American speed skater Chad Hedrick wins the 5000 m event. An enormously successful inline skater, Hedrick only began speed skating in 2002. American Apolo Ohno falls in the 1500 m short track prelims, losing a chance to repeat his 2002 gold medal performance. American speed skater Joey Cheek announces he will donate his $25,000 gold medal award from the U.S. Olympic Committee to child refugees from Darfur, Sudan, and encourages Olympic sponsors to do the same. Favorites Bode Miller (U.S.) and Ben Raich (Austria) are disqualified when they straddle gates during the slalom section of the men’s alpine combined. American Ted Ligety surprises the crowd by winning the men’s alpine combined. Hilde Pedersen, 41, becomes the oldest woman to win a medal at an Olympic Winter Games. The Norwegian took the bronze in the women’s 10 km classical cross-country race. Russian Evgeni Plushenko wins men’s figure skating by more than 27 points. Canadian Duff Gibson, 39, becomes the oldest Winter Olympian to win gold when he bests his competition in men’s skeleton. Norwegian Kjetil Andre Aamodt (age 34) wins an Olympic gold in alpine skiing’s Super G—for the third time. The five-time Olympian first won the gold 14 years ago at the 1992 Albertville Games! He is the winningest alpine skier ever, with eight medals. Croatia’s Janica Kostelic becomes the first women to win four golds in alpine skiing with her success in the Ladies Combined. She won her other three at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. France’s Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin is fined $3,800 for giving the “bird” to race offials after having to redo his super-G race due to bad weather. Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto win the first medal, a silver, for the U.S. in ice dancing in 30 years. Born in Canada, Belbin became a U.S. citizen less than two months ago. Australia’s Jacqui Cooper sets a world record in the women’s aerials with her qualifying score of 213.36 points. Among other feats, she completed a triple-twisting jump. The finals for the event take place on Wednesday. American figure skater Sasha Cohen performed a flawless short program that put her in the lead, but only by three hundreths of a point, over gold medal favorite, Russia’s Irina Slutskaya. The long program takes place on Thursday. Korean speed skaters continue their lock on the women’s 3000 m relay by winning the race for the fourth Olympics in a row. China was disqualified, pushing the Italian women into third, to the delight of the crowd. The Italian bronze was the 100th Winter Olympics medal won by that country. Canada got the silver. China’s Han Xiaopeng wins his country’s first Olympic gold medal on snow when he bested the field in men’s freestyle skiing aerials. The Swedes win women’s curling. They are the first curling team to ever hold Olympic, world, and European titles at the same time. Japan’s Shizuka Arakawa wins her country’s first medal of the Torino Games when she won the Ladies’s competition in figure skating. The United States wins its first men’s curling medal when it takes the bronze over the United Kingdom. Canada gest the gold and Finland gets the silver. The Austrian men sweep the slalom. American speed skater Apolo Ohno robs the Koreans of a sweep in men’s short track when he wins the 500 m. The Koreans answer back a few hours later by winning the 5000 m relay. The Americans get the bronze behind Canada. The closing ceremonies draw 800,000 fans. A huge party tent sponsored by Budweiser and Sports Illustrated draws such stars as Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Sasha Cohen.
