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Chinese fall tops day of spills and thrills
2006-02-13
Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao from China perform during the figure skating Pairs Short Program at the Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, February 11, 2006. |
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Bone-crunching crashes and falls hit Olympic dreams on Monday when athletes at the Winter Games suffered the unforgiving nature of Italian slopes and tracks. The treacherous Alpine skiing downhill slope caught out in training runs a defending champion and a medal favorite -- Carole Montillet of France and Lindsey Kildow of the U.S. Both are in doubt for Wednesday's race and Canadian Allison Forsyth, who also fell, faces a six-month lay-off. There was nothing treacherous about the figure skating rink but in the last skate of the evening there was the most dramatic fall of all in the pairs. It killed off the gold medal chances of China's Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao but a courageous display after five minutes' recovery gave them an emotional silver. Zhang Dan crashed heavily after an attempted throw quadruple Salchow went wrong, but the Chinese pair pulled it round against all odds to skate beautifully and claim a medal -- and a standing ovation. Gold went to Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin who captured Russia's 12th successive Winter Games pairs title. MILD CONCUSSION In the women's luge competition, American Samantha Retrosi crashed on her second run and local favorite Anastasia Oberstolz-Antonova needed three stitches on her left elbow after losing control. Czech Marketa Jeriova also came to grief. Retrosi was taken to hospital and diagnosed with mild concussion and cuts. Earlier, Anne Abernathy, the oldest woman of the Games at 52, exited with a fractured wrist after a smash in Sunday's training. While the Games ended prematurely in pain for some, Germany's Evi Sachenbacher Stehle is back in contention and will be allowed to race in Tuesday's cross-country team sprint after a five-day suspension ended. The 2002 relay gold medallist was given a five-day "start prohibition" after the International Ski Federation (FIS) ruled she could not safely compete due to an abnormally high red blood cell count. "She had another test today and her level is under 16 so she's allowed to race. She said she had drunk more water than at any time in her life to bring the levels down," said a German Ski Federation spokesman Stefan Schwarzbach. FIS is re-testing eight competitors who were prevented from starting on Thursday and said all those checked so far were now allowed to compete. CRASH COURSE There was less good news for downhill skiers Montillet and Kildow, who were both taken to hospital. French team technical director Gerard Rougier said Montillet may not be in shape to defend her title on Wednesday. "It's going to be hard. She is going to have ultra-sound on her stomach and have her back checked because of a vertebra problem," he told Reuters. Kildow did the splits after losing control halfway down the course and was airlifted off the hill. X-rays showed no bone or back damage but the CTO hospital in Turin said she had minor head trauma and would stay under observation for 24 hours. Forsyth was taken to hospital with tears to her knee ligaments. A scan showed she had damaged knee ligaments and she would fly home soon to have surgery, Canadian team chief athletic officer Max Gartner told a teleconference. "I expect she is going to leave Italy pretty soon," Gartner said. "You usually need six months after the surgery to fully recover." The skiers were victims of a Fraiteve course which has been redesigned to make it harder after racers complained last year that it was not challenging enough. SURPRISE ONE-TWO Russia briefly topped the medal standings when biathlete Svetlana Ishmouratova grabbed a surprise gold in the women's 15 km individual, missing just one target at the shooting range. The 33-year-old Russian army captain won her first Olympic title with a time of 49 minutes 24.1 seconds. The U.S. then displaced Russia at the top of the medals when Hannah Teter won the women's halfpipe snowboarding gold. There was more U.S. joy when Joey Cheek outclassed his opponents with two stellar races winning the gold medal in the 500 meters speedskating event. World sprint champion Cheek, a former inline skater (rollerblader), who was already 0.4 seconds faster after the first race, skated a faultless second race to bring home the second gold in speedskating at these Games for the U.S. Organizers were happy with the Games so far as ticket sales continued to speed up to total 775,000 -- above budget -- and the International Olympic Committee said no athlete had tested positive for banned substances.
Champion skater Kwan hired as Disney spokeswoman (2006-02-16)"American Idol" steals Olympic gold in TV ratings (2006-02-15)Chinese fall tops day of spills and thrills (2006-02-13)Russia and China clash in battle of skating superpowers (2006-02-13)Tot and Max Join List of Russian Greats (2006-02-13)
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