Day 10The Canadian women's hockey team has captured its second consecutive Olympic gold medal. The team beat Sweden 4-1 in the final Monday, scoring two goals in the first period and two in the second. Jayna Hefford notched a goal and an assist for the Canadians, while Hayley Wickenheiser and Jennifer Botterill contributed two assists each.
"This is beautiful, and it was just a great team effort to bring home another gold medal for our country," captain Cassie Campbell told the CBC after the team received their medals.
"I know there are so many people back home who are proud of us. I'm so proud of every single player on our team."
"This is a special moment for me. This is going to be my last Olympics," 40-year-old veteran Danielle Goyette said. "If I had a choice I would have stayed [on the ice celebrating] all night. They had to push me off.
"I want to enjoy every moment of it. I'm going to go back to the dressing room and enjoy everything with my teammates because we worked hard and we achieved our goal this year."
The Canadians dominated from start to finish, keeping Sweden off the scoreboard until five minutes into the third period, when Gunilla Andersson scored from the point during a power play. Hefford gave Canada a 4-0 second-period lead, scoring while standing on Swedish goalie Kim Martin's doorstep. Seconds earlier, Cherie Piper re-directed the puck past Martin after getting a feed from Wickenheiser, who had circled behind the Swedish net. Caroline Ouellette and Gillian Apps scored one goal each in the first frame. Apps opened the scoring just over three minutes into the game, after powering in alone in front of the Swedish net.
"We wanted to take this whole tournament one game at a time," Apps told the CBC after the first period. "We knew, going into this game, that we couldn't take Sweden lightly."
Canada out-shot Sweden 26-8. Martin, 19, headed into this game brimming with confidence after a sensational performance in Friday's semifinal round. She made 37 saves in a 3-2 shootout win over the heavily favoured United States. Canada beat Sweden 8-1 in a preliminary-round contest earlier in Turin, Italy.
Police raid finds doping materials
Italian law enforcement authorities who raided the Olympic residences of Austria's biathlon and cross-country teams early Sunday, confirmed later in the day they had found equipment involved in illegal doping activities. Among the discoveries was blood analysis equipment, as well as syringes, vials of distilled water, asthma medication and other substances, according to ANSA, the Italian news agency. The announcement was just one in a day filled with emerging information about the case.
Also on Sunday, Walter Mayer, the banned coach whose presence at the Olympics set off the first-ever raid of athletes, was taken into custody after allegedly crashing into a police road block following a chase through the mountain roads near the Austria-Italy border. Mayer was apparently on his way home, having slipped away from the raid of the Austrian team.
Meanwhile, BBC News reported the head of biathlon's international federation was claiming documents confirming a positive pre-Games drug test were missing.
"I have simply been told that documents were stolen," Anders Besseberg told the BBC.
It was not said whose test it was, or for what country the athlete competed. Canadian Dick Pound, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said he was not aware of such a theft.
The Austrian ski federation confirmed two of the 10 competitors tested by the IOC following the police raid had been kicked off the team for going home without permission. The federation also announced it had ended its relationship with Mayer, effective immediately, giving the accident as the reason. It was not clear why the federation was involved with Mayer, after he had been suspended by skiing's international governing body until 2015. The Olympic Organizing Committee banned him from Torino and the 2010 Vancouver Games, for doping violations at Salt Lake City in 2002.
Wolfgang Schuessel, the Austrian chancellor, weighed in on Sunday in an interview with ORF, the Austrian state broadcaster. He said he found it "completely infuriating that someone like Walter Mayer shows up [in Turin].
"Dozens of Austrian athletes have been preparing for their whole lives to reach this summit, and then something like this happens," he said.
On Saturday, as Italian authorities searched the local residences of the Austrian nordic team, the IOC conducted unannounced, out-of-competition tests on 10 Austrian athletes – six cross-country skiers and four biathletes.
"We never asked the Italian police to take action," IOC medical commission chief Arne Ljungqvist said. "We informed them that we would conduct testing on the evening of the 18th and they decided to take action at the same time."
Austrian skier Juergen Pinter said "We were surprised in our room. Suddenly, the police came in and didn't let us leave on the night before the competition.
"This happened without any positive result from doping control in the team. It's crazy."
"They checked every drink, every food, and they took a lot of stuff with them," Austrian spokesman Eric Wagner claimed. "They came around 9 and stayed until 12 and then took the athletes away to be tested."
Italian authorities said they had seized blood analysis equipment, as well as syringes, vials of distilled water, asthma medication and other substances, according to ANSA, the Italian news agency. ANSA also reported that one athlete had thrown a bag out of a window of the residence during the raid that contained needles and medicine.
Austria finished dead last in Sunday's 4x10-kilometre relay.
"They absolutely ruined the race," Austrian skier Martin Tauber said. "I was already a little bit tired yesterday."
Italian police were acting on a report by WADA. Pound told the Associated Press on Saturday that doping control officers went to Austria to test athletes and, while they did not find who they were looking for, they did find blood doping equipment linked to Mayer.
"They [the Austrians] have been playing with fire in having an association with this guy," Pound said.
WADA officials later learned that Mayer was in Italy with the Austrian team.
