Julia Mancuso’s giant-slalom gold medal sparked celebrations for Americans and Italians. And 50-year-old Russ Howard helped perk up Canada’s post-hockey mood by winning a long-awaited Olympic men’s triumph in curling — the country’s number-two sport.
Austria’s biathlon and cross-country teams also had some reason to be buoyant on Friday, with all 10 athletes under the scope returning negatives to out-of-competition doping tests from last weekend’s unprecedented raids by Italian police. But that issue is far from over at the Winter Games.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it will press ahead with a far-reaching probe based on evidence seized at the lodgings of Austrian athletes and staff by police under Italy’s strict anti-doping laws.
”The IOC takes this affair very seriously and is determined to do everything in its power to bring full clarity to what has happened,” IOC spokesperson Giselle Davies said. ”We must look at the bigger picture.”
Disgraced coach Walter Mayer, whose presence in Turin sparked the anti-doping raids, is still in a psychiatric ward in Austria.
But the trouble his presence in Turin caused won’t be settled for weeks, the IOC said, with the disciplinary hearings into the Austrian case expected to stretch for weeks or months.
”We wish to avoid the image of conducting some sort of witch-hunt here, but we have reason to follow up a certain number of cases,” said IOC medical commission chief Arne Ljungqvist.
Canada beat Finland 10-4 in eight ends to win the men’s curling gold medal, making Howard the oldest gold medallist to date at the Winter Olympics. The United States won their first curling medal — a bronze — when their men’s team beat Britain 8-6.
The men’s hockey finalists were decided on Friday — Nordic neighbours Finland and Sweden will play in the gold-medal game on Sunday. Sweden beat world champions Czech Republic 7-3 and Finland shut out Russia 4-0, leaving the losers to play in the bronze-medal match on Saturday.
Gone are both finalists from 2002 in Salt Lake — defending champions Canada and the US. Both lost in the quarterfinals: the Americans to Finland and Canada to Russia.
There were some positives in cross-country — positive stories, that is.
In the final event of the women’s programme, super mom Katerina Neumannova won the Czech Republic’s first gold medal of the games, edging favourite Julija Tchepalova of Russia to win the 30km mass start race in one hour, 22 minutes and 25,4 seconds.
Tchepalova, who won gold in Saturday’s 4x5km relay, led for most of the race and likely would have won had she not fallen while climbing a hill in the late stages.
Neumannova collapsed across the finish and raised her poles in triumph, then embraced her two-year-old daughter, Lucie, who travels the circuit with her.
”When my daughter was born, I decided she was most important,” Neumannova said. ”It’s difficult, but it’s possible. It was not possible to leave my daughter at home, because I travel for skiing. She is always with me.”
The US won their second Alpine skiing gold here when Mancuso won the slalom.
The 21-year-old Mancuso gave the American women their first Olympic gold since Picabo Street won the super-G at the 1998 Nagano Games.
”My first thought was, ‘This is unbelievable!”’ Mancuso said. ”It was going through my head: ‘Tonight, big party!”’
She had a combined time of two minutes, 9,19 seconds — 0,67 seconds faster than silver medallist Tanja Poutiainen of Finland. With a big second run, Anna Ottosson of Sweden took the bronze, 1,14 seconds behind Mancuso.
Mancuso’s family were all there to cheer her on — sister, mother, father and grandparents. It was a big moment in two nations — her mother’s family is from Bologna in Italy, her father’s from the south of the country.
Speed-skater Chad Hedrick added a silver to take the US tally to 23 medals, including eight golds, when he finished behind Bob de Jong of The Netherlands in the speed-skating 10 000m.
Germany lead the medal standings with 24, including nine golds.
De Jong flopped spectacularly at the Salt Lake City Games, finishing 30th in the 5 000m and next to last in the 10 000m despite being favourite for both events. But he made up for it with a race that was so good it even looked at one stage like he might threaten Hedrick’s world record despite the slow ice of the Oval Lingotto.
Hedrick, who came to Turin chasing Eric Heiden’s record five speed-skating golds at one games, finished second to add a silver medal to the gold and bronze he won in the 5 000m and 1 500m.
There are eight gold medals on offer on Saturday, including three in short-track speed-skating, where South Korea’s Ahn Hyun-soo is aiming for an unprecedented sweep of men’s medals. — Sapa-AP