Men’s Hockey
In the first Olympic game featuring mostly NHL players, defending gold medalist Sweden defeated the United States 4-2 late Thursday while Canada, the co-favorites with the Americans, opened with a 5-0 whipping of Belarus.
Canada finishes the round-robin portion of the tournament against the Americans. The U.S. team won the 1996 World Cup with a victory over Canada.
Chris Chelios and Mike Modano scored for the United States. Daniel Alfredsson scored twice on assists by Peter Forsberg to lead Sweden.
Detroit Red Wings holdout Sergei Fedorov, playing his first game since June, scored less than 2 minutes into the game as the Russians blitzed outmanned Kazakstan 9-2.
Goalie Dominik Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres had no trouble adjusting from the NHL to international play, posting a 3-0 shutout as the Czech Republic defeated Finland 3-0.
Figure skating
The terminally dull compulsory dance competition, nearly 5 hours of waltzes and tangos on ice, ended with the Russian pair of Pasha Grishuk and Yevgeny Platov in first place. Fellow Russians Angelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsyannikov were second, followed by Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France. Elizabeth Punsalan and husband Jerod Swallow of Pontiac, Mich., were in seventh place.
Men’s Nordic skiing
Bjorn Dahlie, vying to become the first Winter Olympian with seven gold medals, nearly pulled it off. But Norwegian teammate Thomas Algaard came on strong at the end of the 15-kilometer cross-country freestyle to deny Dahlie the victory.
Dahlie did not go down easily in a rainstorm that pounded the Snow Harp course. Algaard’s margin of victory was a mere 1.1 seconds ahead of Dahlie after the pair skied shoulder to shoulder for the last half of the race. Vladimir Smirnov of Kazakstan took the bronze.
Dahlie’s finish gives him six golds and four silvers in his career, equaling Raisa Smetanina’s total (four gold, five silver, one bronze) for the most Winter Olympic medals.
Bjarte Vik started with a big lead and didn’t give it up in winning the Nordic combined gold medal, giving Norway its second cross-country ski champion of the day.
Vik had a 36-second head start because he had the best effort in the 90-meter ski jump, the first half of the combined event.
He appeared to have few problems in the slushy snow, crossing the finish line in 41 minutes, 21.1 seconds. Finland’s Samppa Lajunen finished 25.7 seconds later to win the silver, just ahead of Russia’s Valery Stoliarov, who started second.
Alpine skiing
The ski course in Hakuba continues to be a meteorologist’s dream and a skier’s nightmare. Friday’s weather featured a little bit of everything: snow at the top of the mountain, rain at the bottom, lighting somewhere in between.
The women’s downhill and the men’s super-G were done in by the weather; the men’s race was reset for tonight. The women may run Sunday night.
The downhill portion of the women’s combined is scheduled for Sunday night and the slalom portion for Monday night.
However, more delays are a distinct possibility.
Men’s curling
The drama, the excitement - this is Olympic curling. The U.S. men’s team, faced with a do-or-die last shot by captain Tim Somerville, defeated Japan to move into the semifinals against favored Canada. Somerville landed a perfectly placed tap to disappoint the host team.
Women’s speedskating
The women’s 500-meter race, a two-round event, opened with Canada’s Catriona Le May-Doan setting an Olympic record of 38.39 seconds for first place. She leads fellow Canadian Susan Auch, the silver medalist in Lillehammer, and Japan’s Tomomi Okazaki.
Chris Witty of West Allis, Wis., was sixth.