Winter Olympic games shift from scandal to actual competition
By JAIME ARON
Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY — The first full week of the Winter Olympics is over. And, for the most part, so is the scandal that marred it.

KRT Campus Team USA's goal keeper Tom Barrasso (30) keeps the puck out of the net in the first period as the US beat Belarus 8-1 in the 2002 Olympic Games at the E Center in Salt Lake City, Utah Monday.

The politics and investigations remain, but the sight of Canadian figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier receiving their gold medals Sunday night while exchanging pleasantries with the Russian co-champions helped return the focus to ice and snow.

That puts the spotlight on speedskaters like Chris Witty and Jennifer Rodriguez, the gutsy effort of short-track speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno and even the agony of just missing a medal felt by bobsledder Todd Hays and the U.S. Nordic combined team.

Witty capped her return from strength-sapping mononucleosis to win a gold medal and set a world record in the 1,000 meters Sunday. Rodriguez was third, giving Americans six medals in six speedskating events.

Ohno won another on the short track Saturday night by sticking a skate over the finish line in the 1,000 meters after having his inner thigh gashed in a bizarre pileup. He needed six stitches to stop the bleeding and went to the medals ceremony in a wheelchair.

Germany added to its Olympics-best medals total by winning the first event Monday, the team 120-kilometer ski jump. Finland got silver and Slovenia bronze for its first medal of these games. Simon Ammann’s bid for a third medal came up well short as Switzerland finished seventh. The United States was 11th of 13.

The United States has won at least one medal every day of the games for a total of 18 — five more than at any previous Winter Games. Hays and the Nordic combined team did their best to add to it, but each finished fourth.

— FIGURE SKATING: The pairs ceremony had a pretty nice opening act: The original dance portion of ice dancing.

France’s Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat used a torrid flamenco routine to remain in first place heading into Monday night’s free dance, which is worth 50 percent.

Russians Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh repeated their second-place finish in compulsories, boosted by a perfect score for presentation from the Polish judge. World champions Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio of Italy are third.

— SPEEDSKATING: Even if she had been at full strength, Witty couldn’t imagine skating 2 1/2 laps in 1 minute, 13.83 seconds — 0.23 faster than any woman had ever gone.
Doing it a month after being diagnosed with mono wasn’t even fathomable — until she looked up and saw she’d done it.

“If I was healthy, that time would have been a surprise,” she said. “When I saw 1:13, I had tears in my eyes.”

Germany’s Sabine Voelker, who owned the world record, was second. Rodriguez raced into third with the fastest final lap of the day.

Gerard van Velde, a Dutchman renowned for his fourth-place showings, won the 1,000 meters Saturday, breaking the world record four years after giving up the sport to sell cars. Teammate Jan Bos was second and American Joey Cheek was third.

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