said. "This was going to be their last chance."
Andrea, meanwhile, was retelling the stories about what a hard-nosed competitor little Julia had been when someone asked about a particularly tough stretch in their lives.
In 1995, Ciro Mancuso pleaded guilty to running a marijuana smuggling ring for two decades. Julia was 5 when authorities walked into the family's home six years before and arrested her father. He wound up serving just under five years and was released in 2000.
Skiing was Julia's refuge.
"Looking back now, it's just times when maybe skiing was the only thing for me to do," Mancuso said. "I just spent most of my time on the hill with my two sisters, chasing them around."
How much those days toughened Julia up, whether they made those expectations easier to handle, is impossible to say. But when Andrea turned back to answer the question, she left few doubts that her daughter steeled herself long ago to take a look deep inside.
"Circumstances in childhood made her a tough human being. They taught her to focus," Andrea Mancuso added, "how to be ready when things got tough."
And then she paused. The still-driving snow pelted her cheeks, melting alongside dried tears.
"And just look," Andrea said, her face brightening, "at the conditions today."
Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org
Updated on Friday, Feb 24, 2006 4:09 pm EST
Julia Mancuso pulled off a shocking upset by winning gold in the women’s giant slalom --
the first U.S. women's ski medal in 8 years.
Julia Mancuso skiing through the fog, led the giant slalom after the first run and held on to beat Finland silver medalist Tanja Poutiainen by .67 seconds.
Posted: Friday February 24, 2006 8:40AM;
Updated: Friday February 24, 2006 12:21PM
, Italy (AP) -- Julia Mancuso doesn't need a tiara anymore. She has an Olympic crown.
The 21-year-old Californian earned a stunning victory in the giant slalom on a snowy, foggy Friday to salvage a disappointing Olympics for the U.S. women in their final Alpine event of the Turin Games.
Mancuso gave the American women their first Olympic Alpine medal since Picabo Street's gold in the super-G at the 1998 Nagano Games.
"It was perfect timing," U.S. women's coach Patrick Riml said. "She skied beautifully."
Mancuso often skis in the slalom with a costume jewelry tiara instead of a helmet -- a good luck charm from her coach. She wore a white helmet in the longer, faster giant slalom, but she didn't need much luck, anyway.
With two strong runs in awful weather, Mancuso had a combined time of 2 minutes, 9.19 seconds, .67 seconds faster than silver medalist Tanja Poutiainen of Finland. With a big second run, Anna Ottosson of Sweden took the bronze, 1.14 seconds behind.
"My first thought was, 'Oh, my gosh! This is unbelievable!"' Mancuso said. "It was going through my head: 'Tonight, big party!"'
Boyfriend Steven Nyman, also a U.S. Olympian, already had left Italy and wasn't there to celebrate with her.
Janica Kostelic of Croatia, the defending Olympic champion, did not race because of illness.
Mancuso's medal was the second for the Americans in Alpine skiing, both gold. Ted Ligety won the men's combined last week.
Anja Paerson, winner of three medals in the Turin Games and the giant slalom favorite, was second to Mancuso after the first run but skied poorly in the second and finished sixth.
"I'm happy," Paerson said. "This has been a good Olympics. It was always a tough fight with the snow. I really wanted a medal today, but you can't have it all."
Mancuso had never before led after the first run of a World Cup or other major event.
She took an aggressive line and lived on the edges of her skis down the rock-hard course and held a .18-second lead over Paerson entering the second run.
"That was my first time," she said. "I was very nervous in the start, but I just had to bring it in."
Skiing last among the 30 contenders in the second run, Mancuso negotiated a tight, slightly shortened course she could barely see because of snow so heavy that course workers hurried to repaint the blue boundary lines as each skier passed.
"She's been getting ready to do this since she was 3 years old on the `Mighty Mites' ski team in Squaw Valley," her mother, Andrea Mancuso, said. "Just watch her. You can see she loves to ski."
Mancuso's time of 1:08.30 was second-fastest of the last run, just 0.01 seconds behind Ottosson.
