2002 Winter Olympic Games - Salt Lake City

For all the hoopla that surrounds the coming of the Games, there's a certain amount of sadness that comes with their closing. This seems especially true this year after what a success this international competition was and what a feat the Salt Lake Organizing Committee and the International Olympic Committee pulled off.

On a sloppy course that got the best of nearly everyone else, Jean-Pierre Vidal of France maintained nerves of steel to hold his edge and win the men's Olympic slalom on Saturday as America's hopeful skied out.

Janica Kostelic, the Croatian sensation of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games made history as the first alpine skier to win four Olympic medals in a single Winter Games when she demolished the women's giant slalom field Friday.

After winning the bronze in downhill and silver in super G, Austrian Stephan Eberharter rounded out his Olympic medal collection with the giant slalom gold today. American Bode Miller, meanwhile, won the silver and became the first American man in history to reach the podium in what is considered ski racing's most challenging discipline.

Heavy, wet snow couldn't stop Croatia's Janica Kostelic from winning her third medal of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, this one in women's slalom with a time of 1 minute, 46.10 seconds. Kostelic led the two-run slalom race from start to finish, fighting her way through blizzard conditions.

The Italian women claimed two medals in a single alpine skiing event for the first time in Olympic history, as Daniela Ceccarelli skied to gold and Karen Putzer claimed bronze in the women's super G on Sunday.

For the second time this week, Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt used the Snowbasin downhill course to establish himself as the greatest alpine skier in Olympic history. Aamodt won the men's super G here today, once again setting the Olympic record for most medals, seven, ever earned by an alpine skier.

Sentimental favorite Chris Klug upped the American medal count by collecting the fifth U.S. medal, a bronze, in four snowboarding events at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Klug, who underwent a liver transplant to stave off the effects of Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) in July of 2000, turned in a gutsy performance...

Aspen's Chris Klug was the lone American to qualify for the men's finals, starting first and finishing 11th in 37.17. Less than a second separated the top 10 women's qualifiers. Lisa Kosglow was the only American to advance to the finals, finishing 7th...

By posting a slalom margin of more than a full second and overcoming a fear of the downhill heightened by a multitude of knee injuries over the past two seasons, Janica Kostelic won the first Olympic medal in the short history of Croatia, and made it gold.

Bode Miller skied the slalom run of his life Wednesday to come back from 15th place and claim the sliver medal in men's combined. It is the first men's combined medal won by a U.S. skier in Olympic history. ...

When the pundits attempted to predict the women's downhill champion at the Salt Lake Olympics, Carole Montillet was about the last name to come up. But when the spray of snow settled in the finish area of Snowbasin's Wildflower downhill course Tuesday, Montillet's name lit up the scoreboard...

Ross "The Boss" Powers took charge of the men's Olympic halfpipe on Monday, and "co-workers" Danny Kass and JJ Thomas did the rest as the U.S. Snowboard Team made history with the first Olympic medals sweep of any snowboarding event.

The US's Picabo Street will have to wait another day to show her stuff at these Winter Games after high winds on the 9016-meter Wildflower course forced the postponement of the women's downhill until tomorrow, February 12, at 10am. Organizers twice rescheduled the event hoping the winds would calm later in the morning, but finally decided to postpone it until tomorrow.

Clark became the first American ever to win gold in this American-invented sport, doing so by posting one of the highest scores ever awarded in a women's halfpipe competition.

Even without skiing superstar Hermann Maier, the Austrian men's speed team showed its depth Sunday as Fritz Strobl won the Olympic men's downhill and World Cup season downhill champion Stephan Eberharter placed 3rd.

Picabo Street (Park City, Utah) led the field in 1st as four skiers had top-10 finishes in Saturday's training run on the Wildflower course at Snowbasin. ...

Heavy snow and wind forced cancellation of the men's and women's downhill training run scheduled for Friday at Snowbasin.

Tonight the Games will officially begin with the Opening Ceremonies at Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium. Two million people will be arriving in Utah during the next three weeks and an estimated 6 billion television viewers will see the beautiful Wasatch Mountains for the first time.

World Cup sensation Bode Miller, World super G Champion Daron Rahlves, reigning Olympic medallist Picabo Street, and World Cup winner Kristina Koznick head a 22-athlete Olympic Ski Team...

Olympic medalists Ross Powers and Shannon Dunn plus four other members of the inaugural U.S. Olympic Snowboard Team were named Jan. 25 to the 14-member squad for the 2002 Winter Games.

...Some of the world's top riders have once again declined to be a part of the old-school mentality, Mafioso tactics and corporate greed they believe "the event" has come to represent...

In the last days of 2001, with just over a month until the Olympic Games, eight U.S. athletes qualified for spots the Olympic team...