Winter Olympics 2010

[Jolie Rouge]

Make it six: Ohno ties Blair for most US medals
By Paul Newberry, Ap National Writer
1 min ago

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Boxed out by the South Koreans, with all hope of a medal appearing lost, Apolo Anton Ohno could only count on the freakishness of short track to pull it out.

When two skaters ahead of him went sliding into the padding, Ohno stuck his skate across the line and Olympic medal No. 6 was his.

The American who made the soul patch fashionable — even the women were wearin' em — pulled out a silver in the 1,500-meter final when the two South Koreans took each other out on the final turn, allowing Ohno to tie Bonnie Blair for most medals won by a U.S. Winter Olympian.

The Koreans still got the gold, which went to Lee Jung-su. But Ohno had no complaints about being the runner-up, especially when he was fourth with just a few meters to go. It didn't hurt to see 19-year-old American teammate J.R. Celski right behind him for the bronze in his first major event since a gruesome crash at the U.S. trials.

Ohno, who now has two medals of each color, moved past Eric Heiden as the most decorated American male at the Winter Games and also claimed the mark all to himself for most short track medals since the wild-and-wooly sport joined the Olympic program.

Ohno grabbed an American flag, though he had to put it under one arm when he held up his fingers for the crowd — all five on the left hand, and another on the right.

Make it six, and he has three more events to pass Blair at the Vancouver Games.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100214/...d_short_track/


Up: Olympic ski schedule shifted after delays
By Howard Fendrich, Ap Sports Writer
1 hr 13 mins ago

WHISTLER, British Columbia – They saw this coming.

Skiers, coaches, officials — all expected too-warm and too-wet weather at this ritzy resort. Now those very conditions have, indeed, transformed the mountain into a slushy mess, forced postponement of the first two Alpine events and scrambled the schedule less than 12 hours into the Olympics.

"All the athletes were about 90 percent sure something wasn't going to go off on time or just right," 2006 Turin Games gold medalist Ted Ligety said Saturday. "Whistler is known for having poor weather this time of year. It's something none of us was surprised by."

After deciding in the wee hours of Saturday to put off the competition-opening men's downhill slated for that morning, the International Ski Federation began shifting training runs and races, eventually devising a way to squeeze seven medal events into seven days.

That would leave another week for the other three races, and given that no Alpine event has ever been canceled altogether at a Winter Games, no one is panicking just yet. Then again, with more rain and snow on the way, and the possibility of temperatures in the mid-40s much of next week, no one is willing to guarantee the new plan will hold.

"We're still very confident that we're going to do it — get everything finished," Vancouver Alpine women's race director Atle Skaardal told The Associated Press. "You can't see into the future. I can't see into the future. So I can't give you a sure answer."

The men's downhill was pushed to Monday, originally an off day. The juggled lineup keeps the men's super-combined on Tuesday, and the women's downhill — Lindsey Vonn's signature event — on Wednesday. The already-postponed women's super-combined moves from Sunday to Thursday, another slot left open on the Olympic calendar.

The schedule then would revert to normal: men's super-G Friday, women's super-G the next day and men's giant slalom Feb. 21.

Whew.

After that, there would be two days with no racing, then the women's giant slalom on Feb. 24, the women's slalom on Feb. 26, and the men's slalom on Feb. 27 — the day before the Vancouver Games end.

"We could get be back on schedule if the weather forecast is as it says," Peter Bosinger, who oversees Alpine skiing at these Olympics, told the AP.

So far, though, a mix of snow, rain, fog and above-freezing temperatures turned sections of the Olympic slope into a mush too dangerous to be used for high-speed skiing. The top of the course isn't all that bad, actually, because it's relatively dry and packed with fresh snow. But farther down, conditions deteriorate, because that's where it's warmer and rain has been falling steadily.

"It's super-soft. You can take your pole and basically punch it all the way through the snow," Ligety said. "When you try to push off the ski, you just push in, and the ski keeps going into the snow and doesn't really release. You can't ski."

Just one of six downhill training runs for men and women was completed as planned so far. A women's practice is scheduled for Sunday but because about a foot of snow is predicted for Saturday night into Sunday morning — and Skaardal said precipitation is the biggest impediment to a good course at this point — officials and coaches are assuming that will be scrapped, too.

Only one woman, Italy's Lucia Recchia, has completed a trip down the official slope. Thursday's training run was stopped after two racers left the starting gate — Recchia made it down safely, but Stacey Cook of Mammoth, Calif., crashed — and practice was canceled altogether Friday and Saturday.

That's why the women's super-combined race had to be postponed. The event adds times from one downhill run and one slalom run, and rules require that each competitor gets at least one chance to ski the downhill course in practice before racing on it for real.

