WHISTLER, B.C. – If Bode Miller’s Olympic career ended Saturday morning, it concluded with a moment just as fitting as another Olympic medal.

The 32-year-old from Hew Hampshire charged out of the gate and his historic Olympics was over just eight seconds later. Miller hooked the tip of his ski and a straddled the fifth gate.

For a racer famous for taking risks that don’t always pay off, the five-time Olympic medalist won’t let the mistake spoil his experience.

“I really couldn’t be much happier,” said Miller, who also failed to complete the giant slalom. “To have three medals, and …

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Federal Way short track speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno and J.R. Celski led the USA relay team to a bronze medal at the Vancouver Games on Friday night.

Is is the third medal of the games for Ohno and a U.S. record eighth for his career. It is the second bronze of the games for Celski, who is skating in his first Olympics.

The pair’s four medals (the relay medal only counts once) coupled with Karen Thatcher’s silver in women’s hockey gives Washington athletes five medals at the Vancouver Games.

That ties the record for Washington athletes, breaking the record …

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Apolo Ohno was disqualified for pushing a skater after appearing to win the silver medal in the Olympic 500 meter short track speedskating race.

Canada’s Charles Hamelin gets gold and teammate Francois-Luis Tremblay won bronze. Si-Bak Sung of Korea won silver.

Ohno races again tonight in the relay. Ohno has an American record seven Winter Olympic medals.

Ohno won gold in the 500 in 2006.

Ohno appeared to push Tremblay in the final turn. It was a slight touch, but as Ohno explained earlier in the Games it only takes a slight touch in the corner to send a skater …

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RICHMOND, B.C. – There has been bigger upsets in Olympic history, but for the U.S. long track speedskating team it sure didn’t feel like it Friday afternoon.

“It feels like the miracle from 1980,” U.S. skater Trevor Marsicano, 20, said referring to American’s hockey upset over Russia at the Lake Placid Games nine years before he was born.

The U.S. women upset the Canadian gold-medal favorites in the team pursuit, inspiring the men to pull off a similar surprise. The U.S. men beat the Netherlands in the semifinals assuring themselves of a medal.

The women race Germany in the semifinals today and the men race Canada for gold. The women’s gold and bronze medal races are also today.

The crowd cheered so loudly for the U.S.-Canada women’s race that it confused the skaters. The Americans thought they were being blown away and the Canadians thought they were winning easily.

But the fans were cheering because the race was so close. The Americans won by 0.04 seconds eliminating the Canadians.

“It was shocking,” said U.S. skater Jilleanne Rookard. “… We just looked up at the clock and we saw No. 1 and we went ‘Oh my gosh.’ If nothing else happens that was a great race.” Read more »

VANCOUVER, B.C. – Kim Yu-Na is accustomed to flirting with perfection, but even she was surprised by the marks she received Thursday night for her gold medal-winning performance.

For the second time at the Vancouver Games, the Korean skater set a world record leaving everybody else to vie for silver.

Yu-Na scored 150.06 points for Thursday’s free skate giving her a total score of 228.56 points and a nearly 23-point margin of victory over silver medalist Mao Asada of Japan. Canadian crowd favorite Joannie Rochette, whose mom died Sunday, won bronze.

“I predicted that my score might be 140,” Yu-Na …

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I missed this because my editors shipped me south to cover figure skating. But the Associated Press was there. Here’s the AP story on the first Nordic gold medal in U.S. history:

Billy Demong and Johnny Spillane have given the Americans a 1-2 finish in the Nordic combined large hill competition that was marred by bad weather.Demong, of Vermontville, N.Y. ended America’s golden goose egg in Nordic sports at the Winter Games by winning the 10-kilometer cross-country leg in 25 minutes, 32.9 seconds Thursday.

Spillane won his third silver of these games, finishing four seconds behind.

Bernhard Gruber of Austria, who had a 34-second head start after jumping the farthest off the large hill after a restart, took the bronze 10.8 seconds back.

Demong, of Vermontville, N.Y., started in sixth place and 46 seconds back, but quickly caught his teammate and Gruber for a three-man race the rest of the way.

They didn’t have to worry about some of the best World Cup athletes catching them after worsening weather hampered the top jumpers on the large hill, relegating them too far back in the field to be a factor. Read more »

VANCOUVER, B.C. – The U.S. women’s hockey team knows exactly what to expect tonight when it plays Canada tonight for an Olympic medal.

Bedlam.

They saw it first hand Sunday night when they attended the U.S.-Canada men’s game. And they saw it in September when they played Canada for the championship of the Olympic test tournament.

The famously polite Canadians suddenly turn mean. Their faces turn as red as the maple leaf on the flags they wave. And the Americans, as defenseman Karen Thatcher of Blaine said, suddenly become “everyone’s worst enemy.”

Team USA knows today’s 3:30 p.m. game will be the same, but they hope it has something else in common with those games: A U.S. victory.

But outside of the United States, there aren’t many that expect the Americans to win their first gold since 1998.

“USA is a great team, but overall Canada is stronger and if I had to put money on it, I’d go with Canada,” said Pekka Hamalainen, the coach of a Finland team that was shutout by both teams. Read more »

Ashleigh McIvor took home the gold medal in the women’s ski-cross competition on Cypress Mountain outside Vancouver yesterday, becoming the sport’s first female gold medalist.

McIvor stopped by the British Columbia Media Center in Vancouver B.C. today for a press conference proudly wearing her gold medal.

”It’s been amazing. I’ve barely had time to sit back and go “wow!” I just won the Olympics!” she said.

She adds that she’s not usually superstitious but a friend gave her a small Buddah she kept in her pocket while things were going well for her – and she

…

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