OFFICIAL OLYMPIC SPOILER THREAD

[thedoctor]

looks like her and kwan had a talk before she left town.

[Soxy]

Cohen holds onto second place as teammate Meisner takes the ice

[aboz56]

Yeah, I was going to make a Cubs joke, but refrained.

 

I don't think Sasha is going to medal.

 

Well, here's hoping Kimmie delivers. . .

Unless Kimmie passes her, Cohen will take 3rd.

[Soxy]

Unless Kimmie passes her, Cohen will take 3rd.

That's true, I'm glad there'll be an American on the podium.

[Soxy]

I'll gladly eat my crow, Cohen now at least getting bronze.

[aboz56]

Looks like Kimmie 6th

Hughes 7th

 

Cohen 3rd

 

The Russian is up with a chance for gold.

[aboz56]

Silver for Sasha.

 

Slutskaya or whatver it is chokes.

[Soxy]

And in a shocker, Cohen keeps the Silver, Japanese 1st, and the biggest shock of the night, Slutskaya takes teh bronze.

[aboz56]

And in a shocker, Cohen keeps the Silver, Japanese 1st, and the biggest shock of the night, Slutskaya takes teh bronze.

She'll take it I'm sure.

 

After she fell twice, she didn't even look like a good bet to medal.

[Soxy]

She'll take it I'm sure.

 

After she fell twice, she didn't even look like a good bet to medal.

The russian is known for her consistency, though, that's why I was surprised.

[Goldmember]

Mancuso wins gold in women's giant slalom

Updated: Feb.24, 2006, 9:21 am CST

 

 

SESTRIERE, Italy (AP) -- Make that a gold tiara for Julia Mancuso .

 

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.

 

Mancuso, known for wearing a tiara in slalom races but racing in a white helmet in the GS, gave the American women their first Olympic medal since Picabo Street's gold in the super-G at the 1998 Nagano Games.

 

With two strong runs in awful weather, Mancuso had a combined time of two 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 Mancuso in the final women's Alpine event of the Torino Games.

 

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 Torino Games and the giant slalom favorite, was second to Mancuso after the first run but skied poorly in the second to wind up sixth.

 

According to U.S. officials, Mancuso had never led after the first run of a World Cup or other major event -- until Friday. She took an aggressive line and lived on the edges of her skies down the rock-hard course and held a .18-second lead over Paerson entering the second run.

 

Skiing last among the 30 contenders in the second run, Mancuso coolly negotiated a tight, slightly shortened course she could barely see because of snow so heavy that course workers were repainting the blue boundary lines as skiers passed. Her time of 1 minute, 8.30 was second-fastest of the run, just 0.01 seconds behind Ottosson.

 

Mancuso, from Olympic Valley, Calif., took 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.

 

After she finished, she thrust her fists into the air in triumph and kissed a ski as she held it up.

 

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 won two in Salt Lake City four years ago.

 

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.

 

http://www.nbcolympics.com/alpine/5130438/detail.html

[Goldmember]

U.S. men win curling bronze medal

Posted: Feb.24, 2006, 9:01 am CST; Updated: Feb.24, 2006, 9:14 am CST

 

PINEROLO, Italy (AP) -- Pizza Pete Fenson  is bringing home a slice of the Olympics -- the first U.S. curling medal ever.

 

The American men won the bronze by beating Britain 8-6 on Friday in the consolation game, jumping to an early lead and then clinching the victory with a simple draw to the middle of the target in the final end. That put the United States on the medal stand along with more traditional curling powers Finland and Canada, who play later Friday for the championship.

 

Britain was shut out of a medal one Olympics after Scottish housewife Rhona Martin threw the "Stone of Destiny'' to win the gold medal in Salt Lake City. David Murdoch 's team is also from Scotland, which is considered the birthplace of curling.

 

With the Americans holding the big last-rock advantage known as the hammer for the final end, or inning, they played defensively and kept the British from building any protection. Murdoch had one rock in the target area, and he put his last rock out front as a guard.

 

But Fenson, a Minnesota pizzeria owner, had an open draw around the right to get inside of Murdoch's rock and give the U.S. the bronze.

 

The Americans took control with three points in the third end and made it 6-2 with a pair of points in the sixth. But the British rallied with three points in the seventh end when Murdoch knocked out an American rock and left his in the scoring zone, along with two others.

 

Britain's best chance to win came in the ninth, when it held the big last-rock advantage known as the hammer. But it could only manage one point -- essentially holding serve.

 

The hammer went over to the Americans in the 10th end, and they used it to set up the winning shot.

