When it was over, all the hype, all the promise, boiled down to two medals for covergirl and swimsuit model Lindsey Vonn.

             She hit mushy snow, straddled an early gate and skied out of the first run of the slalom this morning, the third time in her five events she did not finish a course. She crashed on Wednesday in the first run of the giant slalom and, last week, did not finish the slalom portion of the super combined – her only apparent regret.

             “I know I could have had more medals, like in the super combined, where I went out,” Vonn said. “But you have to attack and you have to take risks.”

             Considering the increasingly inconsistent conditions on a warm and foggy Whistler Creekside facility, that philosophy might have been flawed, especially in the more technical races, where Vonn failed.

 Vonn did win the downhill and the super G, a promising start to an Olympics that featured her worldwide as a particularly fetching face of the Games. She was not expected to medal in the slalom, especially after Wednesday’s crash battered an already beat-up body.

             She fractured her right pinky finger Wednesday and jarred her chin, hip and back. That added to a shin injury that cost her a week of training before she arrived at the Games and threatened to knock her out of all five races.

              Today, she believed she needed to be perfect in the slalom.

             “I came out of the starting gate charging,” she said. “But, I haven’t been skiing a lot of slalom. I hit some mashed-potato snow, and it was over before I knew it.”

             All things considered, she said, these Winter Games weren’t so bad.

             “Even though today and the GS wasn't a success, I’m happy with the way my Olympics has gone,” she said. “I have a gold in the downhill and super G and I couldn’t ask for any more.”

             Those two medals helped the U.S. ski team to a team-record eight medals, and counting.

             Self-styled rebel Bode Miller, already the winner of three medals, skis the slalom tomorrow, the final event on the mountain.

To read our post on last night's figure skating and Canadian Joannie Rochette, click here.

             Forget Sidney Crosby.

 Joannie Rochette is Canada’s hero on ice.

 Rochette last night honored her mother’s memory with a bronze medal in the marquee event of these Games. More than that, she reminded medal-desperate Canada that it is more important to simply seek personal excellence than to Own the Podium.

 Over and over last night, in the wake of her mother's death, Rochette said she resisted the pull of her hometown in Quebec, stayed in Vancouver and skated for herself.

 For Canada, yes; for her mother, Therese, who died here Sunday of a heart attack, yes.

 But first, for herself.

 “I really wanted to skate here. For respect for myself, for how hard I had worked. … My mother always told me to do it for myself,” said Rochette, who will stay through the Games' end Sunday. “She always wanted me to be a strong person.”

 Rochette finished third, almost 30 points behind the record 228.56 set by Korean favorite Yu-Na Kim but just 2.86 points behind Japanese disappointment Mao Asada.

 When Rochette finished her routine she blew a one-handed kiss to the crowd. She tossed a two-handed kiss to the heavens. She received her third-place score and waited to see if Mirai Nagasi, the final competitor and America’s hope for a medal, could unseat her. Nagasi fell 12.49 short.

 The sellout crowd at the Pacific Coliseum erupted. Rochette held it together.

 Through the medal ceremony and endless interviews, Rochette remained composed, for almost an hour.

 “I wanted to skate, to make my mother proud – and my father, who was in the crowd,” she said.

 “I couldn’t skate tonight as Joannie, the person; I had to skate as Joannie, the athlete,” she said.

 “It wasn’t easy to see my mother … ” and there, she backed away from the microphone, that image too much. But just for a moment. She dried her eyes, and returned:

 “I realize people are inspired by this. I don’t see myself as a hero, or anything like that.”

 She’s the only one.

             The U.S. ski team today confirmed that Lindsey Vonn will race tomorrow despite breaking her right pinky finger in a crash Wednesday that ended her first run in the Giant Slalom. A contender in all five events entering the Games, Vonn won the downhill, took bronze in the Super-G and washed out in the GS and the super-combined.

