Turin Olympics

If ever there was a lesson in the wisdom of not looking too far ahead, the Turin Olympics provided that in the women's hockey tournament. The much-anticipated gold-medal game between the United States and Canada never materialized because the U.S. women were upset by Sweden in the semifinals. That's why each time the intriguing possibility of a U.S.-Canada showdown is brought up here -- and it's mentioned a lot -- members of the U.S. team insist they haven't mentally jumped past their preliminary-round games.

If nothing else, Patrick Brown will leave the Olympics with a taste for rice and kimchi. And some Korean vocabulary too. He knows the words for "left" and "right," "up" and "down." "Enough to do my job," he says. Such is the life of an itinerant bobsled coach. After guiding teams from Jamaica and Greece through past Winter Games, Brown now wears the red and blue of South Korea, whose four-man crew he has trained for several years. "I guess it doesn't matter what the nation is," the Utah man said.

Passing through the Richmond Olympic Oval underbelly, fresh off the morning's work and a day away from the demands of near-perfection, Tucker Fredricks couldn't quite wrap his knit cap-covered head around the space between then and now. "It's a long story," Fredricks said after a moment of contemplation Sunday. And not wholly because it bridges a literal half-a-world-wide gap between Turin, Italy, and the outskirts of Vancouver, Canada. But centrally the journey of the U.S.'s top sprinter was simple and jarring, involving one immediate hard turn in 2006 that brought him to the 500-meter race Monday and a realistic medal chance.

He had nothing to apologize for -- not one thing, not after the best day and night of his life -- but sorrys have been such a part of Jeret "Speedy" Peterson's life that old habits are hard to break. "These are tears of joy," Peterson said. "I haven't cried those in 15 years." Peterson had been funny, insightful and brutally honest after going for, and landing, his signature trick, the electrifying Hurricane, in winning the silver medal Thursday night in the men's aerials at Cypress Mountain.

Zach Lund has grown. His hair has not. The two are related. This should be Lund's second Olympics as a member of the U.S. skeleton team. Instead, he's a rookie with a lot to prove. Four years ago, when he was at the top of his game -- ranked No. 1 in the world -- he was banned from the Turin Games for using finasteride, a drug that fights baldness but also was thought to be a steroid-masking agent. Its use was legal until 2005, then banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, and Lund insisted he never knew about the switch.

'Every time I get to the top of the mountain and I'm about to jump, I'm scared. You have to be a little crazy to do this.' Emily Cook, U.S. freestyle aerial skier, who will compete in the upcoming Turin Olympics.

Luciano Pavarotti, in severe pain months before his cancer diagnosis, lip-synced his last performance, according to the maestro who conducted the aria at the opening ceremony of the Turin Olympics. The late tenor's manager said Monday the bitter cold made a live performance impossible at the 2006 Winter Games. The conductor, Leone Magiera, reveals in a book that the rousing rendition of "Nessun Dorma" ("Let No One Sleep") was prerecorded because "it would have been too dangerous for him to give a live performance in that physical condition."

NBC has more than Bode Miller and Michelle Kwan to be concerned about during the Olympics. There's also Simon Cowell, Evangeline Lilly and those interns on "Grey's Anatomy." Many factors have conspired to make the Turin Olympics -- through five days of competition -- less of a television event than past games. Probably the most significant is that other networks are putting up a fight with potent weapons.

With less than a week until the U.S. skeleton team begins its final round of preparations for the Turin Olympics, its coach was put on administrative leave Saturday amid allegations he sexually harassed at least two female athletes. The decision whether Tim Nardiello will coach the Olympic team now rests, in part, with a three-person grievance committee formed by the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation.

When the NHL season resumes next week, there just might be some bragging done by the American Olympians in the Kings' and Ducks' locker rooms after Team USA's 5-3 victory over Canada on Sunday in their final preliminary game of the Olympic hockey tournament. The only Southern California player whose name turned up on the score sheet in a positive fashion was Bobby Ryan of the Ducks, who earned an assist on the Chris Drury goal that gave the Americans a 3-2 lead at 16:46 of the second period.

The designer of the crash-plagued Whistler Sliding Center track said there was never any pressure from Olympic organizers to make the circuit as fast as possible. "No, not at all, in no shape or form," veteran track designer Ugo Gurgel said Tuesday. Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed when his sled flew off the track at speeds nearing 90 mph during a training run just hours before the Olympic flame was ignited. After an investigation by local authorities, officials of the Vancouver Organizing Committee and International Luge Federation blamed the fatal crash on human error.