"The fact he was in the same area as the athletes created quite some concern to us," Ljungqvist said.
Despite being banned by the IOC and skiing's international body, Mayer is still the head coach of the country's cross-country and the biathlon team. Wagner confirmed Mayer had been at the Torino Games, in a private capacity, and in touch with the team as of Saturday.
"Why not? He's allowed to talk to anyone," Wagner said. "If he is with the team the whole year, why not now?"
Mayer coached the cross-country team to its first-ever medals in nordic skiing at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, and a gold in the relay at the 1999 worlds and two more medals at the Salt Lake Games in 2002. But after blood-transfusion equipment was found in a chalet at 2002 Olympics, Mayer was banned for life by the International Ski Federation (FIS). That was eventually lowered to 10 years, in 2005. German chiropractor Volker Mueller, who prescribed the blood treatments, was also banned through 2010.
Later, Mayer had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital, says the president of Austria's skiing federation.
"Apparently [Walter Mayer] is still in there," Peter Schroecksnadel told the Associated Press.
"I believe that there was a danger of suicide – they had to take him to the hospital."
Mayer was taken into custody by Italian police Sunday after he allegedly took them on a chase through the mountains that ended with a crash into a police barrier near the Austrian border. Police earlier in the evening had approached a car in which a man was sleeping. The occupant, identified as Mayer by authorities, drove off, hitting and slightly injuring an officer, and authorities gave chase. Mayer refused to take a sobriety test requested by the officers. Authorities said he'd likely would be charged with resisting arrest. His license was provisionally suspended.
Gushue into curling playoffs
Gushue made three clutch shots in critical situations to beat Pete Fenson of the United States 6-3 in the 12th and final draw.
"It is nice knowing we are in the playoffs now," Gushue said. "If we have two good games now, from here on in, we achieve our goal."
With the win, Canada completed the preliminary round at 6-3, eliminated defending Olympic champion Paal Trulsen of Norway and set up a rematch with the U.S. (6-3) in Wednesday's medal round (1 p.m. EST).
"They are going to want to beat us as much as we want to beat them," said American vice Shawn Rojeski. "If we go out and play a good game together, we can win."
Finland (7-2) finished first overall and faces Great Britain (6-3) in the other semifinal. Fenson stole one in the first end when Gushue came up soft on a hit and stick, but the Canadian skip responded with a draw to count two in the fourth. Gushue regained the hammer in the fourth with a splendid double-takeout that left Canada lying two, forcing Fenson to draw to the button for a single point. Gushue blanked the sixth to retain last-rock advantage, then conceded a steal of one in the seventh when it picked on debris. Trailing 3-2 in the eighth, Gushue bumped up to remove two American stones, then parlayed a precision takeout into two points for a 4-3 lead. Fenson made a fatal mistake in the ninth, leaving two rocks vulnerable in the four foot and Gushue capitalized with a hit and roll to the button directly behind a Canadian guard. That forced Fenson to concede one and put Canada ahead 5-3 heading home. Gushue hit and stuck for one to complete the scoring in the 10th.
Canada's Shannon Kleibrink used a patchwork rink to reach the playoffs in women's curling at the Torino Olympic Winter Games. Kleibrink, who curls out of Calgary, needed a clutch shot on last rock in the 10th end to get past Dorthe Holm of Denmark 9-8 and clinch the final berth in the medal round at Pinerolo, located 50 kilometres from Turin.
Canada completed the round-robin in fourth place at 6-3, so faces Switzerland in Wednesday's semifinals. Sweden meets Norway in the other semi.
Amy Nixon's nagging stomach virus forced Canada to juggle its lineup on Monday, moving Glenys Bakker from second to third and inserting alternate Sandra Jenkins as second. Denmark grabbed a 2-0 lead in the opening end, but Kleibrink capitalized on a couple of key misses by Holm to earn three on a free draw in the second. Holm responded in kind in the third but Kleibrink answered right back, drawing to the back of the four-foot for three to lead 6-5 through four. Kleibrink split the rings in the sixth and stole one when Holm's final delivery hit but rolled out. Holm made amends in the seventh, nudging a Canadian rock off the button with a nifty double-raise to score one and trail 7-6. Canada's sweepers then brushed Kleibrink's soft draw far enough to earn a single point in the eighth, but Holm replied with a deuce on an open draw to tie it 8-8 through nine.
An interesting statistic has emerged from the Torino games, Canada has an incredible seven fourth place finishes, missing the podeum by a combined 2.16 seconds. That's an average of about .35 seconds, or the length of time it takes to blink once! Here's how the figures break down.
Francois Bourque, fourth in the Men's Giant Slalom 0.72 seconds out of the bronze.
Kelly Vanderbeek fourth in Women's Super-G out of the bronze by 0.03 seconds.
Erik Guay fourth Men's Super-G Guay's just 1-10th of a second behind bronze.
Marc Andre Moreau fourth Men’s Moguls .68 seconds out of bronze
Paul Boehm fourth Skeleton Men’s .26 seconds out of bronze
Maelle Ricker fourth Snowboard Women’s Cross 1 point
Charles Hamelin fourth Men's 1,500m Short track speedskating .370 seconds out of bronze
Later,
Kenaz
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