             The location and severity of Vonn’s crash yesterday forced teammate Julia Mancuso to stop her (unimpressive) run two-thirds of the way through it. Mancuso, the defending gold medalist, happened to be scheduled to start right after Vonn. As was the protocol yesterday, Mancuso exited the start gate 1 minute behind Vonn, or right about the time Vonn crashed.

             Mancuso re-started about 20 minutes and 13 skiers later and finished 1.30 seconds behind the leader of the first run, in 18^th place. Mancuso bitterly complained about the race officials’ handling of the matter: about being allowed to start at all, about being stopped, about her transportation back to the top.

             In fact, race officials acted perfectly. Mancuso backed off her critical comments today.

             Fog pushed the second GS run from yesterday afternoon until this morning. Mancuso finished eighth, 0.55 seconds behind unheralded Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany.

             That ended Mancuso’s Olympics, since she already has backed out of the slalom.

Following Bode Miller’s lead from yesterday, lovely Lindsey Vonn skied out of control and crashed near the end of her first giant slalom run, ending her day and, possibly, her Olympics. It was the second time Vonn, a medal contender in every race here, lost control and lost a race.

Vonn broke her right pinkie and banged her chin, knee and hip in the crash, injuries that might keep her out of the fifth and final race, the slalom, on Friday. She entered the Games with a bruised right shin that might have kept her from participating at all.

Vonn fought through that to win gold in the downhill and bronze in the super G, but she ran off the course in the super combined and, today crashed.

Regretfully, Vonn’s crash might have cost teammate and rival Julia Mancuso a legitimate shot at defending her GS gold won at Turin in 2006. Mancuso had already begun her run when the course was yellow-flagged, since Vonn could not quickly extricate herself from the netting and exit the course.

Mancuso restarted in foggy, snowy conditions after 13 more skiers had shredded the soft course and finished 1.30 seconds out of first place entering the second run.

That run was delayed three times by fog and finally postponed until Thursday.

Today, upon finishing, Mancuso had a snit-fit in the corral; she threw a pole and collapsed in the snow for about 3 minutes before finally moping out of the corral’s exit. She refused to speak with the press, but Tweeted, ““I was flagged in GS, that is b------t! Well, now it’s time to use that anger and fight second run!!”

Meanwhile, Vonn said, “I know she was disappointed. She’s mad. Probably frustrated. And probably mad at me.”

Probably; Mancuso told  Sports Illustrated this week that Vonn’s presence had created a “struggle for attention” among the ski team members, and any failure by Vonn cast a pall over the team.

Former Flyers general manager Bob Clarke talked about Team Canada's chances in Olympic hockey on Wednesdasy morning at the Flyers' training facility in Voorhees, N.J.

Q: Can you talk about Canada’s loss to USA?

“The loss to the U.S. just caused Canada to play one extra game against a better opponent. I think when you are in a one-loss knockout there shouldn’t be a favorite anyway, even though the Canadians were considered the favorite. There are five or six teams who could easily win it.”

Q: Do you think Canada’s loss to USA hurt their confidence?

“I don’t think the loss bothers them a bit. I think they kind of blamed their goalie. They took Brodeur out and are going to play Luongo now. That took the heat off the rest of the team.”

Q: How do you think Canada will finish this tournament?

“I think they still have a good as chance as anybody else to get a gold medal. It never was a sure thing. But I think they are a terrific team and I think they will get a medal, for sure and I hope the gold.”
 

On an emotional night for Canadian figure skater Joanie Rochette, NBC had the right person in the right place to provide some needed perspective.

No one can know exactly what Rochette is experiencing, although the tears after her short program routine last night provided just a small example of how tough this all has been. Rochette's mother passed away earlier this week after her parents had made the trip from Montreal to Vancouver. She learned of the death when her father visited her in the athlete's village Sunday morning.

Before she skated, NBC interviewed Dan Jansen, who is a commentator on the speedskating for the network. It was Jansen, who memorably fell in the 1988 Olympics, hours after learning that his sister, Jane, had died.

