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Vancouver 2010 head John Furlong said Friday the Closing Ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games will "poke a bit of fun at ourselves". He added, "it will be Canada's way of saying goodbye and thank you. You will probably come away from the ceremonies knowing a bit more about us than you did if you're not from Canada". Furlong added that Vancouver organizers haven't changed the Games' finale despite the fact they were criticized for the lack of French and ethnic content at the Opening Ceremony. Furlong said just in case anyone misunderstood, "the country came together to deliver it---including the province of Quebec". He said the show will "bust a few Canadian myths" and feature some "amazing" Canadian talent. Organizers are keeping the names of the performers at the Closing Ceremony a closely guarded secret. Furlong said, "it's likely at the end of the show--especially if you're not Canadi...

ancouver: Vancouver 2010 Olympics medals tally: At the end of 14th day of games at the 21st Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the Olympic contingent from USA sits proudly atop the medals table with 32 medals in all. Team USA has managed to bag 8 gold medals, 12 silver medals and 12 bronze medals. Coming in second to USA is Germany with a total of 26 medals. Germany has bagged equal number of gold medals as USA but lags behind in terms of silver and bronze medals from the leading country. Norway has secured third rank so far with a total of 19 medals.

Vancouver: Scotty Lago controversial photos: Another controversy seem to have erupted at Vancouver Olympics as United States Olympian Scotty Lago caught in the medal controversy. Well, some point out the lady was kissing his Olympic Bronze medal. Scotty was not alone when this happened. His team mate Greg Bretz was standing by his side. The net is full of racy images of Olympian Scotty Lago. In the pictures one will notice a lady is bending before him below his waist. What exactly is the lady trying to do or what is Scotty trying to get done from the lady? Owing to this controversy it is rumored that Scotty flied back to his home country, out of Vancouver. BY: Agencies

The Russians, for all their skill and vaunted high-end talent, trudge home without medals after failing spectacularly to end their 18-year gold shortage at the Olympic tournament. Ovechkin, the greatest scorer and most dynamic player in the game, had no points, just three unmemorable shots and was minus-two. He vanished about the time Weber crunched him into the boards as the Moscow dynamo tried to spin away from the Canadian nine minutes into the game. "We all wanted to get the crowd involved early, and that's one way, being physical against their top guys," Weber said. "You dream of this as a kid growing up; you want to play against the best players in the game and he's definitely one of them." Not Wednesday. And neither were the Russian's formidable linemates, Evgeni Malkin and Alexander Semin. They combined for one assist and matched Ovechkin's minus rating. "We knew we were going to have our hands full with those guys," wing...

WHISTLER — Young German Viktoria Rebensburg out-skied all the veterans today to take women’s giant slalom gold at the 2010 Olympics. Just 20 years old, Rebensburg turned in a solid second run early this morning to finish with a combined time of two minutes, 27.11 seconds. She edged Tina Maze of Slovenia by 4/100ths of a second and Elisabeth Goergl of Austria by 14/100ths. The first run was held Wednesday, but the second had to be postponed today because of a thick fog that settled over the middle part of the course in the afternoon. Today, the fog wasn’t as thick and it was mostly good conditions for the top 30. While it might have been a bit of a surprise that Rebensburg was in front of such favorites as Kathrin Zettel of Austria (fifth), Kathrin Hoelzel of Germany (sixth) and Tanja Poutiainen of Finland (13th), she has been considered a rising star on the World Cup circuit since she burst onto the scene as an 18-year-old with a seventh-place finish in a giant slalom. Last ...