"It's all going to work out," Bosinger said. "Monday's going to be a sunny day, and everyone's going to be smiling."

Perhaps. But frowns could return Tuesday, when the forecast is for a 60 percent chance of rain or snow showers.

Weather issues are nothing new to Alpine events at the Olympics, of course — or to skiing at Whistler, for that matter.

"It's a difficult place to host ski races," Bosinger said.

Hard by the Pacific Ocean, Whistler has been known to attract weather not necessarily conducive to skiing. For three consecutive World Cup seasons in the mid-1990s, the skiing circuit failed to get a single race off at Whistler, which eventually was dropped from the calendar.

"This mountain is unbelievable," said U.S. Ski Team member Will Brandenburg, who is from Spokane, Wash., "but one thing that happens is it gets weather."

At the 2006 Turin Games, the women's super-G race was pushed back 24 hours, and the combined event was split over two days. The start of Alpine skiing at the 1998 Nagano Olympics was delayed for two days, and they wound up needing to shoehorn nine races into 10 days — even racing more than once in a single day. The men's and women's downhills were both postponed at the 1984 Sarajevo Games.

Bode Miller was among racers who did ski some free runs down the mountain Saturday, albeit not on the official course. Others passed the time by getting some extra sleep or wandering around the local village.

Vonn, meanwhile, wrote on her Facebook page that she was "sitting in my condo up here in Whistler baking some banana bread and watching the rain continue to come down." Count the two-time overall World Cup champion as someone rather pleased with all of these delays, because she keeps gaining more and more time to let her bruised right shin heal.

"My shin is feeling better and better each day," she wrote.

As things stand now, Vonn's first race won't come until Wednesday — weather permitting, naturally — instead of Sunday.

Skaardal was asked about contingency plans for more disruptions and whether there were any chance the 10 races won't be finished on time.

"This is nothing we are thinking about. This is very far out there," he said. "It's a little bit too early to maximize the crisis."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100214/...ne_uncertainty

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[Jolie Rouge]

1st gold in Vancouver goes to 2002 double winner
By Jaime Aron, Ap Sports Writer
11 mins ago

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Apolo Anton Ohno glided around the ice with a U.S. flag tucked under an arm, flashing a handful of fingers plus one.

That makes six, as in matching Bonnie Blair as the most decorated Winter Olympian from the United States.

This one was a silver in the 1,500 meters, and it typified the wild world of short-track speedskating. Ohno was fourth going into the last turn when two of the three Koreans in front of him wiped out, giving him a clear stretch to the finish line behind Lee Jung-su of South Korea.

Being in the right place at the right time, Ohno put the United States on the medals stand for the first time at the Vancouver Games. Teammate J.R. Celski earned the bronze, and that pair of medals was enough to vault the Americans into an early tie atop the medals list.

There was a good chance that would grow in the final event Saturday night, women's moguls. Hannah Kearney qualified first and Heather McPhie was third. Shannon Bahrke was sixth and Michelle Roark seventh.

Of course, the first day of competition was filled with Vancouver Olympics firsts, such as Swiss ski jumper Simon Ammann landing the first of 86 gold medals to be awarded and Dutch speedskater Sven Kramer setting the first Olympic record while winning the 5,000 meters.

It also was a day of continued mourning for the 21-year-old luger from the republic of Georgia who died Friday, and all sorts of fallout from it.

___

Luge

Competition began on a repaired, reconfigured track the day after a 21-year-old luger from the republic of Georgia died following a crash during a training run.

The men were pushed up 600 feet to the women's start ramp, while women and doubles moved 800 feet to the junior start ramp.

The changes produced slower speeds, as intended. They also drew some backlash, with the Canadians saying they lost their home-ice advantage and a top American luge official saying, "The elite deserve to race from the hardest test."

After practice in the morning, the race began at night with IOC president Jacques Rogge and Vancouver organizing chief John Furlong in attendance. A moment of silence was held in memory of 21-year-old Nodar Kumaritashvili, and his photo was displayed on the video scoreboard near the finish line.

The only other Georgian in the field, Levan Gureshidze, withdrew.

___

Ski jumping

If Ammann's name doesn't ring a bell, maybe this will: He's the Swiss ski jumper who looked a lot like Harry Potter back at the 2002 Olympics, when he won two gold.

Now 28 — and no longer a double for the boy wizard — Ammann's victory was decisive, as he posted the longest jumps in both rounds. It was an impressive rebound from '06, when he failed to advance to the final round.

"I'm back at the top of the world," said Ammann, who became the first two-time champion on the normal hill and matched Finnish great Matti Nykanen's record of three individual golds.