When the NHL season resumes next week, there just might be some bragging done by the American Olympians in the Kings' and Ducks' locker rooms after Team USA's 5-3 victory over Canada on Sunday in their final preliminary game of the Olympic hockey tournament. The only Southern California player whose name turned up on the score sheet in a positive fashion was Bobby Ryan of the Ducks, who earned an assist on the Chris Drury goal that gave the Americans a 3-2 lead at 16:46 of the second period.

Zach Lund has grown. His hair has not. The two are related. This should be Lund's second Olympics as a member of the U.S. skeleton team. Instead, he's a rookie with a lot to prove. Four years ago, when he was at the top of his game -- ranked No. 1 in the world -- he was banned from the Turin Games for using finasteride, a drug that fights baldness but also was thought to be a steroid-masking agent. Its use was legal until 2005, then banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, and Lund insisted he never knew about the switch.

Passing through the Richmond Olympic Oval underbelly, fresh off the morning's work and a day away from the demands of near-perfection, Tucker Fredricks couldn't quite wrap his knit cap-covered head around the space between then and now. "It's a long story," Fredricks said after a moment of contemplation Sunday. And not wholly because it bridges a literal half-a-world-wide gap between Turin, Italy, and the outskirts of Vancouver, Canada. But centrally the journey of the U.S.'s top sprinter was simple and jarring, involving one immediate hard turn in 2006 that brought him to the 500-meter race Monday and a realistic medal chance.

If ever there was a lesson in the wisdom of not looking too far ahead, the Turin Olympics provided that in the women's hockey tournament. The much-anticipated gold-medal game between the United States and Canada never materialized because the U.S. women were upset by Sweden in the semifinals. That's why each time the intriguing possibility of a U.S.-Canada showdown is brought up here -- and it's mentioned a lot -- members of the U.S. team insist they haven't mentally jumped past their preliminary-round games.

What's good for Bode Miller is good for America. What? Ridiculous as that reads, four years after his enfant terrible turn at the 2006 Turin Olympics, there may be a ski tip of truth to it. With the Vancouver Olympics fast approaching, we'd like to report Miller is reciting acts of contrition while negotiating a couch summit with Oprah to explain his boorish behavior in Italy, where he failed to win anything or anybody over --...

The designer of the crash-plagued Whistler Sliding Center track said there was never any pressure from Olympic organizers to make the circuit as fast as possible. "No, not at all, in no shape or form," veteran track designer Ugo Gurgel said Tuesday. Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed when his sled flew off the track at speeds nearing 90 mph during a training run just hours before the Olympic flame was ignited. After an investigation by local authorities, officials of the Vancouver Organizing Committee and International Luge Federation blamed the fatal crash on human error.

Ready or not, world, Bode is back. Bode Miller, the enigmatically-talented and bombastic ski racer who bombed out at the 2006 Turin Olympics before splitting with the U.S. Ski Team, announced at a Thursday news conference at Staples Center that he was returning to the squad in advance of the 2010 Vancouver Games. "This is an opportunity for me to have the best runs of my life," he said. A self-proclaimed nonconformist, Miller left the team in an acrimonious parting after the 2006 Olympics during which he failed to medal in five events and spent many nights cavorting at drinking establishments in the Italian Alps.

Ready or not, world, Bode is back. Bode Miller, the enigmatically-talented and bombastic ski racer who bombed out at the 2006 Turin Olympics before splitting with the U.S. Ski Team, announced at a Thursday news conference at Staples Center that he was returning to the squad in advance of the 2010 Vancouver Games. "This is an opportunity for me to have the best runs of my life," he said. A self-proclaimed nonconformist, Miller left the team in an acrimonious parting after the 2006 Olympics during which he failed to medal in five events and spent many nights cavorting at drinking establishments in the Italian Alps.

Luciano Pavarotti, in severe pain months before his cancer diagnosis, lip-synced his last performance, according to the maestro who conducted the aria at the opening ceremony of the Turin Olympics. The late tenor's manager said Monday the bitter cold made a live performance impossible at the 2006 Winter Games. The conductor, Leone Magiera, reveals in a book that the rousing rendition of "Nessun Dorma" ("Let No One Sleep") was prerecorded because "it would have been too dangerous for him to give a live performance in that physical condition."