"I was a little bit surprised at the finish," Mancuso said. "It was a slow feeling, but I guess everyone felt that way."
Mancuso, from Olympic Valley, Calif., won bronze medals in the giant slalom and super-G at last year's world championships and has three top-three finishes on the World Cup circuit this year. But she has yet to win a World Cup event and is ninth in the World Cup giant slalom standings.
"I was just ready now," Mancuso said. "I don't know why."
After she finished, she thrust her fists into the air in triumph, held up one of her skis and kissed it.
Her father, Ciro Mancuso, said he last saw his daughter on Wednesday and she was upset "with the way things have been going."
"She knew today she had to do it," her father said. "This was going to be her last chance."
In the stands, she was cheered on by a big family contingent that included grandparents from both sides. Sister April, who fixed Julia breakfast, screamed with delight.
The United States had not won a medal in the women's giant slalom since Diann Roffe's silver at the 1992 Albertville Games; the last U.S. giant slalom gold went to Debbie Armstrong in Sarajevo in 1984.
As expected, Kostelic did not race, ending her Olympics with a gold and a silver. She has six medals, four of them gold, the most for a female Alpine skier in Olympic history.
"She's in a good mood, but needs much more strength for the giant slalom," said Croatia ski team spokesman Ozren Mueller. "She's not upset. She's looking forward to the rest of the season and the World Cup."
Paerson could have equaled Kostelic's record six medals with a top-three giant slalom finish. She already had three medals in these games, including gold in Wednesday's slalom, and she won a silver and a bronze in Salt Lake City four years ago.
American Lindsey Kildow skied in the warmup and took part in the course inspection, then decided she would skip what is her worst event even when she is healthy.
Kildow was hurt in a crash in a downhill training run Feb. 13 and was bothered by back pain through all four of her events.
Sneak peek at Olympics Closing Ceremony on Sun. Feb. 26
Secretive final dress rehearsal features surprises, confusion, humor
The Olympic torch is seen above the stadium where the closing ceremonies will be held Sunday. Cameras were not allowed inside the venue for the final dress rehearsal because of the secrecy surrounding the event.
Jennifer Carlile / MSNBC.com
Updated: 11:02 a.m. ET Feb. 24, 2006
Want to sneak a peak at the Olympics closing ceremony? Well, I can’t give away the big surprises — who the star singer will be or what comes out of the black ring in the center of the stage. But, having seen the final dress rehearsal, I can say that there were some awesome surprises, some confusing moments and, given that it was a rehearsal and not the real thing, a bit of humor, too.
“It’s all a secret,” said the wife of a performer.
“He only told me he’ll be carrying a large Mardi Gras mask in a Carnival scene," Alba Facta said. "But, he didn’t even tell me what kind of mask because it’s all a secret.”
“I’m really curious,” said her 11-year-old son, Marco, as we waited for the program to begin.
Tickets for the dress rehearsal were given to the families of the roughly 4,000 people performing in and working with the grand finale. I received one from Philip Radice, director of the P.A.U.T. (Performing Arts University of Torino), who has six students climbing ladders, doing back flips, swinging from trapezes and clowning in the massive production.
With classes on pantomime, buffoons and jesters, medieval theater, black humor and juggling — along with slightly more traditional commedia dell’arte and monologue/dialogue classes — his university sounds like every circus-goer’s dream school. And, of course, such talents were in high demand for the Olympic show.
After waiting three hours for the performance to begin, all eyes were on the four giant TV screens as the countdown to its start, featuring the 16 days of competition, was given.
What followed was a fusion of world-class acrobatics, dancing and comedic theater, with allusions to the Renaissance, royalty and the battle between good and evil.
With a cast of thousands using fire, sparklers, ropes, confetti and laser lights, it was a quite a spectacle. While parts of it lulled me into an “Alice In Wonderland”-like dream state, a flash or bang — or someone running high and hither — snapped me back to reality, only to wonder at what was really going on. But, even the lack of clarity often added to the magic of the moment.