With Vice President Joe Biden watching, none of the three U.S. ski jumpers made it to the final round. Peter Frenette and Nick Alexander tied for 41st, while Anders Johnson was 49th.

___

Speedskating

In the 5,000 meters, a trio of Americans failed to crack the top 10 — but they dominated the next 10. Chad Hedrick finished 11th, with Shani Davis 12th and Trevor Marsicano 14th.

Haralds Silovs of Latvia entered the record books, too, becoming the first Olympian to compete in long and short track events — and doing it on the same day.

Silovs finished 20th in the 5,000 meters on the big oval around midday, then finished fifth in the B finals of the 1,500 around the short track at night.

___

Downhill

Alpine skiers woke up Saturday to news of another day of delays, then got a new schedule: Seven events in seven days.

That is, if the weather cooperates.

The 10-day forecast is not very encouraging: Highs in the mid-40s almost every day, and at or below freezing only three nights, never getting colder than 29. There's a good chance of rain, and perhaps snow showers, on Sunday and Tuesday, then turning partly cloudy and finally sunny by next weekend.

The men's downhill, which was supposed to produce the first gold medal of these Olympics, is scheduled to kick things off at 10:30 a.m. Monday.

American sensation Lindsey Vonn is loving the layoff because it gives her more time to heal from a shin injury. And to bake. She tweeted that she spent the afternoon making banana bread.

___

Protesters

After several mostly civil protests Friday, members of the Olympic Resistance Network turned violent Saturday, shattering three large plate-glass windows and splattering more with red paint in the front of a popular department store selling Olympic souvenirs. They also shattered windows of a bank.

More than 200 people wearing masks caused an estimated $10,000 in damage, said Rich Gorman, regional vice president for Hudson's Bay Company. They were subdued by officers carrying clubs and shields, with seven people getting arrested. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

___

Figure skating

Memo to anti-fur folks: Johnny Weir won't be wearing any animal skins in Vancouver.

Weir said he's received "very serious threats" from activists since adding white fox fur to his costume at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships last month. They were so serious that he moved into the Olympic village, something he really didn't want to do but felt it was best for his safety.

However, he insists there are other reasons for his decision to go with a fur-free costume. "It was not because I was pressured to change it," he said. "I'm just switching back to another costume."

The men's short program is Tuesday, and the free skate is Thursday.

___

Men's hockey

Steve Yzerman is pushing the puck to Russia.

Rather than saddling the Canada men's team — of which he's the executive director — with the hopes and sky-high expectations of their countrymen, Yzerman proclaimed the two-time defending world champions the team to beat.

"They've got some of the top forwards in the world right now," Yzerman said. "With a little bit of luck the other countries can dethrone them."

___

Women's hockey

Canada opened its run at a third straight gold medal with a goal just 99 seconds in and went on to ring up the biggest blowout in Olympic history: 18-0 over Slovakia.

The reigning silver medalists from Sweden beat Switzerland 3-0 in the first match of the women's hockey tournament.

___

Biathlon

Slovakia's Anastazia Kuzmina won the women's 7.5-kilometer biathlon sprint. The top American, Sara Studebaker, finished 45th, more than two minutes behind.

___

Opening ceremony ratings

The Nielsen Co. says an estimated 32.6 million people watched NBC's telecast Friday night, 48 percent more than the 2006 Turin Olympics and approaching the 34.2 million who watched the opening in Beijing.

The Canadian broadcast was easily the most-watched TV event ever in the country, topping the 2002 telecast of the men's hockey finals in Salt Lake City. Nearly half the country was watching when the opening ceremony began and two-thirds of the country saw at least some of it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100214/...dvbGRpbnZhbg--

[Jolie Rouge]

Robinson becomes 3-time dunk champion
By Stephen Hawkins, Ap Sports Writer
9 mins ago

DALLAS – New York's Nate Robinson is the NBA's first three-time slam dunk champion.

Robinson barely won another title during Saturday night's All-Star festivities, garnering 51 percent of the fan vote to hold off Toronto rookie DeMar DeRozan, who advanced to the final round after getting a perfect score of 50 on his second dunk of the first round.

The final dunk for the 5-foot-9 Robinson came when he threw the ball off the backboard, grabbed it and turned midair for a two-handed backward slam.

Robinson was joined on the court for the final round by several Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, though they weren't used as props for any of his dunks.

"They're way too beautiful for that," Robinson said. "I just wanted them to stand over there and cheer."

After his final slam, Robinson celebrated by grabbing a pair of silver and blue pompoms from one of them and waving them in the air.