 

http://www.nbcolympics.com/curling/5131094/detail.html

[Goldmember]

Flying Dutchman wins gold, Hedrick settles for silver in men's 10,000

By PAUL NEWBERRY, AP National Writer

 

 

TURIN, Italy (AP) -- 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 Friday 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. Even though there were still four pairs left, he grabbed a Dutch flag that was tossed on the ice and did a victory lap.

 

"Only one guy really had heart today," Verheijen said. "That was Bob."

 

Hedrick, on the other hand, didn't feel that strong for the last of his five events -- a grueling schedule that took its toll on the 28-year-old skater.

 

"I can honestly say I went out there and left it all on the ice today," he said. "I felt great in the beginning, but I sort of lost my edge."

 

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. Olympic history -- not to mention his feud with teammate Shani Davis.

 

Hedrick became only the third American to win as a many as three medals at one Winter Olympics, following fellow speedskaters Heiden and Sheila Young, who won gold, silver and bronze at Innsbruck in 1976.

 

It's not enough.

 

After hinting before the games that he might be done with the Olympics, Hedrick said he'll definitely be back for the 2010 Winter Games.

 

"I'll make another run at it in Vancouver," he said.

 

As for De Jong, he no longer will be haunted by his failures in 2002, when he finished 30th in the 5,000 and next-to-last in the 10,000.

 

De Jong also salvaged the first gold medal of the games for the Dutch men, who have now won speedskating's longest race at three straight Olympics.

 

Skating in the fourth of eight pairs, De Jong put up what he knew was an impressive time on the slow Turin ice. Still, he didn't know for another 1 1/2 hours that the gold medal was his.

 

"I knew it was a good race, enough to get a medal," De Jong said. "But I didn't know it was enough to win."

 

The other contenders -- 5,000 silver medalist Sven Kramer of the Netherlands, two-time gold medalist Enrico Fabris of Italy and Lasse Saetre of Norway -- didn't come close to De Jong's mark.

 

Finally, in the last race, Hedrick and Verheijen stepped to the line knowing what it would take to win gold. These two had swapped the world record back and forth in the final two months of 2005, but they couldn't duplicate those performances when it counted most.

 

De Jong watched nervously from the infield, his smile getting bigger with each lap. When Hedrick finished, the Dutchman pumped his fist and fell flat on his back.

 

"I was scared that they would speed one another up, but it didn't happen," De Jong said.

 

Hedrick started quickly and was two seconds under De Jong's pace after the fourth of 25 laps. Then, slowly, he began to fade, sending the orange-clad Dutch fans into a frenzy when his time after the 10th lap showed a plus sign in front of it -- an indication his pace was slower than the leader.

 

Hedrick lost more and more ground during the next 11 laps, falling more than 4 1/2 seconds behind De Jong. He didn't have enough time to make up such a daunting gap, and it looked as though Verheijen might even snatch away the silver.

 

When Verheijen closed right up behind Hedrick during the changeover with 3 1/2 laps to go, the American suddenly found another gear, hopping on his skates and leaving his challenger behind. Verheijen finished in 13:08.80.

 

Hedrick said he was watching Verheijen on the television screens at each end of the rink.

 

"I could feel Carl catching me," Hedrick said. "I decided with six laps to go that the best way was to rest a little bit, let him catch me, let him think he has me. Then I sprinted away from him on that one lap."

 

Verheijen scoffed at Hedrick's strategy.

 

"I'm glad Chad was thinking about me rather than himself," the Dutchman said. "Instead of considering how to win the silver medal, he should have considered how to win the gold medal."

 

Midway down the final straightway, Hedrick's time slipped past De Jong's. The former inline star put his hands on his knees and glided across the line, knowing that silver would have to do.

 

For now.

 

"I haven't accomplished all my goals," he said. "I won't quit until I get there."

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/torino200...ov=ap&type=lgns

[Goldmember]

Miller skis off course to end mediocre Olympics

Updated: Feb.25, 2006, 9:20 am CST

 

 

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 Torino 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.

 

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, the surprise gold medalist in the Olympic combined. 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.

 

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.

 

But their hopes were dashed less than a minute after the event began when Rocca, the first down the hill because he's the world's No. 1-ranked slalom skier, got his skis crossed and crashed face-first into the soft snow outside the course.

 

"I knew that the course changed in that portion of the race. I was wrong. It's my fault," Rocca said. "I knew that the snow was faster, but I was wrong. I tried to go faster. It's a pity."

 

He lay there for several moments, in apparent disbelief, before climbing to his feet.

 

"I lost a great opportunity that can come back only in the next Olympics," Rocca said.

 

Miller, the World Cup overall champion a year ago, finished his lackluster Olympics by straddling a gate just a few seconds into his run. He then skied off course and raised his arms in mock excitement.

 

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.

 

http://www.nbcolympics.com/alpine/5133018/detail.html