(AP) -- The Canadian hockey team has played its way into
today's quarterfinals.
Jarome Iginla scored twice and new goalie Roberto Luongo
(loh-AHN'-goh) of the Vancouver Canucks was good enough yesterday
to get the Canadians back on track after a loss to Team USA. Canada
will be part of a colossal quarterfinal game against Russia, a
matchup many expected for the gold-medal game.
The U.S. men's team will face Switzerland (again) in the
quarterfinals. The Swiss advanced with a 3-2 shootout victory over
Belarus. The Americans beat them 3-1 last Tuesday.
Austria has won the gold medal
in the Nordic combined team relay, edging the Americans, who
settled for their second silver medal of the Vancouver Games.
Billy Demong, of Vermontville, N.Y., had a slight edge over
Mario Stecher heading into the stadium but stumbled at the turn and
watched the Austrian zoom past him on the straightaway for a
5.2-second victory yesterday.
Austria's winning time in the 4x5-kilometer relay following a
jump off the large hill was 49 minutes, 31.6 seconds. Germany won
bronze, finishing 19.5 seconds behind the winners.
FIGURE SKATING
World champ with world best...Nagasu scores well in short
program
- World champion Kim Yu-na has
set a world best in routing a strong field in the women's short
program at the Vancouver Olympics.
Seeking South Korea's first figure skating medal, Kim has earned
78.50 points, giving her a huge 4.72-point edge over her chief
rival, Japan's Mao Asada.
Canada's Joannie Rochette's brave, heart-wrenching performance
two days after her mother died has her in third place heading into
Thursday's free skate, 2.52 points in back of Asada.
Japan's Miki Ando is fourth, followed by Americans Rachael Flatt
and Mirai Nagasu.
Nagasu has logged her best score ever in the short program.
Imagine if her nose hadn't started bleeding halfway through it.
The 2008 U.S. champion says she fears the bleeding kept her from
doing even better and will keep her from winning a medal.
The 16-year-old says she's happy she hasn't fallen yet in her
first Olympics and hopes to have a better showing in the long
program.
SKIING-MEN'S GIANT SLALOM
Carlo Janka wins Olympic giant slalom
Carlo Janka of Switzerland has
won the Olympic gold medal in giant slalom.
Janka had a combined two-run time of 2 minutes, 37.83 seconds to
add the Olympic title to the world title he won last year.
Norway took the silver and bronze medals. Kjetil Jansrud was
0.41 seconds back in second, to jump from 11th after the first run,
and Aksel Lund Svindal was 0.45 back for bronze, matching Bode
Miller's three-medal tally at the Vancouver Games.
Miller skied out during his first run when pursuing a record
fourth Alpine medal in a single Olympics.
MANCUSO'S PLANS
Julia Mancuso to sit out Olympic slalom
American Julia Mancuso is
content with her two silver medals and has decided not to enter the
Olympic slalom.
Mancuso related to The Associated Press that she had already
told the U.S. Ski Team coaches of her decision for Friday's race.
Mancuso opened the Vancouver Games by finishing second to
teammate Lindsey Vonn in the downhill. Then she finished behind
gold medalist Maria Riesch in the super-combined.
Mancuso still has one race left. She enters today's giant slalom
as defending champion.
Slalom is Mancuso's worst event, but she was ninth-fastest in
the slalom leg of the super-combined.
SKI-WEATHER WORRIES
Weather worries return to Alpine venue
Bad weather has returned just
in time for the final Alpine skiing of the Vancouver Olympics.
Organizers worry that thick fog limiting visibility to 100 yards
could create problems for the women's giant slalom today.
There's expected to be an extra inch or two of snow this
morning, followed by fog and then more wet snow in the afternoon.
The women's race director says the race could be delayed from
its late morning start to the afternoon.
SPEEDSKATING-10,000 METERS
South Korea's Lee wins gold; favorite Kramer DQed
Lee Seung-hoon of South Korea
has won a stunning gold medal in men's 10,000-meter speedskating.
Overwhelming favorite Sven Kramer was disqualified for failing
to switch lanes in the second half of the race. The craziest part
was that Kramer actually made the switch, but his coach missed it
and motioned for him to switch, and Kramer followed orders.
He finished about 4 seconds ahead of Lee, but it didn't matter.
OTHER EVENTS
Women's bobsled, skicross, biathlon relay
) - Midway through the women's bobsled competition,
the USA-2 sled of Erin Pac and Elana Myers is in second place. The
Americans set a track record in their second run, only to have the
Canada 1 crew lower it by four-hundredths of a second.
Two other U.S. tandems are tied for sixth.
Ashleigh McIvor has won
Canada's sixth gold medal of the Vancouver Games, defeating Hedda
Berntsen of Norway in the final of the Olympic debut of women's
skicross. Marion Josserand of France was third.
Russia has won the women's
biathlon relay. The team pulled away on the third leg and finished
the 4x6-kilometer race yesterday in 1 hour, 9 minutes, 36.3
seconds. France took the silver and Germany got bronze.
SLIDING CENTER-DESIGNER
Designer: Safety was top priority
The designer of the crash-plagued Whistler Sliding
Center track says there was never pressure from Olympic organizers
to make the circuit as fast as possible.
Veteran track designer Ugo Gurgel made the comment in a
telephone interview yesterday with The Associated Press.
Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili (noh-DAHR'
KOO'-mah-ree-tahsh-VEE'-lee) was killed when his sled flew off the
track at speeds nearing 90 miles per hour during a training run
just hours before the Olympic flame was lit. After an investigation
by local authorities, officials of the Vancouver Organizing
Committee and International Luge Federation blamed the fatal crash
on human error.
Asked whether the course was too fast, Gurgel replied: "It is
fast. As I have said before, if fast means dangerous, then yes."
FIGURE SKATING-PLUSHENKO'S PLATINUM
Agent: Plushenko not creating new medals
Evgeni Plushenko's agent says
the Olympic silver medalist isn't awarding himself a new color of
medal and just wants to put the furor over the men's final behind
him.
There are pictures of Plushenko's three Olympic medals on his
official Web site, and reports yesterday said his latest was
labeled "platinum of Vancouver." His medal from the Salt Lake
City Games in 2002 was properly identified as silver. The Russian
also has a gold from the Turin Olympics.
Ari Zakarian says whoever did the "stupid thing" had no
authority, and the figure skater isn't even aware of it. There were
no labels below the medals as of yesterday afternoon.
(Copyright ©2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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