DeRozan got a spot in the competition by winning the first-ever All-Star Slam Dunk-In, beating Los Angeles Clippers guard Eric Gordon at halftime of the rookie challenge on Friday night.

Charlotte's Gerald Wallace and Shannon Brown of the Los Angeles Lakers were eliminated after the first round in Saturday night's marquee event.

DeRozan got into the final round after recording a 50 when he caught a pass off the side of the backboard and slammed it with his right hand on the other side of the hoop.

The five 10s came from a judging panel that included former dunk champions Spud Webb and Dominique Wilkins. The 5-foot-7 Webb, a Dallas native, won the event the only other time it was held in his hometown in 1986.

Fan voting determined the winner after Robinson and DeRozan both dunked twice in the final round.

Robinson won the dunk title as a rookie in 2006, then beat Dwight Howard to win again last year.

While Robinson reigned again, Boston's Paul Pierce arrived for All-Star weekend wanting to make up for an embarrassing performance.

Consider it done.

Pierce won the 3-Point Shootout, proving his lackluster performance the last time he was in the competition was an aberration.

"I wanted this really bad," Pierce said after celebrating with teammate Kevin Garnett, who was sitting courtside. "They don't look at me as a shooter, but more of a scorer."

Pierce had 20 points in the final round, making all five of the 2-point money balls, to beat Golden State's Stephen Curry (17) and Denver's Chauncey Billups (14).

When Pierce last competed in the Shootout in 2002, he scored only eight points — what he called leading into this week's competition "almost a record low."

Defending 3-point champion Daequan Cook of Miami was eliminated after the first round. His 15 points were the same as Phoenix's Channing Frye and New York's Danilo Gallinari. Curry had 18 points in the first round, while Pierce and Billups had 17.

Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash also was a winner Saturday night, beating the young guys to capture another Skills Challenge title.

Nash, who turned 36 last Sunday, became a two-time Skills champion when he beat a trio of 20-somethings.

It's been quite a run this weekend for the Canadian, who helped light the Olympic cauldron at Friday's opening ceremonies in Vancouver, British Columbia. He also will be on the court Sunday for the All-Star game in the same area where he played from 1998-2004.

With a time of 29.9 seconds in the final round, Nash beat Dallas native and 2008 champion Deron Williams of Utah, who is 11 years younger.

"I got my second wind," said Nash, who jokingly asked his younger opponents before the competition if he could start from the second station instead of doing the entire obstacle course.

Nash, whose other Skills Challenge title came in 2005, didn't have any practice on the course before the competition.

"I tried my best without my warmup," Nash said. "I missed the run-through because I was a little disjointed from the trip. ... I was kind of hoping for the best."

Milwaukee rookie guard Brandon Jennings and Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook, who is 21, were eliminated after the first round. Westbrook replaced defending champion Derrick Rose of Chicago, who sat out with a bruised right hip.

In Saturday night's opening event, hometown favorite and former Nash teammate Dirk Nowitzki hit a shot from midcourt to cap Team Texas' victory in the Shooting Stars competition.

Texas, which also consisted of San Antonio Silver Stars player Becky Hammon and former Houston guard Kenny Smith, beat Team Los Angeles with a time of 34.3 in the finals. The Texas trio needed 13 shots to complete the final round.

Lakers All-Star Pau Gasol, former NBA player Brent Barry and Marie Ferdinand-Harris of the Los Angeles Sparks came in second, finishing in 55.2 seconds.

Los Angeles hit its first five shots in the finals in less than 30 seconds, but only had a couple of chances from midcourt to beat Texas' time.

Atlanta (Joe Johnson, former Hawks guard Steve Smith and Angel McCoughtry of the Atlanta Dream) and Sacramento (Tyreke Evans, former All-Star Chris Webber and former Sacramento Monarchs player Nicole Powell) were eliminated in the first round.

Texas completed the first round in 1:28 and Los Angeles finished in 1 minute.

Three-person teams have to hit a total of six shots from different locations on the floor, culminating with a shot from midcourt.

In the skills competition, the course started with a layup or a dunk, then a weave through pylons before having to complete a chest pass, a bounce pass and a jumper from the top of the key. Then they have to make an outlet pass, go through more pylons and end with another layup or dunk.

Nash completed every obstacle in the final round in one try — save for a second shot from the top of the key. Williams was perfect until needing five shots at the outlet pass, when he had already exceeded Nash's winning time.

Saturday night's events were at the American Airlines Center, but Sunday's All-Star game will be at Cowboys Stadium, where more than 90,000 people are expected to attend.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100214/..._star_saturday

[shadowcats]

i saw the skating win , lol the koreans were so gung ho then wam they knocked them selves out ,,,,,,,,,,,YYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH..... ......