Throughout the performance, a raised black ring sat in the middle of the stage. Its silent presence amid the thousands swirling about it sparked my interest. And, just before the Olympic committee heads gave their speeches, it finally came to life, provoking the audience to gasp with surprise.
While all the performers were in costume and the special effects were in place, the athletes were absent and a few of the final touches had yet to be added.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11531738/
U.S. slider Ellis has surgery on broken back
USOC’s medical staff expects Ellis to make a complete recovery
AP
Updated: 12:04 p.m. ET Feb. 24, 2006
CESANA, Italy - U.S. skeleton Olympian Kevin Ellis had surgery Friday to stabilize his broken back, which he hurt while competing in a friendly tobogganing competition between members of the skeleton and luge teams.
Ellis has movement in his arms and legs. U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel said the surgery on his vertebra went well and that the USOC’s medical staff expects Ellis to make a complete recovery — although it’s still unclear when, or if, he’ll be able to return to racing.
“I feel very lucky that things went well for me,” Ellis said in a statement released by the USOC
The procedure at CTO Hospital in Turin lasted 5½ hours, said hospital spokeswoman Laura Capponi. Some of Ellis’ friends and family members were planning to arrive at the hospital either later Friday or on Saturday.
He was injured Thursday at a public sledding hill in Sestriere in an non-Olympic event that was being filmed by an NBC affiliate. There were four other Olympians — skeleton racers Katie Uhlaender and Eric Bernotas, plus lugers Christian Niccum and Erin Hamlin — in the event, which was supposed to be light-hearted fun.
Ellis reportedly went over a large ramp set up at the end of the course and landed awkwardly.
The 32-year-old accountant from Dallas was 17th in the men’s skeleton competition at the season-ending Turin Games.
He was ranked a career-best fourth in this season’s World Cup standings, and Ellis — a two-time All-American college hurdler who began competing in skeleton in 2002 — had indicated that he’s considering making a bid for a spot on the 2010 Olympic roster.
MENS SPEEDSKATING 10km medal winners' times
Speedskating - 10,000 M - Men's (medals: Feb. 25th)
MEDAL ATHLETE COUNTRY RESULT
Gold Bob De Jong Netherlands 13:01.57
Silver Chad Hedrick United States 13:05.40
Bronze Carl Verheijen Netherlands 13:08.80
Hedrick Wins Silver in 10km Speedskating
United States' bronze medalist Chad Hedrick receives his medal during the medal ceremony for the Men's Speedskating 1,500 meters at the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Wednesday Feb. 22, 2006. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
By PAUL NEWBERRY
The Associated Press
Friday, February 24, 2006; 1:51 PM
TURIN, Italy -- Chad Hedrick wanted to make a run at Eric Heiden's record five gold medals. Instead, the Texan now has one of each color.
Bob de Jong of the Netherlands bounced back from a miserable performance at the Salt Lake City Olympics to win a surprising gold in the 10,000 meters, the final men's speedskating event of these games.
Hedrick, the world record holder, finished second to complete his set: one gold, one silver and one bronze. Another Dutch skater, Carl Verheijen, took the bronze.
"I'm very happy with my accomplishments," Hedrick said. "At the same time, I feel like I left a lot of medals out there. I didn't skate perfect."
De Jong's winning time of 13 minutes, 1.57 seconds was nearly four seconds better than his personal best. Hedrick, who faltered in the middle of the grueling race, finished in 13:05.40 _ a full 10 seconds off the world mark he set in December at Salt Lake City.
Hedrick was in obvious pain late in the race _ his mouth hanging open, his head dropping several times on the back straightaway as he searched for the strength to hang on.
"My heart is bigger than anybody else out there," he said. "If another skater had felt like I did today, he wouldn't have been on the podium. That's just me refusing to lose."
But lose he did.
De Jong made it look easy in his race, maintaining a steady pace through each of the 25 laps. Hedrick, on the other hand, just didn't feel that strong for the last of his five events.
"I can honestly say I went out there and left it all on the ice today," Hedrick said. "I felt great in the beginning, but I sort of lost my edge."
Verheijen's time was 13:08.80.
