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26.02.2006
 Ice hockey-Lidstrom blast gives Sweden gold
TURIN, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Niklas Lidstrom's blistering slapshot early in the third period gave Sweden a 3-2 win over Finland and the gold medal at the men's ice hockey tournament on Sunday in the final event of the Turin Games.
In a tournament that saw the world's biggest hockey nations eliminated in the early going, the Swedes and Finns let their Nordic rivalry take centre stage in a fast-paced game.
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26.02.2006
Ice hockey: Czechs shutout Russia to win bronze
TURIN, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Tomas Vokoun made 28 saves and Martin Erat had a goal and an assist as the Czech Republic shutout Russia 3-0 in the Olympic men's ice hockey bronze medal game on Saturday.
Sweden will face off against Finland in an all-Nordic gold medal final on Sunday that will bring down the curtain on the 2006 Winter Games.
"Playing for the bronze medal is very hard," said Vokoun, who was benched in favour of Milan Hnilicka in the Czechs' 7-3 semifinal loss to Sweden. "We were still disappointed for what happened yesterday against Sweden.
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26.02.2006
Plucky Slutskaya Settles for an Olympic Bronze
As she stood stone-faced on the medals podium, Irina Slutskaya couldn't even manage a smile or a wave.
The bronze medal that was hanging around her neck felt like a lead weight.
For the second Olympics, the Russian star failed as the final skater of the women's free program.
Both times, the gold medal was within reach. Neither time could Slutskaya grab it.
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23.02.2006
Ice Dancers Make It 3 Out of 3 for Russia
Tatyana Navka and Roman Kostomarov made it three out of three for Russian figure skaters at the Winter Olympics.
Navka and Kostomarov gave Russia a gold medal hat trick -- pairs, men's and dance. No nation has swept the four skating events in one games. The Russians could be the first, with Irina Slutskaya highly favored in the women's competition when it was about to begin late Tuesday.
Tanith Belbin and partner Ben Agosto snapped the U.S. medal drought in figure skating with a silver. Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov of Ukraine won the bronze.
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21.02.2006
Ice Dancing: A Good Night for the Russians
Feb 21 2006
Yesterday was the end of ice dancing, in a close contest which elected the new Olympic champions. The gold went to the Russians Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov already unreachable with a record original dance. Their “Carmen”, even though marred with various imperfections, proved otherwise sufficiently seductive to award the performers a score of 101.37 bringing them to a total of 200.64 points, more than enough to ensure the Russian duo reach their objective their sights had been set on for the last few years.
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A skin-tight suit, a low aerodynamic position, pushing hard and looking for that perfect technique over distances ranging from 500 up to 10,000 metres.
Speed skaters are literally living on the edge of their 1.2 mm wide blades as they race around the 400 m oval at speeds of up to 60 km/h.
What once was used for transportation in the middle of the thirteenth century has developed into the fastest human powered, non-mechanically aided sport on earth. 
The athletes race in pairs, skating in an counterclockwise direction around the track. They are racing for the best time and are timed to a hundredth of a second. Each pair is allowed one false start: the skater who commits the second false start will be disqualified. The skaters switch lanes at the exchange zone once per lap, so that both skate the same distance. Precedence is given to the skater who is changing from the outer lane.
All individual events take place in a single leg, except for the men's and women's 500 m competition that has two legs. In the shortest speed skating distance, the final result is based on the overall time of the two races, which are both completed on the same day.
Race pairing is based on times achieved during the season: skaters are thus divided into groups. A random draw determines the lanes and starting order within each starting group.
In the Team Pursuit, 2 teams made up of 3 athletes start at the same time from two different sides of the track and each of the team members faces the bends by "leading" or guiding the team in turns.