The only thing that disappointed me was in the local replay they edited the opening prefomance and edited out the indians opening display ,,,,,,,
gggggggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.......... i really wanted to see that again ,,,, phoey ,,,,,, i thought it was awesome they based the whole opening on their indian culture ,,,,,,,,,,,,, it was awesome ...............and was beautifullllll............loved it ............

[Jolie Rouge]

2010 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony: What about Vancouver's homeless?
By Taraneh Ghajar Jerven
Fri Feb 12, 12:20 pm ET

Vancouver, British Columbia – Vancouver residents are not cynics or zealots. But do not be surprised if there are more protesters than athletes at the Olympics Opening Ceremony. The Olympics have a history of leaving host cities in debt, and relocating the poor and homeless away from the sanitized corridors of host cities. Vancouver is no exception.

The city initially put the public cost of hosting the Olympics at $660 million. It has exceeded that by $5 billion in unanticipated public spending, when the government bailed out the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC), which went bankrupt during the global financial turmoil.

Due to the government’s unanticipated Olympic spending, Vancouver’s most basic public programs will have to scrabble for funding in the coming years. The already neglected programs to address housing and homelessness won’t make the government’s agenda at all.

For both Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000, the solution to visible homelessness was forcibly removing citizens from tourist areas during the Games.

Vancouver’s marginalization of the lower income citizens, however, began well before 2010. The homeless population in Vancouver has doubled since the city won the bid in 2003, as residents were squeezed out of low-income housing during the Olympic real estate boom and gentrification.

Then in December 2009, British Columbia, Vancouver’s province, passed the Assistance to Shelter Act allowing police officers to use compulsion to remove the homeless from public areas. Because the law has no local precedent, the timing sparked a heated debate about the government’s policy toward the homeless during the Olympics.

The reaction was so strong that Jim Chu, the Vancouver police chief constable, made an independent statement to the press that his officers would not uphold the legislation.

Chu’s force, however, is a small portion of the Olympics security, which has cost $900 million – that’s $240 million over the estimated total public cost of Olympic preparation.

Host cities consistently anticipate that the Olympics will deliver long term positive effects that do not materialize. In light of these botched scenarios, which have significant social and fiscal costs, perhaps it’s time to lay a faulty model to rest.

As long as the Olympics change locations, ill-equipped cities with the best intentions will make cosmetic preparations that exacerbate local issues without adding any positive legacy. Developers will get richer and local governments poorer. In fact, the notoriously negative effects of hosting are referred to among economists as “the host city curse.”

In Vancouver the Olympics aggravated a housing crisis. Homelessness is so prevalent that 57 percent of local residents voted it as their priority to address when the city won the Olympic bid.

Canada, the only Group of Eight member lacking a national housing strategy, has 300,000 homeless – with disproportionately high numbers of aboriginal Canadians who have a homelessness rate 15 times greater than the rest of the population. In British Columbia there are 15,000 homeless. Downtown Vancouver contains the poorest region in all of Canada.

Vancouver’s local residential real estate market has an extremely low vacancy rate – and there is almost no low-income housing. According to TRAC, a nonprofit education center for tenants and landlords, 900,000 individuals in British Columbia are labelled “at risk” of homelessness, spending more than one third of their paychecks on rent. Should they miss a paycheck, they will be out on the streets.

Because of this pressing dilemma, community organizations met with the VANOC and agreed on the urgent need to build affordable housing before the Olympics. But this did not occur. As VANOC went bankrupt and the government stepped in, assuming billions in debt, low-income housing was nixed.

When investment banks act irresponsibly, causing the loss of billions of taxpayer dollars, we make new regulations to ensure they act responsibly. The Olympic industry is a similarly oversized dinosaur, with host city taxpayers footing the bill for the bailout and receiving a lower quality of life in return.

Recent examples of massively indebted host cities include Sydney, Australia; Barcelona, Spain; and Athens, who are still paying off debt taken on to finance the games. In 2004 Athens spent $12 billion on hosting, 5 percent of Greece’s gross domestic product. Beijing beat all previous records, not only blowing $40 billion on Games readiness, but also evicting from 6,700 to 1.5 million people from housing in real estate development areas, depending on whom you ask.

In Vancouver, 69 percent of residents agree that way too much was spent on the games. The protesters are out and will keep on coming. There have been Poverty Olympics, with a bedbug as a mascot, and the homeless enthusiastically participating in spoof sports. Numerous organizations, including the Olympic

Resistance Network, 2010 Watch, and No 2010 will all demonstrate. Pivot Legal Society’s Red Tent Campaign will place red tents throughout the downtown event areas that will shelter the homeless, emblazoned with statements like “Housing is a right.”