While Hedrick didn't come close to matching Heiden's mark from the 1980 Lake Placid Games, he still became the first American to win three medals in Turin and will be remembered for one of the great performances in U.S. speedskating history _ not to mention his feud with teammate Shani Davis.
U.S. curlers sweep pass Brits, capture bronze
Americans survive late rally to win first Olympic medal in sport
The U.S. skip Pete Fenson releases the stone during the Britain vs U.S. match in the men's curling battle for bronze at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympic Games.
U.S. edged Great Britain, 8-6.
John Macdougall / AFP via Getty Images
Updated: 1:44 p.m. ET Feb. 24, 2006
PINEROLO, Italy - Pete Fenson wanted the curling bronze medal to come down to the final shot, and he was ready to take it.
The U.S. skip bent his rock into the target area, where it came to rest inside of Britain’s best hope and clinched the Americans’ first-ever Olympic curling medal. Only then did the usually stone-faced Fenson break into a grin and raise his broom in victory.
“Our job’s done here,” he said Friday after winning 8-6 for the first American curling medal in a major men’s competition since 1978. “It’s always nice to come to a world event and perform well. It adds to the credibility for us. ... Hopefully it will have a great impact in the States.”
A gentlemanly sport with etiquette about when and how to celebrate, the Olympic tournament has witnessed more than the usual amount of fist-pumping, cheerleading and even a thrown broom. But Fenson, a Minnesota pizzeria owner who was sarcastically dubbed “Hollywood” by his teammates, has remained stoic in steering the U.S. team, rarely showing as much as a smile.
“On the ice, he’s nerves of steel,” American second Joe Polo said. “He has fun out there, but he just likes to stay as focused as he can.”
The object of Fenson’s focus was an international medal slump that, the U.S. curlers believe, limited the sport’s appeal in their homeland. In addition to three Olympic shutouts, the American men had not medaled at the world championships in almost three decades.
“The drought’s finally over,” said U.S. national team coach Ed Lukowich, a former world champion. “Bronze, for the U.S., is like winning the gold.”
While the Olympic medal raises the team’s profile for non-curlers back home — and in the United States, that’s pretty much everybody — the Americans say they actually had their coming out party at last year’s worlds. Though they didn’t medal, they finished in a six-way tie for first place before losing a tiebreaker that kept them out of the semifinals.
“We didn’t surprise anybody out there,” U.S. lead John Shuster said, pointing to the ice at the Olympic venue about 45 miles outside of Turin. “That’s for sure.”
But even their own national governing body set a lower bar for the men, making their goal a medal of any sort. For the U.S. women, who won the worlds in 2003 and came in second last year, anything less than gold was officially dubbed a disappointment.
“Everybody was not expecting us to do well here,” U.S. third Shawn Rojeski said. “But we were pretty confident coming in that we could be contenders. We were definitely OK with coming in here and not being the No. 1 favorites.”
The Americans will share the podium with two more traditional curling powers, Canada and Finland, who played for the gold medal later Friday. Britain was shut out of a medal one Olympiad after Scottish housewife Rhona Martin threw the “Stone of Destiny” to win the gold medal in Salt Lake City.
“It’s massively disappointing,” said British skip David Murdoch, whose team is also from Scotland, the birthplace of curling.
Though the sport requires a soft touch and a smooth delivery, curling is also about strategy, and that’s how the Americans beat Britain. Taking a 4-1 lead on Fenson’s double takeout in the third end — or inning — they turned defensive and worked to get into the final frame with a lead and the big, last-rock advantage known as the hammer.
Britain’s best chance to win came with the hammer in the ninth, but it could only manage one point — essentially holding serve.
“As soon as that shot stopped,” Fenson said, “I knew I would be drawing for the win. The guys just had to keep it open so I would have a path.”
The hammer went over to the Americans in the 10th end, and they kept Britain from building any protection that would keep Fenson from putting the last rock into the scoring zone. Murdoch had one rock in the target area, and he put his last rock out front as a guard.
But Fenson had an open draw around the right to get inside of Murdoch’s rock and give the U.S. the bronze.