WHISTLER, B.C. - A restart was forced in the Olympic nordic combined competition after the large hill jump was halted by snow and wind. Race officials at Whistler Olympic Park convened after the weather turned worse during the event on Thursday, resulting in shorter jumps that were putting some of the better athletes at an insurmountable disadvantage in the 10-kilometre cross-country race that follows the jumps off the large hill. Start times in the race are based on jump distances. About two-thirds of the 45 jumpers, including Jason Myslicki of Thunder Bay, Ont., had already gone. Source: Winnipeg Free Press

Ray Simundson remembers the day his seven-year-old daughter said she would one day win an Olympic gold medal. On Wednesday, that lifelong dream came to fruition as Kaillie Humphries bested the rest of the world, claiming that Olympic gold medal as she piloted the Canada 1 women's bobsled team. For Simundson, over the moon doesn't even begin to describe how he felt watching his daughter win the biggest sports competition of her life. "I was just really relieved, because my heart must have been beating about 450 beats a minute," he said after his daughter won gold. When reached by the Herald, Simundson said he and his wife Cheryl still hadn't spoken to their daughter, who was quickly whisked away for interviews after her win. "She did what she always does and she flashed her mom and I the big heart sign, blew us a kiss, so she did see us," he said. That gold medal goal set at the age of seven was first pursued through skiing. Humphries eventual...

If there was a darker day in Russian hockey, Maple Leafs forward Nikolai Kulemin can’t remember one. “That was the worst game in Russian history,” Kulemin said Thursday, referring to Canada’s 7-3 quarter-final victory over Team Ovechkin at the Vancouver Olympics Wednesday night. “Nobody played the way we are capable of.” Of all the Maple Leaf players, no one had more reason to be disappointed than Kulemin. The Russian-born Kulemin, a one-time teammate of Evgeni Malkin in the Russian elite league, was put on notice that he might be brought in to the Russian team if an existing roster player suffered an injury prior to the Olympics. While that did not happen, Kulemin still was cheering for the Russians Wednesday night, albeit in a losing cause. Of course, he was in the minority in the Leaf dressing room. For the most part, jubilation reigned supreme as many players were still giddy over the way Canada took the Russians behind the woodshed and inflicted a complete and thorough...

Canada meets U.S. for gold in women’s hockey, Joannie Rochette skates in the women’s free skate, men take to the sky in the aerials VANCOUVER, B.C.-The Canada Place foghorn that signals Canadian medals could be pumping out a steady beat again today, with several chances ahead to add to the host country’s 15-medal score: Curling. The Cheryl Bernard rink out of Edmonton today beat Switzerland 6-5 to reach Friday’s gold-medal game against Sweden (6 p.m. Eastern), who earlier beat favoured China 9-4. Later today, unbeaten Kevin Martin takes on Sweden in a men’s semi, a spot in Saturday’s men’s final on the line (5 p.m. Eastern). Women’s hockey. A day after the men’s team set off wild celebrations in the arena and outside in the streets here, the Canadian and American women renew their long-running rivalry in front of a sellout crowd at Canada Hockey Place. The pre-game hype goes so far as suggesting this could be the best women’s shinny matchup in history, with the U.S.’s youth and s...

Canada was oh-so-close to an Olympic bronze medal in men's cross-country skiing three days ago and oh-so-far from one Wednesday. Hopes for the country's first medal for men on skinny skis in the 4x10-kilometre relay evaporated early when Devon Kershaw of Sudbury, Ont., and Alex Harvey of St-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que., appeared spent from Monday's fourth-place finish in the team sprint. Kershaw and Harvey skied the opening two legs of the relay in the "classic" technique with third-leg Ivan Babikov of Canmore, Alta., and anchor George Grey of Rossland skiing the freestyle or skate technique. Grey was able to keep Canada ahead of Russia and Italy with a strong finish, but the Canadians ended up in seventh place, almost two minutes behind the winning time of Sweden, which took its sixth gold medal of the 2010 Winter Olympics and third in cross-country skiing. Anchor leg Marcus Hellner brought the Swedes home for their first gold in the marquee event of cross-cou...

VANCOUVER — When this all began, two-time Olympic silver medallist Mirjam Ott of Switzerland was considered the favourite in women’s curling. Then she lost her first three games. But then she won her next six. Back when it began, Canada’s Cheryl Bernard made her last rock shot to beat Ott in the first draw of the tournament and win 5-4. Now they meet again Thursday in the women’s semifinal while Sweden’s defending Olympic champion Anette Norberg meets defending world champion Bingju Wang of China. The winners will meet for gold and the losers for bronze Friday. “It’s going to be tough,” Bernard said. “We won’t expect a game like we had with them before. We’re going to have to play like we’ve been playing, even a little bit better.” Ott’s team had to play from the edge of a cliff after losing those first three games. “It was tough to keep going on,” she said. “But I think we just kept getting better and better as the games went on. We started too nervous maybe in the first ...