The Olympics do bring the world together. The spirit of the Games and the prowess of the athletes are not in question. What is in question is the structure of the

Olympic industry, which is based on moving the Olympics around the world. No host city has ever made a profit, according to Robert Barney, director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario. Few host cities feel their investment justifies the human or fiscal costs.

The simple solution to the “host city curse” is to locate the Olympics in the same place and keep it there. It’s time to assess how the local impact of the Olympics detracts from the ultimate message of the Olympics – that of global understanding.

Taraneh Ghajar Jerven is a Vancouver resident and a freelance writer. She holds a masters degree in Economic History from London School of Economics. A former event producer, she spent two years planning and running financial conferences throughout Europe.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100212/cm_csm/279953

[Jolie Rouge]

Photographer in the frame over track soaking]
29 mins ago

WHISTLER (Reuters) – A photographer caused a delay during a crucial moment of the women's luge competition on Tuesday when he accidentally knelt on a switch that sent water spurting on to the track.

Germany's bronze medallist Natalie Geisenberger was just about to push off for her fourth run down the Whistler course when a red warning light flashed at the starting gate -- causing a two-minute delay.

"It was a hold put on the track as a result of a hydrant being accidentally activated, spraying water on the track. It was a obviously a matter of safety for the athlete," race director Ed Moffat said.

Geisenberger, who did not make a fuss over the incident, missed silver by a fraction of a second.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100217/...luge_water_odd

[Jolie Rouge]

Vonn seizes downhill gold
By Alan Baldwin 1 hr 55 mins ago

Lindsey Vonn of the United States reacts in the finish area after completing the Women's downhill at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Whistler, British Columbia, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010.
(AP Photo/Gero Breloer)

WHISTLER (Reuters) – Lindsey Vonn lived up to the pre-Games hype and got the 'Vonncouver' bandwagon rolling on Wednesday as the first American woman to win an Olympic Alpine skiing downhill gold medal.

The world champion, wearing the stars and stripes on her ski suit, looked totally untroubled by the shin injury that had overshadowed her arrival as she hurtled down the hill to beat U.S. team mate Julia Mancuso by a hefty 0.56 seconds.

Austria's Elisabeth Goergl took the bronze medal, matching the achievement of her mother Traudl Hecher who finished third in the downhill at the 1964 Innsbruck Games. She was 1.46 seconds off the pace.

Sweden's Anja Paerson was set for the silver medal when she crashed heavily off the final jump, flying 58 meters through the air before landing hard on her rear and ending up face down in the snow. Vonn gasped, covered her mouth and looked away.

Paerson was helped off the piste by doctors, one of several fallers.

With the sun shining and clear skies replacing the fog and snow which hit the schedule earlier in the week, Vonn blew kisses to the fans as she watched rivals fall or fail to match her time.

"It's incredible, one of the most emotional moments in my life," the American, who previously raced under her maiden name of Kildow, said of her first medal in three Olympics.

"To come into the finish area and see my name and Julia's up there was amazing.

"I knew what I had to do, I knew what type of run I needed to take. I had to attack and I did that," she added. "I made it down. It's awesome, it's all I ever wanted."

Vonn had won five out of six World Cup downhills this season and had the perfect setting to show once more that she was in a class of her own.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_alpine..._women_medals/

[Jolie Rouge]

Vonn crashes, Riesch wins super-combined gold
17 mins ago

USA's Lindsey Vonn crashes during the slalom of the Women's Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Super Combined event at Whistler Creek side Alpine skiing venue. Maria Riesch of Germany won the event after producing a storming slalom performance.
(AFP/Fabrice Coffrini)

WHISTLER, Canada (AFP) – Maria Riesch of Germany produced a storming slalom performance to win the women's super-combined gold at the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Thursday.

American Julia Mancuso won the silver and Anja Paerson of Sweden took the bronze after race leader Lindsey Vonn crashed in the second, slalom leg of the two-discipline event.

Vonn, who made history Wednesday by winning the United States' first ever Olympic gold in the women's downhill, went into the slalom with a 0.33sec lead on Riesch.

However, the 25-year-old crashed just before the halfway mark, handing Riesch, who had taken provisional top spot after a stellar performance down Franz's Run, her first Olympic gold medal.

Reigning Olympic slalom champion Paerson picked up her second consecutive bronze from the combined event.

After a spectacular crash in the women's downhill Wednesday, the 29-year-old Swede dusted herself off to produce a solid first leg downhill performance that left her only 1.41 behind Vonn going into the slalom.

