American sliders end drought

Blasting down the Alps in a shiny, dark American convertible, Shauna Rohbock won a silver medal in women’s bobsled, ending an 0-for-Olympics stay for the U.S. sliding teams.

With roommate Valerie Fleming providing the push and applying the brakes, Rohbock completed her four runs just .71 seconds behind Germany’s Sandra Kiriasis and Anja Schneiderheinze and ahead of Italy’s Gerde Weissensteiner and Jennifer Isacco.

Rohbock, bumped from an Olympic ride four years ago, finally ended a U.S. winless streak that was chilling the Americans every bit as much as the biting winds.

The U.S. was skunked in the first six events on the 19-curve track, which had proved treacherous for many countries and thorny to the U.S. luge, skeleton and bobsled squads.

But Rohbock and Fleming busted through the ice for the U.S.

Sledding isn’t Rohbock’s only skill. She’s a two-time soccer and track All-American.

Hockey Canada, which had lost back-to-back shutouts, got three first-period goals against the Czech Republic, then held on for the win. The Czechs (2-3), last year’s world champions, finished a disappointing fourth in Group A and are to play Group B winner Slovakia (5-0) in the quarterfinals.

Finland remained undefeated in Olympic play with a win over Germany (0-3-2) in which they rested first-string goaltender Antero Niittymaki.

Also, Switzerland’s Ivo Ruthemann scored at 16:38 of the third period to pull out a tie with host Italy (0-3-2). The Swiss (2-1-2) finished with six points in Group A and will face Sweden (3-2) in the quarters.

Biathlon Germany won the men’s 4x7.5km biathlon relay when star Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen got very little help from his friends.

Bjoerndalen gave the Norwegians a fifth-place finish by skiing a brilliant final leg for the pre-race favorites, but could not make up for his teammates’ poor performances.

The Americans took ninth.

Nordic combined Felix Gottwald used a powerful sprint to rally to victory in the Nordic combined sprint, giving Austria its record eighth gold medal of the Turin Games.

The silver medal went to Magnus Moan of Norway. Germany’s Georg Hettich took the bronze.

American Todd Lodwick was ninth and teammate Johnny Spillane was 10th.

Freestyle skiing It was another disappointing outing for the American freestyle team on the Olympic aerials course.

Both Emily Cook and Jana Lindsey, the only other American entered, failed to qualify for tonight’s finals. That left Jeret “Speedy” Peterson as the only one of six U.S. aerialists, men or women, to advance to the finals. The men’s medal round is Thursday.