U.S. hopes to build on success at Olympics

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TURIN, ITALY - Hump day of the 2006 Winter Olympics didn't determine who will emerge as this year's faces to remember. But on several fronts, Saturday set the agenda for what is to come in the next eight days.

After a week in which no one emerged as Turin's champion of champions, several familiar names stated their cases Saturday, the busiest day of the Games with nine gold medals awarded.

Two veterans performed like champions in Alpine skiing. Janica Kostelic of Croatia, who won three gold medals and four overall in 2002 but missed the women's downhill last week because of illness, won the weather-delayed women's combined. Kjetil Andre Aamodt of Norway, the most decorated Alpine skier in history with seven medals, won an eighth by edging Austria's Hermann Maier for the gold in the men's super-G.

In speedskating, the U.S. men have gone three-for-three in individual races with a 1-2 finish in the 1,000 meters. Joey Cheek, who won the 500, added a silver medal, and Shani Davis won the gold after being outdistanced by Chad Hedrick in the 5,000 meters on the first day of speedskating. Hedrick finished sixth.

Davis' gold medal was the seventh of the Games — the most of any nation — for the United States. The U.S. has 13 total medals, including six from snowboarding and four from speedskating. Norway leads the overall medal count with 16, followed by Germany with 15 and Russia with 13.

With a week to go, the U.S. on Saturday tied its record of 13 medals for a non-domestic Games, set in 1998 in Nagano and 1994 in Lillehammer. The U.S. won 34 medals, including 10 golds, in 2002 in Salt Lake City.

"We are very pleased with where we stand," said U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel. "We're doing well in speedskating. We're doing well in the new snowboarding events. Those are popular TV events with spectators, and that helps drive sponsorships and capture the interest of the American public."

There have been some fine individual performances thus far:

•The German women swept the podium in luge, as expected.

•Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin in pairs and Evgeni Plushenko in men's singles took Russia halfway to a gold medal sweep.

•The Germans are cleaning up in biathlon and the Koreans are dominating short track speedskting.

•Estonia has three golds in cross country, including two by Kristina Smigun.



More to come

Women's figure skating, the signature event of the Games, is yet to come, and the winner of that event will take her place in the forefront of collective memory. But sheer number of events dictates that other faces to remember will come from skiing and speedskating, and each offers all sorts of possibilities.

Kostelic, whose four golds are the most for any female Alpine skier, is entered in the super-G today against a field that includes downhill gold medalist Michaela Dorfmeister of Austria but she said she may skip the race. She is scheduled to compete in the slalom on Wednesday and the giant slalom next Friday.

"Records are meant to be broken," she said. "Someone else is probably going to come along and win five gold medals, but to win four is nice.

"I have two more races to come here. This medal happened. I'll put it behind my back and concentrate on my next races, and then we can celebrate after the Olympics."

Aamodt, meanwhile, became the only man to win four Alpine golds and the first to win the same event at three Olympics — and he isn't finished. He said he will ski at least one more year.

As a group, the U.S. snowboarders have been as spectacular as any team in town, with 1-2 finishes in men's and women's halfpipe among their six medals.

"Seeing the halfpipe guys and girls throw down the way they did, then coming out here and make history with the first snowboardcross and seeing the amount of marketing in the U.S. that went in the sport, I think snowboarding is becoming the heart and soul of the American team and the Olympic Games," said Seth Wescott, who won the snowboard cross gold medal.

Speedskaters soaring

Wescott might get some argument on that point from the men's speedskating team, which had four skaters in the top 10 in the 1,000 meters Saturday and now has swept the three individual gold medals: Cheek in the 500, Davis in the 1,000 and Hedrick at 5,000. Hedrick and Davis are medal possibilities at 1,500 meters, where Hedrick holds the world record, and Hedrick also holds the record at 10,000 meters, which will wrap up the speedskating program.

The possibility of another Davis-Hedrick duel at a distance where both have excelled, could play a major role in determining who emerges as the most decorated men's speedskater of the Games.

"I'm not somebody who goes off the line trying for second," Hedrick said. "Once Shani beat me (in the 1,000), I didn't care if I got a bronze medal or whatever, I'm here to win. That's my attitude. It's all or nothing."

That's been the attitude, too, of Bode Miller, who failed to finish the men's super-G on Saturday and is now 0-for-3 for the 2006 Olympics. The U.S. men's Alpine ski team, which billed itself as the best in the world entering the Games, has won one medal, Ted Ligety's gold in the men's combined.

"I think it's (the U.S. performance) pretty poor right now," said Daron Rahlves, who was 10th in the downhill and ninth in the super-G. "I think we should have been able to medal in every event.

"You look at the downhill and super G, that's bad. What Ted (Ligety) did was awesome. He pretty much saved our butts. But we're not looking for him to be the guy on top. That's where you expect Bode and me to show up."

david.barron@chron.com