Mancuso picks up her second silver medal of the Games, having stunned the field to take downhill silver behind Vonn.

The reigning giant slalom champion from Turin in 2006, Mancuso now has three Olympic medals.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100218...5jcmFzaGVzcg--

[Jolie Rouge]

Shaun White soars to repeat gold in snowboard halfpipe



VANCOUVER — Shaun White proved once again that there is snowboarding, and then there's Shaun White snowboarding.
He won his second men's Olympic halfpipe gold medal Wednesday with a "conservative" first run in the finals that was faster, higher and stronger than any of his competitors.

"I knew that I had it in me," he said after that run. "It felt good."

He put a cherry on top of that gold with an artistic display of the future of action sports, churning tricks in his second run that came faster than they could be identified. His power chord was a super-sized Double McTwist 1260, two backflips with 3.5 rotations of his board.

That run was a 48.4, his highest in an Olympics. If the rules allowed it, his first run score of 46.8 would have earned him a silver medal, too. Peetu Piironen of Switzerland did get silver. American Scotty Lago won the bronze.

"His bone, body, brain and synapses make him who he is," White's coach, Bud Keene, said recently. "But there are a lot of natural athletes. What sets him apart is his extreme commitment to training, to perfection. He has an uncompromising attitude toward his efforts. He works harder than anyone, and he's the most talented. That's a hell of a package."

White's second Olympic gold medal is the continuation of an improbable life journey that began with open-heart surgery as an infant followed by instant bonding with surfing. At 7, he picked up snowboarding because his mother was frightened by his wild skiing.

"From the very beginning," he said, "it was like this contest setting, and I wanted to be the best."

But the burden of competition was tough on his family, which often slept in its crowded van in ski resort parking lots because they couldn't afford a room.

When the family of five could squeeze into a single room, they cooked meals on a single electric hot plate. "If the security guards came around, a couple of us would have to hide out," he recalled.

In his moment of 2010 triumph, his entire family was with him at the halfpipe, something that was not possible in 2006. Even his dog, Rambo, got to come.

Rambo could fly first-class, too. White is one of the most well-known athletes in the world, making more than $9 million a year. Business Week magazine ranked him as 51st in its list of the 100 most-powerful athletes.

At 23, he's not old enough to rent a car, but he owns a Lamborghini.

When he wanted to work on his new "double-cork" tricks, energy drink sponsor Red Bull built him a million-dollar halfpipe deep in the Colorado Rockies, far from the eyes of his competitors.

After honing his skills, he went to New Zealand to practice before the Olympics, something he and coach Keene did before his 2006 win.

There, his competitive spirit kicked in and his secret tricks were revealed. It didn't matter that his rivals knew what was up his sleeve.

He won four of the five Olympic qualifiers, then took X Games gold in January less than an hour after crashing hard in a practice run.

"I can't really describe a trick as much as I just feel it," White said.

Wednesday night, the whole world was feeling it.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olymp...e_N.htm?csp=34


It was a great performance ...

[shadowcats]

Shaun White soars to repeat gold in snowboard halfpipe



VANCOUVER — Shaun White proved once again that there is snowboarding, and then there's Shaun White snowboarding.
He won his second men's Olympic halfpipe gold medal Wednesday with a "conservative" first run in the finals that was faster, higher and stronger than any of his competitors.

"I knew that I had it in me," he said after that run. "It felt good."

He put a cherry on top of that gold with an artistic display of the future of action sports, churning tricks in his second run that came faster than they could be identified. His power chord was a super-sized Double McTwist 1260, two backflips with 3.5 rotations of his board.

That run was a 48.4, his highest in an Olympics. If the rules allowed it, his first run score of 46.8 would have earned him a silver medal, too. Peetu Piironen of Switzerland did get silver. American Scotty Lago won the bronze.

"His bone, body, brain and synapses make him who he is," White's coach, Bud Keene, said recently. "But there are a lot of natural athletes. What sets him apart is his extreme commitment to training, to perfection. He has an uncompromising attitude toward his efforts. He works harder than anyone, and he's the most talented. That's a hell of a package."

White's second Olympic gold medal is the continuation of an improbable life journey that began with open-heart surgery as an infant followed by instant bonding with surfing. At 7, he picked up snowboarding because his mother was frightened by his wild skiing.

"From the very beginning," he said, "it was like this contest setting, and I wanted to be the best."

But the burden of competition was tough on his family, which often slept in its crowded van in ski resort parking lots because they couldn't afford a room.

When the family of five could squeeze into a single room, they cooked meals on a single electric hot plate. "If the security guards came around, a couple of us would have to hide out," he recalled.