WHISTLER, B.C. - Simon Ammann of Switzerland has made Winter Olympics ski jumping history. Ammann won the individual large hill competition Saturday at Whistler Olympic Park, becoming the first man to win four career ski jumping gold medals in individual events. He has won the large and normal hill titles in 2002 and 2010. He finished out of the medals four years ago. The 28-year-old Ammann had 283.6 points after Saturday's two jumps, which covered 144 and 138 metres. Adam Malysz of Poland (269.4 points) won the silver medal and Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria (262.2) claimed bronze. The top three finishers were the same on the normal hill one week earlier. Ammann joined Matti Nykanen of Finland as the only Olympic ski jumper with four gold medals. Nykanen twice reached the podium in 1984 and 1988, but one of his gold medals was earned when Finland won the team event in 1988 in Calgary. Ammann can win an unprecedented fifth ski jumping gold medal Monday in the large hil...

Friday, February 19, 2010 DENVER: President Barack Obama marvelled at flamboyant US snowboarder Shaun White on Thursday, and the rest of the US Winter Olympics team, saying he stayed glued to his BlackBerry to track results. "How do you start doing that?" Obama asked a crowd during a rally in Denver, Colorado, a center of the US winter sports industry. "How do you get up the guts the first time to start practicing doing that," Obama said, referring to White's spectacular gold medal winning performance in the men's halfpipe on Wednesday. Obama also praised champion downhill racer Lindsey Vonn who won gold and silver medal winning Nordic Combined skier Johnny Spillane. "I know this state is a training ground for a few winter Olympians," Obama said. "I just want all of our Olympians to know the USA is proud of you... I am checking my BlackBerry every half hour to see how things turn out."

WHISTLER, Canada — Swiss triple Olympic champion ski jumper Simon Ammann on Friday prepared for a record fourth crown after shrugging off a row over his boot bindings, which officials decided were within the rules. Ammann, going for a second normal-hill, large-hill double after the Salt Lake Games in 2002, out-jumped main Austrian rival Gregor Schlierenzauer in the individual qualification round at Whistler Olympic Park ahead of Saturday's medal event. "Everything is in order," insisted the 28-year-old after the International Ski Federation ruled his new, improved bindings were legal, frustrating Austrian attempts to have him switch back to conventional bindings. "I never doubted my material was in line with the regulations and I just concentrated on what I had to do," added Ammann. "I am Olympic champion because I am the best jumper not because I have this equipment. "Everybody's body is a little bit different so we try to adjust from time...

Whistler’s crash-plagued sliding track this morning scuttled the Olympic dreams of gold-medal bobsled favourite Beat Hefti of Switzerland, whose failure to complete two training runs prior to competition in the wake of a bad spill Wednesday night forced him to withdraw. That Hefti, who is reigning World Cup champion in the sport, will not race due to a crash raises more questions about the Whistler Sliding Centre track, where Hefti’s Swiss teammate, two-man pilot Daniel Schmid, suffered yet another ugly rollover this morning. Schmid now appears to be fine and the FIBT last night provided more training time in light of the crashes (though the number of spills here is in keeping with training periods elsewhere—at the Park City track during the Salt Lake City games in 2002, 17 training runs ended in crashes). Perhaps only five or six of the pilots are solid bets to complete the track without crashing in the two-man tomorrow and Sunday—the Canadians, the Germans and the Swiss. The ot...

