At a Glance

Originally published Saturday, February 23, 2002

HOCKEY: Steve Yzerman started a ferocious Canadian attack with an early goal, and captain Mario Lemieux had two assists in a 7-1 victory over Belarus in the semifinals.

Canada will play in the gold medal game against the United States, which beat Russia 3-2.

Sunday's final will come 50 years to the day after a club team called the Edmonton Mercurys won Canada's last Olympic gold in hockey.

Eric Brewer, Scott Niedermayer, Paul Kariya, Simon Gagne, Eric Lindros and Jarome Iginla also scored for Canada, while 14 players got at least one point. Martin Brodeur improved to 3-0-1 as Canada's starting goalie with 13 saves.

ALPINE SKIING: Croatian skier Janica Kostelic captured her third Salt Lake City gold with a dominating performance in the women's giant slalom.

Kostelic made history with her fourth medal -- and third gold -- in Salt Lake City. She now stands with immortals Jean-Claude Killy and Toni Sailer as the only Alpine skiers with three golds in a single Olympics.

"It's great, but you know, someone is going to break that record soon," said Kostelic, oblivious to the fact that Killy last accomplished the triple in 1968 -- 14 years before she was born.

Kostelic, 20, was a long shot for any medals after coming off three operations on her left knee. But she dominated the competition in the giant slalom, winning by more than a second in a race often decided by hundredths of a second.

She had already won gold in the slalom and the combined, and a silver in the super giant slalom.

Sweden's Anja Paerson won the giant slalom silver, adding to the bronze she won in Wednesday's slalom. World champion Sonja Nef of Switzerland was third.

BOBSLED: The last time the American men won a bobsledding medal, Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House. But Todd Hays, captain of the U.S. four-man team, is halfway home in his efforts to snap the streak.

Hays and company were the leaders Friday after the first two heats in event. Hays leads both Switzerland-1 and Germany-2 by .09 seconds entering today's final two heats.

SPEEDSKATING: Jochem Uytdehaage of the Netherlands won the gold medal with a world record in the 10,000 meters, the seventh world record in nine events on the world's fastest ice. It was his second gold medal of the games.

The Dutchman became the first to break the 13-minute barrier, skating 12 minutes, 58.92 in the grueling 25-lap race.

Uytdehaage upset countryman Gianni Romme, who took the silver. Norway's Lasse Saetre won the bronze.

U.S. skater Derek Parra, a double medalist at the games, finished 13th out of the 16 skaters.

NORDIC COMBINED SKIING: Finland's Samppa Lajunen completed a sweep of the three Nordic combined events by winning gold in the sprint.

Lajunen led after Thursday's ski-jumping competition, and stayed in front for yet another Salt Lake City win. Germany's Ronny Ackerman finished second after the 7.5-kilometer cross-country race. Austria's Felix Gottwald took the bronze.

American Todd Lodwick started 12th but finished fifth, the best showing ever by an American in the sport. Lodwick's seventh in this year's Olympic individual competition was the previous best.

CURLING: The gold medal in men's curling went to Norway with its 6-5 victory over favored Canada. With King Harald of Norway watching from the stands, Paal Trulsen's team pulled off the upset in front of a heavily pro-Canadian crowd.

Switzerland beat Sweden 7-3 for the men's curling bronze, with Swedish captain Peja Lindholm conceding after a ninth end toss by Swiss captain Andreas Schwaller.

JUDGING CONTROVERSY: One day after threatening to leave Salt Lake City entirely, Russian officials stayed around long enough to protest the decision that gave figure skater Irina Slutskaya a silver on Thursday.

The International Skating Union took less than a day to reject the protest, which asked that Slutskaya share the gold medal with American Sarah Hughes.

"We think the judging was biased," said Viktor Mamotov, the head of the Russian delegation. "Canadian pairs skaters were awarded their gold medals. Now that subjective judging harmed us, we want the same for Slutskaya."

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