Swedes stun U.S. women in shootout

The U.S. women's hockey players gathered in a circle at center ice, raised their sticks and waved them to their fans in one sweeping arc over their heads.

It was a routine repeated game after game in these Olympics and before, but this time was different. You could see it in their eyes, red with tears and looking at anything but the giant group hug being staged by the exuberant, wiggling heap of yellow jerseys behind them.

The Americans had been beaten, and for the first time since women's hockey went international in 1990, by someone besides Canada. The North American monopoly had been broken.

Sweden won 3-2 in a shootout in the Olympic semifinals.

The North American monopoly was broken, thanks largely to a 19-year-old, 5-foot-4 wisp of a goalie named Kim Martin.

"This has been a long time in the making for our game," said American defenseman Angela Ruggiero, a three-time Olympian. "They say there's no parity in women's hockey. Well, now you know better. It doesn't make me happy, but that's hockey."

Sweden will play Canada, a winner over Finland in the other semifinal, for the gold medal on Monday.

Martin stopped everything the Americans shot at her in the final 48:56 of regulation and overtime, finishing with 37 saves, and then turned away all four American attempts in a shootout.

Maria Rooth had both regulation scores in a 3 1/2-minute span and the clinching shootout goal.

"This is the greatest thing to happen to women's hockey in Sweden and everywhere around," Martin said. "We knew we were getting better and better all the time. We needed to beat the U.S. or Canada to show it."

The Americans often seemed to be begging for their first loss to Sweden in 26 meetings, playing carelessly and tentatively despite a heavy advantage in shots. Both of Rooth's goals were gifts on U.S. giveaways, leaving goalie Chanda Gunn helpless.

A haunting celebration

An Olympic celebration turned into a mountain-sized embarrassment for Lindsey Jacobellis.

Coasting to what should have been an easy victory, the American made a grab of her board on the second-to-last jump. It caused her to fall and while she scrambled to her feet, Switzerland's Tanja Frieden sped past and became the first women's champion in the strange and wild sport of Olympic snowboardcross.

Jacobellis won silver but should have had the gold. She was well, well ahead of Frieden, and the other two women in the four-rider final had fallen long before.

Dominique Maltais of Canada won the bronze.

Oldest gold medalist

Duff Gibson of Canada blazed to a gold medal in skeleton and teammate Jeff Pain slid to silver.

Gregor Staehli of Switzerland won the bronze.

The 39-year-old Gibson is the oldest individual gold medalist in Winter Olympics history. Norway's Magnar Solberg was 35 when he won gold at the 1972 Sapporo Games in the 20km biathlon.

The troubled U.S. team, which came into the games red-faced thanks to a pile of pre-Turin embarrassment, is leaving with zero medals after winning three at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002.

Italians lead ice dancing

This was exactly why Italy's favorite ice dancers came out of retirement.

Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio, back after three years off, wowed the crowd and the judges in the Olympic compulsory dance. With Italian flags waving throughout the packed arena, the 2002 bronze medalists waltzed their way back to the top -- at least for now.

Their performance outdistanced American medal hopefuls Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, who were a surprisingly low sixth heading into Sunday's original dance. The free dance is Monday night.

Belbin and Agosto were just 1.42 points out of first place, hardly insurmountable at this point.

Second were world champions Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov of Russia.

U.S. men curlers move to 4-2

The U.S. men are rolling in the first round of the Olympics.

The Americans (4-2) beat Switzerland (3-3) and moved into a second-place tie in the curling round-robin tournament.

Canada and Finland are also 4-2. Britain (5-1) took sole possession of first place with a win over Sweden (3-4).

Italy and Norway are 3-3, and Germany is 1-4. New Zealand (0-6) remained winless.

Women

The U.S. women's curling team (1-5) lost 8-7 in extra ends to Russia, ending any real chance of reaching the medal round.

In other games, Sweden (5-1) beat Switzerland (4-2) and Canada (4-2) beat Britain (3-2) in nine ends. Norway (4-2) beat Italy (1-4) in 11 ends, or innings.