"Hopefully, even with a couple of days of recovery, not that it's going to go away, but maybe it's given her body a little time to prepare for tonight," Jansen said. "Part of me certainly wanted to go out there and give it a shot. But the other part of me wanted to respect what had just happened and I didn't know if it was right in my mind -- if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing."

Jansen sent an email to Rochette this week and said he would be willing to meet with her if she was interested. In the email, Jansen said he wrote, "I don't know if you can prepare for the emotions you're going to feel out there. But if you can get through it, there are millions of people supporting you. And most of all, skate with your mother in your heart. And if she does that, she'll be fine."

Rochette is third after her short program with the long program tomorrow night and with an entire nation behind her.

VANCOUVER – Allison Baver was knocked into a wall again. This time she got up, continued to skate, and advanced into Saturday’s 1500-meter semifinals anyway through the arcane rules of short-track speedskating.
And then: ``A tactical mistake,’’ she said. She let two many skaters move ahead of her, too many for her to make a charge at the end.
``I wish I would have just slapped myself in the face and reminded myself to take control of the race and be in front of certain girls,’’ said Baver, a native of the Reading suburb of Sinking Spring. ``Usually I skate a lot more aggressively, from the front. Part of it was my confidence a little bit. That split second when I wanted to go to the front I was like, ``oooh’’. I just wasn’t sure of myself. And I think that just comes with my injury a little bit. Not knowing my body 100 percent.’’
A quick refresher: Last February, Baver broke her right ankle, her fibula and suffered cartilage damage when she was knocked off her feet and into the boards by U.S. teammate Katherine Reutter during a World Cup race in Sofie, Bulgaria last February. She didn’t walk again until May, didn’t return to the U.S. team until June, didn’t qualify for the Olympics until September.
Reutter finished fourth last night. She too gained the finals despite a semifinal collision, and she was involved in contact in the final race as well.
Baver will have two other chances to medal – in the 1,000 meters, which begin on Wednesday and finish Friday, and the women’s 3,000 meter relay Wednesday night.
``I wish I would have just went with my instincts in my semifinal,’’ she said. ``I hate that I made that mistake… Hopefully this will give me the fire to step it up in my other races.’’
Less than an hour after she said this, her ex, Apolo Anton Ohno, made Olympic history by gaining a bronze medal in the Men’s 1500 Final, his seventh overall. That eclipsed the six Bonnie Blair accumulated over three Olympics, although it should be noted that five of Blair’s were gold, and came in the more traditional long track discipline.
Ohno has won two gold, two silver and now, three bronze medals. A smile crossed his face as he crossed the finish line, signaling up towards Blair, who was in attendance.
``I'm very happy for Apolo's accomplishment," Blair said. "It's a great feat for him, US Speedskating, and the United States of America. We hope that more kids will see his accomplishments and want to try our great sport that has been so good to us and taught us so much about what it takes to be successful in life.’’
Ohno nearly fell as he chased down his two bitter Korean rivals, Jung-Su Lee and Ho-Suk Lee, in the final -- which cost him any chance to beat them. He has two more medal opportunities – the 500 which begins Wednesday and finishes Friday, and the 5000 meter relay event Friday night.’’

In advance of Canada's marquee preliminary game against the U.S. tomorrow, versatile Flyers captain Mike Richards has been moved up from the Canadians' third line to the first line, where he will skate with Sidney Crosby and Rick Nash.

Richards, promoted for his versatility, effort and physical play, replaces Jarome Iginla, whose health has been in question. Iginla netted a hat trick in an 8-0, opening win over Norway, but he did not get off a shot against the Swiss on Thursday, when Canada's nemesis forced a shootout before falling. Iginla appears headed for the third line.

Richards came into the Games as a possible game-to-game scratch possibility, but his goal in the first game and his two shots and strong play aainst the Swiss has made him worth a shakeup gamble.

The Canadians, like the Americans, were off Friday and practiced yesterday.