RICHMOND — Maybe it's the girl-next-door mien or maybe it's the slightly goofy grin but, like a number of her sisters on the Canadian Olympic team, Christine Nesbitt doesn't exactly fit the archetypal image of a cold-eyed killer. But Thursday afternoon, the 24-year-old speed skater from London, Ont., stepped on the ice at the Richmond Oval for the women's 1,000, slipped in her first two strides, cursed to herself as she crossed the finish line and still did enough to win Canada's third gold medal of the Winter Games. In so doing, she continued a pattern which is emerging as a storyline in these Olympics: Of the seven medals won by Canadians thus far, five have been won by women, including two of the three golds. You can discuss among yourselves the significance of those numbers. But, for the Canadian Olympic Committee, it means any thought of owning the podium is inexorably tied up with the XX-chromosome set. "They're fierce competitors," said...

The Slovaks pulled off the first upset of the 2010 men’s tournament with a 2-1 shootout win over Russia in Group B action at Canada Hockey Place Thursday. It was Slovakia’s second game in as many nights to start the tournament. Despite some lapses in the middle frame, the Slovaks showed no signs of fatigue and stole a valuable point away from the Russians. After getting outshot by Slovakia 10-8 in a scoreless first, Kontinental League star Alexei Morozov let a rocket go from the top of the circle that beat Slovak keeper Jaroslav Halak over his shoulder at 5:32 of the second to give Russia a 1-0 lead. On the wings of some steadfast goaltending from Halak, the underdogs were able to stay within striking distance of the robust Russians despite getting outshot 16-5 in the middle stanza. Slovakia had a glorious chance to knot things up with a 5-on-3 opportunity to start the third, but couldn’t capitalize with the two-man advantage. However, the failure to convert on the power play...

BAKURIAINI — Every day since the death of a Georgian luger at the Vancouver Olympics, his mentors and colleagues gather at the yard of his parents' house fuming and fulminating about the safety of the track where he died. Nodar Kumaritashvili died last Friday during a training run when he lost control of his sled, shot off the course and slammed into a trackside steel pole at nearly 145 km/h, just hours before the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Games. An investigation by Olympic and luge officials reported that the accident resulted from human error, not track deficiencies. The investigation found that the 21-year-old Kumaritashvili, who had completed only 26 runs on the Whistler course, was late in coming out of the next-to-last turn and failed to compensate. "How dare they blame it on the athlete who perished so tragically?" said Kakhaber Vakhtangishvili, a robust 40-year old multiple Soviet luge champion. He added that Kumaritashvili's death was "no...

METRO VANCOUVER — Australian snowboarder Torah Bright expected her parents to be watching on television. They surprised her by being at the bottom of the hill. "I had no idea my parents were here and I'm dying to get up there," said Bright, who won the women's Olympic halfpipe title Thursday at Cypress Mountain. "I thought they were back home in Australia. I told them not to come [but] I love it ... I told them I'd prefer them at my wedding than this." Marian and Peter Bright couldn't wait for those nuptials, scheduled for June. They watched their daughter execute a difficult switchback 720 during her do-or-die second run in the final. She was rewarded with 45 of a possible 50 points from the judges. That mark held up for gold and two former Olympic champions from the United States had to settle for the leftover medals. Hannah Teter, who won this event four years ago in Turin, picked up silver, while Kelly Clark earned bronze to go with her gol...

WHISTLER, B.C. - The hard work and training is done, so too are the first two runs. Tonight at the Whistler Sliding Centre, Jon Montgomery is in position and ready to go for gold in men’s skeleton. With women’s teammate Melissa Hollingsworth also in the medal hunt, it could be a big night on Blackcomb Mountain. Montgomery, a Russell, Man. native, is in second place, only .26 of a second behind favourite Martin Dukurs of Latvia heading into tonight’s final two runs. “I am really pleased with the way I am sliding,” Montgomery said. “I had two good consistent runs.” “I can’t ask for a faster start time. I came out today and matched my (personal best). If I can do that again (tonight), I will be a happy boy.” Hollingsworth, who came here a solid gold-medal favourite, sits third in the women’s event but has room for improvement. With glitches in each of her first two runs, Hollingsworth has some ground to make up on leader Amy Williams of Great Britain, who has a .39-second lead o...