In his moment of 2010 triumph, his entire family was with him at the halfpipe, something that was not possible in 2006. Even his dog, Rambo, got to come.

Rambo could fly first-class, too. White is one of the most well-known athletes in the world, making more than $9 million a year. Business Week magazine ranked him as 51st in its list of the 100 most-powerful athletes.

At 23, he's not old enough to rent a car, but he owns a Lamborghini.

When he wanted to work on his new "double-cork" tricks, energy drink sponsor Red Bull built him a million-dollar halfpipe deep in the Colorado Rockies, far from the eyes of his competitors.

After honing his skills, he went to New Zealand to practice before the Olympics, something he and coach Keene did before his 2006 win.

There, his competitive spirit kicked in and his secret tricks were revealed. It didn't matter that his rivals knew what was up his sleeve.

He won four of the five Olympic qualifiers, then took X Games gold in January less than an hour after crashing hard in a practice run.

"I can't really describe a trick as much as I just feel it," White said.

Wednesday night, the whole world was feeling it.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olymp...e_N.htm?csp=34


It was a great performance ...

lol makes you wish you were able to do those tricks .............
lol im so jealous of those kids s****** ,,,,,,,,,, looks fun but id bust my butt trying any of those moves...........

[Jolie Rouge]

The night they killed figure skating
By Elvis Stojko, Yahoo! Sports
9 hours, 35 minutes ago

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Sorry, Evan Lysacek.

You’re a great skater and all.

But that wasn’t Olympic champion material.

In Thursday night’s men’s free skate, Lysacek skated slow and his jumps weren’t close to the technical ability of defending Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko.

How can you be Olympic champion when you don’t even try the quad? If you’re going to take the quad out, why not take out another triple axel and just have more of the other stuff so the International Skating Union can make it more into an “art” recital.

Plushenko had a great performance. His footwork was great and maybe his spins weren’t quite as good as Lysacek’s, but it wasn’t that big of a difference. He also had a quad toe triple toe that wasn’t even attempted by anyone else. He did both triple axels, so all the jumps were there.

But the judges’ scoring was ridiculous.

Because of it, the sport took a step backward. Brian Boitano did the same thing, technically, in 1988. There are junior skaters who can skate that same program.

And the judges’ scoring probably killed figure skating because kids now are going to see this and say, “Oh, I don’t need a quad. I can just do great footwork for presentation marks and do a couple of nice spins and make it to Olympic champion.” With that type of scoring, you don’t have to risk it. You can play it safe and win gold.

In what other sports do you have to hold back in order to win?

The International Skating Union has taken the risk out of figure skating and it makes me sick.

If Plushenko had made some mistakes, then sure, maybe Lysacek deserves gold. But when you take the risk out of skaters’ programs, it doesn’t compute to me.

And it’s not a personal thing. I like Evan. But when you compare performances and have an outcome like this, the sport is going backward. And it hurts me to say it because I love this sport. But the judges made a mockery of it by giving Lysacek the gold.

I don’t want to rain on anybody’s parade because it’s not the skaters’ fault. It’s the system. And the figure skating community wants to control who wins and who loses. And what it does is it makes the component score more valid than the jumps so it can control whatever it wants. And that’s exactly what happened Thursday night at Pacific Coliseum.

How can the sport be put back on the right path? I have no idea. I haven’t even thought about it. It’s not up to me. Because people at the ISU obviously seem to know what they’re doing. Well, they think they know what they’re doing.

For me, the outcome on Thursday night was disappointing.

A few more thoughts on the men’s free skate:

• I thought Daisuke Takahashi was awesome. He tried the quad and he had the guts to go for it, and he should’ve been ahead of Lysacek in that aspect.

• Johnny Weir was great. He should’ve been higher than sixth – above Patrick Chan, who was fifth. Weir outskated Chan. He might’ve skated a little bit slow but he went out there and did his stuff. I feel bad for him.

• People say I’m hammering certain skaters. I’m not. It’s the system I don’t like and if you say I am biased … I already said I am not a fan of Weir’s skating, but he skated well tonight and deserved to be ahead of Chan.

In addition, Takahiko Kozuka – my favorite skater – did not get the points he deserved. He skated great, had awesome spins, the best edges in the competition, was very close with the quad and did a ton of triples.

Figure skating gets no respect because of outcomes like this. More feathers, head-flinging and so-called step sequences done at walking speed – that’s what the system wants. I am going to watch hockey, where athletes are allowed to push the envelope. A real sport.


http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/van...yhoo&type=lgns

Weir was robbed - he did an excellent performance and the *three* who place ahead of him all FELL on the ice. Weir should have taken home the Bronze.