Hedrick dedicates first gold to his late grandmother

Chad Hedrick got the United States’ party started at the Turin Games.

On the 13th anniversary of his grandmother’s death from brain cancer, the feisty Hedrick won the men’s 5,000 meters in long-track speedskating Saturday at Turin, Italy.

Hedrick said he would dedicate the race to Geraldine Hedrick, and he nearly pulled off a record in winning in 6 minutes, 14.68 seconds, just two-hundredths of a second off the Olympic mark.

“The first five laps were effortless,” Hedrick said. “Somebody from up above just gave me some extra strength. It was incredible. My grandma was watching today.”

Dutchman Sven Kramer won silver in front of several thousand orange-clad Dutch fans at the Oval Lingotto rink.

In the final two-skater grouping, Italian Enrico Fabris stormed to a bronze medal. Fabris was well behind the pace to capture bronze, but made up astonishing ground during the final 1,000 meters.

Figure skating

Russia’s monopoly on Olympic pairs gold looks secure with Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin.

The two-time world champions skated in perfect unison to win the short program at Turin with 68.64 points.

American champions Rena Inoue and John Baldwin landed the first throw triple axel in international skating one month after hitting the first one in U.S. nationals. They were a strong sixth with 61.27 points.

Alpine skiing

Gold-medal favorite Daron Rahlves and fellow American contender Bode Miller staked out solid starting spots behind their powerhouse Austrian rivals for today’s Olympic men’s downhill at Sestriere.

Rahlves will start 20th, two places behind Miller, based on the final training runs – a bit farther back than they might have liked, but not enough to give concern about course wear and tear caused by skiers ahead of them.

Women’s hockey

Tricia Dunn-Luoma scored a five-on-three shorthanded goal and captain Krissy Wendell added two of the Americans’ four third-period goals, leading the United States to a 6-0 win over Switzerland at Turin.

In other scores, Canada defeated Italy 16-0; Sweden stopped Russia 3-1; and Finland beat Germany 3-0;

Miscellany

Jennifer Heil of Canada capped three years of freestyle skiing dominance by winning the moguls event with 26.5 points at Sauze d’Oulx. American Shannon Bahrke finished 10th, one spot ahead of teammate Jillian Vogtli. … Lars Bystoel of Norway, the leader in qualifying for the normal hill ski jumping event, was eliminated for violating suit regulations, putting Andreas Kuettel of Switzerland and Andreas Kofler of Austria at the head of the field for today’s final at Pragelato. … Armin Zoeggeler of Italy, who won luge gold at the Salt Lake City Games four years ago, delighted the home crowd with a track-record time in each of his two runs and will bring the lead into today’s medal-deciding runs at Cesana. Tony Benshoof sits in third place, 0.233 seconds behind and poised to become the first U.S. singles luger to win an Olympic medal. … At Cesana, Michael Greis of Germany won the men’s 20-kilometer biathlon, upsetting defending champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway for the first gold medal awarded. … Georg Hettich of Germany held onto his slim lead from the ski jumping portion on the way to a surprising win in the Nordic combined individual event at Pragelato. American Todd Lodwick had a disappointing day to kick off his fourth and final Olympics, placing eighth.