“That’s the shot we always work for the win,” Shuster said.
The victory was especially emotional for Rojeski; it was the second anniversary of his mother’s death. The U.S. third carried a picture of his mother, Bonnie, with him throughout the tournament.
“I knew it was going to be an extremely difficult day for me today,” he said. “This team is extremely satisfied with the way they played today — and for myself, it’s that much of a better moment, for sure.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11540054/
==========================================================
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/winter_sports/4744334.stm
Britain's men's curlers lost bronze-medal match 8-6 to USA
to go home empty-handed from Pinerolo.
Britain's men's curlers are left devastated after losing their bronze-medal match 8-6 to USA at Pinerolo
Last Updated: Friday, 24 February 2006, 15:25 GMT
BBC Sport at the Winter Olympics
Great Britain's men's curlers failed to land the bronze medal after an 8-6 defeat in their play-off with the USA.
After a heartbreaking 4-3 semi-final loss to Finland, Britain set up another thrilling climax as they battled back from 6-2 down after six ends.
British skip David Murdoch's superb three-point haul on end seven reduced the deficit to 6-5 with three to play.
Each side added one more but the USA, who held last-stone advantage, sealed a comfortable victory on end 10.
In reality, Britain had always been chasing the game after American skip Pete Fenson's dramatic double take-out in the third end scored three and put his team 4-1 ahead.
Fenson scored two more in the sixth to leave Britain with a mountain to climb to get back into the game.
Murdoch's last-stone double take-out in the seventh gave Britain a triple but the Americans stayed clear and took the last-stone advantage into the final end.
Despite Britain's best blocking efforts, Fenson held his nerve to draw in his final stone for 8-6 and spark celebrations among the American fans.
It was a sad finale to a promising tournament for Great Britain, who consisted of Murdoch, Ewan MacDonald, Euan Byers, Warwick Smith and alternate Craig Wilson.
Murdoch's men had led the round-robin stage with six wins from their first seven matches before running into bad form, finishing with four defeats in a row.
Britain's women, skipped by former defending champion Rhona Martin, failed to make it to the semi-finals.
Streaker cuts no ice at bronze medal match
Scottish man ejected after dancing on ice sheet;
John Macdougall / AFP - Getty Images
A streaker mimics a curler during the Britain vs USA match in the men's curling battle for bronze at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympic Games, in Pinerolo. The U.S. topped Britain, 8-6.
Updated: 10:42 a.m. ET Feb. 24, 2006
U.S. takes bronze, 8-6
PINEROLO, Italy - Britain’s match against the United States for the men’s curling bronze medal was interrupted on Friday when a male streaker ran across the ice.
With poultry for a loin cloth, the man vaulted the barriers and danced up and down the side of the ice sheet for several minutes before being bundled away by bemused rink attendants.
The British team, skipped by David Murdoch, who were lagging the U.S. 6-2 in the sixth end, rested on their brooms, laughing, while the streaker jiggled past.
As armed police ejected the man, naked into the cold mountain air, he was heard to plead in a Scottish accent: “Please will someone bring me my clothes?”
The British team, made up of all Scots, went on to lose the game 8-6.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11541373/
COUNTRY Total Medals Gold Silver Bronze Germany 29 11 12 6 United States 25 9 9 7 Canada 24 7 10 7 Austria 23 9 7 7 Russia 22 8 6 8 Norway 19 2 8 9 Sweden 14 7 2 5 Switzerland 14 5 4 5 South Korea 11 6 3 2 Italy 11 5 0 6 China 11 2 4 5 France 9 3 2 4 Netherlands 9 3 2 4 Finland 9 0 6 3 Czech Republic 4 1 2 1 Estonia 3 3 0 0 Croatia 3 1 2 0 Australia 2 1 0 1 Poland 2 0 1 1 Ukraine 2 0 0 2 Japan 1 1 0 0 Belarus 1 0 1 0 Bulgaria 1 0 1 0 Great Britain 1 0 1 0 Slovakia 1 0 1 0 Latvia 1 0 0 1
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