Olympics shift from scandal to ice and snow

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ The first full week of the Winter Olympics is over. And, for the most part, so is the scandal that marred it. <br><br>The politics and investigations remain, but the sight of Canadian

Monday, February 18th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ The first full week of the Winter Olympics is over. And, for the most part, so is the scandal that marred it.

The politics and investigations remain, but the sight of Canadian figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier receiving their gold medals Sunday night while exchanging pleasantries with the Russian co-champions helped return the focus to ice and snow.

That puts the spotlight on speedskaters like Chris Witty and Jennifer Rodriguez, the gutty effort of short-track speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno and even the agony of just missing a medal felt by bobsledder Todd Hays and the U.S. Nordic combined team.

Witty capped her return from strength-sapping mononucleosis to win a gold medal and set a world record in the 1,000 meters Sunday. Rodriguez was third, giving Americans six medals in six speedskating events.

Ohno won another on the short track Saturday night by sticking a skate over the finish line in the 1,000 meters after having his inner thigh gashed in a bizarre pileup. He needed six stitches to stop the bleeding and went to the medals ceremony in a wheelchair.

Germany added to its Olympics-best medals total by winning the first event Monday, the team 120-kilometer ski jump. Finland got silver and Slovenia bronze for its first medal of these games. Simon Ammann's bid for a third medal came up well short as Switzerland finished seventh. The United States was 11th of 13.

Other medal events Monday are women's aerials, women's biathlon relay and, at night, ice dancing.

The men's hockey and curling tournaments also continue. The U.S. hockey team faced Belarus in the first game, with the marquee matchup featuring Dominik Hasek and the Czech Republic against the struggling Canadians.

The United States has won at least one medal every day of the games for a total of 18 _ five more than at any previous Winter Games. Hays and the Nordic combined team did their best to add to it, but each finished fourth.

``I don't know if there's a worse place in sports than fourth place in the Olympics,'' Hays said.

Sale and Pelletier finally got to experience the view from one of the best places in sports: the top of the medals platform. They received their gold medals alongside Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, who won the event's original set of golds.

``The four of us were part of history,'' Pelletier said. ``It was a tough few days, but now we're happy to put some closure to it and we can go on and be happy with our gold medal.''

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_ FIGURE SKATING: The pairs ceremony had a pretty nice opening act: the original dance portion of ice dancing.

France's Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat used a torrid flamenco routine to remain in first place heading into Monday night's free dance, which is worth 50 percent.

Russians Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh repeated their second-place finish in compulsories, boosted by a perfect score for presentation from the Polish judge. World champions Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio of Italy are third.

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_ SPEEDSKATING: Even if she had been at full strength, Witty couldn't imagine skating 2 1/2 laps in 1 minute, 13.83 seconds _ 0.23 faster than any woman had ever gone.

Doing it a month after being diagnosed with mono wasn't even fathomable _ until she looked up and saw she'd done it.

``If I was healthy, that time would have been a surprise,'' she said. ``When I saw 1:13, I had tears in my eyes.''

Germany's Sabine Voelker, who owned the world record, was second. Rodriguez raced into third with the fastest final lap of the day.

Gerard van Velde, a Dutchman renowned for his fourth-place showings, won the 1,000 meters Saturday, breaking the world record four years after giving up the sport to sell cars. Teammate Jan Bos was second and American Joey Cheek was third.

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_ BOBSLED: This close-call stuff is getting really annoying to American bobsledders.

Hays finished 0.03 seconds out of a medal, landing the U.S. team in fourth for the second straight Olympics. Brian Shimer's duo did it last time by 0.02; this time, Shimer was ninth.

Christoph Langen of Germany won gold, edging Christian Reich of Switzerland. Martin Annen of Switzerland was third.

The U.S. women's two-man team had some confusion Sunday when a hamstring injury to brakewoman Gea Johnson raised the possibility of reuniting the broken-up tandem of Jean Racine and Jen Davidson on Tuesday. But Davidson was ruled ineligible because she didn't compete at trials and Johnson was able to go through a practice run.

``She's my girl,'' Racine said. ``We're going for it.''

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_ SUPER G: A crash, a fall and an early wipeout. Caroline Lalive simply had an Olympics to forget. As a result, so did the U.S. women's team.

Lalive, considered America's best all-around female skier, failed to finish a major event for the ninth straight time by tumbling barely 10 seconds into the Super G. What was supposed to be the team's best event resulted in no better than a 14-place finish by Kirsten Clark.

The team has yet to medal with only the giant slalom and slalom events remaining.

``We can do better than this, that's for sure,'' coach Marjan Cernigoj said.

Italian Daniela Ceccarelli won the Super G gold. Croatia's Janica Kostelic, the gold winner in the combined event, was second and Italy's Karen Putzer got bronze.

Kjetil Andre Aamodt of Norway won the men's Super G on Saturday, giving him two golds at these games and seven in his Olympic career. No other Alpine skier has more than five. Stephan Eberharter of Austria was second and teammate Andreas Schifferer was third.

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_ HOCKEY: Those chants of 1952 might start getting louder for the Canadians.

A tight 3-2 victory over Germany, among the weaker teams in pool play, left Canada on thin ice in its bid to end a 50-year gold medal drought.

The winner of Canada's game against the defending champion Czechs _ who are coming off a 2-1 loss to Sweden _ most likely will face Finland in the quarterfinals; the loser probably will play the Russians.

A late goal by Brett Hull helped the United States salvage a 2-2 tie with Russia on Saturday night in a game featuring the electric atmosphere expected from their first meeting on U.S. soil since 1980.

In women's play, the United States has advanced to the semifinals along with Canada, Sweden and Finland. The only games Sunday were consolation round matches. Russia beat China 4-1 and Germany beat Kazaskstan 4-0.