Vancouver Canada

I'm here to please. Well, mostly I'm here to eat and drink. But if I can please the occasional Canadian while I'm here, all the better. Oh, get your mind out of the gutter. It's no secret that I adore this town, but Friday I took it a step further by seeking political asylum here in Canada, citing governmental persecution back home and an inability to make or keep friends. To prove how serious I am, I burned my U.S. passport in the bathtub one morning while yodeling "O Canada."

What do you do if you get kicked out of a neighborhood pickup game? Go start another one with another team. That's just about what veteran snowboarder Chris Klug did after he was dropped from the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Assn.'s program last year. He formed a team with four others. It's a do-it-yourself parallel giant slalom team. "I still wanted to continue," Klug said this week. "I had some unfinished business. It turned out to be a real blessing in disguise."

On a day filled with crashes, Steve Holcomb drove his Night Train smoothly down the track and into first place at the halfway point of the four-man bobsled competition, raising hopes of ending a 62-year gold-medal drought for the United States. With two strong pushes, Holcomb twice lowered the track record, and he led Canada's Lyndon Rush by .40 of a second and Germany's Andre Lange by .44 of a second. "It's a great lead to have, obviously. It kind of takes a little pressure off. Even if we do make a little mistake . . . we still have a little padding," Holcomb said.

It was the sort of hat trick the International Olympic Committee didn't want to see: puffing on cigars, throwing back swigs of champagne and finding a landing spot atop the Zamboni. This might be typical celebratory behavior on the golf course (sans the Zamboni, of course), but the postgame revelry by the gold medal-winning Canadian women's hockey team sparked instant international debate and criticism late Thursday night. Not quite a day later, the IOC backed off its initial assertion that it would investigate the incident and seemed mollified by the swift apology issued by Hockey Canada.

Men's slalom, the last Olympic Alpine event, also provides last chances for Bode Miller and the Austrians. Miller, the sport's enigmatic icon, has already won three medals at the Vancouver Games, three more than the entire Austrian men's team. Winner of the gold in the super combined, the silver in the super-G and the bronze in the downhill, Miller was last seen last Tuesday skiing back to his condo after skiing out of the giant slalom. As for his chances in Saturday's slalom, think back to Dave Kingman's strikeout-to-home-run ratio.

It was nearly midnight Thursday, the day of triumph running into the day after, and both Kim Yuna and Brian Orser already were looking at the days ahead. The skater and her coach were in a car going from post-competition doping control to a news conference that would be aired live in South Korea, where half the country's 48 million people already had watched TV broadcasts of their national hero becoming their first Olympic figure skating champion. During the 20-minute ride, Kim and Orser could have sat back and looked at the gold medal she won three hours earlier with a performance of record-breaking, mind-boggling quality.

For the briefest moment, Bill Demong stood absolutely still, closing his eyes, exhaling. Only then did he step onto the highest part of the podium, the spot reserved for the winner. "I didn't expect to win the medal until it was over," he said. "I'm just starting to let it sink in a bit." Let it sink in that he had won gold in the large hill event of the Nordic combined at Whistler Olympic Park on Thursday. Let it sink in that his victory, along with a second-place finish by teammate Johnny Spillane, capped a historic two weeks for the U.S. in this obscure sport that combines ski jumping with cross-country skiing.

The women's portion of the Alpine skiing competition ends with the slalom. The top contenders are France's Sandrine Aubert, Germany's Maria Riesch and Austria's Kathrin Zettel. But keep an eye on the U.S.' Sarah Schleper, who will be easily recognized because of her fluorescent-colored ski helmets and trademark roar before her start. Schleper is in her second season after two years off because of an injury and the birth of her first child. Hockey The men's semifinals take place, with the U.S. playing Finland in the first game and Canada taking on Slovakia in the other.

The women's giant slalom was finally put to bed Thursday as Julia Mancuso tried to put a few rumors, and her emotional Olympic experience, to rest. Mancuso had no real shot at Whistler to defend her gold medal. Hope ended Wednesday when she finished 18th in her first run. Mancuso was flagged off course during her run and forced to restart after teammate Lindsey Vonn crashed in front of her. Poor weather postponed the second run to Thursday morning, which gave Mancuso time to transition from fuming to philosophical.